Embedded Files
Last Updated: 5/31/21
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Overview
About the Class
About the Class
Hatred is the Assassin's sustained DoT specialization discipline. Hatred has 3 DoTs (Discharge, Creeping Terror, and Eradicate), an AoE ability that buffs DoT damage (Death Field) and two powerful fillers (Assassinate and Leeching Strike). Similar to its cousin the Madness Sorcerer, Hatred also offers rotational self heals through the casting of Death Field and Leeching Strike, which combined with the Assassin’s class defensive abilities gives them great survivability despite having slightly less mitigation in their skill tree as compared to Deception Assassins. Hatred provides excellent sustained DPS and is among the strongest sustained AoE DPS disciplines in the game.
Utility and Mobility
Utility and Mobility
Assassins have strong utility for a DPS class. They can guard and taunt, they have a 4 second hard stun (Electrocute), an 8 second soft stun (Force Lift), an additional 2 second hard stun (Spike), Force Slow, tank classes can pull certain targets for positioning, all classes have Overload as a knockback.
Regarding mobility, Assassins have very strong mobility when needed. All of Hatred’s abilities are instant and can be used on the move. Assassins have a gap closer (Phantom Stride, though it is buggy when not on level terrain) and Force Speed provides a great mobility boost on a very short cooldown (15 seconds with utility). That said, given the power of Phasing Phantasm utility, choosing to use Force Speed for mobility sacrifices an enormously powerful defensive cooldown (though given its short cooldown that usually isn’t a big issue).
Survivability
Survivability
Assassins have the best survivability of any class in the game. They enjoy the largest and most powerful selection of defensive cooldowns, of which the most powerful are on a relatively short cooldown. Force Shroud can be used on a 1 minute cooldown to mitigate virtually all Force/Tech damage (and nearly all big hitting abilities in operations are Force/Tech) and/or to self-cleanse. With utilities, Force Cloak can be used every 1:15 to provide a shorter duration Force Shroud. With utility, Force Speed can be used every 15 seconds to provide a brief 25% absorb boost on all damage. And that isn’t even all the defensive abilities!!! Given these abilities (and more), Assassins are the best tanks due to their ability to cheese big hitting mechanics, and Assassin DPS players are the best emergency tanks for the same reason.
Role in Operations
Role in Operations
As with most DoT disciplines, Hatred performs best when allowed to maintain emphasis a single target (or when target swapping, they will have at least 15 seconds to ramp up). They also perform well when AoE’ing adds through DoT spreading while maintaining high single target DPS. Without the ability to DoT spread prior to swapping targets, Hatred will struggle to maintain high DPS compared to Deception.
6.0 Impact on Discipline
6.0 Impact on Discipline
Assassin was arguably the strongest overall class in the 5.x update cycle, so it’s not too surprising that it could only go down (somewhat) from there. Great options at both burst and sustained DPS, really strong DWT utility and defensives making them the best “emergency tank”, a very strong class in PVP, and boasting by far the best tank discipline in the game at that time, they had it all.
In the 6.0 cycle (6.1 as of this writing), Assassin has come down somewhat in the rankings. It is unclear where they will settle as we move further through the patch cycle, though early indications were that the DPS disciplines were somewhat underpowered and have received some slight buffs.
The biggest changes to the class relate primarily to the tweak to Phasing Phantasm utility. Prior to 6.0 this provided very frequent 60% damage absorption via Force Speed, making a 2.5s 60% absorb buff available every 15s (that is 20% uptime, which was crazy...and awesome). In 6.0 and moving forward, this utility is worthless for tanks and only provides a 25% buff for DPS.
For Hatred, the discipline remains as a good sustained melee DPS class with amazing sustained AoE potential. It suffers somewhat from relatively weak synergy with the Death Knell DPS set and its tactical bonus is not quite as strong as some other disciplines. However, the discipline has received steady incremental buffs and is very strong discipline when played well, especially given the new operation on Dxun has many opportunities for AoE DPS.
Utilities
Utilities
I usually take some combination of the following Utilities, though the optimal combination can change from fight to fight. As of 6.0, the tiers have been reorganized.
Skillfull Tier
Skillfull Tier
You must take 3 to advanced to Masterful.
Shapeless Spirit - As Darkness, reduces all damage taken while stunned by 30%. As Deception and Hatred, reduces the damage taken from area attacks by 30%.
Should always be taken by DPS players, as nearly every PVE encounter has some form of AoE damage. The utility is somewhat more situational for tanks as stuns are not always present. As a tank, I typically swap between this utility and taking Lambaste when this utility is not needed.
Lambaste - Increases the damage done by Lacerate by 25%.
A situational utility that can be helpful in increasing AoE DPS. I rarely take this utility as a Hatred DPS, as that class has DoT spread capability and can do enormous AoE DPS without it, and thus I can save the utility slow for a utility boosting single target DPS, mitigation or movement.
Avoidance - Reduces the cooldown of Jolt by 2 seconds, Unbreakable Will by 30 seconds, and Force Speed for 5 seconds.
Previously a must-take in 5.X, this utility is much more situational due to the nerf to Phasing Phantasm in 6.0. I find myself typically choosing between this utility and Assassin’s Shelter as to whether a slight AoE group mitigation buff or increased uptime on mobility/interrupt/stun-breaker is more useful on a fight-by-fight basis. If taking Phasing Phantasm then I do recommend Avoidance.
Assassin’s Shelter - Mass Mind Control provides Assassin’s Shelter to all allies within range, excluding yourself, reducing the damage they take by 5% for the next 6 seconds and healing them for a small amount over the duration.
This utility can provide a marginal mitigation boost and AoE heal. The benefit it provides is minimal, so I only recommend considering in fight where there is heavy sustained AoE damage and where Force Cloak’s use for a more frequent mini-Force Shroud is unlikely to be helpful.
Electric Bindings - Overload unbalances its targets, immobilizing them for 5 seconds. Direct damage dealt after 2 seconds ends the effect prematurely.
Highly situational. This utility has limited applications in Hard and Nightmare Mode operations on several specific fights (e.g., Styrak Nightmare, Tyth Hard/Nightmare).
Masterful Tier
Masterful Tier
You must take 6 between Heroic and Masterful.
Audacity - Reduces the cooldown of Overload by 2.5 seconds and Recklessness grants 1 additional charge when activated.
Should always be taken by DPS players as it provides a strict DPS increase. Is not quite as mandatory for tanks though still increases DPS, though can and should be exchanged for another utility where mitigation (Assassin’s Shelter) or movement (Obfuscation) is more useful.
