SWTOR - Shadow Serenity PvE (3.0)

Guide for Difficult and Nightmare PvE players

I am Elfeden (Elfy for close friends), from the Perseids guild on the Mantle of the Force server, and I am bringing you an update to my guide to the Serenity 3.0 shadow in PvE.

I wanted to make the guide in two parts, one complete and the other with only the changes, but these affect not only the equipment but also the gameplay and I will have to repeat myself in both parts. I am therefore using the same structure as the previous guide, which will include improvements and clarifications on certain points. Sorry for the lack of originality ^^

The aim of this guide is to be as complete as possible and is intended for those who want to do HL. It is therefore very long (18 Word pages ^^). Sometimes I may have complicated something more than necessary by trying to explain it in depth. I apologize in advance. I tried to make small summaries (noted "in brief") for those who would like to stick to the bare minimum and descriptions as detailed as possible (noted "in detail").

Since 2.8, Shadow Balance (and now Serenity) has grown very strong, both in PvE and PvP. It has been one of the best PvE DPS and since the new mechanics in 3.0, we see a lot of Shadow in the War Zone, being considered one of the PvP classes opted for at the moment. (with Sorcerer / Scholar, Ravager / Guardian and Specialist / Vanguard). The Discipline has not really changed, it's a safe bet that it remains among the most popular.

I want to clarify that at the time of this writing, we are three weeks after the release of 3.0 and that all the tests have not been carried out, all the components not yet fully assimilated and that I can make a mistake or don't have all the information yet. In short, let's approach this guide with caution and try to challenge it as soon as new information pops up.

(Off Topic: moreover, regardless of the sites where you will see guides, I recommend a little “caution.” Nothing beats keeping information, experience and the tests that can be done at a distance. . Never swallow everything you are served raw, especially on the Internet ^^)

• Discipline, passive and utilitarian powers
• Equipment
  • Precision
  • Influx
  • Alacrity
  • Critical
  • Engime
  • improvements
  • Relics
  • Seven bonuses
  • In summary
• Cycle
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Advanced cycle above 30%
  • Order of priority and Cycle under 30%
• Know how to adapt your interface to the DOT spec
• Conclusion and Parses

 

Discipline, Passive Powers and Uses

Let's start with the new passive powers. They are inherited from ancient talent trees and are common to all Shadow specializations.

• Shadow Training allows your Saber Strike to restore up to 3 Strength points. It will replace the loss of your old set bonus at 3.
• Applied Force increases the damage of Double Attack, Whirlwind Strike, and Serene Strike by 5%, and decreases their cost by 3.
• Skill Mastery increases the critical strike chance of your Strength Skill by 50%. Note that this no longer gives 3% accuracy, one of the big changes of 3.0.
• Force Synergy activates on a force critical hit, lasts 10s, and grants 5% critical strike chance to your melee attacks (was 9% before).

 

In short:

Depending on the bosses, groups and strats, you will want to take different combinations of utilities.

• Classic utility selection: tree
• To help the healers
• If single target
• So much control

With 3.0, once your discipline has been chosen, the game “fills” the tree with itself and only the Usage points are to be chosen, which makes respecialization quick and practical. These Uses are generally oriented towards PvP and / or survival as well as some power upgrades to make them more powerful.

 

In details :

Let's take a quick tour of these Uses, remembering that our priority is to do damage and that we will focus on anything that allows DPS (up damage, up spells providing DPS indirectly, mobility etc ...). My presentation will therefore focus on a general idea outside of a specific strategy.

• Skill
• mastery
• Heroic

Speed : a must have, especially in PvP but also very good in PvE. Increases your mobility, reduces the time of your spell breaking stuns (destun) and your interrupt (cut). But good.

Obstruction resolution : a utility not very interesting in PvE, insofar as the targets will not be very often controllable and / or weak and standard. In addition, the shadow force lift only lasts 8 seconds and we prefer to use those of other classes that last one minute. As for the hardstun, Shadow Force Stun, going from one minute to 50 seconds will often have little impact in PvE. To be avoided except strat expressly requesting it.

Mental defense : additional survival on controlling bosses. Instead, we will try to interrupt, to place resilience or improved deflection on these moments to counter these powers. Not very useful in PvE therefore.

Subterfuge : Increased stealth will have little impact in PvE, but the higher movement speed implies lower movement times and therefore increased DPS. To take, especially on the bosses where things move a lot.

Vilipendage : The Coup Tourbillon having become very interesting thanks to its reduction in cost which allows it to be included in its cycle without worrying about strength, this talent becomes important for all battles including several targets. Note that if the Adds have few health points and the whirlpool shot is not essential, this utility loses its interest.

Shadow Veil : improved damage reduction. A default choice still valid but which will pass in 4th choice in tier 1 most of the time

Wake of force : same as Obstacle Resolution. Except precise strat (like Styrak Nim for example) little interest in PvE.

Spirit over Matter : Improved Force Speed ​​and Resilience which makes it a very good utility. Note that the Resilience of Force Occultation by Resilience Camouflage is also increased which allows to have 9 seconds of cumulative Resiliency. Very practical for mobility, AOE and boss mechanics involving one-shots, controls etc ...

Subjugating Techniques : same as the other control utilities, little involvement in PvE insofar as the targets are rarely controllable.

Fanage : if the reduction of CD on the Black-Out will be almost useless in Serenity, that on the Force Occultation could be appreciable to allow more flexibility for désaggro, rez fufu, but also especially to have the resilience of the Force Occultation . Very good.

