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Sith Assassin Detailed Deception Guide


ydenneksirhc

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***UPDATE 1.4.1a***

 

*****Hello again fellow deception assassins and curious readers! i have just returned from a fairly long SW:TOR break, and i found myself having some free time so i decided to give the new terror from beyond patch a shot, and shoot to get fully war hero geared! As of right now, i only have 2 main set pieces and the basic war hero light saber. Take into account this will take some time because my school demands a heavy schedule.I have made the decision to update this guide ONCE I GET FULL WAR HERO. I will not make any stat recommendations yet, seeing as i cannot vouch or give suggestions for something i am not up to date with. I generally aim to get once piece per week which already is quite hard. Once i do i will re read the guide, and add updated parts to give the most up to date info on the deception spec. I will throw in as of right now, an updated talent tree which i am currently using in game to get my war hero, i can see much hasnt changed there. Like i said stats will be the only thing i wont be giving advice and updates on for a while, but as for the gameplay itself, i am 100% here for you guys, i check my email on average more than 3 times a day, so i will probably get back to a question you leave on my thread, before the day is over! yup im just that fast haha. Hope everyone is still enjoying and supporting SWTOR and getting ready for halloween!!!*****

 

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Hi guys, ive been poking around the forums and other various websites for a really nice and proper guide to assassin deception DPS and pvp aswell, sadly only blackrabbit2999 offered a semi-decent guide, but dont get me wrong, his guide was how i got started on my assassin, buts is just not detailed enough, and there isnt anything else out there. I figured maybe it was time i wrote up a guide on how to "properly" play the deception spec.

 

I've watched many videos on youtube with deception assassins just spamming maul and i can tell you it was painful to watch, because i can clearly 4-5 shot people in pvp (not that OP, compared to operatives lol) and if its done correctly and timing is used correctly, you will be unstoppable, guaranteed. :)

 

Before you read this guide, BEWARE, its really long, but extremely comprehensive, meaning i have gone 105% into detail, im not only listing the spells description, that you can find in game, instead im giving you 2-6 sentences per spell about its PROPER use in pve and pvp, killing two birds with one stone :)

 

After you read my complete spell setup and detailed descriptions, i will link my talent build Via a calculator, so you can see my talent build, and ill explain most of my talent choices to you guys, but there are a few that are kinda obvious and no deception assassin should miss.

 

After you read my talent tree build and talent guide, i will begin to talk about rotations and strategies in order to save your force, use minimal amounts of force, and pump out the most damage and CC possible. After taking a good hour or 2 (maybe 30 min if ur a fast reader lol) you will REALLLYY understand the true mechanics of the assassin deception class/spec. Its worth the read, i guarantee it.

 

 

First, how i line up my spells on my keyboard, in order: (take into account its made for pvp, but i use the same exact set of spells in pve as well, never changed it)

 

1. Saber Strike - Used to build up force when im low, 1-2 times should be enough to get your next voltaic slash going.

 

2. Low Slash - people have asked why i have this kind of spell as my number 2, well its amazing, whenever the maul buff procs, i low slash them, run behind and can easily pull a 3.5k crit with this combo.

 

3. Voltaic slash - The bread and butter spell for assassins, with what i think has one of the coolest melee animations in the game!! :D

 

4. Discharge - This is very important, as combined with recklessness popped, 3-4k crits with full centurion gear come easily. should be used EVERY cooldown.

 

5. Shock - A very handy spell in both pve and pvp, make sure to use voltaic slash twice before using this, and ill explain why later when i explain my talent build.

 

6. Assassinate - This spell i always use on targets once they go below 30% health, its the assassin finishing move. In pve i use it every cooldown when the boss is below 30%, and pvp it hits pretty hard when your opponent is below 30% :D

 

7. Maul - the reason this spell isnt within the top 5-6 of my keyboard spells, is because i only use this when the 3 point talent in your tree procs. The talent reduces the cost and increases damage done, ONLY USE this when it procs, it will cost 25 force. Without the proc, 50 force for this spell is not right.

 

8. Blackout - This spell is amazing, once you get the blackout talent in your tree (explain further later) you can get a good 6 seconds of greatly increased force regen, great for those moments when your on the last 20-30% of a big boss, or the huttball carrier has like 15% health (HP) and your low on force, pop this spell, and finish that sucker off!!! haha

 

9. Force Speed - most people would argue this would be like a shift-1 or a T button (on your keyboard) keybind. i disagree! having this as my number 9 spell instead of R or T or V gives me great mobility the second i need the perfect getaway, or when im 30 meters from getting the huttball over the goal line.

 

0 - Force Cloak - Force those WoW rogues out there, this is the vanish equivalent, u can use it whenever you want in combat (or out of combat, but a waste) its basically a disapear spell, and its great for when you just know your not gonna win that duel and you gotta get away, and in PvE its amazing too, when the boss enrages and everyone starts to die in 2 shots, u can vanish AND AVOID REPAIRS!!! woohoo!!! :D

 

"-" - Force Shroud - the keyboard button to the right of 0, the minus sign is my force shroud, used when i can predict a big burst of damage heading my way, i pop this, it lasts 3 seconds and i completely avoid the incoming attack, but only for force and tech attacks, meaning a melee juggernaut can still hit me, but a sorcerer cant use lightning on me, and a sniper cant hit me with shots, and so on. its also great because if you have a DoT (damage over time) ability on you, this will take them off when used, and you can just disappear using force cloak, and that way, the DoT wont take you out of stealth anymore. instant win :D

 

"=" - Overload - this is my bumping spell, the really cool animation when you pretty much punch the ground like the hulk. In Pve, its useless unless you knock adds close to the edge of a cliff off to their doom, i can only think the tall robot trash in eternity vault. In pvp, when some dummy is standing right next to the fire, bump him into it AND ENJOY THE BARBEQUE!!!! lol

 

Now, thats my 1-12 (12 is the "=" sign), here is my bottom bar, completely keybinded! :

 

T - Force Jolt - your interupt spell. Awesome in pvp when that healer has like 15-20% hp, you interupt him with this spell, then burn him down. in PvE, your group might mention the boss casts a long casting spell, and you might very well be assigned to interupt the boss the first time he does it, the someone else will get it the seond time because yours is on CD. Catch my drift here? lol ive wiped many times in flashpoints in raids because some fights are instant wipes (with gear...) because people fail to interupt an 8 second cast.....such a simple fix.