Fade - Reduces the cooldown of Force Cloak by 45 seconds and extends its duration by 5 seconds.
I usually take this utility along with Force Shroud in the Heroic tier. When combined, I effectively gain a second (though slightly shorter) use of Force Shroud on nearly the same cooldown. When used skillfully, this adds another very powerful defensive ability to the Assassin’s kit.
Obfuscation - Increases your movement speed by 15%.
Not a super helpful utility but one I sometimes take in fights with lots of transition. I typically find investing in Avoidance is more useful to have higher uptime on Force Speed, whether for movement or for mitigation if taking Phasing Phantasm.
Emersion - Force Speed grants Emersion, removing all movement-impairing effects and granting immunity to them for the duration.
A very situational utility for PVE (though amazing for PVP) and should only be taken on fights where it will be useful to avoid slows (e.g. Underlurker Hard Mode).
Dark Stability - Activating Deflection grants 6 seconds of immunity to stun, sleep, lift, and incapacitating effects.
A highly situational utility, it should only be taken by players for specific encounters in PVE.
Heroic Tier
Heroic Tier
A maximum of 3 utilities
Shroud of Madness - Activating Force Cloak grants 2 seconds of Force Shroud.
I find this utility incredibly useful for tanks and DPS. Since Force Shroud functions as a self-cleanse, this gives Assassins an additional self-cleanse every 2 minutes (1:15 if taking the Fade utility). If taking Fade, this nearly doubles the availability of Force Shroud (which has a 1 minute cooldown). If tanking, Force Cloak can be used to cheese certain mechanics, though care must be taken to avoid a big hit swapping to another player if timed poorly and ensuring that a taunt is available and used immediately to regain aggro. Particularly for DPS players, this utility can be used to help increase the success rate of stealth rez attempts, since the self-cleanse of Force Shroud should avoid being pulled into combat by a ticking DoT.
Reaper’s Rush - Phantom Stride grants Reaper’s Rush, allowing your next Assassinate to be used on any target, regardless of remaining health. Reaper’s Rush lasts for 10 seconds. Also, if the target of your Phantom Stride is killed within 10 seconds of using Phantom Stride, Phantom Stride’s cooldown is reset.
I always take this utility as a DPS player as it provides a strict DPS increase by enabling more frequent use of Assassinate. For Deception players, it provides an even larger DPS boost due to proccing a full stack Discharge. If I am playing Darkness, I frequently choose between this utility and either Disjunction or Retaliatory Grip depending on whether more mitigation is needed or more DPS (and if so, which DPS utility will provide greater benefit).
Disjunction - Increases the duration of Force Shroud by 2 seconds and Force Speed by 0.5 seconds. Also, Force Speed slows all enemies within 5 meters by 75% for 2.5 seconds when activated.
This utility should be taken by all tanks but generally should not be taken by DPS unless dealing with a very damage intensive fight (thus prioritizing mitigation over the DPS boosting utilities below). The extra 2 seconds of Force Shroud increases from 3 to 5 seconds which can be enormously useful on some fights (e.g., tanking Master’s Ion Cutter attack in the Ravagers / Master & Blaster encounter).
If taking Phasing Phantasm as an Assassin DPS, Disjunction and Avoidance synergize well to increase the effectiveness and uptime of the Force Speed DR.
Retaliatory Grip - Deflection grants Retaliatory Grip, reflecting 50% (or 100% for the Darkness discipline) of all direct single target tech and Force damage back at the attacker. Retaliatory Grip lasts for 12 seconds and does not absorb incoming damage.
The Assassin’s reflect ability is useful but is overall one of the most limited reflects as it (1) reflects the least damage (as little as 50% for DPS specs); and (2) it does not mitigate any damage. It is also notable that it does not reflect melee/ranged single target damage unlike most reflects (though due to the defense buff from Deflection, most melee/ranged single target attacks will be dodged anyway and thus wouldn’t be eligible for reflection). This can be useful in situations where DPS checks are troublesome or in progression, though in general I prefer other utilities for all specs.
Phasing Phantasm - Phantom Stride can be used while immobilized and purges movement-impairing effects when used. Also, Force Speed grants Phasing Phantasm, which reduces all damage taken by 25% for the duration of Force Speed.
This utility was heavily nerfed in 6.0 to reduce the DR from 60% to 25% and removing it entirely for Darkness tanks. As currently constituted the DR can be helpful for fights with high damage taken for DPS or if you may need to emergency tank while a combat revive goes out.
Example Utility Build
Example Utility Build
Here is what I run for most encounters, though I frequently take other situational utilities for specific fights.
Key Passives
Key Passives
Nefarious Methods - Reduces the damage taken from all periodic effects by 15%. Also, Mass Mind Control increases your damage reduction by 30% by 6 seconds.
This passive provides some helpful damage mitigation for Hatred and makes the aggro drop a strong through short duration defensive cooldown.
Profuse Horror - Lacerate spreads your periodic Discharge and Creeping Terror effects to the targets it damages, as long as it damages targets already affected by your Discharge and Creeping Terror. Also, Death Field overwhelms its targets (+10% AoE damage) for 45 seconds.
This passive provides for Hatred’s DoT spread via its spammable melee AoE ability. This is a little unusual, as most other DoT classes have a key ability to DoT spread (e.g., Sorc Madness uses Death Field to DoT spread) or one of the DoTs is AoE and spreads the other (e.g., Sniper Virulence). This passive provides an AoE damage debuff that benefits Death Field but overall is a somewhat less useful amongst the various debuffs.
Raze - Melee attacks that strike a target affected by your Discharge grant Raze, finishing the cooldown on Eradicate and making your next Eradicate consume no Force. Also, activating Phantom Stride grants Raze, but Raze cannot occur more than once every 9 seconds.
One of two major RNG elements to the Hatred rotation is introduced by this passive, which enables Eradicate to proc either by using Phantom Stride or through regular melee attacks. Due to Eradicate’s long cooldown absent this proc and its fixed rate of proccing only every 9 seconds, Eradicate can be delayed several GCDs to ensure it is always benefiting from Death Field’s buff to DoT damage or to use abilities not capped in their frequency like Leeching Strike or Assassinate.
Deathmark - Death Field now suppresses resistance to the Force, increasing the amount of damage the targets suffer from your next 15 periodic damaging abilities by 15%. Lasts 30 seconds.
Death Field is Hatred’s most powerful ability primarily due to this passive and its buff to DoT damage. It should be used on CD.
Fulguration - Creeping Terror deals 10% additional damage and when your Lightning Charge deals damage, it restores 3 Force.
