Welcome To The Ultimate Sith Assassin DPS Raiding Compository!

Hey guys, I haven't seen a PvE guide for dps sins around here, so I decided I will take the initiative. I'm Warlord Triveticus of Prophecy Of The Five, and I'm bringing a guide for all raiding assassins who DPS. This write up will cover the multiple pillars of how a DPS Assassin can bring his own in raids and surpass even the greatest dps.

General Overview:

Stats

Specs

Keybinding

Rotations

Itemization

Tips and Tricks for Boss Fights

STATS:

As with all raiding assassins, you want to find the perfect balance between stats. taking tips from a few fellow dpsers and other raiding DPS Assassins, I've come to my personal stat balance of:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/88bb95d0-7fd2-4fc7-939e-dfa40e3fd9e3

The reason you may ask why my accuracy is so low is well.. You don't need that much accuracy. Sure, you miss a maul or saber strike, but Maul is dirt cheap and the proc will not go away after a missed maul. Missing an ability or two will not have a major overall impact on your dps. My crit levels are as shown in madness, or 34% as deception. You wouldn't want anymore after 37% because after rigorous testing, there is hardly any benefit from increased crit over these values as you have to stack an INCREDIBLE amount of critical rating for a boost, so going that far into diminishing returns is completely not worth it and you will end up sacrificing almost all of your power investing into crit rating.

SPECS

There are four widespread specs for DPS raiding, and those are 8/5/28, 5/5/31, 2/31/8, 3/7/31.

3/7/31:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/assassin#30-c23-1fe72e8d2f

The current standard for raiding DPS assassins, only one point taken in chain shock as it a massive sacrifice in force for shock and will only be used once every 20 seconds for the buff. In a shockless variant use points in DoT reduction and instant whirlwind as they are more beneficial than chain shock.

8/5/28:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/assassin#303c-23-3e72e832f

A more simple spec, utilizing the bonus charge damage and sacrificing creeping terror improves force management and reduces the need to micromanage, utilizing more death marks for crushing darkness ticks.

New players to this spec will need a bit of practice to keep up to full madness.

5/5/31:

Same as 3/7/31 but points placed into avoidance will now be placed in trashing blades. Do the same for 3/7/31 if you want a shockless build (read above)

2/31/8:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/assassin#20-6e8cf78e2f-30f

Cookie-cutter deception build. Uses resourcefulness to lower cooldown of overcharge saber for extra dps. Will not pull as much dps as madness but is suited to different fights where it can take advantage of blackout and burst capabilities.

Shockless Madness:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200bc0MZcZfRbRrrkMfz.2

KEYBINDING

I recommend a sith assassin dps should fully keybind his/her abilites, not doing so will not cause a drop in dps or effectiveness, but I find it helps for efficiency over clicking. I use modifiers and keys such as;

QERTVXF23456, Then the same keys using shift modifiers, and I also have a razer naga, so I bind abilities to numberpad. I recommend placing cooldowns on the main bar because those are what you will pay attention to most and you will be prepared to use them, and also enable cooldown timers for extra precision (Comes in handy for difficult boss fights, such as Nightmare Kephess, Firebrand & Stormcaller, Terror From Beyond, and such.)

ROTATION

NOTE: Do not use force lightning in any assassin dps rotation or spam maul, these will produce abysmal dps results and shouldn't be bothered with.

A madness assassin has a very complicated dps rotation, but will produce incredible results if all actions are played down to a T.

The basic Madness Rotation goes as follows:

Death Field (Off Cooldown, no matter whether you have DoTs on or off)

Discharge

Creeping Terror

Trash (To Proc Raze, if there are no procs proceed to the next step.)

Trash (Only do this if Raze has not been procced yet, proceed to spam after deathmarks regenerate force)

Crushing Darkness (spam on every proc, don't cut off anything.)

Shock (Intitial Rotation only, reapply after buff falls off. Do not spam, this costs a massive amount of force to sustain.)

Trash (Continue use of Trash, once force drops to 30%, use saber strike to regenerate force)

Saber Strike(Only to regenerate force)

Assassinate (Target Below 30%)

Maul (Exploit Weakness Proc Only)

This is the basic rotation for madness. Reapply DoTs after you see the buffs fall off, or you will experience a drop in dps due to cutting off DoT ticks. Use Deathfield on cooldown and spam raze procs until Deathfield comes off cooldown again. Death Field and DoTs go independently on their own durations/cooldowns, keep deathfield and these up off expiration or cooldown.

