I was playing my Shadow last night and the pace of combat in my rotation felt much slower due to Project's "flight" time in comparison to my Assassin's Shock ability.

 

I am curious if the SI mirror ability allows the player to attack sooner with melee abilities due to the "instant" cast design of Shock. Unfortunately, I am not at my computer and cannot test this assumption.

 

Any observations that can be shared?

Edited December 28, 2011 by G-Seven

some say it is no big deal. but i had plenty of situations where i died with my project killing my target the second after. if it was instant, i would kill my opponent and live, so you both die^^

I wondered about this as well...

I would imagine it's the same gcd it leaves...would be a kinda silly oversight if not..

but would be nice if someone could confirm

Its easily fixable, just give the SI an pull back animation with his hand before casting, problem solved.

I am on my Shadow now and the GCD finishes just as the projectile hits the target.

Oh look its this thread again.

Oh look its this thread again.

 

Yes...not sure how this was addressed before I started playing, but simple fact its ANNOYING as hell. I perfer my assassin to my shadow for the shear fact I dont have deal with what at times seems like a 3sec delay for project to hit

Oh look its this thread again.

 

Hey Acidtadpole, you did a great job on fixing the forum search feature!

 

Oh wait.

We ought to consider how the flight time is balanced. Is it possible that project does slightly more damage than the lightning because of the added flight time? I know that this came up in beta and a developer responded that they were aware and were looking into it.

I am on my Shadow now and the GCD finishes just as the projectile hits the target.

 

So, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't tried a SI.

 

If the flight time for project is the same as the GCD and I'm pretty sure I remember moving after launch it on my Shadow. Then the fact that lightning on a SI is instant, doesn't really mean anything, because they can't activate another power until the GCD is done anyway.

While it's true that Project deals its damage after Shock would, Shock is still gated by GCD, so it's the same damage over time. The only real issue is, as someone mentioned, dying before Project kills your target--a Sorcerer would land the first hit.

 

The solution seems as simple as putting a delay on the Sorc animation as suggested above, or a visual impact event on the target after lightning has already hit them. A good example of the latter in action is Grav Round--you can see a target get hit by the beam the Trooper fires, but the actually damage comes a bit later when a big energy vortex poofs into being on the target. Sorcs could fire their lightning, but no damage could be done to the target until it coruscates over them once in a big pulse, for instance.

I actually like it the way it is. When switching to a healer instead of taking 4k then 1.5 sec later another 3k from breech it is an instant 7k giving them less time to react. The negative is that it's less than useful on a door almost being capped.

While I agree that the "surprise" damage from a delayed project has landed me a few fun gibs even after death the importance of the instant damage far outweighs it. Want it fixed either way but I'm not going to hold my breath, probably won't even be in 5.0.1 patch if the speed they're fixing things atm is anything to go by.

Unfortunately, I did not test the SI mirror class in beta or I would have argued for this change. I have no problem with different animations, icons and spell names but there should be no difference in the spell mechanics (i.e., instant vs delayed).

So, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't tried a SI.

 

If the flight time for project is the same as the GCD and I'm pretty sure I remember moving after launch it on my Shadow. Then the fact that lightning on a SI is instant, doesn't really mean anything, because they can't activate another power until the GCD is done anyway.

 

Where the issue lays, if there is one, is:

 

Imagine there's a Sith Assassin against a Jedi Shadow; both targets are on 5% and both targets hit their Project/Shock at the exact same time. The Shadow would die first and potentially the Assassin may survive, but it should die a second or so after the Shadow because of the Project flight time.

 

That's what I think people are saying anyway.

Sorcerers > Sages

Assassins > Shadows

 

Why? The .7 difference in time for the damage to occur. In that .7 window, many, many things can happen: a heal could land, an item used, a global cooldown refreshes, damage or defensive cooldowns could refresh or proc, a turret could be captured, Hutt ball point could score, etc etc etc.

 

In Pve...it could be the difference between that Rancor biting your leg off or instantly dying.

 

Yea, it's an unfair upset worthy of being upset about.

I found an odd issue with this the other day. I was in Voidstar and spotted a stealthed Assassin. I hit project to knock him out of stealth but by the time the animation had finished, he had disappeared again. The projectile that I had attempted to launch just kind of hovered in mid air and I did not break him from stealth. If I had been playing a Sorc, the instant cast Shock would have likely broken him from stealth.

This mirror has a crack in it, I hope BioWare is ready for 7-years of bad luck!

yes this is really frustrating, i heard in an interview with devs that said they wont care about the project delay unless enough people complain about it, its not high on their priority list, this kind of imbalance and lack of attention to things that actrually matters the most makes me wanna quit the game ;(

This should be fixed, I agree. And its very easy, just put a small cast delay on the sith lightning.

Or just make Project much faster? ;o I've both a Assassin and a Consular alt and after playing the Assassin it's immediately annoying with the delay on Project's hitting the target / damage.

Project is a very effing annoying skill. I'm tired of getting killed before it actually goes off in PVP. The difference is that it gives the assassin that little bit more burst to knock your health far enough down to matter, and I think it's BS. If these classes are truly mirrored, then they need to fix this ASAP.

 

After reaching level 50 (Consular Shadow), playing through 50 valor levels of PVP, and experiencing numerous encounters with Sith Assassins, this **** needs to be fixed.

i remember a video from James ohlen (i think it was him) mentioning that they were aware of the balance issue between project and shock and are going to work to fix it

 

the hit time damage difference he mentioned was shock was a .1 second damage time, while project was a .8

 

I play an assassin as my main and i'd be fine with actually just making them have to "gather force" for a split second before casting the shock, and change the damage timing to be .8 just like project

Edited January 7, 2012 by DarthVenizen

Or just make Project much faster? ;o I've both a Assassin and a Consular alt and after playing the Assassin it's immediately annoying with the delay on Project's hitting the target / damage.

 

how would you make it faster without making it look stupid? you're ripping a rock from the ground

 

they always could just replace it with "electric judgement" which is basically lightside lightning

I found an odd issue with this the other day. I was in Voidstar and spotted a stealthed Assassin. I hit project to knock him out of stealth but by the time the animation had finished, he had disappeared again. The projectile that I had attempted to launch just kind of hovered in mid air and I did not break him from stealth. If I had been playing a Sorc, the instant cast Shock would have likely broken him from stealth.

 

weird usually the rock will still follow me and hit me and unstealth me