It is worth noting this passive primarily for its periodic Force regeneration. Force management is relatively straightforward for Hatred, provided Eradicate is being used when procced (and free), thanks to this passive.
Bloodletting - Your damaging periodic effects have a 30% chance to trigger Bloodletting, which finishes the active cooldown on Assassinate and makes your next Assassinate usable on a target with any health level. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds.
This passive provides the second RNG element to the Hatred rotation via a proc of Assassinate. Similar to Eradicate when procced, this passive has a rate limit so it doesn’t necessarily have to be used on CD when procced.
Imbibe - Increases the life redirected by Death Field and Leeching Strike by 100% and causes Creeping Terror and Lightning Charge’s Discharge effect to steal life from enemy targets, healing you for 10% of the damage they deal.
This passive is notable for significantly increasing self-healing. It boosts the self healing from Leeching Strike from 50% to 100%, Death Field from 10% to 20%, and provides periodic self healing from DoTs.
Inevitable Demise - Death Field, Eradicate, and your periodic damage abilities deal 30% more damage on targets under 30% health.
This passive doesn’t affect the Hatred rotation but is worth noting due to how powerful it makes Hatred sub-30% boss health. Between this passive ability and the power of Assassinate as an execute ability on a 6s cooldown, Hatred has an argument to the most powerful execute buff. When below 30% and with both Death Field and Imbibe active, DoTs tick for 55% more damage!
Languishing Lashes - Dealing melee damage increases the critical chance of your damaging periodic effects by 10% for 10 seconds. Also increases the damage dealt by Leeching Strike by 20% against enemies with less than 30% health.
Another buff to DoTs, the Hatred Rotation should endeavor to keep this buff up as much as possible. When this passive and Death Field are active on a target, DoTs tick for 25% more damage. Thrash, Leeching Strike and Assassinate all proc this buff and will automatically be used frequently, though highly skilled players should learn to watch for this buff and know when to delay a procced Eradicate to refresh this buff.
Leeching Hunger - Leeching Strike deals 5% more damage and restores 4 Force for each of your active periodic damaging effects on the target, up to 3.
This passive is notable for buffing Leeching Strike’s damage and reducing cost by ensuring full uptime of DoTs. Discharge, Creeping Terror and Eradicate all qualify, of which the first two should always be active on a target but Eradicate will have some downtime. As such, delaying Leeching Strike 1 GCD to activate a procced Eradicate is always a good idea so long as it won’t clip an existing Eradicate DoT. When used with all 3 DoTs active, Eradicate gets a 15% damage increase and its cost is decreased from 25 Force (making it a fairly expensive ability) to 13 Force (making it the most energy efficient ability).
Assassin's Training - Increases your total Endurance by 3%. In addition, Saber Strike restores 1 Force each time it damages an enemy.
Assassin's training is a class passive skill for Assassins and causes your basic attack Saber Strike to generate extra Force, which is really helpful to quickly regenerate Force.
Lightning Charge - Lightning pulses through your weapon, giving your melee attacks a 50% chance to deal energy damage.
Lightning Charge is a passive skill for Hatred Assassins. Lightning Charge is the equivalent to the Surging Charge passive skill for Deception and functions similarly.
Gearing in 6.0
Gearing in 6.0
Gearing Stat Allocation
Gearing Stat Allocation
Please see my Gearing Guide for a detailed overview of gearing in 6.x in SWTOR. Please also see my Alacrity Guide for a much more in-depth look at alacrity.
For Hatred Shadow, I gear as follows:
Set Bonus: Death Knell
Tactical: Two Time Trouble
Amplifiers: Periodic Intensity
Mods: Unlettered Lethal Mods
Relics: Devastating Vengeance & Primeval Fatesealer (Serendipitous Assault & Focused Retribution for Dxun/PVP)
Stim: Proficient
Adrenal: Critical (Attack for Dxun only)
For Hatred Shadow, I allocate my tertiary stats as follows:
Accuracy: 1,585 - 1,630 (anything outside this approximate range and I usually try to re-optimize by swapping around enhancements and augments)
Alacrity: around 1,400 (at least 1,895 if the Zeal guild perk applies)
Critical: all remaining tertiary points go into Critical
Shield: None
Absorb: None
Set Bonus
Set Bonus
Death Knell
Death Knell
Increased drop rate from conquest crates.
(2) +2% Mastery
(4) The cooldown of Recklessness is reduced by 15 seconds. Whenever you consume a charge of Recklessness you gain a stack of Reckless Critical, making your next Maul, Assassinate or Leeching Strike critically hit. Stacks up to 3 times.
(6) Whenever you consume a charge of Recklessness you gain a stack of Reckless Slaughter, increasing melee damage done by 10% for 30 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
Analysis:
This set bonus is nice but is really lopsided in favor of Deception and provides much weaker buffs to DPS for Hatred primarily due to the much less frequent use of Recklessness in the absence of the Electric Ambush passive ability. The good news is that it makes the rotational impact much simpler.
For Hatred, the impact becomes very simple. Continue using Recklessness to buff your attacks and that’s it. Hatred will have around half the uptime on Reckless Slaughter and half the critical hit buffs to all attacks and the extra critical hit procs for Assassinate or Maul.
The much weaker impact of Death Knell to Hatred is the primary reason that the discipline started 6.0 in a relatively weak position compared to other sustained DPS disciplines and have seen a few small buffs from the developers in recent months.
Impact on Rotation:
No change to rotation.
When to Take:
This is the only viable set bonus option for Assassin DPS.
Tactical Items
Tactical Items
Two Time Trouble
Two Time Trouble
Increased drop rate from flashpoints.
Creeping Terror has a 100% chance to tick an additional time when you deal damage with Assassinate and a 50% chance to tick an additional time when you deal damage with a melee attack.
Analysis:
Creeping Terror applies DoT damage over 12 GCDs (18 seconds before alacrity) and ticks 7 times over its duration.
Over the course of the other 11 GCDs (excluding the GCD spent to refresh it), you will typically use Discharge once to refresh a DoT (not a melee attack), Death Field once (not a melee attack), Eradicate once or twice (not a melee attack), Leeching Strike once (melee attack), Assassinate once if it procs (melee attack), and any remaining GCDs will be use by Thrash or Saber Strike (both melee attacks and usually 1 or 2 Saber Strikes per rotation for energy management).
Thus in a typical 12 GCD rotation, we would normally expect to see 5-6 non-melee attacks and 6-7 melee attacks and most of the time one of those will include one Assassinate. Once we get below 30% boss health, we will be using two Assassinate per 12 GCD rotation. Also worth noting is that Saber Strike ticks 3 times for damage, Thrash ticks twice and Assassinate and Leeching Strike each tick damage once. Thus, if we add up all these attacks we should get 1 guaranteed extra tick of Creeping Terror from using Assassinate and 12-13 melee attacks that have a 50% chance to trigger an extra tick.
