Special Thanks!

Thanks to Philosomanic for constant support and help with the Balance section of this guide so that you the reader have the right information as your ally.

Preface: This guide is a compilation of AstralFire’s original Shadow Handbook with some additions from myself after playing a Shadow since day 1 of early release. The majority of the work should be credited to Astral, for the time being I am merely a humble disciple continuing to pass the knowledge to those seeking it regarding the Jedi Consular Shadow. I also plan on adding sections including information regarding patch notes and changes that have occurred over the course of the Shadows lifetime.

CURRENT PATCH NOTES

[aname=Introduction]INTRODUCTION[/aname]

This handbook is intended to be a comprehensive guide to gameplay competency with the Jedi Shadow. As such, it will provide data on effective Player-versus-Player gameplay, Player-versus-Environment gameplay, and some general tips on leveling as a Jedi Shadow. It is not intended to be a walkthrough or guide to any specific World, Flashpoint or Operation, and will only contain some brief looks at specific Warzones. Skill Calculator builds are merely my opinion, and though I do my best to learn as much as possible, I cannot know everything. If you have contradictory ideas, please post them here. While this guide will never be perfect, it will be more perfect with each version than the last. We get better through sharing ideas, after all.

This guide will also go over the basics of gearing as a Jedi Shadow, and highlight some notable pieces of equipment.

* (Formatting Indicates Updated Content) *

[aname=tableContents]TABLE OF CONTENTS[/aname]

01. [jumpto=Introduction][introduction][/jumpto]

02. [jumpto=tableContents][Table of Contents][/jumpto]

03. [jumpto=shadowBasics][shadow Basics][/jumpto]

04. [jumpto=notableIssues][Notable Issues][/jumpto]

05. [jumpto=specKC][specialization: Kinetic Combat][/jumpto]

06. [jumpto=specInf][specialization: Infiltration][/jumpto]

07. [jumpto=specBal][specialization: Balance][/jumpto]

08. [jumpto=shadowCompanion][shadow Companions][/jumpto]

09. [jumpto=equipShadow][Equipping a Shadow][/jumpto]

10. [jumpto=crewSkills][Crew Skills][/jumpto]

11. [jumpto=appFAQ][Appendix: FAQs][/jumpto]

12. [jumpto=appGlossary][Appendix: MMO Glossary][/jumpto]

13. [jumpto=appKeybind][Appendix: Keybinds][/jumpto]

14. [jumpto=appDictionary][Appendix: Shadow <-> Assassin Dictionary][/jumpto]

15. [jumpto=appChangeLog][Appendix: Changelog][/jumpto]

16. [jumpto=appAdvancedRead][Appendix: Advanced Reading][/jumpto]

17. [jumpto=appCombatParser]*[Appendix: Combat Parser Logs]*[/jumpto]

18. [jumpto=appAugmentSlots]*[Appendix: Augment Slots]*[/jumpto]

--------------------------------

[aname=shadowBasics]SHADOW BASICS[/aname]

Parent Class: Jedi Consular

Mirrored by: Sith Assassin

Primary Weapon: Double-bladed Lightsaber, Electrostaff

Off-Hand Items: Shield Generator, Force Focus

Armor Class: Light

Aesthetic Inspirations: Darth Maul, Exar Kun, Satele Shan, Bastila Shan

Story Inspiration: Obi-Wan Kenobi. "We wanted to capture the journey of Obi-Wan Kenobi - someone who begins with unusual insight and talent, but who is still growing into those powers."

Skill Trees: Kinetic Combat (Defender), Infiltration (Melee Striker), Balance (Hybrid Striker)

Resource: Force Points. (Base Max: 100; Base Recovery: 8 Pts/Second)

Playable Species: Human, Miraluka, Mirialan, Twi'lek, Zabrak

Voice Actress: Athena Karkanis

Voice Actor: Nolan North

Key Playskills: Understanding your three ranges (4m, 10m, 30m), predicting energy cost and healing needs.

The Jedi Shadow does not fear wasting her Force Points early in a fight; we have few long cooldowns, and a steadily refilling resource bar. Unlike Smugglers and Troopers, this resource bar does not regenerate at variable rates. The challenge in playing a Jedi Shadow correctly is careful management of several short-term cooldowns and interspersing low or no-cost abilities with medium and high cost abilities, to avoid missing a vital window of opportunity.

The Shadow can access up to three different combat stances, or techniques, which significantly alters her playstyle. Each of these stances adds a chance to affect each of her melee attacks (though no more often than once every 1.5 seconds). Melee attacks which hit multiple times or multiple targets have a better chance of activating the technique once per ability. These stances are off of the global cooldown, but have a high resource cost. It is possible to switch techniques and then immediately benefit from the change, but you can do so only with careful forethought and planning, and at the expense of restricting yourself heavily for several seconds prior.

People familiar with Rogues from World of Warcraft will find only some similarities in the Shadow. For the most part, it is far more survivable with fewer hard controls (such as stuns) and more range as well as self-healing. While it will usually be optimal for Shadows to attack from behind, it is by no means expected or necessary for any but an Infiltrator. The Shadow is also more comfortable with range than the Rogue, especially as a Balance specialist.

- Project was finally changed to have an instant travel time to match the Sith Assassin Shock counterpart.

[aname=notableIssues]NOTABLE ISSUES[/aname]

- Shadow's Training is not functioning properly and does not increase the damage dealt by Project.

[aname=specKC]KINETIC COMBAT[/aname]

Playstyle: High threat, proactive self-healing defender; melee with some ranged moves.

Technique: Combat Technique

PvE Builds: Standard (31/0/10)

PvP Builds: Slow Upheaval (31/0/10), Slow Stab (31/7/0+3)

Which spec should I pick?: Standard is your best option if you want to both PvE and PvP, as it performs well at both. Slow Upheaval is my recommendation for the hardcore PvPer, and Slow Stab is an experimental build I want to mess around with a bit. Three points are leftover with Slow Stab; I recommend they go in Force Synergy in Balance, or Misdirection in Infiltration.

As an addendum to this, I think 3 points in Misdirection opens up a great Rated Tank Shadow. In PvP the Shadows Stalker set gives +5yrd range to a now improved cooldown timer on Mind Snap to 10 seconds. You are now a complete lock down tank. Your guard target is preferably a DPS Guardian / Scoundrel / Sent or basically a melee class. Your interrupts and utility will easily be able to drop healers, even through Mercenary Shield timer.

Welcome to our tanking tree. The Kinetic Shadow has the highest single-target threat of the three tank styles available in the Old Republic, and we possess a mix of battlefield control, mobility and range that makes the playstyle a blast. The bulk of a Kinetic's survivability is defined by her high blocking chance, while she has moderate avoidance, stable mitigation, and the unique ability among tanks to self-heal. Though the class's armor rating seems initially low, Combat Technique and several of its specialized skill brings the class armor values on par with the Jedi Guardian, and it has superior damage reduction for Elemental and Internal damage, the two types not covered by armor.

ABILITY OVERVIEW

Priority List:

1. Kinetic Ward (1 charge or about to expire)

2. Telekinetic Throw (3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows)

3. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less)

4. Slow Time

5. Project (Particle Acceleration)

6. Force Breach (every CD)

7. Double Strike

8. Saber Strike (Conserving Force)

This priority list holds even single-target, as Slow Time and Force Breach have useful side effects. Substitute other abilities in depending on your spec however this is a true KC rotation.

1.3 Update - Combat Technique now generates 100% additional threat while active. The healing generated by this ability has been reduced by approximately 50%. Its armor bonus has been reduced to 115% (down from 150%).

Kinetic Ward: Always try to keep this ability up during PvE. AoE mobs can drain the charges on it quickly but otherwise is an effective single target tanking ability. Not as effective in PvP because Force and tech based attacks ignore shield

Spinning Kick: This ability is most notable in PvP; it causes less than half a bar of resolve. Kinetic Shadows will be able to use this ability out of stealth, and should use it before any of their other stuns; it's particularly effective after Force Pulling a target into a hazard in Huttball, or to be focus-fired, thanks to the Nerve-Wracking skill. Do not open with this ability at the start of the fight, but save it to disorient the opponent. In PvE, the tank should use it regularly on the primary non-boss target. 1.3 UPDATE Spinning Kick now costs 20 Force.

Slow Time: This ability generates more single-target threat than your Double Strike, increases your Harnessed Shadows stacking, and deals a comparable amount of damage, while also snaring the target and ignoring defense/accuracy. It also delivers a hefty 5% damage debuff to the target. And it strikes up to five targets at a time within 5 meters of your original target. Use it every cooldown. This ability makes Kinetic Shadows very important for harassing opponents trying to move between objectives, especially in Huttball and Voidstar. 1.3 UPDATE This ability will no longer break CC on targets outside of the one you are currently selected on. It is now just as effective single target as it is AoE. A nice and needed buff.

Shadow Strike: Only use this ability while Find Weakness is an active buff. If you're not SlowStab specialized, don't use it at all.

Force Breach: In Combat Technique, it functions like a cheaper (20 cost versus 30 cost) and weaker version of Slow Time that bypasses standard armor-based damage reduction. It has double the cooldown length, and deals less damage even against heavily armored targets. -5% accuracy is also a significantly weaker debuff than -5% damage in PvP, though it's the other way around in PvE. It's useful and necessary, but not very fun or compelling. 1.3 UPDATE Force Breach (Combat Technique) now generates a high amount of threat.

Force Stun: It has a much longer CD than Spinning Kick, but is also a much longer stun. In PvP, when used on kill targets it should be reserved for targets who are already near their maximum resolve bar. It's also very handy to use on non-kill targets, of course, to prevent enemy ranged artillery and healers from freecasting. In PvE, it should be used similarly to Spinning Kick.

