I read a lot of stuff that basically boils down to this: don't suck.

Seriously, Kinetic Combat or the Assassin equivalent is NOT hard. You stand there and push 4 buttons and never have to do anything else. Having to pop DPS relics to maintain threat on a Shadow Tank, stealthing out because you miss a harnessed shadows proc, or taunting more than once on any tank and spank fight means the player clearly does not have what it takes to play the game. So to the people having issues do us all a favor. Close your game. Open control panel -> Programs and Features -> Uninstall SWTOR. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

Seriously, Kinetic Combat or the Assassin equivalent is NOT hard. You stand there and push 4 buttons and never have to do anything else. Having to pop DPS relics to maintain threat on a Shadow Tank, stealthing out because you miss a harnessed shadows proc, or taunting more than once on any tank and spank fight means the player clearly does not have what it takes to play the game. So to the people having issues do us all a favor. Close your game. Open control panel -> Programs and Features -> Uninstall SWTOR. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

First off, it's not 4 buttons.

Second off, I use the DPS relic mostly because I can and there's no reason not to aside from laziness. I don't need it. I've known about the triple relic trick for several months now, but it didn't occur to me to use it while tanking until quite recently.

Third, running down other players for having trouble with a class that has more depth than you seem to be willing (or able) to acknowledge doesn't paint you in a flattering light.

As a point on the "one taunt" limit, transfer your shadow to the PTS and I'll pull off you on my combat sentinel every time if you don't guard me. If you guard me, I still might pull if I get lucky, but it would be RNG at that point. You need that second taunt if you have four DPS who hit a high burst point after your first taunt (or before your first taunt, for that matter, if you taunt too late). I double taunt on every boss except Thrasher, and I triple taunt on the TfB tentacles (because melee range sucks).

As a point on the "one taunt" limit, transfer your shadow to the PTS and I'll pull off you on my combat sentinel every time if you don't guard me. If you guard me, I still might pull if I get lucky, but it would be RNG at that point. You need that second taunt if you have four DPS who hit a high burst point after your first taunt (or before your first taunt, for that matter, if you taunt too late). I double taunt on every boss except Thrasher, and I triple taunt on the TfB tentacles (because melee range sucks).

I could'nt agree more on all those points.

I read a lot of stuff that basically boils down to this: don't suck.

 

Seriously, Kinetic Combat or the Assassin equivalent is NOT hard. You stand there and push 4 buttons and never have to do anything else. Having to pop DPS relics to maintain threat on a Shadow Tank, stealthing out because you miss a harnessed shadows proc, or taunting more than once on any tank and spank fight means the player clearly does not have what it takes to play the game. So to the people having issues do us all a favor. Close your game. Open control panel -> Programs and Features -> Uninstall SWTOR. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

Thank you for your excellent points. You have surely educated the Shadow tank community and faith in this part of the forums is restored . How the hell did I play my class two years and not know that if I use more than 1 taunt I need to uninstall the game? I feel very embarrassed now .

Clearly using PARSEC to measure my real-time threat on the boss and knowing the variation in said threat when project, slow time and TK are resisted to adjust my rotation accordingly when I generate 3500 TPS instead of the usual 4400-5000, depending on crits, was noobish!

Hit me up when you go PTS, I will bring my 3790 DPS watchman sentinel, and if you use more than one taunt, you delete your shadow and uninstall the game. What advice is that if you don't follow it?

Try out Bandicam. That's what I use to record in game video. I used to use FRAPS but as you said it can be quite taxing on your computer. With bandicam I don't get the fps drops during fights. (no im not a bandicam rep, I just like it a lot)

I must be doing something wrong. I can't get Bandicam to record screenies or video. Does this only work in windowed mode?

Yes, the guide is helpful. In particular, it helped change my mindset of "I must get 3 stacks of shadow protection ASAP by proc'ing Particle Acceleration by spamming Double Strike", and "I must channel all of my TkT even though I now have 4 stacks of SP".

However, the constant refrain of "12s is plenty, L2P, deal with it" does absolutely run counter to the general "Quality of Life" changes handed out to MANY classes since 2.0 -- I'm sure the same argument applied to Watchman Sentinels and their Merciless buff, but I'm also pretty sure I haven't seen KBN telling those classes that they need those tight timings in order to act as a badge of distinction.

