I enjoy pvp a lot, but I also realize that I am not all that good at it, so I decided to come here for help.

I play a darkness assassin, and have gotten my obroan gear (stalker, with a few force-master for the power. Have the 4-set stalker bonus). I am working on my brutalizer gear (augmenting as I get them) but it is going to take forever. I sat in a solo ranked queue for three hours the other day with no pops. Instead I have just been converting regular comms. Is there a server where solo ranked pops often?

Anyways, I need help. My assassin seems to do pretty well at guarding nodes, I am able to delay opponents until help can arrive, and I am good at being a pest and delaying the enemy from capping or placing bombs. Other than that, it feels like my character doesnt do anything particularly well. There are few people that I can go toe to toe with. I don't tank particularly well, at least compared to other tanks. I pop adrenals and medpacs like they were jellybeans. My damage feels lower than most assassins and some tanks lol. All in all, I feel quite mediocre.

How can I tweak this character (and myself) to be less of a burden on my teams? Especially in arenas?

Do you have keybinds for all your abilities that you use in PvP? Do you turn with with your mouse? Do you keep backpedaling (moving backwards, which is slower than strafing or moving forward) to a minimum or not backpedal at all? Have you studied your skill tree and do you know your rotation?

Assassin tanks have the best dps of all three tanks in the game and are also strong 1on1. Do you focus on pulling ballcarriers to the fire in Huttballs (especially the old Huttball, where it is easier), picking up the ball , carrying it and going to the line for passes, while taking advantage of your phasewalk in positioning and resetting the ball if needed? This is your main job in Huttball and makes darkness assassin the most fun class/spec to play in Huttball (mainly the old Huttball). In other warzones, it is sometimes best that you do not guard nods, mainly if your team has dps stealthers and doesn't have another tank. When tanking, you should obviously focus on switching guard to however is taking most damage, of course guard healers over dps if they are taking damage. Use taunts on cooldown and try to figure out the biggest dps of the other team so you can taunt them.

1. Stop playing Darkness and switch to madness instead.

2. Make sure to min/max. (Stack power/surge with 1 piece of crit)

3. Key bind and unbind A/S/D. (Dont keyboard turn / backpedal)

4. Get modable (Orange) gear that you like and augment it. Then fill it up with PvP mods/armorings/enhancements.

5. Make sure to have the power and mainstat boost relics.

6. Key bind

7. Practice a rotation on warzone dummies while waiting for a queue.

Honestly, if you have all of these, it's just a matter of time until you really get use to the class. It takes time to get good at this game but if you do all the correct steps/techniques it won't take long.

How many keybinds do I need to set up? I have about 2 quickbars worth of things that I use semi-regularly. If I just bind the 5 or so that I use the most, that is manageable. Between defensive cooldowns, guards, and taunts, the last time I tried mouse-turn with keybinds I failed hard.

I mostly strafe and move forward, though I very occasionally still backpedal.

I do reasonably well in huttball. I often set up and score lots of goals. I use the hell out of my pulling ability in just about every game mode, but especially in huttball. My dps is much higher in things like voidstar where I can spam my AOE on several enemies for long periods, obviously.

I had heard that I wanted to get my crit to the 25% range, and then stack power. I assume that I heard wrong. Getting the proper gear has been a huge challenge for me because there seems to be a lot of conflicting info our there. Is madness really a better spec to go with than darkness? I did deception when I started, and honestly switched to darkness so I could hang around longer before dying. Mind you this was back before I had any gear to speak of.

I am currently working on getting Biochem to 450 in order to use the reusable resolve stims.

How many keybinds do I need to set up? I have about 2 quickbars worth of things that I use semi-regularly. If I just bind the 5 or so that I use the most, that is manageable. Between defensive cooldowns, guards, and taunts, the last time I tried mouse-turn with keybinds I failed hard.

 

I mostly strafe and move forward, though I very occasionally still backpedal.

 

I do reasonably well in huttball. I often set up and score lots of goals. I use the hell out of my pulling ability in just about every game mode, but especially in huttball. My dps is much higher in things like voidstar where I can spam my AOE on several enemies for long periods, obviously.

 

I had heard that I wanted to get my crit to the 25% range, and then stack power. I assume that I heard wrong. Getting the proper gear has been a huge challenge for me because there seems to be a lot of conflicting info our there. Is madness really a better spec to go with than darkness? I did deception when I started, and honestly switched to darkness so I could hang around longer before dying. Mind you this was back before I had any gear to speak of.

 

I am currently working on getting Biochem to 450 in order to use the reusable resolve stims.

You want to key bind every single ability that you use in combat situations. It will take time to develop the muscle memory (more than 1 week possibly) but the effort is worth it.