Deception Rotation (More Of a Priority List than Anything)

2X Voltaic Slash (>50% Force)

Shock (2X Induction Stacks)

Discharge

Maul (Exploit Weakness Proc)

Assassinate (Target >30%, use it to build one stack of induction, use Voltaic Slash for another)

Saber Strike

Repeat Rotation as necessary, use blackout when low on force, also do not attempt to save surging charge stacks, use discharge off cooldown or you will experience a drop in dps. Use relics + adrenals in combination with recklessness to achieve maximum burst. Use discharge first or recklessness charges will be wasted on chain shock. Also open with discharge to maximize dps.

8/5/28 Rotation:

Same as madness rotation, apply crushing darkness whenever the next one comes off (Only with raze proc, do not hardcast crushing darkness) and keep discharge up. Deathfield off cooldown and only shock to replenish the buff.

ITEMIZATION

Itemizing with an assassin is very difficult as we have no passive accuracy/crit talents (apart from passive 3% Buff in madness) but the general consensus is to reach all softcaps.

Aim for 33% buffed in deception, and the passive madness buff will increase this to 36%. Aim for over 96% Accuracy, anywhere from 96% to 100% is fine. 75% surge, and stack the rest into power/willpower. Rip the mod and enhancement from the Black Hole Striker's MK-1 Boots (50 Black Hole Comms) for early minmaxing.

Also buy the Striker's MK-1 Generator for 50 Comms as it is BiS for what you are able to buy with black hole commendations. At the campaign gear level, aim for the mystic lightsaber, legs, and stalker chest/gloves and use the black hole force lord mk-1 headpiece. Rip the high willpower (60+ willpower) and replace them with the 41+ power mods (53 Willpower), or take lettered mods (Aptitude 26A/Mettle 26A) and replace with unlettered variants to perfectly minmax stats. The 4piece Stalker set bonus is very beneficial to our class, so be sure to take it as trash/VS will offer a massive increase to trash/VS dps.

When you start buying Dread Guard gear, be sure to aim for the stalker legs and headpiece first as they are the easiest pieces to minmax first, with gloves and boots coming seconds. The Dread Guard Stalker's Saberstaff is also a great Piece and shouldn't need much itemization when bought. Be careful when gearing in Dread Guard, as the set only has one piece with accuracy on it. Have a crafter create accuracy/power or crit/accuracy enhancements as it will take too much effort to farm raids to have all the perfectly minmaxed mods. When you are finished itemizations, you should be around:

1050 force bonus damage

36% melee crit (Madness)

75% surge

100% accuracy (remove some if you prefer it)

1300+ mainhand damage

Use a Dread Guard Relic with a War Hero Relic or a Dread Guard Relic with a damage proc Relic (Dread Guard are much better than campaign, campaign relics are next to useless, as they have 47+ Passive power before augmenting gear.) Also remember, mainstat augments are most useful in most cases as they increase your crit percentages and have only a slight bonus damage loss from power augments. And finally do not use high endurance enhancements, they offer no benefit to dps whatsoever and should be the first modification replaced.

Relics should be used in different cases, but if you're not an avid PvPer then a proc damage relic and a boundless ages one is fine. Dread Guard Relics offer more power over a War Hero relic but is an "on-use" relic, so keep this in mind on whatever bosses need more burst or have rapid phase-changes. A proc relic is most suited for madness as you have multiple DoTs ticking at the same time and it can proc off each tick.

Boss Fight Tips and Tricks

This is more of a category where assassins can use utility to their advantage. These will help you be an increased asset to the raid and help ease boss fights.

Tactics include:

Vanishing and Rezzing a tank/dps/healer to avoid wasting combat res (wait for all DoTs to fall off before attempting, also tactic will not work on certain boss fights.)

Taunts: When a tank is down you may switch to dark charge and use deflection and force shroud to mitigate as much damage as they can to avoid deaths in the raid. Only recommended for a short timeframe or else you will take excessive damage as a result.

Force Shroud:

This ability can turn the tide of a whole encounter by completely negating the mechanics of a boss fight, such as lightning field on the dread guards, or Soa's lightning balls, and Fabricator's grenades.

Thanks For Reading!

Thanks for reading this guide guys, feedback would be much appreciated or if anyone can notify me of mistakes or something I can add to the guide to improve it, that would be great.

