SWTOR 7.6 Jedi Shadow Best Solo Builds

This guide explains the best builds for Shadow DPS disciplines that are optimized to perform extremely well in solo content.

The builds enable you to have a far more enjoyable experience fighting trash mobs than you would with a sustained DPS build since you’ll be utilizing effects designed specifically for use against trash mobs!

Why solo builds are worth using in SWTOR

For almost the entirety of SWTOR’s history, fighting trash wasn’t fun because the combat system didn’t support it. Trash mob encounters rarely last more than a few seconds while boss fights and PvP typically last at least a few minutes, requiring you to make use of far more abilities.

In solo content, you’re mostly fighting trash mobs that have so little health that the majority of enemies won’t be able to survive for more than 2-3 abilities and you often can’t even get through a whole rotation before that combat encounter is over.

Stronger single enemies like elites (golds) where you would be able to stretch your rotational legs are rare enough that you can trivialize them with proper use of offensive cooldowns (OCDs) so even they don’t always survive a full rotation cycle.

I believe this disconnect was responsible for making skipping trash via stealth and cheese such a popular approach to playing PvE in SWTOR. BioWare clearly understood this and (mostly) solved it by introducing extremely powerful new ability tree buffs and legendary implants that synergize with existing tactical items.

These ridiculously potent effects form the basis of the solo builds and are able to exist without causing (too many) balance issues in group content because they are short-lived and only reliably trigger off of combat events that are fairly unique to and common when fighting trash mobs.

Serenity Shadow Solo Build

In this section, I’ll be covering the ability tree build and solo ability priority for Serenity Shadow. Please refer to the 7.0 Serenity Shadow PvE Guide if you want more detailed information, especially on topics pertaining to gearing, abilities, and ability tree choices.

Serenity Solo Content Ability Tree Build

The Build Essentials are what I consider to be the core components that make the build viable. Without them, the build no longer accomplishes its primary function.

The ability tree buffs, implants, and tacticals that aren’t listed as Build Essentials can be changed as needed without compromising the integrity of the build, though I have included a full set of default choices that will be most consistently helpful in accomplishing what the build sets out to do.

Build Essentials:

 Balancing Field
 Destruction Ray
 Hallowing
 Force Phase
 Stalker’s Swiftness
 Shadowcraft Implant
 Force Training Implant

This build leverages the cooldown resets on enemy kills from Balancing Field, Hallowing, Stalker’s Swiftness, and Shadowcraft to enable you to spam autocrits of your most powerful attacks, including Force in Balance and Squelch, on each group of trash. You’ll only need to apply your DoTs and DoT spread against stronger enemies that you’ll find in heroics.

In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful solo content builds in the whole game. However, the high damage output offered by this build is extremely short-lived and unsustainable because it consumes a ton of Force and relies almost completely on you constantly killing enemies and exiting combat. 

Your choice of tactical item doesn’t matter much at all and I think there’s an argument to be made for all of them, including even Severance Pay and Chant of Regeneration, so play around with each of them and see which you like best. If you’re using Severance Pay, make sure to take Cleaving Cut and Force Magnetism.

In Flashpoints, use Longing Force and Ensue instead and make sure to use the Two Time Trouble tactical.

How to use this build

This is the general priority system you’ll be using your abilities in against each group of trash in order to maximize your damage output.

1. Enter Stealth
2. Shadow Stride (to enemy you plan to defeat first)
3. Force in Balance (AoE spam)
4. Squelch (against enemy w/ highest HP)
5. Whirling Blow (only to finish multiple enemies off immediately)
6. Sever Force ► Force Breach ► Whirling Blow (Heroics/FPs only)
7. Spinning Strike AND/OR Serenity Strike (finisher)
8. Saber Strike (only if you need more Force)
9. Double Strike

Generally, you’ll Shadow Stride in from Stealth and begin spamming Force in Balance. Thanks to Balancing Field, you’ll have 2 charges and restore a charge each time you defeat an enemy. These Force in Balances should be autocrits because of your Shadowcraft legendary implant, but be fast about activating your abilities because you only get autocrits for the first 6 seconds of combat, which is enough time to activate 4 abilities.

A couple of Force in Balances is often enough to take out some standard trash mobs on its own, though it will become less and less consistent as you go to higher-level planets. At max level, you’ll typically need to finish off standard enemies with a Whirling Blow and stronger enemies with an Squelch (which should also autocrit) followed by beefy melee attacks like Spinning Strike and Serenity Strike.