Taking all of this into account, we would expect to have around 6-8 extra ticks of Creeping Terror per 12 GCD rotation above 30% boss health and 7-9 ticks below 30% health as Assassinate is used more often. This effectively doubles (plus a bit more) the number of ticks of damage from Creeping Terror and so would lead us to expect to increase DPS by a corresponding amount.
From a parsing perspective, Creeping Terror normally deals around 12-14% of total damage absent any tactical-related damage boost. So if we can more than double that damage we should be boosting DPS by more than 10%, which is consistent with observed results. This makes the tactical a less noticeable but still quite powerful boost to Hatred DPS.
Impact on Rotation:
No change to rotation.
When to Take:
Recommended for all encounters.
Severance Pay
Severance Pay
Increased drop rate from operations.
Death Field does 30% more damage to slowed targets and finishes the cooldown of Severing Slash.
Analysis:
This tactical is intended to provide more AoE DPS by providing more frequent use of Severing Slash. I find it very weak as a DPS buff given that Hatred already has exceptionally strong AoE DPS between a spammable AoE that continuously spreads DoTs and the DoT debuff applied by AoE-based Death Field. Hatred can already handle every AoE DPS check in the game easily, so it just isn’t worth adding a little more AoE DPS at the cost of sustained single target damage. I think it would be interesting if the slow effect of Severing Slash would buff Death Field against operation bosses (even if the slow effect didn’t work directly) but otherwise the tactical provides no DPS benefit for any targets immune to slows and thus very limited in benefit in operations.
Impact on Rotation:
N/A as not recommended.
When to Take:
Not recommended for any operation boss encounters. It could be situationally useful for large trash pulls in between boss encounters in operations or flashpoints.
Quick Escalation
Quick Escalation
Increased drop rate from operations.
The critical chance of Leeching Strike is increased by 10%. Critically hitting with Leeching Strike resets its cooldown and grants Hungering Blade, increasing the critical hit chance of your next Leeching Strike by an additional 25% for the next 6 seconds. Hungering Blade stacks up to 3 times and is removed after Serenity Strike deals damage at 3 stacks.
Analysis:
This tactical is an interesting effort to buff burst DPS for Hatred. Most classes regularly have a base critical chance in the high 40's, meaning that with Quick Escalation equipped Leeching Strike will have a critical chance around 70% and a successful crit will increase it to around 95%. All of this means that more often than not Leeching Strike should be spammable fairly frequently to add significant burst DPS and some moderate self healing.
Between the tactical's +10% critical chance to Leeching Strike, another 10% from the Languishing Lashes passive skill and the usual 40% or so critical chance from gear, Leeching Strike should have at least a 60% base critical chance that goes up to 85% after a crit from Hungering Blade and goes up to over 100% after 2 crits.
The optimal way to use Quick Escalation is to use Leeching Strike and hope you get lucky with the first crit to let you spam it three times consecutively. When you get to 3 stacks of Hungering Blade, click off the Hungering Blade buff to avoid the ability going on cooldown. You can then use Leeching Strike a fourth time with the chance to crit and get another series of consecutive uses.
You should still prioritize key abilities above Leeching Strike but it becomes your sole filler as long as it keeps succeeding the critical chance roll. When it does not crit then it goes on cooldown and you start the process again when it comes back off cooldown.
Prior to the 6.2 patch, the top 4 Serenity / Hatred parses used this tactical and rotation strategy, with the top parse being 23.9k and the best parse not using Quick Escalation being 23.0k.
With all that said, clicking off buffs can be tricky and this approach is far more difficult in actual content. Shields, probes, HoTs, various passive buffs, raid buffs, etc., are all applied and will move the Hungering Blade buff around on your bar, making it more difficult to click off the right buff and likely slowing down your ability activation speed.
Impact on Rotation:
Prioritize Leeching Strike as your filler in all situations where you would use Thrash. When you get to 3 stacks of Hungering Blade you should click off the buff and resume your rotation.
When to Take:
A cool option for parsing, I do not recommend this for any serious content. Keeping track of mechanics, movement and a much more dynamic buff bar will make it far more difficult to consistently click off Hungering Blade. Without clicking off Hungering Blade, the DPS potential is significantly lower and Two Time Trouble should provide higher DPS and far more consistent DPS.
Two Cloaks
Two Cloaks
Increased drop rate from PVP.
Force Cloak has 2 charges.
Analysis:
UPDATE - Tactical swapping is no longer a viable strategy in combat, so this tactical is not recommended for any PVE content. Two Cloaks remains a very useful tactical for PVP since the extra self-cleanse and stealth out can be very useful.
This tactical is mentioned because it has some interesting benefits for Deception in the opener. That is entirely due to the Deception passive ability Electric Ambush, which causes Force Cloak to reduce the cooldown of Recklessness by 60s (making it nearly instant).
Force Cloak is still a great utility ability for Hatred due to its ability to drop aggro, a low duration defensive cooldown and self-cleanse via its Force Shroud (with utility), and providing an out of combat opportunity to stealth rez. However, Force Cloak has no rotational use for Hatred so a second Force Cloak would be wasted in nearly all instances while also failing to contribute a buff to any damaging abilities.
Impact on Rotation:
N/A
When to Take:
Not recommended.
Friend of the Force
Friend of the Force
Increased drop rate from Onderon and Mek'sha daily missions.
Force Shroud also applies to any ally you are guarding.
Analysis:
UPDATE - A previous update changed the mechanics for Guard such that non-tanks guarding players have their damage reduced by 50%. As such, Friend of the Force is not recommended unless you really really need it to cleanse another player and do not mind sacrificing significant DPS to do so. If so, wait to guard the player until just before you activate Force Shroud, then remove Guard after Force Shroud cleanses you and the guarded player.
Friend of the Force is a really neat tactical for utility purposes but adds nothing to your DPS. As its description clearly implies, its value resides in helping another player mitigate big damage spikes and/or provide an additional cleanse.
There are two primary scenarios where I find this tactical potentially useful. First, I might take this tactical to share my Force Shroud with my other tank or a DPS/healer for predictable big damage spikes. If sharing with a tank, I make sure I am only guarding them immediately before hitting Force Shroud and remove it right after the defensive expires.
