concealment guide w readability edits

7/25/2019 Concealment Guide w Readability Edits

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SWTOR 4.0 Concealment Operative &

Scrapper Scoundrel PVP Guide by Knin

and Dr-gfGlossary of Terms

This guide is primarily written from the perspective of Concealment Operative but will double as

a Scrapper Scoundrel guide. As such, here is a glossary of commonly used terms and

analogous abilities between the two specs. These will be repeated periodically in the guide to

refresh your memory but not every single time for the sake of readability. The same will be true

of terms not used often enough to bother including in this table. Experienced players will likely

want to skip these terminology sections.

General MMO terminology:

AOE: Stands for Area of Effect. This refers to abilities and affect an area rather than a specific

target. Also sometimes referred to as Cleave.

CC: Stands for Crowd Control. This refers to abilities that stun an enemy but break on damage.

This is opposed to hard stuns which stun them regardless of damage taken afterwards. CCs

are also known as mezzes. Operative CCs are Flash Bang and Sleep Dart (also known as a

sap).

Hard stun: Hard stuns are stuns that do not break on damage. Typically 4 seconds in SWTOR.

Your hard stun is Debilitate or Dirty Kick.

DOT: Stands for Damage Over Time. Refers to abilities that deal their damage over a given

duration rather than all at once.

HOT: Stands for Heal Over Time. Like a DOT, but it heals you or a teammate instead.

LOS: Stands for Line Of Sight. Refers to putting an environmental object between you and

enemies to prevent incoming damage.

GCD: Stands for Global Cooldown. This refers to the 1.5 second (this is slightly modulated by

your alacrity rating) cooldown that triggers anytime you use an ability that is not specifically off

the global cooldown. For example, if you use Laceration you will not be able to do it again for

the approximately 1.5 seconds that is the GCD.


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DR: Stands for Damage Reduction. Refers to abilities and items (e.g. Warzone Adrenal) that

reduce incoming damage by a specific percentage.

Cleave: Same basic definition as AoE, but it is a more defined area than simple AoE.

Yellow Damage: When this is mentioned what is being talked about is anything that does Tech,Kinetic, Force, Internal, Energy damage. So people claim that anything that does that type of

damage is considered yellow damage because the number that appears is yellow.

White Damage: When this is mentioned what is being talked about is anything that is Weapon

Damage, otherwise known as white damage because the number that appears is white.

____ Window: Anytime a a word is followed by window all that is being said is the duration of

that effect. I.e. flashbang window means the window of opportunity to perform an ability or

multiple abilities for its duration.

Imperial Republic

Tactical Advantage (TA) Upper Hand (UH)

Tactical Opportunity (TO) Round Two (RT)

Laceration Sucker Punch

Veiled Strike (VS) Bludgeon

Backstab (BS) Backblast

Volatile Substance (Sub) Blood Boiler

Corrosive Dart (CD) Vital Shot

Debilitate Dirty Kick

Crippling Slice (No-turn) Shank Shot

Exfiltrate Scamper

Shield Probe Defense Screen

Evasion Dodge

Stim Boost Pugnacity

Flashbang Flash Grenade


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Countermeasures Surrender

Holotraverse Trick Move

Sleep Dart (Sap) Tranquilizer

Kolto Probe (Probe) Slow-release Medpac (Medpac)

Kolto Infusion (Infusion) Kolto Pack

Introduction

Concealment Operative (Scrapper Scoundrel) is a high skill ceiling melee DPS spec that brings

a completely unique combination of utilities to SWTOR PVP. Concealment damage is

simultaneously bursty and very sustained, being able to string 10K+ hits together like no otherspec in the game. Concealment enjoys exceptional survivability thanks to resisting 100% of

attacks while using Exfiltrate (Scamper), allowing you to ruin enemy burst phases with timely

use in addition to high mobility. A 30 second hard stun and a 4 second, no-turn root with

Crippling Slice (Shank Shot) grant you some of the best control in PVP. Kolto probes

(Slow-release Medpac) provide low-maintenance off-heals both for yourself and your

teammates. And last, but certainly not least, Concealment is the undisputed king of the 1v1 --

making you perfect for stealing and guarding off nodes in warzones, picking off lone enemies,

and winning duels.

Rating

Single Target DPS: 7

AoE DPS: 1

Group utility: 7

Difficulty: 8*

Burst: 6

Sustain: 10

*Concealment is fairly simple to pick up and play but is very difficult to master and has a particularly high skill ceiling.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:

Very sustained burst damage

High mobility

Control (30s hard stun, 4 second no-turn root, 12 second slow)


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Two 100% resist rolls every 9 seconds

Low-maintenance, cheap off heals

Difficult to finish a kill on

Strongest 1v1 class in PVP

Weaknesses: Heavily reliant on 4-meter abilities

Situational defensive cooldowns

Reliance on Exfiltrate to survive*

Highly susceptible to dying through stun

Difficult to DPS while being focus-fired

*While Exfiltrate is extremely good for avoiding damage entirely, needing to use it to avoid damage comes with disadvantages as

well. Unlike defensive cooldowns such as Shield Probe or Evasion, it costs you a GCD that could be used for dealing damage. It

will move you away from targets in melee situations (such as when you roll the Ambush of a Sniper you are on), creating space for

your target. Using Exfiltrate to avoid damage also prevents you from using it as a gap closer later, because it also plays that role in

Concealment.

Gearing and Stats

We will be proposing two cookie-cutter builds for Concealment here, revolving around whether

or not to use alacrity. The first does not use any alacrity and is recommended for new players,

particularly if you are new to playing melee DPS in SWTOR PVP. The reason being that alacrity

is wasted if you do not have high up-time, with up-time referring to how well you stick to your

targets and are stringing GCDs together. You already take enough stuns, roots, slows, knock

backs, and CCs in PVP as a melee DPS as it is so if you struggle to stay on targets alacrity will

largely go to waste. If you are an experienced player the alacrity build is very viable and werecommend trying it out. Both builds use the full Enforcer set -- the auto crit Volatile Substance

(Blood Boiler) is a must-have. Feel free to tweak these as well. The only rules are do not ever

use accuracy, do not run massive amounts of Alacrity, and take it easy on Crit -- it is subject to

diminishing returns in the same way that other stats are.

Power Build

Accuracy: 0

Alacrity: 0

Crit rating: 1370 (Crit PVP earpiece, implants, and enhancements will yield this number)

Power: ~3391 (Adv. Lethal mods 40X + 14 power augments will yield roughly thisnumber)

Relics: Power and Mastery (Serendipitous Assault + Focused Retribution)


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Alacrity Build

Accuracy: 0

Alacrity: 429 (1 Quick Savant Enhancement 40X + 4 Alacrity Augments)

Crit rating: 1671 (Adept Earpiece, Implants + 6 Adept Enhancements 40X + 6 Crit

Augments)

Power: 2661 (Adv. Lethal Mods 40X + 4 Power Augments)

Relics: Power and Mastery (Serendipitous Assault + Focused Retribution)


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Utilities

For the sake of flexibility (and also brevity) we will keep the number of set utility layouts here to

a minimum with specific discussions of the utilities worth mentioning at the end so that you can

tailor your own builds to specific situations when the time comes. These presets are by no

means the only viable options. Note that they only include 6 talents, leaving the 7th for you to

choose between Evasive Imperative (Scramble) and Augmented Shields (Hotwired Defenses).There is a detailed discussion of the EI vs AS choice at the end of the Utilities section of the

guide.

The Basic Layout

This build is the beginning build for an overall rounded play. It is perfectly acceptable to grab

Infiltrator (Sneaky) over Hit and Run (Holdout Defense) if you prefer it. There is one free point


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for you to choose between Evasive Imperative (Scramble) and Augmented Shields

(Hotwired Defenses).

