which one is best for PvE based combat.

Solo w/ companion

I prefer kinetic combat with Qyzen as my companion. The combination started out good in the early levels and turned positively awesome after I got Whirling Blow at 26.

E.g. facing a standard group of a few weak or normal enemies and a few strong, I just run into the centre of the group, force breach, 2-3 Whirling Blows interspersed with normal attacks, then take stock of the surroundings.

Whether facing one mob or several, we'll dual-tank our way through them and do so faster than infiltration spec together with Theran.

Only the hardest of situations calls for Theran to come heal and those situations are few and far between.

ive messed around with all three (at great cost to myself) and think there all about the same especially if you use combat focus you get the armor of the kin but slightly better dps of the other two. The kin is kind of boring.double strike double strike throw some pebbles and/or a droid for change.....oh wait thats pretty much the all the builds.

exactly what class have you been playing? i run off of three tiers of procs....

Kinetic Shadows can solo some Heroic-4 quests with the healer companion once they are a couple levels over the enemies. Infiltration and Balance stands zero chance of accomplishing this feat.

Kinetic kills almost as quickly as the DPS specs while having much greater survivability. You will notice a difference if you try to DPS for Heroics and Flashpoints, but for the actual questing Kinetic is nearly as powerful and tons safer.

At 40 I swapped to Kinetic from balance, and was back within a day. I found Kinetic to have slightly more survivability and a lot less dps. In pvp it was no contest...at that level the survivability gain in pvp is negligible, but the dps loss is huge. I've been balance mostly from day one, and every time I move to Kinetic it just feels clunky to me.

That's interesting because I know a guy who leveled as kinetic, went to balance as it happened for Vivicar's ship and then said "never again".

When you get your healing companion (Tharan), I'd highly suggest moving to Kinetic. I played inf/balance up to about 35, then I decided to swap over because I was going to end up tanking for end game raiding anyways.

The major differences I saw:

Inf/Balance:

- Much better if leveling in pvp and you want KILLS

- Good for burning down packs of strong/weak enemies

- Ok at killing bosses/elites, but it does get a lot harder late game.

- Cannot solo heroic 2+ missions

Kinetic

- Fairly good at leveling in pvp, plus you can contribute more than just spamming kills

- Dps is considerably lower

- Survivability (assuming using tharan) is HUGE

- Can easily kill bosses and elites (Have killed up to 3 elites at once as of now)

- Can solo some heroic 2+ missions

The overall difference is that Kinetic you trade off a bit of dps for basically NEVER dying. So if you have trouble killing elites/bosses, or just want that extra security of not having to worry as much about your health, go kinetic. If you have no trouble with elites and are doing fine with just burning down things faster than they kill you, go inf/balance.

The major differences I saw:

 

Inf/Balance:

 

 

- Cannot solo heroic 2+ missions

 

Balance can solo heroic 2+ fairly easily. Never played inf.

I think it all comes down to play style! But, the way I stacked my char is like so:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MZhGMRkG0rtzZcMc.1

As of right now I think Exit Strategy and maxed out Deep impact are broken. If you stack those two with Force focus and upheaval you have a pretty devastating Kinetic/lightsaber build.

With that build and your heal NPC(with good cunning) its tough to get killed unless you take on more mobs then you can chew.

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MZhGMRkG0rtzZcMc.1

Just as a warning, Vigor is almost completely worthless (it equates to an extra 1.2 seconds of passive Force regen over every fight, which means almost nothing when you consider that *short* fights last 30 seconds) and Misdirection is only useful for the additional stealth levels since the bonus to speed doesn't stack with Sprint.

You may want to consider moving some of those points into Fade, since more Blackout means more Masked Assault Force Regen.

I totally agree with Misdirection but, I hardly use Mind snap and I needed it to get to the set above. So I figured Misdirection was the lesser of two evils since I use to spend a good deal of time with stealth up. Though maybe I should start using Mind Snap more? I don't remember why but I think Vigor was the same issue I needed it to get to the next level. Though I have not reset my Skill tree at all yet so I might be wrong on that one.

