The Jedi Shadows Handbook

v0.0.0g (updated 3-Dec-11)

A Jedi will always seek the truth... I will expose the dark side's deceit.

A Shadow serves the Jedi Order by being a silent observer and, when action is necessary, a subtle hand. To avoid rash decisions on the part of the Council, Shadows go unseen, gathering information and quietly thwarting those who seek to threaten the Jedi Order. Employing Force techniques that cloud enemy minds, Shadows slip into hostile territory, and when necessary, they strike enemies down with deadly efficiency.

Introduction
This handbook is intended to be a comprehensive guide to gameplay competency with the Jedi Shadow. As such, it will provide data on effective Player-versus-Player gameplay, Player-versusEnvironment gameplay, and some general tips on levelling as a Jedi Shadow. It is not intended to be a walkthrough or guide to any specific World, Flashpoint or Operation, and will only contain some brief looks at specific Warzones and Conflict Regions. Skill Calculator builds are merely my opinion, and though I do my best to learn as much as possible, I cannot know everything. If you have contradictory ideas, please post them here. While this guide will never be perfect, it will be more perfect with each version than the last. We get better through sharing ideas, after all. This guide will also go over the basics of gearing as a Jedi Shadow, and highlight some notable pieces of equipment. The version numbering will correspond with that of the most recent live version of the game, followed by a letter indicating a major revision to the guide's contents. e.g. 1.0.1c would be the third major version of the guide intended to correspond to game version 1.0.1. Minor wording changes and stylistic editing will not be considered.

Contents
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Shadow Basics ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Kinetic Combat Shadows ........................................................................................................................ 6 Priority List: ......................................................................................................................................... 6 PvE....................................................................................................................................................... 7 PvP....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Gearing ................................................................................................................................................ 9 Infiltration Shadows .............................................................................................................................. 11 PvE..................................................................................................................................................... 12 PvP..................................................................................................................................................... 13 Gearing .............................................................................................................................................. 14 Balance Shadows .................................................................................................................................. 16 PvE..................................................................................................................................................... 17 PvP..................................................................................................................................................... 17 Gearing .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Shadow Companions ............................................................................................................................ 19 Tython ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Coruscant ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Nar Shaddaa .................................................................................................................................. 20 Balmorra........................................................................................................................................ 21 Hoth .............................................................................................................................................. 21 Belsavis.......................................................................................................................................... 21 Secret Companion ......................................................................................................................... 22 Equipping a Shadow .............................................................................................................................. 23 Crew Skills ............................................................................................................................................. 25 Crafting Skills ..................................................................................................................................... 26 Armormech ................................................................................................................................. 26 Armstech ....................................................................................................................................... 26 Artifice ........................................................................................................................................... 27

Biochem ........................................................................................................................................ 27 Cybertech ...................................................................................................................................... 28 Synthweaving ................................................................................................................................ 28 Gathering Skills ................................................................................................................................. 29 Archaeology .................................................................................................................................. 29 Bioanalysis..................................................................................................................................... 30 Scavenging .................................................................................................................................... 30 Slicing ............................................................................................................................................ 31 Mission Skills ..................................................................................................................................... 31 Diplomacy ..................................................................................................................................... 31 Investigation.................................................................................................................................. 32 Treasure Hunting .......................................................................................................................... 32 Underworld Trading ...................................................................................................................... 32 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................ 33 APPENDIX A: Q & A ............................................................................................................................... 34 APPENDIX B: MMO Glossary ................................................................................................................. 39 APPENDIX C: Key Binds ......................................................................................................................... 41 AstralFires Key Binds ........................................................................................................................ 41 APPENDIX D: Shadow - Assassin Dictionary .......................................................................................... 43 Shadow to Assassin ........................................................................................................................... 43 Assassin to Shadow ........................................................................................................................... 45 APPENDIX E: Advanced Reading ........................................................................................................... 47 Changelog ............................................................................................................................................. 47

Shadow Basics
Parent Class: Jedi Consular Mirrored by: Sith Assassin Primary Weapon: Double-bladed Lightsaber, Electrostaff Off-Hand Items: Shield Generator, Force Focus Armour Class: Light Aesthetic Inspirations: Darth Maul, Exar Kun, Satele Shan, Bastila Shan Story Inspiration: Obi-Wan Kenobi. "We wanted to capture the journey of Obi-Wan Kenobi someone who begins with unusual insight and talent, but who is still growing into those powers." Skill Trees: Kinetic Combat (Defender), Infiltration (Melee Striker), Balance (Hybrid Striker) Resource: Force Points. (Base Max: 100; Base Recovery: 8 Pts/Second) Playable Species: Human, Miraluka, Mirialan, Twi'lek, Zabrak Voice Actress: Athena Karkanis Voice Actor: Nolan North

The Jedi Shadow does not fear wasting her Force Points early in a fight; she has few long cooldowns, and a steadily refilling resource bar. Unlike Smugglers and Troopers, this resource bar does not regenerate at variable rates. The challenge in playing a Jedi Shadow correctly is careful management of several short-term cooldowns and interspersing low or no-cost abilities with medium and high cost abilities, to avoid missing a vital window of opportunity. Careful balancing of your basic attack - which requires no Force to use - versus your more costly abilities is essential to success. While many of your abilities have very short or non-existent cooldowns, spamming a low-cost ability whenever available will prevent you from making effective use of the higher cost abilities. The Shadow can access up to three different combat stances, or techniques, which alter the majority of her relevant abilities. Each of these stances adds a chance to affect each of her melee attacks (though no more often than once every 1.5 seconds). Melee attacks which hit multiple times or multiple targets have a better chance of activating the technique once per ability. These stances are off of the global cooldown, but have a high resource cost. It is possible to switch techniques and then immediately benefit from the change, but you can do so only with careful forethought and planning, and at the expense of restricting yourself heavily for several seconds prior.

While these techniques are active, the Shadow is able to use the ability Force Breach, which has a variable effect based on which technique is active. When Combat Technique is active, Breach becomes an AoE strike that debuffs the opponents' accuracy by 5%. Force Technique creates a periodic damage effect Breach, and Shadow Technique delivers a sharp burst of damage via Breach. Generally speaking, the Shadow is very comfortable with Melee to Short-Range play. In proper specs, the class appears to be the least kiteable melee and an excellent kiter due to high mobility options, snares, knockbacks, Force Pull, and ranged abilities. You'll always be at your very best in Melee Range, but if someone goes out to 5 meters and farther, you are still doing very reasonable until they get to 11 meters. A completely successful escape from a properly built Shadow is nearly impossible, as should be expected from their archetype. People familiar with Rogues from World of Warcraft will find only some similarities in the Shadow. For the most part, it is far more survivable with fewer hard controls (such as stuns) and more range as well as self-healing. While it will always be optimal for Shadows to attack from behind, it is by no means expected or necessary for any but an Infiltrator. Generally speaking, stealth is more difficult than in other games. Stealth detection is a bit easier for your targets when you get close in, which is why you get the Blackout ability. It's a pretty neat little ability that greatly improves your stealth level for a brief window of time, with a one minute cooldown. When you absolutely have to get in close for a Mind Maze, use Blackout and get in and out of there fast. At level 15, you get the ability Channel the Force, which is the power-up music ability for the Jedi Shadow and Jedi Sage. Channel the Force has a 20 minute cooldown and lasts for 1 minute; it is extremely powerful, and can allow you to solo otherwise impossible challenges. At a minimum, let me say that you should make certain that you have this ability before embarking on the mission Ancient Secrets in Coruscant. It will be very handy towards the end of that mission. Mass Mind Control and Mind Control are great abilities in PvP, and should not be forgotten. Unlike Guard, they do not require you to be in Combat Technique, so any Shadow can make use of it; clever use can severely reduce the output of someone attacking an ally. Pair it well with Force Cloak and Force Wave and other abilities to keep them from immediately beating up on you, however.

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Kinetic Combat Shadows

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defence - never for attack.

Playstyle: High threat defender; melee with some ranged moves. Technique: Combat Technique PvE Builds: Standard (31/0/10), Balance Variant (25/0/16) PvP Builds: PvP Harnessed Shadows (27/14/0), Hybrid Balance (23/0/18), Hybrid Stealth (22/19/0), Earthbender (22/12/7)

Priority List:
0. Saber Strike (Out of Force) 1. Kinetic Ward (1 charge or about to expire) 2. Force Breach (Every time it's up) 3. Slow Time (5 seconds after cooldown ends) or Force in Balance (every CD) 4. Telekinetic Throw (3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows) 5. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less) 6. Mind Crush (Force Strike buff) 7. Project (Particle Acceleration buff) or Whirling Blow (2 or more enemies) 8. Double Strike

The Jedi Shadow is a fully capable tank, as confirmed multiple times by the developers. (You'll run into issues trying to tank before your late teens, however.) The bulk of its survivability is defined by its high blocking chance, while it has moderate avoidance, stable mitigation, and the unique ability among tanks to self-heal. Though its armour seems initially low, Combat Technique and several of its specialized skill brings the class armour values on par with the Jedi Guardian, and it has superior damage reduction for Elemental and Internal damage, the two types not covered by armour. The heal granted by Combat Technique's passive bonus is minor, and typically functions more like mitigation than damage; you won't even notice your health crawl up. However, Battle Readiness can

be modified into an instant self-heal as well as greatly improving the healing generated by this passive. In addition to the unique ability to self-heal, the Kinetic Shadow is easily the highest damage of any defender specialization in the game, tied with the Darkness Assassin. AoE threat is not an issue after obtaining your primary area attack, Whirling Blow, and as awkward as ranged tanking can be in PvE, the Shadow still handles these situations with more aplomb than the Guardian ever can hope to. Personally speaking, I found the default User Interface to be lacking as a Kinetic Shadow tank; most of my time is spent checking the lower bar to watch multiple cooldowns, expiring buffs, whether or not Particle Acceleration had activated, the range of a selected target, as well as estimating how much of my Force Points I had remaining in order to execute the next move. This is not good, as ranged tanking - which the Shadow will be doing a lot of - is very complicated. Fun, but complicated. Some of these issues will go with time; as you get into a steady rhythm, you won't have to look at the bar so often to predict how soon you can use your next attack. Of note: Force Potency and Particle Acceleration don't get used up by Project until after Project hits the target. This can be problematic if you launch the attack at the last second... but it can also be to your benefit, allowing you to cast Project first and then cast Force Potency immediately after.

