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An in-depth Jedi Shadow Tank 6.0 SWTOR class Guide (the Kinetic Combat Discipline) for PvE, suitable for beginner players who seek to learn the class and improve their performance! This Guide is written for VULKK.com by Ahz (Star Forge)

UPDATED FOR PATCH 6.1.2

INTRO

Shadow Tanks are the cheese tanks of SWTOR. They have access to the strongest defensive cooldown in the game in Resilience, are able to ignore quite a few tank swap mechanics, and have the ability to outright ignore mechanics that would kill other tanks. They are also rather easy to play, due to their rather simple rotation, however, you will need to keep track of several forms of active mitigation in order to maximize your survivability.

While not quite as powerful as they were in 5.x, an expansion in which they were downright broken, Shadow Tanks are still a solid choice for PvE tanking and are still quite desirable for progression groups. This guide will cover everything from gearing, to rotations, to utility loadouts, and in reading this guide, it is my hope you will have a general idea of how to begin playing an Shadow Tank in endgame PvE.

GEARING AND STATS

What Gear Parts to Look for

Overall Stat Priority

You’re going to want to stack Shield Rating until you’re at 52% Shield Chance without Kinetic Ward up. This will give you a whopping 70% Shield Chance with Kinetic Ward up. After that, the remainder of your tertiary stats will be placed into Absorb Rating. You need not worry about your secondary stats too much, as your gear will organically take care of that for you.

Lightsaber Crystals:

Advanced Indestructible Crystals for Dxun

Advanced Eviscerating Crystals for Older Operations

Endurance is the only stat given by crystals that helps improve your survivability. While it’s a small buff at that, it’s a buff nonetheless. Of course, you can use whatever color you like. For older operations, however, since your Endurance, Power, and Mastery are capped, Eviscerating Crystals are the only useful ones. Enjoy your 82 Crit Rating, meatbags.

Armorings/Hilt

Unlettered Resistive Armorings and Hilt or the 80R-1 versions

These armorings and hilt have identical stats to one another, so you can run either one of them. The reason these armorings and hilt are the best is because they have the most Endurance without sacrificing too much Mastery.

Mods

Lethal Mods for Dxun

Warding Mods for Old Operations

I’ll start with the Lethal Mods. You get a lot of Defense Rating from your Enhancements, Earpiece, Implants, and Relics, more than enough to get you through HM Dxun. Power turns that excess Defense Rating into a large gain in DPS and threat generation, both of which you should be looking to maximize. I prefer to use the unlettered versions, however, if you feel as if you need more HP, Lethal B mods work just as well. For older operations, our Power is capped, meaning that it’s a waste to run Lethal Mods. Defense Rating strangely isn’t capped in older operations, so, make sure you pick up some Warding Mods as well. The unlettered variety is going to be better for older content due to the Endurance cap.

Enhancements:

Vigilant/Steadfast Enhancements for HM Dxun

Sturdiness/Immunity Enhancements for Old Operations

So this one is completely up to personal preference. I am now using Vigilant and Steadfast Enhancements for HM and eventually NiM Dxun, as they have a higher endurance pool, which helps to minimize the effect of spike damage. Bastion and Bulwark Enhancements are also good. For the older content, the best Enhancements are Sturdiness and Immunity Enhancement, due to the stat cap placed on you. Defense Rating, Shield Rating, and Absorb Rating are not capped in level 70 operations.

Earpiece/Implants

Sha’tek Earpiece and Implants

I am personally using the Sha’tek Earpiece and Implants, which are the low endurance, high mitigation versions. If you want to maximize the amount of Endurance from your gear, you’ll want to use the Mantellian versions. Which versions you use are entirely up to you, I use the Sha’tek versions as they’re going to be the most optimal for older content, and we also don’t have to go too far out of our way to get extra HP.

Relics

Shield Matrix/Avoidance Relics

BioWare has finally had enough of our agonized screams for actually good tanking relics, and gave us these! These are very similar to the old Elite War Hero relics from 1.x, which gave you a large passive boost to your stats but sacrificed a proc benefit. These give you 723 of either Shield or Absorb Rating, which is plenty big enough to justify running them over DPS relics. Tank proc relics such as Reactive Warding and Shield Amplification are not worth running due to their very poor ability to help mitigate spike damage.

Augments

Shield/Absorb Augments

Augments are essentially free stat points that help you meet stat thresholds. You’ll typically want to get to 50% Shield Chance without Kinetic Ward up, and put the rest into Absorb Rating. My current augment distribution is 10 Shield Augments to 4 Absorb Augments, however, your augment distribution will vary depending on your enhancement distribution.

Amplifiers

Aural Resistance or Armor Penetration

Note that these are armoring and hilt amplifiers, and not shell or mod amplifiers. These two are the most versatile amplifiers throughout most of what you’re going to face in PvE.

If you want to focus your amplifiers on dealing more damage, Armor Penetration is the way to go. If you want to give yourself a little bit more survivability, go with Aural Resistance which reduces the damage you take from area attacks. This is the most versatile defensive amplifier due to many of the hardest hitting attacks found in operations are in fact AoE abilities, meaning that these amplifiers often simply reduce the amount of damage you take during these encounters. That being said, just because Aural Resistance is the most versatile defensive amplifier doesn’t mean it’s the best for every encounter. For example, Gods of the Machine features a lot of tech damage, so if you have the spare armorings, build a set of gear for Gods! Dread Palace features a lot of Force damage, so you can build a set of gear for that too.

One of the most interesting yet absolutely tedious parts of this new gearing system is that you can make a set of gear that is optimal for each encounter. However, if you just want to have the two sets of gear, one for old operations, and one for HM Dxun, these two amplifiers are the way to go.