The second use is as an additional cleanse to a teammate. Most cleanse mechanics in boss encounters can be handled adequately by healers and tanks/DPS with built-in self cleanses. Having a couple Powertech or Sniper players is not a big deal for most fights. There are some exceptions where DoT cleanse mechanics become critical and being able to consistently get someone else’s cleanse can make a huge difference:
TFB Dread Guards: Help someone cheese Lightning Field, help a tank survive Force Leech damage
DF Draxus: Help a tank or melee DPS survive the exploding Subteroths in first wave, help self-cleanse Mass Affliction if it goes off
DF Corruptor Zero: Help a tank survive channeled attacks, enable a cleanse of tank if no tech healer is present
DF Brontes: Enable two people to cheese orbs during push to clockwork phase
DP Tyrans: Help tank avoid damage from Thundering Blast
DP Calphayus: Additional cleanse for group going Right in first phase if an add gets its cast off
DP Council: Additional cleanse for Death Mark
Ravagers Sparky: Help tank cheese damage from Brutalize
Torque: Help another melee player avoid damage from fire AoEs
Master & Blaster: Use to help a non-Assassin take Ion Cutter stacks without taking damage, or alternate with a Assassin tank holding Master to help avoid damage from basic attacks, or help whomever is holding Master during burn phase avoid damage from conal channel
Pirate Captains: Additional cleanse of DoTs, help two players run through red circles to clean them up
ToS Revan: Help a tank resist damage from Trail of Agony on first floor
Gods Aivela & Esne: Help another player survive a hit by Overdrive Energy Burst (AoE during burn phase) or help a player survive Purification Beam (wiper phase) if they are Spiked (tank) or just are unfamiliar with mechanics, could also be used to enable a DPS to stay in the middle more easily to DPS the Nexus
Gods Nahut: Help a tank move while affected by Mass Distortion
Gods Scyva: Help another tank survive Accelerated Destruction channel, help a fellow player survive Extinction Protocol
Gods Izax: Help another player mitigate damage from Induction Cascade
Dxun Red: Help a tank mitigate damage from Acid Jet
Dxun Trandoshans: Additional cleanses for tanks holding Kronissus or Hissyphus
Dxun Huntmaster: Help tank mitigate damage from Penetrating Shots
Dxun Apex Vanguard: Provide a dual cleanse of Contagion for yourself and a teammate without a self cleanse
Impact on Rotation:
No change, just make sure you apply a guard to the player you intend to buff prior to hitting Force Shroud.
When to Take:
This tactical is very situational to your playstyle, group composition and relative experience of teammates. In a wide range of circumstances it can be very helpful and should be taken, but only when you CAN use it to mitigate big damage by sharing the defensive and when you WILL actually do so in a timely and consistent fashion. If not, take a different tactical to buff your DPS.
Jerra's Persistence
Jerra's Persistence
Crafted by Armstech.
Phantom Stride has 2 charges.
Analysis:
This tactical has some benefit for movement heavy fights and providing an extra procced Spinning Strike / Assassinate. However, it only offers one extra use and Phantom Stride is very buggy in general. I do not recommend taking as other options provide far more DPS increases and a variety of utility choices can provide significant additional mobility.
Impact on Rotation:
No change.
When to Take:
Not recommended for any content.
Amplifiers
Amplifiers
Periodic Intensity (or for multi-discipline, Armor Penetration)
Periodic Intensity (or for multi-discipline, Armor Penetration)
The majority of top damaging ability dealt by Hatred comes from DoTs so Periodic Intensity provides by far the strongest buff. If looking to select amplifiers that provide strong buffs to both Deception and Hatred, I recommend Armor Penetration as it is the strongest amplifier set for the former and the second best for the latter.
Key Abilities
Key Abilities
Severing Slash (20 Force, 12s cooldown, 5m range) NEW IN 6.0 - Strikes targets in a cone, dealing weapon damage and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds. Severing Slash spreads Discharge and Creeping Terror periodic effects.
New ability for 6.0, it will have minimal use in PVE content.
Saber Strike (no cooldown) - Basic attack.
Free filler ability, it should only be used very infrequently when main tanking an encounter, and somewhat often when off-tanking.
Phantom Stride (30s cooldown, range 30m) - Teleports to your target and increases your movement speed by 75% for 3 seconds.
Assassin’s gap closer and with a utility can be used to proc Assassinate. Hatred should try to time its use after Assassinate has already procced via the Bloodletting passive ability. Be wary of using Phantom Stride when elevation changes are relevant, as it can bug and leave you in a weird position or even kill you (e.g., I have died several times using Phantom Stride to get onto the tanks in the Firebrand & Stormcaller encounter in the Explosive Conflict operation).
Creeping Terror (20 Force, no cooldown, range 30m) - Weakens the target, freezing it in place for 2 seconds and dealing high internal damage over 18 seconds. The immobilizing effect cannot occur more than once every 9 seconds.
One of Hatred’s core DoT abilities, Creeping Terror is usually applied first due to its 30m range. When Phantom Stride isn’t available as a gap closer and the target can’t be approach in stealth, using Creeping Terror while at range can fill a GCD to give time to get into melee range.
Discharge (20 Force, no cooldown, range 10m) - Blast the target with raw Force energy dealing high kinetic damage over 18 seconds.
Hatred’s second DoT only with a 10m range and thus usually applied second. Both DoTs should have full uptime on the target.
Eradicate (30 Force, 24s cooldown, range 10m) - Eradicates the target with mighty force dealing moderate kinetic damage initially, plus additional kinetic damage over 6 seconds. The target also becomes Vulnerable (+5% damage from Force attacks) for 45 seconds.
Eradicate is Hatred’s third DoT but is subject to RNG in its use. Normally its very long cooldown would limit its usefulness. However, the Raze passive provides for Eradicate to be procced once every 9 seconds either through a melee attack on a target affected by Death Field or through the use of Phantom Stride. Raze also makes Eradicate free. As such, Eradicate should be applied within each proc window but does not necessarily need to be used immediately. See the rotation discussion for more details.
Death Field (30 Force, 15s cooldown, range 10m) - Deals moderate internal damage and redistributes life from affected targets to heal you for 10% of the damage dealt. Strikes up to 8 targets within a 5-meter radius.
Death Field is the signature Hatred ability. It deals decent AoE damage and provides 20% self heals (the 10% is doubled via a passive). However, its real power lies in the Deathmark passive that causes affected targets to suffer 15% more damage from the next 15 DoT attacks (i.e., multiple DoTs ticking at the same time only consume 1 stack). Death Field also enables Eradicate to be procced and free. Death Field should be used on cooldown to ensure maximum uptime of the DoT damage buff.
Assassinate (17 Force, 6s cooldown) - Issues a subduing strike, dealing high weapon damage. Only usable on targets at or below 30% max health.
