How to Create Asajj Ventress in SWTOR: Full Build Guide

This SWTOR Asajj Ventress Build Guide is designed to be as faithful to the lore and authentic as possible within the constraints of the game!

You’ll find everything you need to know in order to create a toon in SWTOR and play like Asajj Ventress. Her outfit and appearance are primarily based on how she looked at the beginning of the Clone Wars while she was still Count Dooku’s assassin.

Note: This build is not optimal for endgame content and should only be used when playing alone or role-playing with friends. It is beginner-friendly and does not require you to be at level cap to play it.

Physical Appearance

Asajj has pale blue eyes and skin so white it looks to be drained of all color. She is bald, wears dark purple lipstick, and has tattoos leading from her mouth to her chin and on the sides of her head.

Ventress is from Dathomir and is technically a Zabrak. However, Rattataki matches her appearance better than anything else in the game by far, to the extent that you might have assumed she was a Rattataki until now.

Outfit and Weapons

I recommend an outfit that combines the Xoxaan, Jedi Knight Revan, and, optionally, Steadfast Master armor sets, along with a pair of Twisted Fang Lightsabers (and optional Dualsaber). All of the armor pieces are Cartel Market items that are currently available for sale, though they can be purchased from the GTN or directly from another player. The dyes are craftable.

Slot	Icon	Piece
Head		Nothing (Hide Head Slot)
Chest		Xoxaan’s Robes
Bracers		Steadfast Master’s Wraps
Gloves		Steadfast Master’s Gloves
Belt		Jedi Knight Revan’s Belt
Pants		Jedi Knight Revan’s Lower Robes
Boots		Jedi Knight Revan’s Boots
Dye		Dark Purple and Deep Yellow Dye
Lightsabers (Marauder)		Twisted Fang Lightsaber x2
Dualsaber (Shadow)		Twisted Fang Dualsaber
Color Crystal		Red x2

If you don’t want to buy pieces from another expensive set or want the wrappings to match better, you can also pair the Covert Energy Gloves with either the Covert Energy Bracers or Xoxaan’s Wristraps instead of the Steadfast Master stuff.

Likewise, the boots don’t really matter all that much because you can’t see them, though I don’t recommend using Xoxaan’s Footwraps since they’re more noticeable while running. Any proper shoe should work. You might have the Steadfast Master’s Boots instead, which would look fine.

The Twisted Fang Lightsabers and Dualsaber are some of the only sabers with curved hilts in the game, and they also happen to feature the stripey, segmented look of Asajj’s sabers and appear to interconnect into a dualsaber as hers does. That said, her saber hilts have gray accents instead of gold, and the blades have a pure red color without any instability.

Ventress was likely taught the crystal bleeding ritual by an actual Sith Lord, her master, Count Dooku. Under his instruction, she would have known how to bleed her Kyber crystals completely without cracking them, thus preventing the blades from becoming unstable or ending up with a bit of orange, as we’ve seen with Kylo Ren, Baylan Skoll, and Shin Hati.

Supplementary Dyes

Asajj Ventress’ main outfit has a tertiary grayish color for some of the wrappings in her midsection. Unfortunately, SWTOR’s appearance customization options only let you modify primary and secondary colors.

If you want her to look as faithful to her original appearance as possible, you’ll need to dye the bracers, gloves, and belt separately. This will increase the total cost of the outfit as you’ll need to buy additional dyes, though almost all of them can be crafted.

Slot	Slot Icon	Dye Icon	Dye
Chest (Option 1)			Dark Purple and Deep Yellow Dye
Chest (Option 2)			Deep Purple and Light Yellow Dye
Bracer			Primary Light Gray Dye*
Gloves			Secondary Light Gray Dye*
Belt			Secondary Light Gray Dye*
Boots (optional)			Primary Deep Purple

Only the dyes for Option 1 for the Chest and Bracers can end up being more expensive because you’ll need to get a dye from the CM for those slots. There is a craftable version of the Chest dye (Option 2) that offers similar but slightly less saturated colors. The crafted version will almost certainly be cheaper and easier to find.