You’ll only need to DoT spread against multiple strongs and elites (silvers and golds) when Force in Balance spam is wholly insufficient, which you’ll typically only find in Heroics and Flashpoints.

Saber Strike and Double Strike should only be used when you have nothing else, which should only happen consistently against elites (golds) if you aren’t using Quick Escalation. Use Saber Strike if you need more Force or Double Strike if you don’t.

Sometimes, Shadow Stride’s cooldown might not reset if you’re too slow, but Shadowcraft makes it so Force Cloak resets the cooldown on Shadow Stride, so if it’s nice if you have that available.

Infiltration Shadow Solo Build

In this section, I’ll be covering the ability tree build and solo ability priority for Infiltration Shadow. Please refer to the 7.0 Infiltration Shadow PvE Guide guide if you want more detailed information, especially on topics pertaining to gearing, abilities, and ability tree choices.

Infiltration Solo Content Ability Tree Build

The Build Essentials are what I consider to be the core components that make the build viable. Without them, the build no longer accomplishes its primary function.

The ability tree buffs, implants, and tacticals that aren’t listed as Build Essentials can be changed as needed without compromising the integrity of the build, though I have included a full set of default choices that will be most consistently helpful in accomplishing what the build sets out to do.

Build Essentials

Absolver
 Force Phase
Cleaving Cut
Stalker’s Swiftness
May Cause Injury Tactical
Shadowcraft Implant
Dynamic Force Implant

This build is designed and meant to be used exclusively for solo content and utilizes the May Cause Injury Tactical. The signature feature of this build is that you can take out many groups of enemies with Cleaving Cut + autocrit Force Breach and anything that’s still left standing gets whacked with Vaulting Slash crits.

You don’t have to worry as much about building up Clairvoyance since you’ll be getting 3 stacks of Breaching Shadows from other sources, though you will still need to build 1 stack with Cleaving Cut (preferred), Whirling Blow, or Clairvoyant Strike to turn Force Breach into an AoE.

Please note that the May Cause Injury build uses 2 crit implants, so you’ll need to get an extra piece of alacrity or give up Dynamic Force in favor of Force Training. Dynamic Force is more valuable with this build because it will enable you to use Force Potency for every single trash pull without having to wait around.

I recommend taking Critical Augur and Vision Engine to boost your damage output, but they’re not required. Don’t bother trying to maintain the crit chance from Vision Engine on regular trash. In boss fights in FPs, switch Absolver to Penetrating Slash and May Cause Injury to The Awakened Flame.

How to use this build

This is the general priority system you’ll be using your abilities in against each group of trash in order to maximize your damage output.

1. Enter Stealth
2. Force Potency
3. Shadow Stride (to enemy you plan to defeat first)
4. Cleaving Cut (try to cleave as many enemies as possible)
5. Force Breach (only with 3 stacks of Breaching Shadows)
6. Vaulting Slash (to defeat lowest-health enemy)
7. Spinning Strike and Shadow Strike (secondary finishers)
8. Psychokinetic Blast (if more damage is needed)
9. Clairvoyant Strike (if nothing else is available)

Generally, you’ll activate Force Potency, Shadow Stride in from Stealth giving you 3 stacks of Static Charge and Shadowcraft, enabling single-target autocrit Force Breach, then cleave the group with Cleaving Cut to boost Force Breach’s damage further and enable Force Breach to be an AoE.

Most enemies hit by Cleaving Cut will go down for the count with the AoE Force Breach, and the ones you missed can be finished off with Vaulting Slashes crits. If that wasn’t enough, quickly do Spinning Strike -> Psychokinetic Blast and hopefully, that will be enough. If you’re too slow, you won’t get the cooldown reset on all of your attacks, so make sure to only use Vaulting Slash against enemies that have low enough health that a Vaulting Slash crit will be able to finish them off.

Usually, you only need to hold off on Vaulting Slash against stronger enemies on high-level planets. On low-level planets, sometimes AoE Force Breach will be enough on its own.

Major Cooldown Abilities for Shadows

These abilities offer some sort of temporary boost to your offense, defense, and/or mobility. They are referred to as cooldowns (CDs) because they usually only last a short time while having a long cooldown.

I am also incorporating crowd control (CC) here because their function is similar, though I am only mentioning abilities you’ll have access to and are useful in solo content.

You may want to group each category together on your bar so you can recognize them more easily, though keep them separate from the attacks I listed above.

