Just out of curiosity is Shadow Strike used much due to your positioning to be able to use it?

It seems difficult to be behind a target most times although I do notice in most priority lists its always mentioned, especially for Balance.

I know you get to use it with Find Weakness but is the trouble worth it, could I be hammering out something else to counteract using it?

I'am about to go from Infiltration to Balance so want to use the right priorities but Shadow Strike just seems a lot of hard work.

In PvP I don't always use it if the proc is up. Due to positioning lag a lot of times I can tell that I'm just going to waste time/DPS trying to get it to actually go off so I just double strike. Sever Force does help land it though.

Also if the proc is about to expire don't use it due to ability delay. The thing takes so long to activate you can lose the proc and there goes 50 force...

I use it all the time!

It's not too hard to get behind your enemy, because your companion (for me right now, Qyzen) basically tanks for you, so while the NPC is focused on him, I can easily get behind and use the SS multiple times.

I'll usually be in stealth (while in Shadow Technique), get behind the NPC and SS, then do a combo: Force Potency --> Project --> Force Breach. Great burst damage.

Plus a lot of the weaker mobs I can take down with just one or two SS's.

I find I'm able to use it a fair amount, though it's situational for the most part. It's great on a ball carrier seeing as they are running away towards your goal line. Another funny part are people who are wimps and run away when they start getting beat on. Force slow them (mine lasts 12 secs with 6 sec CD) and you're laughing.

If I need to get an enemy down so I can use spinning strike (nice big hitter if the enemy is under 30%) i'll pop force cloak, get an extra hit in then take them down with spinning strike and my force breach (with force potency to guarantee a crit, I'm infil spec so it crits very high)

I have no issue getting behind people, but that's just me. I always have been and probably always will be a WASD mover, and I've gotten pretty good at circling behind people. I spent a little over a year playing a Burglar in LoTRO. Burglars are the stealth/debuff class, and they get a large amount of bonus damage if they're attacking from behind. You couldn't win PvP without being able to circle behind your enemy.

If you're struggling with it, give WASD movement a try. It's really effective for circling behind your enemies. You'll have to swap up your keybinds, though. You want your most-used skills to be near the middle of your bars, so that you don't have to move the mouse much to hit them.

If you can use it, Shadow Strike does incredible damage with the proc. Using it in your rotation can raise your DPS by almost 10%, and it does a lot of armor-penetrating burst.

Ok thanks guys I'll persevere with it and try to use it more.

I just find if I try to get behind a mob, being tanked by a companion or not, the mob always seems to turn to face me when I'am close.

Is it something that is used on all Shadow specs or is it preferred to just one?

I'am going to try Balance which is a little more ranged so I wont always be in close.

Thanks again for the help :}

I have no issue getting behind people, but that's just me. I always have been and probably always will be a WASD mover, and I've gotten pretty good at circling behind people. I spent a little over a year playing a Burglar in LoTRO. Burglars are the stealth/debuff class, and they get a large amount of bonus damage if they're attacking from behind. You couldn't win PvP without being able to circle behind your enemy.

 

If you're struggling with it, give WASD movement a try. It's really effective for circling behind your enemies. You'll have to swap up your keybinds, though. You want your most-used skills to be near the middle of your bars, so that you don't have to move the mouse much to hit them.

 

 

If you can use it, Shadow Strike does incredible damage with the proc. Using it in your rotation can raise your DPS by almost 10%, and it does a lot of armor-penetrating burst.

Yep, I'm a WASD mover as well, from years of playing FPS on the PC.

I find when I'm a melee class I don't use my mouse as much as when I'm a caster. When I'm a caster I use bind keys around wasd as well as about 6 on my mouse, however whenever I play melee I find I'm using my abilities more/differently and always move my abilities to the numpad instead, using crt and alt to get the extra two bars of abilities. I will use the mouse to target an enemy in the beginning/range, however I'm able to tab target quick enough to get the enemy I want, or use target focus (whatever it's called) and dps the enemy down that way.

It's always worth sticking 1 point into Infil Tactics, as Shadow Strike is a handy bit of burst in PvP.

For me, more than 1 point is wasted, as it can only proc every 7.5 seconds, so a 10% chance is more than enough

Yep, I'm a WASD mover as well...

I'm sorry, this is something I have no idea what it means. What does WASD mean? Thanks. (Yes, I am a n00b to this community. )

I'm sorry, this is something I have no idea what it means. What does WASD mean? Thanks. (Yes, I am a n00b to this community. )

it means they use they keyboard to turn instead of using mouse to turn. dont do it. use mouse for turning, especially if you are inf spec.

it means they use they keyboard to turn instead of using mouse to turn. dont do it. use mouse for turning, especially if you are inf spec.

This is wrong.

Do both.

I tried swapping over to mouse-turning once. At first, I did horrible, but I just assumed that was because I wasn't used to it. I made myself stick with it, and kept practicing and playing. Almost a month later, I was still doing significantly worse than while moving with WASD. I swapped back, and instantly improved.

Which one is best depends entirely on you. Some people are more comfortable with WASD, and some are more comfortable mouse-turning. The only way to know which one you should use is to try both.

