Concealment Operative PvP Guide

 

Introduction:

 

Why am I writing a guide for PvP concealment operatives? I want the general talent of our class/spec to go up. We as a population are very weak compared to what we can be. I only play as a concealment operative, I’ve been one since launch, rarely trying other specs because I love this one, it is in my blood and I like to think I know the ins and outs of the spec. My character’s name is kitty and I play on the server Space Slug. I believe my reputation (in PvP) on the server alone gives me qualification to write this guide.

 

Our Role:

 

This is a very broad position for us as we can fill multiple roles on the fly. We excel at sniping off healers and ranged dps, while able to instantly stop a score in Huttball. Our dps is unparalleled and our stopping ability immeasurable. We can sneak cap points, or targets to score the ball. So where do we fit and how do we know when to switch to what role? This is something we as players must be adaptive to fill in were our team lacks, if we are having trouble from healers that is where our role will be filled, if we have good ball handlers then we don’t need to be hidden targets at the goal line. It is our job to be

adaptive, which is a word we have to ingrain in our paradigm when playing an operative.

 

Sitting just at the goal line, or just killing healers when they aren’t affecting the game state isn’t a strong role for us. As concealment operatives we have the ability to make other players change their play style to accommodate us, so it is in our best interest to keep the other team on their heels at all time. If you’re doing your job well you will start to notice that you’re being focused fired before healers or ball carriers. Our goal is to make the other team play mad, mad players make mistakes. A little bit of head games, but why not? It makes us more potent.

 

Playing as a Concealment Operative:

 

One of the ideas you will have to start understanding is the idea to hold onto your cooldowns for the right fights. While a lot of cool downs can have minor usage in some fights, wasting them in these minor fights when you can win without will leave you vulnerable when you actually need them. Case in point: Using evasion when fighting an imperial agent, while this does remove the dots, it wastes a very handy skill that can help you more with assassins or marauders then with agents, when you can cleanse yourself of any dots they may apply already.

 

Understand your environment, and plan escape routes. You want to live, the longer you survive before dying, the more impact you can have the game. This leads into another point, disengaging a fight to allow time for cool downs to finish, or get a quick heal is viable, and often times you can lead your intended victim into a trap and finish them, when otherwise they would have won the fight. Never feel pressured to stay in a fight that doesn’t benefit you. You will frustrate your opponents, which will help you affect the state of the game.

 

Talents:

 

Concealment Operative Spec

 

Skill Rotations:

 

These rotations are basic rotations and I recommend finding ones and altering others to fit your play style, but in the end it is important to note that we shouldn’t cookie cutter all our fights, because we hamper our overall effectiveness by doing so.

 

Opener: Acid Blades > Hidden Strike > Backstab > Stim Boost

General opening combat rotation.

 

Damage: Opener > Shiv > Laceration > Laceration > Backstab > Autofire

This is a basic damaging rotation, used for when you can kill can opponent while preserving your stun, or going against an opponent that will die either way.

 

Stun Lock: Opener > Shiv > Debilitate

This rotation is best used against healers, and ball carriers

 

Sustained DPS: Opener > Shiv > Corrosive Dart > Damage

This rotation is good for tank or long term engagements.

 

Closing the gap:

 

This is one of the biggest concerns of concealment operatives. They opened up a gap, what do you do now? Don’t stay passive during this time, it is a good time to use your utility skills such as Stim Boost, apply corrosive darts, or just auto attack. You are far from useless at this point, so don’t believe you are.

 

Positioning:

 

Instead of always finding yourself with a gap to close, you can try a few counter measure to that by learning to position yourself in time when they are about to knock you back. Often times with your back against a wall, or so you will go in a direction that is the path of least travel to the target.

 

Positioning also isn't limited to just being knocked back. Being able to flow and cut off players from helping the other team is just as vital. As you fight, are you blocking a path to get to the ball carrier? Look to shut down path ways or walk ways so that other players are forced to either redirect, or go to their spawn point.

 

Breaking down the Warzones:

 

Huttball: This is by far the easiest war-zone for us. We have lots of options in our game play. What we excel at the most here is zone control, more specifically on the ramps and walkways. Here we can kill a healer, or ranged dps pretty easily with little worry. As the game progresses this forces the other team to play more defensively. So when the ramps are closed we are left open to either stalk behind the main group picking off players, or what I like to do, distract the followers of the ball carrier so they deal with you first (by this time you have a bit of hate towards you to distract 2 or 3 people to focus on you, giving your team time to score or kill the opposing ball carrier). Another thing we can do is head into the goal line, and score or kill their team as they come out, this again makes the other team alter their play style giving you a bigger impact then you really should on the game.

