I have been on leave for swtor for more than a month now and am mildly surprised to see that Assassin's are doing great in the meters now. I have an Assassin myself (tank) and have not bothered DPSing pre 1.4. We have a guildmate who consistently tops the charts in HM TFB. However i have not been able to see this myself (like i said i am on leave from swtor). I guess my question would be: can anyone attest to this?

I don't think it's top. Damage over Time specs typically top Burst damage, so I call shenanagins unless he's better geared or just a superior player.

 

FWIW, to me the problem with pre 1.4 deception assassins was always the damage vs survivability element.

 

They did okay damage but they died way to easily, so

-Most of the end game armorings had more endurance that willpower (which lowers damage)

-Some players felt the need to forgoe damage skills for utility skills than increase survivability

 

So after 1.4, Assassins pretty much have a rolling 6% damage reduction (2% per crit, stacks 3 times) and they have a 25% damage reduction when dark embrace is active (not to mention a lower cooldown on Force Cloak). Also a big change was Crackling Blast was a 5 point skill (added 10% crit damage to discharge/shock) and is now a two point skill, so there's room to take a skill like Insulation (armor rating increases by 30%), without forgoing a damage skill.

 

So overall the damage is the same, but survivability is way up

Survivability = Higher DPS

I don't think it's top. Damage over Time specs typically top Burst damage, so I call shenanagins unless he's better geared or just a superior player.

 

My guild's main DPSers are all players of the same skill level (players who have come from world tier guilds in wow so i think we can scratch that part about a difference in skill level:)

 

When I logged back in and talked with the raid leaders to ask so who is doing the top dps now i was surprised to hear "the marauder and assassin"

I don't think it's top. Damage over Time specs typically top Burst damage, so I call shenanagins unless he's better geared or just a superior player.

 

FWIW, to me the problem with pre 1.4 deception assassins was always the damage vs survivability element.

 

They did okay damage but they died way to easily, so

-Most of the end game armorings had more endurance that willpower (which lowers damage)

-Some players felt the need to forgoe damage skills for utility skills than increase survivability

 

So after 1.4, Assassins pretty much have a rolling 6% damage reduction (2% per crit, stacks 3 times) and they have a 25% damage reduction when dark embrace is active (not to mention a lower cooldown on Force Cloak). Also a big change was Crackling Blast was a 5 point skill (added 10% crit damage to discharge/shock) and is now a two point skill, so there's room to take a skill like Insulation (armor rating increases by 30%), without forgoing a damage skill.

 

So overall the damage is the same, but survivability is way up

 

You're assuming he is Deception, I'd guess he is Madness which can put out a fair bit of DPS.

He could be a madness assassin, but they haven't changed much, and his tone definately suggest a change in his past experiences. Some of the tier one skills changed, skills that a madness assassin would have access to, but deception had the biggest changes.

The damage increase to maul is quite significant, it used to be VT that dealt the most of my damage, now its maul.

I don't know about top dps, but Sin's have always been in the top half, at least. Madness puts out great numbers, which got better with the Maul buff in 1.4. Deception before was pretty terrible, and from the DPS sin in our guild whose been doin Sin dps since launch, still says it gets lower Dps. Not laughable bad, but mid 1700's, rather than 1800's like he does in Madness.

 

I'd probably still put Mara and PT above them, who can do mid to low 1900's under ideal conditions. PT in particular looks a little vulnerable to some raid mechanics, as they can't gap close, and can't do more than rapid shot on approach till 10m in, which on some fights, like running to cores in Operator 9, or getting back on the boss after standing in the flower on Writhing Horror, could cause a drop.

The sin the OP is talking about is in the same guild I'm in. We're in different 8-mans so I've never seen his numbers, but I also hear his dps is beastly. I'm a marauder and I have to say that the more I play with my guildies the more I'm impressed with BW's balance of PvE numbers as it has a lot more to do with situations affecting dps. The exceptions are the Sorc and Operative for dps. They need to be fixed because it's not fair for them to be behind in sustained dps.

 

However, now I'm digressing. Basically, this sin is running madness spec with the maul Exploit Weakness ability.

However, now I'm digressing. Basically, this sin is running madness spec with the maul Exploit Weakness ability.

 

Maul exploit ability? Sigh i need to go back playing i guess haha (-_-). That is quite disheartening to hear. They should keep this Maul "bug" or whatever since it just made the class on par w/ the other dps classes/specs imo!

edit. I thought you meant an "exploit" when you were referring to the ability itself named Exploit Weakness