High Voltage (Deception) seems quite broken because Voltage is kept between Ball Lightnings.

Basically means we can use B.L. every 3 abilities to boost Discharge's rate.

Either that or we can't use the other abilities enough and it ends up being a fake good idea.

I'll leave the set bonus / tactical discussions for smarter people than me.

I have questions about this bit, though:

Hey folks,

. You may see bonuses or tactical items which refer to ability charges. We are introducing new tech in Onslaught which will allow abilities to have multiple charges, meaning you can use them more then once (per charge) and the cooldown will simply add a charge up to the maximum.

-eric

Does that mean: you hit the button once to activate the ability, then you can use it again while the cooldown timer is running?

Thanks,

Brian

Assassin

• Shrouding Guard - Force Shroud also applies to any ally you are guarding.

This is just retarded from a PvP perspective where guarding already is a powerful utility to use, even for dps-specced players.

This is just retarded from a PvP perspective where guarding already is a powerful utility to use, even for dps-specced players.

Agreed.

Any chance of putting assassins death field radius back to something useful, it was reduced because it used to spread dots too much for a melee class, then you removed dot spread from it and put it on lacerate instead, your lucky if you can clip 2-3 targets with it these days, so the force slow spread item is going to be pretty much useless if it remains the current radius.

And will ask again since it never gets an answer, absorb mods for tanks and or shield absorb enhancements, tanks are putting dps into mod slots because the diminishing on 4k + Defense is insane, tank relics ... no one uses them due to no endurance all this stuff has been broken since 4.0 making tanks the most painful class to gear since 4.0

Is anyone really surprised why tanks are the hardest thing to find with the current game meta

SinTanks getting some cool buffs in 6.0, I just genuinely hope Juggernauts and Powertechs have equally measured options

Currently the amount of cheese Sins can pull in Operations far out-shines the other classes (granted, you have to have a degree of mechanical skill to pull it off), so I would like to see some more flavor options when/if we get to read the sets for Juggs/PT's. (If I may interject, the one thing I have found severely lacking for Juggernauts compared to the other 2 is a reward for Shielding attacks. Yes, you get the cost reduction on Scream/Vicious Throw, but compared to the Sin's Force Shroud CDR and the PT's Heat Blast CDR, Ability Resets, and Heat Reduction it just seems like Juggs don't get the same incentive to be mitigating...)

The following combinations seem a bit on the strong side to me.

Projected Shroud + Shrouding Guard

When guarding a tank this means 7s shared resilience (5 if the guarder is a dps). For PvE this is already long but I mainly fear for PvP balance.

In PvE this means you could have a shadow guarding another shadow which means a max of 14s resilience up time.

Projected Shroud + Shrouding Guard + shadow shroud

For this one you need 2 shadows.

shadow 1 = projected shroud + shrouding guard (can be dps or tank)

shadow 2 = projected shroud + shadow shroud (must be a tank)

shadow 1 uses resilience and shares it to shadow 2 ( 5s / 7s duration)

after this shadow 2 uses up all kinetic ward stacks and now has 10,75s resilience.

This means a total of 17,75s of resilience up time.

Obviously, you sacrifice shield and absorb with this. But situationally this is rather strong, to strong in my opinion.

[*]Shadowcraft - Using Phantom Stride from stealth grants a charge of Shadowcraft, causing your next attack to critically hit.

Would it be possible to go into detail about the design decisions for this particular bonus?

Assassins usually require a decent amount of setup to get to their 'big hitter' abilities (particularly deception). The way this bonus currently works basically requires you to blow your force cloak at odd times in PVP, making it entirely useless for the most part.

Perhaps it could be slightly reworked to function like one of the current set bonuses - "Stalker's Critical Bonus", only effecting specific abilities such as Maul. This would allow for a much more comfortable opener/stealth transition. Or you could completely do away with the crit and replace it with a large amount of alacrity for a few seconds, this would work much better as an 'opener' for all 3 specs since this new set bonus is class based rather than spec.

