SWTOR’s 8.0 PTS #4 iteration includes level 85 changes for all 3 Assassin | Shadow disciplines. We’ll explain what they are and what we think about them.
General Changes Approach
The changes on the PTS are very, very preliminary. Each combat style is getting one of their baseline abilities replaced with a version that adds a unique additional function for each discipline at level 83, like the second ability each class gets at level 15.
None of the unfinished business with ability trees and talent choice design have been fixed (yet), it’s just that new ability and a “new” passive at level 83, though that passive is almost always just that spec’s most popular tactical item.
It seems like they’re intending to make the most popular tactical less ubiquitous, rather than just balancing the alternatives properly, and the fact that they’re doing it this way has the potential to create even more imbalance without eliminating this flavor of the month issue because they’re going off of popularity rather than actual power level or intended use case.
Many players are not even aware that tactical items exist, nor that they’re designed like ability tree choices where they tend to be optimal against a specific enemy and content type, whether it be a boss (fight), trash mob (solo content), or player (PvP).
Some players just pick the one, usually the single-target sustained option meant for boss fights and end up doing worse in other types of content and end up disengaging rather than learning.
Tactical items also cost a lot of Tech Fragments and Credits and take up unnecessary inventory space while acting as an incentive against having alts.
Really, each discipline has ~3 tactical items that should just be migrated to their own new talent choice in the tree. The ones that need rebalancing or refining can be addressed individually.
So far, it feels like they’re trying to use a single size screwdriver to fix a bunch of specific and unique problems, but sometimes that screwdriver just doesn’t fit. I don’t think the same one-size-fits-all approach will work here like it did with Ability Trees because the problems for one spec aren’t shared by another.
Assassin and Shadow
The changes to Assassins | Shadows add a unique discipline-specific effect to Assassinate | Spinning Strike and enable it to be activated against enemies who have less than 40% remaining health instead of the standard 30% for execute abilities.
Each discipline is also getting its most popular tactical for boss fights baked into the discipline at level 83, unleashing further chaos unto the world.
It feels like Broadsword is prioritizing marketing fairness over the proper balance triage that the game needs. These changes are not good enough to justify the work being spent on them as a whole, nor do they feel particularly fair.
There is some good stuff. Like it’s nice to see Assassinate | Spinning Strike getting some extra functionality for each spec, though Deception | Infiltration was really the only one that needed it, and that has more to do with some design flaws with Blade of the Elements that could have been fixed instead.
If they’re going to continue down this path, they need to make Phantom Stride | Shadow Stride give a free Assassinate | Spinning Strike proc baseline and remove that aspect from Reaper’s Rush | Stalker’s Swiftness.
Assassin | Shadow also has one of the most beautiful tapestries of talent choices and tacticals in the game. Many of them would see a lot more use if not for the stain that is Two Cloaks.
Stealthing out is already the strongest DCD in the game and enables individual players to contest or cap objectives far more reliably than anything else.
It also enables tanks to cheese more than their fair share of mechanics, allowing groups to bring just one tank to many fights instead of the standard two. This reduces the demand for tanks and increases reliance on damage output to skip or minimize mechanics.
Two Cloaks ought to be deleted from the game, not get buffed for tanks and made more usable by DPS.
In general, it’s frustrating to see Assassins | Shadows get this much attention while other specs are an afterthought, both in 7.0 and 8.0.
Back in 7.0, at level 15, the devs could have called it a day by highlighting unique functionality in Discharge | Force Breach and leave Recklessness | Force Potency alone (or added the cooldown reduction for Hatred | Serenity to some discipline passive) while doing the same with 8.0 using Overcharge Saber | Battle Readiness at level 83.
Compare that to something like Sorcerer | Sage with the unique, unfinished Volt Rush | Telekinetic Blitz got locked in the tree while Static Barrier | Force Armor got no actual new effects in 7.0, or Takedown | Quickdraw not getting the love Snipers | Gunslingers need in favor of piling on another effect to the ability already modified at level 15.