Set Bonuses

Efficient Termination or Death Knell (6-piece, and one Amplified Champion shell)

Efficient Termination is your best set bonus due to its ability to help you mitigate some spike (yes, that pun is entirely intended) damage. Will it’s not a complete cheese like Force Speed DR was in 5.x, it is still an additional cooldown, even if it is a rather weak one. I would also highly recommend picking up the Death Knell set bonus, due to the sizeable DPS increase it gives you, even in its nerfed form. If you’re going for a “skank tank” build, this is the set bonus for you as well. Get your six-piece bonus, and pick up an Amplified Champion piece for your 7th armor piece. The reason you’ll want an Amplified Champion piece is because it contains a combat amplifier on the shell, unlike any other armor set in the game.

Efficient Termination

2-Piece: 2% Endurance

4-Piece: Spinning Kick’s stun and slow effects last for an additional second.

6-Piece: Using Spinning Kick grants you 10% damage reduction for 6 seconds.

Death Knell:

2-Piece: 2% Mastery

4-Piece: The cooldown of Force Potency is reduced by 15 seconds. Whenever you activate Recklessness, you gain Potent Critical, making your next Shadow Strike or Spinning Strike critically hit.

6-Piece: Whenever you consume a charge of Force Potency, you gain a charge of Audacious Potency, increasing your melee damage by 10% for 30 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

Tacticals

The tactical that you are going to want to pick vastly depends on which boss you are fighting. Below, I will list the tacticals that I find to be the best and in which scenarios that they would be most useful.

Two Cloaks Two Cloaks

Effect: Force Cloak has two charges.

This is going to be useful for quite a few fights. This will let you never take a stack of Arcing Assault on NiM Brontes, be completely unscathed by Overpowered Ion Cutter in HM Master and Blaster, and give you even more cheeses in HM Mutant Trandoshan Squad. This is a very good tactical that should be one of your first priorities to pick up.

Friend of the Force Friend of the Force

Effect: Resilience also applies to any ally you are guarding.

This one has some very good uses. Namely, it allows you to give your allies Resilience, which is going to be incredibly useful on certain fights. You’ll be able to help your Vanguard friends cheese Doom in NiM TFB and Death Marks in NiM Dread Council, as an example. While not a great tactical for every fight, its limited uses are powerful enough to warrant picking it up. It can be a literal life saver.

The Life Warden The Life Warden

Effect: Taking damage below 20% health will heal you for a large amount. 10 minute cooldown.

I often default to this tactical when there is no other tactical that will be particularly useful for the current encounter. The healing you get from this tactical is pretty significant and is often enough to give your healers ample time to save you from a horrible death. The only downside to this utility is the 10 minute cooldown, but, if it didn’t have that, it would be kinda wacky.

Overwhelming Offense Overwhelming Offense

Effect: Dealing damage increases all damage done for 2 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

This is the best tactical we have access to from a pure damage dealing standpoint, mostly due to Kinetic Combat not having its own damage dealing tactical. I use this tactical in situations where no other tactical is particularly useful, and my Life Warden is on cooldown. The damage buff is useful, because we should always be trying to deal as much damage as possible.

Note: image for level 75 content stats build will be added shortly!

Old NiM Ops Stats Build (Efficient Termination)

ABILITIES AND ROTATIONS

Important Passives

Combat Technique

Description: Level 12. Gives your melee attacks a 50% chance to deal minor internal damage and generate additional threat. Reduces all damage you deal by 10%, but increases your armor rating by 130%, shield chance by 15%, threat generation by 100%, and accuracy by 10%.

Note: Essentially, this is what makes us a tank.

Psychokinesis

Description: Level 16. Modifies your Force Breach effect, turning it into an AoE like Slow Time, and Force Breach causes its targets to become unsteady for 45 seconds. Unsteady targets have their melee and ranged accuracy reduced by 5%. In addition, Whirling Blow deals 15% more damage to Unsteady targets.

Note: This is important, as Force Breach is part of both our Single Target and AoE rotation, and the accuracy debuff it places on enemies is quite valuable to a group, as it practically gives your entire group a 5% buff to melee and ranged defense. Keep this debuff up on the boss at all times. Finally, the damage buff to Whirling Blow is pretty good as well, as it makes managing trash pulls and adds easier.

Kinetic Bulwark

Description: Level 32. Consuming a charge of Kinetic Ward increases shield absorption by 1%. Stacks up to 8 times. This effect lasts for 20 seconds or until Kinetic Ward is reactivated.

Note: Amazing. Basically, the more attacks you shield, the higher your shield absorption will be. Balancing your stacks of Kinetic Bulwark and Kinetic Ward will be essential to minimizing the amount of damage you take.

Particle Acceleration

Description: Level 36. Damage dealt by Double Strike, Shadow Strike, Whirling Blow, and Spinning Strike has a 30% chance to finish the cooldown on Project and make your next Project a critical hit. Accelerated Projects that consume a charge of Force Potency deal an additional 50% critical damage.

Note:This is crucial to the flow of your rotation, and in the amount of damage you do. While Project should always be used on cooldown, and you should never wait for a Particle Acceleration proc to use Project, getting Accelerated Project out greatly increases your DPS and threat generation. Obviously, Accelerated Projects should be combined with Force Potency to fully maximize your damage output.

Double-Bladed Saber Tactics

Description: Level 40. Increases your melee and ranged defense by 4%. Additionally, whenever you shield, parry, or deflect an attack you recover 2% of your total Force and increase the damage dealt by your next Force Breach by 75%. This effect cannot occur more than once a second and does not stack.

Note:This basically aids with your Force regeneration and obviously you’re going to want to wait until you get this proc to activate Force Breach. Force Breach has a somewhat flexible spot in your rotation so you won’t ever have to use it without the proc except for rare instances in your opener.