Though to be honest I'm not sure why the original crit set bonus was even changed, it worked fine and this new bonus simply doesn't fit both thematically and game-play wise with the phantom stride/stealth combo.

Hey folks,

 

Let's talk about what Spoils of War has in store for the Assassin! Below you will find the Assassin's new ability, the set bonuses that are planned for them, and a list of their new Tactical items. You may see bonuses or tactical items which refer to ability charges. We are introducing new tech in Onslaught which will allow abilities to have multiple charges, meaning you can use them more then once (per charge) and the cooldown will simply add a charge up to the maximum.

 

Keep in mind that all of this is subject to change

 

New Ability - Severing Slash

Strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. 12 second cooldown.

 

Set Bonuses

These bonuses will likely have the high end of piece requirements, such as requiring 4 or 6 pieces. The smaller piece bonuses will be more passive in nature (stat benefits, etc).

 

• Death Knell - Killing an enemy during Overcharge Saber refreshes the duration of Overcharge Saber. Can occur up to 5 times during one Overcharge Saber.
  
• Shadowcraft - Using Phantom Stride from stealth grants a charge of Shadowcraft, causing your next attack to critically hit.
  
• Deflecting Slashes - Each target hit by Severing Slash extends Deflection's duration by 1 second.
  
• Steely Spike - Using Spike grants you a 20% damage reduction for 6 seconds.
  
• Projected Shroud - Using Severing Slash while under Force Shroud lowers the targets accuracy and extends the duration of Force Shroud by 2 seconds.
  

 

Tactical Items

This a new item slot coming in Onslaught. You can only wear one Tactical Item at a time.

 

Assassin

• Shrouding Guard - Force Shroud also applies to any ally you are guarding.
  
• Reckless Shadow - Recklessness increases your Force regeneration greatly for a short time.
  
• Multitrap - Mind Trap can now affect up to two targets at once.
  
• Shadow Step - Phantom Stride now has 2 ability charges.
  

 

Darkness

• Shadow Shroud - Using Force Shroud while Dark Ward is active consumes it, but extends the duration of Force Shroud by a quarter of a second for each Dark Ward stack consumed.
  
• Shadow Ward - Dark Ward gains 5 additional stacks and Phantom Stride resets its cooldown.
  
• Redirected Wrath - Wither generates Redirected Wrath stacks per enemy it hits, increasing your damage reduction by 2.5% per stack for 10 seconds.
  

 

Deception

• Discharging Voltage - Severing Slash causes your next Discharge to arc to multiple targets.
  
• Burning Bolts - When Reaping Strike hits, it causes its target to burn.
  
• High Voltage - Using Voltaic Slash and Lacerate with 2 stacks of Voltage deals additional damage and finishes the cooldown of Ball Lightning.
  

 

Hatred

• Hungering Blade - Critically hitting with Leeching Strike resets its cooldown and increases the critical chance of the next Leeching Strike. Stacks up to 3 times.
  
• Exhaustion Field - Death Field does 10% more damage to all targets, additional damage to Force Slowed targets, and spreads Force Slow's effects.
  
• Thrashing Terror - Creeping Terror has a 10% chance to tick an additional time whenever Thrash deals damage.
  

As a note, if you are a Shadow player, you can expect to see these set bonuses mirrored for you as well, they are still in process.

 

Let us know your thoughts! Here are the types of feedback we are looking for. XX seems too strong or too weak. XX Set Bonus combined with XX Tactical seems too strong or too weak. I wish there was a Set Bonus or Tactical that had a specific effect or modified a specific ability not listed. Be as specific as possible in your feedback.

 

-eric

We need to see what amplifiers do as well!!

Set Bonuses

These bonuses will likely have the high end of piece requirements, such as requiring 4 or 6 pieces. The smaller piece bonuses will be more passive in nature (stat benefits, etc).