 

Civil War: This one dissolves into straight up fights most of the time, but with the open room we have plenty of room to work with. With that knowledge we should look to engage fights late so we are unseen and able to drop back into stealth after killing our victim or as I prefer, make the other team compensate for you. To achieve this we can attack the opposing first cap right away (generally only 1 or 2 guarding it, shouldn't be hard to handle) This often makes the defense either over compensate for its defense, or at bare min 3 protectors meaning your team now is at 6 vs 5 on the center point. Another role we can fill in well here is as a defender, able to hold off attacks long enough to get defense to help out.

 

Voidstar: This is our worst War zone, at times we can be completely useless with our role being better filled else were, but we are by far not out of the game. With the lack of mobility this map offers we fall into a stealth cap or disrupt defense play styles, by making the opposing force over compensate defenses. If you are able to get a distance lead, you generally are able to get off a double cap making life a bit harder for the opposing force as they try to figure out what went wrong.

 

Conclusion:

This guide has some broad topics but I left it that way to make you think more and help you develop your play style onto a better course.

 

Extra Credit:

 

Enduisma

Edited April 11, 2012 by killercat

This is not a guide, rather a conversation about your mantra and some of the skills the operative brings to the table. Not well executed imho.

Having just started playing a Concealement OPs to explore the fun of stealthing, I have to say "Thanks." for a good guide. And advice for keybinds? I've found that I've been good with binding similar attacks to a single key with its Shift (and if I can stretch that pinky, CTRL) so I can drop two or three attacks like Stun+Shiv+Backstab almost all at once.

 

Also, as a DPS, what is better? Purely increasing Power and Crit? Or Crit and Surge Rating?

Edited April 10, 2012 by SupernovaRU

Having just started playing a Concealement OPs to explore the fun of stealthing, I have to say "Thanks." for a good guide. And advice for keybinds? I've found that I've been good with binding similar attacks to a single key with its Shift (and if I can stretch that pinky, CTRL) so I can drop two or three attacks like Stun+Shiv+Backstab almost all at once.

 

I use 1 - 5, q, e, r + their shift and alt alternatives, I also use z x and c but only with alt and shift. If done right it is really fast, and allows you to be frantic with your moves to hit them in order and timely, I find it works good, though I wish my hands were a bit bigger so I could use more key binds as is now I still need a good 6 or so.

I use 1 - 5, q, e, r + their shift and alt alternatives, I also use z x and c but only with alt and shift. If done right it is really fast, and allows you to be frantic with your moves to hit them in order and timely, I find it works good, though I wish my hands were a bit bigger so I could use more key binds as is now I still need a good 6 or so.

 

Ah. I rebound my movemement keys to E, S, F for Forwards, Strafe Left, S- Right. Gives me less access to the ALT key, and instead of using the D key to go backwards I've used it as a Stealth/Crouch key. Opens up the A, W, Q keys on the left and the R,T,Y,G,V keys for more combat themed movements. I've also started Shift binding my movement keys to other attacks to keep everything centered around my hand with the least movement.

Ah. I rebound my movemement keys to E, S, F for Forwards, Strafe Left, S- Right. Gives me less access to the ALT key, and instead of using the D key to go backwards I've used it as a Stealth/Crouch key. Opens up the A, W, Q keys on the left and the R,T,Y,G,V keys for more combat themed movements. I've also started Shift binding my movement keys to other attacks to keep everything centered around my hand with the least movement.

 

I move almost 100% of the time when engaged in combat, I try to stay extremely mobile, reason I can't use my movement keys with shift or alt. I think it is important we are always moving to help us with our situation awareness so we aren't over whelmed.

I move almost 100% of the time when engaged in combat, I try to stay extremely mobile, reason I can't use my movement keys with shift or alt. I think it is important we are always moving to help us with our situation awareness so we aren't over whelmed.

 

A solid point. Most of my movement key binding has been with my healer, which is a stationary role. Though mainly its been there to try to get me to be less dependable on the movement keys and moreso on movement via the mouse. End up just moving forward constantly with the keyboard and changing directions with the mouse. Though I do need to find a better way to target instead of constantly mouseclicking, though it does seem that the Concealment role is to pick off stragglers.