PvE
There are two builds presently available for Jedi Shadows in Player-versus-Environment content: the Standard (31/0/10), and the Balance Variant (25/0/16). The Standard will likely prove superior to the Balance Variant for difficult group content, due to the pseudo-mitigation provided by Slow Time, as well as the additional 12% healing provided by Telekinetic Throw through Harnessed Shadows. Note that the first 6% of the heal, along with half of the damage, occurs during the very first second of the ability; if you have to move, your Telekinetic Throw will not be wasted, and the ability does significant damage. Even so, the Balance Variant has significant benefits which should be discussed. Most notably; ranged tanking is a pain. The Standard only has one ability with a range greater than 10m: Force Pull. Force Pull is not a move that you use to start a fight, that is what stealth is for. Instead, Force Pull is to allow you to bring one enemy closer so that you can use your death spam AoEs easier. If you have multiple enemies wielding ranged attacks, however, this can prove inadequate; this is not a game that often allows for the 'pull around a corner' strategy tanks would use to deal with this in the past, due to slightly smarter enemy AI. It is true that Force Potency has a (clumsy) range increase built into it for Telekinetic Throw, but your Telekinetic Throw can be easily interrupted. Even if you have Harnessed Shadows up, the power is still cancelled by movement, and you can only do this twice every 90 seconds; it is not an adequate solution. This is where the Balance Variant comes in. Force in Balance is a location-targeted AoE attack with a 30m range that also comes with the benefit of moderate self-healing. While it is limited in the number of targets that it can affect, at 3, Whirling Blow is quite spammable. Additionally, even within the 10m range, the variant is considerably more capable; Force Strike allows Mind Crush to avoid both of the difficulties of using Project: the delayed activation time and the high Force cost.

Of note, the Balance Variant build is extremely close to the PvP version of the same build, and you can do an alright job tanking with the PvP version, as it picks up an extra 30m stun in return for a minimal loss in self-healing.

PvP
As a warning note, if you're planning on PvPing at low levels, I recommend doing it as Infiltration. Kinetic and Balance suck before 20, and respecialization is cheap your first several times. Player-versus-Player on a tank is different in this game than in World of Warcraft, which you may be accustomed to. Mind Control and Mass Mind Control are your taunts; when used, they reduce the target's outgoing damage by 30% for 6 seconds unless they attack you. Useful tools to prevent incoming damage on an ally, and you usually do not have to worry about an immediate backlash, because it's nearly impossible to point out who delivered the taunt. Guarding is another story Guarding allows you to share your HP pool with another player, which subjects you to taking more impact from Area of Effect abilities, but can make killing your partner an absolute pain. Due to a Kinetic Shadow's unique ability to break slowing effects with Force Speed, Kinetic Shadows make good partners for a huttball carrier - they can Guard the target, push and pull enemies into firewalls and off ledges, and also run the ball very effectively themselves. Another peculiar strength of the Kinetic Shadow in PvP is the ability to use Spinning Kick out of Stealth. This may seem like a mediocre ability - it's a 2s stun, and induces a 1.5s global cooldown. Well, think again. It is actually a knockdown, and not an incapacitate effect. There is no ability in the game which can break someone out of a knockdown - they have to recover normally. While it is a tricky ability to use, a well-timed Spinning Kick is guarantee of 2 seconds where there is absolutely nothing the target can do, no matter what, as long as their resolve bar is not overcharged. Unique to the Shadow is the ability to both Guard a target and hide in stealth until attacked, allowing them to perform an effective defender duo with a healer, or part of an offensive ninja trio on enemy objectives in Alderaan and Voidstar. It's always advisable to open in stealth if possible, in order to Mind Maze potential targets. Many of the Player-versus-Player dedicated builds for this specialization do not go all the way into Kinetics. The top of the tree is difficult to use in PvP; depending on multiple Project hits to build up Harnessed Shadows for Telekinetic Throw is cumbersome enough in PvE. Slow Time's mitigation bump is nice, but the cooldown is too long and the damage too low - not to mention that it's a CCbreaking risk. And all of that eats up six points. Eight, when you include the two minor points which need to be spent in the weak special skills Rapid Recovery, Mental Fortitude, Expertise (an okay skill that's terrible for Combat Technique), or Nerve-Wracking, just to reach Tier 6 skills. Even so, there are merits to using Harnessed Shadows. Fully charged, the ability is the hardest hitting move in your repertoire, dealing damage-per-second superior to that from your Spinning Strike at up to 10m away over a period of 3 seconds. During Force Potency, it truly becomes a frightening move to watch out for. PvP Harnessed Shadows (27/14/0) attempts to make the most of this ability, by making it easy to cast Projects to charge it up. Try to fire your Wind Cannon (as I like to think of it) in conjunction with a stun so that the target does not have the chance to attempt to stun you or knock

you back in the middle of it; though you're immune to standard interruption, a Force Push will still end the effect. Still not good enough for some people, though. This is where the Hybrid Balance (23/0/18) comes in. Force in Balance is a location-targeted AoE attack with a 30m range that also comes with the benefit of moderate self-healing. While it is limited in the number of targets that it can affect, at 3, Whirling Blow is quite spammable. Additionally, even within the 10m range, the variant is considerably more capable; Force Strike allows Mind Crush to avoid both of the difficulties of using Project: the delayed activation time and the high Force cost. All of this is in addition to being able to use Force Lift on the run, and not worry too much if someone else breaks it. However, the Hybrid Balance build has its problems in PvP. Most notably, true burst is extremely unpredictable and awkward. Project remains high cost, and you only have a 25% chance of your Double Strike leading into a maximum damage Project. (50% chance of Particle Acceleration and 50% chance of Upheaval activating.) You're going to rely heavily on critical strikes from Double Strike to do the bulk of your damage. While Force Lift becomes very usable, Force Lift by itself is sufficient to max out a player's resolve bar, making it an extremely awkward closer; it's better to catch a runner or disable someone while you go for an objective. For these reasons, Hybrid Stealth is the more popular Kinetic PvP spec. It possesses all of the positives on Kinetic Combat's side. Its burst isn't particularly huge - your best option is a Force Stun or Spinning Kick, running through the enemy and backstabbing him before launching a Project assault. What is more important is that your burst is entirely controllable by you - Project is extremely easy to setup in this build. To boot, you have both the ability to permanently Force Slow your target and Force Pull on a single character, making a successful escape from you very unlikely. There is yet another variant which is a hybrid of our two hybrids; I call it the Earthbender (22/12/7) specialization, and it trades off the control options in both auxiliary trees for the burst options, though it keeps Force Pull. You'll be hurling more rocks than Toph. A notable point in the Hybrid Stealth build and the Earthbender build is that they both form the game's best stealth countermeasures. You have high stealth detection, high passive stealth, the ability to Blackout and sharply raise your stealth level, and can use your Whirling Blow to knock out a nearby opponent who is also under the effect of heightened stealth. Due to the weakness of Guarding a target and then having you both get blasted by AoEs, it may be advisable for a defensively-playing Hybrid Stealth to drop the two points in Subduing Techniques or Fade and opt instead for Kinetic Field, which reduces your incoming AoE damage by 30%. It's ordinarily not worth it at all, but as many AoE attacks in the game are balanced around hitting two or more targets (rather than three or more); Kinetic Field can prevent you from dropping too fast.

Gearing
As with all Consulars, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities, so you would rather take the Power statistic rather than Force Power. Alacrity will increase the

speed of your Telekinetic Throws, but it is not something you should try to do; it has no other benefit to you. You will obviously want to build up defensive statistics - Absorption, Shield Rating, Defence and Endurance. Absorption and Shield Rating will provide the biggest bang for your buck. The hard cap on bonus for Shield Rating is around +50% chance - you'll experience diminishing returns well before then, but it gives you a wide margin to reach for. This is important, because the Jedi Shadow has the least amount of survivability cooldowns relative to other specs, but has a significant advantage in how often it shields, thanks to Kinetic Ward. (Note also that a shielded attack cannot be a critical. This could mean that the Kinetic Shadow is vulnerable to auto-crit abilities, or could also theoretically reduce the critical chance of a received attack; if the chance is not 100% but the sum of shield chance + critical chance is greater than 100%.) Because Kinetic Ward has a limited number of charges available, a higher avoidance chance will increase its longevity, as well. Therefore, the type of encounters we face will direct the next most important survivability statistic. If we constantly see high-end content with multiple enemies which require tanking, there will be a strong lean - a higher avoidance chance will reduce the number of charges eaten up on Kinetic Ward, improving your AoE tankability. If, instead, the Shadow is constantly facing a limited number of attacks, armour and absorption rating will take precedence. Endurance is of low priority at current itemization schemes, because the endurance multiplier in the Kinetic Combat tree is so low. Offensively, the Kinetic Shadow wants Surge Rating, to take full advantage of auto-critical Projects. Critical Strike rating should be a non-priority for gearing. In PvP, Expertise Rating will be your single most important statistic. Accuracy Rating will also come into consideration; while you previously could only miss with your basic Saber Strike attack, every class has a minimum of 5% defence, and tanks can have much more. I would strongly consider getting at least 10% accuracy, to make sure that you do not miss with a vital Crowd Control or interrupt against enemy Jedi Sages and Sith Sorcerers, who have a base defence of 10%.

