Mad Sith Assassin

Sith Assassin Visual Cues in Patch 2.2

2013-05-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

Sith Assassins Get New Visuals in SWTOR Patch 2.2

Sith Assassins get some new visual cues for important buff tracking in the upcoming SWTOR Patch 2.2. Both look great and address some quality of life issues Darkness and Deception had.

Deception

Deception Assassins get a visual storm blast around them when reaching 3 stacks of Static Charges, letting you watch your buff bars less often.

Darkness

A sweet new animation for Dark Ward lets Darkness Assassins know exactly when their primary defensive buff is up or down. It's a cool combo of holocrons that seem to rearrange into shield icons that surround you until the ward is removed.

Assassin Scheme for May

2013-05-18T13:27:00.001-04:00

May has been an incredibly rough month for me. Multiple family members are ill and I lost my mom to cancer on Mother's Day. I hope that explains why the site may seem neglected. I'm nearly prepared to get back into it.

The Scheme

~~1. Footage for five SM Scum & Villainy bosses is ready for editing. With any luck we'll finish this week.~~

2. Continuous reevaluation of suggested Assassin stat recommendations.

3. Gut the site's sidebar and put more useful links there.

~~4. Cover Hard and Nightmare mode operations ASAP.~~

5/29/2013: My grandpa is heading downhill now too. I don't have the mental or emotional capacity to push out quality videos. I've averaged 4 hours of sleep a night for the month and just logging in to do something is a struggle.

At this point I won't be able to keep up with videos for new content so my focus will be on the state of Assassin gameplay.

Thanks for your patience, SWTOR fans.

Hard Mode Hammer Station Boss Guide

2013-04-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

Hard Mode Hammer Station

Hard Mode Hammer Station bosses are most challenging for a healer. DPS needs some positional awareness, but tank control of enemies is the second most important factor for success.

Boss Guide

DN-314 Tunneler

If your tank gets annihilated on this fight, they probably didn't get cleansed. The tunneling beam does increased damage for each stack of a debuff it applies to the tank. Have a healer cleanse this partway through the cast to reset the damage multiplier.

Avoiding the demolition droids is the same as story mode: strafe around and use knockback skills to get them out of the way while you fight the Tunneler

Vorgan the Volcano (and friends)

The tank has three bosses to hold threat on here. Take out the Sawbones first, the droid next, and finally Vorgan himself. The weaker bosses can use a protective shield to reduce their damage taken. As a DoT spec, I don't believe it lasts long enough to warrant setting up a DPS switch, but you can consider it in your strategy.

The droid has a flamethrower that should be pointed away from the group. You can interrupt it once you're fighting it. No new abilities are gained as each boss dies, so the fight gets easier as it goes on.

Hard Mode Athiss Boss Guide

2013-04-19T17:18:00.001-04:00

Hard Mode Athiss

If you're familiar with the leveling version of Athiss, hard mode won't throw you any surprises.

Bosses

Professor Ley'arsha

Ley'arsha has a few waves of additional enemies that like to trouble your healer. They die quickly, so just intercept them.

A purple circle will appear on a player. This shows that a corrupted area will soon spawn where that person is standing. You should move it away from other players and far enough from Ley'arsha to give melee a safe spot to stand and continue fighting. Shroud does provide temporary protection from this.

Beast of Vodal Kressh

The Beast may drag your tank around some, so you might need to reposition. You'll want to stay away from the side where the plateau drops off or you could get knocked off and either killed outright or aggro extra enemies.

Adds will spawn from the doorway behind the Beast's starting position. Keep an eye on them spawning and take them out before they swarm the healer. You may be delayed in doing this by a close-range stun.

Golden Fury Story Mode Guide

2013-04-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Golden Fury Story Mode

The Golden Fury is the strongest of Toborro's Isotope-5 powered droids we've met so far. The map marker for its weekly quest isn't helpful for Imperial players, unfortunately. The courtyard is located at the top of the hill to the right of our entrance to the Archon's Estate. Follow the trail of elite droids toward the largest building up there and march right up into the main entrance.

Boss Mechanics

You'll need one tank for Golden Fury and another for two adds spawning near the fountain in the center of the room. Before pulling, split your group up on both sides and have everyone pick out a container for themselves; these are used during the burn phase of the fight on Story Mode.

The main tank will occasionally be targeted by a blue circle. This simply shows that a burst of damage is incoming from the boss. Provided that the Golden Fury is faced away from melee, neither this or a cleave should hit DPS.

A purple circle marks a player for an orbital strike that will damage anyone nearby. This person should move away from others. Avoid the damage from this with Shroud, but it has a tendency to hit ranged players more often than melee.

MASSIVE LASER: When you hear an alarm sounding off, it's time to run for the sides of the room (up the stairs) to avoid a beam firing straight down the middle of the room that will kill anyone in the way.

Hard Mode Cademimu Boss Guide

2013-04-13T19:31:00.000-04:00

Hard Mode Cademimu

The trash in the new Hard Mode version of Cademimu is tame compared to Mandalorian Raiders, but there's quite a bit of it. Its bosses, thankfully, are straightforward. That doesn't mean they won't punish you for poor play; and you may need a little luck.