The Aggressive Layout

This build is designed to maximize sticking power and raw DPS. There is one free point foryou to choose between Evasive Imperative (Scramble) and Augmented Shields (Hotwired

Defenses).


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The Utility Layout

This build sacrifices sticking power and DPS in order to take pressure off your teammates with

bulkiness and buffed flashbangs (Flash Grenade). You can also solo defend objectives for days

with a build of this sort. There is one free point for you to choose between Evasive

Imperative (Scramble) and Augmented Shields (Hotwired Defenses).


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Skillful Tier Utilities Discussion

Nanotech Suit (Smuggled Get-up): AOE damage reduction. Outside of trying to maximize

survivability, we generally do not recommend this talent. AOE damage is often avoidable and is

not as scary as it used to be in SWTOR. This talent is sometimes viable in solo ranked,depending on whats in the queue.

Chem-resistant Inlays (Scar Tissue): 5% passive damage reduction. This is a great talent and

is useful in a lot of situations. Very high survivability is already one of Concealments (Scrapper)

strengths and this utility plays into that niche perfectly, making you even harder to finish a kill

on. Combines well with Fortified Kolto (Supplemented Medpac), which is discussed later.

Imperial Weaponry (Let Loose): Increased Carbine Burst (Blaster Volley) damage. This is a

terrible utility -- do NOT use it.

Flash Powder (Flash Powder): Enemies have 20% reduced accuracy after Flash Bang (Flash

Grenade) ends for 8 seconds. This is a solid utility in the right situation. You have buffed

defense chance in Concealment as it is and 20% accuracy reduction for 5 GCDs is nothing to

scoff at, especially if its on multiple targets. Drawbacks to this utility are that it is useless when

you are flashbanging a healer and that it spends large portions of time waiting to be triggered,

rather than actively providing a benefit to you.


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Hit and Run (Holdout Defense): Speed boost after using Veiled Strike (Bludgeon). Another

solid utility and a rather fun one to use at that. The 6 second cooldown on Veiled Strike means

that taking this talent will result in you moving at 50% bonus speed for a significant portion of

battle. The only drawback to this utility is that it requires you to already be within melee range to

trigger the speed boost.

Infiltrator (Sneaky): Passive speed boost and increased stealth level. This is a decent talent

and we recommend it for the aggressive build. A passive speed boost will never go to waste

while playing melee DPS and the extra stealth level helps open on your target on your terms.

Slip Away (Dirty Escape): Debilitate (Dirty Kick) cooldown reduction. A 30 second cooldown

on your hard stun? Yes please. This is a great utility.

Curbing Shots (Curbing Shots): Adds a slow to Overload Shot (Quick Shot) and Carbine

Burst (Blaster Volley). This is a poor talent. As long as Sever Tendon (Tendon Blast) exists andthere is little need to be using Carbine Burst and Overload Shot in Concealment this talent will

be bad.

Masterful Tier Utilities

Pin Down (Stopping Power): Sever Tendon (Tendon Blast) roots for 2 seconds. This is a fairly

strong utility for a few reasons. Youre already going to be using Sever Tendon often as it is --

its a 10 meter ranged, 50% slow that lasts for an obnoxious 12 seconds. Adding a root makes

it even better as a gap closer and, on top of Crippling Slice (Shank Shot) and a 30s hard stun,

creates a ridiculous amount of control. The root can improve kiting in situations that call for it aswell.

Precision Instruments (Anatomy Lessons): Reduced energy cost on Debilitate (Dirty Kick)

and Sever Tendon. A poor utility that is not worth your time. These abilities are already not

particularly costly and are not used rotationally.

Med Shield (Med Screen): Shield Probe (Defense Screen) heals for 5% when it collapses.

Outside of builds designed to be as bulky as possible we generally do not recommend this

talent, at least in part due to the fact that Fortified Kolto (Supplemented Medpac) is superior to it

as a defensive utility. If keeping probes up on yourself is something you struggle with you may

consider this utility but it would be better to take Fortified Kolto and just fix your habit of letting

probes fall off instead.

Advanced Cloaking (Flee The Scene): Cooldown reduction on Cloaking Screen (Disappearing

Act) and Sneak (Sneak) and speed boost upon using Cloaking Screen. We do not recommend

this talent. It isnt terrible but it is just inferior to other choices available to you. Sneak suffers

from a short duration and no immunity and cloaking screen is often just not going to be needed


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every 90 seconds. Additionally, Exfiltrate (Scamper) makes the speed boost upon using

Cloaking Screen almost obsolete.

Sedatives (Sedatives): When Sleep Dart (Tranquilizer) wears off the targets damage is

reduced by 50% for 10 seconds. This is an absurdly powerful talent in 1vX situations. 50%

damage reduction is enormous. 10 seconds equates to 6 GCDs. This allows you to start 1vXsituations with a huge lead and then can be triggered again later with Cloaking Screen and

another sap.

Counterstrike (Dirty Trickster): Countermeasures (Surrender) purges all movement impairing

effects. This is a great talent for Concealment. Enemies will try very hard to root you in order to

kite or ensure their burst lands. Having a root/slow break every 45 seconds is nearly

indispensable for Concealment. Only drop this if you are speccing to be as bulky as possible.

Endorphin Rush (Keep Cool): Adrenaline Probe (Cool Head) restores an additional 15 energy.

This is a poor talent. You should never be letting your energy get so low that you need thistalent in order for Adrenaline Probe to get you back into the safe range of 60+ energy.

Fortified Kolto (Supplemented Medpac): Each probe (medpac) on yourself increases damage

reduction by 3%. This is one of the new talents we got with 4.0 and it rocks. It was already

worthwhile to keep probes on yourself in many situations so a passive 6% damage reduction is

just the icing on that cake. Combining this with the 5% DR from Chem-resistant Inlays (Scar

Tissue), the healing from your probes, and 100% resist/dodge chance on Exfiltrate makes it

possible to create extremely bulky talent builds for Concealment.

Heroic Tier UtilitiesImperial Tactics (Get the Bulge): Sever Tendon (Tendon Blast) grants a TA (Upper Hand).

Not a good utility. If you are playing your cards right TA (Upper Hand) generation should not be

an issue anyway and the talent just does not compete with others in this tier.

Evasive Screen (Skedaddle): Cloaking Screen (Disappearing Act) grants 2 seconds of

Evasion (Dodge). Having 2 seconds of Evasion upon stealthing out is nice but we feel that this

talent is generally not worthwhile. Sometimes you just dont need Evasion upon stealthing out.

Even with Evasion you can still be stealth scanned or hit with yellow damage AOEs. Stealthing

and Exfiltrating (Scampering) is often good enough for the situation (Exfiltrate will allow you to

resist the DOT damage temporarily). Also, if you take Evasive Imperative, a superior talent, you

often have Evasion available to manually pair with Cloaking Screen. Its frustrating that

Cloaking Screen is particularly unreliable without this utility but we feel that is a frustration worth

accepting for better talents.

Jarring Strike (K.O.): Backstab (Backblast) used from stealth roots for 3 seconds. Having a

root on stealthed Backstab is nice but it is just not in the same league as other talents in this

tier.


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Evasive Imperative (Scramble): Being attacked reduces the cooldown of Evasion (Dodge) by

3 seconds. This is a great utility and one of the few viable utilities in this tier. The low rate limit

(1.5 seconds) and high reduction per trigger (3 seconds) mean that, if youre being tunneled,

you get to use Evasion very often -- a little under every 30 seconds in perfect conditions. The

main drawback to this utility is that the effectiveness of Evasion is is highly dependent uponsituational awareness and what specs youre going up against. It is easily wasted if used at a

bad moment and its helpfulness varies vastly depending upon what specs are targeting you.