TL;DR: Thanks for the guide. But 12s timer is poor for Quality of Life.

KBN doing videos now:eek:, rip Xinika.

(Nice vid btw)

Yes, the guide is helpful. In particular, it helped change my mindset of "I must get 3 stacks of shadow protection ASAP by proc'ing Particle Acceleration by spamming Double Strike", and "I must channel all of my TkT even though I now have 4 stacks of SP".

 

However, the constant refrain of "12s is plenty, L2P, deal with it" does absolutely run counter to the general "Quality of Life" changes handed out to MANY classes since 2.0 -- I'm sure the same argument applied to Watchman Sentinels and their Merciless buff, but I'm also pretty sure I haven't seen KBN telling those classes that they need those tight timings in order to act as a badge of distinction.

 

TL;DR: Thanks for the guide. But 12s timer is poor for Quality of Life.

The thing is, is that unlike watchman, there are SO MANY ways to refresh the buffs, where as watchman has no way to instarefresh it when it drops off.

I wouldn't be opposed to a minor quality of life change, such as knockbacks and stuns extending the buff by 5 seconds. Anything more is overkill., and plus to play optimally, you use tk throw as much as possible for threat reasons ANYWAY.

The thing is, is that unlike watchman, there are SO MANY ways to refresh the buffs, where as watchman has no way to instarefresh it when it drops off.

 

I wouldn't be opposed to a minor quality of life change, such as knockbacks and stuns extending the buff by 5 seconds. Anything more is overkill., and plus to play optimally, you use tk throw as much as possible for threat reasons ANYWAY.

Rather than a flat 5 second increase, I think it would be better if it just increased the duration by the duration of the longest remaining sun on the target. Example: 6 seconds left on the buff, you get flash-banged: increase the duration by 8 seconds. You immediately after take a Low Slash and a Debilitate: neither should increase the buff duration, as neither keep you stunned longer than the flash-bang, though they may want to remove the extra time if you get broken out of the stun.

EDIT: The easier way to do it would just be to stop the buff timer while you're being controlled by a foreign entity. That maintains the 12 second rotation without penalizing you for getting stunned/knocked back.

Hello! Thank you for this post. I've always wanted to try this tank, but was always told the learning curve was ridiculously high.

May I request a more "Graphical" representation of your Faq?

Hello! Thank you for this post. I've always wanted to try this tank, but was always told the learning curve was ridiculously high.

 

May I request a more "Graphical" representation of your Faq?

Unfortunately, the SWTOR forums aren't very graphics-friendly (for obvious reasons). A more graphical (and slightly reorganized) version is available here: http://swtorboard.org/2014/01/31/swtor-shadow-tanking-guide/

The thing is, is that unlike watchman, there are SO MANY ways to refresh the buffs, where as watchman has no way to instarefresh it when it drops off.

During combat, the only way to "instarefresh" (which I interpret to mean getting full stacks from zero stacks) during combat is to use the 2-minute cooldown Force Cloak, and the way to "refesh" it (interpreted to mean "maintain 4 stacks") is to use Telekinetic Throw with 3 stacks of Swirling Shadows. I'm not really sure how that becomes "SO MANY ways".

If you prefer another comparison, look at the duration of Upper Hand for Scoundrel Healers -- 2 stacks on uncloak, and at least 3 different abilities that will probably proc a stack, lasts 16 seconds.

For PVE, 3 seconds more (=2 extra GCDs) will put it into a comfortable place where it can be maintained 100% even allowing for problems -- as you can bet that any balancing Bioware do will absolutely assume 100% uptime, this is a fair way of allowing us to actually maintain that.

While I thought that the ability to refresh the stacks at least every 9s was obvious, I still really like the way it is laid out in this guide.

I would not be against 15s duration but have no issues with 12s.

Stop asking more than 12 seconds. Not KBN/Thok approved . We need to maintain the skill cap of the class if we increase the duration (like BioWare did for all classes) all of a sudden every shadow tank player loses IQ and becomes dumber!

Some Shadows I've seen would end up negative.