Bosses

Officer Xander

Xander has a pet droid that will be non-functional for the first few seconds of the fight. The boss himself only shoots and tosses sticky grenades with a large flashing circular indicator on the person who has it. They should move away from other players.

Once his droid is active, it will chase a random player. That person should run from the droid and lure him into a trap circle placed on the floor. Whoever steps in it will be imprisoned - including you. Sidestep it and get the droid in it to remove his shielding. It is then vulnerable to attack.

Unfortunately, the trap's spawn point may appear right on top of you. This could cause a wipe depending on who gets trapped.

After repeating this until the droid is destroyed, Xander gains no other skills. It should be an easy kill from here.

Captain Grimyk

Grimyk has a fancy flamethrower, but the real threat is his team of Ugnaught friends. Your tank should control them to prevent them swarming the healer, then AoE as much as you reasonably can.

As an Assassin, your AoE is pretty limited so this fight can be quite difficult. As Madness spec I Death Field, DoT two, Lacerate and then do a single-target rotation. You'll have no Force if you try to solely AoE these 89k HP enemies.

At under 20% health, Grimyk's gas tank explodes and takes out any remaining foes - creating an interesting opportunity to zerg him down when we're at higher gear levels.

Hard Mode Mandalorian Raiders Boss Guide

2013-04-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Hard Mode Mandalorian Raiders

First up in Rise of the Hutt Cartel level 55 content, let's talk Flashpoints. A bunch of low level FPs now have Hard Modes. Mandalorian Raiders is my favorite, so we're starting here.

Bosses

Braxx the Bloodhound

The Braxx encounter is the same as Story Mode, mechanically. The hounds are not tauntable and run around as they please. If they run near Braxx, they'll get a short damage buff. You can't kill Braxx first or his dogs will devour you as an enrage mechanic.

As a result, the fight is straightforward: Tank Braxx away from his hounds and kill the dogs one at a time. When they're gone, finish off the boss.

Boarding Party

The class types in the Boarding Party are randomly chosen for each instance. That makes it difficult to describe exactly what each enemy type does, so I like this strategy: Weaken all of them to around 10% health before killing them all off at once.

It prevents them from gaining damage and new abilities. The default abilities are mostly annoyances that toss you around the room instead of devastating damage, so it's better to deal with those.

Madness Assassin Guide for Patch 2.0

2013-04-08T12:18:00.000-04:00

Madness Assassin Guide 2.0

Madness receives some major changes in patch 2.0, directing the spec entirely towards damage over time (DoT) effects with melee filler. The interactive buffs we had through Shock and Maul are gone.

Recommended Builds

Madness (8/2/36) is the build I liked best in closed testing.

To me, Force starvation issues were exaggerated so I pick up Avoidance instead of Dark Embrace. Haunted Dreams doesn't completely remove the cast time for Whirlwind anymore, so I also opt out of it.

New Stat Targets

New stat calculation formulas change your targets for Madness DPS.

Willpower is your primary stat
100% Accuracy
20%+ Critical Chance
65% Critical Multiplier (Surge)
Stack Power after reaching the other targets

Your DoTs can miss in 2.0, so Accuracy is important. For Madness, a miss can cause a snowball effect. For example, your Death Field misses - you lose out on the bonus DoT damage it provides until it's up again. The same is true for Creeping Terror.

Power, Crit, and Surge serve the same purpose as they previously did. Critical and Critical Multiplier have a harsher point of diminishing returns.

Alacrity has some benefit to all classes by reducing the global cooldown and increasing resource generation. An Alacrity goal hasn't yet been determined, but don't be surprised when new Assassin gear comes with the stat.

Deception Assassin in Patch 2.0

2013-04-06T14:02:00.000-04:00

Deception Assassin in Patch 2.0

Deception changes for 2.0 have given it more competitive PvE DPS than ever before. Rearranged talents bring this spec far ahead of Madness in burst capability.

Recommended Builds

Deception (5/36/5) is the spec currently favored by the community.

Note that Whirling Edge in the calculator is now Electric Ambush, reducing the cooldown of Recklessness and granting 3 Static Charges on use.

New Stat Targets

Stat formulas have been changed in 2.0, bringing Crit and Surge down significantly. You're looking at unbuffed stats around the following.

Willpower is your primary stat
~100% Accuracy
20%+ Critical Chance
~66% Critical Multiplier (Surge)
Stack Power while maintaining the other stats

Alacrity now reduces the global cooldown and increases Force regeneration. It hasn't yet been determined how much we would benefit from it or what to sacrifice to gear for it. Expect this list to change some after we learn more.

Accuracy is important in update 2.0 because enemies have Force and Tech resistance. Your Force attacks can miss where before only your saber attacks could.

Your critical multiplier hits harsh diminishing returns at 65% now, down from 75%.

Power remains a static increase per point to all your damage done.

Darkness Assassin Tank in Patch 2.0

2013-04-04T14:01:00.000-04:00

Darkness Assassin Tanks in SWTOR Game Update 2.0

Building off of the original Darkness guide, let's address some changes for patch 2.0 you should know.

