Jump to content

[PvP Guide] Wakaworld: Your resource for advanced Sith Assassin/Jedi Shadow strategy!


EatenByDistance

Recommended Posts

Discharge and shock is always the opener for deception because its simply more damage. You are eventually going to have to thrash or vs anyways and you have regen boost from dark embrace so why wouldn't you? Let vs be what it is: a boost to your shock damage when you get around to using it.

If you open vs as deception you're just bad, period. There are much better ways to deal damage with your DE regen than to waste it on VS while your regen is 150%.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 302
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Discharge and shock is always the opener for deception because its simply more damage. You are eventually going to have to thrash or vs anyways and you have regen boost from dark embrace so why wouldn't you? Let vs be what it is: a boost to your shock damage when you get around to using it.

If you open vs as deception you're just bad, period. There are much better ways to deal damage with your DE regen than to waste it on VS while your regen is 150%.

 

This is why Wakajinn is such a powerful spec, when Deception Assassins finally start seeing how powerful they can be with out utilizing 2xVS for every single Shock, they will then start noticing that they can drop VS and pick up an ability like DF. The increased crit damage to Thrash via Claws of Decay talent pretty much brings the Thrash ability up to the same damage as VS. So just ask yourself, do you want 30% more damage to Shock, or do you want an instant cast 30m aoe ability that hits almost as hard as Shock to multiple opponents. If you are altering your opening to start off with Shock and Discharge already then you are already playing Wakajinn style. You already forfeited your bonus damage to Shock so you might as well take DF for its awesomeness.

Edited by Xethis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again I'm not saying wakajinn is bad its a great spec, the utility is great for stopping off node in civil war. Outside of that though the thrashing blades talent for deception spec easily puts vs past thrash damage especially considering you will only ever passively crit with either skill and after your opener deception will quickly and vastly overpower anything the wakajinn can do.

But again it's about what you consider a good trade off. If I wanted utility I'd go 23-1-17 and if I wanted nothing but deeps I'd go full madness. I like what deception can do and the recklessness/lightning combo is enough range node stop for me. Others may want pull and whirlwind and others may just want DF. I consider deception the best spec we have for killing the other guys, but whatever works in your wz is great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Outside of that though the thrashing blades talent for deception spec easily puts vs past thrash damage

Your overall short term burst is still weaker and in the longer term the difference is marginal and almost always offset by Death Field anyways.

 

the recklessness/lightning combo is enough range node stop for me.

Way too unreliable and it depends on your opponent being in LoS. That makes or breaks the first few seconds of high level Civil War (the only time in the game that really matters since it is all about who caps first).

Edited by EatenByDistance
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like what deception can do and the recklessness/lightning combo is enough range node stop for me.

 

It definitely has its limitations though. First you have to have your Reck buff available, and they have to be in LOS (not hiding on the other side of the node). Wasting your Reck buff to stop a cap can really hurt you in the dps when you don't have it available for your Shock/Discharge. Sometimes when teams have someone on their team capping they will turn to go cc defenders, some teams will zerg the cap so that a defender has interrupt the caps one at a time and maybe get lucky by not getting targeted. In Novare Coast utilizing Force Lighting to slow down capping a turret is pretty much pointless if there are many people turning the turret. Deathfield is by far the best cap stopper in the entire Assassin arsenal. DF can reach around the corner for the LOS'ers and it can take out 3 people at once when trying to turn a turret in Novare Coast.

 

To say that "Reck/Lighting is a good enough ranged cap stopper for me", is basically saying you don't give a **** if you win or lose. There are just way too many situations that would make Reck/Lighting useless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did specifically say wakajinn is great for off node civil war as any non idiot would Los you, I said that in my last post. That's the only wz I'd run it in though since lightning is fine in voidstar and for the most part novarre coast. For huttball it seems like 23-1-17 is Jesus spec so I wouldn't even bother doing dps when you can just run snare and fire pull.

As for wakajinn keeping up with deception in actual damage it's just not true, I've run both specs extensively and the outcomes match the predictions.

I know you're not big on damage and I have a guildie who has been in wakajinn for awhile now because he refuses to ever have DF missing from his bar, but there is still something to be said about killing people faster than you would otherwise allowing you to move more freely earlier to help elsewhere. The difference in damage will actually do that.

 

Anyhow it's a decent spec for alderaan and I'm going to leave it at that bcuz I'm tired of this thread.