Revitalizers (Surprise Comeback): Stim Boost (Pugnacity) grants 20% damage reduction and

5% of total health every 3 seconds (25% over the duration). This is an absolute must-have

utility -- never leave home without it. One of Operatives biggest weaknesses as a melee DPS

is the lack of a strong damage reduction cooldown similar to Cloak of Pain (Rebuke) for

Marauders (Sentinels), Saber Ward for Warriors (Knights), or Energy Shield (Reactive Shield)

for Bounty Hunters (Troopers). This talent fills that gap for us. Popping Stim Boost for

Revitalizers allows you stay in fights you might otherwise have needed to roll out of orsurvive/mitigate burst that, for whatever reason, you cannot avoid or cannot afford to avoid (e.g.

you need to finish a kill ASAP) in some other way.

Augmented Shields (Hotwired Defenses): Shield Probe (Defensive Screen) absorbs 30%

more damage. This is the final quality utility in the heroic tier. The short cooldown on Shield

Probe is its main strength but its main weakness is that it simply doesnt absorb much damage

and this utility goes a long way to alleviating that. Over the course of a long engagement the

damage absorbed by this talent will add up.

Escape Plan (Smuggled Defenses): Cooldown reduction on Escape, Shield Probe , andInfiltrate (Smuggle). This is a decent utility but is generally inferior to Revitalizers, Augmented

Shields, and Evasive Imperative. The cooldown reduction on Infiltrate hurts it a lot -- that aspect

of the utility is basically worthless. 5 seconds on Shield Probe is just not enough to make much

of a difference (although it does mesh well with Augmented Shields). 30 seconds on Escape is

very nice, especially given how vulnerable Operative is to dying through stun, but is just not

enough to justify this talent.

Circumvention (Sleight of Foot): Holotraverse (Trick Move) purges movement impairing

effects. Another talent that is useful but just inferior to other heroic utilities, which is only

exacerbated by the fact that Counterstrike (Dirty Trickster) provides the same effect while being

lower hanging fruit in the masterful tier and not requiring that you blow your leap to get the

root/slow purge (there will be moments where you want the purge but dont need the leap).

Augmented Shields (Hotwired Defenses) vs. Evasive Imperative (Scramble)

Because Revitalizers (Surprise Comeback) is a must, your 2nd heroic utility should usually

come down to Augmented Shields or Evasive Imperative . We feel these are both good, viable

choices and are to a large degree interchangeable so wed like to discuss the advantages and


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disadvantages of each in detail. Evasive Imperative , as a general rule, is much more

situational than Augmented Shields . If you are being attacked often or constantly, especially

against specs reliant on DOTs and/or white damage, Evasive Imperative is likely to be more

valuable than Augmented Shields . If you are being occasionally swapped to for targeted burst

or attacked by specs that dont really mind Evasion, Augmented Shields is likely to be more

valuable than Evasive Imperative. Sometimes you can be aware of what situation you arewalking into and pick accordingly (e.g. a duel). Also keep in mind that Evasion is easily wasted

if timed poorly or if youre not very familiar with damage types in SWTOR and which specs rely

on what for the majority of their damage. A final mention for Evasive Imperative is that it makes

your odds of being able to successfully stealth out of combat with Cloaking Screen

(Disappearing Act) better, since we dont recommend Evasive Screen (Skedaddle). It is still far

from a guarantee though.

I often lean towards Evasive Imperative based on its potential to avoid extremely large amounts

of damage in the right circumstances, the likelihood that it will grant me multiple extra uses of

Evasion in the team fighting environment that I spend most of my time in, and the popularity ofDOT spreading specs in that environment (Im looking at you, Madness). Knin often leans

towards Augmented Shields based on its advantages over Evasive Imperative in 1v1 situations.

Evasions potential for avoiding damage is noticeably decreased in 1v1s and you are almost

guaranteed to get less mileage out of the cooldown reduction in 1v1, leaving you running the

risk of not actually getting an extra Evasion in the 1v1. The talent is completely wasted in that

situation. Additionally, using your roll to avoid specific attacks is often more of a nuisance in

team fighting environments than it is in 1v1s. As such, having Evasion available often in team

fights to avoid needing to roll is beneficial for keeping your DPS up. In a 1v1 this doesnt really

matter.

Abilities and Important Passives

Tactical Opportunity (Round Two): Tactical Opportunity (Round Two) is a passive ability

granted early in the Concealment tree. It causes Collateral Strike (Flying Fists), which is

triggered by every Laceration (Sucker Punch), to immediately regrant the Tactical Advantage

(Upper Hand) it just spent if the target has one of your poisons (bleeds) on it. This has a rate

limit of 10 seconds. Triggering this as often as possible is actually rather high up in the

Concealment priority system, which will be discussed in detail later in the guide. We are

mentioning this passive ability before your active abilities because being aware of how it works

is necessary to understanding how to use your other abilities efficiently.

Laceration (Sucker Punch): Laceration is the bread and butter of Concealment . It is your

most-used ability and, if you add in the damage from Collateral Strike (Flying Fists), accounts for

nearly 40% of your total damage in a dummy parse. It also generates TAs periodically via TO.

It costs 1 TA and 10 energy but Collateral Strike restores 2 energy when it does damage for a


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total cost of 8 energy. This makes Laceration extremely cost effective relative to how much

damage it deals.

Veiled Strike (Bludgeon): This ability is an upgrade to Shiv (Blaster Whip). It deals solid

damage, generates 1 TA, and applies a debuff to the target that causes it to take 5% extra tech

damage. The cooldown is 6 seconds and it costs 15 energy. It makes up a fairly significantportion of your damage if you are spending your TAs consistently but this is largely due to its

low cooldown -- Veiled Strikes role in Concealment is mostly as a TA generator and not as a

highly effective damage dealer (at 15 energy it is fairly costly relative to its damage). As such

you should NOT use this ability if you are sitting on 2 TAs or 2 UHs, even if it is off cooldown.

Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler): Volatile Substance is Concealments biggest hit, has an 18

second cooldown, costs 15 energy, and applies a 7% internal damage debuff (Volatile and

Corrosive Dart (Vital Shot) are your internal damage). It has a unique triggering mechanic, in

which activating the ability applies it to the target but it needs a few seconds to settle in. After

it has settled in the damage will trigger when one of your DOTs (Acid Blade/Flechette Round orCorrosive Dart/Vital Shot) deals damage to the target. The 6 piece enforcer set bonus grants

an auto-crit to this ability once every minute, activated by Veiled Strike (Bludgeon). Keep in

mind that Volatile Substances delayed trigger mechanic makes the ability predictable if your

DOTs are already on a target, which can be exploited (e.g. Saber Reflect). It can also result in

the ability being wasted if someone gets blown up before it can go off. Lastly, Volatile

Substance counts as a poison, allowing you to trigger the TA regrant from Tactical Opportunity

(Round Two) if Acid Blade or Corrosive Dart are not present.

Backstab (Backblast): Backstab has a 12 second cooldown and costs 8 energy with the

enforcer set. It does a lot of things besides high damage and you should be familiar with all ofthem. When you use Backstab in stealth it will grant you 1 stack of TA (Upperhand). Upon

using Backstab you get 30% armor penetration and 5% extra crit chance for 15 seconds. The

15 second buffs relative to the 12 second cooldown give you a little wiggle room to keep this

buff up at all times, if possible. Backstab also drops the Acid Blade (Flechette Round) DOT on

your target, which can trigger your Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) and generate TAs when

you Lacerate (Sucker Punch) into the DOT.

Corrosive Dart (Vital Shot): Corrosive Dart is a 30-meter, 18 second DOT that serves 2

purposes in Concealment . It provides decent damage provided the target actually takes the full

duration of the ability and is also your most reliable way of triggering the Tactical Opportunity

passive due to its long duration (Acid Blade and Volatile Substance are present on targets for

much less time and are therefore less reliable for triggering TO as often as possible). Proper

use of Corrosive Dart is one of the trickier aspects of playing Concealment well for a number of

reasons. For one, its combination of having no cooldown, a 30-meter range, and a relatively

high energy cost make it possible to burn through your energy very quickly if you are not careful.