Recommended Builds

Darkness (38/3/5) is what the guild's tank likes the best right now, but discussion is ongoing.

New Stat Targets

On your character's stat sheet including passive talented buffs, reach for the following stat balance:

23% Defense - 522 Rating
36% Shield Chance - 875 Rating
45% Absorption - 1002 Rating

These figures are based heavily on the work done by KeyboardNinja and dipstik at the Underworld gear's stat budget (including a stim) where high mitigation variants of mods and augments are used instead of Endurance-heavy ones.

Endurance provides extra health and increases your self-healing as a side effect. Enemies have Force resist now, so you'll want to pick up some Accuracy through talents.

Force and Tech abilities can be shielded in update 2.0. Shield rating makes you shield more often (assuming you wear a Shield Generator and use Dark Charge), while Absorb is the amount a shield can prevent out of the incoming damage.

Defense increases your chances to dodge or parry attacks.

Galactic Solutions Industries Quests

2013-04-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Galactic Solutions Industries

GSI is a new reputation that brings with it two new ways to spend time and explore. The Shroud is introduced as a new villain that reminds me of the Shadow Broker from Mass Effect.

Your faction's intelligence agency has recovered some gadgets used by The Shroud's forces and now you can use them against him by uncovering secrets across the galaxy. By accepting the main GSI story, you open up daily and weekly quests on Makeb and various other planets.

Macrobinoculars

Pictured: Macrobinoculars identifying a dig site

Macrobinoculars take you to first-person view and highlight objects of interest with a yellow sheen. Center your viewpoint on it and click to scan it and complete a quest or get a clue to what you can use it for.

You can also find dig sites for the second gadget from afar when you see the beaming broadcast in the image above.

Quests

Introductory Macrobinocular quests send you to multiple planets to scan objectives at marked locations. When you've found enough of them you'll triangulate the location of one of The Shroud's lieutenants. You can be ambushed by droids tracking you while scanning, so make sure you do have a suitable companion with you.

Once at a lieutenant's base, a series of puzzles will prevent you from reaching your enemy. These range from tricking sewer creatures to break down defense shields, navigating a shock field, routing coolant to break down doors, or just jumping over a laser grid. They're fun quests and if you get stuck, whip out the Macrobinoculars and have a look around to get hints.

Hands-on Makeb: Exploring Chapter 4

2013-03-26T14:00:00.000-04:00

Going Hands-on with Makeb

I've been playing Makeb for a few months. There, I said it! The NDA ended today and PTS servers are being taken down. Unfortunately, being in the test group for leveling content prevented me from using public testing so I was unable to do Scum and Villainy.

I think my hands-on experience with Makeb will still be interesting to many of you, so let's get into it.

Chapter 4: Rise of the Hutt Cartel

Makeb is Chapter 4. There are just two stories to be told; one for each faction. That isn't to say that your class story is forgotten, though.

The writers did a nice job of including class-specific dialogue in an natural way throughout the entire experience. Will it bug you that the story plays so similarly the 3rd time around? Sure, but that's the cost of a fully voiced game with a following that didn't take off as well as expected. It's still more engaging than providing no relevant story context like many other MMOs.

Leveling

Gear scaling is slow in Rise of the Hutt Cartel for players currently in Ops gear. Artifact crafted level 53 gear is item level 156 compared to best-in-slot 150s now. This means the difficulty ramps up quickly as you progress through the planet, and fresh 50s will need to be careful and vigilant of patrols.

I recommend doing your dailies to pick up extra experience; some of the difficulty comes from fighting enemies a few levels higher than you and the addition of Force/Tech attacks missing. Enemies come in pretty large packs, which is mainly why I love 5-target Death Field so much. DF and two Lacerates kills off standard groups.

Heroic quests tied to the main storyline were not repeatable in the build I played. I plan on grabbing a group for these as soon as I get them before the pool of players that need it dries up. Due to the small testing pool, I ended up soloing these at 55 with great difficulty - clear areas completely or opening doors aggros absolutely everything still alive. I learned the hard way.

The main story arc of Makeb took me about 9 hours to complete. I was barely into level 54 when it ended. What do you do from there? GSI quests and dailies. Those will have a post of their own soon.

Exploring

You've seen the rocky mesas in images and promo videos. Makeb is split into a bunch of subsections, each with a distinct feel. Speeder paths between the mesas "fade out" and teleport you as you're riding to save time. Areas are densely populated with enemies, making the world feel alive... but also a pain to cut through on the return trip for quest turn-ins. Have your Quick Travel cooldown upgraded.

I have a few favorite new creatures from RotHC. Vrakes are medium-sized Star Wars versions of dragons. There are also a few species of dinosaur-like critters in one part of Makeb (and I want to hug whoever was responsible for that.) It's a shame Bioware hasn't shown these off yet. They'll probably end up as Cartel Market pets one day.

Datacrons

There were two new Datacrons we found on Makeb. These may change before the expansion launches.