I would have more sympathy for prioritizing fairness if the changes they produced with such a limitation were more balanced, but Broadsword isn’t even being consistent (in a way that matters) about which kind of tactical item they move into the tree.
Sometimes, it’s the AoE tactical oriented towards solo eras content. Sometimes, it’s the single-target sustained one oriented towards boss fights. Sometimes, these changes destabilize the rotation because these tacticals were specifically designed not to be used at the same time.
Deception | Infiltration
Deception’s Assassinate | Infiltration’s Spinning Strike will have a more solid place in the rotation instead of being a liability alongside the now-integrated Blade of the Elements tactical.
- Assassinate | Spinning Strike has a 50% increased critical hit chance and reduces the cooldown on Reaping Strike | Vaulting Slash by 6 seconds when it critically hits.
- The Blade of the Elements tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Deception | Infiltration
- The Awakened Flame will be optimal for boss fights, May Cause Injury will continue to be optimal for solo eras content, and Two Cloaks will be the uncontested choice for PvP because Traumatizer is garbage
Currently, Deception | Infiltration has a hard time justifying using Assassinate | Spinning Strike alongside the Blade of the Elements tactical. It doesn’t deal that much more damage than Voltaic Slash | Clairvoyant Strike, build Voltage | Clairvoyance, or reduce the cooldown on Reaping Strike | Vaulting Slash.
By integrating Assassinate | Spinning Strike into Blade of the Elements, that problem is solved.
However, by moving Blade of the Elements into the discipline, Broadsword is shredding the bottom third of that beautiful tapestry of choices I lauded earlier.
There’s a dedicated, highly synergistic build around Blade of the Elements that enables it to offer comparable sustained DPS to The Awakened Flame.
Since you don’t have to give anything up to take Blade of the Elements anymore, you have a strong incentive to build around it first and then everything else, meaning the alternative builds and choices won’t have a reason to use them anymore.
This wasn’t a problem in 6.0 when tacticals were introduced because Blade of the Elements and The Awakened Flame each had their niche just like 99% of the other discipline-specific tacticals.
PvP tacticals sacrifice long-term rotational stability and sustained potential for immediacy while AoE tacticals focus on distributing more rotational damage to secondary targets in lieu of adding to it. Cut to Pieces is the more famous example that broke this rule before getting nerfed.
It wasn’t until 7.0 that Broadsword created the options to make a sustained build in the ability tree for Blade of the Elements, enabling it to perform as well as The Awakened Flame. This was only permissible because both were viable and the one that performed slightly better was a fair bit harder to execute.
In 8.0, you won’t have any reason to use Penetrating Slash or Lightning Critical | Vision Engine or Overcharge Saber | Battle Readiness, and it will be harder to justify using Voltaic Defense | Visionary Defense. Meanwhile, Two Cloaks will be the clear winner in PvP instead of Blade of the Elements being at least a consideration.
Suggested Changes
It would be far less problematic to move May Cause Injury into the discipline instead, so the choice for tacticals would be between Blade of the Elements and The Awakened Flame instead.
Existing builds and the upgrade to Assassinate | Spinning Strike could remain as they are and there wouldn’t be nearly as much of a gap in AoE potential between Deception | Infiltration and Hatred | Serenity.
I’d also highly recommend that Broadsword do the following:
- Add the following effect to The Awakened Flame tactical:
- In addition, each stack of Static Charge | Breaching Shadows grants a 33.33% chance for Discharge | Force Breach to refresh and tick its damage.
- Tweak the May Cause Injury effect to the following:
- Each stack of Voltage | Clairvoyance now also grants a 50% chance for Discharge | Force Breach to damage up to 8 enemies within 8m of the primary target
- Maybe turn this into a Voltaic Slash | Clairvoyant Strike talent at level 39 and move Voltaic Engine | Vision Engine to the discipline passive at level 83
- Keep Blade of the Elements and The Awakened Flame as tactical items
- Assassinate | Spinning Strike should remain only usable sub-30%, not 40%
- Remake the VFX for Force Breach (Discharge is fine)
Hatred and Serenity
Hatred’s Assassinate | Serenity’s Spinning Strike gives it a proc that increases the critical chance of your DoTs and the Two Time Trouble tactical has been baked into the discipline.