Harnessed Shadows

Description: Level 48. Project and Slow Time grant Harnessed Shadows, which makes the next Cascading Debris used uninterruptable and immune to pushback. In addition, each stack increases the damage dealt by your next Cascading Debris by 25%. Stacks up to 3 times. At 3 stacks, Cascading Debris grants Shadow Protection, which increases your damage reduction by 1%. Shadow Protection stacks up to 4 times and lasts 12 seconds.

Note:This is basically what your rotation revolves around. You should never use Cascading Debris with less than 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows, and you should aim to keep your Shadow Protection stacks up at all times, as they are a very large increase to your survivability. Cascading Debris also deals a lot of damage and is a generally cool ability!

Shadow Wrap

Description: Level 56. Exiting stealth instantly grants 4 stacks of Shadow Protection. In addition, Double Strike, Whirling Blow, Spinning Strike, and Shadow Stride grant Shadow Wrap, which makes your next Shadow Strike consume 50% less Force and deal damage as if you are behind the target regardless of your actual positioning. This effect cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.

Note:This basically adds Shadow Strike to your rotation, which is used once every rotation cycle. Don’t use Shadow Strike without this proc, as it costs too much Force.

Kinetic Bastion

Description: Level 68. The cooldown of Kinetic Ward is reduced by 5 seconds, the shield chance it provides is increased by an additional 3%, and shielding an attack while it is active has a 20% chance to restore a charge and increase its active duration by 1 second. In addition, Kinetic Bulwark can build 2 additional stacks.

Note: This is a straight up buff to Kinetic Ward and Kinetic Bulwark. This gives you a little more wiggle room as to when you will want to reactivate Kinetic Ward as well. Splendid.

Defensive Cooldowns

Resilience

Description: 60 second cooldown. Purges all hostile removable effects and increases your chance to resist Force and tech attacks by 200% for 3 seconds. Does not break Stealth.

Note: Do you enjoy cheese? Of course you do. Who doesn’t? It’s delicious, and good for your bones, but most importantly, it’s great for telling bosses that you’re not interested in the mechanics they’re selling. You’ll love this ability. It’s the single most broken ability in the game. This is what allows us to ignore so many mechanics. In fact, it ignores so many mechanics that I don’t have room enough to fit them all in this guide. But, as a few examples, you can completely resist Doom in NiM Dread Guards, or Force Execution in NiM Raptus, or Red’s disgusting heartburn breath in Dxum HM. It also serves as our self-cleanse, which comes in really handy in fights like Tyrans and Council NiM. This is the single most powerful defensive cooldown in the game, and you should use it whenever the situation calls for it. Furthermore, this ability can also last 5 seconds, rather than the usual 3, when combined with the Mind Over Matter utility. You’ll also have this ability available more than once every minute thanks to the Double-Bladed Saber Tactics passive.

Deflection

Description: 2 minute cooldown. Increases your ranged and melee defenses by 50% by 12 seconds. Requires a melee weapon.

Note:This cooldown is best used to avoid big melee and ranged damage. It’s particularly useful for fights such as Firebrand and Stormcaller, as it allows you to solo tank Firebrand when rotated with Force Cloak. With your Pulsating Force passive, Deflection will also cause all enemies within an 8 meter radius of you to deal 15% less Force and tech damage. Now, this debuff is not reason enough alone to use Deflection, unless there is hardly any melee or ranged damage going out in the fight, such as in fights like Torn and Zoth NiM, where I’ll pop Deflection to slightly reduce my damage taken. Overall, this is a very powerful cooldown and there are plenty of fights where it will be very useful.

Battle Readiness

Description: 2 minute cooldown. Readies you for battle for 15 seconds, immediately restoring 15% of your max health, increasing the damage of all techniques by 50%, increasing the chance to trigger their effects by 25%, and healing you for a small amount of health when their effects are triggered. The triggered healing cannot occur more than once a second. Requires a double-bladed lightsaber or electrostaff. Also, increases your damage reduction by 25% for 15 seconds.

Note:While this is also technically an offensive cooldown, the Shadowsight passive in the Kinetic Combat discipline also causes Battle Readiness to give you 25% damage reduction for 15 seconds. This is going to be the sole reason why we pop Battle Readiness, in addition to the small healing we get from this ability. This is a solid defensive cooldown, allowing us to reduce our overall damage taken, making it the perfect ability to use when you expect a large increase in incoming damage, or are dealing with enemies that deal Force/Tech damage but you also want to save your Resilience. This is going to be used on pretty much every fight in which you’re going to be taking significant damage. And to top it all off… it does increase your DPS… but only by a little bit!

Force Cloak

Description: 2 minute cooldown. (1 minute and 15 second cooldown with Fade Utility, has 2 charges with the Two Cloaks tactical) Uses the Force to vanish from sight, immediately exiting combat and entering stealth mode. For 10 seconds, you become virtually undetectable.

Note:I know what you’re thinking. Why would you ever use a stealth out, a complete aggro reset, as a tank? Because it’s a cheese. Stealthing out lets you sometimes cancel bosses’ casts, such as Master’s Ion Cutter, completely negating the mechanic. Obviously, you will want to combine this with a taunt so you don’t lose threat. Also, with the Cloak of Resilience utility, Force Cloak grants you two seconds of Resilience, making it even more powerful. You can furthermore get a second use out of your medpac in a fight by cloaking out, popping your medpac and taunting the boss back. Finally, you can use this ability, in rare circumstances, to stealth rez an ally, making this a great utility ability as well. For advice on how to stealth rez players, refer to Potatoes’ Operative Healing guide! Take advantage of Cloak! Especially when your group is about to wipe, because walking is for peasants! You are a Jedi Master, and you have more important things to do than walk back to bosses. You’ll also be able to use this as a cheese even more due to the Two Cloaks tactical! I also believe that I must stress the importance of mastering the art of “Cloak Taunting.” Learning how to do so will maximize your effectiveness in raids and greatly reduce the risk of stealthing out. You will want to make sure you taunt a split second after cloaking out so that the game never recognizes you as having completely reset your threat. I highly recommend having both your taunt and Force Cloak bound to easily accessible keys, and practice this technique on some flashpoint bosses, such as the first boss in Hammer Station (on the mining drill beam) in order to get some practice in.