Unlike Darkness or Deception disciplines, Hatred regularly procs Assassinate even if not taking the Phasing Phantasm utility (enables a proc of Assassinate by Phantom Stride). The Bloodletting passive enables Hatred’s DoT effects to proc Assassinate to be usable on any target. Similar to Eradicate’s proc, the rate limit on this benefit means that Assassinate should be utilized within each proc window but can be delayed for other abilities. Below 30%, Assassinate takes a much higher priority and should be utilized on cooldown with sole exceptions of refreshing DoTs and Death Field.
Leeching Strike (25 Force, 12s cooldown) - Redistributes life from an enemy, dealing moderate weapon damage to the target and healing you for 50% of the damage dealt.
Leeching Strike is another Hatred discipline-exclusive ability, which replaces Maul as compared to Darkness and Deception. Leeching Strike’s self heal is buffed to 100% by a passive, providing a very powerful self heal, and assuming DoTs are ticking on the boss its Force cost will be either 17 or 13 (depending on whether Eradicate is active on the target or not). It should be utilized as close to on cooldown as possible.
Thrash (20 Force, no cooldown) - Strikes the target twice dealing medium damage.
Assassin’s spammable filler ability. Thrash is Hatred’s filler ability and will be used fairly often in the rotation. It is the most likely ability to proc Eradicate and if the player is able to track the cooldown on Eradicate proccing should endeavor to prioritize Thrash higher when doing so will proc Eradicate faster, otherwise it takes low priority and should only be used when sufficient Force is available to avoid delaying higher priority abilities.
Lacerate (20 Force, no cooldown) - Deals low weapon damage to up to 8 targets within 5 meters.
Assassin’s spammable AoE filler ability. Can be buffed 25% with a utility and enables Hatred’s DoT spread.
Rotation
Rotation
Opener
Opener
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Eradicate - Regular cast rather than a proc, this enables a procced Eradicate to be used again in the opener
Phantom Stride OFF GCD - Used as a gap closer and to enable a use of Assassinate in the first rotation prior to it proccing through damage and get Phantom Stride on cooldown immediately so it will be back up sooner. We use after Eradicate so that Raze immediately resets Eradicate's cooldown.
Creeping Terror - Applying first DoT
Attack Adrenal OFF GCD Entering opener burst window so want to maximize damage
Recklessness OFF GCD - About to begin burst so hitting offensive cooldowns
Death Field - Using as early in opener as possible, will not tick quite as hard since only 2 DoTs are active, but this sets up the rotation to avoid any future delays
Overcharged Saber OFF GCD - Using additional offensive cooldown
Assassinate - Using the proc from Phantom Stride here for damage and to get the ability on cooldown so we can proc it again via the Bloodletting passive.
Eradicate - Procced by Phantom Stride and usable here as the previous DoT expires
Discharge - Applying second DoT, which now establishes both DoTs on a 12 GCD pattern with sufficient space between DoTs to allow immediate use of all abilities
Leeching Strike - Finally left with a free filler spot, Leeching Strike is next up. At this point all 3 DoTs are ticking so Leeching Strike will hit for its maximum DPS and cost very little in Force.
Assassinate - Assassinate should be off cooldown and usable due to the 30% chance per DoT tick. If it has not triggered then fill with Thrash and use when available.
Thrash No other abilities are available in this GCD so using spammable filler
Thrash No other abilities are available in this GCD so using spammable filler
Eradicate - Procced by Raze 6 GCDs after the previous proc in the opener.
Thrash No other abilities are available in this GCD so using spammable filler
Death Field - Death Field comes off cooldown in this GCD so is reapplied.
(Continue general rotation priority)
Rotation Priority
Rotation Priority
The Hatred Assassin requires maintaining maximum uptime on DoTs (100% for Discharge and Creeping Terror, as much as possible with Eradicate), using Death Field on cooldown, using Assassinate and Leeching Strike as close to cooldown as possible, and using Thrash as Force permits without delaying other abilities.
1. Death Field used on cooldown. In general, maintaining and refreshing DoTs is important as Death Field’s biggest benefit is its buff to DoT damage. That said, it will usually be optimal to delay refreshing either Discharge or Creeping Terror by 1 GCD to use Death Field first.
2. Creeping Terror and Discharge refreshed before expiration. Hatred is a DoT discipline and a huge chunk of its damage comes from these DoTs and various buffs applied to them, most notably by Death Field. As such, it is absolutely critical to maintain 100% uptime, with the sole exception being delaying reapplication 1 GCD to make room for Death Field.
3. Eradicate used on cooldown. Eradicate should proc every 6 GCDs and its duration is 4 GCDs. This provides for a window to delay use of Eradicate, but in the TLDR rotation it is simplest to try and use Eradicate on cooldown as soon as it procs to ensure it isn’t delayed overly long.
4. Leeching Strike used on cooldown. Leeching Strike does great damage for low cost as long as DoTs are ticking on the target, making it a very powerful and efficient ability to use as often as possible.
5. Assassinate used on cooldown. Assassinate is a great ability but above 30% boss it has a 15s cooldown on being procced, so it is relatively low priority as there should nearly always be a free GCD in the 10 GCD window to utilize Assassinate following its proc.
6. Thrash used when >40 Force. Force management is relatively easy for Hatred so liberal use of Thrash is fine so long as enough energy is left for high priority abilities.
7. Saber Strike when <40 Force. This should happen once every 10-15 GCDs or so.
Spacing DoTs
Spacing DoTs
Hatred's DoTs both have an 18 second duration prior to alacrity, which works out to 12 GCDs of duration regardless of alacrity level. Thus our thought process around a rotation is centered around this cycle.
However, Death Field is ultimately more important to our overall DPS since it significantly buffs the damage dealt by our DoTs. We also need to prioritize Leeching Strike in the rotation design to use it on cooldown as a high damage rotational filler. Death Field has a 15 second / 10 GCD cooldown and Leeching Strike has a 12 second / 8 GCD cooldown.
The customary recommendation to achieve these goals is to leave 3 abilities in between the initial application and subsequent refresh of our primary DoTs, Creeping Terror and Discharge. If we think of the "rotation" as a 12 GCD cycle where Creeping Terror and Discharge have the same slots, then Death Field will move up 2 slots in the rotation after each use and Leeching Strike will move up 4 slots.
This rotation design leaves both DoTs on odd-numbered rotation slots while Death Field will always be an even-numbered slot based on applying it initially in GCD #2, which completely avoids any conflict with refreshing DoTs and applying Death Field.