- Dealing damage with Assassinate | Spinning Strike grants Escalating Terror | Escalating Force, which increases the critical chance of your periodic damaging effects by 25% for 10s.
- The Two Time Trouble tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Hatred | Serenity
- Quick Escalation will be optimal in boss fights and remain a solid choice in PvP, but Two Cloaks will remain a competitor, and there will be no worthwhile option for solo eras content
Assassinate | Spinning Strike is already in a solid spot for Hatred | Serenity, so an improvement is less necessary.
Hatred | Serenity can already get +50% critical chance on its DoTs from various buffs in its tree, so this extra 25% will primarily serve to improve the reliability of the discipline’s cooldown reduction on Recklessness | Force Potency from DoT crit, which should make the Maliciousness | Hallowing build more usable in boss fights.
I think they ought to increase it to 35% by migrating 10% of the crit chance boost away from Befall | Ensue so that Ruin | Smite is less essential. They also need to swap the names for Smite and Squelch, but I digress.
Migrating the Two Time Trouble tactical to the ability tree makes sense…from a certain point of view.
The extra DoT ticks are essential for maintaining Maliciousness | Hallowing and the tactical is strong enough to be worth using in all PvE content, so you could argue that it really needed to be moved into the tree.
However, I am concerned about its absence. Quick Escalation will be the new optimal choice for all content aside from Two Cloaks being a consideration in PvP, so Broadsword really isn’t helping to balance out the tactical choices for Hatred | Serenity.
You can maintain 2 stacks of Maliciousness | Hallowing with Quick Escalation and double Death Field | Force in Balance, but it’s a pretty overwhelming amount of complexity and you can’t really benefit from Two Time Trouble to the same degree.
You aren’t guaranteed to get to spam Leeching Strike | Serenity Strike because it has to crit and now has an irregular cooldown, so there’s much less of a static rotation to follow.
Its Force cost is lower with 2 DoTs up, but the increased frequency prevents you from using Thrash | Double Strike at all. You have to use Saber Strike to recover Force when it isn’t available, and it doesn’t trigger Two Time Trouble.
It’s easier to forget to use Death Field | Force in Balance to reapply Deathmarks | Force Suppression or reapply DoTs until it’s too late or you run out of Force when you have to spend it to use Eradicate | Force Crush.
It really helps right now that the cooldown on Leeching Strike | Serenity Strike syncs up with Eradicate | Squelch when you’re about to reset it with Recklessness | Force Potency, so you just wait for a specific point in the rotation to use it.
With these changes, you’ll be incentivized to delay using Recklessness | Force Potency using it until you’ve used Leeching Strike | Serenity Strike 4 times (or when it didn’t crit), but that risks Maliciousness | Hallowing falling off.
But that’s not all! It’s much easier to waste the Bloodletting | Crush Spirit proc that enables Assassinate | Spinning Strike to be used above 40% (!) and miss out on its crit chance boost because you have fewer free GCDs resulting from the higher priority of Leeching Strike | Serenity Strike compared to Thrash | Double Strike.
Of course, you can just use Hungering Force | Longing Force instead, but these disparate rotations can’t offer the same DPS, especially with the crit chance offered by Assassinate | Spinning Strike displacing the value of Hungering Force | Longing Force.
The difference in rotational complexity is too much to justify both offering remotely the same DPS, but they have to because DPS specs need to offer the same performance.