Kinetic Ward

Description: 15 second cooldown. Surrounds you with a Kinetic Ward that increases your shield chance by 15% for 20 seconds. Each time you successfully shield, Kinetic Ward loses 1 charge. Does not break stealth. (Kinetic Bastion increases the shield chance increase by 3%, reduces Kinetic Ward’s cooldown by 5 seconds, and shielding an attack has a 20% chance to restore a charge and increase Kinetic Ward’s active duration by 1 second)

Note:Absolutely spectacular. The Shadow Tank’s signature ability. You should have this up 100% percent of the time, and you should refresh it right before it expires to balance both your Kinetic Ward and Kinetic Bulwark stacks. DO NOT LET THIS FALL OFF. It is off the GCD so there is no excuse to not be using it! I will smack your knuckles with a ruler if I catch you not keeping your Dark Ward up!

Steely Kick

Description: Buff gained by activating Spinning Kick with Efficient Termination Set Bonus equipped. Increases your damage reduction by 10% for 6 seconds.

Note:This is useful for helping to mitigate spike damage. Some Shadow Tanks like to use Spinning Kick on cooldown in order to maximize this buff’s uptime, however, I think using it to mitigate spike damage is a far more productive method of usage. Spinning Kick is not worth placing in our regular rotation, however, using it in intervals when you know your incoming damage is going to see a significant increase is. Using Spinning Kick will also allow you to save your more powerful defensive cooldowns for when they might be needed more while still giving you extra survivability. Use wisely and when the need arises.

Offensive Cooldowns

Force Potency

Description: 1 minute, 30 second cooldown. Grants 2 charges of Force Potency, which increases the Force critical chance of your direct attacks and heals by 60%. Each time a direct Force ability critically hits or a channelled Force ability is activated, 1 charge is consumed. Lasts 20 seconds. With the Mental Fortitude passive, Force Potency also increases your shield absorption by 30% for 20 seconds.

Note:So, while also technically a defensive cooldown thanks to its buff to our shield absorption, this is going to be used as a way to increase our DPS and generate a lot of threat. Remember that your accelerated Projects deal 50% more critical damage when they consume a Force Potency charge, therefore, the best use of Force Potency is on an accelerated Project followed by a 3-stack Cascading Debris. However, if you don’t have an accelerated Project, using Force Potency on a regular Project and a 3-stack Cascading Debris is fine too! Maximizing your use of Force Potency increases your overall DPS and your usefulness to a group. Sadly, this is our only pure offensive cooldown, but it’s a darn good one!

Utility and Other Abilities

Shadow Stride

Description: 30 second cooldown. 30-meter range. Use the Force to move through time and space, appearing at your enemy target and increasing your movement speed by 75% for 3 seconds. Does not break stealth. Cannot be used against targets in cover. Requires a double-bladed lightsaber or electrostaff.

Note: Your equivalent to a Guardian’s Force Leap or a Vanguard’s Storm. At least that’s what it’s supposed to be. However, this is a troll ability, and is very unreliable. Most of the time, it does what it is intended to do, which is immediately close the gap between you and the boss, however, there are times where it will do very strange things. These Shadow Stride mishaps range from being yeeted out of the instance, thrown 600 feet into the air and instantly killing you, not moving at all, or getting stuck in textures. Still, a necessary evil. Just pray to the deity of your choice when using it.

Force Speed

Description: 20 second cooldown. (15 seconds with Celerity utility) Increases the user’s movement speed by 150% for 2 seconds. (2.5 seconds with the Mind Over Matter utility) Does not break stealth. Increases your Force Regeneration by 10 for its duration with the Mind Over Matter utility.

Note: This is a secondary mobility cooldown that is very useful. You can use it to close distances to targets when your Shadow Stride is either on cooldown or you want to save it. You can also use it to kite enemies and escape mechanics. It can be used as a root break with the Egress utility. Lastly, it can also be used as a Force management cooldown in a pinch with the One with the Shadows utility. While it isn’t “lulSpeed” anymore, it’s still a very useful ability.

Force Pull

Description: 45 second cooldown. 30 meter range. Uses the Force to draw the target in, instantly pulling it to your location and generating a high amount of threat. Does not work against targets in cover.

Note: It’s a pull, obviously. With The Force! However, this is also used in your opening rotation due to the large amount of threat it generates. Use it in your opener, or when the situation calls for you to pull a target in.

Force Potency

Description: 20 second cooldown. (17.5 seconds with Force Harmonics utility) Costs 10 Force. Deals a small amount of energy damage and knocks back up to 8 enemies within a 15-meter cone in front of you. Standard and weak enemies are additionally knocked down for 3 seconds.

Note: It’s a knockback. You’re only ever going to be using it when the situation calls for it. However, there are situations where you will need it, such as knocking out the bomb add in NiM Firebrand and Stormcaller, and for the Manifestation phase in NiM Styrak. It’s another tool in our arsenal.

Mind Snap

Description: 18 second cooldown. (16 seconds with Avoidance utility) 10 meter range. Interrupts the target’s current action and prevents that ability from being used for 4 seconds.