I can't really tell you how to set up mouse-turning. However, here's my WASD setup:

W: Forward

A: Turn Left

S: Backpedal

D: Turn Right

Q: Strafe Left

E: Strafe Right

Space: Jump

Tab: Speeder

R: Auto-Run

Shift+R: Follow

F: Next Target

G: Previous Target

C: Nearest Target

V: Stealth

Shift+V: Force Cloak

X: Meditation

Z: Force of Will

Shift+Space: Force Speed

Middle-Click (Mousewheel click): Mind Snap

The key when placing your abilities on the bars (to click with your mouse) is to keep your most used abilities near the center of the top bar. This makes them easiest to click, near the center of your screen, and close together.

This is what I use, and it works really well for me. Don't listen to the people who insist that one way or another is best. Try them all and see what works for you.

Every single bloody time that Infiltration Tatics proc is up, see to it you use Shadow Strike.

^^ This.

If Infil spec, be sure to use this as often as possible. If needed, low slash or force stun them to position yourself.

Although last time I ran some tests, it seemed as though Shadow Strike wasn't properly hitting for what it should.

I got a lot of abnormally low hits (below what the tooltip read for damage, even with the Find Weakness proc up). Looking forward to running some tests with training dummies to confirm this, but it seemed as though it was a bit buggy.

Guys. If you are going to PvP - especially as a shadow - you have have HAVE to be mouse turning.

Mobility and fluidity of movement is one of our class' primary assets, and in PvP where the battleground is CONSTANTLY moving, you need to be constantly moving/strafing too. There are no ifs or buts about it, you have to just get used to it.

THe only class where could pooosibly get away with keyboard turning is as a commando/merc, but even then it isn't advisable

I just use my arrow keys to move and I have a Naga Hex so I keybind to that for my main stuff.

Works well for me but everyone is different.

I pvp with this as well as pve and it does the job.

Guys. If you are going to PvP - especially as a shadow - you have have HAVE to be mouse turning.

 

Mobility and fluidity of movement is one of our class' primary assets, and in PvP where the battleground is CONSTANTLY moving, you need to be constantly moving/strafing too. There are no ifs or buts about it, you have to just get used to it.

 

THe only class where could pooosibly get away with keyboard turning is as a commando/merc, but even then it isn't advisable

Honestly its situational.

it means they use they keyboard to turn instead of using mouse to turn. dont do it. use mouse for turning, especially if you are inf spec.

Oh, DOH! Thanks. I use both was actually. Started doing that when playing CoH.

Guys. If you are going to PvP - especially as a shadow - you have have HAVE to be mouse turning.

 

Mobility and fluidity of movement is one of our class' primary assets, and in PvP where the battleground is CONSTANTLY moving, you need to be constantly moving/strafing too. There are no ifs or buts about it, you have to just get used to it.

 

THe only class where could pooosibly get away with keyboard turning is as a commando/merc, but even then it isn't advisable

Hmmm... Nope. Patently untrue. I play a Shadow infiltration/off tank when doing WZs (Tanking if needed for objectives and medal farming in the beginning of the WZ). I used WSAD. I'm consistently in the top 3 for both medals and Damage Done. Sometimes even near the top for protection if we don't have dedicated tanks. And most groups I'm in usually win.

So yeah. You don't have have HAVE to mouse turn.

Hmmm... Nope. Patently untrue. I play a Shadow infiltration/off tank when doing WZs (Tanking if needed for objectives and medal farming in the beginning of the WZ). I used WSAD. I'm consistently in the top 3 for both medals and Damage Done. Sometimes even near the top for protection if we don't have dedicated tanks. And most groups I'm in usually win.

 

So yeah. You don't have have HAVE to mouse turn.

Yep, same here. Can get 8-10 medals in Civl War a good amount of time as dps infil popping my taunts whenever they are up to help my team (especially my sent dps buddy I pvp with a lot) take less damage (you still get protection points/medals without guard as you're reducing the damage they take for however long the single or multi target taunts last). Hell I got the bug where your guy continues to rotate in one direction until he is killed and was able to compensate it using WASD. Ultimately it's personal preference however I find I have a lot better control over my character in combat especially using WASD over WASD + mouse or just mouse.

Guys. If you are going to PvP - especially as a shadow - you have have HAVE to be mouse turning.

 

Mobility and fluidity of movement is one of our class' primary assets, and in PvP where the battleground is CONSTANTLY moving, you need to be constantly moving/strafing too. There are no ifs or buts about it, you have to just get used to it.

 

THe only class where could pooosibly get away with keyboard turning is as a commando/merc, but even then it isn't advisable

Have you ever used WASD? The whole point of moving with your keyboard is that you can constantly move and strafe. The confusing movement patterns you can use with turn+strafe can really throw your enemy off. Q+D or A+E will almost instantly circle you behind your opponent.

You make it sound like keyboard turning prevents you from moving in combat...

Anyways, I'm not going to argue that one is objectively better than the other. For me, WASD is far better. However, I have friends that do just as well as I do using mouse-turning. It all depends on what's more comfortable for you. Every player should try both.