A +10 Presence Datacron was on Perekta Mesa with the path entrance near the Empire's landing area. Follow the cracked upper level of housing until you reach a stony half-circle. There's a hole in it to drop down and circle around the left, then back up. There's another place to drop down onto a boulder. Don't go over it; jump on it then look down for another path. This leads to a pipe with two precision jumps to make before landing on the Datacron. Phase Walk is a massive time-saver to reset your position if you screw up a jump.

The other Datacron, +10 Endurance, is located at the Cartel Drilling Platforms. I was unable to find the route to it during testing. Dulfy's guild found this one, and you actually start at Frinn Mesa to reach it.

Story

This is SPOILER territory where I'll give an overview of what each faction's objectives and accomplishments are during Makeb's main storyline. If you want to keep it a surprise, don't read any further.

Assassin Developer Interview

2013-03-25T12:01:00.000-04:00

SWTOR Game Update 2.0 Assassin Developer Interview

Assassins and Shadows have responded to Game Update 2.0's changes with a lot of resistance since PTS became available.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing SWTOR's Lead Combat Designer, +Austin Peckenpaugh. I gathered the most common themes of community complaints and reader suggestions to form this list of questions. The discussion we had should address many of your concerns.

Austin Peckenpaugh on Assassins in Update 2.0

Belanos: Hey Austin, thanks for chatting about Assassins and Shadows with me today. You must be excited about update 2.0 and Makeb.

Austin: It’s been a long time coming. I’m really looking forward to finally rolling things out and getting the new classes into everyone’s hands.

Belanos: Darkness and Deception trees are working well after the latest changes. Are you happy with their performance now, or are there other changes we should expect?

Austin: Working on classes is a never-ending full-time job, and we’re never really content to rest on our laurels. It’s easy for us and for players to view any big release as “closing” or “finaling” the product, but in reality 2.0 is the beginning of something new. So with that perspective, we’re looking forward to gathering more player feedback and iterating on things. I’m actually pretty happy about how Assassins came together for the 2.0 release, but there’s always more work to do.

Belanos: Some Madness Assassins see the new direction the build is taking as less fun than pre-2.0. The phrase “gimped Sorc” is being thrown around on the forums. What are the design objectives in removing Shock and Maul from the rotation?

Austin: Changing the way Madness Assassins play was not an issue we took or take lightly. Changing numbers is a big enough deal for some players – changing gameplay is a huge deal for even more players.

When we sat down to talk about Madness Assassins in 2.0, there were many issues we wanted to address. Some of those issues were frankly caused by violating our own design philosophies. These are ways of designing skill trees that we follow and follow for a good reason, usually because straying from them causes big problems.

In the case of Shock, its contribution to Madness’s gameplay was effectively the Unearthed Knowledge buff it provided (which is to say, it provided no gameplay). Shock itself wasn’t very powerful or important, and it really didn’t need to be shoe-horned into Madness’s priorities. Additionally, a lot of the Force-management issues Madness Assassins complained about were caused by using Shock, which we encouraged players to do because of a few unnecessary and ill-fitting skills.

The bigger design problem was Maul, or more specifically, the Duplicity skill. In general, we really don’t like providing gameplay-altering skills as “low hanging fruit” near the bottom of a skill tree. These skills are usually a problem because they alter your established gameplay after-the-fact. By that I mean, once you’ve fully invested in a skill tree (let’s say 36 points in Madness), you have a 100% full and complete arsenal, skill set, and gameplay. Your leftover points should be used to reinforce and bolster that gameplay – not alter or further complicate it.

This isn’t so much a balance concern as it is a usability and complexity concern. There is a limit to the number of abilities in a priority list or rotation that most players feel comfortable with. Slapping more on top of that, which some players may or may not even choose to do, makes things difficult for us to balance and expand upon, and it makes things unnecessarily complex for players.

By contrast, we can provide players with skill choices that give the same overall effect without the additional complexity and without requiring players to master additional gameplay. Of course, some players have already mastered that gameplay and don’t see it as a problem. We’re not aiming to fix things for those players, and for those players, it might appear as though we’re messing with a good thing. Instead, our fixes aim to address the skill tree for players that passed up on Madness and haven’t ever considered it because it’s too daunting. To be clear, this is important so that all skill trees feel like they’re part of the same game and that they are all equally viable choices to players that want to try out what each skill tree has to offer.

With all of that said, I really want to get across that I personally understand how jarring it can be to have your spec’s gameplay changed in such a way. This is not the kind of thing we like doing or the kind of thing that we have any plans on doing again in the foreseeable future – for any spec.

Belanos: There is a fear amongst the community that low DPS parses versus other classes on PTS may lead to pigeonholing us into tanking. Of course, we only have limited data to go on. Could you clear this up: Are Assassin DPS specs reaching your targets?

Austin: Yes and no. If your measure of Assassin DPS is parses on a training dummy, you WILL see lower numbers than most other DPS specs. But allow me to put this into context in terms of what Assassins are “missing” compared to all other specs. I’ve color-coded “what’s missing” when fighting a training dummy based on severity (green < light green < brown < red).

