I was originally going to title this as another indecisive "Sorc or Sin" thread, but the more I thought about what I was going to write the less appropriate that seemed. I put advice in parenthesis because I wanted to clarify I am asking for feedback and not just whining.

 

Back when the game was young one of the first classes that really caught my eye was the assassin. Double-bladed lightsabers, stealth, and the ability to tank on a sneaky class, which was a weird concept to me. was intriguing. I made one and leveled one to 40 and then...stopped. I don't remember why, but I just did.

 

Flash forward to now. I've tried to play the class again a few times and can never even get to 20, and no I no longer have my original level 40 assassin. This class is without a doubt one of the most boring classes I've ever played in my decade of playing MMOs, at least early on and I realize it's because this class is just horribly designed. It really only comes down to one singular design fault: Never, ever, EVER tie the basic usage of an ability to a talent. EVER!

 

Assassin is the only class in the game to my immediate knowledge that, upon hitting 10, gets a shiny new ability that it CAN'T USE, or at least not efficiently enough to warrant it's use without the help of talents But it's not just that ability. There are numerous abilities that are culled from regular usage unless specific talents are taken. Lets list them off:

 

Maul: As already stated above, unless you have duplicity or that talent (very high up) in the tanking tree have fun blowing half your resources on this puppy. The early talents in deception that increase force regen can make this somewhat affordable immediately after you break stealth, but if you don't want to spec deception right out the gate your nifty new attack is going to be collecting some dust on your hotbar.

 

Shock: Once again an ability that's just too friggin expensive to use without talents to reduce it's cost or up it's effectiveness making it worthy to even press in the first place.

 

Force Lightning: More like "limited" power. Have harnessed darkness? Blast away! Otherwise might as well not even place this on your hotbars, except for maybe that one time a few blue moons ago when you needed a 30m ranged attack. Oh wait nobody uses recklessness on FL because there's so much better things to use it on in the other specs.

 

Crushing Darkness: This post is getting longer than intended so I'll just say madness or get out here.

 

So please tell me, am I wrong on any of my assessments? Once you get some of the talents and the synergies rolling this is a pretty fun and interesting class but getting to that point is like rubbing powdered glass into your eyeballs. The last time I tried to level a sin I got halfway through Dromund Kaas and couldn't push through anymore because 80% or more of my attack usage was just thrash. I ended up using maul and shock when I probably shouldn't have just so I wouldn't fall asleep. Meanwhile on my *EVER OTHER CLASS IN THE GAME* by 15 I have so many tools and abilities I can use REGULARLY whereas with assassin half your abilities are gutted because of dependencies on talents.

 

Hell even madness at 55 looks boring. You never use force lightning. You never use maul. You never use shock. All they get that's unique is crushing darkness. Wheeeeeee.....

 

Now you might notice I said "inquisitor" in the title and not just assassin. Sorcs I actually find extremely fun. Problem is they never use their lightsaber. Won't really get into that since that's a discussion that's been beaten to death, resurrected, fed brussel sprouts, and beaten to death again, but suffice to say that one aspect kills that class for me unfortunately.

 

I do really want to finish the inquisitor storyline though. Please help me find a way to see past all this. I love the concept of the assassin, but I HATE the poor mechanic design of the class (imho). Thanks for reading this long post. Bah humbug or whatever.

growing up in tanking tree you won't have force issues anymore. tanking you can stun and go behind the target for a couple of mauls, you can lower the cost of shock from madness i think and wheter and discharce are your best threat builderswhich don't cost so much.. single target it's just overcharge, shock, thrash till proc, shock and force lightning at 3 stacks, go for assassinate or maul when available. for multitarget aggro it's most of the times enough spamming wheter and discharge on CD, with a couple of lacerate if needed.

 

and most of the classes have resource managment issues at low levels..

Edited June 13, 2014 by JouerTue

and most of the classes have resource managment issues at low levels..

