I think you either fully discount Death Field or you skip it. If you want to maximize your single target output then try 28/1/12 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=394828 I found this spec to bring much more threat against enemy healers then 31/0/10 and could go toe to toe vs other melee classes just fine.

1. First off, deception is even more gear dependent than other Assassin specs. If an opponent out-gears you as deception, you feel like you are using nerf weapons. At 41, you should be able to have all the level 40 PvP gear and be relatively competitive in the 10-49 bracket, but you will likely be unable to truly threaten the 46-49 crowd that has expertise on their gear. 2. re: gear. despite what the last poster said, there is much debate on the right gear to use for darkness. Most players use DPS gear and do very well- certainly well enough to create many nerf posts in the PvP forums. The 31/0.10 spec does not need much accuracy so you tend to switch out accuracy for power whenever possible. Crit and Surge are great- surge past 200-ish starts to hit heavy diminishing returns. Power and Willpower are always good. 3. Start with 31/0/10 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200rIMokrskbsZZf0cM.1 and then decide if you want to tweak it. I like 31/1/9 better for 1 point in duplicity for extra burst. Use a focus but switch to shield for Huttball (hence the point in Dark Ward). 4. As far as rotation. Start by just making Harnessed Darkness work for you. Wither>Shock>Discharge> Saber Strike until >Wither then Force Lightning. You should start learning when to stun or spike in order to get all of your FL off, since this is the most important thing for opponents to interrupt that you do. You probably want to pop your adrenals and recklessness before FL for max pop.

I like energize. it's great. But most 31/0/10 specs rarely actually use it because they are too busy building stacks of harnessed darkness. Thrash is generally a waste of force for 31/0/10.

I think your point is valid. If you are running 31/0/10 then accuracy's returns are slim.

If you aren't going to take death field down to 25 force then whats the point, its too expensive to use. If you do want to put 2 points into claws of decay then I suggest forgoing death field completely and concentrating on single target threat. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=394828

I think you are experiencing latency issues. I have not experienced what you are describing. Spike consistently drops the target a meter or so away from me.

Its just an old spec and no longer valid. Raze did not always require lightning charge

I agree! I started a different thread and it was consolidated here. Minor complaint since the new forums got their new look. The "cursor" defaults to the search window. As I typically browse the forums on a mac laptop, this means that option+cursor no longer acts as page down as the cursor is "stuck" in the search bar. I have to click out of the search bar on every page in order to navigate around. Now, I'm not computer savvy enough to know whether this is an issue on my settings or how you guys built your forums. The bottom line for me is that the old forums were easier to navigate and the improved forums require unnecessary clicking - on a laptop with a touchpad. Its a pain. Like I said, a minor complaint. But its certainly a change that has not improved quality of life. PS Indent formatting doesn't seem to work. (at least in preview)

I didn't even know this forum existed since I never visit general discussion. I'm guessing mods move many threads from customer service to the suggestion box every day. It deserves its own main heading.

Minor complaint since the new forums got their new look. The "cursor" defaults to the search window. As I typically browse the forums on a mac laptop, this means that option+cursor no longer acts as page down as the cursor is "stuck" in the search bar. I have to click out of the search bar on every page in order to navigate around. Now, I'm not computer savvy enough to know whether this is an issue on my settings or how you guys built your forums. The bottom line for me is that the old forums were easier to navigate and the improved forums require unnecessary clicking - on a laptop with a touchpad. Its a pain. Like I said, a minor complaint. But its certainly a change that has not improved quality of life.

Blackout btw. http://www.torhead.com/ability/1PEMrf4/blackout

We had a thread like this in the run-up to 1.2. Assassins received no changes. As it is, you don't need to come up with any new abilities. Disjunction and Lightning Recovery are clearly deception themed skills, but for some reason all the utility has to be in the darkness tree.

Your friends will groan when you win a conversation choice in dungeons. "What?? You don't have to kill that guy? Lame!"