 

• Death Knell - Killing an enemy during Overcharge Saber refreshes the duration of Overcharge Saber. Can occur up to 5 times during one Overcharge Saber.
  
• Shadowcraft - Using Phantom Stride from stealth grants a charge of Shadowcraft, causing your next attack to critically hit.
  
• Deflecting Slashes - Each target hit by Severing Slash extends Deflection's duration by 1 second.
  
• Steely Spike - Using Spike grants you a 20% damage reduction for 6 seconds.
  
• Projected Shroud - Using Severing Slash while under Force Shroud lowers the targets accuracy and extends the duration of Force Shroud by 2 seconds.
  

So assassin is only pvp class now?

Death kernel has %0 use in pve. Stealthy spike has also %0 use in pve. Don't how the projected shroud is gonna work, but if it makes boss the miss an ability could be imported and use full. Can't comment on deflecting slash since I didn't see the new ability but again looks like a pvp, or best defensive on pve?

What is this? So all the old set bonuses are gone now? Where is critting maul?

Can you clarify that the ones you posted only tanks set bonuses not dps? They look like tank set bonuses to me

Really like most of these at least for deception I find that you can lack some aoe damage so new severing slash and the discharging voltage are looking awesome and just what I wanted. For burning bolts how is the burn damage gonna be calculated? Does it turn all the damage into a dot effect or is it additional and how is that additional calculated?

The hatred tree is one I don't have much time playing as but these new tacticals do make me want to test it out. Only thing is the high roll of 3 leeching strike in a row vs not getting the crit.

Most of the darkness tacticals and set bonuses seem very strong compared to the others. Shroud is one of the most powerful abilities in the game and having a shroud last for like 5 seconds on 2 people could really break alot of stuff. Not even considering ranked but just things like in normal pvp huttball will become a complete joke if you can shroud and run half way across the map during its duration.

Hatred spec need rework.

Even if you hit someone with Leeching strike 3 times in a row, you're probably gonna be out of the Force.

Hatred has the worst Force/Energy managment.

Death Field spread/Slow is just useless, since the range and radius is very small and the class itself is the most squishy there is.

Revert Death Field spread from 2.x era, from distance with bigger radius and up specs dmg reduction making their tankiness on pair with deception.

Overcharge Saber bonus, yeah, good luck with killing anyone who isnt on low hp while staying alive to do so.

Madness sorc is a tank compared to Hatred sin.

Also, Phase Walk, give it back.

Would it be possible to go into detail about the design decisions for this particular bonus?

Assassins usually require a decent amount of setup to get to their 'big hitter' abilities (particularly deception). The way this bonus currently works basically requires you to blow your force cloak at odd times in PVP, making it entirely useless for the most part.

 

Perhaps it could be slightly reworked to function like one of the current set bonuses - "Stalker's Critical Bonus", only effecting specific abilities such as Maul. This would allow for a much more comfortable opener/stealth transition. Or you could completely do away with the crit and replace it with a large amount of alacrity for a few seconds, this would work much better as an 'opener' for all 3 specs since this new set bonus is class based rather than spec.

 

Though to be honest I'm not sure why the original crit set bonus was even changed, it worked fine and this new bonus simply doesn't fit both thematically and game-play wise with the phantom stride/stealth combo.

I suspect the intent was a QoL change for the opener in PVE. Currently it's not optimal to open with Phantom Stride because you waste the ability to use the first Discharge under Recklessness (or if you popped Recklessness beforehand, you waste 3 static charges)

In current PVE it's optimal to use force speed to close the distance to the boss, then Recklessness + Discharge -> Phantom Stride + Discharge -> Ball Lightning.