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Infiltration Shadows
That place is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In, you must go."

Playstyle: Spike damage striker, harasser; melee skirmisher. Technique: Shadow Technique PvE Builds: Armour Piercing (5/33/3), Upheaval (2/31/8) PvP Builds: PvP Standard (5/33/3), PvP Upheaval (0/33/8), Variant (11/30/0), High Regen Backstab Spam (18/23/0)

Priority List: 0. Saber Strike (Out of Force) 1. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less) 2. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness buff about to expire, behind target) 3. Whirling Blow (3 or more enemies) 4. Force Breach (Every Cooldown) 5. Project (2x Circling Shadows buff... so near basically every CD) 6. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness just proc'd) 7. Clairvoyant Strike or Double Strike Infiltration is the most martially-based of the three Shadow trees, eventually becoming extremely flashy as a melee combatant. It's the tree the Shadow was built for, and thus levels the most effectively of any Shadow tree early on; where the other trees are grasping for their basics before level 20, the Infiltrator already has most of what he needs. It also is unique, as it is the only spec among all 24 Republic specializations that has no good 30m offensive abilities, and essentially, no method of gap closing beyond Force Speed. In return, it has the most effective control while it is on a target, and the highest damage of any Shadow specialization. The basic conceit of the tree is that you use your martial strikes with a lightsaber to either buy time for your powerful, Force-driven attacks; or that you use those abilities to get into position for a particularly vicious Lightsaber stab in the back. Since Shadow Technique has a chance to activate on each hit, even though it's capped at a maximum of 1 activation per 1.5s, all of your multiple hit moves get more benefit from Shadow Technique than it appears. Shadow Technique would apparently do similar average damage as Force Technique,

right? About double the damage and half the activation rate? Think again. Your main two abilities strike twice every period. The chance of at least one activating Force Technique is 75%, which is a 50% relative increase from the base activation chance of 50%. However, the chance of at least one activating Shadow Technique is 44%, which is a 75% relative increase from the base activation chance of 25%. This difference becomes even more distinct with Saber Strike, which has a 58% chance to activate Shadow Technique, and an 88% chance to activate Force Technique - relative increases of 130% and 76% respectively. Incidentally, this means that if you follow the pattern Clairvoyant Strike, Clairvoyant Strike, Project, you will only reliably have one charge of Exit Strategy saved up. Exit Strategy charges gain very slowly. You'd need six or seven full cycles to get a stack of five with high certainty - that's around 30 seconds, and Force Breach will be up every 12 to 15 seconds. Some math will have to be done versus reliable gear levels, to show what the optimum amount of Exit Strategy stacks is to release in a maximum DPS cycle. My suspicion is that Exit Strategy should be simply considered a bonus rather than a need in a maximum DPS cycle, and that Force Breach should only be held back, waiting for a full stack, when in burst damage phases. Force Wave and Project deserve special mention with this tree; their secondary effects are useful to allow you time to go behind the target and stab it. Force Wave's knockback can even pull this off in PvP; don't expect that effect from Project in harder PvE or any PvP, however.

PvE
In Player versus Environment content, the Armour Piercing (5/33/3) damage rotation is pretty evident. As with Kinetic Combat, it is a very erratic priority list, as the key of the tree has you watching your rotation. The Infiltration Shadow is surprisingly good at Area of Effect damage for a single-target specialist, but only in bursts; while it still has the awesome Whirling Blow, the Infiltrator can most efficiently use it when just coming out of stealth, or under the effect of Blackout. For those of you playing along at home, in a group situation, the Infiltrator can get 18 consecutive seconds of vicious, vicious AoE slashy goodness: coming out of stealth, blackout, Force Cloak. When not being a whirling dervish, the Infiltrator still hits really, really hard. Starting out, you'll find that you like to stab people in the back. It's not as necessary as you think, though. Without the Find Weakness buff which comes from your other attacks, Shadow Strike typically does not do enough damage for its crippling Force Cost versus the combination of Clairvoyant or Double Strike followed by a Project. Even under the effects of Shadow's Respite, you'll only regenerate enough Force Points for another full-cost Shadow Strike about every third GCD. Kinetic Field is not a strictly necessary skill, but it is an advisable one for group content due to the prevalence of PvE splash damage. The 2 points in Kinetic Field, Fade, Situational Awareness or Celerity can be moved to any of the slots as you see fit. The Upheaval (2/31/8) build has recently been brought to my attention, and on targets which have less armour (below about 20% armour), it looks like it may overtake the Armour Piercing build (which has been renamed from Standard for that reason). This is pending on how much armour reduction enemies are calculated with on average.

PvP
The PvP Standard (5/33/3) is pretty fun, and also startlingly close to the PvE version of said build. People keep asking me about openers. Allow me to stress that unlike Rogues and similar classes from other games, there is not a specific opener or set of abilities which can be recommended. Not only has BioWare taken pains to avoid 'out-of-stealth alpha strike', but there aren't even a lot of options. Here are the basics: - You open up with a Shadow Strike, which hits hard and - as a single one - does not put too much of a strain on your regeneration since you're coming out of stealth with 110 FP and a high regeneration. - You open up with a Spinning Kick, which is a knockdown (not a stun, and therefore cannot be escaped by a cooldown) for 2s. Not advisable unless you really, really need the person to not be doing something for two seconds and none of these alternatives are suitable: - Mind Snap costs no Force, does not use a Global Cooldown, and for you it has a fast cooldown of its own. And it also doesn't increase the resolve bar, which Spinning Kick does. - Mind Maze uses a lot of Force, causes a lot of resolve bar cost, and can't be used if your opponent is already in combat/isn't advisable if you want to engage them in combat. It's a great CC, however. - Low Slash can be escaped, does damage, costs the same amount of Force, but has a 15s CD. You will probably want this for later. - Force Stun has a 30m range, can be escaped, and has a long CD. You probably want this for later. - You open up with a Clairvoyant Strike, which does good damage, and sets up your chains early. That's really it. There's no great complexity here. I'd go with Clairvoyant Strike for most situations personally, but that's me. That aside, you will want to keep Force Slow on your target at all times, using it every cooldown or close to it. Once the person is out of your 10m grasp, they are out of your reach forever. That's it. Though you may be interested in frying a runner every now and then by using Telekinetic Throw with Potency, as it gets 30m reach under the effects of Potency, and does good damage under its effects, as each tick will benefit from the 60% added chance to crit. Force Breach's damage may seem to be a bit low relative to Project's; remember that Force Breach deals internal damage, which bypasses armour entirely, and typically only tanks have a resistance to internal damage. It's also on a separate cooldown from Project, which means that it can be fired in quick succession, while Project has to contend with its internal cooldown.

For example, a Shadow ready to torch his opponent at low health can use the combination of Force Potency, Spinning Strike, Project, Force Breach, Low Slash, Shadow Strike, Spinning Strike in rapid succession, a combination which is nearly impossible to survive. Of note is that even though you're not a tank, you can still use Mind Control, your taunt, which reduces the outgoing damage of the taunted foe by 30% unless they attack you - this is a great addition to teamplay dynamics, because it is entirely possible for you to use Mass Mind Control when everyone is beating on your healer or huttball carrier, and then using Force Cloak to vanish into nothingness. The PvP Upheaval (0/33/8) build is the most notable alternative; it trades off more damage on every single attack that you do (by losing the armour penetration of Technique Mastery in Kinetic Combat) for a larger burst out of Upheaval. It may even be better in PvE than the standard, due to the way Project scales, though I would not be willing to put money on it without a combat log handy. There are two other alternative builds: Variant (11/30/0) and High Regen Backstab Spam (18/23/0). Variant works exactly the same as normal, but gives up a lot of its burst for better motion. Your mileage may vary, I don't personally recommend it. Neither do I recommend High Regen Backstab Spam, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - it gives up a lot of its burst for the ability to shank someone really, really sithing hard. A lot. Under the effects of Shadow's Respite, you're regenerating 18.6 FP/s, which means that in a teamplay situation, where someone else can keep the guy from paying too much attention, you'll get a few more Shadow Strikes. To elaborate on why this isn't worth it - roughly speaking, Shadow Strike is only half as efficient at damage as Project and Double Strike in this specialization, at least when Find Weakness isn't active. You'll run out of Force far too quickly for the energy difference to likely do its job. I don't think it will last long enough to deliver its damage, but as I don't claim to be a PvP god, I've included it for the sake of information.

Gearing
As with all Consulars, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities, so you would rather take the Power statistic rather than Force Power. You do not need Alacrity as none of your abilities of note have cast-times. Critical Strike Rating is your single most important statistic, as your critical hits with Shadow Strike, Force Breach, and Project do significantly more than the base +50%. While Surge Rating is also nice, you flat-out crave critical strike more than anything else until diminishing returns kicks in hard, because you have no method of ensuring critical strikes to keep Force Synergy up aside from Force Potency. Surge Rating is still valuable as well, because the built-in diminishing returns on Surge do not account for your flat bonuses to critical from your specialized skills. You can easily sport another +20% critical strike damage from gear. In PvP, Expertise Rating will be your single most important statistic. Accuracy Rating will also come into consideration; while you previously could only miss with your basic Saber Strike attack, every class has a minimum of 5% defence, and tanks can have much more. I would strongly consider

getting at least 10% accuracy, to make sure that you do not miss with a vital Crowd Control or interrupt against enemy Jedi Sages and Sith Sorcerers, who have a base defence of 10%.

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Balance Shadows
The Force is my ally, and a powerful ally it is.