When possible, try to be certain that you are sure of your target selection before applying this

DOT -- if you end up switching targets shortly after it will cost a lot of energy for very fluffy,


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unhelpful damage. Corrosive Dart can also be dangerous in 1vX situations because, if left

uncleansed, it prevents you from CCing targets with Flashbang (Flash Grenade) or Vanish +

sap.

Crippling Slice (Shank Shot): Crippling slice is a 4 second root that also prevents your target

from turning. It has a 12 second cooldown and costs no energy. The 4 second root is greatenough as it is for controlling enemies and the no-turn aspect allows you to position yourself

directly behind them, preventing them from attacking you for the duration. Using this ability will

often tempt enemies to use escapes like Force Speed if they have them. If they dont, they

have to no choice but accept your burst.

Sever Tendon (Tendon Blast): Sever Tendon is a 10-meter slow that reduces the targets

speed by 50% for 12 seconds. 50% slow for 12 seconds is extremely annoying for classes that

want to kite you and if you take the Pin Down talent, it also roots them for 2 seconds. This

ability is extremely good for preventing attempts to kite you. It is best saved for after your target

has used abilities like Force Speed or Hydraulic Overrides, because these abilities will removethe slow.

Overload Shot (Quick Shot): There is only one time this should be used and that is when an

Assassin (Shadow) uses Force Shroud (Resilience).

Holotraverse (Trick Move): Holotraverse is a 30 meter teleport ability that was granted to

Operative with the 4.0 expansion. It has a 45 second cooldown and can teleport you to both

teammates and enemies, followed up by 3 seconds of 75% boosted speed. In Concealment

you will typically use this to close the gap between you and enemies, but teleporting to

teammates can still be useful. You should be aware that, unlike the leap abilities in SWTOR,Holotraverse essentially slides you directly towards enemies. As a result of this, it is very prone

to running into ledges and edges between you and the target. Sometimes this leaves you only

part of the way to your target or, even worse, right where you started. The raised square floor in

the middle of Ancient Hypergate or the catwalks in the Orbital Station arena are typical culprits.

Sneak (Sneak): By default Sneak increases your stealth level by 15 for 8 seconds, making you

nearly undetectable. Sneak is buffed by the Ghost passive in Concealment , causing its

cooldown to be reset every time you leave stealth and making it useable out of stealth for a 50%

speed boost for 6 seconds. Because leaving stealth resets the cooldown, you will always want

to use Sneak before opening on your target from stealth -- there is no reason not to. The

out-of-stealth speed boost is excellent for sticking to targets that have buffed speed themselves,

such as a Bounty Hunter that has used Hydraulic Overrides, or have slowed you. It is also good

for kiting and escaping bad situations entirely. We generally do not recommend using this to

gap close if possible because the cooldown on Sneak is not particularly short (45 seconds) and

you have other abilities better suited to gap closing. The speed boost from Sneak suffers from a

fairly short duration of 6 seconds and no innate immunity of the sort that Hydraulic Overrides


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and Force Speed (with Emersion) have. This makes using Sneak after being full resolved an

effective way to ensure you actually get to take advantage of it.

Exfiltrate(Scamper): Thanks to the Shadow Operative Elite passive, Exfiltrate becomes one of

the most effective defensive abilities in SWTOR on top of the amazing mobility it grants to

Operatives. As a Concealment Operative you dodge or resist everything while rolling. Hardstuns, CCs, Electronets -- all of it. This aspect of Concealment goes an extremely long way to

its dominance in 1v1s because it allows good Operatives to roll through the most essential

abilities of other specs. Also, the way Exfiltrate works in Concealment goes a long way towards

its status as a very high skill-ceiling spec. This is because there is practically no limit to how

effectively a Concealment player can use Exfiltrate. Im going to leave discussion of this ability

at that for now as it is discussed in detail in the 1v1 section of the guide.

Shield Probe(Defense Screen): Shield Probe is your simplest defensive cooldown. It absorbs

roughly 9-11K damage without Augmented Shields and roughly13-15K with AS. The short

cooldown allows you to be relatively liberal with this ability because it will be up often.

Evasion (Dodge): Evasion makes you immune to all white damage (melee and ranged attacks)

for 3 seconds and purges all removeable effects. It has a 1 minute cooldown by default and a

variable length cooldown if you take Evasive Imperative. Generally speaking it is preferable to

use Evasion for the purge when you are covered in nasty DOTs and debuffs than for dodging

white damage, largely due to the fact that big hits from white damage (e.g. Ambush) are often

better avoided using Exfiltrate. That being said, there are times when you cannot or do not want

to roll and simply pressing your Evasion and not needing to worry about rolling white damage is

perfectly worthwhile. Note: That while stunned Evasion is mitigated. Even though you

might have it active it will not work while you are stunned. So the melee dodge andranged defense 200% bonus is completely ignored. This goes for any other class that has

something analogous to this ability.

Stim Boost(Pugnacity): By default Stim Boost grants 10% Alacrity for 15 seconds and a

Tactical Advantage. With the Revitalizers(Surprise Comeback) talent, which we believe is a

must-have, it also grants 20% damage reduction and 25% of your health over the duration. The

cooldown is 2 minutes. Stim Boost with the Revitalizers talent is a fantastic damage reduction

talent that also buffs your offensive capabilities through the Alacrity boost and a free TA. As

such, this ability is best used in moments when youll be taking a lot of damage to maximize the

utility of the damage reduction, relieve pressure from your tank/healer, and create opportunities

for your DPS teammates to lay down a lot of damage on enemies focusing you.

Debilitate (Dirty Kick): This is your 4 second hard stun. With Slip Away (Dirty Escape) it has a

30 second cooldown which, outside of Snipers (Gunslingers) who also talent the ability, is the

shortest in SWTOR. As such, you can afford to be more liberal with how much stunning you do

while playing Concealment. That being said, you should not use this ability mindlessly either.


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Your hard stun is very effective for preventing kiting, or lining up burst before your target can

use defensive cooldowns or escapes.

Flashbang (Flash Grenade): Flashbang is a 10-meter, AOE CC with a 1 minute cooldown that

lasts for 8 seconds. As far as CCs go, Flashbang is truly exceptional. Unlike other AOE CCs it

has the same 8 second duration as ranged, single-target CCs. If you see an opportunity to CCmultiple targets that are not dotted or about to be cleaved, Flashbang can create huge

advantages for you and your teammates.

Sleep Dart (Tranquilizer): Sleep Dart, also known as a sap, is a single target CC that lasts for 8

seconds but is only useable from stealth. It has a wide array of uses, including creating initial

number advantages for your team upon engaging the other team, allowing you to open on your

terms in 1vX situations, nerfing enemy damage after your opener if you take Sedatives, and

stealing objectives in warzones without firing a shot (Ancient Hypergate pylons are particularly

susceptible to this). Using Sleep Dart in duels will be discussed in great detail in our section on

openers and 1v1s later in the guide.

Kolto Probe (Slow-release Medpac): Kolto Probe is your spammable HOT. It costs 10 energy,

stacks up to two times, and lasts 18 seconds. This is your most reliable way of healing yourself

and teammates because it cannot be interrupted, has no cooldown, and is low maintenance in

the sense that it only takes 1 GCD every 18 seconds to maintain two stacks of it on a target.

Keeping 2 stacks on yourself as much as possible is a must for dueling effectively and can

relieve a non-trivial amount of pressure from your tank/healer in tough team fights.