Anxiety : another control-based utility. Even in PvP this ability is up for debate, so in PvE ... ^^

Issue : very good utility in line with Celerity and Spirit on Matter. If in PvP, he is as good as them, if not better, in PvE it remains subject to the immobilization abilities of the bosses. And these can be countered by destiny and resilience which remain more versatile and increased by other utilities.

Sape spirit : if we control a target, it is generally so that it does not go out of control. Little impact in PvE therefore.

Force Harmonic : an additional charge on Strength Content, therefore an additional potential critical, therefore additional DPS. We take !

Humility Strike : same as the other supervisory powers.

Shadow Shelter : A default choice increasing the healing received and giving a bonus to healers by placing his phased march. Just ask to think about rethinking your phase walk if it wears off and / or is used to teleport. However, if we know that we are going to use it to move around, it is preferable to take another utility linked to the strategy or as a shade veil or tedding which will be good all the time.

Containment : like the other supervisory powers. Except strategy asking it, useless.

Aplomb : Used to transform Deflection into a FT Hold for 12 seconds. Some bosses will absolutely not ask for it, others will make it necessary. A good choice especially that certain bosses (like Sparky on Ravageurs) control by a physical attack and therefore that the Resilience is ineffective.

Martial prowess : another controlling power ... (who said the shadow had no control in PvP? ^^)

Resilience Camouflage : allows to have an additional resilience, increased by Spirit on matter. One of our best utilities.

Movement control : on paper, allows more mobility but in fact, not very interesting when you have an increased Force Speed. In addition, it forces us to keep our vanish for specific times, going against its use as desaggro, rez fufu, and additional resilience. Note that you could also use your Force Occultation to be out of combat and have access to the Inheritance Accelerator. I haven't checked to see if 3.0 still allows it. If so, this power is even more dispensable. Not convinced.

 

Equipment

In details :

Let's take a look at the curves first:

 

Precision

The target cap is now 758 index, or 6 objects of index 198 minimum with precision plus an improvement. Without the improvement, in 198 we are back towards 99,63%, with we are at 100,14%.

To see if the 0,37% missing is not preferable to the damage bonus provided by the improvement in Will or Power. On a sufficiently long fight, being capped in precision seems more interesting. Note that I am currently at 99,85% and that this results in only a few misses (see the parse at the end of the guide).

This change, along with the removal of the 3% accuracy in talent trees, is one of the major changes in 3.0.

Of course, when the object index goes up, this change will gradually diminish.

 

Influx

Once your precision is achieved, you can ramp up your influx. With the space required for precision (6 or 7 objects out of 10) and the overhaul of alacrity, we will be interested much more than before in the decreasing yield of the influx. This one, past the 400, becomes quite obvious. Good thing, 198 items give 120 stats. Investing in 3 influx items to hit 360 seems like a good balance.

Be careful, DOTs and Strength in Balance no longer have increased critical damage, but melee attacks now benefit. These melee attacks almost always benefit from Force Synergy, so the influx can remain interesting.

 

Alacrity

Here it is, the second big change of 3.0! Who says heading to be reached in precision and decreasing return in inflow, says investment in another statistic. But we are still currently lacking data and experience with alacrity.

The question will be: will the number of attacks (= of GCD) gained thanks to the alacrity compensate for the loss of damage linked to the influx and / or the damage bonus?

Because yes, we can also add alacrity by the improvements instead of putting the power or the main statistic (will for the shade). These questions are still under debate and I will therefore not be able to answer them here and now.

Right now I'm thinking maybe go up to test 120 alacrity (one item) so as not to suffer too much from the diminishing yield of inflow and maybe adjust with some enhancements to make it fit a time specific gain such as 12 GCD in X minutes, ie a cycle of 18s which corresponds to the duration of the Dot (Damage over time). The problem is that the duration of the Dots and their tick speed do not appear to be affected by alacrity and only the cooldowns of Force in Balance, Serene Strike and Rotating Strike will be affected.

I put this statement in parentheses, not having been able to test. If it turns out to be false (and I've read people on the net who say alacrity plays a role in DoTs) then it will have to be taken into account.

In short, tests still in progress but you have understood the principle.

 

Critical

Let us remember that the critic suffers from a decreasing return (the more one puts in critical index, the less it gives percentage of chance) while the power is not concerned. Remember that the influx is reduced and that the Serenity shadow no longer has a critical damage bonus in its tree on its force attacks but now on its melee attacks, or about 30% of its DPS.

Suddenly, I think to stay on an optimization roughly equivalent to that pre 3.0, ie between 200 and 300 critical index, depending on the level of the equipment. Also, up to around 300, the reviewer is not really affected by the diminishing return. If you want to be more stable, you can limit yourself to 200, the critical tending to produce differences in DPS according to the fights.

For reassurance, keep in mind that optimizing crit on Serenity Shadow will not drastically change your DPS. Indeed, the only mechanic related to the critical in Serenity is the triggering of Force Synergy which can be triggered with all Force attacks, including DOT. Even with 0 crit, we remain at 20% chance and with 3 DOTs ticking every 3s (and 1s for Eradication), there is plenty to keep it constantly up.

 

Engime

Once your critical number is reached, crank up your power.

 

improvements

Many choices

• Will, the choice that will remain good no matter what, bringing bonus damage and a little criticism.
• Engime which becomes interesting again following the critic's value fuck.
• Alacrity if it turns out that the loss of bonus damage is outweighed by the speed of your strike.

Note that the difference between Willpower and power is very low in terms of DPS (some have calculated it to be less than 10 dps).