Given the 12 and 10 GCD durations for our DoTs and Death Field, respectively, the full rotation consisting just of those abilities takes 5 blocks of 12 abilities or 60 GCDs total. That rotation is outlined below to show how Death Field moves through the rotation without delay. Leeching Strike is also shown and only has to be delayed occasionally and only for a single GCD. Leeching Strike should ultimately have a predictable path through the rotation but would require several more rotation blocks to illustrate, which seems unnecessary to show the point.
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Please note that a simpler rotation design to just leave one space in between DoTs would still allow for them to be refreshed as they expire and still use Death Field on cooldown. I recommend this approach for newer players to the discipline since it is easier to track and avoid forgetting to re-apply the second DoT. The downside to this approach is more frequent delays of Leeching Strike and those delays being likely to be 2-3 GCDs on occasion instead of only a single GCD under the above.
The best part about this rotation is that it is entirely set up by the opener and then simply follows the priority discussed above. Just make sure your opener applies both DoTs and uses Death Field as shown in the first row, then you can follow the priority to use Death Field on cooldown, refresh each DoT as it expires, and so on.
The above illustration obviously does not present uses of Eradicate, Assassinate, Thrash or Saber Strike. I feel that overly complicates the point I am trying to illustrate about rotation design. Also, the priority discussion about when to use those abilities is straight-forward, which in summary is to maximize Eradicate's uptime, fit Assassinate in where convenient when it procs and use on cooldown in execute, and use Thrash or Saber Strike for fillers based on energy.
Advanced Rotation Tips
Advanced Rotation Tips
Leave 3 GCDs between Creeping Terror and Discharge.
See above discussion.
Eradicate should be used twice during each 12 GCD DoT cycle.
As Eradicate can be procced every 6 GCDs and both DoTs have a duration of 12 GCDs, Eradicate should be procced in the same slot in each 12 GCD rotation. Note per the next point that the GCD in which it is procced and the GCD in which it is used may not always be the same.
Can delay Eradicate 1-2 GCDs for Leeching Strike or Death Field.
Eradicate’s proc can occur every 6 GCDs but its duration is only 4 GCDs. Thus, Eradicate can be safely delayed up to 2 GCDs without risking clipping its DoT when it procs the next time. This should only be done for an ability that by using earlier will enable more frequent use (i.e., delaying Eradicate to use a procced Assassinate would not be a DPS increase because Assassinate can only be procced every 15s until sub-30% boss health). Death Field takes higher priority than Eradicate anyway, so the primary beneficiary of this rule is Leeching Strike.
Use Assassinate ASAP when procced by Phantom Stride.
Assuming Phasing Phantasm utility is being taken (as it generally should), it is important to use the procced Assassinate as quickly as the rotation allows to avoid a Bloodletting proc (the regular proc every 15s). As soon as Phantom Stride is off CD, I usually wait until the next Assassinate proc by Bloodletting and then use Phantom Stride as soon as I use Assassinate (similar to the opener). That guarantees the longest window where the two won’t overlap.
Assassinate should be used every 4 GCDs when sub-30%.
Assassinate is a high damage and low CD ability once sub-30%. During this phase, it takes priority over ALL abilities except Death Field. That includes Eradicate procs (those can be delayed 1-2 GCDs per above anyway), Leeching Strike (Assassinate does more damage), and both DoTs (losing 1 tick of DoT damage is a smaller sacrifice than delaying Assassinate by 1/4th its cooldown). Proper prioritization of Assassinate can boost DPS in the execute phase by 1k.
Force Management
Force Management
Force management for Hatred Assassins is pretty straight-forward. Force-based abilities Discharge, Creeping Terror and Death Field are expensive and consume more Force. Weapon attacks are cheaper due to several passive abilities. Eradicate can also be used for free often. When you get low on Force, Saber Strike has several passives that make it hugely Force positive to quickly regenerate.
There is not necessarily much strategy to Force management beyond following the priority discussed above, but I think it's helpful to understand how your Force management works in case you run into any issues. The key goals from an energy management perspective are:
Make sure to use Eradicate when it procs as it is free due a passive skill. It follows the priority and discussion above, where it can occasionally be delayed a GCD or two to line up better with Leeching Strike.
Use Leeching Strike on cooldown and only delayed for higher priority abilities. It is nearly net neutral energy-wise if all 3 DoTs are active.
Use Assassinate when it procs or sub-30%. It costs nearly half the net energy as Thrash and deals way more damage so is a win-win option.
If you get low on Force, slip in a Saber Strike in an available filler spot. Saber Strike's passives make it hugely Force positive and one use can get you back into stable territory and two will get you pretty high on Force.
See below for a discussion of the noteworthy passives and related abilities that help improve your Force management as a Hatred Assassin.
Leeching Strike ordinarily costs 25 Force to use but its cost is reduced by 4 Force per DoT on the target via the Leeching Hunger passive skill, down to a minimum of 13 Force if you have all 3 DoTs ticking on the target. Assuming no extra alacrity, Force regeneration for one ability activation should be 12 Force so Leeching Strike only has a net Force cost of 1 when it is used on a target with 3 DoTs!
Eradicate ordinarily costs 30 Force to use but it becomes free whenver the Raze passive skill is triggered. Melee attacks that strike a target affected by your Discharge grant Raze, finishing the cooldown on Eradicate and making your next Eradicate consume no Force. Also, activating Phantom Stride grants Raze, but Raze cannot occur more than once every 9 seconds.
Assassinate costs 17 Force due to the Claws of Decay passive skill. Most abilities cost 20 Force so this makes Assassinate closer to energy neutral. Assuming no excess alacrity, you should regenerate 12 Force in a GCD so Assassinate is net negative by 5 Force instead of 8 Force for most other abilities. That may not sound like much but is nearly half the net Force cost of Thrash, which it normally replaces when available.
Below 30% boss health Assassinate can be used very often and is a huge help to Force management (and DPS!) Above 30% Assassinate can be triggered by Phantom Stride via the Reaper's Rush Heroic utility or has a 30% chance to be triggered by melee attacks via the Bloodletting passive skill. Phantom Stride has a 30 second cooldown and the Bloodletting passive skill cannot trigger more than once every 15 seconds.
Lightning Charge is a passive skill that gives your melee attacks a 50% chance to deal energy damage. When your Lightning Charge deals damage, it restores 3 Force thanks to the Fulguration passive skill.
Lightning Charge can trigger from weapon attacks so Leeching Strike, Assassinate, Thrash and Saber Strike can all trigger Lightning Charge. Some attacks deal damage more than once so have a higher chance to trigger Lightning Charge. For example, Thrash deals damage twice (i.e., it hits with each side of the double-bladed lightsaber) so actually has a 75% chance to trigger Lightning Charge as a result.
