I'm currently 34 darkness spec here http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200rIbMkRkzZZR.1

I'm now planning going into madness tree to get chain shock and later force field, but i wanna know if there's some point i could remove and put elsewhere (blood of sith, hollow etc)

Thanks

I'm really happy with the standard (31/0/10) build (check out the Assassin's Codex in this forum). I went all the way up darkness first since the debuff from Wither is quite nice on groups of mobs while leveling. The only changes I made were Dark Embrace instead of Torment and one point of Nerve Wracking instead of Electric Execution. Both are personal preferences and those three points are not really key anyway.

For sure I'd drop Shroud of Darkness and any points in Electric Execution until you absolutely need them to get up the Darkness tree. 3% endurance is very little HP, we're talking 200 or so at your level.

31/0/10 is the way to go http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200rsrokrskbsZZf0cM.1

i have been very happy with this build for leveling, pvping, and end-game tanking. my advice is to get all those darkness abilities then go into madness for chain shock. at the very least you should get "Electrify" and "Harness Darkness" before you go for "Chain Shock". also, gear is very important not only for you but for Talos also. keep his cunning and tech power as high as you can to maximize his heals.

if you don't have talos yet find a higher level player to run you through your class quests until you find him. he is on hoth. you have to be a minimum of lvl 33 because you have to do your class quest on quesh before you get him and you can't land on quesh unless you are 33. once you get him always remember to keep guard on him all the time.

hope this helps:)

31/0/10 is the way to go http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200rsrokrskbsZZf0cM.1

 

i have been very happy with this build for leveling, pvping, and end-game tanking. my advice is to get all those darkness abilities then go into madness for chain shock. at the very least you should get "Electrify" and "Harness Darkness" before you go for "Chain Shock". also, gear is very important not only for you but for Talos also. keep his cunning and tech power as high as you can to maximize his heals.

 

if you don't have talos yet find a higher level player to run you through your class quests until you find him. he is on hoth. you have to be a minimum of lvl 33 because you have to do your class quest on quesh before you get him and you can't land on quesh unless you are 33. once you get him always remember to keep guard on him all the time.

 

hope this helps:)

Slightly gearing the ship droid is plenty to go through harder part of solo questing, and even some heroic 2 solo. He is simply annoying since he rush in for a fist fight. About that build however, I personnally prefer putting 3 points in electric execution (Dark charge discharge damage buffed by 9%) than thrashing blade and 1% of endurance.

Thrashing blade while leveling, sure, but once you get wither? I barely use it, due to force issue. Sure it procs energize, but getting 3 stack of HD ASAP seems more important unless recklessness isn't on CD. So a few thrash every minute and a half? Yeh not worth it imo.

Slightly gearing the ship droid is plenty to go through harder part of solo questing, and even some heroic 2 solo. He is simply annoying since he rush in for a fist fight. About that build however, I personnally prefer putting 3 points in electric execution (Dark charge discharge damage buffed by 9%) than thrashing blade and 1% of endurance.

 

Thrashing blade while leveling, sure, but once you get wither? I barely use it, due to force issue. Sure it procs energize, but getting 3 stack of HD ASAP seems more important unless recklessness isn't on CD. So a few thrash every minute and a half? Yeh not worth it imo.

The wording on the tooltip for Electric Induction says "Increases the damage dealt by your Lightsaber charges by 9%".

It doesn't say anything at all about Discharge.

I was under the impression that it didn't effect Discharge at all, and only effected the damage (lol?) portion when Dark Charge procs (and not the healing portion).

If that's the case, increasing the 200-300 damage of Dark Charge's proc by 9% would only be an increase of 27~ damage every 5 seconds or so.

Definitely NOT worth 3 talent points.

Can anyone clarify how this talent actually works?

May I ask which rotation to use whiles leveling up in 31-0-10?

Thanx ahead

The wording on the tooltip for Electric Induction says "Increases the damage dealt by your Lightsaber charges by 9%".

 

It doesn't say anything at all about Discharge.

 

I was under the impression that it didn't effect Discharge at all, and only effected the damage (lol?) portion when Dark Charge procs (and not the healing portion).

 

If that's the case, increasing the 200-300 damage of Dark Charge's proc by 9% would only be an increase of 27~ damage every 5 seconds or so.

 

Definitely NOT worth 3 talent points.

 

Can anyone clarify how this talent actually works?

And thats what i get for reading tooltips too fast sometimes lol. Thanks for pointing that out, I agree.

