I was recently introduced to the new MoniTOR add on that does a very nice job at giving you real time data on dps/healing/threat. It is very sexy. So I spent about 350k on respecs to find the best spec and rotations to see how the main specs that are utilized today compare to each other. All of these parses where done several times over a 3 min period, also keep in mind that my gear is not the best so I am sure some of you can do way better than I did.

Pure Madness 5-3-33 and only utilizing shock when Recklessness was active I put out a pretty consistent 1300-1350 dps.

As Darkness 31-0-10 I was putting out only 950-1050 dps. It was pretty surprising to see how bad Force Lightning did when Recklessness was not active. I Shocked on every Energize and only used Force Lighting when I had 3 stacks of Harnessed Darkness. I am sure this spec would perform a bit better in real scenarios given that Wither and Discharge would be hitting additional targets.

Darkness/Madness hybrid 23-1-17 did quite a bit more damage than full darkness, but still falling a bit behind full Madness. I was able to do 1150-1250 dps consistently.

Sooksters Mad Maul 3-13-25 (slight variation of his spec) did very well putting out 1250-1400 dps. Those Mauls were hitting really hard thanks to Unearthed Knowledge. If you don't mind being squishy this spec is really fun. Lots of dmg.

With Dark Maul 23-15-3 I saw some good and bad things. If you were just Thrashing for Energized Shocks and only using Maul on Exploit Weakness procs I was only hitting 1000-1100 dps, which is still slightly better than full Darkness. When I just spammed Maul only filling with Saber Strikes I was doing 1100-1200 dps, catching up to the 23-1-17 hybrid. And lastly parsing just the opener of the Dark Maul spec (12 sec of Dark Embrace) I was averaging 6 Maul attacks. When I went 0/6 Maul crits I was still doing 1000-1100 dps. The best I saw (got a nice Exploit Weakness proc at the end) I went 5/7 Maul crits and was over 1800 dps. On average though I went 3/6 Maul crits putting out 1450 dps over the 12 seconds.

Now this is how I saw these specs comparing to each other on pure damage. When deciding which one is best for you keep in mind they all offer some uniqueness with survivability, utility and burst.

Interesting. If you don't mind testing one more spec, I would ask if you could try seeing how well the 0/13/28 Arika build performs in terms of DPS. I tend to respec that when I go into raids as a DPS since the high internal damage + bonus damage from Unearthed Knowledge does wonders, but is very squishy.

I find simulationcraft better to test specs with since it determines the max theoretical dps you can achieve. Then using MoniTOR or another parser to test it in the field. Unless you are an expert in every spec imaginable you will need to use something for a while to get used to it before you can achieve maximum dps.

According to simulationcraft the theoretical dps ranking with my current gear (full BH) is this:

1841 dps 5/5/31 Madness (+shock)

1830 dps 5/5/31 Madness (-shock)

1730 dps 5/13/23 Mad Maul Deception/Madness hybrid

1658 dps 8/31/2 Deception

1631 dps 0/13/28 Arika Deception/Madness hybrid

1366 dps 23/1/17 Darkness/Madness "pvp" hybrid

1282 dps 23/15/3 Dark Maul Darkness/Deception hybrid

This was simulating a 5 min fight using all 4 class buffs, exotech resolve stim and no adrenal (because the timing of usage is too crucial to simulate). This only simulates max theoretical dps, it does not take into account any utility which some of the lower dps specs excel in (and were created for).

IM the noob here so what rotation did you guys use for each spec?

Its so easy to lvl so you arnt forced to lern proper rotations.

Id rather ask what stance is used in that dark maul specc. As it has talents for both Surging(Induction) and Lightning (+20% DoT damage).

It uses Dark Charge. The talent Induction is only taken for the Maul crit damage bonus. It is discussed in this thread.

Or do you mean the Mad Maul spec? That uses Lightning Charge and has Induction for the same reason. As discussed here.

I find simulationcraft better to test specs with since it determines the max theoretical dps you can achieve. Then using MoniTOR or another parser to test it in the field. Unless you are an expert in every spec imaginable you will need to use something for a while to get used to it before you can achieve maximum dps.

 

According to simulationcraft the theoretical dps ranking with my current gear (full BH) is this:

 

1841 dps 5/5/31 Madness (+shock)

1830 dps 5/5/31 Madness (-shock)

1730 dps 5/13/23 Mad Maul Deception/Madness hybrid

1658 dps 8/31/2 Deception

1631 dps 0/13/28 Arika Deception/Madness hybrid

1366 dps 23/1/17 Darkness/Madness "pvp" hybrid

1282 dps 23/15/3 Dark Maul Darkness/Deception hybrid

 

This was simulating a 5 min fight using all 4 class buffs, exotech resolve stim and no adrenal (because the timing of usage is too crucial to simulate). This only simulates max theoretical dps, it does not take into account any utility which some of the lower dps specs excel in (and were created for).

