Assassin Mirror Thread is Here

Based off an evaluation of the community's response so far:

- Possible Issue(s)

- Possible Solution(s)

- Possible Inquiry

High Priority (PvP)

Madness

• Issue: Low survivability, Fluff Damage with inability to properly execute targets, Dull rotation, Not 'fun' to play
  
• Solution: Increase AoE capability, Allow Maul or Assassinate back into the rotation, Increase survivability
  
• Inquiry: The question will be centered around the issues concerning Madness: Survivability, Damage incapability and its general bore factor. Solutions will be suggested but the conversation will head in the direction of addressing what exactly is Madness' role in PvP, how it was intended to be played and if the current execution is matching those design goals.
  

 

 

High Priority (PvE)

Deception

• Issue: Lack of Proper Sustained, Possible Force Issues, Low Slash's Viability
  
• Solution: Varied; Reduce RNG elements, Crit increase upon certain procs / talents, Rate limit changes
  
• Inquiry: The question will be centered around Deception's lack of proper sustainability in PvE. Solutions will be presented in such a way that offers simple fixes to aid the spec's sustainability without breaking its PvP performance. The conversation will discuss whether or not RNG is an intended factor to cripple Deception's PvE performance and whether or not this should be altered.
  

 

 

Medium Priority (PvE)

Madness

• Issue: Dull Rotation, Lack of Proper Swapping Output, Lack of Burst, Force Issues
  
• Solution: Increase AoE capability, Allow Maul or Assassinate back into the rotation, Increase Force Regen, Reduce RNG elements
  
• Inquiry: The question will be centered around Madness' general bore in PvE and its lack of anything truly satisfying. Solutions will be presented that will question why signature abilities like Maul or Assassinate are not included in the rotation, which may indeed, cure the 'bore' problems and solve both PvP / PvE issues. In addition, questioning other RNG elements such as Raze proc which can be rather unreliable at times.
  

 

 

Wildcard

Warning: This section is under construction

• Ideas: Resilience / Shroud is still bugged, Phase Walk's general usefulness (PvE), General Quality of Life improvements, Lack of Proper AoE (All specs)
  

Feedback

• Darkness QoL, issue mainly stemming from Dark Protection
  
• Resilience / Force Shroud's tooltip fix or mechanic fix
  
• Low Slash to VS / CS link is not a requirement for Shadows but is for Assassins (Bug)
  

Another batch of questions to come and what would you like to have asked on behalf of your class? Do you believe Shadows are performing well in the respective fields of PvE and PvP?

Yes / No - whatever your answer is, I'd like to know why you feel that way and if you propose change, then don't just say the word. Give actual solutions as to why something should or should not change.

PvP

Discuss the Shadow PvP's performance here. What would you like propose / ask?

- Kinetic Combat

- Infiltration

- Balance

PvE

Discuss the Shadow PvE's performance here. What would you like propose / ask?

- Kinetic Combat

- Infiltration

- Balance

Wildcard

- Be creative

Notes:

- If you are a PvPer, respect that there is an equal field of play also known as PvE. This MMORPG, like many others before it, has a structure tailored very heavily toward the PvE audience. Please be respectful and mindful of your counterparts. At the same time, PvErs should also show some respect to the PvP audience, despite its minority.

- Keep posts constructive. I want whats best for this class and hopefully, so do you. Posts that only complain, flame and vaguely give suggestions beyond 'fix this' are not helpful to this discussion. Take your time and get out what you need to get out properly.

- Kindly keep the elitism to a score of zero please. Those posts such as 'L2P', suggesting other people are bad, or worse than you, is completely unhelpful to this cause and confrontational. If you disagree with something then keep it on a neutrally constructive manner. Posts that contain no substance beyond just disagreement without evidence or suggestions as to why you disagree, bring nothing beneficial to the table. Please don't make posts that just say 'No' or 'Yes'. Explain your position and do not just mindlessly post.

- Practical solutions. This means that thriving for a complete rework of a spec is unlikely. This forces a restriction but also makes you creative. Use the current tools we have and offer suggestions / fixes / questions that are more likely to see the light of day.

Assassin to Shadow Terms

Deception = Infiltration

Darkness = Kinetic Combat

Madness = Balance

Assassinate = Spinning Strike

Maul = Shadow Strike

VS = CS

This OP will be updated within necessity.

Posted this on the Assassin thread too:

Well. I'm really happy to see that we're talking about Balance/Madness again.