Feel free to skip applying the additional Light Gray dyes altogether. I dislike her color combo in general, so the whole thing may bother me more than it does you.

In my opinion, the additional gray doesn’t end up looking as good because you can’t make the tassels on the lower robe match the color of the belt as they should, and the actual places you can dye don’t line up perfectly with the color of the wrappings that she actually wears.

That said, if you do plan to incorporate the tertiary color, I strongly recommend using Light Gray specifically because White ends up being almost identical to the color of her skin closely in-game while Medium Gray is far too dark.

Ventress is rarely shown in neutral lighting, and some depictions show her midsection wrappings as being a very light blue, though the options in this game end up sticking out too much.

Story, Combat Style, and Gearing Choices

This section will focus on key choices you’ll have to make in order to end up with a playstyle and story that fit Asajj Ventress’ character.

Origin Story

All of the Force wielder Origin Stories feature a protagonist that is a bit above Ventress’ pay grade, so there is no suitable candidate. If you want to RP as Asajj Ventress, you should focus on combat and coming up with your own dialogue with other players.

That said, the Jedi Knight storyline to the end of Act 2 has some parallels that could allow it to act as a sort of prologue experience starting back when Asajj was a Jedi Padawan up until Dooku trained her.

Meanwhile, the Sith Warrior storyline features a few character relationships that are similar to what Asajj experienced while under the tutelage of Count Dooku, though the story beats diverge pretty quickly. Again, there is no Origin Story in the game that is a strong match for Asajj Ventress.

Combat Styles, Disciplines, and Ability Tree Choices

First, a Jedi Padawan and later one of Count Dooku’s assassins, Asajj Ventress was a formidable saberist during the Clone Wars. However, she never completed her training as a Jedi and wasn’t considered Sith because of the Rule of Two, so her knowledge of the Force powers was rudimentary.

While she was proficient and occasionally fought with a single saber, Assaj Ventress preferred to fight acrobatically, wielding a full-size lightsaber with a curved hilt in each hand. She could also lock her sabers together to create a double-bladed saberstaff, though she didn’t do this too often.

In my opinion, the Carnage Marauder is the best fit while dual-wielding lightsabers. If you want to incorporate her dualsaber, the Kinetic Combat Shadow is the best fit for Asajj Ventress’ second combat style and discipline. I’ll go into more detail about both specs in the next few sections.

Carnage Marauder

Marauder is the dark side double saber combat style in SWTOR, and many of its ability animations look similar to those wielded by Asajj Ventress. Canonically, there is a single lightsaber form that practically everyone uses while wielding two lightsabers. It is called Jar’Kai, but it does not exist in SWTOR. Instead, each of the Marauder disciplines uses a separate form that is reserved for single-saber use in the canon.

Ataru Form is the best match for her speedy and acrobatic fighting style. It’s used by the Carnage Marauder discipline, which also has access to the most abilities with animations that resemble her fighting style. Furthermore, it has unique effects that boost movement and attack speed, so you’ll feel fast while playing Carnage.

Ability Tree Build

The specific choices I recommend for this Carnage build focus on enhancing mobility in various ways while boosting the overall effectiveness of your lightsaber swings.

I don’t list them as Build Essentials because they don’t have a clear correspondence with Asajj, but I strongly recommend taking Brazen and Cloak of Retribution, and using Cloak of Pain whenever it’s available. Both of them increase the fluidity of your lightsaber swings by building Rage and Fury, which you need in order to use your strongest attacks.

Legendary Implants and Tactical Item

Asajj Ventress is pretty aggressive in her lightsaber duels, so I recommend using implants and a tactical that directly boost her damage dealt. You gain access to legendary implants at level 80 and tactical items at level 75.

Fearless Victor

The Fearless Victor implant makes your lightsaber swings deal more damage for a short period after spending Rage, your class resource, on a lightsaber swing.

Berserker’s Call

The Berserker’s Call implant makes you deal more damage for a short time after activating Berserk.

Shard of Mortis

The Shard of Mortis is partially chosen for its name, but it’s also the strongest tactical for Carnage Marauders and functions by boosting the damage dealt by one of your most frequently used attacks, Massacre.