3% endurance is much better in that case, or thrash danage upgrade, but imo I'd get endurance since, as I said; thrash is a one way highway to out of force ( and that makes lacerate the racetrack to it )

And thats what i get for reading tooltips too fast sometimes lol. Thanks for pointing that out, I agree.

 

3% endurance is much better in that case, or thrash danage upgrade, but imo I'd get endurance since, as I said; thrash is a one way highway to out of force ( and that makes lacerate the racetrack to it )

That's part of why I like Dark Embrace, it essentially makes your opener free since you regain force nice and quick coming out of stealth. Then you have the force to thrash a few times for Energize procs.

I do like it that we have a good core build and then we can move a few points around to suit our playstyle.

For the guy who asked about the rotation, check out the codex thread. The rest of the thread is a bit out of date, but the stuff in the Darkness section still holds, including the priority list.

That's part of why I like Shroud of Darkness, it essentially makes your opener free since you regain force nice and quick coming out of stealth. Then you have the force to thrash a few times for Energize procs.

 

I do like it that we have a good core build and then we can move a few points around to suit our playstyle.

 

For the guy who asked about the rotation, check out the codex thread. The rest of the thread is a bit out of date, but the stuff in the Darkness section still holds, including the priority list.

I take it you mean dark embrace? Shroud of Darkness is a 3% endurance buff, and doesn't fit the description you mentionned. I suppose you go for a 31/2/8 setup?

I tought about it also, but in the end, thats 30 extra force you will get back (10 x 0,5 x6).

On so if you unleash more than 5 shock per battles, or 10 thrash, or a mix, Torment (31/0/10) is actually better for you, since the tank cannot really pull a vanish mid-fight to buff his regen.

Dark Embrace is extremely atuned to the deception burst style, so Darkness in most fight will prefer Torment.

You'll gain an advantage with Dark Embrace only with thrash encounters pretty much.

I take it you mean dark embrace? Shroud of Darkness is a 3% endurance buff, and doesn't fit the description you mentionned. I suppose you go for a 31/2/8 setup?

 

I tought about it also, but in the end, thats 30 extra force you will get back (10 x 0,5 x6).

 

On so if you unleash more than 5 shock per battles, or 10 thrash, or a mix, Torment (31/0/10) is actually better for you, since the tank cannot really pull a vanish mid-fight to buff his regen.

 

 

Dark Embrace is extremely atuned to the deception burst style, so Darkness in most fight will prefer Torment.

 

You'll gain an advantage with Dark Embrace only with thrash encounters pretty much.

Yeah I meant Dark Embrace. I'll need to count my shocks and thrashes, but I'm guessing I do do more than 5/10 average per fight. I'll probably respec. I still prefer a point in Nerve Wracking to Shroud of Darkness since it debuffs to all damage and 1% endurance increases HP by so little. That'd put me at the standard 31/0/10 with that one small change.

darkness is a great spec when you hit 50. but not the fastest leveling spec.

deception is a much much faster leveling spec and burns elites due to the the interupts. you also manage to use your resources properly.

darkness is a great spec when you hit 50. but not the fastest leveling spec.

 

deception is a much much faster leveling spec and burns elites due to the the interupts. you also manage to use your resources properly.

Deception pretty muh require you to use khem, which invalidate your statement.

Why? Because Darkness use Ashara or Andronikos, giving a team wide DPS around same values. Their DPS is below Deception sin one by a fair margin, but Darkness sin is way above khem also.

Makes for some very fine elite burning. Also, Darkness have the same number of interrupts, since you can use Spike out of stealth, giving you an effective in-combat KD.

First time assassin here, I have been juggling around with the trees, only at level 31 at the moment. For some reason I have found playing madness spec but in dark charge works best for me. Madness in lightning charge seems too squishy with a lot of down time between PVE mob groups. I don't spec the lightning charge specific talents but have nothing in the darkness tree at all. I set Khem on the dps stance and whack away. The self heals of dark charge plus the DPS boosts from madness plus death field makes for an awesome steamroller through PVE soloing. I have even tanked with it in PVE and it does ok.

Am I seeing this right or am I playing madness wrong so that in lightning charge that I have downtime between fights?

First time assassin here, I have been juggling around with the trees, only at level 31 at the moment. For some reason I have found playing madness spec but in dark charge works best for me. Madness in lightning charge seems too squishy with a lot of down time between PVE mob groups. I don't spec the lightning charge specific talents but have nothing in the darkness tree at all. I set Khem on the dps stance and whack away. The self heals of dark charge plus the DPS boosts from madness plus death field makes for an awesome steamroller through PVE soloing. I have even tanked with it in PVE and it does ok.