Sorcerer-Lightning	No armor debuff present
Sorcerer-Madness	No armor debuff present
Assassin-Deception	No Assassinate; no armor debuff present; no Sith Executioner
Assassin-Madness	No Assassinate; no armor debuff present; no Bloodletting
Marauder-Annihilation	No Vicious Throw; no armor debuff present
Marauder-Carnage	No armor debuff present
Marauder-Rage	No Vicious Throw; no armor debuff present
Juggernaut-Vengeance	Nothing missing - Optimal DPS
Juggernaut-Rage	No Vicious Throw
Operative-Concealment	No armor debuff present
Operative-Lethality	No armor debuff present; no Devouring Microbes
Sniper-Marksmanship	No Takedown (also not benefiting from 4pc set bonus); No Headshot
Sniper-Engineering	No Takedown (also not benefiting from 4pc set bonus)
Sniper-Lethality	No Devouring Microbes
Mercenary-Arsenal	Nothing missing - Optimal DPS
Mercenary-Pyrotech	No armor debuff present; no Burnout
Powertech-Pyrotech	No armor debuff present; no Burnout
Powertech-AdvPrototype	No armor debuff present

There’s a good deal of additional context that can be added to these parses against training dummies, but I hope this clearly demonstrates how Assassin DPS has THE MOST to gain when switching from a simulated fight to a real fight.

Furthermore, I must mention that when we do our internal playtests against real enemies with real group conditions, Assassins are in fact hitting our DPS targets. Our tests aren’t perfect, however, and we don’t test every fight or scenario with every spec, so we will be looking forward to seeing the results players provide for us. If things really aren’t looking good for Assassins, we won’t hesitate to make the necessary adjustments.

Belanos: A gripe I’m seeing a lot of is that Lacerate costs too much Force to use for what you get out of it - even with new talents increasing its damage. Is this still being iterated on or do you think it has its purpose the way it is now?

Austin: I think players are spot-on with this analysis of Lacerate. It’s hard to give precedence to AOE viability when single-target balancing is such a huge priority, but that’s ultimately no excuse after a certain amount of time. I’m really hoping that we’ll be able to get to a spot (soon) where we can address some of these minor but long-overdue issues like Lacerate.

Belanos: Phase Walk is a really cool ability. Darkness gets a healing buff provided by it, but the DPS specs don’t have an in-combat PvE reason to use it very often. Has there been any consideration of using Phase Walk as a source of different group buffs for each spec?

Austin: I think Phase Walk is one of those abilities whose real use will only become apparent to all of us as everyone gets in and starts playing with it. As 2.0 goes out the door, we are fully aware of the criticism that DPS Assassins don’t have overt PVE application for Phase Walk. However, we want to see what players do with this ability and make judgement calls as we move forward. Players should expect to see this ability (and skills that modify it) evolve greatly as time goes on.

I do really like the idea of different specs providing different “buff zones” around the Phase Walk marker. This sounds like a direction we will probably go in.

One minor (but very cool) thing I want to point out that a lot of people don’t know is that Phase Walk can be deactivated even while you’re controlled. Being stunned doesn’t prevent you from de-toggling a mode, so returning to your marked location with Phase Walk is a great way to avoid otherwise unavoidable effects.

Belanos: My favorite change for Assassins in 2.0 is Death Field hitting 5 targets. Is there anything about Assassin and Shadow changes you’re really looking forward to going live?

Austin: It might seem kind of minor, but I’m actually excited about Overcharge Saber becoming a real survivability cooldown in 2.0. It’s now a baseline 15% heal for all Assassins, and for Darkness Assassins that spec into it, it’s also +25% damage reduction for the duration.

I’m also excited about the new Deception Assassin gameplay. Previously it was kind of a disappointment to deal with the conflicting motivations of bursting with a big Discharge and rapidly Discharging on cooldown for sustained damage. In 2.0, Voltaic Slash, Shock, Surging Charge, and Discharge have clear synergy and all play in better harmony with one another. And because our PTS players are awesome, we were able to make these changes without sacrificing on-demand burst. After a quick round of feedback from the PTS, we introduced Electric Ambush, which makes Recklessness instantly ready your big Discharge (among other things). The end result is a large improvement and slated to be a lot of fun.

Belanos: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Austin: Only the usual, which is to say that 2.0 is just the start of something new. We’re really looking forward to having everyone play the new classes and to get working on additional tweaks for the future based on that feedback.

Belanos: Thanks for your time!

Shocked?

I'm sure you're as happy as I was to hear we're not a burden to our groups when you look at the big picture. I appreciate having the full list of contributing DPS factors for every spec and seeing that our Operations Dummy parses are essentially incomparable against other classes in 2.0.

Your spec of choice may change if you no longer enjoy it, but you have a viable alternative either way. It's extremely interesting that Madness in its old form broke the developers' design philosophy and this was a correction of sorts. On the bright side, we get some mental bandwidth back because the complexity is being brought in line with other classes.

Finally, some of our pet peeves should get ironed out as the devs reach lower-priority issues. Share this info with your friends if you've gleaned some insight from it.