 

Btw the guide you wrote up at the op was really good, it'd be nice to see more stuff like that from fellow sins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Before really putting practive into WJ I really was as skeptical as JP_Legatus on WJ over 31 Deception. Unless your team really need you as a tank or off-tank what greater utility is there to just spit truly high numbers on someone's back ? That "utility" gained from DF is nice but maybe throwing 6-7k shocks on that guy before he can heal/get healed is still more useful.

 

After a few days of practice, I'd say the best things that you get in WJ are not those that you think of when you check the skill tree or the rotation or even when you play for a few WZ. First, the burst is actually better, in every situation. On the opener, you start with 3 abilites that do over 3K5 damage, and then a potential 5K+ hitter (not counting Assassinate, it's situational and present in both spec anyway. In Deception if you don't open with VS, you only get 1 shock, discharge and maul, all three dealing the same damage than in WJ. You're one 3.5k hitter short compared to WJ, even more against packed opponents.

 

Now, on the things thare are underrated in WJ, beside by Wakalord in the first pages, is the change of gameplay by having 1 more 10+ m ability. Harder to kite, you're never bothered by a stunbubble again. And you can kite better as well. I'm not counting the times where I near-perfect even without a stun a warrior/knight that comes solo trying to ninja my node any more (really silly to try to ninja-cap by a non-stealth cap you may note, but I'm just saying). So for me WJ is never weaker than 31-Deception, and pulls ahead when Deception is doing poorly, when you're really having this difficult fight against a tough team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for a really great read mate - I truly enjoyd it!

 

As for the below quote, it really had me cracked up, couldn't agree with you more - I do love red crystals.

Important note

 

Don’t use lightsaber crystals with black cores. They aren’t canon (no I don’t care about the darksaber) and look stupid and ugly and I’ll tunnel vision you in warzones if that happens then may god have mercy on your soul :B

 

I have, untill recently - been running all out darkness, as I was under the assumption that this may be the best way to solo, however what you said regarding 23/1/7 woke my interest, even though I play mainly PVE. However stupid my question may be I hope you will find the time to give it a quick and short answer.

 

Q.: could you please give me a fast breakdown on priorities for what stats go for. You do write about it, but my head was spinning in the end, and I truly don't get it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I have, untill recently - been running all out darkness, as I was under the assumption that this may be the best way to solo, however what you said regarding 23/1/7 woke my interest, even though I play mainly PVE. However stupid my question may be I hope you will find the time to give it a quick and short answer.

 

Q.: could you please give me a fast breakdown on priorities for what stats go for. You do write about it, but my head was spinning in the end, and I truly don't get it.

 

This spec can be a fun spec to play even for pve. But if you are not going to pvp with it, I just wanted to warn you that all three other trees are far more effective for pve. All you are basically doing is Thrash/Shock spam until you get an Exploit Weakness proc then you Maul and of course Assassinate below 30%, and DF as needed. As far as stats, your standard 25% unbuffed crit, 75% Surge and the rest go to Stamina and Power. The true power of this spec is the CC, You get Force Pull, out of stealth Spike and an instant Whirlwind. Which is why it is the strongest spec for new 50's because you don't have the gear for the huge damage numbers the other specs can do. If you are Darkness spec because you enjoy tanking then I would recommend going all the way up the Darkness tree, it is far stronger for tanking. If you are using this spec for dps, then I would strongly recommend going Deception or Madness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what do you guys like to have for expertise on this build? i recently tried a 1390exp build... custom offhand armorings in belt and bracers... really felt like i was losing dps and gaining damage mitigation that was not needed compared with no pve stuff at all. one of my buddies insisted that full exp was the way to go and that his guild requires at least 1300exp for ranked. for me it seemed like my burst suffered badly stacking expertise.

 

on the other side i have put resolve 27 armorings in belt and bracers, even offhand too sometimes. and always power crystals. leaves me with 1156exp and a ton of bonus damage.

 

i think the power crystals are a must at least. it is interesting that they actually made the EWH armoring actually have better stats now so that may be worth keeping in the focus, too bad its slot bound.

 

shinarika recommended about 1100exp in her guide, but i think a big factor in that was that she used the black hole focus since there was no slotted version to optimize so perhaps around 1200 currently?

 

fully optimized wh and 2 power crystals gives me 1308exp. add in 2 27 armorings that is 1208... put one in offhand also and thats down to 1156.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont really see much of an itemization section... Just a link to your character build on mr robot which doesn't tell me anything new about assassin gearing- except that your gear looks to be slightly less optimized than mine currently is. I have 27 pve armorings(your 27 armoring is actually the high endurance one on there?), more of the 40 power EWH mods etc... I will post later for you to have a look at. I do see that you have 1199 expertise on that build. I think I may be shooing for ~1200. Edited by VicturusTeSaluto
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont really see much of an itemization section... Just a link to your character build on mr robot which doesn't tell me anything new about assassin gearing- except that your gear looks to be slightly less optimized than mine currently is.

well that's just all blatanty wrong but ok

 

p.s. can't get 27 resolve armorings on my server yet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been running the spec for the last weeks, opening burst is ridic, even if I need to learn to hold it sometime and not just to auto use it whenever I can.