 

Resource management isn't my issue. My issue is the fact that abilities are deemed too inefficient to even be used unless you take certain talents.

 

Maul - if you don't have duplicity (deception) or conspirator's cloak (darkness) you'll never use this ability.

 

Shock - if you don't have induction (deception) or energize (darkness) you'll never use this ability.

 

Crushing Darkness - if you don't have raze (madness) you'll never use this ability.

 

Force Lightning - if you don't have harnessed darkness (darkness) you'll barely use this ability outside the extremely rare instances of needing a 30m range attack.

 

The caveat here is that this means before you have access to these talents, you also won't really be using these abilities. That's what really kills it for me..

 

Edit: Unless my mistake is taking to heart proper endgame rotations and rules while leveling on mobs that tend to die relatively quickly and don't really require much in the form of sustained damage or longevity. E.g. yeah using maul outside of talent procs is inefficient but since it'll probably die in 3 GCDs or so it doesn't really matter. Maybe that's been my problem?

Edited June 13, 2014 by Kurugi

I believe you've answered your own boggle. As quickly as leveling goes, most of your concerns are a non-issue. Have fun, and stop over thinking; it's called a game for a reason

I believe you've answered your own boggle. As quickly as leveling goes, most of your concerns are a non-issue. Have fun, and stop over thinking; it's called a game for a reason

 

Heh, I suppose so. Not much over thinking to be done though. Perhaps it's unwise and/or unnecessary to apply end game focused guides on how to play a spec to the leveling process.

 

One thing I do want to ask though is with the madness buffs in 2.8 is it still better to level as deception? Most of the changes to madness don't seem to come into effect till the upper parts of the madness tree, but early on madness seems kind of unremarkable outside of death field.

 

Thanks for your reply

Heh, I suppose so. Not much over thinking to be done though. Perhaps it's unwise and/or unnecessary to apply end game focused guides on how to play a spec to the leveling process.

 

One thing I do want to ask though is with the madness buffs in 2.8 is it still better to level as deception? Most of the changes to madness don't seem to come into effect till the upper parts of the madness tree, but early on madness seems kind of unremarkable outside of death field.

 

Thanks for your reply

 

Well the only changes madness got that aren't level 40+ is insta-whirlwind and more burst on crushing darkness.

 

Also you forgot about discharge as the level 10-ish ability! (but then again it effectively has a 12+ second cooldown depending on spec...)

Well the only changes madness got that aren't level 40+ is insta-whirlwind and more burst on crushing darkness.

 

Also you forgot about discharge as the level 10-ish ability! (but then again it effectively has a 12+ second cooldown depending on spec...)

 

Wrath procs every time. It is a big change.

This is what happens when a class is designed top down by committee.

 

Sin tanking isn't more skill based than other tanks require anymore. We just have to maintain stacks religiously and always keep our shield buff going to function as well as those that simply don't have to do that.

 

In the name of class balance, sin dps has been turned into something supremely generic.

 

They're far more concerned about designing things they can for into their predictive metrics than that it should be interesting in any way.

 

Shame on you, op. You thought they were designing classes for us.

 

They design only for themselves, and only towards goals that make it easier, or at least do not make it more difficult, for them to predict what you can do with it at all times.

 

And if it feels like half a class that doesn't seem to fit in its own skin before max level, they'll not have much cause to care. After all, avoiding to verifiable data, you're likely to spend the majority of your characters time at max level. The time it takes to level is relatively short compared to how long you'll probably be at max, so it's practically marginal as a concern.

 

(But the leveling experience is important. It should feel good to play at all levels)

 

Yes yes, when possible. It's a marginal issue. We don't need to prioritize it. Besides, we can always count ona majority that are too simple to notice anyway and just want to look cool with a staffsaber and the ability to be sneak sneak stab stab anyway. Most are idiots that can't even be counted on to protest our truly horrible casino game event - all we have to do is put a carrot on a stick and many will chase it without a thought troubling their empty little minds.