 

Relics

Always the same: without any hesitation, the Unexpected Assault and the Concentrated Punishment. These relics are the best in terms of DPS. They also have another advantage that I will detail in my advanced cycle. You can, for certain situations, prefer the relics that can be activated in order to control a burst (Raptus Nim challenge for example) but apart from the strategies requiring them, there is no debate ^^

Currently, I have seen a double proc (on damage and on healing for up to 12s stacked proc) of Concentrated Smite 192. Which makes it very powerful. To see if the developers correct it quickly, if not, it will be necessary to take into account these possible double procs.

 

Seven bonuses

Prowler, 6 pieces. The loss of old set bonuses will be detrimental in the stuff phase, especially the loss of bonus at 4 (the one at 2 is now a passive shadow power) but the higher statistics and the new bonuses will quickly compensate for all this. . Some people think that the new set bonus is basically better than the old one, but we don't have much choice anyway ^^

 

In summary

A good compromise at the moment seems to be, in full 198:

• 6 precision items (+ 1 improvement if you wish)
• 3 influx items
• 1 Alacrity item
• 200 to 300 critical
• the rest in power
• improvements in will

Once more tests are done in full stuff with alacrity, we will review all that and when the equipment goes to higher indexes, why not go up to 2 or 3 objects?

 

Cycle

Terms & Conditions

In short: 

How does Serenity work? It is a specialty mainly focused on DOTs (Damage Over Time), damage over time in spanish ^^

• Your Force in Balance heals you for 20% of its damage, debuffs all targets it hits making your DOTs more powerful (20% more damage for 15 times they trigger, lasts 30s) and makes it vulnerable to attacks area (10% more damage for 45s). It now hits 8 targets.
• Your DOTs can trigger (30% chance every 15s) the ability to use your Rotary Strike (does it) regardless of your target's standard of living.
• Any melee attack that hits a target hit by your Force Breach Force Technique triggers the Force Strike (which lasts 15s), cancels the delay of your Mental crush and your Eradication and allows you to use it for free. Available every 9s.
• Your Force Cut et Force Breach Heal 25% of the damage back to you.
• La Strength Technique Restores you 5 strength when it triggers.
• Serene Strike (12s CD) transforms 100% of the damage dealt into hit points.
• Eradication completely replaces theMental crush and increases Force attacks on the target by 5%.
• Under 30% of the target's health, the Force in Balance, the Eradication Force Breach and Force Cut deal 15% more damage.

Once all this information has been assimilated, we end up with a basic cycle that looks like this:

• I put my Force in Balance.
• I put my Force Breach.
• I put my Force Cut.
• I use my Serene Strike as soon as it is available ...
• ... or I use my Rotary Strike as soon as it activates or becomes available (under 30% of the target's health) ...
• ... Otherwise I use my Double Attack...
• ... Or when I have no more strength, I use Saber Strike.
• I put my Eradication as soon as it is available.
• I do my Force in Balance as soon as it is available.
• I put back my DOTs as soon as they disappear.
• And I continue in a loop ...

Here is a cycle which is not very complicated, it is enough to press on the buttons as soon as they light up or as soon as the small icon of the DOTs disappears from the Boss, but which however already does a lot of damage. Yes, Shadow DOTs hurt and that makes them an easy to play specialty for already powerful rendering. If you are just starting out and want to discover the DPS in operation, I can only recommend Serenity.

BUT...

The purpose of this guide is to take you to the next level of Shadow Serenity. All the little cumulative tips that I am about to present to you can earn you nearly 300 DPS and turn this simple specialty into an abyss of concentration. This part is intended to be exhaustive in terms of information concerning the Serenity Shadow. Some details are not of critical importance, but knowing them fully allows you to make the most of the shadow's potential at any time.

 

Advanced cycle above 30%

In details : 

Force in Balance, DOTs and Optimal Spacing

First of all, you need to know several things:

• Force in Balance is available every 15 seconds and should NEVER be delayed. Not only does it bring significant damage, but the debuff it poses makes DOTs even more powerful.
• Force Cut et Force Breach each last 18 seconds. Delaying the installation of a DOT implies loss of damage. In the case of Force Breach, this may also involve the delay in triggeringEradication. We should therefore NEVER delay the installation of one of these DOTs which has just ended (except under 30%, I will come back to this).

In a cycle where Force in Balance, Force Cut et Force Breach follow each other, we end up after a while with an overlay that forces us to delay the use of one of the three. Needless to say, we then lose in DPS.

The solution is therefore to space the installation of Force Cut and Force Breach of 3 GCDs. This makes the management of DOTs more complicated, because we no longer put them back at the same time and it is therefore necessary to monitor the 2 on the boss (or count up to 3 ^^), but this makes it possible to never superimpose the Force in Balance with the installation of DOTs.

La Force Strike, the proc ofEradication, can only be triggered every 9 seconds (i.e. a multiple of 18) which means that we are sometimes obliged to delay the installation of the Eradication to place the Force in Balance. Unlike before, this is not a problem because the DoT only lasts 6s and we therefore have 2 GCDs of margin to replace it without losing DPS. When this happens, do not place Eradication just after Force in Balance, but wait for the second GCD so that an overlay with the other two DoTs does not happen afterwards.

In addition, the optimal spacing of 3 GCDs makes it possible to place the Serene Strike always in the same place without ever overlapping with the rest either.

This gives us a diagram for an 18s rotation looking like:

Breach> A> B> A> Cutter Force> A> B> A> C> A> B> A

• A being the GCDs where we place Force in Equilibrium or Eradication.
• B being the GCDs where we place Serene Strike if available otherwise a melee attack
• C being the GCDs where we place a melee attack

 

On a 5 minute fight, the 3 GCDs spacing is not going to be very obvious in terms of DPS compared to a 1 or 2 GCDs spacing. Indeed, to cause this spacing, we will have to delay the installation of the Force Cut, delay which is equivalent to that found later in the cycle with a spacing of 1 or 2 GCDs. On the other hand, on a longer fight, the spacing of 3 GCDs is optimal.