Suggestions for Broadsword
- Add a hyphen to Two Time Trouble
- Keep Two-Time Trouble as a tactical choice alongside Quick Escalation and its solo eras tactical
- Make Death Field | Force in Balance and Severing Slash | Cleaving Cut the DoT spreaders instead of Lacerate | Whirling Blow
- Ruin | Smite should also deal damage to up to 8 enemies within 5m of the primary target
- Swap the names for Smite and Squelch (Smite is the ability, Squelch is the ability tree talent)
- Replace Severance Pay with a new, competitive tactical for solo eras content called Force Drain:
- Dealing damage with Eradicate | Squelch restores 5 Force and Deathmarks | Force Suppression charges increase its critical chance by 15%. In addition, consuming a charge of Recklessness | Force Potency on Eradicate | Squelch stuns the target for 1.5s.
- Restrict Two-Time Trouble to only trigger from Thrash | Double Strike, Assassinate | Spinning Strike, and Leeching Strike | Serenity Strike instead of all melee attacks to curtail AoE potential
- Offer the following new effect at level 83
- Activating Force Cloak finishes off all your active periodic effects on all enemies affected by your Deathmarks | Force Suppression.
- Assassinate | Spinning Strike should remain only usable sub-30%, not 40%
- Remake the VFX for Force Breach (Discharge is fine)
Darkness and Kinetic Combat
Darkness’ Assassinate | Serenity’s Spinning Strike gets boosted threat generation and grants a stacking proc that increases your damage dealt and reduces damage taken. It also gets a copy of the Two Cloaks tactical as its new discipline passive.
- Dealing damage with Assassinate | Spinning Strike generates a high amount of threat and grants Creeping Darkness | Spinning Defense, which increases your damage dealt by 2% and reduces your damage taken by 1% for 9s and stacking up to 3 times (up to +6% damage dealt, -3% damage taken).
- The Two Cloaks tactical is now the level 83 discipline passive for Darkness | Kinetic Combat, but the tactical is not being removed from the game, so equipping it as a tank means you can have up to THREE Cloaks.
- Friend of the Force will be optimal in fights where you need to protect someone else, Shroud of a Shadow will be optimal in fights where you need a longer cheese, Ancient Tome of Exar Kun will be optimal in add-heavy fights, Ward of the Continuum will be useful in fights where Defense Chance is particularly valuable, and Two Cloaks will further reduce the need for a second tank in many fights and ruin Warzones
The tank-specific upgrade to Assassinate | Spinning Strike is solid, though the increased threat generation does not matter one iota against any enemy that has less than 40% remaining HP, and there is no good reason to raise the threshold on execute abilities.
It would be much better if Broadsword instead enabled all execute abilities (or even just this one) to be usable against incapacitated targets (stunned or mezzed), though this fantasy makes much more sense when you imagine using Vicious Throw against whoever you’re Force Choking.
The Extra Cloak discipline passive is downright insane. Its design is up there with being as negligent as the pre-nerf revamped PT | VG Stealth Scan from mid-7.0 and Force Speed DR back in 5.0, especially when Assassin | Shadow tanks have a whopping 4 viable tactical items to choose from.
Force Cloak, like Cloaking Screen | Disappearing Act, should never, ever have multiple charges, nor a 2-min cooldown, nor have such disparate value across PvE and PvP.
Stealthing out (vanishing, as the devs call it) should work more like a better Force Camouflage, and I recommend the following redesign for both Assassins | Shadows and Operatives | Scoundrels:
Force Cloak and Cloaking Screen | Disappearing Act
- Vanish from sight, purging all hostile removable effects, and removing all threat. For 10 seconds, you are invisible to enemies, and you gain 50% damage reduction and movement speed, and heal for 5% of your maximum health each second. If you are out of combat when the effect ends, Stealth engages automatically.
- 3-minute cooldown (up from 2)
You know another thing? Shroud of Madness | Cloak of Resilience (and Evasive Screen | Skedaddle) don’t need to exist since vanishes got a debuff purge baseline so they would remain useful inside Operations and Flashpoints after stealth rez was removed.
With the aforementioned redesign, these talents definitely wouldn’t have a reason to exist and tank cheeses would become a whole lot more balanced as a nifty side-effect.