 

R - Electrocute - Such a fantastic spell for PvP. Basically, its a 4 second stun with a bit of damage done using it and you can do damage to your target currently stunned with this spell, and the stun will not break! when someone is running through the fire in huttball, you can stun them, and watch them get roasted. In PvE, its mainly good for a mid combat CC on an add, but other then that, all bosses are champion level NPCs and cannot be affected by this kind of stun, and because of this immunity they have, these bosses cannot have their spells interrupted by it.

 

F - Recklessness - Finally i get to talk about this spell. This spell is my true success to wrecking people in PvP, and really doing some serious damage in PvE. Basically once you use it, it lasts for like 15 seconds i think (feel free to correct me) and it gives you two charges of recklessness. Simply put, these two charges increase your chance to crit by 60% with your force spells (discharge and shock, thats really it all its worth blowing charges on). And dont be fooled, 60% isnt really what it seems, i crit with this proc up 9/10 times, only occassionally will i miss the crit, and the charge will still be there waiting for me to use up if i miss, so i just voltaic slash 2 more times, and pop a shock, or discharge if its off CD. For PvP i can nearly 3-4 shot people, assuming i get lucky and hit 4-5k crits, 3 times in a row, and yes with the 4 piece set bonus for pvp gear, u get an extra charge of recklessness, it may not seem like much, but that one charge nearly garuntees you another 3-5k crit (depending on your level of gear). This spell truly is the master spell in both PvE and PvP for assassins, tanks, depcetion dps, and madness dps alike. You get this spell at an early level, and if you dont have this keybinded yet, i feel bad for you, keybind it now!!! use it every CD, the damage and crit boost from this is irreplaceable.

 

V - Stealth - You must all have been thinking by now "where the heck does this crazy wing nut have his stealth spell???" well i can tell you when i was leveling in december and january, i had this as my 6 spell on my keyboard. When i hit 50 and really got into pvp, i realized, i only use this once every 2-3 minutes, because im nearly always in combat, so i felt my stealth didnt deserve that spot, and it could easily be hit with the V button on my keyboard. This spell is self explanatory as far as im concerned, always get into stealth before combat as a deception assassin, because your first 6 seconds out of stealth have increased force regen! (then with blackout used in combat, same buff comes back for 6 seconds, awesome!!) and in pvp if your blackout is on CD (cooldown) and you cant stealth for the regen buff (duh ur in combat) you can always use your force cloak spell to quickly vanish, regen your force (force regens faster in stealth) and come right back out again, but only blow your Cloak CD if you know ur pve group aint gonna wipe on the boss. In pvp you can vanish, spike (explain spike soon) and continue to deal damage to your current pvp opponent.

 

X - Unbreakable will - Im not sure if i got the name right, but this spell has an Iffy cooldown in my opinion, i played WoW before, so 2 minutes for a spell that gets you out of stuns and such for me is pretty much normal. Sometimes i stay in the stun when i have a lot of HP and my target is running off with loads of HP, in order to save this for another moment. I use it mostly when im stunned in the fire in huttball (dont wanna get roasted!!) and when i almost have a healer down (they may be at like 10%) and i unstun myself, interupt their heal, and BAM assassinate them! lol, and for pve, its kinda useless, unless maybe your a tank, your stunned, and you gotta pick up the boss or adds to save the group, but for pve deception, kinda useless imo.

 

Mouse button 1 - My current relic - For those of you who dont know, a relic is a piece of gear that you can equip (you can have two on at a time) and it has a proc that you can manually activate by simply dragging the relics picture from your characters gear page, onto you action bar. If anyone is curious, mine is a champion relic, and whenever i hit this relics keybind, it gives me like 220 crit and 220 surge i believe for like 10 seconds (maybe 15 not sure). So its almost like a second recklessness, not as good, but gotta love getting a higher crit change going for a few seconds!!

 

Mouse Button 2 - Mass mind control - All i can say for pvp is...WOW! this spell is great. basically, its the assassins AoE taunt, in pve as a tank (darkess assassin spec) you can use this to make all the adds within like 10 yards attack you. In PvP, bioware was nice enough to add some use for it. simply put, in pvp when you use this spell, within 15 meters/yards all your enemies do 30% less damage to all you allies in the same 15 meters for like 6 seconds i believe, unless they attack you. So basically everyone takes 30% less damage for 6 seconds, and you stay the same, you can rack up 3-4 more medals for using this every CD in big groups of enemies and friendlies alike. Id only use it when 2 or more enemies and friendlies (teammates) are in your 15 meter vicinity, otherwise, save it for a time when your in the middle of a big fight, maybe in a mosh pit in void star! lol

 

Shift 1 - Mind trap - again for the wow rogues out there, this is basically your sap spell, and for those who never played wow, its basically a spell where you must be in stealth to use it, and you stun a target without starting combat and without exiting stealth. in pve (mainly questing) your companion and you go into stealth, you see 4 targets you need to kill but arent confident you can take them all, so you mind trap the one furthest from the group (AoE dmg will break its stun effect) and burn the others while that one stays stunned FOR A MINUTE!! in questing this is such a handy spell. in pvp however, it doesnt keep your current enemy (who cannot be in combat by the way) stunned for long, i havent fully checked but you can stun them for nearly 10 seconds i believe, but be warned, most people know if they get mind trap, the assassin (this being you) is nearby, so they might use their unbreakable will spell (unstun) and start to AoE and maybe hit you with their AoE, getting you out of stealth, ruining the element of surprise, be careful, use mind trap on your target of choice and get away from your pvp target fast, and then plan your approach and kill.