Of course, this also only applies to a pole parse or a fight that doesn't require a lot of changing targets. From the moment you change the target and know that you will not be able to put your DOTs back as soon as they disappear, the spacing becomes much more anecdotal. In addition, the dispersion of DOTs by the Force in Balance will overcome this concern but we will come back to it.

There are 3 DOTs in all and all consume a charge of Force Suppression (asked by your Force in Balance). Except that there are only 15 charges!

• Force Cut fires 7 times in 18 seconds and is the strongest DOT
• Force Breach also fires 7 times and is a little quieter
• Crushing theEradication only fires 6 times and is the least powerful
• Crushing theEradication only fires 6 times and is the least powerful

So there is not enough charge for all DOTs. Prioritize the Force Cut and the Force Breach when there are always loads instead ofEradication therefore results in a gain of DPS.

However, beware, Eradication is an attack, DOT, and + 5% Force damage debuff all for free. While DOT should not be favored over Force Suppression charges, the entire movement remains powerful!

It should also be noted that what makes the Force Cut stronger is that it hits in internal damage and they are therefore not mitigated by the armor, unlike the other two which hit in kinetic damage. On bosses losing their armor, this can therefore change (Kephess on Asation for example). Note that with a loss of only 20% of armor (armor debuff of FT, Guardian, Shadow infiltration etc ...), Force-Force remains ahead.

Finally, a small detail: we always leave Force Breach et Force Cut end and we put them back in the GCD right after. It is then important to have a high APM (action per minute) in order to be able to have our GCDs in synchronization with the DOTs. The less synchronized they are, the more difficult it will be to recognize when to refresh your DOTs.

Having a little bit of alacrity in your gear could be a good counter to the APM which tends to fall into ops. See if it's worth it.

 

Melee attacks

There are 5 melee attacks, of which the Whirlpool shot, optional attack valid if there are several targets. We will talk about this later. The four that interest us are the Rotary Strike, L 'Rotary Attack Double Attack and Saber Strike. Necessary in the cycle to make proc the Force Strike, they are ranked according to three levels: damage, Strength and CDs.

• In terms of damage
• In terms of Strength
• In terms of CD and proc

La Rotary Strike is your biggest attack and therefore is your priority. It consumes as much Force as the Double Attack for more damage. It therefore completely replaces it. Above 30% it is only available thanks to the Denigration proc, triggered by your DOTs. This proc can only appear every 15 seconds, lasts 12 seconds, and is consumed as soon as your Rotary Strike is used. Where it gets interesting is that your Relics trigger every 20 seconds. This allows you, two out of three times, to match the Rotary Strike with them. Useless to specify the gain of DPS. Your Relics will not always trigger synchronously, however. They will sometimes even be shifted. You will then have to choose which Relic proc to use your Rotary Strike. Basically, favoring the Unexpected Assault is more profitable, but you must respect your cycle which will prevent you sometimes. In this case, do it on the Concentrated Punishment.

La Serene Strike is your second priority in terms of damage. It costs as much in Force and will, too, replace a Double Attack. It should be noted that it produces a substantial treatment, which can reach up to 9000. In a tense situation, it can therefore become a priority! As well as the Rotary Strike, placing it on the Relics proc is a DPS gain. If you can place your two big attacks on a proc of both relics at the same time, your DPS will receive a significant boost.

La Double Attack is your most used move that could be called the default attack.

Le Saber Strike is the weakest of your attacks. If you have Strength, you won't be using it.

If you have no more Force, logically the only attack you can do is the Saber Strike. Nothing difficult. On the other hand, where you must be vigilant, it is to anticipate the 2 or 3 GCD which come and what will be your consumption of Force at that moment there. Too much Saber Strike it is not enough Force consumed for more powerful attacks, not enough Saber Strike and it is the missing Force which obliges to delay an attack, to see to do nothing. This will slow down your DPS, on the one hand, but will destabilize the whole “harmony” of your cycle, and will irrevocably cause your DPS to drop.

For safety, we recommend to make a Saber Strike instead of a melee attack when under Strength 30. Starting off on that basis is a good point, but you will learn to recognize when you can tap a little more (use of Free Eradication, Readiness to Fight available) and when Force consumption will increase (Strength in balance mainly, sequence of Dot refreshes and attacks etc ...).

Having the durations of your Relic procs in mind will sometimes allow you to strike at Saber Strike in advance to anticipate the trigger and have the necessary force to make the trigger as profitable as possible and avoid making Saber Strikes on it.

Above 30% of the target's health, place the Serene Strike (12s of CD) before Rotary Strike will allow him to come back more quickly while the Rotary Strike is tied to a 15s CD which makes it available immediately, whether it was used 10 seconds ago or 2. In addition, every 30 seconds your set bonus at 2 allows the Serene Strike to produce a 2% damage boost. Being available every 30s, there will be only a 6 second delay between the set bonus CD and the one of the Serene Strike, the bonus will then be activated automatically when using the Serene Strike. So we don't have to worry about that.

We will therefore prioritize the Serene Strike from a DPS perspective in the length. The only exception will be when you have the Serene Strike and Denigration at the same time, your proc relics and you can only benefit from their boosts for an attack. In this case, we will prioritize the Rotary Strike rather than the Serene Strike, especially if the Rotary Strike benefits from the set bonus proc at 6. Be careful to replace the Serene Strike in its dedicated GCD so as not to be superimposed with the DoTs, theEradication or Force in Balance.