Playstyle: Periodic damage, self-healing; versatile range. Technique: Force PvE Builds: Standard (7/3/31) PvP Builds: Standard (3/7/31)

Priority List: 0. Saber Strike (Out of Force) 1. Force in Balance (Even single target, every CD) 2. Telekinetic Throw (Under Force Potency) 3. Project (If Twin Disciplines is not active or about to expire) 4. Spinning Strike (Target at 30% health or less) 5. Shadow Strike (Find Weakness, behind target) 6. Mind Crush (Force Strike buff, preferentially on an unafflicted target) 7. Sever Force (On a target not currently afflicted, or about to expire) 8. Force Breach 9. Telekinetic Throw (if you need healing or are low on Force) 10. Double Strike or Whirling Blow

The Balance Shadow is the only Melee/Range hybrid out of all six Jedi specializations; obviously, Madness Assassins hold the same distinction among their kin. It's notable for being the only type of Jedi Shadow that doesn't want to hurl a big rock or piece of scrap metal at someone every single possible cooldown; as you can see, it uses the largest range of completely unique skills as part of its damage rotation. Past readers will notice the addition of Telekinetic Throw to the priority rotation. This is because the discovery has been made that Telekinetic Throw counts as a periodic damage ability, meaning that it benefits from Force Suppression as well as the critical damage bonus deep in the tree. While under the effects of Force Potency, the entire cast benefits from the improved critical rate of one charge, and it also grants you the benefit of long range with the attack.

PvE
There's not too much to say or watch out for here that the priority list doesn't already cover. Standard (7/3/31) has been altered from previous builds, because my assessment is that Force Breach is simply not used enough on multiple targets in most situations to make a faster cooldown worth it, versus a bonus to the critical melee skill of Double Strike. The basic idea behind the Balance playstyle is to drop Force in Balance on your target and go to town with periodic damage effects. On a single target, its damage is less relative to Infiltration, though decent; on multiple sustained targets, the damage can rack up quickly. Abuse the fact that Force in Balance and Sever Force have full 30m ranges rather than 10m, and consider switching targets early in a group situation. Likewise, abuse your instant cast Force Lifts as well as the fact that you get a stun if someone is damaged while contained within them; Force Lift is normally risky to use mid-fight in PvE because it will heal the opponent, but if you Force Lift a multiply DoTted opponent, it is unlikely a heal pulse will get off, making it an effective interrupt. There is an alternative version of this build for levelling that takes two points out of Expertise and into Pinning Resolve, which lets your Force Lift affect two additional targets. It's of no use in PvP or endgame PvE, but can be very nice for managing large crowds while soloing.

PvP
As a warning note, if you're planning on PvPing at low levels, I recommend doing it as Infiltration. Kinetic and Balance suck before 20, and respecialization is cheap your first several times. Standard (3/7/31) is standard. There's really not much to say here, honestly, given the currently undeveloped state of the metagame, making it difficult to speak of specific counters. The biggest thing to note is that Sever Force can be a great way to nail someone who thinks that they've just gotten out of your range, for a minimal resolve cost; you can save it if you suspect that someone is going to flee in short order, or you can save it to backstab someone who's gotten low, then chain into a Force Stun or Force Lift to stab them some more.. Of note is that even though you're not a tank, you can still use Mind Control, your taunt, which reduces the outgoing damage of the taunted foe by 30% unless they attack you - this is a great addition to teamplay dynamics, because it is entirely possible for you to use Mass Mind Control when everyone is beating on your healer or huttball carrier, and then using Force Cloak to vanish into nothingness. You can even get away with using Combat Technique rather than Force Technique in order to Guard your ally, as you have a wealth of self-healing available. Guarding allows you and your ally to share a health pool, which is a fantastic way to help keep them alive; 50% of their damage intake gets redirected to you as long as you remain within 15 meters. It's not recommended for large periods of time as you are not a tank and your self-healing goes down without the ability to Force Breach someone with a DoT, but you're more capable of it than Infiltration Shadows, so take advantage of it from time to time.

You're going to take the role of a Pressure Player; though you have burst, it's significantly less than that available to the other two Shadow trees, so you are unlikely to get the burst damage necessary to down someone quickly. Mind Crush is significantly weaker than Project for direct damage, and your Projects lack the power of Kinetic and Infiltration. You don't have the force regeneration of Kinetic, or the efficiency in burst of Infiltration - but your DoTs are extremely efficient, and you have the hardest hitting Double Strike of any Shadow.

Gearing
As with all Consulars, Willpower is your primary stat, and you use both physical and Force abilities, so you would rather take the Power statistic rather than Force Power. Critical Strike Rating is your single most important statistic, as your critical hits with Double Strike, Force in Balance, and all periodic damage abilities do significantly more than the base +50%. Alacrity will increase the speed at which your periodic damage takes effect, making it a useful ability in PvE for straight up damage, but only up to a point, due to the limited charges that Force Suppression leaves. There's a geometric progression on keeping Force Synergy up with a higher critical chance; more Force criticals lead to more melee criticals lead to instant cast Mind Crushes which increases the chance that you'll get a critical from at least one of your Force attacks. The more targets you can fight simultaneously, the easier it will be to maintain Force Synergy. And all of this says nothing of the benefit to your health regeneration. Surge Rating is extremely valuable as well, because the built-in diminishing returns on Surge do not account for your flat bonuses to critical from your specialized skills. You can easily sport another +20% critical strike damage from gear. In PvP, Expertise Rating will be your single most important statistic. Accuracy Rating will also come into consideration; while you previously could only miss with your basic Saber Strike attack, every class has a minimum of 5% defence, and tanks can have much more. I would strongly consider getting at least 10% accuracy, to make sure that you do not miss with a vital Crowd Control or interrupt against enemy Jedi Sages and Sith Sorcerers, who have a base defence of 10%. Finally, Alacrity will be much more important since it will improve the rate at which you get health return, and ensuring that periodic damage takes effect quicker prior to being cleansed by enemy healer.

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Shadow Companions
To assist you in your missions, you'll build a small team of helpers over time. While they will remain with you regardless of how you treat them, making sure that they like you is important; a companion who likes and respects you will craft faster and perform skill missions more successfully. The companions are displayed by planet, but are NOT hidden, so SPOILERS BELOW.

Tython
Many points gained. Qyzen Fess (Male Trandoshan) Location: Tython (Late, approx. L8-L10) Class: Tech Hunter Stances: Melee Striker, Melee Defender Armour: Light through Heavy Armour, Shields, Power Generators Armaments: Techblade Crew Skills: +15 Archaeology Efficiency, +5 Bioanalysis Efficiency Voice Actor: Unknown Qyzen Fess makes for an excellent companion for a Jedi Consular of any type; even if you're planning to become a Kinetic Combat Shadow in the long run, you're going to be squishy for a while, so someone to trade places with you as a meat shield is very welcome. Qyzen likes trooper gear, as Aim is an important statistic for him. Strength, however, will work just fine for most of Qyzen's abilities (all of them below the late 20s). To keep Qyzen happy, promote an honourable, firm but compassionate strength, helping those who have tried to help themselves and not coddling or sparing the wicked. He deeply appreciates any respect shown to your master. He does not like it when you use Force Persuade on people. Even if you become a tank in the long run, Qyzen can easily switch to a Striker mode. At lower levels, you may find it useful to trade threat with Qyzen in difficult fights.

Coruscant
I take your respiratory health as a top priority, master. C2-N2 (Steward Droid) Location: Coruscant (Late, approx. L14-L16)

Class: Goldenrod Healbot Stance: Healer Armour: Droid Armour Plating, Power Generator Armaments: None Crew Skills: None Voice Actor: Unknown Despite his protests, you can take your creepy ship droid out onto the field. He's heavily armoured, but brings no offensive abilities, making him only a good partner for a fully realized Jedi Shadow. He does eventually get a Crowd Control ability.

Nar Shaddaa
They never suspect the scientist. Tharan Cedrex (Male Human) Location: Nar Shaddaa (Late, right before Shadow Town) Class: Scoundrel Scientist Stances: Healer, Ranged Striker Armour: Light through Medium Armour Armaments: Blaster Pistols, Scatterguns Crew Skills: +10 Cybertech Efficiency, +10 Slicing Efficiency Voice Actor: Jamie Elman Holiday's Voice Actress: Tara Strong A smooth talking scientist, you Lady Shadows might think Tharan is the guy for you, until you remember that he dates a hologram. Living the dream, Cortana fans. I guess. Anyway. Tharan is a pragmatic pacifist, lover of personal liberties, a womanizer, and a brain. He likes it when you show off your intellect - such as with creative insults - and are careful, rather than bloodthirsty, going into a mission. He does not like much mysticism from you, including Force philosophy and Force Persuade. Tharan is pretty much the perfect companion for a Kinetic or Balance Shadow at this level, mechanically, and a welcome breath of fresh air after twenty-plus levels of Qyzen Fess. Infiltration Shadows may prefer Qyzen, still.

Balmorra
Zenith (Male Twi'lek) Location: Balmorra (Late) Class: Resistance Sniper Stances: Ranged Striker, Ranged Area Striker Armour: Light through Heavy Armour Armaments: Sniper Rifles, Blaster Rifles, Scattergun Crew Skills: +15 Investigation Efficiency, +1 Underworld Trading Critical Effect Voice Actor: Troy Baker Brusque and untrusting, this Twi'lek is vital in your efforts to retake Balmorra. He's Carth, but not so emotional.

Hoth
Lt. Felix Iresso (Male Human) Location: Hoth (Completion) Class: Vanguard Trooper Stances: Ranged Defender, Ranged Striker Armour: Light through Heavy Armour, Shields, Power Generators Armaments: Blaster Rifles Crew Skills: +2 Armstech Critical Effect, +2 Scavenging Critical Effect Voice Actor: Dion Graham Lieutenant Iresso is the love interest for the female Jedi Consular.