 

Shift 2 - Saber Ward - Im not quite sure if this is the right name, but its the spell that reduces damage taken by 50% from all tech and force attacks i believe. Quite handy in the middle of a duel in pvp to give you some more time to kill whatever your currently working on, or if you brave enough running with the huttball as a dps class haha. in Pve for a deception its kinda pointless, unless the boss your on has a tech or force AoE that maybe you can help reduce and make easier for healers. in all fairness its more of a tank spell than anything.

 

Shift 3 - Overcharge Saber - For those of you who arent level 50 yet, and still soaking up all this information, this spell is the level 50 spell for assassins. As a deception its nice to give yourself a boost and your surging charge a boost, increasing your damage done. Other than that, its simple, just use it ever CD or whenever u deem necessary, in pve or pvp.

 

Shift 4 - Mind control - This is your taunt. Now your probably thinking "why wud i as a dps wanna use a tank taunt" well its basically a single target version of the mass mind control, single target taunt. usually if i see my healer getting harrassed by some dps or tank, ill use my tab button to eventually select that dps, taunt him, and he does 30% less damage to my healer teammate, and i get back to the person i was working on before. If you practice your tabbing in pvp alot like i did back in wow, you can eventually tab to the dps harassing your healer, taunt, and get back on your primary target within like 3 seconds. Its worth helping your healer always. in pve, dont ever use this spell unless your raid group has a good reason for you to. If you do and ur not supposed to, ur tanks will be upset lol.

 

Shift 5 - Spike - As a deception, this spell must be used in stealth and will break ur stealth upon use. What it does is it knocks your target down lying on their back on the ground for 2 seconds and stuns them for an addition 2 after. you can do damage to them during the 2 second knockdown, but if you do damage to them during the 2 second stun after the knockdown is over, u will break the 2 second stun. in pvp, its a great opening spell (breaking out of stealth spell = opener spell) to use on a healer or huttball carrier or whoever with low hp, as they cant do anything for 2-3 seconds.

 

Shift 6 - Force Slow - Sometimes i use force slow, sometimes i dont, i use it the most on huttball ball carriers, or the majority of players who end up trying to run away after 3-5 seconds of fighting me :D

 

Congrats guys, the spell section is OVER!!! dont forget to always have your surging charge spell on, because its like a combat stance you stay in when you fight. Im big on buffing in pvp, so before you get on the pvp grounds, or leave the safe areas in pvp, buff up with mark of power, not only for you, but to give your nearby allies that extra boost as well. some people forget to buff, it takes one sec, it kinda annoys me, but hey, watcha gonna do? :p

 

Anyways, this next section is probably the least important in my mind, because talents can be changed in various ways and to be honest, ive been through many builds and havent seen HUGE difference in my adventures as an assassin. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that THIS IS A PVP BUILD, NOT PVE, but it can work just aswel for PvE and i think dual specs coming soon so no sweat. here is the link to my build, open it and read what i have to say about it in the following sentences:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200bcZfGrRkfMRbkZc.2 --- (NEW UPDATED 1.4.1a TALENTS)

 

Im gonna speak from the bottom to the top, each row known as row 1 which has insulation, dark embrace and duplicity, and row 2 having avoidance and etc, so im gonna name the talents and either explain why i have them, or i will say "self explanatory" which means....well you the point!!

 

Row 1

 

- Dark embrace is self explanatory

 

- Duplicity is what i mentioned before in the maul description. its very important for a deception assassin to have. To be honest, i didnt use it when i was first playing at 50, but one day i picked it up, and smacked myself across the face for not getting it before. Cheaper force costing maul attacks once every 10 seconds, and ignoring 50% of your targets armor, great deal for 3 points imo.

 

- Insulation is pretty self explanatory, you get 30% (with 2 points) more armor whenever you have surging charge on, seems like a good deal to me, and worth the reduced damage taken in pvp or even pve for that matter.

 

Row 2

 

- Obfuscation is an easy pick because who doesnt want their stealth to be harder to detect, i mean common guys, im sure at least 90% of us assassins chose this advanced class cuz we love the whole idea of stealth. And increased movement speed? even in pve thats good, doesnt hurt imo.

 

- Recirculation is great because discharge is one of the assassins main tools in rocking those 3-5k crits, who doesnt love using discharge more because of a reduced CD? :)

 

- Avoidance is a good pick for me personally because i pvp ALOT and love the lowered unbreakable will CD and if your more of a pve based assassin, i would not recommend this. use the 2 points for something you deem better for pve.

 

Row 3

 

- Deceptive power is self explanatory

 

- Darkswell, remember i mentioned earlier in the blackout description that there was a talent that would give you 6 seconds of good force regen, well this is that talent, it makes blackout give you a 6 second force regen when used. simple. 110% worth it for any assassin.

 

- Surging charge is the tanking stance for assassins which i believe i mentioned earlier, not getting this will make the worst assassin on your server, self explanatory :p

 

- Induction, remember how i said i hit 4K crits from maul, well this talent for one increased the amount you crit with whenever you do manage to crit with maul, it DOES NOT increase your maul crit chance, but instead the amount you crit for. and the second part is probably the most important talent in assassin dps as a whole, basically using voltaic slash twice makes your shock cost 50% of what its usual cost is, basically from 50 force to 25...thats awesome, you cannot miss this talent!!!