But, that really is the tough part with this skill tree. Having to use 5 points to get to the next tear can be ruff. It forces you to use some bad options to move forward so you can get to the better choices later on.

So I totally agree with you. But, since we don't have the freedom to pick and choose we get stuck wasting skill tree points.

So I totally agree with you. But, since we don't have the freedom to pick and choose we get stuck wasting skill tree points.

Shadowy Veil is where I generally put those points when putting a build together. Vigor and Misdirection just aren't really worth it and, at the very least, the armor will make you a modicum more durable to offset Inf's generally poor survivability.

Ok cool but you still need to choose between Misdirection and Celerity to move up the list... You can't just pick and choose. You must use 5 points on every level to move to the level above and the moves that are linked you have to have the one below to use the one above. Which means you also have to use Vigor you have no choice in the matter.

Again I have not hit 50 and I have not reset my stats... Does the 5 points per level not apply at 50? If it doesn't then you are right its a waste of points. If it does then you have no choice but to use them if you go with a infiltration build. Its just the way it is...

Ok cool but you still need to choose between Misdirection and Celerity to move up the list... You can't just pick and choose. You must use 5 points on every level to move to the level above and the moves that are linked you have to have the one below to use the one above. Which means you also have to use Vigor you have no choice in the matter.

 

Again I have not hit 50 and I have not reset my stats... Does the 5 points per level not apply at 50? If it doesn't then you are right its a waste of points. If it does then you have no choice but to use them if you go with a infiltration build. Its just the way it is...

Actually you don´t need 5 points on every level. You just need a certain total amount of points for the next level to open up. At least that´s how I remember it. Someone please correct me if I´m wrong...

Actually you don´t need 5 points on every level. You just need a certain total amount of points for the next level to open up. At least that´s how I remember it. Someone please correct me if I´m wrong...

You're correct.

Ohh very cool to know! Its just multiples of 5 that opens up each tear. But, It does not really solve my issue. I mean I can go with Shadowy Veil which ups armor rating by 30%. Then pop 2 points in celerity instead of doing Misdirection. Following that path would let me skip Vigor but then I would have to choose between Kinetic Field and Fade. I guess over all Fade would be better then the the 30% aoe damage reduction?

Or ditch Situational awareness and put 2 in fade which will still let me get to deep impact and clairvoyant strike?

I would rather not ditch my 8 in balance and 2 in kinetic combat. I will have to play around with it.

Ohh very cool to know! Its just multiples of 5 that opens up each tear. But, It does not really solve my issue. I mean I can go with Shadowy Veil which ups armor rating by 30%. Then pop 2 points in celerity instead of doing Misdirection. Following that path would let me skip Vigor but then I would have to choose between Kinetic Field and Fade. I guess over all Fade would be better then the the 30% aoe damage reduction?

Fade is amazing. Blackout is one of your big Force Regen CDs (thanks to Masked Assault) so lowering that CD from 60 sec to 45 secs makes it substantially more valuable.

Im currently doing infiltration for the extra DPS from all the Project and Breach upgrades but doing it in tanking stance using Tharan. Its not as epic survival as going kinetic + tharan but its good enough for taking on 1-2 on level elites and it gives a little extra DPS.

Really dont want to do that anymore though. I actually want to use (my new Padawan) now that I got her and just go full DPS but its not working out too well ATM. We survive we'll enough but its annoying as hell, I have to heal up after every fight.

Shadows really need to have more face to face DPS IMO. Maybe more stuns? Without a good tank to set up some Shadow Strikes, I feel my DPS is lacking. Do Sentinels/Gunslingers have this problem towards end game where they finding it fairly difficult to fight without a healer pet?

Fade is amazing. Blackout is one of your big Force Regen CDs (thanks to Masked Assault) so lowering that CD from 60 sec to 45 secs makes it substantially more valuable.

Kitru is correct. I followed this advice on inf. and with some decent gear I'm 2-shotting normal mobs at level and soloing a few heroic 2m's. Fade in combat for force regen is a godsend and my Force Breach now does amazing damage.