Belsavis
Nadia Grell (Female Sarkhai) Location: Belsavis (Post-Completion) Class: Jedi Padawan Stances: Melee Striker, Melee Elite Striker

Armour: Light Armour Armaments: Lightsabers, Double-Bladed Lightsabers, Electrostaves Crew Skills: +10 Synthweaving Efficiency, +2 Diplomacy Critical Effect Voice Actress: Holly Fields Nadia Grell is the daughter of the Senator from Sarkhai, a new planet that has just joined the Republic and the Rift Alliance. She eventually becomes the love interest for the male Jedi Consular; you first meet her at the start of Act 2. She eventually becomes your padawan, and is the first of her species known to be force-sensitive. She has a very sweet and gentle personality. I'm not sure that that excuses her having a bonus in tailoring, though... Widely considered to be your most powerful companion, and will probably replace all others for a Kinetic Shadow by the time you get her; she does extremely high damage. Other types of Shadows will prefer to have a tank out for Elites.

Secret Companion
Systems failing, Master. HK-51 (Assassin Droid) Location: Hoth Class: Hunter-Killer Stances: Ranged Defender, Ranged Striker Armour: Droid Armour Plating, Shields, Power Generators Armaments: Blaster Pistols, Blaster Rifles Voice Actor: Kris Tabori Yes, he's back... sort of... Return to Contents

Equipping a Shadow
Handling your way across your starter world of Tython as a Jedi Consular should be pretty simple, for the most part. However, your masters and lessons do not really explain a lot about gearing, and I feel that it is useful to have a reference list available here. If you're looking for specific gearing instructions per specialization, look back at the final paragraph for each specialization instead. This is general information. All characters use one primary ability score of Aim, Cunning, Strength or Willpower. All four of these abilities has a specialized purpose. Aim will only increase your ranged damage and critical chance, Cunning will only increase your tech damage and critical chance, Strength will only increase your melee damage and critical chance, and Willpower will only increase your Force damage and critical chance. Normally, anyway. Each base class has a different primary ability score. A primary ability score equally improves both of the damage vectors which your class will use. Through the Force, all things are possible; Willpower is the primary score for Consulars and Inquisitors, and grants both Melee Damage and Force Damage, as a result. Presence measures your ability to inspire, lead, and guide your companions. A higher presence score will increase your companion's health, damage and healing. Companions take up the party slot of a player, but are less effective than a player; if you intend to do a lot of content which requires full or nearly full groups, it's not wise to invest much into presence. Endurance, simply enough, improves one's raw health. Secondary stats are available, which add more complexity to the matter. Absorption Rating: Increases the amount of damage blocked by a successful shield reaction. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Accuracy Rating: Grants additional hit, and then reduces the opponent's defence once past 100%. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Alacrity Rating: A secondary stat which improves the speed of activation time for non-instant abilities. It does not affect the Global Cooldown. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. It may also increase the rate at which periodic abilities take effect. Critical Rating: Improves the chance of a critical hit. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Defence Rating: Improves the chance of a avoiding an attack. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels.

Expertise Rating: Increases damage and healing done, and reduces damage taken, but only in PvP. Has a maximum of 10% effectiveness. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Force Power: A secondary stat which improves Force Ability damage and healing only. Power: A secondary stat which improves damage and healing from all sources. Shield Rating: Increases the chance that a shield reaction is triggered against an attack. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Surge Rating: Improves the effect of a critical hit. Base Surge is +50%. More rating is required to achieve the same percentage bonus at higher character levels. Tech Power: A secondary stat which improves Tech Ability damage and healing only.

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Crew Skills
Money can get you everything. Those of you coming from World of Warcraft post-Classic are familiar with the skill layout of that game, where every single craft skill had to have a mechanically advantageous thing that it 'owned' (each of them being roughly as good as the others). Several of the crafting skills in that game effectively were worthless to anyone besides the wielder, to boot. That is not how this game works, mechanically. Every single crew skill mechanical perk originates from the fact that you're getting the benefit cheaper or earlier than someone who does not have your craft skill. For example, anyone can use medpacks; only a Biochem producer can get a reusable medpack, which costs more to craft but will never get used up. You do not need to be an artificer to upgrade your lightsaber; artificers make the upgrades, you just buy them and insert them into the lightsaber yourself, etc. The other thing is that all of the crafting skills have some sort of aesthetic option which is unique to them, and these are among the rare bind-on-pickup items that cannot be given to anyone else. Therefore, there are three approaches to take when choosing your Crew Skill layout: Do I want to get something that will save me money on a reusable I want a lot of, do I want to get something that will make me a lot of money, or do I want to get something that will give me a unique visual perk? It cannot be stressed enough that crafting of any kind while levelling up will only be of limited use; you will always end up ahead in credits while levelling by not crafting anything. It becomes a question of time and money spent now, versus time and money spent later to either level up your own craft skill or constantly purchasing everything you need. To make your decision, you need to have a good grasp of what can be made by each craft skill. You have access to three crew skills per character; a maximum of one may be a craft skill, and it's recommended that the other two be a gathering skill and a mission skill which support that craft skill. Everything is oriented around the crafting skills; mission skills provide a nice little bit of flavour, but are essentially a second gathering skill oriented around the rarer materials that cannot be obtained through direct gathering. It's important to note that you will not automatically get all of the important recipes for Craft Skills from the skill itself, even by reverse-engineering; you will need to get some of these schematics from the Galactic Trade Network. It's also important to note that you will always lose money by sending crew members to do missions, as the point is more to raise your skill and gain materials while not being out in the field yourself. If it was strictly superior to self-gathering, no one would ever do it. I'll go over each of the Crew Skills in brief - each section will contain the Crew Skill's codex entry, followed by my input.

Crafting Skills
You may only have one of these skills on your character. If you take one of these, it is your most important skill. As noted above, once you get to endgame, you are not getting unique mechanical perks from what you make via these skills; you're just getting it cheaper, easier, prettier, faster, or reusable. For levelling content, they do create some unique stuff for lower levels, so rich rerollers will make purchases from dedicated crafters a lot.

Armormech
Recommended Skills: Scavenging, Underworld Trading (Underworld Metals). Codex: Armormech is the ability to work with hard metals, alloys and synthetic materials to construct armour for non-Force users. Vendor-purchased fluxes are used during the armour creation process to refine the materials to ensure suitability. Armormechs can reverse engineer their crafted armour and possibly discover new ways to improve armour creation. The gathering skill Scavenging provides crafting resources for Armormech. Comments: Armormech is not your typical choice for a force user, because it provides no mechanical benefits to the Jedi or Sith whatsoever. It also has no aesthetic benefit to the Shadow or Assassin, who cannot wear its armour. I do not recommend it for you for any reason. The materials from its Gathering skill will be in high demand, and non-Force users are going to be a smaller clientele than Force users in this game, I can guarantee that. There is potentially some money to be made off of Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior ACs who want an unconventional look for their character, but that's not a compelling enough reason on its own to take this skill. For both making money and saving you money, this flunks the test.

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Armstech
Recommended Skills: Scavenging, Investigation (Compounds) Codex: Armstech is the ability to work with hard metals, alloys and synthetic materials to craft blasters, blaster modifications and melee weapons. Vendor-purchased fluxes are used during the weapon creation process to refine the materials to ensure suitability. Crafted blasters include blaster pistols, blaster rifles, sniper rifles, assault cannons and shotguns. Blaster modifications include blaster barrels. Melee weapons include vibroblades and electrostaves. Armstechs can reverse engineer their crafted items and possibly discover new ways to improve their creation. The gathering skill Scavenging provides crafting resources for Armstech. Comments: What it does not tell you is that everything it makes sucks, except for the blaster specific mod (the gun barrel), and the many, many unique models of blaster that it can make. Endgame

Vibroblades and Electrostaves (if they ever intend to make the latter useful to a player rather than a companion) are obtained via vendors, to prevent this from being the potentially most universal skill ever. Instead, it's possibly the only thing worse than Armormech, unless you really, really need to make sure that keeping Qyzen equipped is easy. Since, hooray, it can make Techblades.

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Artifice
Recommended Skills: Archaeology, Treasure Hunting (Gemstones) Codex: Artifice is the delicate skill of constructing lightsaber modifications, enhancements, generators and foci. Lightsaber modifications include colour crystals and hilts that augment a Force user's combat attributes. Colour crystals determine beam and bolt colour for lightsabers and blasters. Enhancements are modification upgrades for weapons and armour. Artificers can reverse engineer their crafted items and possibly discover new ways to improve their creation. The gathering skill Archaeology provides crafting resources for Artifice. Comments: An important skill, as it creates the colour crystals used by every weapon in the game, upgrades your personal weapon, creates multiple slots (force-user off-hands, shield generators), creates endgame relics, lightsaber hilt mods, and the enhancement mod which can go on all major body parts and weapons. They can also create their own lightsabers at maximum skill, though the lightsaber hilt model is usually not as important to players as the blade colour. The relics, along with the unique lightsabers, are their 'self only' perk, as these relics can also be bought from stores. Until everyone is geared up, the BoE relics are likely to sell well for the people who can get their skill up high enough quickly. Because it is 'exciting', I expect this skill will be picked up by many players, including many non-Force Users. It may suffer from market dilution, and does not have a consumable to keep it useful once the economy settles, so I tentatively rate it well.

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Biochem
Recommended Skills: Bioanalysis, Diplomacy (Medical Supplies) Codex: Biochem is the skill involved in crafting medical supplies, performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants. Biochemists can create medpacs to restore health, stimulants (single-use injections) that provide a boost to physical abilities, and biological implants that enhance combat prowess by stimulating neural networks and regulating brain stem functions. Biochemists can reverse engineer their crafted implants and possibly discover new ways to improve implant creation. The gathering skill Bioanalysis provides crafting resources for Biochem.