"The Dark Side Is Strong In You, My Apprentice. Use your hatred to fuel your conquest for glory!"

Yep nice post!

I'd think that you'd be the one to write this

This is the basic rotation for madness. Reapply DoTs after you see the buffs fall off, or you will experience a drop in dps due to cutting off DoT ticks. Use Deathfield on cooldown and save raze procs until Deathfield comes off cooldown again.

So it is a DPS gain if you use Raze only when the target has stacks Deathmark? I usually just use it whenever it comes up regardless of my Deathmark stacks

So it is a DPS gain if you use Raze only when the target has stacks Deathmark? I usually just use it whenever it comes up regardless of my Deathmark stacks

It's not recommended, you're stealing deathmark ticks and cutting off DoTs from discharge and creeping terror, plus you're gimping the force regen that's coming to you because you won't have a raze proc up when you have deathfield, since there is a 8 second internal cooldown for the procs, If I'm not mistaken, so don't spam your raze procs, allow your DoTs to tick and use crushing darkness shortly after Death Field to maximize DPS as all DoTs will share an equal amount of ticks allowing for more overall dps. I use this strategy regularly and managed to parse 1700+ on the Dread Guards in HM Asation/TFB

Great guide. However, I do have some reservations with regards to your specs. You put 2 points into instant lift but whirlwind serves almost 0 purpose in pve raid dps. Wouldn't the two points do better in chain shock or thrashing blades even if it is only marginal, dps is dps. While points insulation or electric execution are mostly personal preference, keep in mind those are extremely weak talents in pve raiding. I only put points in if there are absolutely no where else to put points.

You should also include a no shock rotation build. This particular one skips shock altogether and will do in most current raid fights more dps than shock rotations. (I know I take instant whirlwind but here since shock is not being used at all instant ww is actually more useful o.o).

Great guide. However, I do have some reservations with regards to your specs. You put 2 points into instant lift but whirlwind serves almost 0 purpose in pve raid dps. Wouldn't the two points do better in chain shock or thrashing blades even if it is only marginal, dps is dps. While points insulation or electric execution are mostly personal preference, keep in mind those are extremely weak talents in pve raiding. I only put points in if there are absolutely no where else to put points.

 

You should also include a no shock rotation build. This particular one skips shock altogether and will do in most current raid fights more dps than shock rotations. (I know I take instant whirlwind but here since shock is not being used at all instant ww is actually more useful o.o).

Heh, thanks, I think i was a bit off when i made the specs because i just got back from writing exams (lol) and ask mr robot has some mixed up icons. The shockless build is a great idea and I will be adding it when I get the chance, but my iphone just doesnt cut it with desktop pages. I am also gonna fix the spec to change insta WW to something usefull, haha

I use this for madness:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#2000cZcMbZfMdRrbkrfz.2

Madness is more squishy then deception, and increased armor helps as a primarily melee class. 15 second cool down on force speed is VERY handy in hops with all the movement and knock backs.

Is Force Lightning of any use in Madness Spec rotation?

No, it shouldn't be used as it is a significant dps loss, the only time you should use force lightning is harnessed darkness in tank spec, nowhere else.

2/31/8 deception, my personal favorite since launch. I also have tried madness in wz and i was always on the top 3 damagers.

Yeah mine too. Especially in warzones it makes you feel like your "doing much more". Spamming discharge+death field in madness will surely give higher dps numbers, but bursting people down is much more fun

Good post but your madness spec, and rotation need a bit of a rework.

7/3/31 gives a higher damage output and I find opening with deathfield gives better dps. Even though the madness could use some more info, however the deception is perfect. Couldnt have done it better myself. Great job.

Good post but your madness spec, and rotation need a bit of a rework.

7/3/31 gives a higher damage output and I find opening with deathfield gives better dps. Even though the madness could use some more info, however the deception is perfect. Couldnt have done it better myself. Great job.

I'm not discrediting your idea, but I take the extra armor/sprint/trinket because as you know, we're very squishy dps and it helps our mobility on many boss fights (Dread Guards, Operator IX, Kephess (TFB), ETC.) Plus the 9% lightsaber charges talent only adds an additional 9 dps or so during raids, and trashing blades is pretty much the same too, If i had to pass up better survivability (Helps a lot when you're the dps taking DD on NiM EC Tanks) for just a tiny bit more dps, I wouldn't, I honestly think the tradeoff is too great in a realistic raid setting.