 

With the HK event and the necessity for people to go to the Outlaw Den to get a piece, the place has gotten a lot of attention, making it a gathering for people wanting to duel, or fight in small or even large groups. Needless to say that the spec has been doing amazingly well. Some of the best guilds in my server randomly go there, which never happens.

 

The brutality of the opening burst, combine with the fact that you come out of stealth, make even decent/good players do rookie mistakes as they panick to see their health bar down to half when they have not done noticeable damage to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So here is my current gearing... http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/c4e19e57-4e7f-4a71-bb3b-8fde88d85bc2 does it show up for you?

 

The only variation I have on that gear is that I also have a third advanced resolve 27 armoring that was in the offhand that I replaced with the EWH armoring because the stats on that armoring are now slightly better than regular war hero as before they were slightly worse.

 

As far as the issue of expertise, my friend was totally wrong and I am surprised at the bad advice. I played a full evening with a full exp build(1390 exp). I was still doing lots of damage, but I was getting less kills as it was harder to burst down a target before they could react- the burst seemed to suffer. I did seem to have more survivability but you really only need that with this spec if you are playing dumb.

 

Then I played a night with all pvp mods except the crystals which I replaced with +41 power and this was a noticeable boost. I feel that this is the best way to optimize your gear with pve mods because the power crystals are very cheap and it is a 1:1 trade of expertise for power(the best stat to boost damage).

 

I then added the advanced resolve 27 armorings back to belt/bracers instead of the WH armorings and played for a night and saw a further boost and was able to burst down targets very easily just like before I tried the full exp build. This is the build that I linked and it is one of the best I have played so far. It is of note that compared to the WH offhand armorings you are losing 50exp and gaining 36 willpower by using the resolve 27 armorings. It is going to be less of a boost item for item than switching out the crystals.

 

I havent made the judgement call as to whether it is worth it to have the resolve 27 armoring in the offhand.

 

Looking forward to replacing the rest of my mods/enhancements with EWH versions- and the armorings too once the patch hits.

Edited by VicturusTeSaluto
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great post. The op knows what he is talking about. I tried it on my shadow and was ripping people apart. Hopfully he can post a video. After playing this spec for a bit i went back to my fresh 50 sent because I wasn't skilled enough

Or smart enough to keep it up. I prefer leaping across the map and hitting groups of geared players for 7k.

 

Seriously great detailed guide, thumbs up

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hey I know I said I would update guide soon but college op. Spending weekend at home aka I have good internet and can make videos. I plan on uploading some dueling vids and general commentary sometime soon. Have some people lined up to help me and stuff.

 

don't know how much I'll be able to do but I haven't abandoned this guide and I do plan on updating it asap

 

videos should be coming by the end of this weekend at the latest hopefully

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even with all that great detail, I'm pretty positive my shadow will always just be bad. Maybe you'll have to school me in your ways someday. Oh well, dps/tanking is just too op for my brain to handle, green numbers are prettier to put up anyways.

 

Waka Waka.

Kay, that is all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I rounded up some good players and friends of mine to create the first of (hopefully) many videos! Video guides on dueling Juggernauts and fellow Assassins now available :D

 

I know I sound a bit awkward at beginning of Juggernaut video but it gets better I promise. I'm running on basically 2 hours of sleep and a hell of a lot of coffee sue me :|

 

Videos also contain my opinion on Smash spec, dueling etiquette and touches briefly on the "stealth vs stealth" meta.

 

 

watch the vids @ http://www.twitch.tv/wifileague (will start streaming wzs with commentary soon)

 

Will eventually organize vids on a youtube page and all that good stuff. But for now check 'em out!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Streamed almost every rated match tonight. This isn't something I plan on doing often, but there is a hell of a lot of content here (over five hours!).

 

Not a ton of direct commentary but there's just so much stuff....I mean, you can hear everything in the teamspeak and see what I do and stuff. I don't expect anyone to watch this all, but there's a bevy of information here if you're willing to take a gander. Also, a good deal of humorous insanity.

 

http://www.twitch.tv/wifileague/b/342519892#

 

 

enjoy

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...