I've been hitting the dummy a lot lately, even putting some gear on my old Shadow dps. It's funny... I've been having lots of fun with the Hybrid spec (5/18/23 or 3/18/25... getting around the same with both, 3300 dps on 1M HP dummy). I think Mind Crush procs are available more often than you need it with the 2 points into Mind Warp... but aaaanywho - the reason this is fun? Force management isn't a problem. To me, this is the fundamental issue with both Balance and Infiltration.

I think we're all in agreement that Balance is incredibly boring in its current state... the devs really blew it with their "fixes" in 2.0. Not only does the rotation need work, but resource management is just ridiculous. So we need to fix two things here.. resource management and complexity in the rotation (or lack thereof). Well, its a good think we all remember how much fun Balance was pre-2.0. Easy fix here... bring back Infiltration Tactics, or something similar where we get to use Maul again with the surge bonus included. This solves both burst and sustained dps and force management issues. I think bringing back the force regen from Force Suppression pre-2.0 would help a bit too, more importantly it would bring some complexity to the rotation (more incentive to tab-DoT). I'd certainly trade this for FiB going back to hitting just 3 targets with 10 Force Suppression charges.

Infiltration. Again, I think the problem here is force management. I really, really like the idea of bringing Low Slash into the rotation by making it free of force cost. I'm really curious to see how this tests... I have a feeling that in a sustained dps situation, it would give the spec the minor dps boost it needs, while alleviating resource management issues. Now, certainly I can see how this makes the spec a little more difficult, but certainly no more difficult than Combat Sentinel or Hybrid Gunslinger.

The best part about this change? It will have zero effect on PvP. Really... almost none. As Infil or hybrid infil/balance, we just don't have issues with resources with LS in our rotation.

I see the Assassin thread is getting more replies than Shadow, but since I play a Shadow not an Assassin I'm going to post here.

Most of the changes I've come up with are aimed primarily at improving the Infiltration Shadows (which is what I play) and the aim is to improve the utility and sustained DPS without making the burst OP.

1. Move Force Pull from the KC Tree tier 5 and make it a generic Shadow ability available to all Shadows at lvl 25, this will give Shadow Tanks access to this move earlier and give Shadow DPS the same utility that Vanguard DPS get from their grapple.

2. Move Kinetic Field from Infiltration tier 6 to replace Force Pull in KC. Change Kinetic Field to be a 1 point cost "Dealing Critical Damage has a 50% Chance to grant Kinetic field, increasing damage reduction by 2% for 15 seconds, stacks up to 3 times".

3. Rework Shadows Respite (Infiltration tier 1) to increase the extra force regeneration from 25/50% to 30/60%, also reduced the cooldown of Blackout by 10/20 seconds.

4. Rework Masked Assault (Infiltration tier 3) to increase the length of time of Shadows Respite from 6 to 12 seconds, restore 25 Force instead of 15 and increase Damage Reduction boost fro 25% to 30%.

5. With Kinetic Field now in KC tree add new 2 point talent to Infiltration tier 6. Force Premonition - "Using Telekinetic Throw has a 30/60% chance to grant 1 stack of Force Premonition. Each stack reduces the cast time of Mind Crush and Force Lift by 33%. Stacks up to 3 times, using either Mind Crush or Force Lift consumes all current stacks" Being able to use Infiltrations only real DoT more easily in PvE/PvP will only boost Shadows DPS, also the insta-cast on Force Lift will be a boon in PvP

6. Increase the range of Telekinetic Throw to 30m and Project to 20m. Shadows are the only DPS class that doesn't have a default 30m attack (and no using Force Potency to increase the range of TK Throw doesn't count).

7. Rework Force Potency in light of the above changes, as extending the range of TK throw is now redundant (never understood why it was useful for sages anyway). Instead it increases Surge by 10% for 10 seconds. Also Force Potency now grants 3 stacks not 2 by default (will need to rework PvP set bonus to compensate).

8. Rework Clairvoyant Strike (Infiltration tier 8). Force Cost reduced to 20. Also it now hits twice per use, the damage of the 1st hit is the same as the current Clairvoyant Strike, the 2nd hit strikes with 50% of the first.

9. Increase the cooldown of Low Slash to 25 seconds.Low Slash no longer consumes force but instead "Low Slash builds 10% Force.