Check out our 7.0 Carnage Marauder Guide if you want to learn more about how to play this discipline in endgame content:

SWTOR 7.0 Carnage Marauder PvE Guide

Key Abilities

In this section, I’ll be going over specific Carnage Marauder abilities that match Asajj Ventress’ fighting style, including lightsaber swings and defensive maneuvers. To be clear, this is not a complete list of all Carnage Marauder abilities. I am only shining a spotlight on specific attacks that will make you look or feel like you’re playing as Ventress.

Massacre

Unlocked at level 35, replaces Vicious Slash
Massacre is one of the attacks that most reminiscent of Ventress’ fighting style, featuring a flurry of rapid and wild strikes that are difficult to track, enabling her to sometimes get in an extra hit while her foe is overwhelmed.

It doesn’t have a cooldown, so you’ll be able to spam it. Each time you use it, you’ll increase your movement speed and critical chance while lowering the cooldown on Frenzy. However, each time you use it consecutively, its Rage cost increases. Once you use another ability, you are refunded the extra Rage you spent, but you lose that extra critical chance.

Ravage

Unlocked at level 10
Ravage looks like a more acrobatic version of Massacre. It deals about as much damage, but it’s free and has a cooldown. It’s a great move to use if it’s available when you can’t afford to use Massacre anymore.

Sweeping Slash

Unlocked at level 10
Sweeping Slash is a wider lightsaber swing that can hit multiple targets at the same time, though it doesn’t deal as much damage as Massacre or Ravage to any individual enemy. It’s like Massacre in that it costs Rage and doesn’t have a cooldown, but it doesn’t have nearly as many special effects besides that bonus slice from being in Ataru form.

Battering Assault and Assault

Unlocked at levels 7 and 1, respectively
Both Battering Assault and Assault are weaker saber flurries. They aren’t quite as fast visually, but they build Rage, enabling you to use your stronger lightsaber swings. Battering Assault is the stronger one, dealing a bit more damage, building 3x the Rage, and making the target take a bit more damage from other lightsaber swings for a while. The regular Assault attack’s only redeeming quality is that it has no cooldown, so you can spam it if you can’t afford to do anything else.

Gore

Unlocked at level 15
Gore makes you impale your target with both sabers, keeping them stuck in place temporarily and weakening their armor. Ventress used such stabs on occasion to defeat enemies with a single blow, though she typically only stabbed with one saber instead of two.

Gore typically has a pretty long cooldown and costs Rage, but it can be spammed more easily while Berserk is active since it doesn’t go on cooldown.

Ferocity

Unlocked at level 47
Ferocity (and Berserk) are stat-boosting abilities that make your next few attacks behave more like fast lightsaber swings would against an overwhelmed opponent while still keeping a similar timing to the rest of the game.

Ferocity lets your next few attacks bypass enemy armor. Your opponent might not be able to keep up with your dancing blades, but you can use their distraction to sneak in a few devastatingly precise swings.

Berserk and Frenzy

Unlocked at levels 15 and 43, respectively
Berserk increases the attack speed of your next 6 attacks. It has several other effects that apply to specific abilities if you use them while Berserk is active. Most notably, Gore doesn’t get put on cooldown while Berserk is active and the Rage costs of Massacre and Sweeping Slash are reduced. It also lets you sneak in an additional attack with Ferocity.

Berserk can only be used when you have enough Fury, and you build Fury whenever you spend Rage or take damage. You can instantly build up enough Fury by using the Frenzy ability.

Force Charge and Predation

Unlocked at level 1 and obtainable at level 27, respectively
Force Charge and Predation allow you to perform some of the crazy feats of mobility that Asajj Ventress is known for.

Force Charge lets you instantly close a great distance between you and your target by using a Force-empowered leap that deals a bit of damage and builds some Rage. It’s helpful if you need to immediately get somewhere that’s in melee range of an enemy.

Predation increases your movement speed and makes it slightly harder for enemies to hit you with their weapons. It’s useful when you need to move around faster, but not necessarily to another enemy.