Likewise, the Double Attack triggers the set bonus to 6 every 60s making your next critical Rotary Strike. It is therefore important for the hiring to start with a Double Attack and to prioritize it every 60s (= 4 Force in Balance or Rotary Strike for a memo-technique).

Delaying these set bonus triggers is not very damaging if you are sure that you will be able to fully benefit from them during the fight and that a delay will not imply a loss of one of your bonuses because you have fallen on the front boss, or wipe etc ...

 

Strength Content, Readiness to Fight and Doping

La Strength Content gives you 2 charges (+1 thanks to Force Harmonic) which will be consumed as soon as one of your Critical Force attacks. While you have these charges, your Force critical chance is increased by 60%. So it's not self-criticism, as some people think. These charges remain for 20 seconds after the Content activates, allowing you to cast it early, in preparation for your future attacks.

In the Serenity cycle, only two attacks consume charges: the Force in Balance andEradication. We will always try to use one of the charges by the Force in Balance in priority and the second by a Eradication (Force Flow and Mental Crush also use some, but we'll come back to that).

Be careful, because if the Force in Balance hits multiple targets, it will use as many charges as it uses crit. This is a loss of DPS because the Force in Balance tends to crit on all its targets even with a single charge of Force Content.

In the cycle, you will have to be careful when you cast the Content if you haven't taken the Force Harmonic utility. Indeed, launching it as quickly as possible will allow you to recover it earlier in the course of the fight, and thus make more critics again, but between two Force in Balance, there can be two Eradication. If your Force Content is misplaced, you may run out of charges for Force in Balance.

THEReadiness to Fight has several effects. It restores you 15% health and heals you each time your Technique is going to trigger. It is therefore perfect for lifting you up slightly if your heals are in a bit of panic. In addition, it increases the damage of your Abilities by 50% and increases their proc chance by 25% for 15 seconds. On its own, it will only bring bonus DPS. On the other hand, coupled with a dopant, it will only be more efficient.

Note that when the Strength Technique deals damage, it is supposed to give us back 5 Strength points and Readiness to Fight increases its proc rate, giving us strength more often.

(Strange case, I cannot find this effect in my combat logs ... I therefore do not know if it is related to the Force Cut or simply to the triggering of the Technique.)

The Dopant lasts 15 seconds, which corresponds to an entire cycle of Force in Balance. To make it as profitable as possible, try to trigger it when you know that a maximum of DOTs will be running. You will be able to place a single Force in Balance, so don't bother to activate your dopant according to it. On the other hand, you must maximize the number of Rotary Strikes which are up every 15 seconds. The best way to do this is to wait until your trigger Denigration be there to launch your doping agent and thus ensure two Rotary Strikes.

Likewise, the Serene Strike being at 12s of CD, you will be able to place 2 of them if it coordinates well. Be careful not to disrupt your cycle though.

There are two particularly interesting moments to slam the dopant (apart from the particular boss strategy): the engage and once under 30%.

The specific commitment of which I will speak later makes it possible to make the use of Dopant as profitable as possible. In addition, the faster you use it, the faster you will get it later. Hitting very hard at the opening is not a problem thanks to our vanish (spell to disappear) which will reset the aggro (threat generated). You should also know that the Dopant has a 3-minute CD while theReadiness to Fight has one of 2 minutes. This makes it possible, on long fights, to use them in conjunction with the engagement and at 6 minutes of combat.

Below 30%, the dopant becomes particularly strong since the Rotary Strike is used almost every 6 seconds and your DOTs and Force in Balance are increased by 15%.

The Dopant CD is currently subject to alacrity. The Shadow is not too concerned because it does not have a skill increasing its alacrity, but if it turns out that this statistic is interesting in large numbers, this decrease in the Dopant CD will have to be taken into account.

 

Deflection, Resilience, Force Occultation, Phase Walk and Mass Mind Control

La Deflection only increases our defense, leaving all Force and Techno attacks to hit us without worry as the Résilience Only grants immunity to these attacks, but for 3 seconds only. This varies according to the bosses, you will quickly learn what to use the Deflection and the Résilience. However, you should know that most devastating attacks (mostly channeled) from bosses or addons are in Force or Techno while their basic attacks will be countered by Deflection.

La Résilience not really to be seen as a defensive CD, but rather as a tool which gives you the possibility to cheat the game. The curse on the Dread Guards of Asation? Résilience. Brontes balls? Résilience. The attack that should have one-shot you or hurt you? Résilience. Etc...

With Aplomb Deflection allows us to avoid controls which will require us to use it as a defensive CD, on the one hand but also as a tool, a bit like the Résilience.
With Spirit over matterIn Resilience (normal and during Force Occultation) accumulate at 9s, as said above, which allows us much more flexibility than before!

Le Mass Mind Control is both your desaggro and a 6 second CD that reduces damage taken by 30%. Perfect when you take the aggro from the boss because you protect yourself while reducing your threat, a little more limited when you are low in life and you have to hold out.

La Phase Walk is now inserted in 0,5 seconds, excluding GCD, which allows it to be placed while cycling. Use there to cover long distance after a bump or a TP (Raptus for example), to reposition yourself or conversely to go to safety (Titan 6 and its rocks). Used properly, it can save your life or save you precious seconds. If you took Shelter of Shadow, place it before the start of the fight where your healers will be placed so that they benefit as much as possible.

Finally, theForce Occultation has several interests: resetting your threat, generating Resilience if you have taken the corresponding talent, saving your life after a failed test, or even trying a fufu rez (going to revive the dead buddy because he has failed). not seen the AoE).