 

Row 4

 

- Saber conduit is basically more of a stepping stone to get to the talent above it, static charges, which ill be explaining soon. a 30% chance to get 10 force once every 10 seconds to me seems like a small deal, but then again im quite sure it has a made a difference in some of my gameplay.

 

- Fade is great because a reduced CD on blackout is fantastic, instead of getting the increased force regen once a minute, you get it once every 45 seconds, making those "im out of force moments" very hard to come by, assuming you time your spells correctly :p and since i pvp the force cloak reduced CD by 1 whole minute is a gift from bioware to our pvp assassins, great talent.

 

- Static cling is a good talent, but i only recommend 1 talent our of the 2 for this once because with the one talent point, the CD and duration of force slow are exactly the same, meaning the second force slow wears off on your target it will come off CD at the same time, IMO thats all i need.

 

- Entropic field, other seasoned and decent assassins on my server have asked me why i dont get the talent that reduces the damage i take from AoE, and i have the best answer: GET OUT OF THE AOE.....durp. such a simple fix and you dont waste two talents in this. You see some smuggler doing his/her XS freighter flyby or a consular doing forcequake, it is so very clearly marked on the ground with the republic logo, your an idiot if you stand it. If you get stunned while in it, unstun and run, or if its on CD just take the abuse, with full centurion gear anyone can survive the AoEs the classes have in this game. For pve this might be worth it, but thats your call and depends on the healers you run with.

 

Row 5

 

- Low slash is a great spell/ability for my playstyle. Ive heard and read a few pve assassins moaning about it for pve reasons because bosses really arent affected by it, but this spell can be used on adds and trash, i told those assassins that this game is dependent on CCs especially in heroic raids. As for pvp, like i mentioned in the spell details earlier, this is great for when your maul talent procs and they wont let you get behind, you just stun them with this run around behind them, and backstab em straight up!! lol

 

- Static Charges is great because deceptions heavily rely on discharge as part of their pve rotation or a pvp big crit. To be very honest with you guys, i just use discharge when it comes off CD everytime, and treat this talent as more of a bonus to my discharges damage done, rather than stacking up to 5 charges and using discharge. Through raiding and loads of warzones, ive had 2 charges give me a 3k crit, and 5 charges give me a 1.5k non crit hit, so i wouldnt stack this to 5 and rely on it for a big hit, treat it like a bonus when using your discharge. the charges proc enough so that everytime your discharge comes off CD you should have at least 2 charges waiting imo, somtimes more, sometimes 1 if your unlucky. it all depends.

 

- Resourcefulness is a fantastic pve talent, because although it sounds reduces the CD of cloud mind (that spell doesnt exist for assassins, i think it was a sage threat reducer, but its gone i believe, the torguild.net tooltip is wrong...) it actually lowers the cost of lacerate which is your AoE lightsaber ability, great for trash and adds in PvE but really stupid in PvP, complete waste of force imo, doesnt do enough in pvp to out damage the other teams healers. the second part of the talent is also nice for PvE because it you can use overcharge saber more often. Now the reason i dont have any talents in this talent, is 1. i dont use lacerate in pvp at all, and 2. im sacrificing overcharge saber for more talents that give me more mobility and survival, my rule of thumb for overcharge saber in pvp is just use it when its off CD, otherwise i do enough burst and damage as it is.

 

Row 6

 

- Crackling Blasts is very self explanatory, more crit is always welcome, especially when its for your two biggest force spells, shock and discharge.

 

Row 7

 

- Voltaic slash is by far my favorite spell amongst every single character i have in game. First of all, using it twice increases the damage done by your shock by 15%, and using it 2 times gets you to 30% which is the max. Its flashy and has such an epic animation. Only issue is, when a ranged dps or a tank on the other team sees you flashing this spell around, the smart people will say to themselves "hey a squishy assassin, lets wreck them" so be careful how you show this spell off in pvp haha (and dont fool yourself, assassins are so squishy in pvp). Also, for those of you who dont know, when using this spell, strafing (not turn, strafe using Q or E) will make it so your lightsaber spins in the direction of your strafe, and therefore you can make you animations look more acrobatic, and flashy. try it out! :)

 

Now the last 7 points i spent in the darkness tree, the tanking tree on the left.

 

Row 1

 

- Charge mastery is pretty simple to understand, basically when you have your surging charge on (which should never be off as a deception) it makes your attacks ignore 9% of your targets armor, in other words, more damage, dont complain, enjoy it lol.

 

- Thrashing blades to some people is not worth it, because most assassins in pvp only use voltaic slash, well wake up, voltaic slash is the most used melee spell for assassins, its worth that extra 6% for only 2 points, and its a great talent to help us get to the final talent, right above it. For PvE assassins this is great because it also increased lacerate damage by 6% so that would work well on adds and trash in raids too.

 

Row 2 (the final talents)

 

- Lightning recovery reduces the CDs of two very important spells in pvp, force shroud (our semi invincibility spell) and force speed, our super fast sprint spell. 20 seconds for speed instead of 30 is a great deal imo when in pvp, and having shroud on a 45 second CD instead of a 1 min means you get to resist 100% of force and tech attacks more often. For PvE, i believe this talent to be utterly pointless, i only have it because i enjoy the mobility and increased survivability it provides.

 

 

 

 

 

Congrats once again, we are nearly finished with this article/guide!!! The last section is relatively short compared to the first two. this section is just me pretty much telling you the ways of how i rip sh** up and kick a** 24/7, all day all night. And ill be sure to include a quick and simple PvE rotation to maximize dps and save as much force as possible.