Kolto Infusion (Kolto Pack): Kolto Infusion is your cast heal that provides healing much faster

than Kolto Probes but with significant drawbacks. On average it will heal for less than 2 probeswhile also costing more energy AND a TA. On top of that, it is likely to be interrupted and the

cast leaves you unable to chase or kite. It also has a 9 second cooldown. These cons of the

ability hurt a lot less in protracted 1vX situations where there are often periods of time where the

opponent is CCd or youve kited and/or LOSd away from him and have nothing better to do. In

team fights, however, try to only be using Infusion in situations where you or a teammate really

need the extra healing.

Tactical Superiority (Stack the Deck): This ability is the Operative raid buff, granting 10%

extra crit chance for 10 seconds to all teammates within 40 meters at the cost of a TA. The 5

minute cooldown on this ability dictates that you should be conservative with it and save it for

moments where it is likely to provide a lot of benefit to you and your teammates. When

possible, I like to pop this ability in moments where Im sitting on 2 TAs and have the means to

generate another one already available or am planning to hit Stim Boost (Pugnacity). It is less

likely to mess with your rotation this way.


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Dummy Rotation and Openers

Before we discuss the dummy rotation (please note that it is actually a priority system and not

a set rotation but I will use the terms more or less interchangeably) we would like to point out an

enormous caveat to it that applies to PVP in general. The rotation that does the most raw DPS

to a dummy is very often not actually ideal in PVP. For example, you generally do not want to

open with backstab (Backblast) in 1v1s. Exceptions of that sort aside, we will discuss the

dummy rotation anyway for two reasons. The first is that being aware of what the dummy

rotation looks like will improve your ability to adapt that rotation for the dynamic PVP

environment. The second is that you do periodically get to execute the dummy rotation. What

follows here is what a PVE Concealment Operative is going to use on an operations boss, in

order from highest priority to lowest.

1. Stealthed Backstab / Stealthed Backblast

2. Volatile Substance / Blood Boiler

3. Backstab / Backblast

4. Veiled Strike / Bludgeon (ONLY if Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) > Veiled Strike (Bludgeon) >

Laceration (Sucker Punch) (this will trigger TO) > Corrosive Dart > Laceration > Veiled Strike >

Laceration

And so on.

Final Mentions

Before jumping into the 1v1 portion in the guide I would like to briefly go over a few other tips

that dont neatly fit anywhere else in the guide.


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Sneak spam for fast rotates: Because Sneaks cooldown is reset every time you leave stealth

you can abuse this when covering large distances while out of combat (e.g. rotating to assist at

a bunker in Novare Coast) by activating the boost and then popping into stealth and

immediately back out of it once the speed boost is up. In this way you can have Sneak up

almost constantly in addition to Exfiltrate to speed up your already fast rotates.

Carrying the Huttball: If you care to be conscientious and be as helpful as possible in the

Huttball warzones, youll want to do the lions share of ball carrying. Two Exfiltrates that resist

everything every 9 seconds and a leap that can teleport you to teammates or enemies make

you the best spec for carrying the ball in the game. Use Exfiltrate to cross fire/acid pits (there is

almost never a need to try walking across them), dodge nuisances like Electro Net and pulls,

and generally gain a ton of ground. Save your breaker for moments when you absolutely need

it. When you dont have anything else going on spam probes on yourself. Since they grant a

tick of the HOT each time you reapply it there is no reason not to do so during downtime when

you are just walking with the ball.

Concealment (Scrapper) 1v1 guide

Hello, in this section I, Knin, will be going over my personal experiences and thoughts as to

what to do in certain scenarios in 1 v 1s against all Classes with sub-categories per spec.

HEALING SPECS WILL NOT BE REVIEWED IN THIS SECTION! ONLY DPS AND TANK

SPECS WILL BE REVIEWED!!!!!

This section will cover specifically

1) Concealment (Scrapper) vs all classes and their respective specs (minus healing specs)

2) Optimal openers

3) Possible counter openers

4) Burst timing

5) Defensive Timings

6) Roll timings

7) Infusion / Scan usage

- Note that anytime I use "roll resist" I am speaking directly about the resist you get on

Exfiltrate (Scamper) while in Concealmentspec.

- Note as well that anytime I state "CC" I am talking about Crowd Control (Defined asanything that stops them from doing any action, i.e. stuns and any form of a mez)


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There are 3 Dueling Builds that are used:

A possible build when dueling stealthers: (You can replace Augmented Shields with Evasive

Imperative in Heroic if you so desire in this build) (Another thing you can do is spec into

Sedatives in the Masterful tree to give them a nice debuff to reduce their damage dealt by 50%)

The 2nd General Build for Dueling: (You can replace Augmented Shields in Heroic for Evasive

Imperative if you so desire)


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Last General Build for Dueling: (You can replace Augmented Shields for Evasive Imperative in

the Heroic tree if you so desire)


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General Tips for Dueling as a Concealment Operative :

1) You have 2 optimal openers and 2 sub-opener.

a) Optimal opener 1: Sleep Dart (Tranquilizer) -> Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) ->Kolto Probe x2 (Slow-release Medpac) -> Snipe (Charged Burst) -> Debilitate (Dirty

Kick) -> Veiled Strike (Bludgeon) -> Backstab (Backblast). With this you can even hit

Stim Boost (Pugnacity) + Tactical Superiority(Stack the Deck) before using Backstab

and proceed to go full aggressive for the duration of Tactical Superiority and Stim Boost.

b) Optimal opener 2: Sleep Dart (Tranquilizer) -> Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) ->

Kolto Probe x2 (Slow-release Medpac) -> Snipe (Charged Burst) -> Crippling Slice

(Shank Shot) ->Backstab (Backblast). With this one you notice I don't throw in a Veiled

Strike (Bludgeon) to get your auto-crit on Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler), that is

because most of the time they will either Cleanse or use Countermeasures (Surrender)

(or if you are very lucky they panic break thinking it's a Debilitate) to get rid of your

no-turn root. This allows a partial burst to go off so then you can setup your auto-crit for

a better Debilitate (Dirty Kick) window to combine it with Tactical Superiority (Stack the

Deck).

c) Optimal opener 3 (for when the fight is in action): Stealth out -> Sleep Dart

(Tranquilizer) -> Infusion (Kolto Pack) if you have a TA (Upperhand) -> Volatile

Substance (Blood Boiler) -> Snipe -> Backstab. Here is this opener if you run the alacrity


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build: Stealth out -> Sleep Dart -> Infusion if you have a TA -> Kolto Probes x2 ->

Volatile Substance -> Snipe -> Backstab.

d) Sub Opener 1: This is for when you land a Sleep Dart (Tranquilizer) and they end up

white barred from it. In this instance it is best to do Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) ->

Kolto Probe x2 (Slow-release Medpac) -> Snipe (Charged Burst) + Backstab(Backblast). Due to them being white barred you can't do much else, so this is the best

you can possibly put forth in this window.

e) Sub Opener 2: This is ONLY for when you stealth out and they are white barred.

When you stealth out and try to re-engage and they are white barred then this is

basically your only to force them to stay in combat and in the fight. You could simply stay

in stealth and wait for the white bar to end, but I find it easier to keep the fight going

without the tempo dying off.

2) You have 2 counter openers that are optimal:

a) If they use the optimal opener 1 I listed above then you have 2 options, Eat the

damageor use your CC breaker and immediately stun them so that their damage is mitigated. Be

careful when doing this for if you get counter off and they have Stim Boost (Pugnacity)

active it's best to get your auto-crit proc and damage boost proc and just wait out the

damage reduction buff they have from Stim Boost (Pugnacity).

b) If they use the optimal opener 2 I listed above then you all you need to do is either

cleanse the root from Crippling Slice (Shank Shot) or use Countermeasures (Surrender)

to break it and follow up with your Debilitate (Dirty Kick) or your own Crippling Slice

(Shank Shot). This one is more uncommon but is still used, so some form of counter is

nice to have :).