Best Crew Skills for Assassins 2.0

2013-03-19T07:30:00.000-04:00

Best Crew Skills for Assassins in Patch 2.0

I've always recommended Biochem, Artifice, or Synthweaving as the best Crew Skills for an Assassin. With Patch 2.0 and Rise of the Hutt Cartel, some tweaks to crafting call for another look at each of these.

Biochem

Biochem has always been in a league of its own because of reusable adrenals, stims, and medpacks. Bioware intended to phase these out, but the new set of Artifact rarity Biochem items are still reusable (not consumed) on PTS.

As long as this remains the case, Biochem provides the best perk for self-use. Hundreds of thousands of credits worth of savings on stat bonuses over months of endgame is a standout winner.

Artifice

Lightsaber Shells

We love our double-bladed sabers, don't we? Many of us chose to be Assassins or Shadows to use that type of lightsaber. Crafting custom saber shells has long been in decline. With the Cartel Market, Operations, and event gear providing the most unique appearances, I expect these to continue to be in low demand.

Modifications

Color Crystals come in a much wider variety now, and in 2.0 Artificers will finally be able to learn exotic colors by successfully Reverse-Engineering Purple, "Black-X," and Cyan crystals for schematics. For a time, these should sell quickly to anyone that didn't want to dish out the cash for the rare drops before. There are no foreseeable stat increases for Color Crystals as we level past 50.

Hilts, the weapon damage component for sabers, continue to work the same way in the next tier of gear. There is one major difference coming into play: Best-in-slot (BiS) gear will never be attainable through RE. You probably have an iLevel 150 / Rank 63 hilt you may have purchased to gear up quicker. Under the new system, only the tier under BiS will be craftable - you'd only have a 146 / 61 Hilt unless you raid.

Enhancements (and all other gear or mods) follow the same rule. You cannot craft a BiS Enhancement. When new gear comes out, the previous top-tier gear will become an RE-able schematic. For profitability, keep an eye on mid-level enhancements and provide what the quest rewards don't.

This also goes for Cybertech Armorings and Mods, but that skill is being omitted from the list because it doesn't "feel" right for an Assassin.

We may never see the crazy margins of high-end mods again because every players' goal will be to replace your crafted items.

Synthweaving

Armor Shells

To Njessi's and many others avid Synthweavers' dismay, the Cartel Market and BiS crafting limitations are hurting armor crafters.

As great as custom armor originally was, the Synthweaver selection now pales in comparison to Adaptive Armor from the Cartel Market, events, and Galactic Reputation. Even at level 1 or 10, you may choose to put together an Adaptive set that will last you til the end-days of SWTOR if you desire. Why bother playing the RE gambling game to make a perfect Artifact set or buying a less-than-stunning appearance from a crafter when you could look like Revan, Malak, Carth Onasi or any other flavor that suits your tastes?

Augments

Augmentation slots are now vital to endgame success, and 2.0 won't interfere with that. New ranks of Augments that require upgraded augment slots will provide a steady source of income for each of the professions that can make them. Even if you're keeping your appearance from this very day, you'll want to upgrade your augments.

Gathering Skills

Remember that gathering skills are always lucrative when new crafting content is released. Crafters will go through their mats faster than a Hutt eats his 27th course - and they'll be willing to pay to restock.

PTS Assassin Notes for Pi Day

2013-03-14T17:48:00.000-04:00

Sith Assassin

We get some small changes in today's patch. We'll be granted more Critical chance per point. Deception can use Recklessness to help build Stat Charges. My Madness brothers and sisters are getting a passive damage increase on Lightning Burns and improved Force Regeneration.

Please test it out and share your experiences with the changes on the PTS forums to continue working towards a satisfying 2.0 for Assassins.

Deception

Whirling Edge has been replaced with Electric Ambush. Recklessness has a 50% chance per point to build 3 Static Charges. Additionally, exiting combat reduces the active cooldown of Recklessness by 30 seconds per point.

Madness (Assassin)

The damage dealt Lightning Burns is no longer considered "periodic damage." Damage dealt by this skill has been significantly increased. When Lightning Burns deals damage, it restores 1 Force per point to the Inquisitor.

SWTOR Developers Talk Creating Makeb

2013-03-08T14:52:00.001-05:00

SWTOR Making of Rise of the Hutt Cartel

Part 1: Creating Makeb

In this new video, SWTOR Developers begin sharing details of Makeb's creation and role in the ongoing Galactic story.

Makeb is a visually stunning planet with cities built atop rocky mesas. The previously neutral, resource-rich planet is now the target of the Hutt Cartel. The Republic and Empire want a piece of it to prevent a growing threat and one-up the opposing faction.

Read more »

PTS Class DPS Comparison

2013-03-04T19:20:00.001-05:00

SWTOR DPS Parses from PTS 2.0 Compared

A thread on the PTS forums is collecting and comparing 5 minute TORParse logs from all specs and classes to see where they currently stand. Check out those logs for details.

New Numbers from 3/14

TL;DR: We're Underperforming

Update 2013/3/5: Amber Green acknowledges Assassin and Shadow DPS feedback. She reminds us changes are possible before the patch goes live and asks for continued feedback.