 

The play style to an assassin in PvP is fairly simple. My general overall rule, is use what you deem is necessary for the situation your currently in. PvP is not only about taking your opponents out, it is also about predicting and mitagating incoming damage or CCs.

 

My basic play style is i open with a spike usually, which knocks my target on the ground, then i voltaic slash 2 times to get my 2 charges from voltaic slash itself, increasing the damage dealt by shock by 30%, and at the same time, you reduce the cost of shock by 50%, remember the induction talent in row 3? ya thats right, you gain 2 buffs just from using voltaic slash twice! great deal and i love the way the developers set that up.

 

After my 2 voltaic slashes are used, i pop my recklessness spell, and shock right off the bat! boom 3-5k crit, yeehaww, its that simple, then by this time you should have at least 2 charges of the discharge buff, remember row 5 with static charges? so then right after your 2 voltaics, your recklessness pop, and your shock, give your target a nice critting discharge, right in their face. another 3-5K hp knocked off their HP bar :D feels goooood!

 

At this point, i can bet your maul talent will have procced already, so give your target a low slash to stun them for 4 seconds, go behind em, and stab them right the backside!!! lol so evil xD remember to only use maul when the talent procs, even if your target has 10% HP and your assassinate (finishing spell) is on CD, voltaic slash 2-3 times instead, maul without the proc costing 50 force, will do no more than 1.5k non crit, it just aint worth it without the proc.

 

Those are the basic damage dealing abilities. In terms of using stuns like electrocute and interupts like force jolt, use those when u feel you need them. Some one scared of you trying to run away? electrocute them and take em down!! a healer is getting low on HP and is trying to save him/herself with a heal? jolt them to interupt and finish them off!!! lol force speed when you gotta run to help teammates or bail from a fight, cloak when you realize you cant win a fight against another player or your being ganked by 2 or more enemy players, shroud to remove any DoTs on you, cloak and quickly sprint. other than that, spike to start combat, blackout for force regen when needed, overcharge saber to do more damage, you all get the point.

 

Like i said thats it, remember to use voltaics twice before EVER using shock (unless u gotta finish off an enemy 10 yards away or so) discharge every CD, and take every thing i said into consideration, and i hope you build up your own play style! everyone should play how they like, not how i tell you to play. experiment with your assassin and enjoy the gameplay!

 

I said i would give you a pve rotation, well its basically the same thing with the 2 voltaics in pvp, then shock, discharge, then maul, rinse and repeat, thats it, remember to use recklessness every CD in pve, dont forget to saber strike when your low on force, and to make this even nicer, the PvE assassin raiding gear(the dps one) has an amazing 2 piece set bonus, basically you get addition force back when using saber strike, it is so nice :)

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone who read the whole darned thing hahaha i know this must have been a tiring read and i hope you have found it worth it. Before closing up shop here, i re read most of it and asked myself "was the information i gave kinda obvious?" and i concluding with i dont believe so, i included personal experiences with this advanced class and the corrections to the mistakes SO MANY assassins make today in pve and pvp alike. Its a very simple class to play once you keybind your spells in a way that feels the most COMFORTABLE TO YOU!!! lol dont forget to customize and play your assassin to your taste and style.

 

There is only one favor i want to ask of any potential posters and players with questions: positive reinforcement!!! please, only post things that are constructive and positive. Im always open to suggestions, criticism, and please if you see anything that could improve this guide and any mistakes you believe i made, tell me them, but in a nice and positive manner :)

 

Acceptable:

 

"dude i think it would be better if you did this instead of that, because blah blah blah"

 

Unacceptable:

 

"dude your theories on gameplay on stupid, how the hell could you think that is better than this? know what your talking about before posting random crap on the forums."

 

 

 

Everyone, please understand and respect that i put nearly 5 hours (over several days) into composing, constructing, and adding the finishing touches to this guide, so please dont be rude with your comments, i just want my hard work and time to be a useful resource to those people who are new to the class and even those who are geared and maybe want to tweak and change the way they play.

 

In addition guys ive decided just now that if you guys thought this was detailed and very usefull, let me know and if i get enough positive comments on this and requests for a tank guide i will do that as well, i have spent a week or so in the darkness tank spec with simple centurion gear and i did great, and i believe i have mastered that spec too. Just dont ask for a madness guide because i havent tried it yet lol :p

 

If enough people request or recommend this, i will really consider making a youtube channel with my pvp and pve exploits with possible commentary on how to adjust in pvp and pve gameplay, but that would be so much more time consuming and i would need to know if enough people would be interested in watching potential gameplay videos.

 

 

Thanks again for the support guys, and leave your comments in the section below!! :D

 

 

Battlemaster Daemmon

 

Male Zabrak

 

The Shadowlands server

 

Guild : Bon Weir

Edited by ydenneksirhc
Terror From beyond *PERSONAL UPDATE*
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Shift 2 - Saber Ward - Im not quite sure if this is the right name, but its the spell that reduces damage taken by 50% from all tech and force attacks i believe. Quite handy in the middle of a duel in pvp to give you some more time to kill whatever your currently working on, or if you brave enough running with the huttball as a dps class haha. in Pve for a deception its kinda pointless, unless the boss your on has a tech or force AoE that maybe you can help reduce and make easier for healers. in all fairness its more of a tank spell than anything.

 

I think this is supposed to be Deflection. It does not give you 50% damage reduction. It increases your defense by 50% against melee and ranged attacks, not useful against a lot of classes b/c they primarily use Force (Sorcs) and Tech (Ops) attacks which bypass defense.

 

The Saber Ward you're describing is for Sith Warriors, also 50% defense against melee and range but damage reduction by 25% against Force and Tech. 3 minute cooldown while our Deflection with no damage reduction against Force and Tech attacks is on a 2-min cooldown.