Comments: Medkits, Stims, Adrenals, and the only skill that can make implants. Similar to Artifice's relics, these can be obtained without being a Biochemist, but it will be easier for them. Until everyone is geared up, the BoE implants are likely to sell well for the people who can get their skill up high enough quickly. The real prizes for the biochemist for self-use are the reusable stims and adrenals. They will be expensive as anything to manufacture, but once they are, you'll be set for life. One of my two top picks for your one craft skill.

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Cybertech
Recommended Skills: Scavenging, Underworld Trading (Underworld Metals) Codex: Cybertech is the skill to assemble droid armour, earpieces, grenades, armouring, mods and miscellaneous gadgets. Armouring and mods are upgrade modifications that augment combat ability. Earpieces are external mini-computers that are worn on or near the ear. They enhance combat prowess by giving audio and visual feedback to the wearer or through direct neural feedback via an external nerve relay. Cybertechs can reverse engineer their crafted items and possibly discover new ways to improve their creation. The gathering skill Scavenging provides crafting resources for Cybertech. Comments: The other of my two top picks for your one craft skill. As with Artifice and Biochem, it has exclusive crafter access to improving your ship, as well as two item slots (earpieces) - both of which can be obtained in other ways for more money. Until everyone is geared up, the BoE earpieces are likely to sell well for the people who can get their skill up high enough quickly. What makes Cybertech so fantastic is that it crafts the two of the most common upgrade items - Mod and Armouring, which can go on nearly every piece in the game - as well as five different consumable grenades which each have an unshared 5m cooldown. And these grenades can be made in reusable varieties for the Cybertech. That's right, you gain access to moderate to low damage ranged AoE attacks, which each carry a useful secondary effect: A slow, a stun, an immobilize, an immobilize, and a damage-over-time effect - periodic damage can ruin capturing objectives in PvP as well as attempts to use Force Cloak. That's pretty huge in PvP, and even in PvE, as AoE abilities which do not sap you of precious, precious Force? They're pretty awesome. ...And if that wasn't good enough, Cybertech can make you a custom speeder bike, too.

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Synthweaving
Recommended Skills: Archaeology, Underworld Trading (Luxury Fabrics, Underworld Metals)

Codex: Synthweaving is the process of fabricating synthetic materials out of crystals, various chemicals and artefact fragments to construct armour for Force users. Vendors provide premade solutions, suspensions and composites that are used during the Synthweaving process. Synthweavers can reverse engineer their crafted armour and possibly discover new ways to improve armour creation. The gathering skill Archaeology provides crafting resources for Synthweaving. Comments: It's essentially tailoring, and every Force User will rely on this skill; you also will probably get a little bleed over from non-Force Users who want to have an unorthodox look. I think it's likely to be a little more valuable than Artifice on the market, because there are far more armour slots than weapon slots, and a lot of Force Users, and a lot of people will look at Synthweaving and go, "Ew. It's tailoring," which sounds boring and not bother. However, its mods currently cannot have expertise on them - the principal PvP stat - limiting its usefulness for PvPers. As of the most recent build, these items no longer come pre-installed with mods, which has greatly degraded the rating for the purposes of anything but simple aesthetics. Its value is principally in early access to having as many slots as possible on your gear.

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Gathering Skills
Gathering skills are skills which you or your companion may employ in the field, when you see an appropriate resource. They supply the basic materials used in crafting skills. You may send your companions on gathering missions which cost money, but provide you with skill-point appropriate resources. There is a chance for your companion to fail when deployed on missions (I believe it is related to their affection), but it will always give you a skill point even if they fail. Out of your maximum of three crew skills, all three may be gathering skills.

Archaeology
Recommended Skills: Artifice, Synthweaving Codex: Archaeology is the study of crystal formations and archaeological finds. Crystal formations contain crystals that an Artificer can use to construct lightsaber modifications and armour for Force users. Archaeological finds contain artefact fragments of Force-imbued technology. These valuable items contain ancient formulas and algorithms used in the crafting skills Artifice and Synthweaving. Archaeologists can send their companions on missions to gather resources. Comments: Archaeology is an essential skill for Artifice - the craft skill that everyone wants - and is easy to level up. Synthweaving will be high in demand as well. My personal experience is that you

get Archaeology materials faster than needed to keep up with your mission skills if you're going at a good clip of levelling speed, so it may be a less satisfactory choice for a pure gatherer.

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Bioanalysis
Recommended Skills: Biochem Codex: Bioanalysis is the practice of collecting genetic material from creatures and vegetation. Genetic materials include cell fibres, bacterial strains, toxic extracts and medicinal fluids. Biochemists use these materials to create medpacs to restore health, stimulants (single-use injections) that provide a boost to physical abilities, and biological implants that enhance combat prowess by stimulating neural networks and regulating brain stem functions. The crafting skill Biochem utilizes Bioanalysis resources. Bioanalysts can send their companions on missions to gather resources. Comments: Let's be clear right now: Biochemistry is going to be very important, so even though this is only tied to one skill, gatherers may wish to take it anyway, to either sell their goods or trade the materials to a Biochemist in return for manufacture of goods. Also, Bioanalysis can be performed by you or your companion on many dead creatures, so while you won't get to use this skill much on your capital, it'll catch up pretty quick on Taris.

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Scavenging
Recommended Skills: Armormech, Armstech, Cybertech Codex: Scavenging is the art of salvaging useful parts and base materials such as metals, alloys and synthetic compounds from potential technological resources--junk piles, fallen droids, abandoned cargo and broken-down vehicles. The crafting skills Armormech, Armstech and Cybertech utilize Scavenging resources. Scavengers can send their companions on missions to gather resources. Comments: You can easily progress your scavenging by killing everything in sight when you see droids - which dovetails nicely with roleplay for lightsiders, who are more hesitant to kill fleshies, and the fact that stealthing through droid missions is slightly more difficult and annoying since Mind Maze won't work on droids. Along with Diplomacy, Slicing, Investigation and Underworld Trading, it makes a solid choice for someone not interested in personally crafting and instead making money off of crafters. It also fuels one extremely critical and two useful trade skills, so it's a strong recommendation.

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Slicing
Recommended Skills: Cybertech Codex: Slicing is not a skill required for crafting. Slicing is the art of accessing secure computer systems and lockboxes to acquire valuable items, credits and rare tech schematics. Common slicing targets include electronic safes, data stations, security mainframes and biometric footlockers. These targets contain credits, rare tech schematics used to construct Cybertech gadgets, vehicles and space upgrades, and mission discovery objects that unlock challenging missions that can potentially yield great rewards. Slicers can send their companions on missions to retrieve these valuable items. Other possible mission rewards include augments that can be slotted into exceptionally crafted items. Comments: It's Investigation's cousin, more or less. Getting schematics from slicing missions is a rarer occurrence than in Investigation, so I wouldn't worry about taking Slicing as part of a normal set of three as a crafter, but it's basically an essential for people just looking to make a buck. You still have a net loss of money by sending companions on Slicing missions, as the point is to raise your skill without doing any work for it.

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Mission Skills
Mission skills function identical to Gathering skills which cannot be personally collected; you need your companion to do them. They provide the rare resources used in crafting skills as well as providing a host of other benefits, such as giving you companion gifts to raise their affection, rare schematics, and sometimes rare equipment. Out of your maximum of three crew skills, all three may be mission skills.

Diplomacy
Recommended Skills: Biochem Codex: Diplomacy is the art of conducting and managing negotiations. Sending your companions on diplomatic missions can influence your light side or dark side standing. In addition to light side and dark side influence, possible Diplomacy rewards include medical supplies used to construct prototype and artefact implants, medpacs, stimulants, adrenals and gifts for companions to raise their Affection rating. Comments: Gets you materials for one of the two most important skills in the game, gives you Light Side/Dark Side farm points, and can still be used to get gifts. What else do you need? Along with

Investigation, Slicing, Scavenging and Underworld Trading, it makes a solid choice for someone not interested in personally crafting and instead making money off of crafters.

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Investigation
Recommended Skills: Armstech Codex: Investigation is the skill of researching, gathering, analyzing and decoding secret information. Sending your companions on Investigation missions can yield valuable items in the form of researched compounds used to construct prototype and artefact weapons and blaster barrels, prototype schematics for all crafts, and gifts for companions to raise their Affection rating. Comments: Investigation finds rare schematics for every single type of crafting skill, as well as materials for Armstech. Along with Diplomacy, Slicing, Scavenging and Underworld Trading, it makes a solid choice for someone not interested in personally crafting and instead making money off of crafters. It could substitute for a normal mission skill, since you rarely need the normal mission skill to simply level up your craft or a gathering skill if you're willing to purchase those materials off of the Galactic Trade Network.

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Treasure Hunting
Recommended Skills: Artifice Codex: Treasure Hunting is the ability to track down and recover valuable items by following a series of clues. Companions sent on Treasure Hunting missions can return with rare gemstones used to construct prototype and artefact enhancements, hilts, colour crystals, foci and generators. Other possible rewards include lockboxes that can contain valuable items or credits and gifts for companions to raise their Affection rating. Comments: It only goes with one craft skill, and everything that it is used to make is pretty much reusable. Great if you're going with Artifice, I wouldn't bother otherwise. It can be fun to randomly receive relics or other rare items from this skill, but it's a constant gamble.

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Underworld Trading
Recommended Skills: Armormech, Cybertech, Synthweaving

Codex: Underworld Trading entails the exchange of goods and services on the galactic black market. Sending your companions on Underworld Trading missions can yield luxury fabrics and underworld metals used to construct prototype and artefact armour, earpieces, grenades, space upgrades, and weapon and armour modifications. Other possible rewards include gifts for companions to raise their Affection rating. Comments: Covering both armour creating professions as well as one of the two best professions in the game, it makes a solid choice for someone not interested in personally crafting and instead making money off of crafters. Diplomacy, Slicing, Investigation and Scavenging are good partners for that.