 

Am I seeing this right or am I playing madness wrong so that in lightning charge that I have downtime between fights?

Well, one of the best talents in Madness is Raze, which lets you cast Crushing Darkness instantly and finishes the cooldown on it.

It requires that you be using Lightning Charge so you can use the Discharge DoT to proc Raze.

I'd play in Lightning Charge for that alone, as Madness.

I go for the armour one as it ignores 15%.

As for the rotation (someone from the previous page asking).

If I'm soloing, and don't need to pull hard threat (ie. mind control and mass mind control), I'll just go right to using:

Wither, saber strike, shock, thrash (hopefully getting Energize right off the bat), then shock again, then recklessness, then force lightning, saber strike then thrash then shock.

Something like that anyway. Discharge is good if there is a number of enemies but it doesn't deal that much damage so wither is good just the same. Also if you have force shroud on a 45 second cool down, don't be afraid to use it often. Tank fights can be long so using it to save some damage is fine. Even popping your trinket shield or w/e it is you have is good too especially since it's on a 2 minute cooldown only. Also don't be afraid to use your overcharge saber early too.

Also, don't be using force lightning unless if you have 3 stacks of harnessed darkness, not only because this ensures some healing, but because 3 stacks is 3500 damage.

First time assassin here, I have been juggling around with the trees, only at level 31 at the moment. For some reason I have found playing madness spec but in dark charge works best for me. Madness in lightning charge seems too squishy with a lot of down time between PVE mob groups. I don't spec the lightning charge specific talents but have nothing in the darkness tree at all. I set Khem on the dps stance and whack away. The self heals of dark charge plus the DPS boosts from madness plus death field makes for an awesome steamroller through PVE soloing. I have even tanked with it in PVE and it does ok.

 

Am I seeing this right or am I playing madness wrong so that in lightning charge that I have downtime between fights?

You are not wrong.

Raze is fantastic but not needed when leveling that much. Once you hit the cap yu will want it but for now you can steamroll ... as you have already found out ... doing exactly what you are doing now.

First time assassin here, I have been juggling around with the trees, only at level 31 at the moment. For some reason I have found playing madness spec but in dark charge works best for me. Madness in lightning charge seems too squishy with a lot of down time between PVE mob groups. I don't spec the lightning charge specific talents but have nothing in the darkness tree at all. I set Khem on the dps stance and whack away. The self heals of dark charge plus the DPS boosts from madness plus death field makes for an awesome steamroller through PVE soloing. I have even tanked with it in PVE and it does ok.

 

Am I seeing this right or am I playing madness wrong so that in lightning charge that I have downtime between fights?

Madness is built around Lightning charge, and its your only DoT source other than Crushing Darkness to pop Raze or consume a Deathmark.

Not using it will severly harm the tree effectiveness

I go for the armour one as it ignores 15%.

 

As for the rotation (someone from the previous page asking).

 

If I'm soloing, and don't need to pull hard threat (ie. mind control and mass mind control), I'll just go right to using:

 

Wither, saber strike, shock, thrash (hopefully getting Energize right off the bat), then shock again, then recklessness, then force lightning, saber strike then thrash then shock.

 

Something like that anyway. Discharge is good if there is a number of enemies but it doesn't deal that much damage so wither is good just the same. Also if you have force shroud on a 45 second cool down, don't be afraid to use it often. Tank fights can be long so using it to save some damage is fine. Even popping your trinket shield or w/e it is you have is good too especially since it's on a 2 minute cooldown only. Also don't be afraid to use your overcharge saber early too.

 

Also, don't be using force lightning unless if you have 3 stacks of harnessed darkness, not only because this ensures some healing, but because 3 stacks is 3500 damage.

Your recklessness is badly situated. Always throw it on when at 2 stack of HD you get Energize to proc.

The. Recklessness ->shock (crit damage boost)->FL.

Also in many solo thrash fight, feel free to throw FL at 1-2 stack, it doesnt matter much. With Ashara, if there isn't a strong there, they die after 1-2 tick to the combined DPS.

Also on longer fight don't use thrash that much, since you'll have force issue and you'll delay the 3 HD stack.

Only thrash to proc energize if you got Recklessness off CD.

Discharge should be on CD at anytime, since its nice cheap AoE damage. Also keep force shroud to dispel DoT that could get annoying in some fights, or resist a powerful force or tech attack.

It's just that sometimes shock consumes both charges of recklessness.

Is this with chain shock? If so I'd say its a bug, or make that 2nd shock build HD as well if they want to consider it a shock of its own.

Never happened to me, but since my sin is 45, I've yet to get chain shock (31/0/5 right now)