10. Rework Infiltration Technique, so that Attacks now have a 30% chance to build Stacks of breeching force. In addition "A Force Breech that consumes stacks of Breeching Force applies Force Vulnerability to the target, increase all damage taken from Force and Tech attacks by 5% per stack consumed

11. Replace Profundity (Infiltration tier 5) with new 2 point talent. Lingering Force - "having 3 stacks of Breeching Force grants Lingering Force which adds 5/10% additional force damage to all non-force attacks. Lasts for 10 seconds, is lost when stacks of Breeching Force are consumed.

12. Add additional affect to 3 point talent Shadows Mark (infiltration tier 2). "While using Infiltration Technique Shadow Strike ignores 2.5/5/10% of the Targets Armour

13. This actually works for all ACs but I think it will add additional raid utility to Shadows, Remove the cooldown on out of combat revive, so all ACs can revive fallen comrades at any time out of battle.

So those are the ideas I came up with, any constructive comments are welcome

Kinetic:

(I will not debate this part with KBN and Thok because this chestnut is getting old. You are against it fine, me being for it should also be fine)

Shadow protection. A 12 second duration is not enough. The ability needs to last two more global cooldowns and the reasoning is three fold. First and foremost, we are not machines, we are human and our gamestyle is not perfect all the time, so I ask, why should our mitigation take a hit when other tanks do not have this issue?

My second reason for this change is based on class isolation and PVP. Looking at class isolation, one can agree that not many play shadow tanks. Even less use them in their NiM groups as main tanks and this has to change if we are to achieve a better balance. The consensus is that Shadow Tanks are a very hard class to play and while I do not disagree, I do not believe putting a 12 second duration for Shadow Protection is the right change to reach homogeneity. The amount of buff tracking combined with the current state of shadow protection is a turn off for most players who decide to roll guardians. The PVP aspect of shadow protection is close to non-existent. In a game full of crowd control, knockbacks, setting up 3 stacks of harnessed shadows and refreshing them is not very user friendly. Consequently, people have dropped full Kinetic in favour of hybrid builds yet again.

The third and final reason to change Shadow protection is future content. While two extra globals may be a quality of life improvement for some, it is also a straight buff to the class. Changes should be done with a clear overview in mind and without knowing how hard NiM content will hit, I can say something which is 100 % accurate : SHADOW TANKS will be hit the most with the current direction of the game. As a consequence, two extra globals on Shadow Protection will balance out the discrepancy between tanks when NiM hits live. This is what we want at the end of the day and not to experience NiM content gimped until our turn comes again.

Miscellany for Kinetic (some bugs to be fixed)

1. Particle acceleration bug when I have this buff but project is still on cooldown

2. Shadow protection not refreshing when it should. If you look here, I am channeling TK and get ZERO shadow protection. Of course we trolled from the moment council bugged but the fact that I had no shadow protection without anything being resisted still stands.

3. Resilience bug. I get a force execution sometimes through it, which is not normal.

Infiltration and Balance are not my cup of tea anymore as I play a sentinel damage dealer. I will let the ones who play these trees convey their message.

1) That's an interesting idea, and I think it could actually help out Balance a bit in PVP (as well as Infiltration). It's a bit like a second gap closer, and in PVE, it could help the tanks out by keeping unruly mobs where they should be.

2) Kinetic Field should stay where it is. It's an integral part of Infiltration's survivability in PVP, and KC REALLY doesn't need it. It would make KC very OP in PVE content.

3) The increased regen rate seems a little insignificant. 50% increased regeneration is already really nice, and helps to refill your force bar quite a bit when used. The cooldown reduction, on the other hand, would put the cooldown at 25 seconds, increasing its usage by 1 time per cloak rotation. It'd be much easier on force regen, which a lot of people feel is a problem with the spec. I'd pick the cooldown reduction over the increased regen, as the increase would be 1 force per second better than it is now (rounding up).

4) I honestly think the damage reduction is fine where it is. Infiltration is squishy, yes, but that's what we get for our insane burst, and Masked Assault is already a great cooldown in PVP. As for the duration increase, that's pretty insane. You'd have almost 50% uptime on Masked Assault with the previously suggested cooldown reduction, which would mean you'd never need to use Saber Strike. That's not a good thing, as each other spec needs to weave in their basic attack for resource regeneration from time to time. The increase to 25 force would make resource management much easier. I think picking this part of (4) or the cooldown reduction on (3) would be good, but both would be too much.