3) Burst timing is a simple concept. All you have to do is watch your buffs for your relic procs

(power and mastery) and then try to put either your main burst with Volatile Substance (Blood

Boiler) into them or try to get off as many Lacerations (Sucker Punches) as possible. That is the

minor part, however, if you want the big guns then it's slightly harder for you have only 1 single

window open for the big daddy burst. With the big daddy burst you have to watch for not only

your relics, but for their Kolto Probes (Slow-release Medpac) to be off and no Stim Boost

(Pugnacity) up, if both are not there then you have the perfect opportunity to tear them apart by

popping Tactical Superiority (Stack the Deck) with your relic procs and going straight ham. If

they have their CC breaker up then they will 100% guarantee use it, if they don't have it up then

they are pretty much dead meat.

4) There isn't much to say about Defensive Timing considering you really only have Shield

Probe (Defense Screen) and Evasion (Dodge). The best way to do this is to relate what they do

to certain things. Shield Probe is best used off cooldown and doesn't really have a "timer" you

should go by. Same with Evasion, but with Evasion you can time it do mitigate a full white burst

if you'd rather save your roll for kiting or yellow damage.

5) The fun one and one that uses brain power -- roll timing. There are very few things you have

to time to a certain window with your Exfiltrate (Scamper). One of those is Thermal Detonator


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which looks like a gray ball debuff, this is one you want to roll right before it goes off to mitigate

the damage (Only Advanced Prototype and Innovative Ordnance have this ability), another to

time is Force Leech to which you Exfiltrate right before the cast completes, another is Ambush

which has the same rule to Exfiltrate before the cast completes, and finally the rare Thundering

Blast which yet again you time your Exfiltrate to right before the cast completes. Outside of that

it is a chunk of predicting when they will do certain things and roll hoping you were correct, so allit takes is practice. Me writing a full part to this won't help much because it comes down to

practice more than anything.

6) Finally, proper usage of Kolto Infusion and Diagnostic Scan. Kolto Infusion can be used

anytime you use Debilitate (Dirty Kick) or Crippling Slice (Shank Shot), this will provide a burst

heal and a minor hot to help balance out the damage you take. The only time you really can

diagnostic scan is if you CC them with either Flash bang (Flash Grenade) or Sleep Dart

(Tranquilizer) to heal up. Then it is fine to Kolto Probe x2, Kolto Infusion, and do a Diagnostic

Scan channel. From there it's simply try your best to keep 2 Kolto Probes on during the entire

fight (minus stealth phase) and rotate in Infusion when you can.

7) One that is not widely known is that your Exfiltrate (Scamper) affects your stealth level.Basically what Exfiltrate does is that when you roll you are moving too fast for the game to

register you in stealth detection. This is extremely useful against snipers and their passive

increase of stealth detection, so when you roll at them while in stealth or roll around they CANT

see you at all.This Exfiltrate mechanic also works for Stealth Scan, basically allowing you to roll

right through the scan without being detected. It is a mechanic that most operatives dont know,

so I figured I might as well spread the knowledge of this mechanic so more can understand how

strong this ability of ours is.

Concealment Operative vs. Sorcerer (Sage)

IMPORTANT (FOR SCRAPPER SCOUNDRELS ONLY): ANYTIME I MENTIONPRESETTING BLOOD BOILER ON THE SAGES OR SORCS BARRIER YOU CANT

DO THIS. BLOOD BOILER HAS BEEN BUGGED FOR A LONG TIME AND WILL

NOT PRESET ITSELF WHILE THEY ARE BARRIERED. ONLY VOLATILE

SUBSTANCE CAN BE PRESET ON A BARRIER!!!!!!!!!

Madness:

Dueling a Madness Sorcerer (Sage) is one of the easier matchups for a Concealment Operative

because of how squishy the Sorcerer (Sage) is. It is extremely important to stick on the target

with, Holotraverse (Trick Move), Exfiltrating for gap closing, using Sneak for the 50% movement

speed boost, and keeping them slowed when their Force Speed is down. Another key point is to

interrupt when you can to save your roll resists for more defensive points!! It's a very straightforward fight once you learn how to stick to the Sorcerer (Sage), but there are still 2 key abilities

you need to time to "roll resist"

1) The highest priority to time so you can roll resist the damage is their Force Leech

(Force Serenity) which has a 1.5 second cast. This ability is their heavy hitter and

especially with Recklessness (Force Potency) can tear a hole in your health, so do not

underestimate the potential damage burst that comes from Force Leech (Force

Serenity). If you roll resist it you are looking at mitigating a hit that can range from 8k -


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12k which is very key in keeping a healthy health bar without having to over-heal

yourself.

2) The second priority, which is a little harder to time because you have to do it correctly,

is to time their Force lightning (Telekinetic Throw) -> the instant Demolish (Force

Serenity). This is what Demolish (Force Serenity is just a recolor to blue and white). Ifyou dont roll it then use your Evasion (Dodge) to cleanse it. The typical madness

sorcerer (Sage) (about 80% of the madness population) will cast Force Lightning and

immediately use Demolish. The easiest way to counter it, is to watch their cast bar and

Exfiltrate (Scamper) somewhere between .3 seconds left and .7 seconds left, yes a

decent window, but VERY specific. If you manage to Exfiltrate between that window then

you will also catch the Demolish in the last split second of your resist buff on Exfiltrate

(Scamper) therefore reducing a lot of DoT damage follow-up.

Once you get down the Roll Resist portion you now move on to problem the most annoying part

of the entire duel, trying to keep in melee range of your target. One thing to note, most

Sorcerers (Sage) will phase walk just to kite you! Save your Holotraverse (Trick Move) for this

occasion and simply pop that sucker once you see them use Phase Walk to instantly get backon the target. If you don't have Holotraverse up then your only options are to pop sneak and

rush to the target or SAFELY Exfiltrate over to the Sorcerer. If you have to Exfiltrate then you

need to do so in a very timely manner making sure you don't overlap the resist buff. This will

typically counter any phase walk play as long as you follow those steps in priority order

Holotraverse -> Sneak / Exfiltrate.

The last thing, which is probably the biggest complaint I've heard, is their Barrier. Which,

surprisingly is a very easy solution! You have 2 options here

1) The non-troll approach - Simply stand next to them while they are channeling barrier,

for those playing OPERATIVE you can preset your Volatile Substance on the Sorcerer

while they are channeling where-as a SCRAPPER SCOUNDREL cannot preset their

Blood Boiler due to a bug. Once your Volatile Substance is preset during their channelyou have one job left to do, don't screw this up Jim, and that is to Flash Bang (Flash

Grenade) IMMEDIATELY after the channel ends. What this does is catch the Sorcerer's

barrier buff in the full Flash Bang duration of 8 seconds so that you don't waste time

hitting into that forsaken bubble.

2) The troll approach - The same thing as stated above with one minor change. While

they are in the channel and after you preset your Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) you

can do /dance for the rest of the channel and then do the Flash bang (Flash Grenade)

maneuver at the end and /dance again until the barrier after-bubble ends. (I personally

enjoy this second option the best cause it's a lot of fun!)

Lightning:

You rarely see Lightning Sorcerers in duels, but I still should cover this area even though it is

simple. There are only 2 major differences in this matchup from Madness, other than the

following 2 difference you play it the exact same way. The differences

1) The biggest is that instead of trying to Exfiltrate (Scamper) the Force Leech you are

now going to Exfiltrate the Thundering Blast cast. Doing so will allow you to not only

resist the Thundering Blast, but the follow up instant cast Chain Lightning.
http://imgur.com/eVvvXcE


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2) DON'T BOTHER TRYING TO INTERRUPT A LIGHTNING SORC FOR THEY GAIN

IMMUNITY TO PUSHBACK AND INTERRUPTS EVERY TIME YOU INTERRUPT.

Therefore simply go ham and keep in range to beat / stab them into a pulp!