HD is very,very good. But its hard to single out this one ability in the darkness tree. So many abilities are exceptional. Wither, Force Pull, Energize, Disjunction, and Dark Charge itself outclass the other assassin trees. HD certainly outclasses Static Charges and Devour- its relative equivalents in the other trees. The reason I probably wouldn't target HD is because competent play can, in fact counter it. I think wither is a better candidate for nerfage if Bioware decides to go that route since its an ability that does everything. I mean assassins would use wither even if it did zero damage, and in fact it does GOOD damage at range to multiple targets.

Good discussion which is worth continuing imo. So let me quibble a bit. You say you are easier to heal in tank gear. Well, duh. But what you are describing is more relevant in a PUG situation than a competitive one. In a competitive environment you, as a tank, will be ignored. You will die after your healer. I think we would agree that in a competitive game the most important thing you can do is keep your healer alive even at the expense of your own life. When you are ignored, better mitigation becomes close to worthless. The question is what does the best job of eliminating threat to the healer. I would argue that killing the guy attacking your healer (assuming guard, taunts, and CC as a given) is your best defense. Yes, high HP totals are important. But the question isn't really HP vs. Willpower. You want to skew that toward HP? Go right ahead. The more important issue is absorption/glance/defense vs. crit/surge/power. To revise old arguments: 1. Shield mechanics are not great. This is undisputed (you assert these will likely be fixed which is an admission that they don't carry their weight.). The fact that they only mitigate non-crit'd white damage limits their effectiveness. They are not worthless (I use a shield) but the return on those stats underperforms compared to offensive stats (or so I would argue) 2. Which keeps the healer alive longer- mitigation on the tank or offense on the tank so you can eliminate the threat while the healer defends himself. We're going to fall on opposite sides of this argument, but we're probably closer in opinion than you think. I used to run 31/1/9 (which I still prefer to 31/0/10) but now I run... 28/1/12 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200rcrRkrskbZoZf0cMb.1 Which is an attempt to get the most single target punch out of a darkness spec. See the writeup here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=394828 Unlike 31 darkness' reliance on wither and discharge's AE effects, my spec is about big thrash hits and guaranteed crit shocks with all the utility of darkness. It's a very good bodyguard spec, something the deception assassin can never be. And unlike the 31 pt darkness assassin I will kill the guy attacking the healer much quicker than his reliance on wither /discharge/shock (no guarantee crit) and FL. You keep insisting that darkness DPS with DPS gear is a "joke". Without real logs we are forced to argue anecdotally of course. What I can say is that, while I don't always finish first in damage (it happens!), i am always 1-2 on my team in KBs. Darkness can succeed as a killer. Certainly the rest of the SWTOR community agrees or they wouldn't be calling for nerfs all the time. Will a pure DPS out parse darkness? Of course. But, by the same argument you use, I will survive longer than DPSers and often out damage them for doing so. Killing your opponents is highly successful at reducing the damage you take. The verdict is in: we know that "if you want to dps and help burst people down" that deception and madness DON'T succeed in these roles given the current nature of WZs. You have to be hardy enough to survive on the front lines to bring threat to the enemy's back lines. You would be more accurate if instead of saying "play deception or madness", you said "play marauder or ranged DPS". Good players will still succeed in these roles of course, but they would probably be more successful playing something else. I would argue that the "utility" that you have argued for is actually embodied in the DPS geared darkness assassin because the that character does very well in so many roles. Its actually a mitigation geared assassin which is more of a one trick pony. Its good at surviving, period. He can't shift, mid scenario, to a more offensive role. What good are you doing when the enemy is running the ball in huttball? Guarding a healer? Any utility you have in that scenario is identical to mine. The difference is that I can actually drop the ball carrier or the healer healing the ball carrier. There is distinct in running the gear you run that your team won't bring enough offense to the party to actually kill stuff. We see this in WZs all the time where a team isn't really dying, but they aren't actually succeeding in taking nodes either (or dropping an enemy runner). I look forward to rated WZs so we can actually see these arguments play out.