Whether or not you keep your Occultation in reserve will really depend on the need to reset your aggro (and therefore your tank) as well as the boss's mechanics for which Resilience would help you. In principle, I do not keep my Occultation for stealthy Ground (if I have it, so much the better, if not too bad), the chances of them succeeding in the middle of a fight being slim (except at specific time) and the group often having classes that can fight. The Rez Fufu is a bonus, no more, no less. If you want to place a fufu rez, remember to wait until none of your DOTs are spinning, otherwise it will put you back in combat.

There are also 2 other uses for using Occultation: getting out of combat allows you to use your accelerator (very useful on certain bosses requiring a lot of travel) and resets the limit of one medipac per combat. Very often, I vanish to be able to use the medipac again and thus reduce the work of the heals.

 

AoE and DOT dispersion

• AoE
• The dispersion of DOTs

With 3.0, all classes now have the ability to strike in zones, more or less easily. For the Serenity Shadow, this will go through 4 tools:

• La Force in Balance is an attack that now hits up to 8 targets with significant damage. But be careful if there are Adds and your main target (often the boss), make sure it is hit. Typically, if there are ten addons + the boss, do not hesitate to place your AoE so that it certainly hits the boss and only a part of the adds in order to ensure the installation of the debuff ( and pay attention to the Content charges as explained above), otherwise you will lose efficiency. This attack also poses a debuff allowing AoE attacks to do + 10% damage! Being up only every 15 seconds, you will need to find other attacks.
• L'Whirlwind Attack is your only melee attack typing in AoE. Note that if it hits a marked target on the Force Breach, it will trigger the Force Strike. THE'Whirlwind Attack Now costs the same as your other attacks, and when there are 3 or more targets within range, it can therefore fully replace the Double Attack in your cycle. If there are only 2 targets, you will have to choose between inflicting a little less damage but on 2 targets or inflicting more on one.
• If you absolutely must do maximum damage in AoE and you're running low on Force, you can also use your Force flow which has the advantage of being free. Be careful if you have Force Content stacks because the Force flow will consume them. Be careful not to take enemies out of your companions' AoEs. Best to only use it on uncontrollable adds.
• Finally, we now have the dispersion of DOTs thanks to the Force in Balance. We will talk about it right away.

How it works ? If the Force in Balance hits a target undergoing the Force Breach and Force Cut, any additional targets hit by the Force in Balance will be afflicted with these 2 DoTs for 18s. Be careful, if a target already suffers DoTs, it will not be reset to 18s duration. For DoTs to disperse and apply for 18s duration, targets must not be already afflicted with them.

It is therefore necessary to apply its DoTs (theEradication is not affected) then start its Force in Balance by hitting as many targets as possible. Of course, like any mechanism involving DoTs, this will only be really interesting if the targets live for at least more than ten seconds after dispersal.

In the case where the targets have a sufficiently long lifespan and the mechanics demand to hit them at the same time, we have the life much simplified. Before, you had to use multiple GCDs on targets to afflict them all with DoTs. This is no longer the case.

We can now apply our 2 DoTs on our main target, hit both with the Force in Balance and continue our cycle on the main one. When your Force in Balance is available again, do not use it. Likewise when your first DoT ends, don't put it back. Wait for your 2 DoTs to disappear from your primary target and use your Force in Balance by making sure that it hits a secondary target that still suffers your DoTs from the first dispersion (you have a 1,5s window from the disappearance of your second DoTs on your primary target). This will scatter your DoTs again and your primary target will be hit by them again without you needing to invest GCDs (melee attacks will be used instead) and Force in them. On the other hand, your secondary targets will find themselves without DoTs in the 3s that follow.

We can therefore otherwise proceed otherwise, waiting 1,5s more so that no secondary target contains more DoT and we use this time to keep the others on our main target, always delaying our Force in Balance to place it only when we are sure that it will disperse the DoTs. This allows to increase the DPS by the DoTs on all the targets, to the slight detriment of the damage in mono on the main one.

There are several possible combinations of this type, each with advantages and disadvantages. To know which one you choose, it will depend on the life of the targets (if low health, the DoTs will be unprofitable and we will favor a fast AoE DPS) and the strategy (the targets must be dropped together? 'other? Etc ...) as well as your party (should I catch up to the DPS of my party members by increasing the damage on their target? Should I focus on mine as they hit as hard or harder than me? ? Etc ...).

This mechanic is common to other classes (Juyo with Force Sweep, Vigilance with the new class spell). Always think about the fact that they too can scatter their DoTs.

Finally, it is important to specify that on some bosses, the dispersion mechanics of DoTs can turn against you. For example, Asation Nightmare, on the Dread Guards and Nightmare From Elsewhere. Ciphas and Kelsara being tanked side by side, the Force in Balance plus DoTs can gradually bring Kelsara to 75% involving the pop of adds. On Nightmare, the "infinite" range of attacks will scatter DoTs over the boss as you tap the tentacles, potentially bringing the last phase ahead and potentially putting your party in difficulty. Not to mention the 3rd Ravager boss where it could kill the little repair droids.

So be careful.

 

Projection and Telekinetic Throwing

These two attacks do not normally enter your cycle. However, don't take them out of your bars. You will sometimes be led to use them: immobilized far from your target you can use Strength Content to make a Telekinetic Throw at 30m, the Projection is an instant mid-range attack that can sometimes enter a movement phase outside of 4m melee attacks while your DoTs are already active.

Sometimes you don't want to go melee (Draxus 'Subteroth, Raptus' Force Execution etc ...) and / or need to keep your Force in Balance for just after on the next target. Using these attacks works around the problem.

In short, it remains anecdotal.

 

Eradication + Mental crushing

It is possible to put its two DoTs at the same time in several ways despite the fact that it shares a common CD, thanks to the proc of the Force Strike. Simply channel the first spell without the proc, then trigger the proc with a melee attack on the afflicted target of the Force Breach.