The reason stacking crit to 25% isn't viable anymore is because of the huge diminishing returns that are associated with it (blame 2.0 I think) and you really only need 1 piece of armor with full crit.

Darkness is the tank spec, so don't expect to get high dps. If you want to tank, then I really would reroll a jugg.

If you want to dps, then switch over to madness and make sure to have Willpower Augments on all your modable gear. I will tell you that the best way to min/max for an Assassin is having 1 piece with crit rating/surge and the rest with power/surge. And of course Willpower Augments on all your pieces (this is important).

But honestly, make sure to key bind all abilities you use in combat (will take time to master) and make sure to turn your character with the mouse. Right-Click and move the mouse to turn the character. I also would ONLY use Q,W,E as movement keys. Every other key can be used for key binding. And for key binding, make sure to utilize the Shift key for extra easy keybinds. (You don't want a keybind that is far away from your hand, like P or something).

I know this is a long reply and I hope it helps. I am glad you are willing to improve and even ask for tips. It pains me to see players do bad and not even be willing to improve. (Glad you aren't one of them)

So I want to stack willpower with my augments, and not straight power?

Also, if I use orange gear and rip the components out of my pvp gear to put them in, do I just miss out on the set bonuses

Either way for augments. Assassin does not have primary stat boosting talents so power is actually a slightly better stat. If assassins got even a 6% to mainstat, as sorcs do, it would be straight out no choice, go for willpower. As it is right now, it's your choice -- power augments will actually give you a bit more overall if you're a hardcore min/maxer, but willpower ones will give you a very slight boost in crit rating for a loss in damage.

Personally, on my new Shadow I'm leveling on Harbinger I plan on going all willpower, on Pot5 my Assassin is straight power augs. I don't expect to see much of a difference.

Darkness is for pros...The skill trees for assassin right to left = Madness (Easy), Deception (Medium), Darkness (Hard). If you don't know what you're doing (and most of you don't), stick to Madness until you're good enough to handle deception and deception until you do your homework on Darkness.

I do agree that Madness is the easiest spec. But just because something is the easiest doesn't mean it's the worst. Honestly, Madness is the best dps spec for assassin atm.

So I want to stack willpower with my augments, and not straight power?

 

Also, if I use orange gear and rip the components out of my pvp gear to put them in, do I just miss out on the set bonuses

You will see a minuscule difference between the Willpower and Power augments. I really think it's personal preference. But if you do use orange gear and put pvp components in them, you DO get the set bonus. So it's the best option to have augments right away.

OP, you want END/power augments for your Darkness gear, and mostly willpower augments for dps specs.

As it was said, because mainstat add some crit too over pure power, but also because we have low baseline melee crit rate and no autocrit (unlike maras). So you don't want recklessness to fail (especially as deception) !

If you want to dps, then switch over to madness and make sure to have Willpower Augments on all your modable gear. I will tell you that the best way to min/max for an Assassin is having 1 piece with crit rating/surge and the rest with power/surge. And of course Willpower Augments on all your pieces (this is important).

Pretty sure Madness wants ~30% Crit rating, given how a lot of their selfhealing and procs for assassinate rely on critical hits.

Darkness is for pros...The skill trees for assassin right to left = Madness (Easy), Deception (Medium), Darkness (Hard). If you don't know what you're doing (and most of you don't), stick to Madness until you're good enough to handle deception and deception until you do your homework on Darkness.

This guy knows nothing Oh wait he is my pvp partner never mind And he runs tank in stalker gear it's all in how you play huh dresden

I do agree that Madness is the easiest spec. But just because something is the easiest doesn't mean it's the worst. Honestly, Madness is the best dps spec for assassin atm.

Not really when i 3 shot madness sin while there cced because there squishy as heck. Madness may put numbers up, but i will out survive your madness dps as a burst class. Don't get me wrong they put up great numbers but when a burst class get a hold of madness sin they can be shut down and kill any day one vs one. This is because madness lacks survivability and kiting that sorc have as a dot spec.