Edited by jkcheng
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I think this is supposed to be Deflection. It does not give you 50% damage reduction. It increases your defense by 50% against melee and ranged attacks, not useful against a lot of classes b/c they primarily use Force (Sorcs) and Tech (Ops) attacks which bypass defense.

 

The Saber Ward you're describing is for Sith Warriors, also 50% defense against melee and range but damage reduction by 25% against Force and Tech. 3 minute cooldown while our Deflection with no damage reduction against Force and Tech attacks is on a 2-min cooldown.

 

And this is a prime example of constructive and positive feedback.

 

Thank you Jkcheng for correcting my mistake, i knew i wasnt spot on with that on, and i wasnt near my PC to log on and check. I appreciate the correction and i hope you enjoyed my article/guide.

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Thank you so much for this guide. This is exactly what I've been searching for. Ability explainations, the priority of what to use and when to implement them. You have really helped me get a grasp of what I should be aiming for while I level and pvp. I come from WoW and play a rogue, and while we may not have combo points in this game, the basic concept behind the deception assassin is very similar - Control, burst, escaping away and getting back into stealth. Imo not having combo points is a blessing, I like how they have set up the assassin talents and the ability to tailor and customize builds. Thanks again, great guide, I really appreciate this! Edited by Forceconduit
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Thank you so much for this guide. This is exactly what I've been searching for. Ability explainations, the priority of what to use and when to implement them. You have really helped me get a grasp of what I should be aiming for while I level and pvp. I come from WoW and play a rogue, and while we may not have combo points in this game, the basic concept behind the deception assassin is very similar - Control, burst, escaping away and getting back into stealth. Imo not having combo points is a blessing, I like how they have set up the assassin talents and the ability to tailor and customize builds. Thanks again, great guide, I really appreciate this!

 

I'm glad I was able to help you, that was my objective. And im not too sure about the rogue thing, most people have said the operatives are more like rogues, because they have a knife kinda like a dagger and they always DPS from close up, sort of a like a ranged class that is always in your face.

 

The reason i dont seem to believe assassins are like rogues, is because we really only have one opening ability, spike. Yes people can argue mind trap is sap, which it is, but other than that, i spend 75% of my warzones out of stealth. If anything i guess the rogues abilities have been spread between operatives and assassins, but i still lean more to the operative if someone says "whats the closest thing to rogue". Also rogues never tanked, operatives dont tank, assassins can :)

 

Funny thing is, in WoW, i was a holy priest for nearly 4 years, only got a rogue to 40 :p

 

anyways cheers!

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Fantastic guide makes me want to give my 33 sin another shot. Be really great if you'd post your darkness guide as well to see how that spec plays out.

 

How do you feel each tree stands up in pvp?

 

Well in terms of PvP, ive only tanked and DPS'd in deception, ive never done madness, because i hate the whole concept of having to actually aim with my mouse and place deathfield, im constantly moving back and forth, strafing, circle strafing around my targets, i can never seem to find time to place this sort of thing, or im just too lazy haha :p

 

Now as deception, its very to completely clean up in warzones, but dont be fooled, our survivability is very limited, with on 3 seconds of shroud every 45 seconds and we only resist certain attacks. Without a healer, and flashing that Voltaic slash around, the smart pvpers will known your not to strong with defense, so they will come at you, at this point, you need to use your CCs at the right times to maximize the amount of damage you can pump out, and stay untouched. Deception is my main spec, im in like 90% of the time, and i can tell you ive taken a fully champion geared marauder from 100% HP to 30% without getting touched, at this point my CCs were pretty much all on CD and he started wailing on me, so seeing as i personally knew him and really wanted to wreck him for fun :D i was willing to blow my cloak CD, regain force within 3 seconds, and spike him, and finish him off. So the CCs for deception assassins are very important in PvP as it will prolong your life and give you more mobility against your opponents. Now with a healer, you can be virtually unstoppable, your easy to heal, and you can use taunts to reduce the dmg the healer takes. My best match was with a centurion geared operative healer, and i did 512k total damage, and the person in second did like 300k i think. Now it wasnt a dps fest, i got the 5+ votes because i always fought on doors, taunted people off healers and stunned the ones that harrassed them. i also got like 50k defense that match just from the taunt and AoE taunt, ending with 12 medals, so it wasnt just me trying to do as much dmg as possible :)

 

Now ive been very successful with darkness too, because it is so damn hard to kill you. I was like valor level 55, using my companions (xaleks) centurion tanking gear while still using my champ dps saber. Most matches i had no healer, did 200k plus damage (which is great for a tank) did like 30k self heals (harnessed darkness, top part of tank tree) and 50-70k protection. A great thing is your force regen is also increased by 30% so you almost always shocking and discharging. The tank stance, dark charge, increases your armor by A TRUCKLOAD! lol. You are very mobile, because so many darkness talents enhance things you already have, like one talent makes it so that if your trapped (not stunned, but stuck in place) using your force speed while take you out of it. shroud goes from 3 seconds to 5 seconds, and so on and so forth. The darkness tree in my mind was almost made for pvp for the people who want to do "decent damage" and nearly never die. Id say the darkness tank is the best huttball carrier in the game, but thats just me. And that doesnt mean you cant do damage, my best match as a tank was in alderaan i think, and i did 340k total damage, 150k total protection (oh ya...) and about 75k healing (just got the medal at the end). And to top it all off 1 place damage and protection, with 11 medals if i remember correctly.