I also want to mention that after you complete your Origin story, you’ll start encountering spaces that require you to get across a large chasm by using a Force-empowered leap. It’s not related to combat, but it rounds out her acrobatic toolkit.

Force Choke

Obtainable at level 68
Force Choke functions as a stun against a single target rather than a lethal ability, though it’s still quite strong in that capacity because you can get in a couple of attacks while your opponent can’t do anything but gasp for air. Force Choke is a bit stronger than other stuns in the game because it grants 3 Rage. Sadly, there isn’t a way to Force Choke multiple enemies simultaneously, as Ventress sometimes does when she’s on the ropes.

Saber Ward

Unlocked at level 15
Saber Ward lets you defend yourself against weapon attacks like we see from Force wielders in the movies and TV shows. It also lets your lightsaber absorb some of the damage from non-weapon attacks like Force abilities and non-blaster technology like explosives.

Force Camouflage

Unlocked at level 31
Force Camouflage doesn’t last very long and ends as soon as you activate an attack, but it offers many potent effects while it’s active. The most notable of these effects is turning you invisible, allowing you to sneak past or up to an enemy. It’s reminiscent of how she attempted to assassinate Count Dooku at his palace on Serenno with the aid of the Nightsisters.

The ability also increases your movement speed, reduces your damage taken, removes all cleansable debuffs, and makes you immune to all controlling effects, allowing you to attempt to get away in an emergency.

Force Camouflage is basically a more concentrated version of the stealth that you’ll have access to as a Kinetic Combat Shadow.

Kinetic Combat Shadow

The Shadow is the light side saberstaff-wielding combat style, initially only available to Jedi. I recommend it over the dark side equivalent, Assassin, despite the worse name because all of the Shadow’s animations fit much better. It’s also a great nod to Ventress’ origin as a Jedi Padawan.

Out of all 3 Shadow disciplines, Kinetic Combat fits best for her and looks the most like modern Star Wars in general. Kinetic Combat employs Force telekinesis to sling objects (mainly rocks) to deal damage and block attacks.

On top of that, and saberstaff swings, they can learn how to use a special spinning kick to stun opponents and use the Force to slow and mind-trick enemies around them.

Ability Tree Build

The build I recommend enhances your mobility and gives access to a couple of abilities that look just like moves that Asajj Ventress has used in the Clone Wars, namely Force Wave and Spinning Kick.

I also recommend buffs that give effects when specific attacks used against mind-controlled enemies. Ventress didn’t use mind trickery too much, but she has quite the presence on the battlefield when she wants to, mainly due to frequent screaming, and Shadow’s Mind Control abilities facilitate that outcome.

Legendary Implants, Tactical Item, and Offhand

Asajj Ventress tends to be a bit more defensive when she locks her sabers together, but she’s still a force to be reckoned with, so I recommend using implants, a tactical, and other gear that provide a mixture of offensive and defensive improvements. You gain access to legendary implants at level 80 and tactical items at level 75.

Shadowcraft

Shadowcraft makes it so that your attacks automatically critically hit for several seconds after using Shadow Stride from stealth. This is a major damage increase that you leverage from catching your opponents by surprise.

Force Training

Force Training increases all of the damage you can deal by a small amount, namely Force and melee damage.

Ward of the Continuum

Ward of the Continuum makes Kinetic Ward behave more predictably, improves your survivability by allowing you to deflect more weapon attacks, and synergizes with one of your build essentials, Gloom Ward, that allows it to trigger more often.

Personal Shield Generator

I recommend equipping a Shield Generator in your offhand slot instead of a Focus. It will help you take a bit less damage, but without the Shield Generator, you won’t be able to use Kinetic Ward, one of your Key Abilities.

Check out our 7.0 Kinetic Combat Shadow Guide if you want to learn more about how to play this discipline in endgame content:

SWTOR 7.0 Kinetic Combat Shadow PvE Guide

Key Abilities

In this section, I’ll be going over specific Kinetic Combat Shadow abilities that match Asajj Ventress’ fighting style, including saberstaff swings and defensive maneuvers. To be clear, this is not a complete list of all Kinetic Combat Shadow abilities. I am only shining a spotlight on specific attacks that will make you look or feel like you’re playing as Ventress.