Force Lift: 23/0/18 Hybrids will use this ability a lot due to having it as an instant cast; the two second cast makes it uncommon for use by any other type of Kinetic Shadow. The primary incapacitate basically gives the opponent a full grey resolve bar from nothing. If the target has any grey on their resolve bar prior to casting, they will get a white resolve bar, granting them CC immunity until the bar drains completely. Any damage will break a Lift, but Balance Hybrids will then get a secondary two-second stun. If the target did not already have a white resolve bar, this second stun will trigger and give them one. All in all, Lift is a risky and situational ability and I only recommend using it in PvP on a target you have no intention of killing or can guarantee that you will kill in 2-3 global cooldowns. In PvE, its benefits are slim.

Resilience: Any ability that doesn't deal 'weapon damage' in its description is affected by this ability. Use it together with Force Cloak to make a successful escape, use it offensively when you anticipate a cast, use it to remove all healer-removable enemy effects on you... It's on a short cooldown and grants you five seconds of near-immunity. It's particularly useful for running the ball in Huttball, or surviving boss damage traps like those on the final boss of Athiss or Eternity Vault. Resilience is not affected by nor causes a global cooldown. Jedi Knights and Scoundrels have some immobilizes and snares which Resilience does not grant immunity to.

Force Cloak: Obviously, a very useful defensive escape tool - but you cannot be healed while in it. Make sure to keep stealth in a position that's easy to activate immediately following Force Cloak. Worth noting is that Battle Readiness does not break stealth, but medpacs will - so the former would be wasted if you used it within 10 seconds of Cloaking without first breaking stealth, while the latter will immediately break your stealth and heal you. In PvP, I frequently run for the heal power-ups while being chased, cloak, and then immediately destealth right before I run over the heal. Force Cloak is not affected by nor causes a global cooldown. Infiltration Hybrids do not have the issue of Cloak preventing healing.

Mind Maze: A very useful ability - in PvP it can help a partner take an objective, reduce the number of opponents you have to face temporarily, break an opponent's objective taking without revealing your presence. In PvE, the biggest issue is that you risk discovery if you're not careful, and that your AoEs can break your Maze. It's used well in conjunction with Blackout to prevent the former issue, and strategic use of Force Pull can help with keeping your targets far enough away from your Mazed victim.

Blackout: For most Kinetics, this ability is only useful to ensure that you can remain hidden for a brief period of time while Mind Mazing or scouting. If you're an Infiltration hybrid, you'll want to avoid using it for that and instead using it to guarantee when you can go all-out against a target. I recommend using it at about 25% to 75% Force. Any higher and you risk wasting some of the energy, and going lower risks having periods where you have insufficient energy anyway; none of the Force would be wasted, but your burst period would be hampered. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Battle Readiness: Use it whenever you need a 10% heal. This ability does not break stealth. The bonus to your healing over time from Combat Technique is notable, but not significant enough to plan around. The 2 minute cooldown is short enough that you can use it multiple times in long boss fights like in operations: once early on, once in the middle, and then once towards the end. Most boss fights of any kind will allow at least two uses if the first is cycled early, so don't be too shy about saving it. This ability does not respect the global cooldown. 1.3 UPDATE Battle Readiness now increases the damage and healing dealt by all Techniques by 100% for 15 seconds.

Deflection: Amazing survivability CD in PvE. The 2 minute cooldown is short enough that you can use it multiple times in long boss fights like in operations: once early on, once in the middle, and then once towards the end. Most boss fights of any kind will allow at least two uses if the first is cycled early, so don't be too shy about saving it. In PvP, it's of limited function; it will provide a decent survivability bonus against specializations that rely heavily on weapon damage, such as the Infiltration Shadow, Sentinels and some Gunslingers; it is of less useless against those that primarily rely on tech or force damage, such as the Commando, and completely useless against a Sage. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Force Potency: You primarily want to use the ability with Telekinetic Throw as a Kinetic Shadow, as it increases the range to 30m and gives a 60% boosted chance of critical on every single tick. Harnessed Shadows is what you want to save your first Potency charge for. Your second should ideally be spent on Project, as you will almost always have enough Force to activate Project immediately after a full-duration TK Throw. Anything else is a waste for anyone with the Harnessed Shadows skill. If you are Kinetic and don't have Harnessed Shadows, your best bet is to use it with Force in Balance. If you don't have that, either, use it with... whatever, I guess. Note that Projects that activate with the Upheaval skill will consume two charges of Potency, and Force in Balance's heal will also consume a Potency charge. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Telekinetic Throw: Never use this ability as a Kinetic unless you have three stacks of Harnessed Shadows. With three stacks and Potency active, I can guarantee delivering 3.5k damage in 1 second, and another 3.5k damage over 2 seconds. That is a massive amount of single target threat, and a massive amount of burst damage. In a multiple target situation in PvE, this should go towards your secondary target, as it will even up your threat very quickly. 1.3 UPDATE Harnessed Shadows: The healing generated by Telekinetic Throw has been reduced to 8% total (down from 12%).

Project: Ideally, you should only use Project with the Particle Acceleration buff active, which can be noticed on your buff bar or with a briefly flashed halo of golden light around your character. When opening, however, you may wish to begin with Project to gain a Harnessed Shadow buff; the amount of healing and damage delivered by Harnessed Shadows is too large.

Force Pull: In PvE, never start a fight with your primary target using Pull; it has a threat component and a long cooldown, so it's best used to reposition a ranged enemy closer to you mid-fight. In PvP, it's extremely versatile; you can use it to close gaps with a target, pull someone into the fire (where you will then stun them), pull them into your group (where you will focus fire and murder them), or - and this is a personal favorite - sprint about 25 meters away from the group and pull a healer or a tank away from the rest of their group. Pulling the healer away prevents him from healing effectively and you may be able to kill him, especially if you broke a tank's Guard on him. Pulling the tank away prevents him from taunting and again interrupts his Guard on an ally. Use your judgement on which is the best to pull away at a given time; I usually prefer to get the healer, especially if it's a Sage, as a Sage can pull their tank right back to them.

Whirling Blow: This move is typically terrible and should only be used when you can guarantee you'll strike at least four targets, or if you like spinning in place like a pretty ballerina. In PvP, it can also be useful for preventing objective caps, but watch out for the Force Cost. However, when paired with Deflection and other defensive cooldowns, the Force cost can briefly become negligible and make its use more compelling when a lot of AoE damage is necessary.

Force of Will: Your CC breaker as a Jedi Consular. In PvE, just use it any time you're stunned for more than a second. Your speed should be used for breaking immobilizes and snares instead. In PvP, try to reserve it for when you have a white bar of resolve, unless you absolutely need to break an objective cap by the enemy or something.

Force Speed: You can do it every 20 seconds, and it breaks all snares and immobilizations on you. Use it judiciously to avoid hazards (like in Hard Mode Directive 7), sprint right through hazards (in Huttball, but this is risky even when paired with Resilience), close gaps, etc.

Guard: Judicious use of Guard is one of the things that separates the good tanks from the bad tanks. In PvE, you'll typically want to Guard your off-tank - in a flashpoint, this refers to your best-geared DPS (melee preferred over ranged.) This will reduce the amount of healing that needs to go to them. Healers should generally not be guarded barring extraordinary circumstance. In PvP, however, the Guard mechanic changes greatly and a Healer should almost always be your main Guard target. But not your only Guard target. Watch people near you and switch Guards as necessary or even turn them off if it's going to get you killed - you'll do more if you survive, heal, and taunt than if you just go down. Keeping Target Nearest Friendly bound in a convenient place as well as Set Focus and Target Focus is essential to maximizing good Guard play in PvP. Also try and keep your Guard target about 10m away from you. 15+ breaks the Guard effect, while <10 makes it too obvious who you're Guarding as well as making you both susceptible to AoEs.

Mind Control/Mass Mind Control: PvE, their usage is simple: you don't have threat, you use this ability and get threat. Force Pull is preferable to MC for a ranged enemy, and note MMC's short 15m radius as opposed to MC's long 30m range. In PvP, use Mind Control every CD on someone who's not hitting you (it doesn't trigger a GCD), but I'd reserve Mass Mind Control for the hectic situations. Every now and then I do burn MMC with only a single target around - if a healer is about to go down and they're already guarded and MC is about to end, then I chain in MMC. It's made the difference a few times.

Force Wave: There's about a 0.5s delay in activation on this ability, which can make prediction hard unless paired with a target who is already immobile. Force Wave is also the weakest KB in the game, with the least momentum behind it. Aside from the obvious 'knock someone into hazards or down cliffs' component of all knockback abilities, Force Wave should be used judiciously to get your Guard target some breathing room in PvP.

GEARING

As with all Consular's, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities; Willpower no longer increases the effectiveness of any of your self-healing, however. When gearing in PvE, you will have to balance Shield Rating (chance of a shield effect triggering), Absorption (strength of a shield effect), and Defense. Averaging out these values to provide your maximum survivability has a precise formula. This thread has the related formula you should use if you want to find out what could potentially give you the most survivability out of your upgrade slots. The basic rule is to not try to stack too high on any one stat. In PvE, you will always prefer mods that favor Endurance over Willpower, and you'll never have to make a choice for Endurance versus a secondary stat.

For PvE gearing, you can just stick with the Survivor sets.