5) Ignoring the fact that tanks really don't need Entropic Ward: the rest of this will seriously, wildly affect pvp balance, giving Shadows both more utility AND more burst. This will result in a huge nerf down the road. Also, TKT doesn't have enough going for it to be effectively used. Maybe your suggested increase to range would change it, but it would still make Deception much stronger in PVP, and we'd shortly receive a nerf.

6) Very useful in PVP and in PVE, it's mostly a nice quality of life change. I like it, but it doesn't really fix any of the problems the spec has.

7) We don't need more Surge. A) that's more burst in PVP, and we need to avoid doing things like that, as then the class would receive a PVP based nerf and PVE would feel it, too. B) Having 3 stacks of Potency would be nice in PVE, but then what would the PVP 4 piece bonus be replaced with?

8) The damage increase would blow the move way out of proportion. Maybe the first hit deals 1.5 times the damage it does now (for a total 25% increase to the move's damage), but I think the force reduction is more important than that. Replacing Saber Strikes with Clairvoyant Strikes would increase dps by a decent bit on its own, and improve sustained damage (the #1 cited problem with the spec). As for the 20 force cost suggestion, I would need to see what that would do to our Force management before I decide how I feel about it.

9) Low Slash shouldn't build force. It does more damage than Saber Strike, and so it should cost some amount of force. I can't think of a single talent skill that regenerates resources in any other DPS tree. Sure, we could have it refund force or become force neutral with the cooldown increase, but I think the cooldown increase would rob PVP of some of its control over enemy movement.

10) I'd be fine with the increase in proc rate, but beware: the proc rate multiplier scales very well with damage increase. 5% is safe, though. As for the Force/Tech damage increase, I'd reduce it to 1% per stack, as it'll be up around every 12 seconds. Give it a 6 second duration, and it could be a neat way to give Infiltration some raid utility. Unfortunately, now that I think about it, it would heavily increase burst in PVP, so it might have to be given only to other sources hitting the target.

11) That would make the burst in PVP insane. Not to mention it would encourage holding onto 3 stacks in PVE, which is a bad idea. A nice thought for a way to increase damage, but just not feasible. Especially if it goes away the moment you use your stacks.

12) Again, this would increase our burst, which is something we want to avoid. Aside from that, 3.33/6.66/10% would be a smoother increase.

13) As nice as it would be to not have to worry about that cooldown on the out of combat revive, I'm pretty sure they have it there just so we can't just do what you suggested, and would have to leave that to the Scoundrels, who have no cooldown on their revive.

I believe these are some decent ideas that would work in PVE, but a lot of them would make Infiltration too powerful in PVP, and then the whole spec would get nerfed. I do really like some of the QoL changes, though.

Kinetic:

 

 

(I will not debate this part with KBN and Thok because this chestnut is getting old. You are against it fine, me being for it should also be fine)

 

 

Shadow protection. A 12 second duration is not enough. The ability needs to last two more global cooldowns and the reasoning is three fold. First and foremost, we are not machines, we are human and our gamestyle is not perfect all the time, so I ask, why should our mitigation take a hit when other tanks do not have this issue?

 

 

My second reason for this change is based on class isolation and PVP. Looking at class isolation, one can agree that not many play shadow tanks. Even less use them in their NiM groups as main tanks and this has to change if we are to achieve a better balance. The consensus is that Shadow Tanks are a very hard class to play and while I do not disagree, I do not believe putting a 12 second duration for Shadow Protection is the right change to reach homogeneity. The amount of buff tracking combined with the current state of shadow protection is a turn off for most players who decide to roll guardians. The PVP aspect of shadow protection is close to non-existent. In a game full of crowd control, knockbacks, setting up 3 stacks of harnessed shadows and refreshing them is not very user friendly. Consequently, people have dropped full Kinetic in favour of hybrid builds yet again.

 

 

The third and final reason to change Shadow protection is future content. While two extra globals may be a quality of life improvement for some, it is also a straight buff to the class. Changes should be done with a clear overview in mind and without knowing how hard NiM content will hit, I can say something which is 100 % accurate : SHADOW TANKS will be hit the most with the current direction of the game. As a consequence, two extra globals on Shadow Protection will balance out the discrepancy between tanks when NiM hits live. This is what we want at the end of the day and not to experience NiM content gimped until our turn comes again.