Rating:

Recommendations
If you read all that and are confused still - or didn't read all of that, because it's a lot to chew through, that's okay. You just want the bottom line on which three crew skills I recommend, right? I've arranged them into sets of three based on what your main selling market is. PvE Endgame: Biochem, Bioanalysis, Diplomacy. PvP Endgame: Biochem, Bioanalysis, Diplomacy // Cybertech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading Self-Levelling: Cybertech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading // Artifice, Archaeology, TreasureHunting // Synthweaving, Archaeology, Underworld Trading Simple Money-Making: Pick any three: Slicing, Investigation, Diplomacy, Bioanalysis, Scavenging Selling to Role-players: Armormech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading // Synthweaving, Archaeology, Underworld Trading // Artifice, Archaeology, Treasure-Hunting Do not pick: Armstech

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APPENDIX A: Q & A
Q: How do I become a Jedi Shadow? A: Reach level 10 as a Jedi Consular, and find Master Ostar-Gal in the Republic Fleet or on Coruscant. He'll give you a mission that will further your class training.

Q: I just became a Jedi Shadow. When do I get a Double-Bladed Lightsaber? A: You should already have one. Look in your inventory for a bag item that contains a small starter kit full of things any growing Shadow needs. Be forewarned: The shield generator is useless (does not offer a shield chance) unless you are in your tanking stance, Combat Technique, which is not available until level 14.

Q: I just became a Jedi Shadow. Where do I train my Shadow skills? A: Same trainer as your base class. Click the tab at the bottom to select your list of trainable Adv. Class abilities.

Q: Where can I respecialize my character? A: There is a respecialization trainer standing in the banking area of Coruscant, as well as in the Class Trainer area of the Republic Fleet. In both locations, he's a Rodian by the name of Leuro-Khian, and is titled as <Skill Mentor>. He's near the person who accepts Guild Charters.

Q: When can I get my speeder? A: After turning level 25, purchase Speeder Piloting from your trainer for 25,000 credits, then go to your fleet. Barik, the Speeder Vendor, is located in the Northeast-most room in the fleet's main deck. (Part of the Galactic Trade Market area.) You can also purchase them on Tatooine. Your first speeder will cost you 8,000 credits; you can get upgrades at level 40 and 50.

Q: I'm coming from WoW. Do these skill specializations have any resemblance to stuff from there? A: The Kinetic Combat tree resembles Paladin or Bear tanking, loosely. Infiltration is somewhat similar to a Mutilate Rogue. Balance Shadow is a cross between an Affliction Warlock and an Enhancement Shaman. None of them are identical, but these should help to give you an idea of whether or not you'll like the playstyles.

Q: I'm coming from Star Wars Galaxies/other MMO. Do these skill specializations have any resemblance to stuff from there? A: I am not sufficiently familiar with most of those games to say. If someone would like to suggest things for me, I'd appreciate it. Games like City of Heroes are too different from your average MMO, and thus don't really bear comparison well.

Q: Do I have to use a Double-Bladed Lightsaber? A: If you want a lightsaber, yes. Not all of your abilities require it - most don't, in fact. But your Techniques and Force Breach do, and every single spec relies heavily on its techniques. Sorry to break it to you. The Electrostaff is an alternate weapon intended for Jedi Shadows and their Imperial mirror, the Sith Assassin; however, it faces the exact same issues as the single-bladed Lightsaber. So yes, you are stuck with a DBLS.

Q: Do we have to wear robes? Can we wear pants? A: Pants are rare, but exist. If you want to keep the pants look, find a moddable pair and you'll be able to keep them all the way up into endgame.

Q: Can we really keep stuff the whole game and just keep modding it? A: Yes and no. As soon as you find a chest piece, pants, hat, weapon, gloves, and shoes - the most important stuff - with four upgrade slots, you can keep modding it for the whole level up game. It is rumoured that Endgame, however, starts getting items with extra slots, and PvP gear has its expertise as a built-in, rather than a mod granted, stat. So you can keep it for most of the game. Endgame is where you will have more difficulties.

Q: Do the lightsaber animations ever look better? A: Yes, at higher levels, particularly as Infiltration.

Q: What's the best Skill Specialization for levelling? A: Infiltration is, without question, the best Skill Specialization until about level 22 or so. Particle Acceleration and Kinetic Ward for Kinetic Combat, and Force in Balance for Balance Specialization, are lynchpin skills. Infiltration is good right off the bat. Balance is the weak link until you're in your 30s, in my opinion, though it's still quite tolerable to level with.

Q: What's the difference between Jedi Sage and Jedi Shadow in the Balance tree? A: They are both proc-heavy, DoT self-healing builds. It's a question of whether you want to use your lightsaber and Project, or Telekinetic Throw and Disturbance. The Shadow gets better procs to compensate for its lower range and smaller Force Pool.

Q: Is the Jedi Shadow a main tank or an off-tank? A: The Jedi Shadow is a main tank; it can off-tank, but there are no skill specializations devoted towards becoming an off-tank among any class. Fully developed, it has roughly the same standard survivability as a Jedi Guardian or Vanguard who was specialized to tank. The only guild in the general beta to test endgame operations used a Jedi Shadow main tank, however, and are quite happy with the Jedi Shadow's performance there.

Q: What's the difference between the three types of tanks? A: Jedi Guardian tanks have the most survivability cooldowns, and once they get rolling, they have the most forgiving resource mechanic. They have the most issue generating threat, especially in ranged or AoE situations. Jedi Shadows have the fewest and weakest survivability cooldowns, but have the ability to self-heal regularly, a very high block chance, strong AoE threat and okay ranged threat. Shield Specialist Vanguards have a moderate amount of survivability cooldowns, okay AoE threat, great ranged threat/battlefield mobility, and the best straight mitigation. Their resource mechanic is very punishing if mishandled. The two force-users have more apparent flaws at lower levels, but grow into the role fully later.

Q: Should I play a Jedi Sentinel or a Jedi Shadow? A: I assume that if you're asking this question, tanking is not seriously on the table as a primary interest for you, in PvE or PvP. The Sentinel offers the three different types of specializations: the ability to play a survivable, elite-killer melee damage, an erratic high-burst melee damage specialization, and the ability to increase its battlefield control and mobility as a melee damage dealer. In comparison, the Shadow's damage trees offer a steady pressure melee/range hybrid with minor erratic burst, or a controllable burst melee class with target lockdown options, along with both Shadow specializations having minor tanking options.

Q: Should I play a Scoundrel or a Jedi Shadow? A: That depends. The Scoundrel is a more stealth-dependent class - while they both have multiple Stealth abilities, the Scoundrel is flat-out dependent on Stealth for specific tactical openers, while the Shadow is more willing to engage in straight-up combat. The Scoundrel has more control; the

Shadow has more survivability under fire. Someone seeking more traditional Rogue control-andcombo-based play may prefer the Scoundrel. Also, the Scoundrel has the ability to respecialize as a healer or throw out tactical support as a striker, while the Shadow has the ability to respecialize as a defender or throw out tactical control as a striker.

Q: Can the Jedi Shadow PvP builds tank in PvE? A: I have not tried it myself. I've heard that it's doable in flashpoints and easier heroic content, but not advised for harder ones.

Q: I'm going to do PvE. Does the Balance or Infiltration tree do higher max DPS? A: Until we have damage meters or extensive theorycrafting of some kind, we cannot actually say with too much certainty which is the higher damage spec. Generally, they're accepted to be competitive with one another in PvE. In PvP, they perform different roles - Balance is a steady pressure build, and Infiltration is a burst kill build.

Q: What's the difference between an Assassin and a Shadow? A: There are the obvious ones - different stories, companions, and titles. Visually, an Assassin's Force Powers are centred around violet lightning, while a Shadow is reliant on golden energy and rocks or other environmental elements. Late game, the Shadow obtains Unity, which works great for Balance and Kinetic, while the Assassin gets Sacrifice, which is more suited to Kinetic and Infiltration.

Q: I want to play a Movie Jedi; is this the class for me? A: You will not, despite promises of being 'iconic', be able to get everything about the Cinematic Jedi - Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jin, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, etc - in any one class. The closest are the Jedi Guardian (wears heavy armour, however), Jedi Shadow (wields a double-bladed lightsaber), and a Jedi Sage (barely uses its lightsaber.) You'll have to decide what you're most willing to compromise on out of the three of them.

Q: What's the story like? A: The story is unaffected whether you are a Jedi Shadow or a Jedi Sage. The Jedi Consular's storyline is based around suspense and philosophy, and is not to everyone's tastes. You'll find more energetic and boisterous stories among the other classes, but this storyline is - in BioWare's words - supposed to be more along the themes of KotOR 2 than KotOR 1.

Q: Why don't tanks take the Shadowy Veil skill? A: That passive skill does not apply when a Shadow is in Combat Technique, which is our defender stance; it's meant to improve the durability of a Shadow in Force Technique or Shadow Technique, our striker stances.

Q: Who is the best target to Guard, as a tank? A: Pretty much anyone who's going to get focused. This is usually the healer or a ball carrier in PvP; in PvE, the healer is probably the wiser option at low level, but as you get more AoE threat tools, you should instead be guarding the most effective DPS, in order to give them a higher threat ceiling while damaging. An AoE focused DPS is often a good choice.

Q: Do we get any evil companions? A: Not really. Consulars get many companions who are not perfectly light-sided, but greyish white is the best overall depiction.

Q: Which abilities are off of the Global Cooldown? A: Force Potency, Battle Readiness, Kinetic Ward, Mind Snap, Force Speed, Blackout, possibly others. Need to test more later.