With the new way:

Start in stealth -> Phantom Stride + Discharge (autocrit) -> Recklessness + Discharge -> Ball Lightning

If you combine with Shadow Step:

Start in stealth -> Phantom Stride + Discharge (autocrit) -> Recklessness + Discharge -> Phantom Stride + Discharge -> Ball Lightning

I suspect the intent was a QoL change for the opener in PVE. Currently it's not optimal to open with Phantom Stride because you waste the ability to use the first Discharge under Recklessness (or if you popped Recklessness beforehand, you waste 3 static charges)

 

In current PVE it's optimal to use force speed to close the distance to the boss, then Recklessness + Discharge -> Phantom Stride + Discharge -> Ball Lightning.

 

With the new way:

Start in stealth -> Phantom Stride + Discharge (autocrit) -> Recklessness + Discharge -> Ball Lightning

 

If you combine with Shadow Step:

Start in stealth -> Phantom Stride + Discharge (autocrit) -> Recklessness + Discharge -> Phantom Stride + Discharge -> Ball Lightning

Makes more sense from a PVE perspective for sure.

But at this point this is all speculation, my post included. Hopefully they will release all the info soon - updated talents, minor bonuses etc. We can't properly discuss these bonuses without seeing the full picture, maybe a new talent makes phantom stride proc something new? Who knows.

Hatred

• Hungering Blade - Critically hitting with Leeching Strike resets its cooldown and increases the critical chance of the next Leeching Strike. Stacks up to 3 times.
  

 

I'm very concerned about the amount of RNG this adds to Hatred. Additionally, Hatred is very force starved in general and this would likely make it worse. I strongly suggest completely reworking this tactical item or replacing it with something else entirely.

The other items listed for Deception and Hatred look ok at first glance, but I will reserve judgement until I can test them on PTS.

question about projected shroud and other decrease of enemy accuracy abilities:

do these affect the accuracy of bosses, and thus defense chance? is it all such type abilities or only some, and is it only some bosses?

The following combinations seem a bit on the strong side to me.

 

Projected Shroud + Shrouding Guard

When guarding a tank this means 7s shared resilience (5 if the guarder is a dps). For PvE this is already long but I mainly fear for PvP balance.

In PvE this means you could have a shadow guarding another shadow which means a max of 14s resilience up time.

 

Projected Shroud + Shrouding Guard + shadow shroud

For this one you need 2 shadows.

shadow 1 = projected shroud + shrouding guard (can be dps or tank)

shadow 2 = projected shroud + shadow shroud (must be a tank)

 

shadow 1 uses resilience and shares it to shadow 2 ( 5s / 7s duration)

after this shadow 2 uses up all kinetic ward stacks and now has 10,75s resilience.

This means a total of 17,75s of resilience up time.

 

Obviously, you sacrifice shield and absorb with this. But situationally this is rather strong, to strong in my opinion.

Change targets (the point of a defensive skill) until the defensive fades, and then both players are without that dcd.

Hatred spec need rework.

 

Even if you hit someone with Leeching strike 3 times in a row, you're probably gonna be out of the Force.

 

Hatred has the worst Force/Energy managment.

 

Death Field spread/Slow is just useless, since the range and radius is very small and the class itself is the most squishy there is.

 

Revert Death Field spread from 2.x era, from distance with bigger radius and up specs dmg reduction making their tankiness on pair with deception.

 

Overcharge Saber bonus, yeah, good luck with killing anyone who isnt on low hp while staying alive to do so.

 

Madness sorc is a tank compared to Hatred sin.

 

Also, Phase Walk, give it back.

I agree, we need skill trees with abilities

new ability - severing slash

strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. 12 second cooldown.

 

set bonuses

these bonuses will likely have the high end of piece requirements, such as requiring 4 or 6 pieces. The smaller piece bonuses will be more passive in nature (stat benefits, etc).

 

• death knell - killing an enemy during overcharge saber refreshes the duration of overcharge saber. Can occur up to 5 times during one overcharge saber.
  
• shadowcraft - using phantom stride from stealth grants a charge of shadowcraft, causing your next attack to critically hit.
  