 

And my real reason for not going madness is because its supposed to be a self healing tree, with decent self healing, but its total crap. basically death field can hit UP TO 3 targets, and you get 1% hp for each target you hit, so you can 3% hp from that one ability? ya forget it.....might as well go tank and just used harness darkness combined with force lightning. a full force lightning with 3 stacks of harnessed darkness gets you like 12% hp, plus if specced right a darkness tank could get 10% HP just from using overcharge saber. Madness can take a hike, until bioware decides to buff its usage in pvp, im not trying it.

 

So to finish the answer to your question, each tree has its perks and downfalls. deception can 4 shot ppl, but can be very squishy, whereas tanks never die, but dont do 500k damage a match lol. You just have to sit and tell yourself what the pros and cons are of each, then ask yourself what your looking for in your assassin. you said your at 33? just to let you know 1-10 story is great, 10-30 it sucks, 30-40 is ok, but 40-50 is fantastic, so if thats why your not playing it, trust me, story gets better :)

 

In terms of a darkness guide, i think id like to play more darkness before posting a guide because there are still some things that im not too sure about and i havent played around with it enough to fully understand it, and teach others yet lol but i will in the future when i get more time.

 

Good luck :)

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Many thanks, really valuable insights.

I actually abandoned my sin and ground to lvl 45 jug before realizing that other than a great art style it wasn't what I wanted.

Hit 37 sorc but lacks the iconic saber play of star wars.

 

Just started a marauder and got to lvl 14 but flip flipping between him and the sin.

Spec'ed darkness for the sin and love the utility but I personally enjoy just bring able to destroy people one on one.

 

Watched a 50 marauder dueling a deception sin the other day and it was literally a knife edge of health for each round. They seemed to win equally.

 

I'm guessing for that kind of performance key binding and mouse turning is key. I'm struggling with that myself after using wsad for the last 16 odd years. My performance with deception seems to be very poor using key binds and the mouse (bound autorun to my mouse thumb key).

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Many thanks, really valuable insights.

I actually abandoned my sin and ground to lvl 45 jug before realizing that other than a great art style it wasn't what I wanted.

Hit 37 sorc but lacks the iconic saber play of star wars.

 

Just started a marauder and got to lvl 14 but flip flipping between him and the sin.

Spec'ed darkness for the sin and love the utility but I personally enjoy just bring able to destroy people one on one.

 

Watched a 50 marauder dueling a deception sin the other day and it was literally a knife edge of health for each round. They seemed to win equally.

 

I'm guessing for that kind of performance key binding and mouse turning is key. I'm struggling with that myself after using wsad for the last 16 odd years. My performance with deception seems to be very poor using key binds and the mouse (bound autorun to my mouse thumb key).

 

The success behind my great mobility is my naga mouse, they cost like 150 bucks, but every many people use them for pvp because they have 12 buttons on them, plus 2 more on top, very nice for mobility. and they last a long time, great quality mouse, i use them for work, and other games too. they made a swtor one recently and id think maybe people might start to buy that one, but im sticking the older version.

 

heres a picture of the swtor version:

 

http://www.ggsgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SWTOR-Razer-Mouse-456x325.jpg

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A great shame, I won't touch razor products after a fault ridden lycosa that was simply atrocious and rubbish tech support.

I stuck to Logitech as I've never had a single prob with their gear.

 

Using a g9 mouse but having auto run bound to the thumb key is so awkward. Are you binding your forward movement to any particular key or do you bind auto run to one of the nags side keys?

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i commend you for typing this out..but it isnt really a "guide" per say as it is telling us your personal preference of your keyboard lay out.

 

Hello jasiones,

 

I really appreciate your feedback and i respect your opinion. i mentioned earlier this was a guide/article on the deception class itself. Also im not sure if you the read whole thing (i would understand if you didnt haha), but towards the end i wrote up like two paragraphs how to properly and effictively pvp with the abilities we have at 50, and i gave a few sentences on how to use your rotation in PvE in a simple manner.

 

And you said it "isnt really a guide per say" if its ok i ask that you give me an example of what you expect to see in a guide, especially an advanced class guide, i plan on making a darkness tanking guide, very similar to the layout of this one. please tell me what the ideal guide looks like for you so i can include your suggestoins into the upcoming tank guide!

 

Cheers :)

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A great shame, I won't touch razor products after a fault ridden lycosa that was simply atrocious and rubbish tech support.

I stuck to Logitech as I've never had a single prob with their gear.

 

Using a g9 mouse but having auto run bound to the thumb key is so awkward. Are you binding your forward movement to any particular key or do you bind auto run to one of the nags side keys?

 

I have autorun binded to the key to the left of the 1 key, the swiggly line lol, i didnt mention that in my keybinds, because i know many people have difference views on autorun.

 

Im very sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with a razor product and i respect your opinion and decision. If you can find it in you to overlook your previous experience with your keyboard, i guaruntee if you take good care of your naga mouse (no food, drink, etc, lol) it will last you a very long time, and will make a significant difference in your preformance in PvP.

 

Ironically, i started with logitech, and i hated it, so im biased on that haha.

 

If you have decided never to buy another razor product, i respect that, and i wish you the best of luck with any other hardware you use.

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little things i wanted to add to this guide, mind trap probably the best skill we have because most of the pvp is group so u can get out on the front lines and crowd control before the fight starts or prevent people from entering combat.

 

as for healers we have tons of interrupts to prevent them from healing jolt, low slash, execute, overload u can basically take a healer completely out of a fight.

 

and last but not least without gear expect to die a ton we are a dps class and without expertise we can not dish out any dmg.

 

crushing darkness is very good to stack onto someone elses dots thats about the only really effective use i have found for it.

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A very all encompassing guide, with alot of detailed information. However, that said, it feels like the guide could use a good editor, as it's hard to pick out where one section starts and where it ends. While it all makes sense in one long reading, its not that helpful when I'd like to look up your ideas on one particular subject, eg: talent builds.