Not sure what rotation your theoretical parser uses for Dark Maul, But I found that just using Saber Strike and Mauls were more dps than using Thrash/Shock and Maul on Exploit Weakness. Also, was wondering if you could parse Dark Maul just during that 12 sec opener (using Black Out to increase length of Dark Embrace)? I was getting almost 2k dps for that 12 seconds. Not bad for an opener that does not need buffs or procs to set up.

Also I did not see you rank 31-0-10? Other than that your ranking looks to be on par with what I got, only with much higher numbers. I have yet to see or hear about any Assassin pulling 1800 dps on anything. Granted my gear is not as good as yours, but I am in Rakata. Your pulling almost 500 more dps than I was.

Interesting. If you don't mind testing one more spec, I would ask if you could try seeing how well the 0/13/28 Arika build performs in terms of DPS. I tend to respec that when I go into raids as a DPS since the high internal damage + bonus damage from Unearthed Knowledge does wonders, but is very squishy.

I have been working pretty long hours the last week so I have not been able to get on our forums or in game, but I will do this for you tomorrow. Arika's spec just trades a couple talents around. 0-13-28 uses Creeping Death instead of Charge Mastery or Thrashing Blades. 30% crit on Death Field and Discharge dot, for 3% crit increase and 18% damage increase on Discharge dot as well as 6% on Thrash which is already increased quite a bit from Unearthed Knowledge and Claws of Decay. I am very excited to see what the outcome is.

I was recently introduced to the new MoniTOR add on that does a very nice job at giving you real time data on dps/healing/threat. It is very sexy.

Sounds interesting - do you have any link and/or info page about the MoniTOR addon? Would be interested to give it a try. Thanks!

Interesting. If you don't mind testing one more spec, I would ask if you could try seeing how well the 0/13/28 Arika build performs in terms of DPS. I tend to respec that when I go into raids as a DPS since the high internal damage + bonus damage from Unearthed Knowledge does wonders, but is very squishy.

I spent a few hours today comparing 5-13-23 to 0-13-28 and this is what I found.

With the Mad Maul spec I was consistently sitting around 1350 dps. When I dropped Thrashing Blades and Charge Mastery for Creeping Death I averaged 1365 dps. Slightly better. I thought there would be better synergy between Thrashing Blades and Unearthed Knowledge but it was not enough to off set the damage increase in crit damage from Creeping Death. Even though my Thrash dps dropped about 50-60 dps, The Death Field and dot crits more than made up for it.

On a side note I ran Thrash all by itself not even filling with Saber Strike and I was consistently getting over 800 dps. Not bad for one ability. When I ran Thrash with Shocks to keep 100% up time on Unearthed Knowledge my dps dropped by 50 dps. Adding Shock to the rotation is so bad that Unearthed Knowledge's 4% dmg increase cant make up for it.

Not sure what rotation your theoretical parser uses for Dark Maul, But I found that just using Saber Strike and Mauls were more dps than using Thrash/Shock and Maul on Exploit Weakness. Also, was wondering if you could parse Dark Maul just during that 12 sec opener (using Black Out to increase length of Dark Embrace)? I was getting almost 2k dps for that 12 seconds. Not bad for an opener that does not need buffs or procs to set up.

Can't run for only 12s. The minimum is 100s.

Also I did not see you rank 31-0-10? Other than that your ranking looks to be on par with what I got, only with much higher numbers. I have yet to see or hear about any Assassin pulling 1800 dps on anything. Granted my gear is not as good as yours, but I am in Rakata. Your pulling almost 500 more dps than I was.

That's because you can't adequately parse the 31-0-10 spec yet atm. Harnessed Darkness, Wither and Spike are not properly implemented yet. I tried using the stuff that does work and it comes out around 900 dps.

Simulationcraft only shows the theoretical max you can hit when everything is ideal, so you'll never hit that. For instance I parsed the shock-less Madness build in-game on my guild's Nightmare KP run last week and it averaged between 1300-1450 dps on most bosses. This live parse also shows one of the main weaknesses of the spec, namely low burst potential. On most trash I do under 800 dps because they die too fast so I don't have time to get my dots rolling. On the other hand it does a pretty steady self-healing between 200-250 hps.

1) Go to http://www.swtorcombatlogs.com/logs/FightBrowser.aspx

2) Click on servers

3) Pick Nightmare Lands

4) On the right side, pick Rhaphael

5) On the top pick the entry from 8/8/2012