• deflecting slashes - each target hit by severing slash extends deflection's duration by 1 second.
  
• steely spike - using spike grants you a 20% damage reduction for 6 seconds.
  
• projected shroud - using severing slash while under force shroud lowers the targets accuracy and extends the duration of force shroud by 2 seconds.
  

 

tactical items

this a new item slot coming in onslaught. You can only wear one tactical item at a time.

 

Assassin

• shrouding guard - force shroud also applies to any ally you are guarding.
  
• reckless shadow - recklessness increases your force regeneration greatly for a short time.
  
• multitrap - mind trap can now affect up to two targets at once.
  
• shadow step - phantom stride now has 2 ability charges.
  

 

darkness

• shadow shroud - using force shroud while dark ward is active consumes it, but extends the duration of force shroud by a quarter of a second for each dark ward stack consumed.
  
• shadow ward - dark ward gains 5 additional stacks and phantom stride resets its cooldown.
  
• redirected wrath - wither generates redirected wrath stacks per enemy it hits, increasing your damage reduction by 2.5% per stack for 10 seconds.
  

 

deception

• discharging voltage - severing slash causes your next discharge to arc to multiple targets.
  
• burning bolts - when reaping strike hits, it causes its target to burn.
  
• high voltage - using voltaic slash and lacerate with 2 stacks of voltage deals additional damage and finishes the cooldown of ball lightning.
  

 

hatred

• hungering blade - critically hitting with leeching strike resets its cooldown and increases the critical chance of the next leeching strike. Stacks up to 3 times.
  
• exhaustion field - death field does 10% more damage to all targets, additional damage to force slowed targets, and spreads force slow's effects.
  
• thrashing terror - creeping terror has a 10% chance to tick an additional time whenever thrash deals damage.
  

 

Just going to go down the list in order. Nice to see a new ability for AoE, I know deception and tanks are going to having something better. Can't say the general set sin set bonuses have much of a pve dps aspect though.

Killing adds maybe for the first one, except most would prefer to use it in openers for increased damage, where adds aren't available yet. The using stride while stealthed makes your next attack a critical hit is honestly worthless. Deception is forced to auto crit discharge, yet the utility Hand of Darkness makes it so I can just mind trap anything while stealthed and get the same bonus, doesn't even have to be a successful stun. Using deflection on a dps sin is very rare, mainly if you are tanking adds yourself which should never happen, or you are being a meme with the reflect utility. 20% DR after a spike use won't ever be used as a dps, it's a dps loss to do so, yet this for tanks will be amazing on top of their already high force speed mitigation. The accuracy reduction if it can be applied to operations bosses might be fun to see, but not worth a use cause AoE will obviously be a dps loss of single target skills, on top of that not going to sacrifice single target dps in order to have a longer lasting shroud when I should just time shroud to be used at a correct time than too early.

Guarding shroud definitely has some nice uses, but I see this more as a pvp tactical and just maybe a tank tactical in pve. With dps sin having only shroud and force speed as their main DCDs using shroud for someone else except in the rare instance it is needed for both players like Dread guards I don't see this as worth it. Increased regen from using recklessness would help if we knew by how much and by how long, but deception has no energy issues and the only way for deception to have energy issues, is to use a further listed tactical instead and ball lightning on CD instead of on induction proc. For Hatred though I'm all for it, even tanks could benefit burning a near useless DCD for dps purposes as most do anyway. Multi mind trap I don't see as being useful, maybe from an RP standpoint but by the time you mindtrap the 2nd player in pvp, the first player's mindtrap will run out before a ninja cap and the half force cost doesn't make this appealing either unless this was changed similar to how whirlwind auto affects nearby targets as well. stride with 2 charges is amazing for decep, hatred it'll kill dps because of how stride break's eradicate's internal proc timer, but I guess it's a plus for mobility.