PvP Tank with DPS Gearing

PvP is where the whole thing gets complicated. Avoidance and Shielding (especially shielding) are mostly worthless in PvP, as they will not activate properly on a significant portion of the attacks delivered in PvP. My recommendation for PvP tanks is to slot a balance of power and surge rating in your upgrade slots, along with a bit of critical hit rating. This extends to your relics and adrenals; only your stim is possibly in question, since a higher Endurance translates to a bigger Harnessed Shadow heal. Expertise is, of course, the most important stat - it improves all of your healing - but it's basically a default stat that doesn't need to be factored in. At 50, you'll want to run with two pieces of Survivor PvP gear rather than Stalker PvP gear if you went deep enough to get the Stasis skill - just unslot the Survivor mods and put in Stalker mods. Yes, that means you have to get at least two extra pieces of Centurion, Champion or Battlemaster.

Getting the four piece Survivor bonus isn't a big deal in PvP. It's preferable over having two pieces of Stalker and two pieces of Survivor, but the Stalker two-piece bonus is decent enough, so if you want to grab all Stalker pieces initially for the better mods, do so.

I do not recommend equipping a Shield Generator in PvP; you'll be better off with a Focus.

PvP Tank High Protection Playstyle

Updated March 30, 2012

This role requires some form of 31/0/10. Stacking full Battlemaster Survivor set and off pieces, focus your mods more towards Defense but don't neglect Shield and Absorb. Endurance is also of importance and anything over 20k HP is going to keep you up longer. This role works the best in a Rated or organized scenario. Players would ideally be on TS/Vent/Mumble being able to communicate etc. You focus is complete shut down of the opposing players main DPS assault which will no doubt eventually find its way to your healer or Off-DPS.

Defense:

Your main role is not to spam Double Strike to gain PA procs for Project bombs. These are good but it's only secondary to your main function and that is defense of your Guarded target. This rolse has the tendency to be considered the "boring" or "not as much fun" role. It's true, although at times it can be very high tempo. The rotation may not be anything to write home about but the playstyle requires skill and finesse to master.

Guard Target Priority:

Healer

MDPS

RDPS

Starting off you are going to want to focus your Guard on the target that's going to be with you and be able to keep the buff on themselves. Healers come first for obvious reasons. The key however is to remember one major thing. Guard can now be switched on the fly. There are many ways you can do this. I will explain my way, which works for me but maybe not for everyone else.

Key Bind:

F

I use the F key for my Guard Swap. It is by far the most important keybind I have. With this right here I am able to easily cycle through friendly targets and apply Guard to them as the DPS shifts. Using F also allows you to have access to the tab key as well.

Using Guard in this function will allow you the ONLY real effective way of reducing damage on a target down to manageable levels for heals to keep them alive. Whether its a DPS or a Healer your reduction abilities now become the major priority of the rotation.

Tanks are probably going to be place at doors an defending points come Rated warzones and when a tank can effectively move his/her Guard to targets taking the current focus fire, the team is going to notice a significant reduction in damage.

Main Rotation + Priority Abilities

Your main rotation should follow the same Kinetic one however certain abilities should be placed on a higher priority for certain situations. That's the great part about this defensive build. Not only are you going to be absolutely impossible to bring down with heals, you will also have a ton of utility to stop the other team from performing. If you are taking heavy focus fire then you should stick to your Harnessed Shadow efficiency rotation and make sure you can self-heal as much as possible to give you some more time alive.

Taunt:

This should be placed on the heavy MDPS targets which includes Marauders/Operatives/ Powertech Pyromancers. This Taunt has the lowest cooldown so it can be used the most freely. Don't taunt if you are in a 1v1 but if there is another player throw Taunt and it will be a win. Keep it on these type of targets when larger groups start to form and your AoE is on cooldown.

AoE Taunt:

Should only be used if there are 3 or more targets focusing on your Healer. Testing was done in the Outlaws Den FFAPvP area and a tank and healer can survive 3 focus fire dps but it will require the AoE taunt to be manageable. The tank and healers were Shadow/Sage and DPS was full melee Scoundrel/Focus Guardian/Sent Watchman. Any less than three and save the AoE taunt and prioritize the highest DPS target and use single target.

Force Wave (AoE Knockback)

This ability should be used expressly to give your healer breathing room from an MDPS train. Try to aim opponents into obstacles or off ledges to LOS from your protected target. Otherwise use it to gain breathing room in Huttball or knocking people off bridges in Voidstar.

Force Slow:

Any target that I single target Taunt I also apply Force Slow to them to completely reduce their effectiveness. If they popped cooldowns they will not be wasting them as they won't be able to go faster than 50% speed.

[aname=specInf]INFILTRATION SHADOWS[/aname]

Playstyle: Spike damage striker, harasser; melee skirmisher.

Technique: Shadow Technique

PvE Builds: Upheaval (2/31/8), Armor Piercing (5/33/3)

PvP Builds: PvP Upheaval (0/33/8)

Which spec should I pick?: Honestly, I haven't done the math on whether Upheaval or AP is a better spec and I haven't been able to find any math on that subject. If anyone happens to know where I can find some, please let me know.

Overview of Recent Changes:

ABILITY OVERVIEW

Priority List:

1. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less)

2. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness)

3. Force Breach (every CD)

4. Project (2x Circling Shadows)

5. Clairvoyant Strike or Double Strike

6. Saber Strike (Conserving Force)

Infiltration is the most martially-based of the three Shadow trees, eventually becoming extremely flashy as a melee combatant. It's the tree the Shadow was built for, and thus levels the most effectively of any Shadow tree early on; where the other trees are grasping for their basics before level 20, the Infiltrator already has most of what he needs. It also is unique, as it is the only spec among all 24 Republic specializations that has no good 30m offensive abilities, and essentially, no method of gap closing beyond Force Speed. In return, it has the most effective control while it is on a target, and the highest damage of any Shadow specialization. The basic conceit of the tree is that you use your martial strikes with a lightsaber to either buy time for your powerful, Force-driven attacks; or that you use those abilities to get into position for a particularly vicious Lightsaber stab in the back.

Note that Infiltration is overall considered to be lesser PvE damage than Balance, both for its higher melee dependency and lower sustained damage.

Double/Clairvoyant Strike: Clairvoyant is essentially the same ability as Double Strike, dealing slightly more damage, using a new animation, and with an excellent secondary effect. Once you have Clairvoyant Strike, take Double Strike off your bar.

Shadow Strike: Generally, try to restrict use of this ability to when Find Weakness has activated, preferably near the end of Find Weakness' buff cycle since it can only trigger once every 10 seconds anyway. It can deal more damage than Spinning Strike for you when it crits. There may be once or twice you'll really need the spike of burst damage and you have the spare Force to use Shadow Strike without the Find Weakness buff active, but it's not going to happen very often, and miscalculated it will cost you more damage than it gives you. You may also sometimes wish to open with this ability in PvP, such as on a weakened target.

Spinning Kick: This ability is most notable in PvP; it causes less than half a bar of resolve. Do not open with this ability at the start of the fight, but save it to disorient the opponent after vanishing with Force Cloak, particularly if the opponent is in mid-activation of a non-instant ability. You can also use Spinning Kick to buy you time to set up for a Shadow Strike backstab.

Low Slash: This ability has some similarities to Spinning Kick for tanks, but important differences; Low Slash does significantly more damage, almost as much as your normal attack. Low Slash is also a daze and not a stun, which means that it breaks on damage. It also fills the resolve bar less than Force Stun. This opens up several different avenues of approach: Low Slash into a brief run into a Force Lift when you want to escape, Low Slash into Shadow Strike for burst, Spinning Kick into Low Slash into Force Stun to maximize damage uptime and minimize their time to react, Low Slash to break someone's non-instant ability... it has a very fast CD, which only helps. In PvP, this is the most game changing single ability for an Infiltration Shadow; in PvE, however, the only reason you would bother to take it is because it's required for Clairvoyant Strike.

Force Slow: Should be spammed on your primary target judiciously in PvP, just about every cooldown. It causes no resolve, does a little bit of damage, and helps you maximize your uptime. It has no PvE usage except on very specific fights.

Shadow Technique, Force Breach and Exit Strategy: Since Shadow Technique has a chance to activate on each hit, even though it's capped at a maximum of 1 activation per 1.5s, all of your multiple hit moves get more benefit from Shadow Technique than it appears. Incidentally, you gain.Exit Strategy charges very slowly. You'd need six or seven full cycles to get a stack of five with high certainty - that's around 30 seconds, and Force Breach will be up every 12 to 15 seconds. Exit Strategy should be simply considered a bonus rather than a need in a maximum DPS cycle, and Force Breach should only be held back when you want burst damage.

Force Stun: It has a much longer CD than Spinning Kick, but is also a much longer stun. In PvP, when used on kill targets it should be reserved for targets who are already near their maximum resolve bar. It's also very handy to use on non-kill targets, of course, to prevent enemy ranged artillery and healers from freecasting. In PvE, it should be used similarly to Spinning Kick.

Force Lift: The two second cast makes this ability uncommonly used. The primary incapacitate basically gives the opponent a full grey resolve bar from nothing. If the target has any grey on their resolve bar prior to casting, they will get a white resolve bar, granting them CC immunity until the bar drains completely. Any damage will break a Lift, but Balance Hybrids will then get a secondary two-second stun. If the target did not already have a white resolve bar, this second stun will trigger and give them one. All in all, Lift is a risky and situational ability and I only recommend using it in PvP on a target you have no intention of killing or can guarantee that you will kill in 2-3 global cooldowns. In PvE, its benefits are slim.