Compiled PTS Patch 2.0 Assassin Impressions

2013-02-22T10:17:00.002-05:00

Compiled Assassin Impressions from PTS 2.0

There are some really interesting posts made from PTS testers pertaining to Assassins of all specs. Let's take a look.

Stat Scaling

KeyboardNinja has some close estimates of how stats scale after Patch 2.0's formula changes.

The TL:DR on this one is that your stat sheet will show 50-70% of what your current live stats are after and stats (except Power) scale more slowly. He also expects Shielding in PvP to pull ahead of DPS players' Critical chance, making tanks very sturdy in the future.

Patch 2.0 PTS Assassin Notes

2013-02-21T01:07:00.001-05:00

SWTOR Patch 2.0 on PTS

Patch 2.0 is now available to for testing. I encourage you to head over there and try out the changes. Note that the Character Copy function and Authenticators are acting oddly right now.

Assassin Notes for Patch 2.0

New Ability: Phase Walk - allows the Assassin to place a mark that can be instantly returned to at a later time, after which Phase Walk goes on cooldown. This is usable in stealth mode and trained at 51.

General: Tumult has been removed from the game.

Assassin:

All abilities can now be performed with an Electrostaff. (Nice!)
Guard no longer breaks crowd control on redirected damage.
Lightning Discharge no longer has a cooldown.
Dark Discharge now has a 6 second cooldown.
Surging Discharge no longer has a cooldown, but can only be used when Static Charges can be consumed. It now does more damage.
Overcharge Saber now additionally increases the chance to trigger Saber Charges by 35% and heals for 15% of your max health when used.

Darkness

Dark Ward no longer has a Force Cost and now has a 15-second cooldown.

Deception

Surging Charge can now only trigger once every 4.5 seconds and deals significantly more damage. In addition, when it triggers it builds 1 stack of Static Charge. Static Charge is consumed by Discharge to deal additional damage.
Voltaic Slash no longer increases the damage dealt by Shock. It now stacks 2 buffs of Voltage, which gives Shock a 50% chance per stack to automatically trigger Surging Charge and bypass its rate limit.

Madness

Creeping Terror's damage has been slightly increased.

It's been quite a while since Assassins have seen large changes. What do you think of them?

Xenoanalyst II Gree Event Boss

2013-02-19T18:51:00.000-05:00

Relics of the Gree Event Boss Xenoanalyst II

Xenoanalyst II is the Operation boss of the Relics of the Gree Event on board the Grey Secant ship on Ilum. To access the ship, you need at least Newcomer Galactic Reputation and use a pass from the vendor at your home base.

8 and 16 man Story and Hard Modes are available with each mode carrying a separate lockout, resetting on Tuesday. Story Mode enrage timer is 10 minutes. Hard Mode enrage timer is 7 minutes.

This is part of a 2 week recurring event at an unknown frequency. If you're reading this during the first Gree event, you have one week left to participate.

Xenoanalyst II Boss Mechanics

Thermal Tolerance

Thermal Tolerance is a channeled attack directed at the boss' primary target.

On Hard Mode, this applies a stacking debuff that increases damage taken by 20% per stack, to a total of 10 stacks. This is very difficult on tanks and healers, so cooldowns should be used to survive. A secondary tank should relieve the main tank by taunting at the end of the beam.

The debuff can lead to summoned adds from Species Comparison killing a tank. Let the tank without it pick them up.

Problematic Solving Evaluation

Xenoanalyst II shields itself from damage and control panels around the room become clickable like Operator IX in TFB. Click all the panels to break the shield. When broken, the entire Operation group in line of sight will take non-lethal damage.

You are prevented from clicking multiple panels by a debuff, making 16-man somewhat easier than 8.

When used in conjunction with Species Comparison, which spawns adds, you should kill the adds before breaking the boss free. Adds hit quite hard. If or when you have a second spawn of adds, a viable option is to have a tank kite them around instead of killing them.

Environmental Awareness

I love the name of this ability. Xenoanalyst II will turn towards a core on the edge of the room and channel it to essentially 1-shot a player. Nothing else is happening while channeling, so your Operation should get over to the core quickly and destroy it before the cast finishes.

Generate Urgency

At 20% health, the boss goes immune to damage briefly and prepares to spam Generate Urgency. It is a high-damage attack that can be taunted to soak up the damage. This creates a burn phase where you just need to defeat Xenoanalyst before it kills you.

I always preach testing Force Shroud on boss abilities because it works against a lot of them. It does not prevent Generate Urgency from landing, and I got a nasty death on HM at the same time the boss died to prove it.

Rewards

Xenoanalyst II drops Gray Helix Components for Champion Gree reputation weapons, Black Hole commendations, an Ancient Gree Artifact large reputation trophy, and either random Black Hole gear on Story Mode or Hazmat gear on Hard Mode.

Other World Bosses

While simple enough to do without much explanation, the other two Relics of the Gree Event bosses are worth a mention as a way to farm Galactic Reputation so you can do Xenoanalyst II.

Watch these quick videos on Surgok'k and Gravak'k on Ilum if you're having trouble.