More questions to be added as needed later.

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APPENDIX B: MMO Glossary

Activation Time: The amount of time used before an ability finishes its animations and triggers. Generally, being attacked during an activation causes pushback, and movement will cancel the activation. AoE: Area-of-Effect ability. Refers to an ability that strikes an area, hitting all targets within that space. AoE abilities which only affect targets in melee range of the user are called Point-Blank Areaof-Effect, or PBAoE. CC: Crowd Control. In the MMORPG context, it is used to refer to abilities which can reduce the number of opponents being faced at a given moment, without actually defeating one of them. Several abilities have crowd control effects which only trigger on Weak and Standard enemies, and will not work on Strong, Elite or Boss NPCs, or enemy players. Channelled Ability: An ability of this kind begins triggering immediately, but does not finish until the activation bar is entirely depleted. If this ability is ended early for any reason, then you will not get the full effect of the ability, even though you have paid the full cost. Pushback on a channelled ability will cause the ability to end early. Moving, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, will always end a channelled ability prematurely. Alacrity does not affect channelled abilities. Defender: See TANK. DOT: Damage-over-time. See PERIODIC DAMAGE. DPS: Literally, damage-per-second. It is also commonly used to refer to those characters that have damage-dealing as their primary mechanical mission. See STRIKER. Global Cooldown: A 1.5 second delay after activating any instant or channelled ability, or initiating an ability with an activation time, preventing you from activating the majority of other abilities. A rare few abilities neither cause nor are affected by the Global Cooldown. Interrupt: Broadly, any reason that an ability with an activation or channelling time is suddenly cancelled. More specifically, an ability that always causes cancellation of the target's non-instant ability, and adds a cooldown before the target can attempt that ability again. They are sometimes sorted into the mutually exclusive categories of Soft Interrupt (which does not add a cooldown to the targeted ability) and Hard Interrupt. Mind Snap is a Jedi Shadow's interrupt, and Jolt is a Sith Assassin's. Kiting: Using abilities and careful positioning to force a melee-primary opponent to follow another person at a distance like a kite - a successful example of kiting minimizes the amount of close-range time the melee-primary character is able to get. Knockback: Not the same as pushback, knockback refers to a character being forcibly moved by another character (usually backwards).

OOF: Out of Force (points.) When you've exhausted your resource bar. Periodic Damage: An effect which causes damage over time on a regular basis, such as every second or every three seconds, without further input from the user. Proc: A "Programmed Random Occurrence." Essentially, a proc is any ability which activates randomly. If you have an ability which has a 10% chance to heal you in addition to its primary effect, that heal effect would be considered a proc. Pushback: Not the same as knockback, pushback refers to an unexpected delay during the activation of a non-instant ability, or causing a pulse on a channelled ability to fail. Pushback is caused by receiving damage from a direct attack during the activation of the ability. Several talents mitigate or remove pushback on specific abilities. Resolve: A bar which fills up whenever a character is limited in their actions against their will by another player character, in any way, proportional to the severity of the limitation. It slowly depletes when not recently increased. When the bar is completely filled, the character becomes immune to all limiting effects for the next eight seconds, before the bar drains entirely. Root: An ability which forces a character to remain stationary. Snare: An ability which slows down a character's movement speed, but they are still capable of moving. Striker: A character whose primary role in a group setting is to deal damage to the opponents. See DPS. Tank: A character whose primary role in a group setting is to attract the enemy's attention and keep harmful damage away from other squad members. Utility: Reference to abilities which do not directly relate to healing, damage dealing, or tanking but are combat-useful nonetheless.

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APPENDIX C: Key Binds

Warning: I have a Razer Naga mouse, which has a NumPad on the side of the mouse, so my bind layouts will not be that useful to someone without the same mouse. If someone would like to offer their own bindmaps with common mice (incl. the standard two-button), I might post them.

AstralFires Key Binds

[W] Forward [A] Left Strafe [D] Right Strafe [S] Meditation [Q] Force Stun [E] Force Lift [R] Mind Maze [F] Follow Player [G] Autorun [T] Mind Control [1] Project [2] Mind Crush [3] Force Slow [4] Mind Snap [5] Battle Readiness [6] Deflection [`] Speeder [Shift+1] Force Pull/Sever Force [Shift+`] Sprint [Shift+Q] Low Slash

[Shift+T] Mass Mind Control [Num1] Double Strike/Clairvoyant Strike [Num2] Saber Strike [Num3] Shadow Strike [Num4] Force Breach [Num5] Whirling Blow [Num6] Force in Balance/Slow Time [Num8] Guard [Num0] Force Speed [Num-] Force of Will [Num+] Resilience [Shift+Num1] Spinning Strike [Shift+Num2] Tumult [Shift+Num3] Spinning Kick [Shift+Num5] Force Wave [Mouse Button 4] Stealth [Mouse Button 5] Blackout [Shift+Mouse Button 4] Force Cloak [Middle Mouse] Kinetic Ward [Shift+Wheel Up] Telekinetic Throw [Shift+Wheel Dn] Force Potency [Alt+Wheel Up] Relic 1 [Alt+Wheel Dn] Relic 2

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APPENDIX D: Shadow - Assassin Dictionary

If an ability name isn't included, it is identically named across the two classes. Some of the more common skills are included as well.

Shadow to Assassin
Balance: Madness Battle Readiness: Overcharge Saber Circling Shadows: Induction Clairvoyant Strike: Voltaic Slash Combat Technique: Dark Charge Double Strike: Thrash Exit Strategy: Static Charge Find Weakness: Exploit Weakness Force Breach: Discharge Force in Balance: Death Field Force Lift: Whirlwind Force of Will: Unbreakable Will Force Potency: Recklessness Force Strike: Raze Force Stun: Electrocute Force Suppression: Deathmark Force Synergy: Exploitive Strikes Force Technique: Lightning Charge Force Valour: Mark of Power Force Wave: Overload

Harnessed Shadows: Harnessed Darkness Infiltration: Deception Kinetic Combat: Darkness Kinetic Ward: Dark Ward Masked Assault: Darkswell Meditation: Seethe Mind Crush: Crushing Darkness Mind Maze: Mind Trap Mind over Matter: Disjunction Mind Snap: Jolt Particle Acceleration: Energize Project: Shock Psychokinesis: Torment Shadow's Respite: Dark Embrace Shadow Strike: Maul Shadow Technique: Surging Charge Slow Time: Wither Spinning Kick: Spike Spinning Strike: Assassinate Stasis: Eye of the Storm Telekinetic Throw: Force Lightning Twin Disciplines: Unearthed Knowledge Unity: No direct analogue, but closest is Sacrifice. Upheaval: Chain Shock Whirling Blow: Lacerate

Assassin to Shadow
Assassinate: Spinning Strike Chain Shock: Upheaval Creeping Terror: Sever Force Crushing Darkness: Mind Crush Dark Charge: Combat Technique Dark Embrace: Shadow's Respite Dark Ward: Kinetic Ward Darkness: Kinetic Combat Darkswell: Masked Assault Death Field: Force in Balance Deathmark: Force Suppression Deception: Infiltration Discharge: Force Breach Disjunction: Mind over Matter Electrocute: Force Stun Energize: Particle Acceleration Exploit Weakness: Find Weakness Exploitive Strikes: Force Synergy Eye of the Storm: Stasis Force Lightning: Telekinetic Throw Force Shroud: Resilience Harnessed Darkness: Harnessed Shadows Induction: Circling Shadows Jolt: Mind Snap Lacerate: Whirling Blow Lightning Charge: Force Technique

Madness: Balance Mark of Power: Force Valour Maul: Shadow Strike Mind Trap: Mind Maze Overcharge Saber: Battle Readiness Overload: Force Wave Raze: Force Strike Recklessness: Force Potency Sacrifice: No direct analogue, but closest is Unity. Seethe: Meditation Shock: Project Spike: Spinning Kick Static Charge: Exit Strategy Surging Charge: Shadow Technique Torment: Psychokinesis Thrash: Double Strike Unbreakable Will: Force of Will Unearthed Knowledge: Twin Disciplines Voltaic Slash: Clairvoyant Strike Whirlwind: Force Lift Wither: Slow Time Return to Contents

APPENDIX E: Advanced Reading

Tanking: A Primer is a useful local thread for tanks who want just a little bit more knowledge than this guide provides. The Sith Assassin's Codex, an Imperial translation of this thread. MainTankasin.net is a Jedi Shadow and Sith Assassin-oriented tank discussion site. Sith Warrior is quickly turning into the numbers place for Star Wars: the Old Republic, if you want the people who do the real hardcore thinking I can only paw at. The Consular's Codex is a resource for Jedi Sage Healers run by a friend of mine, if you're looking to run another Consular or find that the Shadow isn't for you. CitizenSnipe has a useful channel that contains a lot of video of infiltration PvP, some balance hybrid PvE, and some tank hybrid PvP. TORHead is always full of good information.

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Changelog
v0.0.0g: Accuracy stat corrected, as it no longer gives armour penetration. Crew Skill information overhauled. Minor PvP updates to gearing guides. 12/1/2011 || Added voice actor information. 12/2/2011 || Reorganized and summarized Crew Skill stuff for clarity. Updated the PvP tank builds to reflect new thoughts on Harnessed Shadows. 12/3/2011 v0.0.0f: Major overhaul of all spec analysis, as it was pretty cluttered with a bunch of useless babbling on my part, as well as some outright incorrect information. More companion data added. Changelog added. 11/29/2011 v0.0.0e: Prettified and cleaned up formatting. 11/25/2011 v0.0.0d: Translated to Sith Assassin equivalent and posted. 11/20/2011 v0.0.0a: Original versions up to v0.0.0c. Very rough internal documents in beta. Unknown date.

More to come later. But don't forget to follow the signal!