Consuming darkward for additional shroud sounds nice on paper, but sacrificing darkward's mitigation chance for an almost unnecessary increase in shroud isn't practical with how shroud already is used. The extra stacks on darkward is nice, however if the CD reset was reversed, where stride was reset on a darkward use would have much more utility as force speed is almost always on CD for defensive purposes. Wither granting DR per enemy instead of flat DR on use is a nice change, definitely helps against swarms that could melt a sin with no running DCD.

Finally some AoE to deception, this concept I love with severing slash's 12 second CD I think this is pretty great. Reaping applying a burn doesn't seem like a thought out tactical this seems almost like a learned passive that should of been added in our discipline even though it's just a flat dps increase with no combat changes. Personally would of loved to see a "Reaping reduces CD from all the voltaic spam" as that would make this filler much more appealing and involved. High Voltage on the other hand is definitely a nice idea and a very fun one at that. The ability to pushing force or keep your induction proc in rhythm with ball lightning's reset makes the playstyle of deception much more creative, this is exactly what I was hoping for with these tactical game play changes.

Hatred bonuses to me almost seem as original as burning volts tactical from deception, not really thought out. Critical dependency on leeching when it already is the 2nd highest costing ability makes it seem very rng dependent and extremely force negative on top of that. Had it been a reduced partial CD per dot with all 3 dots equally a reset, that would make hatred feel a lot more engaging and fun for "leeching blocks." Death field with a flat damage boost seems pretty basic, and in pve you can't force slow enemies and spreading force slow when even the lambaste/thrash utility slow is all assassins care about can just be done with lacerate spam. This is probably the pvp tactical but I don't think I've ever considering using force slow on any assassin spec be it pve or pvp and a slow spread seems too long of a setup because of dots a player grouping all being a thing. Pretty basic extra dot procs like most dot specs I'm sure would be receiving or have already gotten like virulence and lethality. If this was applied not only to trash, but to lacerate and severing slash, this might be more worth it considering Hatred is more about AoE cleave than any single target. As a side note if Severing slash could also spread dots like lacerate that would be enjoyable being a better cleave filler in every aspect instead of taking a lower priority to lacerate on no dotted targets.

Just my 2 cents from a 1.0 sin main.

Death kernel has %0 use in pve.

wouldn't say 0% here .... in PvE are more than enough adds in bossfights to make it work. Its just situational. Like with pretty much all the bonuses.

Stealthy spike has also %0 use in pve.

In what universe do you live? ..... I would even go as far as to say that this might be a bit to strong in PvE. 20% DR on a 20s cooldown?

For example. Something now hits you with an 80k hit. Using spike reduces this to 50k damage.

Don't how the projected shroud is gonna work, but if it makes boss the miss an ability could be imported and use full.

Yes, it will make the boss miss attacks.

What is this? So all the old set bonuses are gone now? Where is critting maul?

Welcome to game updates ...? This often happens with a levelcap increase. Old set bonuses will still be there. It will just be outdated with the stats. I think in 4.0 people still used some 3.0 abilities. Or maybe it was 3.0 with 2.0 bonuses. Don't remember anymore.

Can you clarify that the ones you posted only tanks set bonuses not dps? They look like tank set bonuses to me

shadowcraft a tank set?

And regardless...... you forget that you need to let go of the idea of 'tank'-sets versus 'dps'-sets.

The set bonus will be tied to the armor shell itself. There are no other stats involved here. (fun trivia fact.. this was exactly how this game worked for a long time . Only difference is that shells are now gonna be legacy-bound)

Basically, you can use any set bonus without sacrificing dps stats.

Change targets (the point of a defensive skill) until the defensive fades, and then both players are without that dcd.

I know. But wouldn't you agree that waiting for 14 odd seconds is rather long in PvP? In 14 seconds a lot can happen.