Galactic Reputation Rewards Your Playstyle

2013-02-13T00:27:00.000-05:00

Galactic Reputation Rewards Your Playstyle

Today we got our hands on SWTOR's new Galactic Reputation system which rewards playing the way you want to. I think this is a fantastic way to improve player retention for the long-term.

Horizontal Progression Done Right

Progression is usually vertical. Level 1 to 50, get Tionese gear so you can get Columi to earn Rakata, etc. Horizontal progression is the filler we do for fun between these milestones, and many times it's overlooked or poorly implemented.

Galactic Reputation is a revolutionary way to give us a variety of activities to do if and when we choose to. We can play any character and go all-in to get his shiny new armor. Maybe you only like part of an event? That's fine; instead of raging at the part you don't like, hop on alts and do the part you enjoy.

Patch 1.7 Relics of the Gree Event Sneak Peek

2013-02-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

Relics of the Gree Sneak Peek

Patch 1.7 Ilum Event

Bioware has just released a new trailer to pump us up for tomorrow's Patch 1.7 Relics of the Gree event.

We can see what looks to be a way to summon a series of large enemies from the Gray Secant ship above Ilum. Targets include K'lor-slugs, Wampas and droids. Relics of the Gree certainly looks better than the old box-hunting event.

Participating gives Galactic Repuation for the Gree Enclave. I'm excited to see if the armor sets we've seen in these previews are the reward for that reputation.

Log in tomorrow, Tuesday 2013-2-12 and join in on SWTOR's latest event which runs until the 26th.

SWTOR Patch 1.7 Galactic Reputation Preview

2013-02-05T14:25:00.000-05:00

Patch 1.7 Developer Blog: Galactic Reputation

The first details of SWTOR's upcoming Galactic Reputation system in Patch 1.7 have come to light. This is a new progression system that persists across your Legacy and actions of characters on both factions can contribute to and benefit from it.

The Galactic Reputation level hierarchy from lowest to highest is currently:

Outsider
Newcomer
Friend
Hero
Champion
Legend

Features

Gaining Reputation

Galactic Reputation points are gained through Reputation Trophy items. These come in small, medium, and large sizes. Each Organization has its own type of trophy - these are granted by completing missions for that faction.

There is a weekly per-faction cap limiting grinding, but promoting an active playstyle. When you reach one cap, you can still work on another faction. Subscribers have a 50% boost to Galactic Reputation gain.

Reputation Missions for each Organization

These rewards cannot be granted retroactively. You'll need to keep hammering away at dailies to gain Galactic Reputation.

The Voss - [WEEKLY] Defending Voss-ka, Voss Heroic Missions
The Gree Enclave - "Relics of the Gree" Event Missions and Bosses
Republic Fifth Assault Battalion, Imperial Guard - [WEEKLY] Section X Crisis, Section X Missions
Republic Hyperspace Armada, Imperial First Mobile Fleet - Hard Mode Space Missions

SWTOR Combat Log Parser Comparison

2013-01-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

SWTOR Combat Log Parsers

The combat log landscape has changed since I last shared my opinion on what works well and what doesn't. It's time to get you up to speed on which parser is capable of meeting your needs.

AskMrRobot

The most notable change since last time is AskMrRobot's database and encounter list is outdated, taking it out of the running. Support for detecting and stitching together logs from new Operations is handicapped because of this.

SWMonitor, which allowed one person to upload an entire raid group's collective logs to AskMrRobot has not been updated in half a year.

AMR's development team has lately focused on other games which impacted the usefulness of tools like Simulationcraft and an armory plugin. I would love for them to continue working on SWTOR tools, but I understand their priories need to be on what most of their users play - right now, that's not TOR.

TORPARSE.com

TORPARSE is the most promising online parser there is right now. Of any of the parsers I've used, this handles in-combat restealthing most accurately. You don't get 12 second bites of a new encounter entry splitting up your log every time you Cloak.

Fights are listed as timestamps, but recognized bosses can be optionally labeled by name. You can browse top DPS or Healing for any level 50 group content in the game publicly, or search for something in particular.

Rankings do not require the majority of a group from a fight to upload their logs to verify yours with TORPARSE, so with enough users we can get a good idea of overall class performance in differently designed encounters. You can join logs for a group and even password protect it if you wish.

A desktop application is in development and may remove the manual step of uploading logs in addition to providing real-time DPS or Healing meters.

Any cons? One pretty annoying issue - some optimization needs done. The site can be unresponsive for 20-30 seconds when you load a log's chart. I thought I was crashing the first time it happened to me; now I expect it. Hopefully that will get hammered out soon.

Sith Assassin and Jedi Shadow Skill Reference

2013-01-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

Quick Reference for Sith Assassin and Jedi Shadow Skills

I play a Sith Assassin and when I write, I use terms for my advanced class. Jedi Shadows, of course, can benefit from the same information but you may not be familiar with which of your abilities correspond to an Assassin's.

If you play a Shadow, here are the equivalent ability names for your class. With this, you should have a quicker and easier time making sense of Assassin lingo.