I've noticed I usually trigger Lightning Charge on average every other ability, which means Fulguration triggers every 3 seconds prior to alacrity. That works out to around 1 Force regeneration per second on average.
Saber Strike is a free ability that deals damage to the target 3 times per activation. Thanks to the Assassin's Training passive skill, Saber Strike restores 1 Force each time it damages an enemy so 3 Force total. Saber Strike also has 3 rolls with a 50% chance each to trigger Lightning Charge and restore 3 Force, which works out to a 87.5% chance per activation.
Assassins have a base Force regeneration rate of 8 Force per second prior to alacrity. Saber Strike is an instant ability so it consumes a global cooldown of 1.5 seconds before you can activate another ability.
Putting this all together, using Saber Strike leads to natural Force regeneration of 12 Force, restores 3 Force via the Assassin's Training passive skill, and has a very high chance to restore 3 Force via the Lightning Charge passive skill. In total Saber Strike should be net Force positive by 15-18 Force. As such, one use of Saber Strike is typically enough energy regeneration to resume your rotation.
Recklessness & Death Knell
Recklessness & Death Knell
Assuming the player is equipping the Death Knell 6-piece set bonus, Recklessness and the Reckless Slaughter buff provided by the Death Knell set are very important to your DPS.
As a quick reminder, Recklessness grants 2 charges that increase the critical chance of attacks by 60% and each attack that critically hits consumes 1 charge. Recklessness normally has a 90 second cooldown.
All Assassins can benefit from the Audacity Masterful utility that increases the charges granted by Recklessness from 2 to 3.
The Death Knell 4-piece set bonus reduces the cooldown of Recklessness by 15 seconds and each time a Recklessness charge is consumed (i.e., an attack critically hits) you receive 1 stack of Reckless Critical that makes Leeching Strike or Assassinate critically hit. Stacks of Reckless Critical can accumulate up to 3 stacks.
The Death Knell 6-piece set bonus applies a 10% melee damage buff called Reckless Slaughter each time you consume a charge of Recklessness. Reckless Slaughter lasts 30 seconds and can stack up to 3 times, so can reach +30% melee damage.
So with the Death Knell set bonus and the Audacity utility, Assassins have a 90 second cooldown on Recklessness and it grants 3 charges that grant +60% critical chance to attacks and as those charges are consumed will make 3 extra Leeching Strike or Assassinate attacks auto-crits and will grant +30% melee damage.
Hopefully this is obvious by now but Recklessness is really strong and important to maximizing DPS as an Assassin and particularly as a Hatred Assassin.
There are a few key guidelines to follow when using Recklessness as a Death Knell Hatred Assassin:
Always take the Audacity utility. Audacity causes Recklessness to grant 3 charges instead of 2. This is a significant DPS increase since each extra charge of Recklessness means an extra +60% critical chance on an attack, an extra charge of Reckless Critical (auto-crit of Leeching Strike or Assassinate) and an extra charge of Reckless Slaughter (+10% melee attack damage for 30 seconds).
Use Recklessness on cooldown. Unlike Deception Assassins that need to time their use of Recklessness due to a passive that lets them reset its cooldown, Hatred Assassins are stuck with the normal cooldown on Recklessness. As such, they do not need to worry about clipping the Reckless Slaughter or Reckless Critical buffs. The only time to delay Recklessness is if downtime or a transition phase is coming in the next 30 seconds.
Assassinate takes priority over Leeching Strike after Recklessness. Assassinate deals around 15% more damage on average than Leeching Strike so it will get more benefit from consuming Reckless Critical charges. I recommend trying to time Recklessness when Assassinate is procced and Phantom Stride is nearly off cooldown, which can let you use Assassinate and then proc it again via Phantom Stride. At worst you consume one Reckless Critical charge on Leeching Strike but get at least two via Assassinate, which should be a DPS increase.
Defensive Cooldowns
Defensive Cooldowns
1. Force Shroud (Force/Tech damage) - 1 minute cooldown. Force Shroud purges all removable effects (aka self-cleanse of all debuffs, not just 2 per cleanse like normal) and increases the chance to resist Force and tech attacks by 200% for 3 seconds (5 with utility). Force Shroud is an amazing defensive as it provides complete immunity to most heavy hitting mechanics in PVE content. It has a very low cooldown and can be reduced further by successfully shielding attacks. Should be saved for heavy hitting mechanics to cheese the damage, otherwise should be used nearly on cooldown.
2. Force Cloak (Force/Tech damage, certain interruptible channels) - 2 minute cooldown (1:15 with utility). Force Cloak is the Assassin’s combat stealth. It is notable as taking the Shroud of Madness utility will also grant 2 seconds of Force Shroud when stealthing out. This provides a second self cleanse on a low cooldown and can be used situationally to cheese mechanics and break certain casts. A great example is the Master & Blaster encounter in the Ravagers operation, where using Force Cloak during the Ion Cutter channel will interrupt the cast and prevent any further stacks being added. Great care should be taken as to the timing of using Force Cloak (to ensure a big hitting ability doesn’t swap to a DPS or healer) and the boss should be immediately taunted to regain aggro.
3. Force Speed (all damage) - 20s cooldown (15s with utility) and 2.5s duration (3.0s with utility). When taking the Phasing Phantasm utility (as everyone should), Force Speed provides 25% absorption of all damaged taken in its duration. This provides damage mitigation and up to 20% uptime when taking the Avoidance and Disjunction utilities. In fights with large burst damage abilities, Force Speed should be used whenever Force Shroud (for Force/Tech) or Deflection (for ranged/melee) isn’t available. In fights without large burst hits, use Force Speed on cooldown for better average mitigation.
4. Overcharged Saber (all damage) - 2 minute cooldown and 15s duration. Overcharged Saber does a little of everything, providing 25% damage reduction, immediate healing of 15%, increasing damage of Surging Charge by 50%, increasing the change to trigger its effects by 25% and healing some each time it triggers. I recommend using for sustained phases of Force/Tech damage, where Force Shroud and Force Speed will be useful but their short duration will not provide as much benefit.
5. Deflection (ranged/melee damage OR heavy sustained AoE Force/Tech damage) - 2 minute cooldown and 12 second duration. Increases ranged and melee defense by 50%. This defensive ability should be used to mitigate ranged/melee damage.
6. Mass Mind Control (all damage) - 6 second duration. Increases damage resistance by 30%. After using an aggro drop in the initial encounter, the aggro drop should be saved for mitigating hits where other defensives are not available.
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