Note: Our interrupt. There are going to be certain instances in which you will be required to interrupt casts, such as in Revan HM and NiM Kephess, so make sure you have this ability handy. It’s also off the global cooldown, so there is no excuse to not interrupt deadly casts! Don’t assume your group members are going to interrupt something for you without verbal communication otherwise! Use it!

Force of Will

Description: 2 minute cooldown. (1 minute, 30 second cooldown with Avoidance utility) Demonstrates your force of will, immediately purging incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.

Note: Your stun break! You’ll need this on certain fights (like NiM Zorn and Toth or if you’re feeling spicy, NiM Cartel Warlords if you’re pushing Vilus Garr last) and it is incredibly useful for trash, as it is hard to control mobs while you’re stunned. Use as needed.

Force Stun

Description: 1 minute cooldown. Costs 10 Force. 10 meter range. Stuns the target for 4 seconds and deals minor energy damage.

Note: A single target stun. While you’ll obviously never use this on bosses, it will have its uses in a raiding environment. Sometimes stunning adds is very beneficial, as stunned adds are not doing damage to your group!

Spinning Kick

Description: 20 second cooldown. Costs 20 Force. 4 meter range. Performs a spin kick, dealing heavy kinetic damage and stunning the target for 2 seconds. Standard and weak enemies are additionally knocked down. Requires a double-bladed lightsaber or electrostaff. Normally would require you to be in stealth mode to use, but thanks to the Mental Fortitude passive, we can use it out of stealth as well.

Note: Another single target stun. Yes, having two single target stuns gives us quite a bit of utility, and having this on such a short cooldown is very nice. Very good for stunning adds, preventing them from dealing damage to you or the group, well, because they’re stunned. Also, this is a decent defensive cooldown when combined with our Efficient Termination set bonus, unfortunately it is one that is one the global cooldown, so keep note of that.

Mind Maze

Description:Costs 50 Force. 10 meter range. Traps the target’s mind, leaving it bewildered and unable to act for 60 seconds. Damage will break the effect prematurely. This ability is only useable in stealth mode and cannot be used against a target in combat. Only one target can be incapacitated at any given time. Cannot be used on droids.

Note:This is our mez, which is useful on trash mobs to help control the amount of damage going out. Or to skip them completely. Because some enemies are simply beneath you. Knock them out and walk past!

Mind Control

Description: 15 second cooldown. 30 meter range. Controls the mind of the target, forcing it to attack you for 6 seconds.

Note: This is our single target taunt. If you didn’t already know, taunts immediately gain the target’s attention, and also put you on the top of the threat table, making them an essential tool for establishing initial threat, forcing tank swaps, and getting back aggro after threat drops. Use in your opening rotation and whenever needed. I should also give a brief explanation as to how taunts function in SWTOR. Essentially, not only do taunts immediately force enemies to attack you, but serve two additional purposes. First, they immediately put you at the top of an enemies threat table. This is done in a multiplicative fashion, as you will gain highest threat plus 110% if you taunt from within 4 meters, and you will gain highest threat plus 130% if you taunt from outside of 4 meters. Second, they are an effective tool at amplifying one’s own threat. If you have threat before you taunt and then use your taunt, you will basically multiply your threat by 110%. This is why we use taunts in our opening rotation.

Mass Mind Control

Description: 45 second cooldown. Forces all enemies within 15 meters to attack you for 6 seconds if Combat Technique is active.

Note: Our AoE taunt. Great for taunting a large number of enemies. Also used in our single target opener. Use when needed.

Guard

Description: 30 meter range. While active, the guarded player takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat.

Note: This is a why to ensure you’ll hold aggro over your DPS. Typically you’ll slap this onto your highest DPS in the group. This is typically not for healers, no matter what people try to tell you. If anyone tells you to guard healers, slap them. As I said before, you’ll typically want to guard the group’s highest or second-highest performing DPS. This will reduce the amount of threat they generate by a substantial amount. This will nearly eliminate the risk of them pulling threat off of the tanks, which is important, as a DPS pulling threat at the wrong time can lead to an otherwise avoidable death, or at worst, a raid wipe. This is also to be used on your friends you want to give Resilience with the Friend of the Force tactical equipped.

Useful Items to Carry

Advanced Kyrprax Fortitude Stims

Description: Increases your Endurance by 264 and your Defense by 109 for 480 minutes. Only one stimpack can be active at a time. This effect persists through defeat.

Note:Why wouldn’t you take a buff to your HP and defense chance? In raids, you should have a stim up at all times. No exceptions. There is a slight catch, however. This stim won’t be as effective in old operations, due to our Endurance being capped, however, it still gives us some Defense Rating. I would now like to thank Potatoes for supplying me with a massive amount of stims.

Advanced Kyrprax Shield Adrenal

Description: Absorbs 30% of of damage up to a massive amount of damage for 15 seconds. Damage absorbed scales by level up to level 75.

Note: This is an additional defensive cooldown, and a very powerful one at that. Use it liberally! It’s fantastic. Carry dozens of these in your inventory.

Advanced Kyrprax Medpac

Description: 1 minute, 30 second cooldown. Restores a large amount of health initially and restores a moderate amount of health over 15 seconds. Only useable once per fight. Health restored scales by level up to level 70.

Note: Once again, an additional defensive cooldown, and one that could save your life as well. The “once per fight” restriction doesn’t reply to you, because you’re an Assassin. Cloaking to use a second medpac and then taunting the boss back is a legitimate strategy. Use it to your advantage. Particularly as on “Oh Shit” button. Be aware though, some of your healers may take using a medpac as a personal insult to their healing. (cough cough Ame ;D)

Advanced V-9 Electro-Stun Grenade

Description: 3 minute cooldown. 15 meter range. Shocks up to 3 targets in the area for minor energy damage, and stuns them briefly. Tougher enemies are stunned for a shorter duration. Damage dealt increases by level up to level 65.