Since she didn’t lock her sabers together to form a saberstaff all that often, I won’t be spending quite as much time going over Kinetic Combat abilities as I did with Carnage.

Project, Cascading Debris, and Kinetic Ward

These abilities all involve using Force telekinesis to fling objects around. Project and Cascading Debris are primarily offensive, whereas Kinetic Ward is defensive. Ventress was typically shown fighting in man-made structures and would sling objects one would find in such places. However, all 3 of these abilities primarily have animations that involve rocks, so it’s not a perfect match, but it’s very much the same idea.

Force Wave, Force Pull, and Slow Time

Ventress didn’t just use the Force to choke her adversaries. These abilities involve using the Force directly on an enemy rather than throwing objects using Force Telekinesis. They don’t deal as much damage, but apply some sort of controlling effect instead.

Force Wave knocks back nearby enemies that are in front of you. Force Pull brings your target in front of you. Slow Time slows all enemies near your target and deals a fair bit of damage.

Lightsaber Abilities

Kinetic Combat Shadows have numerous abilities at their disposal that involve their double-bladed lightsaber. Most have analogs to the lightsaber abilities I mentioned for Carnage Marauder.

• Double Strike – Stronger, spammable attack that costs Force, similar to Massacre.
• Saber Strike – Weak spammable attack that recovers Force, similar to Assault.
• Whirling Blow – Multi-target attack that costs Force, similar to Sweeping Slash.
• Shadow Strike – Powerful and expensive attack, but should only be used when lit up, similar to Gore.
• Spinning Strike – Powerful and cheap attack, but can only be used as a finisher against enemies with low HP, should replace Double Strike when available.
• Deflection – Makes you deflect weapon attacks for a short period, similar to Saber Ward. It’s not an attack.

Stealth and Force Cloak

The Shadow’s stealth is longer lasting than that of the Marauder’s Force Camouflage but trades defensive prowess for the capability to disengage from combat completely.

The Stealth ability makes you practically invisible to enemies, allowing you to sneak around for as long as you want, though it can only be used when you’re not in combat, and breaks if you use an attack. Force Cloak allows you to fully exit combat and enter stealth, causing enemies to lose track of you. It’s great for those daring escapes she manages to pull off so often.

Spinning Kick

Ventress often incorporated kicks alongside her lightsaber flurries to disrupt her opponents. Spinning Kick hits decently hard, considering it’s a kick too, but its main benefit is that it stuns the target and makes you take less damage for a short period.

Force Speed and Shadow Stride

Force Speed and Shadow Stride are basically more concentrated versions of Predation and Force Charge. Force Speed makes you move significantly faster, but doesn’t last nearly as long or provide you with any defense chance like Predation does. Shadow Stride allows you to move with the shadows to instantly pop up in front of your target and surprise them, like a ghost.

Shadow Stride doesn’t match Asajj Ventress all that well, but it definitely fits as a type of Nightsister magic, so I think it’s appropriate. When used from stealth and the Shadowcraft implant, you’ll catch your enemies completely off-guard, allowing you to critically hit with all of your attacks for the first several seconds of combat.

Mind Snap, Mind Control, and Mass Mind Control

These are the mind tricks you’ll have access to. She didn’t use them all that often, but they were still part of her arsenal. Captain Rex famously outsmarted her use of one by calling him Anakin instead of General Skywalker.

Mind Snap lets you interrupt another target’s cast or channel and prevent it from being used for the next few seconds. Mind Control and Mass Mind Control force affected enemies to attack you for the next several seconds. Mass Mind Control applies to all enemies near your current location, while Mind Control works against your target, but they can be much further away.

Both Mind Control abilities also give her a clearer presence on the battlefield. Ventress can definitely be sneaky, but she also screams like a banshee when she’s fighting and often fends off multiple enemies at once.

For your next character, maybe try some of the other Role-Playing Character Build Guides we have designed. For anything else, browse through our SWTOR Guides Master List.