Tank Assassins (and Shadows) are ruining PvP.

Hello, my name is Onyex. I am a Sith Assassin, here is my story...

I am fully custom geared all augmented, with a lil over 1000 expertise. 31/0/10

My Chain Shock hits for around 3200
If i have 3 stacks of HD and pop reck with my relic and adrenal my FL ticks for around 2800x4
Wither hits around 2400 with the above timers ticking down ^
Thrash 900-1200

As i pump out all this damage i am also healing what ever damage your throwing at me.
It doesn't matter what gear you are wearing or what class...i have tools to counter all that.

Now with all that said, yes i think it needs to be fixed i enjoyed deception a whole lot more but i like not dying in 5-10 seconds also.
If they fix the DR on expertise i think the whole WZ experience will be much better.

I agree with this theory...even my merc bubble is borderline OP w/ the current TTK.

People gang me for 5 seconds and somehow im still alive so they rage!!

TTK is virtually unchanged if you're in full PvP gear. Maybe it's shorter against the weaker specs that got buffed, but you always had a rather short time to live when you're fighting a top DPS.

The problem is that a lot of people are still trained from older MMORPGs where the ability to focus fire instant wins the game. In SWTOR, focus fire, especially on non-healer target, is actually very dangerous. Marauder and Assasssin greatly punish anyone trying to focus fire on them. Both of these classes should be fought 1on1, and given the prevalence of both classes, it should be easy to find a mirror match. The problem is people see an Assassin/Marauder put up crazy numbers and say 'better stop him next game', except doing so frees up all the more vulnerable DPS and results you losing the game even more badly before, and both classes can easily pick up their DPS in the garbage time where the game has been decided. Yet most people don't realize this and tries even harder at DPSing those classes first. Ultimately, as powerful as these two classes are, they're still not a higher value target than any healer, and not even higher value than say, a Powertech, simply because the PT does comparable damage but dies way faster so it's more valuable to kill the easy-to-kill guy first.

lol funny threads are funny.

The simple answer to this games problems are......nerf DPS and leave armor stats alone.
Longer/quality battles.

Assasins the class WITH vanish/sprint/pull/tech immunity/physical immunity/slow/root/pushback/disorient/stealth/x2 stun melee abilities/range abilities. If i forgot something let me know.

WHO EVER MAKE CLASS THAT CAN HAVE ALL THESE ABILITIES IN ONE IS THE WORST PVP MAKER IN WHOLE WORLD WITH HE BRAIN BEING DAMADEG TO DEATH.

LOL!

Simply amazing.

Ahh, that would be the 31-31-31 build. It's pretty hard to counter, but fortunately it's hardly ever seen in game.

We call ******** on that. My sniper does more dps then tanksins in dps gear.

There is a lot of rubbish in this thread, I'm certainly not going to address all of it.

However, as a quite experienced tank assassin here are some things to think about.

1) Why are virtually all assassins tank spec?
A: The other two specs, do in fact suck. You lose too much utility and too much defence to spec another way.
Improve the other specs, more people would choose to use them.

2) Why can assassin tanks still do damage?
A: Most don't use tank stats, they use dps stats. Tank stats are useless in pvp, cause they simply don't work
vs. the majority of damage you face. Also, their end talent (if they have it) hits multiple targets. Doesn't hit especially hard, but if your in a prolonged fight, that aoe damage stacks up in your stats. If tank stats were more viable, more tanks would actually use them. For example, my assassin is typically running around with 30% crit chance (before agent buff) and +75% crit damage.

3) What makes them tough?
A1: Assassins all get the inquisitor buff and a talent that increases their elemental/internal resistance. As it turns out, this is precisely the form of damage most players use, consequently, they are taking less damage because they always have the best defensive buff and talents for this damage type. As well as that, force shroud removes dots, which can be a significant source of damage, as well as preventing the nastiest attacks for the 5 seconds it lasts. Next, their base defence is 10%, not 5%, because they are wearing light armor.
NOTE: You can ensure your team has this buff by refreshing it on your group if you have it.

A2: Their tank "stance" has a heal proc, it's not huge, but it does help a bit - especially 1v1. The longer the fight goes, the more they will get healed by it.

A3: There is a talent called harnessed shadows (for assassins). Each time you use shock or wither, it gets a charge. For each charge, your next force lightening does +25% damage. At 3 stacks (the max) it ALSO heals you for 9% of your max health. This ability takes the assassin some time to build up, but its very strong. It's also uninterruptible (similar to ravage). Much like ravage, you wan't to stop the assassin from doing this. Let me give you an example of how I might attack someone.

Adrenal, power trinket open with shock, then wither, shadow strike (proc +100% crit on shock), recklessness (+60% crit, if its an auto crit, it just increases the damage), then force lightening. If you do not stop that force lightening, you will take a LOT of damage and I will get healed. However, if you DO stop it, you have wasted a LOT of my cool downs. A lot of classes have ways to get out of it, it's up to you to figure it out.

Now, another comment. Earlier in the thread, someone commented that a team heavy in shadow tanks gave them no trouble. I can tell you this is absolutely TRUE. Shadow tanks damage is not terrible, but is SIGNIFICANTLY less than a proper dps. They are good at defending points, but not so great at TAKING them if your paying attention. Why? It's that damage thing. They are fairly hard to kill, but have trouble killing quickly at the same time. Now, you may see assassin tanks top dps in games some times. This does not mean my damage is over powered, it means my team had no good dps on it lol. I play with the BEST players on the Swiftsure - and I do NOT like grouping with other assassins (or tanks of any kind) because you lose soo much damage.

When I'm with my regular team, I am nowhere near top damage, although I often beat all the pugs on our side... because pugs are bad. Not because I'm an Assassin