The buff of Force Strike for 15s and can appear every 9s, there is also a 6s window to place the two attacks one after the other. Just delay the use of Eradication once the Force Strike available for 7,5s (5 GCDs), use it then, follow up with a melee attack if the Force Breach still spinning on target, this will proc for a second Force Strike allowing you to place your Mental crush.

The interest will often remain limited because it leads to a decrease in DPS but in the case of a specific burst, I prefer to talk about it. An example that comes to mind would be Brontes on Dread Fortress. We could thus use this technique to place on the Kephess which pops the two DoTs plus the rest of our cycle. Likewise with the droids on the ray phase.

I couldn't test it but it could be interesting.

 

Classes that combine well with the Serenity Shadow

With 3.0, another less showy mechanic has arrived. Each class has the ability to land specific buffs that everyone can benefit from. For Serenity, this is a + 5% to Force damage byEradication and a + 10% to area damage by the Force in Balance. We will therefore think of other classes of Jedi typing mainly in Force and having AoE abilities entering their cycle, even in mono.

The Scholar of Balance or Telekinesis seems ideal to benefit from both buffs. The Guardians, Sentinels and Shadows Infiltration having a large share of melee damage, they will be less affected even if the Surveillance, for example, has 40% of its DPS due to its DoTs and therefore in Strength.

Serenity will benefit from armor debuffs (75% of its DPS being mitigated by armor and 25% being internal), Strength buffs (60% of its DPS), as well as area effects (10% of its DPS by the Force in Balance + the possible uses of Coup Tourbillon).

For details, I refer you to the image of the parish at the end of the guide.

 

The Commitment, Order of Priority and Cycle

When we add all this information, we come to this order of priority above 30% of the boss's life:

1. Force in Balance as soon as up
2. Force Breach (or Force Cut) to replace the DOT
3. Force Cut (or Force Breach) to replace the DOT
4. Eradication (if Force Strike)
5. Saber Strike if under 30 force
6. Serene Strike
7. Rotary Strike (with Denigration)
8. Double Attack

We will tend to prioritize Force Breach above Force Cut when we want a triggerEradication, and the reverse when the trigger is not immediately available and we want to prioritize the higher damage of Force Cut (but it is rare in particular because of the short time between two eradication).

I also remind you that it is better to place the Rotary Strike and the Serene Strike on relic procs.

 

Shadow, like many DPS specs, has an engage that's slightly different from its usual cycle.

Here is the most optimal opening in terms of DPS and profitability of our different buffs (dopants, Alacrity, ranger bonus to 2, raid buffs if launched, etc ...). It is used in particular for parses on an operating pole.

1. Strength content ahead of combat (approximately 5 seconds before pull)
2. Eradication pipeline
3. Force Breach
4. Doping + Readiness to Fight + Relics (if present)
5. Force in Balance
6. Melee attack according to priority (here Double Attack for the set bonus)
7. Rotary Strike (if Denigration proc + Relic proc otherwise Serene Strike)
8. Force Cut (3 GCD after Force Breach is placed)
9. Eradication
10. Serene Strike or Rotary Strike (according to phase 7)
11. Melee attack x2
12. Eradication (end of dopant)
13. Force in Balance
14. Force Breach
15. We continue following the priority ...

We will try to prioritize the self-criticism of the set bonus at 6 on the relics proc rather than the triggering of the bonus at 2, because it is more profitable in terms of damage. If you are not comfortable with tight management of the Force and engaging it as close as possible, I recommend that you do not precaster the Eradication.

Note that we respect the place of the GCDs of DoTs, Eradication, Force in Balance and Serene Strike.

If you aren't able to get close enough to your target, you can exchange Force Breach with Force Cutter, although this is slightly less optimized. I do not recommend it because the whole cycle is transformed.

With stealth and Force Speed, there is almost always a way to perform the previous tap, even if it means delaying the application of your Force Breach very slightly.

 

There is another priority order that places Eradication above Force Breach and Force Cut. The cycle appears more complex since sometimes we will still prioritize Force Breach to have the Force Strike, which will tend to shift the 3 GCD spacing and destabilize the cycle.

Personally, I have always had less good results with it, but I would point it out anyway. The advantage is that it coordinates better with the cycle under 30% boss health and tends to be easier to burst.

 

Burst and when not to apply DOTs

Difficult to burst when you have a DoT spec which draws its effectiveness over time. And yet ...

The order of priority for burst is the same as under 30% insofar as we will prioritize the attacks that do the most damage. It will also be necessary to take into account an important thing: how quickly will the target die?

Indeed, putting down your DoTs means using 1,5 seconds for a skill that only draws its power over the long term. A DoT tick is about 1000 damage points. At the same time, you could have inflicted 3000 with a Double Attack.

On the other hand, under 18 seconds Force Breach is equivalent to 7000 points of minimum damage, Force Cut 9000 and Eradicate to 8000 in 6s, much stronger than your biggest attack!

If it takes longer than 18 seconds, you can do your usual cycle and increase it by one. Readiness to Fight, from Strength Content and / or a Dopant.

If it will not survive more than ten seconds, you can put your Eradication if you already have your Force Strike. If it is slightly more resistant, you can also lay your Force Breach to have a second Eradication.

Finally, if the target will only last 3 or 4 GCD, no need to place a DoT. Simply hit her with your melee attacks.