Huttball: This is by far the easiest war-zone for us. We have lots of options in our game play. What we excel at the most here is zone control, more specifically on the ramps and walkways. Here we can kill a healer, or ranged dps pretty easily with little worry. As the game progresses this forces the other team to play more defensively. So when the ramps are closed we are left open to either stalk behind the main group picking off players, or what I like to do, distract the followers of the ball carrier so they deal with you first (by this time you have a bit of hate towards you to distract 2 or 3 people to focus on you, giving your team time to score or kill the opposing ball carrier). Another thing we can do is head into the goal line, and score or kill their team as they come out, this again makes the other team alter their play style giving you a bigger impact then you really should on the game.

Disagree. An Op should NOT be staying around the ramps/walkways if they can help it. You're just asking to be knocked off. Yes, you can try to position yourself, but this doesn't always work due to lag or them moving to anticipate this. Also, you CANNOT position yourself for a merc/commando knockback because of the huge radius on that. The key is controlling the middle. Only go to walkways if you have to, and use fires to your advantage as we have two stuns, a mez, and a root to keep someone there.

Civil War: This one dissolves into straight up fights most of the time, but with the open room we have plenty of room to work with. With that knowledge we should look to engage fights late so we are unseen and able to drop back into stealth after killing our victim or as I prefer, make the other team compensate for you. To achieve this we can attack the opposing first cap right away (generally only 1 or 2 guarding it, shouldn't be hard to handle) This often makes the defense either over compensate for its defense, or at bare min 3 protectors meaning your team now is at 6 vs 5 on the center point. Another role we can fill in well here is as a defender, able to hold off attacks long enough to get defense to help out.

If you try attacking their node immediately, you are forcing your team to be a man down on BOTH nodes, as the middle is now 5 on 6 and you are going 1v2. This is NOT a winning strategy. You need two, maybe three players while the others keep middle busy if you want to try this strategy. Though in my experience it's better to just take middle as it's easier to receive backup.

Voidstar: This is our worst War zone, at times we can be completely useless with our role being better filled else were, but we are by far not out of the game. With the lack of mobility this map offers we fall into a stealth cap or disrupt defense play styles, by making the opposing force over compensate defenses. If you are able to get a distance lead, you generally are able to get off a double cap making life a bit harder for the opposing force as they try to figure out what went wrong.

Not really. Take the doors, healers like to stay in the middle area. This allows easy access for you to go up right behind them and take them down. Because everything is so clustered together, the lack of mobility isn't really much of a problem. Besides that, we have one of the BEST AoEs for defending the doors/planted bombs.

 

As for your guide, you need to add a LOT more detail. I agree with Gaucho, doesn't really read much like a guide. You need to go into specific strategies on warzones. You also don't mention key abilities like Explosive Probe and Sever Tendon, which are extremely important because of our lack of a gap closer.

Edited April 10, 2012 by hulkweazel

A solid point. Most of my movement key binding has been with my healer, which is a stationary role. Though mainly its been there to try to get me to be less dependable on the movement keys and moreso on movement via the mouse. End up just moving forward constantly with the keyboard and changing directions with the mouse. Though I do need to find a better way to target instead of constantly mouseclicking, though it does seem that the Concealment role is to pick off stragglers.

 

oh I am not suggesting to mouse turn, I have my a and d as my strafes. Also in terms of roles, you will start to get into peoples heads as a match or series of matches go on. There are times when I am more focus fired when I jump out of stealth then the ball handler/healers are ever focus fired. I find a lot of times, as a concealment spec you want to be that person everyone hates.

Disagree. An Op should NOT be staying around the ramps/walkways if they can help it. You're just asking to be knocked off. Yes, you can try to position yourself, but this doesn't always work due to lag or them moving to anticipate this. Also, you CANNOT position yourself for a merc/commando knockback because of the huge radius on that. The key is controlling the middle. Only go to walkways if you have to, and use fires to your advantage as we have two stuns, a mez, and a root to keep someone there.

If you try attacking their node immediately, you are forcing your team to be a man down on BOTH nodes, as the middle is now 5 on 6 and you are going 1v2. This is NOT a winning strategy. You need two, maybe three players while the others keep middle busy if you want to try this strategy. Though in my experience it's better to just take middle as it's easier to receive backup.

Not really. Take the doors, healers like to stay in the middle area. This allows easy access for you to go up right behind them and take them down. Because everything is so clustered together, the lack of mobility isn't really much of a problem. Besides that, we have one of the BEST AoEs for defending the doors/planted bombs.