Concealment Operative vs. Assassin (Shadow) (NOTE THAT KITING WHILE THEY HAVE

FORCE SHROUD (Resilience) UP IS A GENERAL TIP OVER ALL 3 ASSASSIN (Shadow)FIGHTS. SO KEEP THAT IN MIND!)

Darkness: Typically if you ever run into a duel against a Darkness Assassin (Kinetic Shadow)

they are running what is called "skank tank", which is tank spec in full DPS gear to allow for big

hits and the tanky part from the tree for damage reduction. For this matchup there are 3 key

points to cover that will make or break the match

1) In my opinion one of the higher priorities, is to find where they placed their phase

walk. An Assassin's phase walk can be setup to provide a MASSIVE comeback or

turnaround if used properly, unlike a Sorcerer that uses it for kiting and creating a gap.

As the duel is starting run around in stealth with sneak active trying to find the phase

walk, once you find it try to play around the Phase Walk as best as possible so you

eliminate that cooldown to a simple waste of time. If you don't find it and the fight startsthen keep a keen eye when the assassin uses phase walk for they might immediately

follow up with a vanish -> dash -> sap to then out of combat regenerate.

2) The highest priority once the stealth phase ends is to make sure you roll as many

Depredating Bolts / Cascading Debris as possible, for they will hurt like heck if you don't.

You can get by with simply rolling once and then probing yourself to take care of the last

tick. Fairly simply to see and easy to time.

3) The second priority during the fight is to watch for a buff called "Force Shroud"

(Resilience). Force Shroud makes the Assassin immune to any force and tech damage

for 3 seconds by default, unless they are taking the utility for it which increases theduration to 5 seconds. Once you see Force Shroud come up you have to play like a total

baby, meaning run away, probe yourself up, pop Shield Probe (Defense Screen) (if it's

up), and simply kite them for the duration of shroud. Keep in mind that you CAN setup a

Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) burst right as Force Shroud ends to catch them off

guard with burst.

Outside of those 3 key points, Darkness is fairly straight forward. Find their Phase Walk and

fight around it, roll Depredating bolts, and kite during Force Shroud.

Deception: This matchup is one of the harder ones for Concealment simply because if they

have their auto-crit up the burst is real. I personally have dueled a few Assassin's and it's one ofthe harder matchups for me personally. There are a few pointers I can give that have helped me

to best most Deceptions I fight only really losing if I totally screw up.

1) Same thing as listed in Darkness is to find their Phase Walk in the stealth phase of the

duel and try to fight around their Phase Walk. This eliminates the possible comeback

combo with their phase walk and gives you one less thing to worry about.

2) There is nothing you can actually time to the second to use Exfiltrate (Scamper) on.

With that in mind this tip becomes very difficult, because you have to actually time their


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specific BUFFS as to when to Exfiltrate (Scamper) and when not to. One of the buffs you

want to watch for is the discharge ability but in their buff tray, what this does is each

stack (up to 3) increases the damage their next Discharge does by a certain amount.

When you see them hit 3 stacks it is totally safe and alright to Exfiltrate in hopes of

resisting that discharge. Another buff looks like a ball or just look for a buff that has a

hand holding a lightsaber, what this one does is reduce the cost of their Ball Lightningand makes it trigger a stack for Discharge off it's normal proc rate.

3) One of the most IMPORTANT notes when dueling a Deception Assassin is to NOT

PANIC BREAK. If you freak out and panic break you leave yourself open to getting

absolutely torn apart and dominated if the Assassin (Shadow) is competent enough. If

you see the Assassin Low Slash you and prepare a Crushing Darkness, don't panic, you

will be fine I promise! Typically they will do a Low Slash -> Crushing Darkness ->

Electrocute combination. When you see them do this do not panic break the low slash

for it will screw you over later on in the duel, simply wait for the electrocute stun to hit

and then break into a camera spin + Debilitate (Dirty Kick) to shut down their damage. If

you spin and Debilitate quick enough it probably will scare your opponent into breaking

that Debilitate . If they break that Debilitate counter and they are not white-barred thenyou are looking at a free win! Keep calm, play around them not having a breaker, time

your burst rotation as stated above and abuse their vulnerability to CC.

4) A note about the sap regen combo: be aware that they will more than likely (80%

chance) go for a sap out of combat regeneration combination. If they get you into that

and you have your breaker and are confident in finishing the job, then you simply need

to CC break the sap, Holotraverse (Trick Move) to cover the ground (if necessary) and

lock them down and finish the kill. It gets a little tricky when they pull off the sap regen

and you don't have a CC break, if caught in this you need to stay calm and simply follow

their movements. If they follow up by going in stealth then do the same and go into

stealth, pop sneak, and the fight basically reset with a slight advantage on your end.

Hatred: This can be played aggressively or defensively.

1) The Defensive style - Hatred might have received some nerfs, but the damage is still

unreal if everything goes off. The key thing to watch for in this matchup with this style is

their Leeching Strike (Serenity Strike) / Thrash (Double Strike) while you have Discharge

(Force Breach) on you for that will proc their instant cast Demolish (Vanquish is a recolor

to blue and white). If you see Discharge (Force Breach) on you and catch them using

Thrash (Double Strike) or Leeching Strike (Serenity Strike) you should roll IMMEDIATLY

so that you end up resisting their demolish. This mitigates quite a bit of damage over the

duration of the fight. If you can get that down then this fight is in the bag with this"beginner" style.

2) My personal method, the GIMME DAT BOOTIE style. This style is based on pure

aggression with the only defensives being some rolls, Shield Probe (Defense Screen),

Evasion (Dodge), and Stim boost (Pugnacity) damage reduction. What I do here, both if I

get the opener (one of those stated above) and if I don't, is that I stick to the Assassin

like glue constantly applying damage and pressure to put them on their heels. This is

centered around going aggressive and only rolling when you think they are going to
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demolish. Outside of that you play up in their face and try to never let up while managing

your probes for the 6% damage reduction. This makes for fast paced duels and is really

better off in those hands that are experienced.

REMINDER: FORCE SHROUD MECHANICS ARE THE SAME WHEN FIGHTING ANY OF

THE 3 SPECS. AGAINST ANY OF THOSE SPECS YOU WANT TO KITE THEM FOR THEDURATION!!!!!!!!!!

Concealment Operative vs. Marauder (Sentinel)

This is an easy matchup against all 3 specs in general, but there are still some key pointers to

watch out for to make sure it is as easy of a win as possible. A BASIC KEY IS TO MAKE SURE

YOU TAKE THE COUNTERSTRIKE UTILITY (PURGES MOVEMENT IMPAIRING EFFECTS

INCLUDING ROOTS) AND USE THAT ON THEIR RAVAGE ROOT FOLLOWED WITH A

ROLL!!!!! Dont Forget That You Should Kite Them Or, Even Better, CC Them If You See

Undying Rage (Guarded By The Force looks Blue)On Their Buff Bar!!

Annihilation: All you really need to do here is pop Evasion when you see both bleeds on you(Deadly Saber and Rupture). Apart from that, if you're specd into Counterstrike you should use

that to break the Ravage root and just roll during the channel to kill that damage source. Outside

of that the next biggest factor is to make sure you can Flash Bang them during their Undying

Rage. Easy enough fight with nothing big to worry about.

Carnage: Still relatively easy, but can be kind of scary if you don't or can't break their burst

window. The main thing to do here is if you see them activate their armor penetration buff from

Gore or Precision Slash and you are stunned, you need to break that stun as quick as possible

and either 1) Follow up with a Debilitate (Dirty Kick) or Flash Bang or 2) Simply RUN! As long as

you do one of those 2 things in their burst window this is a free and easy win.

Rage: Same thing, relatively easy but scary burst if no CC breaker. Save your Shield Probe

(Defense Screen) for after they leap and use your Evasion (Dodge) to cleanse Force Crush

(Force Exhaustion). Aside from that play it the same as Carnage and Annihilation with the

Countermeasure purge on Ravage root and roll away. Fairly easy, simply stun lock them, burst

them when they are open and Flash Bang them when Undying Rage is active.