 

With 3.0, we have the possibility of stringing together three big attacks with Rotary Strike, Serene Strike et Force in Balance. By anticipating the burst, you can even keep your Eradication and his Denigration to have 8s of burst. Without criticism we arrive at a minimum of 27 damage points:

1. Rotary Strike by Denigration (kept in advance)
2. Force in Balance
3. Force Strike Eradication (guarded in advance)
4. Serene Strike
5. Rotary strike if the target has dropped below 30%

That is 3350 DPS without any criticism. With some criticism (especially the Strength Content), buffs, relics, the burst can easily reach much more, up to 6000.

 

Priority order and Cycle under 30% (execute phase)

When we go under 30% of the target's health, our DoTs, theEradication and our Force in Balance hurt more and above all you can use Rotary Strike without Denigration. The cycle under 30% is a clever mix between the prioritization of our biggest shots with the maintenance of our DoTs.

Delay a Rotary Strike is difficult at this time because it is our biggest attack and we risk in addition to having the Denigration when the Rotary Strike is already available when we could chain two in a row. We will then tend to make it our priority. The only attack that passes in front is the Force in Balance thanks to his heavy damage and his Force Suppression debuff (and sometimes Force Breach when we want to have Force Strike only if it is considered that to delay Rotary Strike of a single GCD will not be a problem).

La Serene Strike go after the Rotary Strike because of its longer CD and the possibility of proc du Denigration.

La Rotary Strike passing in front of the two DoTs, its more frequent and delayed use less often to maximize the DPS, the Force consumption then increases (because it costs 2 more), which makes the Saber strikes also more frequent so as not to delay anything. Suddenly, theEradication which hits hard and which is free (thus allows to regen its force for a GCD without loss of DPS) becomes all the more important. Especially since increased by 15%, it now does more damage than Force Breach. It therefore passes above the other two DoTs in the priority list if there is a lack of Force and above Force Breach unless it implies a delay of proc of Force Strike.

We end up with the following order of priority:

1. Force in equilibrium
2. Rotary Strike
3. Eradication (if Force Strike and lack of force)
4. Force Breach (to proc Force Strike)
5. Force Cut
6. Eradication
7. Force Breach
8. Serene Strike
9. Saber Strike (in anticipation of Force consumption)
10. Double Attack

I put Saber Strike above Double Attack arbitrarily because the rule of> 30% Force is completely exceeded by the need to anticipate the Force available for the next hits. We will also do as much to see

Note that delaying the refitting of your DoTs too much may also make you lose DPS ... I repeat, therefore, it is a clever dosage that is hard to take in hand. If you manage to keep your DoTs as much as possible on target without missing any Force in Balance and placing a maximum of Serene Strike and Rotary Strike by Denigration and natural CD, your DPS will skyrocket.

Also be careful not to put your DoTs down when the target has only a few seconds to live, as we discussed above.

The cycle under 30% is a real puzzle to optimize and will ask you to have all the durations in mind (Denigration, proc of relics, refresh and spacing of DoTs, proc of set bonuses, etc ...) in addition combinations possible if multiple targets.

I suggest a parse under 30% at the end of the guide in order to clearly see the increase in damage and the prioritization.

 

Know how to adapt your interface to the DOT spec

In your interface editor, select the target frame. Check highlight Debuffs to have your debuffs surrounded by a yellow border, check Personal Debuffs in the sorting option and finally, put by time remaining in the Debuff sort type.

This will allow you to have your DoTs and debuff at the bottom of the debuff area, those ending soon on the far left and thus be able to more easily monitor the remaining times of your DoTs. Feel free to experiment with other configurations to choose the one that suits you best.

 

Conclusion and Parses

I think I've done the rounds of things to know about Serenity Shadow in PvE. If I forgot any, I would be happy to add them (well, details like "I switch to Combat Technique to put my protect on a low DPS alive which will benefit from the 5% damage reduction" or "I run away to get out of combat, put on a stuff tank and taunt the boss", it's still too anecdotal ^^).

As you have seen, a multitude of procs, of priorities, sometimes conditional, come together to make the cycle of Serenity a rotation much more complex to master than it seems. Despite my numerous proofreading and modifications when necessary, it is not impossible that some errors are still lingering, or that a small effect is forgotten or not specified. I am thinking in particular of the priority lists which do not always repeat the details explained previously.

Despite my desire to make an exhaustive guide, I sometimes had to simplify it so as not to make the thing indigestible (which is already too much ^^), otherwise I was not doing it ^^

If there are any passages that are unclear, please feel free to ask questions, I will try to answer them.

For those who would like to see how the damage is distributed, I have selected a parse on a 1.000.000 hp pole and armor reduction (the standard established on the official forum):

I chose this parse because the crit is slightly lower than average (30% for melee attacks, 25% for DoTs, 40% for Eradication and Strength in Balance thanks to Strength Content). It is therefore a good point of reference for those who would like to compare with their parish. The stuff used is mainly in 192 with still 186 optimized and 198 not optimized. Set bonus 4/6 + the old 2/4. The spec is very regular, the majority of my parses on a pole oscillating between 4300 and 4450 with climbs to 4550, but never below.

The same parse with the part under 30%. We can see the increase in damage of the Force in Balance, DOTs as well as the initial attack of the Eradication. We also see the Rotary Strike coming back much more often.

Note the HPS of 800 far from being ridiculous for a DPS, which will often have the ability to relieve your healers if they are aware of your ability to partially recover. Leaving a Serenity at 80% of life to take care of another person will make this high HPS profitable. Most of this treatment is done by La Frappe Sereine.

I would like to remind you that I may be wrong on several aspects and / or conclusion and that nothing can replace one's own experimentation.

I am currently working on a video guide that can complement this paper guide. In the meantime, I hope you liked and interested this guide.

PS: Thanks to Onidra and Juliaan who had to do the layout a second time because of me and my many modifications on this guide ^^