Resilience: Any ability that doesn't deal 'weapon damage' in its description is affected by this ability. Use it together with Force Cloak to make a successful escape, use it offensively when you anticipate a cast, use it to remove all healer-removable enemy effects on you... It's on a moderate cooldown and grants you three seconds of near-immunity. It's particularly useful for running the ball in Huttball, or surviving boss damage traps like those on the final boss of Athiss or Eternity Vault. Resilience is not affected by nor causes a global cooldown. Jedi Knights and Scoundrels have some immobilizes and snares which Resilience does not grant immunity to.

Force Cloak: Obviously, a very useful defensive escape tool - but you can use it offensively to lead into a Spinning Kick when it's absolutely vital.

Blackout: You'll want to avoid using this ability for improving your stealthiness most times, and instead use it to guarantee when you can go all-out against a target; it increases your Force Regeneration. I recommend using it at about 25% to 75% Force. Any higher and you risk wasting some of the energy, and going lower risks having periods where you have insufficient energy anyway; none of the Force would be wasted, but your burst period would be hampered. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Battle Readiness: The additional damage increase is fairly large - it can easily pan out to an additional 3000 damage while it's active, by itself - and gets even larger when timed with other cooldowns. Use it early, use it often. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Deflection: Amazing survivability CD in PvE. The 2 minute cooldown is short enough that you can use it multiple times in long boss fights like in operations: once early on, once in the middle, and then once towards the end. Most boss fights of any kind will allow at least two uses if the first is cycled early, so don't be too shy about saving it. In PvP, it's of limited function; it will provide a decent survivability bonus against specializations that rely heavily on weapon damage, such as the Infiltration Shadow, Sentinels and some Gunslingers; it is of less useless against those that primarily rely on tech or force damage, such as the Commando, and completely useless against a Sage. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Force Potency: Note that Projects that activate with the Upheaval skill will consume two charges of Potency. You'll want to use Force Breach first with this, then Force Potency, for maximum ouchies. And trust me, it will be very ouch. In PvP, your four-piece set bonus gives an extra Potency charge, so you can use it in whatever order you like. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Telekinetic Throw: This move is usually terrible as an Infiltration. Potency/Recklessness extends the range and makes every tick have a 60% higher crit chance, making it situationally useful. You may want to bind it if you're really concerned about the lack of a 30m attack and think that there will be sufficient situations where you'll save up Potency to channel from 30 meters away - stranger things have happened. But that will be rare enough that, if you are hurting for keybind space, you won't miss not having this on your bars.

Project: Only use it after two Clairvoyant Strikes or Double Strikes. Don't bother using it before you get the Circling Shadows skill. In PvE, Project has a stun effect on some weaker enemies if you're desperate for a chance to backstab.

Whirling Blow: This move is terrible and should only be used when you can guarantee you'll strike at least three targets (preferably four or more), or if you like spinning in place like a pretty ballerina. In PvP, it can also be useful for preventing objective caps, but watch out for the Force Cost.

Force of Will: Your CC breaker as a Jedi Consular. In PvE, just use it any time you're stunned for more than a second. Your speed should be used for breaking immobilizes and snares instead. In PvP, try to reserve it for when you have a white bar of resolve, unless you absolutely need to break an objective cap by the enemy or something.

Force Speed: You can do it every 30 seconds, and it increases speed enough to basically ignore most snares (though not immobilizations.) Use it judiciously to avoid hazards (like in Hard Mode Directive 7), sprint right through hazards (in Huttball, but this is risky even when paired with Resilience), close gaps, etc.

Mind Control/Mass Mind Control: PvE, their usage is simple: don't. You're not a tank. In PvP, refer to the Kinetic Shadow overview.

Force Wave: There's about a 0.5s delay in activation on this ability, which can make prediction hard unless paired with a target who is already immobile. Force Wave is also the weakest KB in the game, with the least momentum behind it. Aside from the obvious 'knock someone into hazards or down cliffs' component of all knockback abilities, Force Wave should be used judiciously to some breathing room in PvP, such as immediately before a Cloak.

GEARING

As with all Consulars, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities. The Infiltration Shadow has essentially identical preferences for gearing in both PvE and PvP. You target the Stalker gearsets at 50, and lean heavily on critical hit chance in your passive gear upgrades, while picking up a bit of Surge rating here and there incidentally. Around 5% accuracy from gear is useful - much more and you are subject to diminishing returns that reduce the value of the gear. Your adrenals and active-use relics will prefer to be Surge Rating and Power so that they can be used in conjunction with your Potency. Accuracy Rating is of minimal importance, and I would strive to minimize it in your gear whenever possible. In PvP, Expertise Rating will be your single most important statistic.

[aname=specBal]BALANCE SHADOWS[/aname]

Playstyle: Periodic damage, self-healing; versatile range.

Technique: Force Technique

PvE Builds: Standard (7/3/31)

PvP Builds: Survivability (7/2/32), Upheaval (5/0/31+5), Balance Stab (0/10/31)

Which spec should I pick?: For PvE, there is only one choice up there. For PvP, I recommend Survivability, which deals a good amount of AoE pressure damage, can solo annoy at nodes best, and has a strong and easy single target damage. Upheaval is the more traditional Balance PvP and - with 4pForce Master - allows for the best kiting. The last has the highest burst damage available to Balance, but is the hardest to play.

Overview of Recent Changes:

The Balance Shadow is the only Melee/Range hybrid out of all six Jedi specializations; obviously, Madness Assassins hold the same distinction among their kin. It's notable for being the only type of Jedi Shadow that doesn't want to hurl a big rock or piece of scrap metal at someone every single possible cooldown; as you can see, it uses the largest range of completely unique skills as part of its damage rotation.

It's also unbelievably complicated to play compared to the other Shadow specs in PvE; maximizing your damage as a Balance Shadow involves very careful proc watching, managing your Force carefully, timing your cooldowns and a constant game of positioning. If you're familiar with the Wrath of the Lich King simplified feral druid DPS flowchart, it's like that. Especially if you do the Mad-Deception build, which is higher damage than the Standard, but is extremely complicated to play and monitor. By contrast, it's also probably the easiest Shadow specialization in PvP, as several moves are reserved for situational moments or used on CD rather than at specific times to maximize DPS. And no Shadow Strike.

The Balance Shadow has the highest potential DPS output over a sustained encounter making it a great boss DPS spec. It cannot compete with Infiltration's burst DPS for specific fights such as SoA and Fabricator Droid who have specific DPS burst phases. This doesn't however make the spec gimped or secondary. It is completely viable and capable of putting quite the hurt while offering means to self-heal and play a unique role in combat with its mix of range and melee.

A Balance shadow also glows briefly any time a DoT crits (and they're self-healed)

ABILITY OVERVIEW

Priority List (Standard):

1. Force in Balance (Even single target, every CD)

2. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less)

3. Mind Crush (Force Strike buff procs and you turn gold)

4. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness, behind target)

5. Sever Force (On a target not currently afflicted, or about to expire)

6. Force Breach (Recast on expiration)

7. Double Strike (bread and butter DPS spam for 2k+ damage totals)

8. Project (If Twin Disciplines is not active or expiring, very Force intensive so limit this)

9. Saber Strike (Conserving Force)

Double Strike: You have the strongest Double Strike of all three specializations, and it's worth noting that your Double Strike is better for you than Project.

Mind Crush: Only when Force Strike is active. Instant, no-cost Mind Crushes will give you a significant amount of burst, as well as regen from Force Suppression charges. Force Strike will also make you glow bright gold. Watching both the proc bar and your character become easier as you gain familiarity with the rotations.

Spinning Kick: This ability is most notable in PvP; it causes less than half a bar of resolve. Do not open with this ability at the start of the fight, but save it to disorient the opponent after vanishing with Force Cloak, particularly if the opponent is in mid-activation of a non-instant ability. You can also use Spinning Kick to buy you time to set up for a Shadow Strike backstab.

Force in Balance: Use it on cooldown. It deals a lot of direct damage, increases damage from your DoTs, and self-heals. Force Suppression charges are key to keeping your force up; Force In Balance restores 80 (against one target) to 240 (against three targets) force every minute. Be sure to put at least one DoT (Force Breach or Sever Force) on any target hit by Force In Balance. In PvP, it's particularly effective for breaking enemy attempts at capturing an objective - you can use it to blast someone around a corner - but beware its three person target cap.

Force Breach: In Force Technique, it's your strongest damage DoT, has a low force cost, and has no cooldown. In PvE, this DoT should be maintained on every target that isn't going to die in the next five seconds. This allows you to do a lot of sustained damage to many targets at once. In PvP, it's usually a good idea to keep this on all nearby targets; however, if focus damage is critical then don't worry about keeping it up on everyone.

Sever Force: In PvE, you simply use this ability on rotation - note that its cooldown is much shorter than its duration, so be careful of over-early reapplication. In PvP, its thirty meter range is your best friend; it can be used to stop opponents for two seconds, and does not respect Resolve; a well-timed Sever Force handles most of your anti-kiting needs and when well-timed, can kill a ball carrier over a fire pit.

Force Stun: It has a much longer CD than Spinning Kick, but is also a much longer stun. In PvP, when used on kill targets it should be reserved for targets who are already near their maximum resolve bar. It's also very handy to use on non-kill targets, of course, to prevent enemy ranged artillery and healers from freecasting. In PvE, it should be used similarly to Spinning Kick.

Force Lift: The primary incapacitate basically gives the opponent a full grey resolve bar from nothing. If the target has any grey on their resolve bar prior to casting, they will get a white resolve bar, granting them CC immunity until the bar drains completely. Any damage will break a Lift, but you will then get a secondary two-second stun. If the target did not already have a white resolve bar, this second stun will trigger and give them one. All in all, Lift is a risky and situational ability and I only recommend using it in PvP on a target you have no intention of killing or can guarantee that you will kill in 2-3 global cooldowns. In PvE, its benefits are slim.