Granted, this is not something that always will happen but we do need to take worst cases into account

question about projected shroud and other decrease of enemy accuracy abilities:

 

do these affect the accuracy of bosses, and thus defense chance? is it all such type abilities or only some, and is it only some bosses?

It should be working against all abilities unless its an autohit ability (please don't break things bioware ... track record isn't that good (reflecting things that shouldn't be reflectable ... )

Anyways. Its better than defence chance. Defence chance only works against ranged/melee attacks while reducing accuracy you will also defend against force/tech.

Hi Mr Musco, I played this class quite a lot, both in ranked and nim ops.

So let's start, shall we?

New Ability - Severing Slash

Strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. 12 second cooldown.

You're adding this ability, which is ok, but then you ask people playing Hatred if they wanna buy a tactical item that makes Death Field spread Force Slow (also 50% slow)... Why?

• Death Knell - Killing an enemy during Overcharge Saber refreshes the duration of Overcharge Saber. Can occur up to 5 times during one Overcharge Saber.

Honestly useless, both in pvp and pve.

• Shadowcraft - Using Phantom Stride from stealth grants a charge of Shadowcraft, causing your next attack to critically hit.

So... This may be "ok" in pve with an opener like PS > Discharge > Recklessness > Discharge > *fill the 2 recklessness charges however you want*. We essentially gain 1 more autocrit on Discharge, but we lose our old set bonus autocrit on Maul. Maul being our strongest ability damage-wise since the patch where you nerfed Discharge. So this one would be yet another nerf for sins.

But here comes the worst part... for pvp is terrible.

90% of any sin in stealth (doesn't matter which spec) will open with Spike.

Now why on Earth would I give up my autocrit on Maul (that I can decide when to use) for one Phantom Stride > Spike combo if Spike's autocrit that does a way lower damage than Maul's?

I mean, the alternative would be to Phantom Stride to an enemy and reveal myself without stunning him by using... what? Discharge and having no control over him?

Deception is all about cc and controlling the opponent, this set bonus doesn't reward a good strategy.

Let's move on.

• Deflecting Slashes - Each target hit by Severing Slash extends Deflection's duration by 1 second.

I don't know if you are aware of it, but Deflection is a pretty terrible DCD compared to *put literally whatever DCD you want from any spec*, it's not an Enrage Defense, a Reflecting Shield, an Undying, a Force Barrier or whatever.

When do you use DCDs? When you are in trouble, simply put.

1 second more for each target that we turned around to face and use our cone ability on, instead of using an Overload to push them back or simply running away, try to los them, w/e, is not gonna save us in any way.

Again, would never give up a Maul autocrit for this.

Since we touched the topic: please, PLEASE, make Deflection an actually reliable and solid DCD that makes people stop focusing you, like ALL other classes have (except for PT, because apparently you hate Sins and PTs).

• Steely Spike - Using Spike grants you a 20% damage reduction for 6 seconds.

For dps specs (since only Darkness can Spike w/o being in stealth) it means that I stun one target for 2 seconds making this small DR effectively worth 4 seconds only...

Unless I go Rambo and Spike one guy in the middle of a bunch of enemies to benefit from it, of course.

• Projected Shroud - Using Severing Slash while under Force Shroud lowers the targets accuracy and extends the duration of Force Shroud by 2 seconds.

If I'm under Shroud I'm already protected vs Tech and Force abilities, why would I want to lower someone's accuracy while still extending my Shroud? Is this some specific Set Bonus vs those pesky sniper Marksmanship?

Joking aside, good to help the team, possibly, but SUPER situational. I expect a set bonus to work in EVERY situation and this is not the case.

Tactical Items

This a new item slot coming in Onslaught. You can only wear one Tactical Item at a time.

LET'S GO, BABY!

Assassin

• Shrouding Guard - Force Shroud also applies to any ally you are guarding.

Situational in both in pvp and pve. Potentially very strong for a tank in ranked.

As a dps you're giving up one of the few DCDs you have to hopefully save someone else.