Note: It’s an AoE stun! Very good for fights with a lot of adds. This will help keep those adds controlled. Very useful for fights such as Revanite Commanders HM.

Rotational Abilities

Cascading Debris

Description: 6 second cooldown. Costs 10 Force per tick, or 40 Total Force. 10 meter range.

Note: This is our signature rotational ability. The basic idea of your rotation is to build up 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows, then using this ability. This does amazing damage (particularly when buffed by Force Potency), and should never be used with less than 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows, in order to maximize its damage and to keep up your Shadow Protection stacks, which are applied when leaving stealth or when dealing damage with this ability. This ability is going to be used as often as possible, and should be combined with Force Potency whenever possible.

Project

Description: 6 second cooldown. Costs 25 Force. 10 meter range.

Note: Our most used ability. This is going to be used on cooldown and starts off each rotation cycle. This deals moderate damage when unprocced by Particle Acceleration, good damage when procced by Particle Acceleration, and absurd damage when procced by Particle Acceleration and buffed by Force Potency. As Project is to be used on cooldown, you are NEVER going to wait for an accelerated Project to use it. If Project is off cooldown, use it!

Slow Time

Description: 10 second cooldown. Costs 20 Force. 10 meter range.

Note: Incredibly important. Use on cooldown, unless you are casting Cascading Debris. Deals insane threat and in addition it also places the Weakened debuff on targets it hits, reducing the melee and ranged damage they deal by 5% for 45 seconds. To top it all off, it’s an AoE!

Force Breach

Description: 10 second cooldown. Costs 20 Force. 10 meter range.

Note: Deals weak damage and high threat unbuffed, however, when buffed by Double-Bladed Saber Tactics, this ability does good damage and generates great threat. This ability is going to be used during your opener and then once every 45 seconds to maintain the Unsteady debuff, and nearly on cooldown during AoE situations, and typically it’s always going to be buffed, as it’s very likely you’re going to shield an attack before using it. It’s nearly impossible not to, in fact. This ability also applies the Unsteady debuff to its targets, which reduces their melee and ranged accuracy by 5%, making this ability a 5% buff to your group’s melee and ranged defense. Great for group survival!

Double Strike

Description: Costs 20 Force. 4 meter range. Our main filler ability.

Note: This is going to be ideally used once every rotation cycle to proc Particle Acceleration to get your third stack of Harnessed Shadows. It is possible, however, that you will use more than one Double Strike in each rotation cycle, and that’s okay. Will be replaced in your rotation by Spinning Strike once your target reaches 30% health.

Maul

Description: Costs 20 Force. (With Shadow’s Strike proc) 4 meter range.

Note: Our secondary melee filler. Does a good amount of damage. This is going to be used once every rotation cycle, as it does a very good amount of damage. Remember that it also auto crits with the Death Knell set bonus!

Spinning Kick

Description: 6 second cooldown. Costs 20 Force. 4 meter range.

Note: Our execute ability. Deals a lot of damage, and will take the place of most of your melee filler slots once your target reaches 30%.

Whirling Blow

Description: Costs 20 Force.

Note: It’s Double Strike, but it’s an AoE. Use in place of Double Strike if you’re going to be hitting two or more targets.

Saber Strike

Description: 4 meter range.

Note: You’re rarely going to need to use this. Since we regenerate Force regularly by mitigating attacks, we won’t really be lacking it, so, this will only come up when we are not tanking something. In which case, this will take the place of Double Strike if you are critically low on Force.

Cleaving Cut

Description: 12 second cooldown. Up to a 5 meter range. Strikes targets in a cone, dealing moderate damage and slowing their movement speed by 50%. Requires a double-bladed lightsaber or electrostaff.

Note: Very meh ability, for a few reasons. First, it only strikes enemies in a cone. All of your other AoE abilities have a much better effect radius. Second, unlike Lacerate, your main AoE filler, this cannot proc Particle Acceleration. Therefore, I don’t really use it. Whirling Blow is just a better use of a GCD. Plus, no Shadow has ever said: “You know what I could really use? A conal!”

Single Target Ability Priorities

Spinning Strike (Target under 30% Health) Cascading Debris (With 3 Stacks of Harnessed Shadows) Project (With Particle Acceleration Proc) Project (Without Particle Acceleration Proc) Slow Time Shadow Strike (With Shadow Strike Proc) Double Strike Force Breach (Once every 45 seconds to keep Unsteady up) Saber Strike (To manage Force)

AoE Ability Priority

Slow Time Force Breach (With Double-Bladed Saber Tactics Proc) Force Breach (Without Double-Bladed Saber Tactics Proc) Whirling Blow

Opening Rotation

Force Pull Shadow Stride Project Slow Time + Mind Control Force Breach Double Strike (or Spinning Strike if Stalker’s Swiftness is taken) Force Potency + Project Cascading Debris + Mass Mind Control Shadow Strike Slow Time Project

This is your typical high threat, double taunt opener. While some of the filler spots (the melee abilities) will vary depending on your utility choices, this is basically what you’re going to see. This also sets up the basis of your general rotation, as minus your Pull and taunts, this will generally be what you are doing for the rest of your rotation: keeping your debuffs up, building three stacks of Harnessed Shadows, and using Cascading Debris. Yup! Our rotation is really that simple!

UTILITIES

Skillful

Celerity

Description: Reduces the cooldown of Mind Snap by 2 seconds, Force of Will by 30 seconds, and Force Speed by 5 seconds.