I suggest using this spec if you want to be a tank with high damage. 2 points leftover for your preference. (obviously using dark charge and a shield)

i like tanking implants and earpiece, dps everything else. but that's just my personal preference. use high willpower/low endurance augments. this spec offers a lot of control (pull and low slash) and pretty decent windows of burst damage (maul proc, free shock, extra crit damage etc) for a tanking role. you also dont have to worry about being force depleted thanks to the 30% force regen talent in the tank tree. also, Aldo is very right. Key-binding everything you use is going to help improve your performance 10x, even in PvE. What helped me make the transition from a full blown keyturner and clicker to binding literally everything, was starting off with just 3 or 4 keys and working my way towards more once i had those down. keep progressing to more and more binds and you'll get there eventually. i hope this helped

EDIT:

Darkness Assassin is not a spec that will get you any glory. It is all about utility, you keep healers and DPS alive. Start caring about how much guard you get per round, not how much damage. I also at times check to see how much damage I take in general, these are the things that count. Damage has its place, but it is not a primary concern for a Darkness Assassin. Get grenades and learn how to stun, root, and slow. Taunting isn't enough, you need to figure out when to lock a DPS down. 1 second is the difference between a healer dying or not, so stun wisely.

Get up to 20% Defense/32% Shield/32% Absorb then start worrying about stacking endurance. If you don't stack defense you will get slaughtered by anyone that is melee or ranged damage heavy, shield and absorb work with tech and force damage. Because assassins have less armor, you need the defense.

Keep harnessed darkness up at all times. Lightning Strike, wither, whatever the saber strike technique is until you get your lightning strike to cast again, pop your reckless charge, lightning strike, and then force lightning. That is your rotation. During this time keep your shield ward up and manage your taunts.

Now is also a good time to get your Darkness Assassin geared and get used to the mechanics, because Bioware will probably have a huge nerffest because of all the crying, and no one wants to get nerfed, so start with the lesser spec and when you get bolstered it will be that much better.

I do agree that Madness is the easiest spec. But just because something is the easiest doesn't mean it's the worst. Honestly, Madness is the best dps spec for assassin atm.

Well yes, it is virtually automatic heavy damage that I don't have to put forth any real effort to produce, that much was obvious only a minute into trying it. I feel if I'm really any good, so to speak, as a player... I'm not going to try to prove it in the madness tree. I apologize, but I have to call this as it pretty much seems it is - Any spec, healing or damage alike, that is based on Damage or Healing over time effects gives me an extreme amount of output for such a minimal level of input, it is absurd. I believe it is trash, that something so easy to play bumps players who show more skill down in their ranks. And I think it is pretty piss-poor character to bark about my numbers, when I know the nectar wasn't worth the squeeze. Cheers

Not really when i 3 shot madness sin while there cced because there squishy as heck. Madness may put numbers up, but i will out survive your madness dps as a burst class. Don't get me wrong they put up great numbers but when a burst class get a hold of madness sin they can be shut down and kill any day one vs one. This is because madness lacks survivability and kiting that sorc have as a dot spec.

I know that sorc madness is better than assassin madness. But it's not like madness doesn't have that many DCDs...

Well yes, it is virtually automatic heavy damage that I don't have to put forth any real effort to produce, that much was obvious only a minute into trying it. I feel if I'm really any good, so to speak, as a player... I'm not going to try to prove it in the madness tree. I apologize, but I have to call this as it pretty much seems it is - Any spec, healing or damage alike, that is based on Damage or Healing over time effects gives me an extreme amount of output for such a minimal level of input, it is absurd. I believe it is trash, that something so easy to play bumps players who show more skill down in their ranks. And I think it is pretty piss-poor character to bark about my numbers, when I know the nectar wasn't worth the squeeze. Cheers

I agree that DoT specs will almost always put out the top numbers. Since their DoTs can just be spammed on everyone near them. But one thing I like about assassin madness is the limited ability to have burst (Maul / execution).

But it's not like that if Billy Bad was a madness sin (or another DoT class) that he/she will automatically do over 1k dps. DoT class makes it easier for people to shine on the scoreboard but isn't an automatic top dps class. A madness assassin will put up decent numbers for a bad player but a good player will really make it shine (1.8k dps+).

*I hope everyone knows the DIFFERENCE between DPS and Total Damage.

1. Stop playing Darkness and switch to madness instead.

2. Make sure to min/max. (Stack power/surge with 1 piece of crit)

3. Key bind and unbind A/S/D. (Dont keyboard turn / backpedal)

4. Get modable (Orange) gear that you like and augment it. Then fill it up with PvP mods/armorings/enhancements.

5. Make sure to have the power and mainstat boost relics.

6. Key bind

7. Practice a rotation on warzone dummies while waiting for a queue.

 

Honestly, if you have all of these, it's just a matter of time until you really get use to the class. It takes time to get good at this game but if you do all the correct steps/techniques it won't take long.

Totally Agree, follow those tips of this wise guy.. don't loose your time forcing a bad set spec tree (3y of sin experience)

Totally Agree, follow those tips of this wise guy.. don't loose your time forcing a bad set spec tree (3y of sin experience)

Yep...Darkness spec got screwed in pvp by the theorycrafters.