• Reckless Shadow - Recklessness increases your Force regeneration greatly for a short time.

Meh for Hatred and Darkness, I guess. Deception definitely doesn't need more Force regen, come on.

• Multitrap - Mind Trap can now affect up to two targets at once.

So now I have to find two dummies that guard the same node while staying next to each other...

• Shadow Step - Phantom Stride now has 2 ability charges.

Hatred and Darkness won't pick this, but for a Deception it means 1 Discharge more, which is ok.

Ah yes... Our beloved Random Stride that takes us to other planets without the need of a starship and that you had the majestic idea of making clunky as **** with that absurd cooldown.

God I love this awfully designed skill <3

Especially when I play other games where a similar one smoothly teleports you behind the enemy without any delay, as we always asked.

Sorry, I'm still salty for that "fix" (haha funny) that butchered Phantom Stride.

Darkness

• Shadow Shroud - Using Force Shroud while Dark Ward is active consumes it, but extends the duration of Force Shroud by a quarter of a second for each Dark Ward stack consumed.

Pretty good.

• Shadow Ward - Dark Ward gains 5 additional stacks and Phantom Stride resets its cooldown.

Ugh. Dark Ward's CD is already super short...

• Redirected Wrath - Wither generates Redirected Wrath stacks per enemy it hits, increasing your damage reduction by 2.5% per stack for 10 seconds.

For ranked it potentially means a +20% DR if catch all 4 (Wither has 8.7s CD with high alacrity), which is not devastating, I guess... Although if we add this DR to the Steely Spike one......

In some pve context can be pretty cool (wiiiii Corruptor Zero)

Deception

• Discharging Voltage - Severing Slash causes your next Discharge to arc to multiple targets.

I can see people picking this for some AoE-intense boss because bored of spamming Lacerate.

But then again, why not going directly for Hatred in such fights?

• Burning Bolts - When Reaping Strike hits, it causes its target to burn.

We are still talking about our one-and-only Tactical Item, right?

So what's the deal with this? Is it gonna burn the target's eyes from their sockets or why would I pick a DoT over the other TIs?

• High Voltage - Using Voltaic Slash and Lacerate with 2 stacks of Voltage deals additional damage and finishes the cooldown of Ball Lightning.

S-s-s-s-sempai Musco... An ACTUALLY good ability? F-f-f-f-f-for us Deception??

Hatred

• Hungering Blade - Critically hitting with Leeching Strike resets its cooldown and increases the critical chance of the next Leeching Strike. Stacks up to 3 times.

What if I don't crit? Will I still keep the stack when after a Leeching Strike CD?

Also Leeching Strike consumes 25 Force out of 100 that we have and Hatred's regen is terrible right now.

• Exhaustion Field - Death Field does 10% more damage to all targets, additional damage to Force Slowed targets, and spreads Force Slow's effects.

Ehm, Hatred spreads with Lacerate, Sorcerer Madness with Death Field. You were a bit lazy here, eh?

Again, Hatred treated as a melee Madness and not an assassin.

Also, why would I use an extra GCD to cast Force Slow (50% slow) and then spread it when you just gave us a new cone ability called Severing Slash that applies the same 50% slow? Because this Tactical Item was designed for Madness, right.

The only good part is a 10% damage increase of Death Field.

• Thrashing Terror - Creeping Terror has a 10% chance to tick an additional time whenever Thrash deals damage.

Slight increase of dps. That's not what Hatred lacks of, but ok.

Again, you designed this for Madness who's Force Lightning ticks way more frequently and it's not so Force consuming, then you just change that class filler for Hatred's.

No, it's not working and please stop stomping on the concept of "assassin" that Hatred should belong to. Or just rename it "Melee Madness" and be done with it, that works too.

Sorry for being blunt, but sometimes I have this strange feeling that someone up there has no clue about the current state of classes balance, meta, endgame and so on.

Peace