Note: Amazing, top notch utility. We’re always going to be taking this, no exceptions. The interrupt cooldown reduction is useful for certain fights, as is the reduction on your stun break and your primary mobility cooldown. You are ALWAYS going to take this utility with absolutely zero exceptions. It’s a utility that epitomizes the word “utility.”

Pinning Resolve

Description: Lowers the cooldown of Force Stun by 15 seconds and increases the duration of Force Slow and reduces its cooldown by 6 seconds. In addition, your Force Lift affects up to two additional standard or weak enemies within 8 meters of the target.

Note: Pretty much useless. Force Lift really only has use on one fight in the game, and this utility isn’t going to increase its usefulness. And it only gets worse from there. Skip it. We’ll never desire this.

Intangible Spirit

Description: Reduces damage taken while stunned by 30% for the Kinetic Combat discipline.

Note: This is actually somewhat useful. While not applicable to too many fights (it is useful for fights like Styrak and Operator IX, however), this is taken because often times, there’s not another utility in this tier that is outright better than this one, and we need to get to the second tier and beyond. Still, useful for certain fights.

Lambaste

Description: Increases the damage done by Whirling Blow by 25%.

Note: Pretty good. Useful for any fights where you’re going to be dealing damage to more than one target at a time for sufficient periods of time, and essential for trash pulls. Great for helping your group kill adds faster. Taken when it is needed.

Force Wake

Description: Force Wave unbalances its targets, immobilizing them for 5 seconds. Direct damage dealt after 2 seconds ends the effect prematurely.

Note: Useful for a few fights, like NiM Styrak, in which it’s pretty much mandatory, but other than that, not incredibly useful. Just better utilities to take, but, take it when needed.

Snaring Strikes

Description: Double Strike, Clairvoyant Strike, and Whirling Blow reduce the movement speed of the targets they damage by 30% for 6 seconds.

Note: Useless. Never take it. Ever.

Shadow’s Shelter

Description: Mass Mind Control provides Assassin’s Shelter to all allies within range, excluding yourself, reducing the damage they take by 5% for the next 6 seconds and healing them for an absolutely miniscule amount over the duration.

Note: A utility that is quite literally a joke on my raid team, however, we actually do take this one quite often now. In fights where you don’t need Lambaste or Force Wake, you’re going to take this simply because there’s nothing better to take, and you need 3 Skillful utilities to reach the next tier.

Nerve Wracking

Description: Targets controlled by your Spinning Kick and Force Stun take 5% more damage from all sources.

Note: Useless. Never take it.

Masterful

Fade

Description: Reduces the cooldown of Force Cloak by 45 seconds and extends its duration by 5 seconds.

Note: I take this in every fight, because even if we don’t use Cloak as a cheese, Cloak + Medpac is still a valid defensive cooldown in many situations. Absolutely incredible!

Misdirection

Description: Increases your movement speed by 15% and your effective stealth level by 10.

Note: The stealth level aspect of this is useless, but the movement speed aspect of this is nice in certain situations. We’re going to often be taking this because there is nothing better to take, but sometimes a bit of movement speed is useful for kiting.

Force Harmonics

Description: Reduces the cooldown of Force Wave by 2.5 seconds and Force Potency grants 1 additional charge when activated.

Note: Great. This is a direct increase to your DPS and it’s pretty much always going to be taken.

Kinetic Acceleration

Description: Activating Project, Psychokinetic Blast, or Quell increases your movement speed by 50% for 9 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 18 seconds.

Note: This utility would be great for kiting if it weren’t for the rate limit. Could be a bit better than Misdirection in certain scenarios, but I’ve never tested it. Rarely taken, if it all.

Containment

Description: If your Force Lift breaks early from damage, the target is stunned for 2 seconds. In addition, Force Lift activates instantly.

Note: Useful for one fight in the game, and it comes in clutch for that one fight. . Other than that, never take it.

Egress

Description: Force Speed grants Egress, removing all movement impairing effects and granting immunity to them for the duration.

Note: This ability does have some use in some fights, particularly in NiM Warlords, where a root at the wrong time can result and a horrible painful death the hands of The Tinman. Only take this in fights where you know getting rooted will be a problem.

Motion Control

Description: When a target recovers from being stunned by your Spinning Kick or Force Stun, its movement speed is reduced by 90% for the following 3 seconds. Additionally, Force Cloak increases your movement speed by 50% while it is active, and Force Speed reduces the movement speed of its targets by an additional 20%.

Note: Useless. Never take it.

Sturdiness

Description: Activating Deflection grants 6 seconds of immunity to stun, sleep, lift, and incapacitating effects.

Note: Useful for a few fights, like HM Revan. Only take when it’s useful.

Heroic

Shroud of a Shadow

Description: Activating Force Cloak grants 2 seconds of Resilience.

Note: Incredible. This turns your Force Cloak into an even better cheese than it already is. Always going to be taken.

Insulation

Description: Cascading Debris increases movement speed by 35% for 6 seconds when Combat Technique is active. Additionally, when damage breaks your Mind Maze prematurely, the target will suffer from Sapped Mind, reducing the damage they deal by 25% for 10 seconds.

Note: The Mind Maze portion of this utility is useless, however, the Cascading Debris movement speed increase might have some obscure use. Generally never taken, though.

Mind Over Matter

Description: Increases the duration of Resilience by 2 seconds and Force Speed by 0.5 seconds. Additionally, Force Speed slows all enemies within 5 meters by 75% for 2.5 seconds when activated.

Note: Amazing. Gives you 2 more seconds of cheese, including the Resilience gained from Shroud of a Shadow. Always take it.