 

A table of contents, some general formatting and a bit of restructuring (Keybinds might not be the most important thing to someone trying the build for their first time, while talents might be more important); a bit of TLC and this could be the definitive Deception guide.

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A very all encompassing guide, with alot of detailed information. However, that said, it feels like the guide could use a good editor, as it's hard to pick out where one section starts and where it ends. While it all makes sense in one long reading, its not that helpful when I'd like to look up your ideas on one particular subject, eg: talent builds.

 

A table of contents, some general formatting and a bit of restructuring (Keybinds might not be the most important thing to someone trying the build for their first time, while talents might be more important); a bit of TLC and this could be the definitive Deception guide.

 

Dude, i couldn't agree more. I wanted to do this kind of editing but with the limited time i had it was almost impossible. Believe me when i say my next guide (darkness tanking) will have a much better layout and will be much easier to work with.

 

The minute i get some spare time ill start editing this guide to make it more readable and easier to navigate through. Im glad you enjoyed it!

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little things i wanted to add to this guide, mind trap probably the best skill we have because most of the pvp is group so u can get out on the front lines and crowd control before the fight starts or prevent people from entering combat.

 

as for healers we have tons of interrupts to prevent them from healing jolt, low slash, execute, overload u can basically take a healer completely out of a fight.

 

and last but not least without gear expect to die a ton we are a dps class and without expertise we can not dish out any dmg.

 

crushing darkness is very good to stack onto someone elses dots thats about the only really effective use i have found for it.

 

Mind trap is a great skill, i agree with you, but from what i have seen in pvp its not worth my time, because im pretty sprinting straight into battle, and any healers or casters in the back that i MC, can easily just breakout, and no one in their right mind is going to blow a vanish because once the enemy is in combat, they cant be re MC'd. Ill occasionally do it, but not as much as when i first hit 50. when you start getting gear and hitting harder, and gain better control on how you time your CCs on multiple targets, MC will become less and less important.

 

You are right in the sense we can really give healers a hard time, but that doesnt mean we can keep them interupted the whole time. interupts also have a lot of affect on the resolve bar, and after 2-3 interupts or stuns, they have full resolve, pop a shield, bounce you back, and enjoy a nice 4-5 seconds of healing. So its more than just straight up interupts non stop. If you go up against the best healers on your server, they can put up one hell of a fight. And in all honestly, if your the best player in your warzone and the healer has your attention instead of the others, he might be the winner in that scenario, because he can be our battering ram, yet still giving time for his teams mates to kill our healers etc.

 

Centurion gear is incredibly easy to come by, combined with weeklies and dailies, and overall commendations for champion bags. The casual EVERYDAY player could be full centurion in 1-2 (maybe 3) weeks, assuming you just do the warzone daily, and buy 1 champ bag like every 2 days (i used to buy 2 champ bags a day lol). So what you said about "we expect to die a ton", its actually not that bad, if you can handle 1-3 weeks of pvping a good bit everyday, you will not only get gear, but you will also get more valor which is great for titles (and eventually BM gear) and most importantly youll get practice!!

 

I disagree with crushing darkness, i only cast force lightning in tank spec, otherwise, seethe is my only cast, we are a melee and instant range class, plus it can easily be interupted by the person attacking you so i wouldnt bother. If you want to use it as a way for them to interupt and build your resolve bar up ON PURPOSE i commend your clever thinking, but for me, im always circling strafing and moving, no time to cast mid combat.

 

Cheers :)

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and any healers or casters in the back that i MC, can easily just breakout,

 

Basically mind trap forces them to blow their CC breaker early making it easier to snare them and they are stuck without a CC breaker. It becomes the ultimate troll setup move while stealth not using it as such is such a waste tab click and off. Stops them from advancing or wait for them to blow their CC breaker and unload on them. Pop vanish when low and hit it stop ur opponent its great if they cc breaker is down you can heal and watch them struggle and be at full hit points to open up on them again...

Edited by LordbishopX
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Basically mind trap forces them to blow their CC breaker early making it easier to snare them and they are stuck without a CC breaker. It becomes the ultimate troll setup move while stealth not using it as such is such a waste tab click and off. Stops them from advancing or wait for them to blow their CC breaker and unload on them. Pop vanish when low and hit it stop ur opponent its great if they cc breaker is down you can heal and watch them struggle and be at full hit points to open up on them again...

 

Your point is excellent, i couldn't agree more, its just that, mind trap can only be used on targets who are out of combat, which is quite hard to come by, in my opinion. in huttball, by the time you find a healer, they have probably already healed someone, therefore making them enter combat, rendering the CC useless on them. Same thing for voidstar. Your best bet for utilizing mind trap the most is probably in alderaan, because you can trap while they run between turrets, but thats just my two cents :)

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A lot of people do tend to run away when they have low hp..which is why i like to use force slow because most players will try and break the cc. And since the CD is fast i can use it every 9 seconds. Doing so will make it easier to stun them with other casts since they already used their break on the force slow. Mind games :p
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Hi, iv been using almost same rotation however never thought to hit recklessness before shock. Iv been using it after! And trying to get 2 discharges out of it. Well it deffinatley works better your way,

:D thanks

 

haha dude dont beat yourself up, i did the same exact thing, then one day i actually took 30 seconds to read recklessness, and i starting using it before force attacks and bamn, amazing crits. Good luck to you :)

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Good guide, I like the detail. Not for some, but very well thought out.

 

Thanks a bunch, and ya i agree, some people dont like to read the intense wall of text which is fine. Like i said on a previous post, when i find time ill add some more editing and table of contents and such to make it easier to navigate through.

 

Cheers

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