 

 

Miscellany for Kinetic (some bugs to be fixed)

 

1. Particle acceleration bug when I have this buff but project is still on cooldown

2. Shadow protection not refreshing when it should. If you look here, I am channeling TK and get ZERO shadow protection. Of course we trolled from the moment council bugged but the fact that I had no shadow protection without anything being resisted still stands.

3. Resilience bug. I get a force execution sometimes through it, which is not normal.

 

 

 

Infiltration and Balance are not my cup of tea anymore as I play a sentinel damage dealer. I will let the ones who play these trees convey their message.

Maybe, in response to being controlled, the tank can receive a duration increase to Shadow Protection equal to the duration of the controlling effect, or the duration stops decreasing while controlled? Just a thought.

As for the bugs, number 1) happens when you miss with your Project when you have the buff. It's happened for as long as I can remember. 2 and 3, though, I hope get fixed.

Maybe, in response to being controlled, the tank can receive a duration increase to Shadow Protection equal to the duration of the controlling effect, or the duration stops decreasing while controlled? Just a thought.

Far, far too complicated.

Far, far too complicated.

Well, stopping the countdown on the expiration of the buff while controlled shouldn't be that hard. But what would you do for the fix? I'm interested in hearing all ideas to make the general community happy with this, and the more of us thinking about it, the better the solution will be.

Just give the man what he wants. Make it last 15 seconds. That'll do just fine.

Maybe I'm just a bit worried about the last time they tried to give Deception a lazy fix to its problem. I guess you can't really mess up increasing the duration.

KC

I believe Leafy stated his points concerning Kinetic Shadows well enough. I play this as full KC and though I have tampered with Balance (I really wish this tree worked) and Infiltration, it has always been my favorite. It was my decision when the game first started and remains so today. I have experienced the changes this tree has undergone and rolled with them in hopes that the "vision" for this class was to be realized at some point. The last changes that made us lose healing in favor of added damage reduction I thought on PTS (as originally conceived) would improve my game play and "fun factor".

Then we had the mathematicians and game wizards call for adjustments to make it more "complex" and so we have what we have now. It is not more complex to play, it is less fun, more boring if anything. I like the fact that KC tank has a reason to start an engagement from stealth - cool factor! I dislike the constant rotation to maintain a buff for survivability. I now have the ability to use Shadow Strike a bit more with less penalty - cool factor! If I use it I may lose my buff cause my timer has run out on my defensive buff - not cool. I choose to do almost anything else besides the simple rotation and I may be penalized - where is the fun in that.

One more thing I may add so as to not cause any confusion. I am not a PvE player for the most part. I cannot go into what it was to do hard modes or whatever others do and which boss does this or that. Not my cup of tea. Maybe the changes improved that experience but to me the tank specialization, my favorite, took a big hit with the changes. I am not stronger (yeah we gained a little dam resistance but we lost self sustaining heals, again for pvp, alone on a node I notice it) and it is less fun to play.

Balance

The major issue I have now and always have had with this tree is the very very low survivability for a melee class. We have to get in close to execute our attacks. It does not have the tools to do so frankly. You wind up running around trying to kite your opponents. If I wanted to kite why would I play a melee class? Infiltration at least has decent control measures to manage the flow of close quarter combat as well as improved stealth and mobility. Balance with dots and ramp up time will not last unless we run around all over trying to wear opponent down. I have a double bladed lightsaber for what? High end flashlight as compared to Sages? Just not fun!

Just give the man what he wants. Make it last 15 seconds. That'll do just fine.

This. Harnessed Shadows is by far the most difficult stacking DR buff.

Think about some of the others:

Infiltration

Kinetic Field - 2% DR per critical hit, lasts 15 seconds

This might as well be passive. With the PvP stalker set bonus you can build this in as little as 3 GCD.

Gunnery

Charged Barrier

Builds a stacking DR with every use of Charged Bolts or Grav Round. These, of course are the spam abilities of the Commando. Lasts 15 seconds.

Combat Sentinels

Saber screen - builds 2% DR for each application of Ataru form. Which is basically automatic after Blade Rush is obtained. Lasts 10 sec.

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

There may be more (typing on a phone), but if you look at these three you see powers that require NO management on the part of the caster. They basically just happen by doing what you normally do. And except for Combat, they last longer than Harnessed Shadows.

By contrast, it takes the application of 4 powers to generate this buff. There is no reasonable justification for a 12 second duration.

PvE:

Kinetic Combat:

I second the suggestion to increase the Shadow Protection buff duration from 12 to 15 seconds. It's just way too fiddly at present, and none of the other tanking specs have such a convoluted way of keeping their defensive buffs active.