Stalker’s Swiftness

Description: Shadow Stride grants Stalker’s Swiftness allowing your next Spinning Strike to be used on any target, regardless of remaining health. Stalker’s Swiftness lasts for 10 seconds. Additionally, if the target of your Shadow Stride dies within 10 seconds of using Shadow Stride, Shadow Stride’s cooldown is reset.

Note: In fights where you’re going to need more DPS and where you won’t be able to reflect anything, take this utility. More Spinning Strikes = More DPS.

Martial Prowess

Description: Force Pull immobilizes its target for 3 seconds, Serenity Strike immobilizes its target for 2 seconds, and Low Slash immobilizes its target for 1 second after the incapacitating effect wears off. In addition, successful use of Mind Maze grants Martial Prowess, increasing the critical chance of your next direct attack by 100%. This effect lasts for 20 seconds.

Note: Useless. Never taken.

Restorative Shade

Description: When entering stealth with Force Cloak you generate a stack of Restorative Shade and heal 4% of your maximum health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Stacks last for 6 seconds. When stealth is broken, each stack of Restorative Shade heals you for 4% of your health.

Note: Never taken, as Force Cloak should never be used just for this benefit. You have healers in raids. Useless in PvE.

One with the Shadows

Description: Phantom Stride can be used while immobilized and purges movement-impairing effects when used. Additionally, Force Speed grants Phasing Phantasm, increasing your Force regeneration by 10 for the duration of Force Speed.

Note: RIP in Pepperonis, lulSpeed. This isn’t completely useless, and while Emersion is the better utility, this one isn’t bad, particuarly in fights where you’re not going to be taking damage, as this allows you to substitute the copious amounts of Saber Strikes you’d need to keep your Force managed with Thrashes for more DPS. This utility is also useful in fights where you’re going to be under constant slow or root effects, such as if you are kiting the Blue Power Ranger in the Kephess Power Rangers in Dxun. The extra root break is very helpful.

Avenging Grip

Description: Deflection grants Avenging Grip, reflecting 50% (or 100% for the Kinetic Combat discipline) of all direct single target tech and Force damage back at the attacker. Avenging Grip lasts for 12 seconds and does not absorb incoming damage.

Note: Amazing in any fight in which you can reflect. Take this when you can, as it’s free damage you are contributing to your group. However, if you can’t reflect, or you’ll need your Deflection for another purpose, take Stalker’s Swiftness instead.

Example Builds

General, Non-AoE: Celerity, Intangible Spirit, Shadow’s Shelter, Force Harmonics, Misdirection, Fade, Cloak of Resilience, Mind Over Matter, Stalker’s Swiftness

General, AoE: Celerity, Shadow’s Shelter, Lambaste, Force Harmonics, Misdirection, Fade, Cloak of Resilience, Mind Over Matter, Stalker’s Swiftness

Fights with Heavy Movement-Impairing Mechanics, Non-AoE: Celerity, Intangible Spirit, Shadow’s Shelter, Force Harmonics, Egress, Fade, Mind Over Matter, One with the Shadows, Cloak of Resilience

Fights with Heavy Movement-Impairing Mechanics, AoE: Celerity, Lambaste, Intangible Spirit, Force Harmonics, Egress, Fade, Mind Over Matter, One with the Shadows, Cloak of Resilience

NiM Styrak: Celerity, Intangible Spirit, Force Wake, Force Harmonics, Misdirection, Fade, Cloak of Resilience, Stalker’s Swiftness, Mind over Matter

HM Revan: Celerity, Lambaste, Shadow’s Shelter, Force Harmonics, Fade, Sturdiness, Cloak of Resilience, Mind Over Matter, Stalker’s Swiftness

For fights with heavy reflect, both single target and AoE, replace One with the Shadows with Avenging Grip.

CONCLUSIONS

Thanks

Thanks to Aeternum Ascension for teaching me how to raid all those years ago.

Thanks to Drew for introducing me to some of the harder content in the game, even when I clearly sucked. You gave me my start in NiM Raiding and created a monster and a meme!

Thanks to Potatoes, Ameile, Candy, Neutrino, Hepaetia, Carm, and all of my other healers for hard carrying me through content with their amazing heals.

Thank you to Lucy for first convincing me to write a guide and share my knowledge with the rest of the community.

Thanks to Tyren for being an awesome co-tank. Wouldn’t have anybody else.

Thanks to Zak for being a person always willing to discuss all things Assassin, you were a great help.

Thanks to Jaydenz for her assistance and in readily giving information that greatly helped this guide. Much of the information you see here is picked from her brain and experience, I am simply a herald. You will receive many Fiery Grophets as payment.

Thanks to Vulkk for allowing me to share my information with the public.

About the Author

My name is Ahz, and I am the GM of <R O G U E>, a Nightmare raiding guild on Star Forge. I am 26/26 on all pre-Gods Nightmare Content, as well as 5/5 on timed runs. I live in Omaha, Nebraska, with my wonderful family, and my 3 beautiful dogs. I have been playing SWTOR since 2012, but only got into NiM Content in late 5.x. In my downtime I enjoy raiding, watching pro wrestling, and playing various RPGs. If you have any questions regarding the guide or Assassin tanking in general, feel free to ask!

From Vulkk

I would like to thank Ahz for providing an updated version for SWTOR Update 6.0 to his Kinetic Combat Shadow Tanking Guide for PvE. I hope his efforts and work will be of great use to many new and learning how to tank players as well as old veterans, looking to expand their knowledge of this very specific and much needed role in every group activity.

For this guide I have used Torcommunity and Jedipedia’s database to extract the abilities and other items’ icons.

If you are skilled with a Class and Discipline that has not yet been covered with a guide on VULKK (check the list here), and you want to provide one for the SWTOR Community, contact me via email or wherever you see Vulkk present. Twitter and Facebook work as well.

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