Resilience: Any ability that doesn't deal 'weapon damage' in its description is affected by this ability. Use it together with Force Cloak to make a successful escape, use it offensively when you anticipate a cast, use it to remove all healer-removable enemy effects on you... It's on a short cooldown and grants you three seconds of near-immunity. It's particularly useful for running the ball in Huttball, or surviving boss damage traps like those on the final boss of Athiss or Eternity Vault. Resilience is not affected by nor causes a global cooldown. Jedi Knights and Scoundrels have some immobilizes and snares which Resilience does not grant immunity to.

Force Cloak: Obviously, a very useful defensive escape tool - but you cannot be healed while in it. You can use it offensively to lead into a Spinning Kick when it's absolutely vital.

Battle Readiness: The additional damage increase is fairly large - it can easily pan out to an additional 2000 damage while it's active, by itself - and gets even larger when timed with other cooldowns. Use it early, use it often. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Deflection: Amazing survivability CD in PvE. The 2 minute cooldown is short enough that you can use it multiple times in long boss fights like in operations: once early on, once in the middle, and then once towards the end. Most boss fights of any kind will allow at least two uses if the first is cycled early, so don't be too shy about saving it. In PvP, it's of limited function; it will provide a decent survivability bonus against specializations that rely heavily on weapon damage, such as the Infiltration Shadow, Sentinels and some Gunslingers; it is of less useless against those that primarily rely on tech or force damage, such as the Commando, and completely useless against a Sage. This ability does not respect the global cooldown.

Force Potency: Force in Balance and Telekinetic Throw are your best candidates to maximize the damage done by this ability, especially since in unison they allow you to briefly fight from well beyond the 10 meter range. Project benefits very little for a Balance Shadow.

Telekinetic Throw: Most situations where you think you might want to use Project, use Telekinetic Throw instead unless you absolutely need to keep moving, need to refresh Twin Disciplines, or are not likely to get at least one second of channel time with this ability. It is more efficient for damage and can never accidentally consume two Potency charges.

Project: Ideally, you should only use Project with Potency or when Twin Disciplines is about to fade. It's Force inefficient and hard to set up with your slow regeneration rate. In PvP, Project should be reserved for dealing with opponents when attempting to kite or gap close - the damage added by Twin Disciplines is unfortunately minor for PvP, as you need very high and consistent melee range uptime to make good use of it.

Whirling Blow: This move is terrible and should only be used when you can guarantee you'll strike at least four targets, or if you like spinning in place like a pretty ballerina. In PvP, it can also be useful for preventing objective caps, but watch out for the Force Cost.

Force of Will: Your CC breaker as a Jedi Consular. In PvE, just use it any time you're stunned for more than a second. Your speed should be used for breaking immobilizes and snares instead. In PvP, try to reserve it for when you have a white bar of resolve, unless you absolutely need to break an objective cap by the enemy or something.

Force Speed:You can do it every 30 seconds, and it increases speed enough to basically ignore most snares (though not immobilizations.) Use it judiciously to avoid hazards (like in Hard Mode Directive 7), sprint right through hazards (in Huttball, but this is risky even when paired with Resilience), close gaps, etc.

Mind Control/Mass Mind Control: PvE, their usage is simple: don't. You're not a tank. In PvP, refer to the Kinetic Shadow overview.

Force Wave: There's about a 0.5s delay in activation on this ability, which can make prediction hard unless paired with a target who is already immobile. Force Wave is also the weakest KB in the game, with the least momentum behind it. Aside from the obvious 'knock someone into hazards or down cliffs' component of all knockback abilities, Force Wave should be used judiciously to some breathing room in PvP, such as immediately before a Cloak.

GEARING

As with all Consulars, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities. Your gear priority in PvE and PvP is identical; you want Critical Rating and Surge Rating until the diminishing returns get too high. (Usually around 400 each.) Around 5% accuracy from gear is useful - much more and you are subject to diminishing returns that reduce the value of the gear. Your adrenals and active-use relics will prefer to be Surge Rating and Power so that they can be used in conjunction with your Potency. In PvP, Expertise Rating will be your single most important statistic.

The problem is gearsets. You can simply use the Stalker sets for PvE, but for PvP, you will want to use modified Force-Master item sets, taking out the Alacrity bonuses for Accuracy instead. The 2 piece bonus is immense. Depending on whether you use Project kiting regularly or prefer to slow to melee range more often, you may stick with Force-Master for the 4 piece bonus, or switch to Stalker for its 2 piece bonus.

[aname=shadowCompanion]SHADOW COMPANIONS[/aname]

To assist you in your missions, you'll build a small team of helpers over time. While they will remain with you regardless of how you treat them, making sure that they like you is important; a companion who likes and respects you will craft faster and perform skill missions more successfully. To avoid accidental spoilers, each companion is listed in a dropdown beneath their planet.

TYTHON

CORUSCANT

NAR SHADDAA

BALMORRA

HOTH

BELSAVIS

SECRET COMPANION

[aname=equipShadow]EQUIPPING A SHADOW[/aname]

Handling your way across your starter world of Tython as a Jedi Consular should be pretty simple, for the most part. However, your masters and lessons do not really explain a lot about gearing, and I feel that it is useful to have a reference list available here. If you're looking for specific gearing instructions per specialization, look back at the final paragraph for each specialization instead. This is general information.

All characters use one primary ability score of Aim, Cunning, Strength or Willpower. All four of these abilities has a specialized purpose. Aim will only increase your ranged damage and critical chance, Cunning will only increase your tech damage and critical chance, Strength will only increase your melee damage and critical chance, and Willpower will only increase your Force damage and critical chance. Normally, anyway.

Each base class has a different primary ability score. A primary ability score equally improves both of the damage vectors which your class will use. Through the Force, all things are possible; Willpower is the primary score for Consulars and Inquisitors, and grants both Melee Damage and Force Damage, as a result. This holds true for the Shadow and Assassin advanced classes, but the Sage and Sorcerer advanced classes uniquely lose this dual benefit.

Presence measures your ability to inspire, lead, and guide your companions. A higher presence score will increase your companion's health, damage and healing. Companions take up the party slot of a player, but are less effective than a player; if you intend to do a lot of content which requires full or nearly full groups, it's not wise to invest much into presence.

Endurance, simply enough, improves one's raw health.

Secondary stats are available, which add more complexity to the matter.

Absorption Rating: Increases the amount of damage blocked by a successful shield reaction. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Accuracy Rating: Grants additional hit, and then reduces the opponent's defense once past 100%. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Generally not a very good stat for Shadows.

Alacrity Rating: A secondary stat which improves the speed of activation time for non-instant abilities. It does not affect the Global Cooldown for instant abilities. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Critical Rating: Improves the chance of a critical hit. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Defense Rating: Improves the chance of a avoiding an attack. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Expertise Rating: Increases damage and healing done, and reduces damage taken, but only in PvP. A maximum of 20% effectiveness. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Force Power: A secondary stat which improves Force Ability damage and healing only.

Power: A secondary stat which improves damage and healing from all sources.

Shield Rating: Increases the chance that a shield reaction is triggered against an attack. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Surge Rating: Improves the effect of a critical hit. Base Surge is +50%. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Tech Power: A secondary stat which improves Tech Ability damage and healing only.

[aname=crewSkills]CREW SKILLS

[/aname]

Money can get you everything.

Those of you coming from World of Warcraft post-Classic are familiar with the skill layout of that game, where every single craft skill had to have a mechanically advantageous thing that it 'owned' (each of them being roughly as good as the others). Several of the crafting skills in that game effectively were worthless to anyone besides the wielder, to boot.

That is not how this game works, mechanically. Every single crew skill mechanical perk originates from the fact that you're getting the benefit cheaper or earlier than someone who does not have your craft skill. For example, anyone can use medpacks; only a Biochem producer can get a reusable medpack, which costs more to craft but will never get used up. You do not need to be an artificer to upgrade your lightsaber; artificers make the upgrades, you just buy them and insert them into the lightsaber yourself. Etc. The other thing is that all of the crafting skills have some sort of aesthetic option which is unique to them, and these are among the rare bind-on-pickup items that cannot be given to anyone else.

Therefore, there are three approaches to take when choosing your Crew Skill layout: Do I want to get something that will save me money on a reusable I want a lot of, do I want to get something that will make me a lot of money, or do I want to get something that will give me a unique visual perk? It cannot be stressed enough that crafting of any kind while leveling up will only be of limited use; you will always end up ahead in credits while leveling by not crafting anything. It becomes a question of time and money spent now, versus time and money spent later to either level up your own craft skill or constantly purchasing everything you need.

To make your decision, you need to have a good grasp of what can be made by each craft skill. You have access to three crew skills per character; a maximum of one may be a craft skill, and it's recommended that the other two be a gathering skill and a mission skill which support that craft skill. Everything is oriented around the crafting skills; mission skills provide a nice little bit of flavor, but are essentially a second gathering skill oriented around the rarer materials that cannot be obtained through direct gathering.

It's important to note that you will not automatically get all of the important recipes for Craft Skills from the skill itself, even by reverse-engineering; you will need to get some of these schematics from the Galactic Trade Network. It's also important to note that you will always lose money by sending crew members to do missions, as the point is more to raise your skill and gain materials while not being out in the field yourself. If it was strictly superior to self-gathering, no one would ever do it.

I'll go over each of the Crew Skills in brief - each section will contain the Crew Skill's codex entry, followed by my input.