What would be a nice buff (nice, but not overpowering) would be to change Kinetic Bulwark slightly; rather than the buff expiring when Kinetic Ward is reactivated, the stacks would be decreased by 4. This would give the Shadow a little extra shield absorption when under a lot of pressure without changing their performance much outside of bosses' burst phases.

The "bug" some people have reported with Particle Acceleration is that Project is activated but resisted by the target, meaning that the autocrit buff isn't consumed but the cooldown is triggered. (I've seen a similar issue on my main with High Impact Bolt not consuming stacks of Charged Barrel when it's deflected.) I do think this is working in accordance with game mechanics; autocrit just means that an ability can't be shielded, not that it can't be defended against.

Infiltration:

I'm not nearly as familiar with this spec as with the other two, but it needs a serious damage boost. Maybe make Shadow Strike grant a flat damage buff for 10 or 15 seconds...

Balance:

Balance could use a better way to dump Force during burst phases. My suggestion would be to make Shadow Strike deal extra damage (say, 20 or 30% more) to targets affected by Mind Crush, tied to the Mind Warp talent.

Miscellaneous:

It would be nice to fix the bug in Resilience. Also, DPS could definitely use some improvements to Phase Walk. Say, Balance purges removable hostile effects when teleporting, and Infiltration inflicts a stun on enemies near the ground marker when it's teleported to...

Infiltration:

I'm not nearly as familiar with this spec as with the other two, but it needs a serious damage boost. Maybe make Shadow Strike grant a flat damage buff for 10 or 15 seconds...

Unfortunately, this would give PVP even more burst, which is something we need to try to avoid. The other suggestions are nice, though. I'm not sure that Infiltration needs another way to stun people, but it would be limited to those unfortunate enough to be standing where the Shadow is trying to escape to, and would give us a better chance of escaping, as well as giving us something of a ranged option to prevent node capping, assuming we've been there previously.

Maybe I'm just a bit worried about the last time they tried to give Deception a lazy fix to its problem. I guess you can't really mess up increasing the duration.

It won't hurt to give something that simple, but I hope that doesn't become BW's focal point for giving us Shadowsins 'attention'.

Low slash is a powerful move that currently requires a bit of thinking and weightning the pros / cons and cost.

Removing cost or - worse - making it generate Force would make it too much overpowered in PvP.

Low slash is a powerful move that currently requires a bit of thinking and weightning the pros / cons and cost.

Removing cost or - worse - making it generate Force would make it too much overpowered in PvP.

Making it grant force.. yeah okay

But making it cost less really won't make it any more OP. It will just make life a bit better.

People on the recieving end won't even notice. Just the Assassin player.

It won't hurt to give something that simple, but I hope that doesn't become BW's focal point for giving us Shadowsins 'attention'.

Look at what they did to Enraged Defense/Focused Defense. "All it needs is the Rage/Focus cost taken away" BAM, 45s to 3min cooldown.

Dammit Bioware, you had one job!

Look at what they did to Enraged Defense/Focused Defense. "All it needs is the Rage/Focus cost taken away" BAM, 45s to 3min cooldown.

 

Dammit Bioware, you had one job!

Lol, it's also becoming a FAR stronger defensive cooldown.

Looking at how they buff more and more Guardian's self healing ability (even though there are little details) I wonder why they took away most of the healing for shadow tanks. We were supposed to be the self-healing tank considering our Jedi Consular origin.

Instead of that boring rotation that they force us to do in order to get and maintain that 4% DR on a full channel of Telekinetic Throw, I'd rather see DR being built from Harnessed Shadows stacks (let's say 1% per stack) and allow Blackout to consume those stacks upon use to give us a tired % self-heal (let's say 1% per stack or restrict it to 3-4 stacks or nothing) and active Battle Readiness would buff that by 100% or something. To complement that Shadow Wrap would decrease CD on Blackout by 15/30 seconds and each use of Shadow Strike would decrease active CD on blackout by let's say 5 seconds).

This will allow room for skill as you'd need to know when to consume your DR stacks to heal up and when to leave them there. You will add Blackout as a useful skill for a shadow tank Additional complexity can be added by consuming the same stacks for attacking with Telekinetic Throw, so it's a choice between DR, Self-Heal and Damage. Or simply not consume them on Telekinetic Throw to allow shadow tank to do more damage.