 

As for your guide, you need to add a LOT more detail. I agree with Gaucho, doesn't really read much like a guide. You need to go into specific strategies on warzones. You also don't mention key abilities like Explosive Probe and Sever Tendon, which are extremely important because of our lack of a gap closer.

 

Huttball - I don't have much trouble with being knocked off the walkways unless there are multiple knockbacks going on. Maybe one in 10 I might get knocked off. Positioning can do a lot and easily obtained as the first thing most classes do after getting up is knock back so you can position yourself correctly.

 

Civil War - my win rate with this strategy is over 80% I do more good with this strategy then bad. This is something that I have tested a lot and have come the a conclusion it is really effective.

 

Voidstar - against a good player you will never be allowed to get orbital strike off, so it is pointless to even mention it, double since rated are coming out.

 

In terms of skills, I will add a section to cover individual skills. think that is one thing I left out.

I think this guide is a nice start, especially for people who are transitioning from PvE to PvP.

 

What would really make it great is to post tactics to use against each other class/specs and also what to look for from each. (For example, against another Agent I don't break Debil, or I know I have to eat a full Flash (unless I am Dot'd in which case I might))

 

Keep up the good work!

I think this guide is a nice start, especially for people who are transitioning from PvE to PvP.

 

What would really make it great is to post tactics to use against each other class/specs and also what to look for from each. (For example, against another Agent I don't break Debil, or I know I have to eat a full Flash (unless I am Dot'd in which case I might))

 

Keep up the good work!

 

That is a great suggestion! when I get a bit of free time I will add that along with a general over view of our skills.

I move almost 100% of the time when engaged in combat, I try to stay extremely mobile, reason I can't use my movement keys with shift or alt.

 

Thats weird, I don't have any problems using shift/alt binds while moving.

Thats weird, I don't have any problems using shift/alt binds while moving.

 

I have a small hand, makes thing a bit harder, if you can do it more power to you.

And advice for keybinds?

 

I use 1 - 4 for my main attacks (BS, Shiv, Lac, Overload), and then ctrl+(q-t, a-f, z-v) for secondary attacks, KInj, Shield, AP, Vanish, etc. Shift+(q-t, a-f, z-v) are used for things like medpacks, stealth, Evasion (on the same button as Vanish, so it's just shift+r -> ctrl+r), OrbS and mounts.

 

I have just 4 mouse buttons, but the 3rd and 4th are very easy to get to so I use 1 for Autorun and the other for AB.

 

Try to structure your keybinds so that commonly chained skills require either a change in key or a change in modifier, not both. E.g:

• Evasion > Vanish = shift+r > ctrl+r
  
• Crouch > EP = F > 1
  
• Relic > Adrenal > HS = ctrl+z, ctrl+x, ctrl+c
  

 

I also try to keep abilities that fill a similar role on the same key with different modifiers - e.g. Debilitate (ctrl+q) > Flashbang (shift+q), KInj (ctrl+s) > KInf (shift+s)

 

Final few tips:

• Set up your cover bar so that it mimics your main bar as much as possible and/or uses the same "main" keys
  
• Don't be afraid to have the same ability in more than 1 place if it makes using it more natural during different ability sequences
  
• Practice jump-shoot/grenade/CD/sever/flashbang for when you're kiting. Make sure you you pick keys for these abilities that make them easy to use while on the move.
  
• Learn how to alternate between mouse-run / keyboard run and even auto-run to free your hands up
  

Edited April 11, 2012 by Ryemfoh

I'm seriously looking forward to a knowledgeable op addressing this thread, cause someone has to. That said, I'm enjoying this for all the wrong reasons.

Your "stunlock opener" is flawed, there is enough time for one more GCD before using debilitate. Letting you land one more ability before using (in this case wasting) your debilitate makes a huge difference. Hidden strike->Backstab->Debilitate and not Hidden strike->Debilitate->Backstab.

 

Also your "sustained dps opener" Opener > Shiv > Stim boost > Corrosive Dart > Damage is flawed, why should I wait with using Stim Boost until after Shiv? The correct useage would be to use it directly after Hidden Strike since it does not respect the global cooldown. Also I am very sceptical if that opener really yields the highest sustained dps but I'm in no mood to crunch numbers so I'll let that rest.

Your "stunlock opener" is flawed, there is enough time for one more GCD before using debilitate. Letting you land one more ability before using (in this case wasting) your debilitate makes a huge difference. Hidden strike->Backstab->Debilitate and not Hidden strike->Debilitate->Backstab.