CRAFTING SKILLS

UPDATE: There are some changes regarding Crew Skills and 1.2. This section will be updated as these changes become more specific. The patch is still on the test server but once it is released this will be updated.

You may only have one of these skills on your character. If you take one of these, it is your most important skill. As noted above, once you get to endgame, you are not getting unique mechanical perks from what you make via these skills; you're just getting it cheaper, easier, prettier, faster, or reusable. For leveling content, they do create some unique stuff for lower levels, so rich rerollers will make purchases from dedicated crafters a lot.

ARMORMECH

ARMSTECH

ARTIFICE

BIOCHEM

CYBERTECH

SYNTHWEAVING

GATHERING SKILLS

Gathering skills are skills which you or your companion may employ in the field, when you see an appropriate resource. They supply the basic materials used in crafting skills. You may send your companions on gathering missions which cost money, but provide you with skill-point appropriate resources. There is a chance for your companion to fail when deployed on missions (I believe it is related to their affection), but it will always give you a skill point even if they fail. Out of your maximum of three crew skills, all three may be gathering skills.

ARCHAEOLOGY

BIOANALYSIS

SCAVENGING

SLICING

MISSION SKILLS

Mission skills function identical to Gathering skills which cannot be personally collected; you need your companion to do them. They provide the rare resources used in crafting skills as well as providing a host of other benefits, such as giving you companion gifts to raise their affection, rare schematics, and sometimes rare equipment. Out of your maximum of three crew skills, all three may be mission skills.

DIPLOMACY

INVESTIGATION

TREASURE HUNTING

UNDERWORLD TRADING

If you read all that and are confused still - or didn't read all of that, because it's a lot to chew through, that's okay. You just want the bottom line on which three crew skills I recommend, right? I've arranged them into sets of three based on what your main selling market is.

PvE Endgame: Synthweaving, Artifice, Treasure Hunting

PvP Endgame: Biochem, Bioanalysis, Diplomacy == Cybertech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading

Self-Leveling: Biochem, Bioanalysis, Diplomacy == Cybertech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading >> Artifice, Archaeology, Treasure-Hunting

Simple Money-Making: Pick any three: Slicing, Investigation, Diplomacy, Bioanalysis, Scavenging, Biochem

Do not pick: Armstech

[aname=appFAQ]APPENDIX: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS[/aname]

Q: How do I become a Jedi Shadow?

Q: I just became a Jedi Shadow. When do I get a Double-Bladed Lightsaber?

Q: I just became a Jedi Shadow. Where do I train my Shadow skills?

Q: Where can I respecialize my character?

Q: When can I get my speeder?

Q: I'm coming from WoW. Do these skill specializations have any resemblance to stuff from there?

Q: I'm coming from Star Wars Galaxies/other MMO. Do these skill specializations have any resemblance to stuff from there?

Q: Do I have to use a Double-Bladed Lightsaber?

Q: Do we have to wear robes? Can we wear pants?

Q: Can we really keep stuff the whole game and just keep modding it?

Q: Do the lightsaber animations ever look better?

Q: What's the best Skill Specialization for leveling?

Q: What's the difference between Jedi Sage and Jedi Shadow in the Balance tree?

Q: Is the Jedi Shadow a main tank or an off-tank?

Q: What's the difference between the three types of tanks?

Q: Should I play a Jedi Sentinel or a Jedi Shadow?

Q: Should I play a Scoundrel or a Jedi Shadow?

Q: I'm going to do PvE. Does the Balance or Infiltration tree do higher max DPS?

Q: What's the difference between an Assassin and a Shadow?

Q: I want to play a Movie Jedi; is this the class for me?

Q: What's the story like?

Q: Why don't tanks take the Shadowy Veil skill?

Q: Who is the best target to Guard, as a tank?

Q: Do we get any evil companions?

Q: Which abilities are off of the Global Cooldown?

Q: Does Telekinetic Throw qualify as a periodic damage ability?

More questions to be added as needed later.

[aname=appGlossary]APPENDIX: MMO GLOSSARY[/aname]

Activation Time: The amount of time used before an ability finishes its animations and triggers. Generally, being attacked during an activation causes pushback, and movement will cancel the activation.

AoE: Area-of-Effect ability. Refers to an ability that strikes an area, hitting all targets within that space. AoE abilities which only affect targets in melee range of the user are called Point-Blank Area-of-Effect, or PBAoE.

CC: Crowd Control. In the MMORPG context, it is used to refer to abilities which can reduce the number of opponents being faced at a given moment, without actually defeating one of them. Several abilities have crowd control effects which only trigger on Weak and Standard enemies, and will not work on Strong, Elite or Boss NPCs, or enemy players.

Channeled Ability: An ability of this kind begins triggering immediately, but does not finish until the activation bar is entirely depleted. If this ability is ended early for any reason, then you will not get the full effect of the ability, even though you have paid the full cost. Pushback on a channeled ability will cause the ability to end early. Moving, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, will always end a channeled ability prematurely. Alacrity does not affect channeled abilities.

Defender: See TANK.

DOT: Damage-over-time. See PERIODIC DAMAGE.

DPS: Literally, damage-per-second. It is also commonly used to refer to those characters who have damage-dealing as their primary mechanical mission. See STRIKER.

Global Cooldown: A 1.5 second delay after activating any instant ability, preventing you from activating the majority of other abilities. Successfully triggered non-instant abilities do not induce a global cooldown (or if they do, they generate one that is too low to reach via current alacrity values.) A rare few abilities are not affected by the Global Cooldown.

Interrupt: Broadly, any reason that an ability with an activation or channeling time is suddenly cancelled. More specifically, an ability that always causes cancellation of the target's non-instant ability, and adds a cooldown before the target can attempt that ability again. They are sometimes sorted into the mutually exclusive categories of Soft Interrupt (which does not add a cooldown to the targeted ability) and Hard Interrupt. Mind Snap is a Jedi Shadow's interrupt, and Jolt is a Sith Assassin's.

Kiting: Using abilities and careful positioning to force a melee-primary opponent to follow another person at a distance like a kite - a successful example of kiting minimizes the amount of close-range time the melee-primary character is able to get.

Knockback: Not the same as pushback, knockback refers to a character being forcibly moved by another character (usually backwards).

OOF: Out of Force (points.) When you've exhausted your resource bar.

Periodic Damage: An effect which causes damage over time on a regular basis, such as every second or every three seconds, without further input from the user.

Proc: A "Programmed Random Occurence." Essentially, a proc is any ability which activates randomly. If you have an ability which has a 10% chance to heal you in addition to its primary effect, that heal effect would be considered a proc.

Pushback: Not the same as knockback, pushback refers to an unexpected delay during the activation of a non-instant ability, or causing a pulse on a channeled ability to fail. Pushback is caused by taking damage from any hostile source during the activation of the ability. Several skills mitigate or remove pushback on specific abilities.

Resolve: A bar which fills up whenever a character is incapacitated or moved against their will in anyway by another player. It slowly depletes when not recently increased. When the bar is completely filled, the character becomes immune to all player stuns, pulls, knockdowns and knockbacks for the next eight seconds, before the bar drains entirely. Snares and roots ignore Resolve completely.

Root: An ability which forces a character to remain stationary.

Snare: An ability which slows down a character's movement speed, but they are still capable of moving.

Striker: A character whose primary role in a group setting is to deal damage to the opponents. See DPS.

Tank: A character whose primary role in a group setting is to attract the enemy's attention and keep harmful damage away from other squad members.

Utility: Reference to abilities which do not directly relate to healing, damage dealing, or tanking but are combat-useful nonetheless.

[aname=appKeyBind]KEYBINDS[/aname]

ASTRALFIRE'S BINDS

Warning: I have a Razer Naga mouse, which has a NumPad on the side of the mouse, so my bind layouts will not be that useful to someone without the same mouse. If someone would like to offer their own bindmaps with common mice (incl. the standard two-button), I might post them.

These binds were designed for a PvP Kinetic Shadow.

[aname=appDictionary]SHADOW <-> ASSASSIN DICTIONARY[/aname]

If an ability name isn't included, it is identically named across the two classes. Some of the more common skills are included as well.

Shadow to Assassin

Assassin to Shadow

[aname=appChangeLog]CHANGELOG

[/aname]

All versions will be under the 2.0 numbering system with future large patch and content changes coming this guide will be updated accordingly. I do not want to over-complicate this and therefore will be sticking to a more basic numbering system. Versions will only increment for large content updates. Smaller changes and edits are handled elsewhere.

v2.0 - Updated formatting and FAQ for better readability of questions.

v2.0.1 - Updated information for 1.2 Patch including Combat Parser and related information - April 14, 2012

v2.1.0 - Updated information for Content Patch 1.3 "Allies"

v2.1.1 - Updated Skill trees for each of the spec lines possible

v2.1.1a - Updated a new section based on Patch 1.3 to define the role of Augment slots int he various spec paths.

[aname=appAdvancedRead]Advanced Reading[/aname]

Tanking: A Primer is an essential guide to the comparative abilities of tanks. End-game PvE tanks should consider this a must-read.

The Sith Assassin's Codex, the Imperial version of this guide.

MainTankasin.net is a Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin-oriented tank discussion site.

Sith Warrior is quickly turning into the numbers place for Star Wars: the Old Republic, if you want the people who do the real hardcore thinking I can only paw at.

The Consular's Codex is a resource for Jedi Sage Healers run by a friend of mine, if you're looking to run another Consular or find that the Shadow isn't for you.

CitizenSnipe has a useful channel that contains a lot of video of infiltration PvP, some balance hybrid PvE, and some tank hybrid PvP.

TORHead is always full of good information.