Offensive Cooldowns

Offensive cooldowns (OCDs) increase your damage dealt temporarily. Sometimes they’re more generic boosts to everything, other times they only apply to specific abilities. It’s important to make sure you’re being thoughtful about which abilities you use and try to use them as fast as possible while the boost is active to maximize their effectiveness. Use them against stronger enemies to defeat them faster.

Force Potency

Force Potency makes your next 2 Force abilities will be guaranteed critical hits, resulting in it dealing 70%+ more damage. Each time you exit combat in Infiltration, the cooldown of the ability is effectively reset, meaning you can use this in every single combat encounter.

Battle Readiness (Infiltration Only)

Battle Readiness makes your boosts the overall damage dealt by Psychokinetic Blast and can make your melee attacks deal more damage as well. You also receive healing when you activate it and whenever your damage gets boosted.

Defensive Cooldowns

Defensive cooldowns (DCDs) increase your survivability temporarily, making it less likely that you’ll be defeated.

Deflection

Deflection significantly increases your chance to completely avoid taking damage from weapon attacks like blasterfire and lightsaber swings.

Force Cloak

Force Cloak takes you out of combat, puts you in stealth, and removes all removable hostile debuffs, allowing you to run away and heal up without enemies chasing after you.

Resilience (Serenity Only)

Resilience makes you ignore all damage from Force and tech attacks for a few seconds. Force and tech damage are just non-weapon damage from Force and tech wielders. Basically, Resilience will work against all attacks that Deflection can’t defend you from.

Mass Mind Control (Serenity Only)

For Serenity, Mass Mind Control grants a sizable chunk of damage reduction for a short time. Unlike Resilience and Deflection, Mass Mind Control works against everything, but the protection is weaker.

Mobility

These cooldowns allow you to move much faster than you would normally be able to go. Thanks to the Force Phase ability tree buff, you’ll also be immune to slows and roots while they’re active and purge any mobility debuffs upon activation.

Force Speed

Force Speed makes you move faster than you would while mounted for a few seconds. The effect is super short, but you have maximum control over where you want to go.

Shadow Stride

Shadow Stride makes you instantly teleport to your target and boosts your movement speed for a few seconds. It also makes Spinning Strike available to use and its cooldown is reset if you defeat whatever you teleported to within 10s. If you activate Shadow Stride from stealth, your attacks will autocrit for the next 6s.

Crowd Control

Mind Snap

This ability can interrupt your target’s cast or channel and locks them out of activating that ability again for a short time. Typically the longer or more threatening-sounding the ability is, the more important it is to interrupt.

Force Stun

The Force Stun ability stuns the target for a short time, preventing them from doing anything, allowing you to do anything without having to worry about them retaliating.

Mind Maze

This ability mezzes the target for a long time. Mezzes are stuns that end early if the target takes damage. Mind Maze can only be used from stealth against 1 target at a time while you’re both out of combat.

Force of Will

This ability breaks you out of any controlling effects. Since it has such a long cooldown, only use it if you are prevented from doing what you want to do. For example, if you’re rooted in place but can still hit your target, there’s no need to break free.

Shadow DPS Solo Gearing and Stats

This section will cover the core elements of gearing and stats for Shadow DPS. If you want a more detailed explanation, please refer to the main Serenity or Infiltration PvE guides. Don’t forget to obtain the legendary implants and tactical items I mentioned when referring to individual disciplines!

Stat Priority

As a DPS, you’ll need to care about 3 different stats: Accuracy, Alacrity, and Critical Rating. There are thresholds associated with Accuracy and Alacrity, so you need to prioritize reaching those thresholds to get the full benefit from each stat point.

1. Accuracy to 110.00% – Accuracy reduces the chance for your attacks to miss.
2. Alacrity to ~7.5% – Alacrity holistically increases the speed at which you can execute your rotation.
3. Critical gets the rest – Critical refers to both your chance to critically hit and the damage multiplier for critical hits. Critical Rating affects both.

Find out which mods to purchase from Hyde and Zeek in SWTOR on the Fleet to minimize spending and optimize your build. The dedicated guide contains tips for all roles in both PvE and PvP.

Individual Pieces

• Augments: Blue 296 augments ([Type] Augment 83 + Augmentation Kit Mk-11)
• Crystals: Advanced Eviscerating (+41 Critical)
• Relics: Relic of Focused Retribution and Relic of Devastating Vengeance (highest iRating you have)
• Biochem: Advanced Kyrprax Medpac, Proficient Stim, and Critical Adrenal

I recommend a Relic and Adrenal that boost your critical chance for solo content because, unlike Power, Critical Rating isn’t capped by level sync.