 

Also your "sustained dps opener" Opener > Shiv > Stim boost > Corrosive Dart > Damage is flawed, why should I wait with using Stim Boost until after Shiv? The correct useage would be to use it directly after Hidden Strike since it does not respect the global cooldown. Also I am very sceptical if that opener really yields the highest sustained dps but I'm in no mood to crunch numbers so I'll let that rest.

 

You're right on both accounts and it has been corrected. I don't mind obvious errors brought to attention. Please do bring them to light.

You're right on both accounts and it has been corrected. I don't mind obvious errors brought to attention. Please do bring them to light.

 

Then you should credit those that point out your errors. Taking full credit for something you did not fully create is not shined by the light of justice.

Then you should credit those that point out your errors. Taking full credit for something you did not fully create is not shined by the light of justice.

 

Already done.

To the original poster... Great job - your contributions to our community are much appreciated. Edited April 12, 2012 by Notannos
rude

To the original poster... Great job - your contributions to our community are much appreciated.

 

Thank you, I will be adding a bit more such as a skills section and class match up. If you have any further you would like to see, I am open to suggestion.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Notannos
rude quote

As for your guide, you need to add a LOT more detail. I agree with Gaucho, doesn't really read much like a guide. You need to go into specific strategies on warzones. You also don't mention key abilities like Explosive Probe and Sever Tendon, which are extremely important because of our lack of a gap closer.

 

I agree with you - thank you for adding your contributions and providing constructive criticism rather than just blatantly trolling or otherwise being a douche.

 

I think it's a solid start for a beginner, but specifics and advanced tactics are currently lacking. I'm sure with more time we can, as a community improve upon this great start by the OP.

Thank you, I will be adding a bit more such as a skills section and class match up. If you have any further you would like to see, I am open to suggestion.

 

In agreement with your general assessment that we struggle when beyond 10m. For me personally, I find that applying Sever Tendon as your 3rd GCD during the debilitate stun will keep your opponent inside 10m, as they will inevitably stun you or knock you back and attempt to run away after they finally regain control of their character. Positioning is key when debilitate is about to wear off, if you can shorten the distance you're knocked back or make it so you aren't knocked off a platform it helps tremendously. When they try to run, the 2 second root & slow is key for you to get off an overload shot and corrosive dart while closing the gap with your 20% speed.

 

Once they exceed 10m, I typically just get corrosive dart on them, frag grenade, and drop to cover for a last ditch effort Explosive probe. I can't tell you how many "runners" I've dropped with the corrosive dart/EP combo because they're already low on HP from our opener.

 

Maybe adding more about proper usage of Sever Tendon would help more Ops as I know it is one of my most crucial abilities outside of the obvious opener rotation.

Edited April 11, 2012 by HanfordBlows

Your "stunlock opener" is flawed, there is enough time for one more GCD before using debilitate. Letting you land one more ability before using (in this case wasting) your debilitate makes a huge difference. Hidden strike->Backstab->Debilitate and not Hidden strike->Debilitate->Backstab.

 

Also your "sustained dps opener" Opener > Shiv > Stim boost > Corrosive Dart > Damage is flawed, why should I wait with using Stim Boost until after Shiv? The correct useage would be to use it directly after Hidden Strike since it does not respect the global cooldown. Also I am very sceptical if that opener really yields the highest sustained dps but I'm in no mood to crunch numbers so I'll let that rest.

 

Another observation of mine is the potential shuffling of the opener to add the longest possible uptime of Acid Blade... Especially since we will not be able to apply it as often come tomorrow...

 

Personally rather than following the opener with a backstab, I follow it with Shiv to generate another TA and give you a better chance to land back to back lacerate when it comes time to use that ability.

 

The bigger reason IMO to use Shiv prior to backstab is you will get a few ticks of AB off on your target, then By reapplying AB and Backstabbing right after your debilitate, you've extended your available damage applied by ~1,000-1,200 due to a few extra ticks on your AB. This comes in handy when you've already blown through your opener and your sitting in a stun root or knockback waiting to get back on target and finish the job.

 

The last observation is the lag that I always seem to encounter when opening with Hidden Strike. The knock down seems to sometimes teleport your enemy to another location which (with only 1.5 seconds to get behind your target) sometimes doesn't lend itself to landing a BS successfully. By following HS/AB with Shiv, you avoid the necessity to be behind your target, thus eliminating negative effect that lag will have on your positional sensitivity.

Edited April 11, 2012 by HanfordBlows