Powerr's Jedi Shadow PvP Tanking Guide.

Powerr's Infiltration Burst Damage Guide.

[aname=appCombatParser]APPENDIX: Combat Parser Log *New*[/aname]

This will be a compiled guide of some community Shadows parses on Combat Dummies. As we get more people posting I will improve the list and have a better idea of what information people need to relay. Here are some benchmarks that you Shadows should trying to achieve.

*Note* If you post your Parse try to also post a list of your Gear hosted on AskMrRobot or another site.

*Note* Credit goes to Veimi for the parses. Thanks Veimi! Appreciate your efforts here!

About skill names in the parses:

- Crushed (Force) = Force Breach with Force Technique

- Crushed = Telekinetic Throw

- Dark Spike = Proc from Dark Energy Surge relic

PvE Tank Parses by Zintair

I have found the average a Shadow tank should be able to DPS is around 400-600 DPS through the Hardmode Raids.

This makes sense based on how threat is calculated when max parsing DPSers usually sit in the 1400s on the training dummies.

Shadow Tank Parse Numbers

DPS: 550-700

HPS: 200-300

Numbers in the instances may be different based on the fights/mechanics.

For example on trash pulls a tank may use more utility then a full DPS rotation thus lowering the DPS/HPS.

[aname=appAugmentSlots]APPENDIX: AUGMENT SLOTS *NEW*[/aname]

Patch 1.3

With the arrival of patch 1.3 there is now the chance that you can add an augment slot to all 14 pieces of gear you can wear. This includes:

Earpiece //Mainhand // Head

Implant#1 // Offhand // Chest

Implant#2 // Gloves

Wrist // Belt

Relic#1 // Pants

Relic#2 // Boots

This gives you the potential to add 252pts of a main stat and 168 points of a secondary stat of your choosing to your gear.

22 level Augments give 18 pts of the main stat and 12 of the secondary. Multiply those numbers by the 14 augment slots you can have to come to those numbers. These are important points and should reflect how your character is built.

Kinetic Combat

Depending on your gear level you have a few different directions you can take your augment slots. What you need to keep in mind is the diminishing returns boundary of each of your secondary tanking stats ie. Defense/Shield and Absorb.

Reaching the highest level of gear has pushed me over the line on all three of these to provide a much lower amount of bonus for the points invest. This MAY not be the case for you. If you are newer and in some form of Columi or Rakata you may want to invest more in some added Defense or Shield and Absorb.

The levels you theoretically want to achieve are as follows.

Defense Rating: 27-29%

Shield Rating: 46-52%

Absorb Rating: ~50%

Once you reach these levels you will no longer be receiving a worthwhile bonus from the points invested. If you wish to push them further that's fine and WILL work. At one point I was able to reach 30% Defense 50% Shield and 54% Absorb without Kinetic Ward up. Recently however I am experimenting with Resolve 22 Augments which gives 18Willpower/12Endurance.

Do we need more DPS for threat? No. Not after the changes to threat in 1.3. Considering we've already discussed the merits of continuing to add secondary tanking augments (Shield/Defense/Absorb) it's now then a debate of Resolve vs Fortitude.

Resolve 22 Augment

18 Willpower

12 Endurance

Fortitude 22 Augment

18 Endurance

12 Power

252 Willpower 168 Endurance

252 Endurance 168 Power

Willpower is better over power because it is our main stat and therefore governs more damage specifically crit chance % as well as bonus damage. The difference in endurance is 840 HP. The choice is really up to the user. The added HP won't give you too much more HealsPerSecond but for min/maxers might be a preference.

Infiltration

((Coming soon))

Balance

((Coming soon))

This guide has been at the minimum completely transferred and fully formatted. The links should all be working and the tags should all function as well. If people are interested in keeping this information relevant help me Sticky it.

More updates to come as I change some things that are not quite the case since 1.1.5 and the addition of 1.2 coming April.

Just wanted to add that double strike(spec'd balance) does more damage than clairvoyant strike. Inf use CV primarily to gain the bonuses for project.

Just a little tidbit.

Also, I'm geared in rakata and some columni, so figure in the 15% extra crit to DS spams from the 4pc.

Almost forgot. At all current gear levels balance will outdps infiltrator in all pve situations that longer than 8-12 secs. Infiltrator has the better burst(marginally). Balance has the better sustained dps(marginally). In case you wanted to add that flavor to the guide.

One last item, balance's optimal rotation should not include Project as it is a force waster and you receive much better results going into a DS spam, especially true after one achieves 4pc set from gearing.

Just wanted to add that double strike(spec'd balance) does more damage than clairvoyant strike. Inf use CV primarily to gain the bonuses for project.

 

Just a little tidbit.

 

Also, I'm geared in rakata and some columni, so figure in the 15% extra crit to DS spams from the 4pc.

 

Almost forgot. At all current gear levels balance will outdps infiltrator in all pve situations that longer than 8-12 secs. Infiltrator has the better burst(marginally). Balance has the better sustained dps(marginally). In case you wanted to add that flavor to the guide.

 

One last item, balance's optimal rotation should not include Project as it is a force waster and you receive much better results going into a DS spam, especially true after one achieves 4pc set from gearing.

I agree 100% with this newer information. This is the very next stage I am doing is going back through everything and updating for more current feedback. Thanks for the update with Balance. I've recently made the switch as well from Inf in my raids when I DPS too.

Updated the force potency correction under KC as well as improved the Balance section to better describe the priority list and mechanics behind why Project isn't so high on the list anymore due to inefficiency. I left it in the rotation for Twin Disciplines buff if its possible to keep it up.

Truthfully when you reach 30+% crit your Force regen should allow you to drop a few Project bombs with Potency up if you don't want to use it on FiB for AoE reasons.

You asked me for feedback on this in another thread, so here goes.

Priority List (Standard):

 

1. Force in Balance (Even single target, every CD)

2. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less)

3. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness, behind target)

4. Mind Crush (Force Strike buff, preferentially on an unafflicted target)

5. Sever Force (On a target not currently afflicted, or about to expire)

6. Force Breach (every CD or until DoT expires on boss)

7. Double Strike (bread and butter DPS spam for 2k+ damage totals)

8. Project (If Twin Disciplines is not active or expiring, very Force intensive so limit this)

9. Saber Strike (Conserving Force)

I would suggest swapping Mind Crush with Shadow Strike. Using Mind Crush more frequently will raise your force efficiency, as it's free. It also self-heals and does really high damage. Since it has a higher proc rate and lower proc limit, I think it's more important to keep Mind Crush going than to use Shadow Strike.

Force in Balance: Use it on cooldown. It deals a lot of armor-bypassing damage and heals a moderate amount on each usage. Force Suppression allows it to return Force to you, but you will always lose more Force than you gain on a cast unless you're using a Force Striked Mind Crush. It's particularly effective for breaking enemy attempts at capturing an objective - you can use it to blast someone around a corner - but beware its three person target cap.

I would change it to something like this:

Force in Balance: Use it on cooldown. It deals a lot of direct damage, increases damage from your DoTs, and self-heals. Force Suppression charges are key to keeping your force up; Force In Balance restores 80 (against one target) to 240 (against three targets) force every minute. Be sure to put at least one DoT (Force Breach or Sever Force) on any target hit by Force In Balance. In PvP, it's particularly effective for breaking enemy attempts at capturing an objective - you can use it to blast someone around a corner - but beware its three person target cap.

That better describes what it's used for, and points out that you need to keep a DoT on every target it hits.

Force Breach: In Force Technique, it's your strongest damage DoT, and a basic part of your cycle. In Combat Technique, it functions like a cheaper (20 cost versus 30 cost) and weaker version of Slow Time that bypasses standard armor-based damage reduction. It has double the cooldown length, and deals less damage even against heavily armored targets. -5% accuracy is also a significantly weaker debuff than -5% damage in PvP, though it's the other way around in PvE. It's useful and necessary, but not very fun or compelling. Reserve it for cap breaking or very large crowds.

Having the information for the Combat Technique version of this skill is unnecessary and confusing (to new Shadows). Any Balance Shadow should be in Force Technique. Suggested update:

Force Breach: In Force Technique, it's your strongest damage DoT, has a low force cost, and has no cooldown. In PvE, this DoT should be maintained on every target that isn't going to die in the next five seconds. This allows you to do a lot of sustained damage to many targets at once. In PvP, it's usually a good idea to keep this on all nearby targets; however, if focus damage is critical then don't worry about keeping it up on everyone.

Sever Force: In PvE, you simply use this ability on rotation - note that its cooldown is much shorter than its duration, so be careful of over-early reapplication. In PvP, its thirty meter range is your best friend; it can be used to stop opponents for two seconds, and does not respect Resolve; a well-timed Sever Force handles most of your anti-kiting needs and when well-timed, can kill a ball carrier over a fire pit, or prevent successful enemy capture of a point until you're able to return from the dead. However, if you suspect that you will need to use Force Lift on a target soon, do not use this ability on that target.

This no longer prevents people from capturing and objective. Additionally, the information about Force Lift really isn't necessary, since that applies to all DoTs. I'd recommend taking that off here and putting it into the Force Lift description.

Resilience: Any ability that doesn't deal 'weapon damage' in its description is affected by this ability. Use it together with Force Cloak to make a successful escape, use it offensively when you anticipate a cast, use it to remove all healer-removable enemy effects on you... It's on a short cooldown and grants you five seconds of near-immunity. It's particularly useful for running the ball in Huttball, or surviving boss damage traps like those on the final boss of Athiss or Eternity Vault. Resilience is not affected by nor causes a global cooldown. Jedi Knights and Scoundrels have some immobilizes and snares which Resilience does not grant immunity to.

