Unless you're stuck with defense duty, you really should be using phase walk as close to every 45 seconds as possible. On a map like Hypergates, you should always have a beacon planted near the WZ powerup just so that you can make a run for it when you're about to die whenever you go into the middle room, as dying in that map actually does hurt your team. Edited May 3, 2013 by Astarica

Since a deception assassin is my main char since game launch , i have to say that IMHO , this skill is too clunky and situational for any good use , yes , as pointed out for pvp it may be a good escape tool , but we already have great escape tools , like force shorud , force cloack , and all that good stuff , also , getting to a point asap can be dont with Force Speed , which may not be instant as a teleport , but it is on 20 seconds CD ( 15 for deception ) , so , at this particular time , as far as i can tell, this skill should have belonged to a sorcerer , an ability to avoid melee dps.

In pvp , as a DPS sin , you may see some use from this skill , but it has a cast timer ( really ?! i mean really ?! on a melee class , a cast ability ) , the effect is too short and it is again restricted to some very situational uses , we can;t use it to give us an advantage in capping a node against any person with half a brain , and again we got force speed to get us where we want fast enough , hell in 2.0 every sin spec can get it down to 15 seconds.

As for pve.... , same deal , the skill is just fluff , something that the devs decided to just shove down the sins throat so they would keep quiet and not yell that they didn't get anything , i mean again , the only benefit , real and consitant benefit is from the tanking tree , for the healing buff .

At the moment this skill , at least for me , no matter how much i try , i can't find a use for it that can compare to the tools that we have at our disposal already , that do the escape job , and closing the distance and all that stuff , as i said before , cast timer , having a 2 minute timer ( very short ) , with a 45 seconds CD , as it stands right now , it is just a fluff skill , we got more effient tools to do our job as dps and tanks , that perform much better and are more reliable.

Someone said that it is better than mara's stealth ability , i beg to differ , 4-5 seconds of complete invisibility , that give 30% movement increase and 30% dmg reduction doesnt compare to a backwards teleport.

Maybe in a future patch , the cast time could be removed , also , duration increased , and for dps , the ability to put us back in stealth ( basically completely drop us out of combat ) , or give us a HOT when we teleport back to the point or remove all negative effects from us , something , anything like that , would make it more desirable.

Usefulness aside (i think it is really limited), I'm suprised nobody brought the point that "teleporting with the Force" is very odd.

I mean, Jedi/Sith can use the Force to do big jumps, run fast... but "teleporting" ? Every time I think about it, I'm like "really ?"

Just for this sole reason, I'd wish that we didn't get Phase Walk. I'd even prefer a 45s CD 10m leap without damage.

 

Like other said too, it is very lackluster in comparison of what other AC can get :

- add mobility to a melee AC that lack in mobility (scamper to Scoundrel) => "that's awesome !"

- add kitting ability to an AC who have few (Electronet to Commando) = "that's reelly good !"

- add sturdiness to an AC who is in the middle of the fire (saber reflect to Guardian) => "that's good."

- add mobility to a mobile AC (Phase Walk to Assassins) => "yeah, and what else I get ?"

 

If I'd were to compare the feeling of receiving the new ability when comparing to the other ACs, I'd say it feels like a kid who recieve some clothes at christmas while the sis and bros receive toys (not perfect ones in some cases, Powertech's ability for exemple is more like a good looking toy but which lacks batteries).

If I'd were to choose the worse of the 8 ones (mixing usefulness and look as criterias), my vote goes to Phase Walk.

Comparing to what other classes get this expansion only make sense if you believe the classes are EXACTLY balanced prior to this point. It's pretty safe to say this is not the case.

 

Assassins didn't get anything super interesting because they're already an extremely well-rounded class. Not counting the unintentional side effects of Scamper, I'd say Merc got the best ability in this expansion, which they badly need since they're generally viewed as a joke prior to to 2.0. And, not counting the unintended side effects of Scamper (near instant win on quite a few maps), Scamper isn't actually that powerful, which makes sense because Op/Sniper are fine as a class prior to 2.0.

My only real issue is bioware went ahead and nerfed sin's utility pretty hard. That was the original big advantage sins had in pvp. Now why bring a sin over any other class? Full darkness node guard is THE only reason.