This only provides three seconds of immunity for a Balance Shadow.

Mind Crush: Only when Force Strike is active. Instant, no-cost Mind Crushes will give you a significant amount of burst, as well as regen from Force Suppression charges. The only bad part is that you'll have to watch your buff bar closely as there is no easily noticed visual indicator of this somewhat rarely activated ability.

Force Strike actually makes you glow bright gold. A Balance shadow also glows briefly any time a DoT crits (and they're self-healed), which makes it harder to spot. However, after playing Balance for a little while it becomes pretty easy to see as long as Resilience isn't up.

As with all Consulars, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities. Your gear priority in PvE and PvP is identical; you want Critical Rating and Surge Rating until the diminishing returns get too high. (Usually around 400 each.) Around 5% accuracy from gear is useful - much more and you are subject to diminishing returns that reduce the value of the gear. Your adrenals and active-use relics will prefer to be Surge Rating and Power so that they can be used in conjunction with your Potency. In PvP, Expertise Rating will be your single most important statistic.

 

The problem is gearsets. You can simply use the Stalker sets for PvE, but for PvP, you will want to use modified Force-Master item sets, taking out the Alacrity bonuses for Accuracy instead. The 2 piece bonus is immense. Depending on whether you use Project kiting regularly or prefer to slow to melee range more often, you may stick with Force-Master for the 4 piece bonus, or switch to Stalker for its 2 piece bonus.

Two pieces of feedback here. First, you need to specifiy whether you're talking about the PvP sets or PvE sets. Our PvE Stalker 4-piece bonus is incredible, but the 4-piece for PvP Stalker is almost worthless.

Also, I think you should change to reflect a higher focus on crit. In my Opinion, every Balance Shadow should have a minimum of 25% base crit. A large part of our damage comes from our crit rate. All of our DoTs and FiB have a 30% crit multiplier bonus, and Double Strike (our bread and butter spam skill) has +50% crit multiplier. Crits also give us a large amount of mitigation. That constant stream of self-heals adds up quickly.

I've found the crit+surge relic and power adrenal to make a better combination. The added crit rate means even more self-healing, and the surge/power means more sustained DPS. Also, Accuracy is a low priority for us. A large portion of our damage comes from force skills, and our only proc has a really high chance to activate. A Balance Shadow should definitely not go above 5% Accuracy if they can avoid it.

Hope that helps!

Oh, and one other thing! Balance should get the gold color scheme. Balance Shadows are cosnstantly flashing/glowing gold, and all of our force skills involve golden energy/light. Stick Infiltration with purple

HAHA ok taking care of these corrections. Appreciate the detailed feedback for the community. Most of this is a month + out of date. I'll be going through Kinetic Combat with a fine tooth comb tonight.

Could also use an Infiltration specialist to help check that section and make sure everything is in order.

Thanks again Philosomanic, appreciate you taking the time to help.

Thanks for changing the color scheme! Two other small things I noticed:

Priority List (Standard):

 

1. Force in Balance (Even single target, every CD)

2. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less)

3. Mind Crush (Force Strike buff, preferentially on an unafflicted target)

4. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness, behind target)

5. Sever Force (On a target not currently afflicted, or about to expire)

6. Force Breach (every CD or until DoT expires on boss)

7. Double Strike (bread and butter DPS spam for 2k+ damage totals)

8. Project (If Twin Disciplines is not active or expiring, very Force intensive so limit this)

9. Saber Strike (Conserving Force)

Mind Crush has a duration of six seconds, and the proc (Force Strikes) can only apply every 7.5s or more. The base cooldown is 15s. This means that it's virtually impossible to apply to an already-afflicted target. You'd have to use the cast-time, high-cost version, proc Force Strikes, and then use the instant-cast version. Maybe take that part out?

Mind Crush: Only when Force Strike is active. Instant, no-cost Mind Crushes will give you a significant amount of burst, as well as regen from Force Suppression charges. The only bad part is that you'll have to watch your buff bar closely as there is no easily noticed visual indicator of this somewhat rarely activated ability. Force Strike actually makes you glow bright gold.

"There is no visual indicator. On an unrelated note, this makes you light up gold."

Think you can spot the issue there . Also, maybe you should move this up the list a bit? It's one of our five essential rotation skills, so it doesn't belong among the other lesser-used skills. It's in the right place for Kinetic/Infiltration (who should never use it, ever), but for Balance it deserves a nicer view.

Both change have been made including moving it up the list to a more prominent spot. Thanks again! You have no idea how much your helping haha! It's so hard to catch these small scale mistakes when dealing with transfer of constantly changing information haha.

EDIT: Also gave you a special thanks for the help (which goes for anyone who can help me make this guide completely error free and updated. After all this guide is for YOU the community.

<3

Hey everybody!

We just wanted to say thanks to all of you who are helping and contributing to this great thread, as well as a special thanks to the OP for taking on this endeavor!

We really appreciate it!

Both change have been made including moving it up the list to a more prominent spot. Thanks again! You have no idea how much your helping haha! It's so hard to catch these small scale mistakes when dealing with transfer of constantly changing information haha.

 

EDIT: Also gave you a special thanks for the help (which goes for anyone who can help me make this guide completely error free and updated. After all this guide is for YOU the community.

 

<3

Thanks! I'm glad to help.

Ideally, this guide would be maintained by three people, each one an expert in one spec. I'm really knowledgeable about Balance, but I don't feel good enough about the others to give much advice. I know the basics, but I haven't really played them enough to really know what works.

Also, I enjoy how you added a line saying that Balance glows every time a DoT crits

EDIT: Ooh, Dev post. Cool ^^

Also, I enjoy how you added a line saying that Balance glows every time a DoT crits

VERY NICE job putting this updated handbook up!

Thanks! I'm glad to help.

 

Ideally, this guide would be maintained by three people, each one an expert in one spec. I'm really knowledgeable about Balance, but I don't feel good enough about the others to give much advice. I know the basics, but I haven't really played them enough to really know what works.

 

Also, I enjoy how you added a line saying that Balance glows every time a DoT crits

 

EDIT: Ooh, Dev post. Cool ^^

Agreed thats sort of where my mind was taking it as well. 3 Shadows who play the majority of their time in either KC/Bal/Inf.

I am mostly Kinetic so can handle that and with Philosomanic helping me with Balance we are set on two, just need someone who is really particular to Infiltration. I can work with it for now but it is my least used spec out of the three.

Never noticed but gotta check it next time I'm balance. I stopped watching procs on char after coming from sith assassin -> shadow because infiltration tactics didn't glow like it does on sith. Which is a shame.

Yeah, Balance shadows glow constantly. You flash gold for almost a second every time a DoT crits or FiB heals you, you glow gold when Force Strikes is up, and you glow even brighter gold when Resilience is up. Also, your three force skills all involve golden light effects.

Way cooler looking than yoyo lightsaber Infiltrations or junk-throwing Kinetcs surrounded by floating junk

Thanks! I'm glad to help.

 

Ideally, this guide would be maintained by three people, each one an expert in one spec. I'm really knowledgeable about Balance, but I don't feel good enough about the others to give much advice. I know the basics, but I haven't really played them enough to really know what works.

 

Also, I enjoy how you added a line saying that Balance glows every time a DoT crits

 

EDIT: Ooh, Dev post. Cool ^^

I vote Kitru for Kinetic!

Guy knows everything about everything.

Yeah, Balance shadows glow constantly. You flash gold for almost a second every time a DoT crits or FiB heals you, you glow gold when Force Strikes is up, and you glow even brighter gold when Resilience is up. Also, your three force skills all involve golden light effects.

 

Way cooler looking than yoyo lightsaber Infiltrations or junk-throwing Kinetcs surrounded by floating junk

Oh great. . . now instead of being largely unnoticed, we get the Look-at-me-I-glow-please-come-kill-me aura.

I like subtle visual cues, like the jedi knight's saber flare up whenever they can riposte. Glowy aura is a little over the top for a class that's suppose to be "shadowy" and "subtle."

Oh great. . . now instead of being largely unnoticed, we get the Look-at-me-I-glow-please-come-kill-me aura.

 

I like subtle visual cues, like the jedi knight's saber flare up whenever they can riposte. Glowy aura is a little over the top for a class that's suppose to be "shadowy" and "subtle."

I dunno, it's a lot better than ridiculous pink and purple lightning flying across the battlefield directly from your oh see easily seen character.

I think that it's pretty good because it's not like there's something that can be done about it. Its instant cast, no one is going to be able to see the golden color and immediately know to CC. If they do, you'll eventually get full resolved especially if they need to CC from range as those are the higher resolve hitters.

Not to mention the Champ robes are yellowish/ brownish on the stalker.

By the way: Anyone else have ended up trying build 3/35/3? Made it up myself 2 days back and loving it. I don't miss upheaval that eats up my potency charges and also it's not guaranteed to get extra rocks even if you go upheaval so you can't trust in it.

+ Battle readiness more often(results more damage)

+ Cheaper whirling blow(pve and occasionally in pvp too for example to prevent multiple cappers)

+ Stronger armor penetration(results more damage with right conditions)

+ A bit better slow(noticed it's barely long enough to be very useful)

- No more 45% chance to get extra rock when using project. Which eats potency and is only 50% of the damage vs normal rock.

On a different note. Build 5/33/3 wich is mentioned in a handbook seems pretty bad. "Applied force" but no "Celerity". That's a bad choice imo and shouldn't be encouraged. Once it's fixed the build starts looking like my 3/35/3. I play all specs so I'm not infiltration specialist but I think this error in a build seems obvious. What do you all think?