Concealment Operative vs. Juggernaut (Guardian)

General Tips against Juggernauts (Guardians):

1) DO NOT BY ANY MEANS HIT INTO THEIR SABER REFLECT!!!!! This is what Saber

Reflect looks like!!!! If you see them hit reflect you need to Debilitatethem and wait it out.If you don't have Debilitate up then Crippling Slash and run directly behind them and wait

it out. If you can't do either then Exfiltrateaway and simply kite them during Saber

Reflect.

2) Another extremely key point when facing a Juggernaut (Guardians) is that you HAVE

to save your Flash Bangfor their Enraged Defense (Focused Defense, click for image)or

as I call it "nine lives". This is their stacked buff that heals them every time they take

damage. If you do NOT have Flash Bangfor this part then your only other option is to
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Cloaking Screen and sap them while waiting for the buff to end. By no means should you

EVER have to hit into it unless you only have Debilitateor Crippling Slice in which case

you have to abuse the 270 degree hitbox and run around for the rest of the buff duration.

Immortal: After the recent buffs to the damage output of Immortal Juggernauts (Guardians) thisskank tank version is more widely seen for 1v1s amongst Juggernauts. It has high survivability

and INSANE burst if you are not careful. Generally you play against Juggernauts the same way

as Marauders (Sentinels). Follow the 2 general key points given for fighting Juggernauts as a

whole. Use your rolls defensively to keep yourself healthy and keep probes up. DO NOT be

afraid of casting infusion during a hard stun or any form of CC / no-turn against an Immortal

Juggernaut. This specs key burst will come from back-handing you.

Vengeance: One of the more annoying specs to play against as Concealment. The main

mechanic that plays into annoyance is their leap immunity. You CANNOT stun or do any form of

CC / slow after they leap for 4 seconds. The easiest counter I have found is to use

Countermeasure to purge that root and roll afterwards to time out their immunity. Save your

Evasion for when all 3 of their DoTs are ticking away on you to kill off that damage so you onlyworry about the direct hits. Once it is up play it out normally while following the general tips

given above and you'll win!

Rage: A VERY VERY VERY scary burst if you refuse to break or simply don't have your CC

breaker up! This can be played exactly like the Rage Marauder (Sentinel) matchup with Saber

Reflect and Enraged Defense Mechanics as stated above. Reminders: use your Evasion to

cleanse their Force Crush, try to roll after every leap, and play around your stuns.

Concealment Operative vs. Mercenary (Commando)

General mechanics for all Merc specs:

1) By all accounts the biggest counter is their net. When they apply Electro Net to you

the easiest counter to it is to pop your Stim boost (Pugnacity) and tank it. The "rotation" I

use when I get Netted is as followed Stim Boost -> Kolto Probe (Slow-release Medpac)

-> Shield Probe (Defense Screen) -> Kolto Probe-> Infusion -> Probe -> Diagnostic

Scan. If they interrupt your infusion then simply reapply the Kolto Probeand go with a

Diagnostic Scan. Your job is to heal yourself and tank as much of the damage as

possible over the Electro Net Duration.

Arsenal: Mercenary (Commando) in general is a very easy win due to how weak they are in the

current PvP meta especially for 1v1s. Aside from the general Electro Net mechanic I statedabove there is one key thing to notice while fighting an Arsenal Mercenary (Commando) with a

side point. The key factor is to watch for their blue bubble buff for the auto-crit Heatseeker

Missile. The easiest way to time this Exfiltrate (Scamper) roll resist is by watching for their

Blazing Bolts cast and roll twice RIGHT as it ends, this will allow not only a resist of heat seeker

missiles but if they shoot a Rail Shot before Heatseeker missiles you will then be safe from both

and resist both. If you don't want to roll twice then the other possibility is to troll RIGHT as

Blazing Bolts cast ends and immediately follow the roll with a Holotraverse (Trick Move) to gap

close into a Debilitate. Your job is to stay in their face, interrupt as many Tracer Missiles as


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possible, and force them to keep on the move so they can't get their Rail Shot bonus from

Tracer Missiles. KEEP IN MIND THAT THEIR CHAFF FLARES GIVE THEM A STACKED

BUFF THAT ABSORBS THE NEXT 5 DIRECT FORCE / TECH ABILITY. The easiest way to

counter the chaff flare buff is to either Debilitate and wait it out or bite the bullet and just attack

into it to use up the charges.

Innovative Ordnance: The same as the rest of the DoT specs for classes when it comes to

mechanics. Save your Evasion (Dodge) for when all the dots are on you and then go full

aggressive mode. KEY NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU USE YOUR ROLL TO DO THE INITIAL

GAP CLOSER. Generally once the net burst ends you'll have already cleansed all the dots right

at the end of the net, so if you use your Exfiltrate to gap close you will end up resisting any type

of dot application the Mercenary (Commando) attempts therefore making their life miserable

and a waste of time for having to reapply their damage. Their chaff flares also has a buff which

increases their defense chance by 40% andYES THIS DOES AFFECT CONCEALMENT,

because it can actually let them resist some of our attacks. If they are specd into the defense

chance when they use Supercharged gas then they can spike into 60% defense chance. If they

do that then all you have to do is use the rule of CCing and waiting for the buff to expire. They

also have a Thermal Detonator (click for image) that you should try to roll to resist.

Concealment Operative vs. Powertech (Vanguard)

Shield Tech: You will see this about 0.000000000001% of the time in a duel so there isn't much

to worry about. Play around your stun locks, CC during the Kolto Overload (Adrenaline Rush),

roll away from Fire Storm, keep probes up, and just have your way with them.

Advanced Prototype: This is, by far, is the scariest duel matchup when it comes to single target

burst. Because if you screw up you might as well dig your grave. There are some key points tofighting this spec that make or break it for the victory

1) The biggest factor is pretty simple...DON'T GET GLOBALED!!!!!!!! The easiest way to

make sure you mitigate the majority of the damage output is to time Thermal Detonator

(click for image) (Assault Plastique basically looks the same but square) and roll it right

as it detonates -- either listen to the audio queue or watch the de-buff on your bar, both

methods work and it comes down to personal preference.

2) Use your cleanse ability to get rid of the de-buffs to increase the damage you take.

Easiest, non stressful, way is to do so in a stun window if you can't burst. Outside of that

just Exfiltrate (Scamper) away or THROUGH them, hit cleanse, and then Holotraverse

(Trick Move) back to.

3) Another point, like Mercenary (Commando), is that Sonic Missile gives them defense

chance just like IO. So be aware when it is up and expect some of your attacks to get

resisted. The second portion is reacting to their Energy Shield (or Fire Shield if the utility

is taken). IF they are running Fire Shield it will generally hurt if you unload into it, so if

you wish to play more defensively during it then you can Flash Bang them and wait out

their Energy Shield and proceed to drop them when it expires. If you don't wish to Flash

Bang the Energy Shield then you need to kite them in some way or fashion for the
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defensive style. Saving your Flash Bang is alright in this sense as long as you use it

when you proc their Kolto Overload (Adrenaline Rush) to let it heal them to 40% and

then expire so you can execute.

4) A key timing outside of Thermal Detonator is to roll right after they use Rocket Punch,

Magnetic Blast, or Explosive Dart for they generally follow those up with a Rail Shot.

5) The last point to keep in mind is you can't go full aggressive into him for he will mess

you up quicker than you can mess him up. Their burst, even after the surge nerf,

is extremely strong and can still global you. Play around your Exfiltrate (Scamper)

timings with Thermal Detonator, your CCs, and make sure you keep probes up and use

Infusion whenever the opening is available. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER

BREAK CARBONIZE. Save your breaker for his Electro Dart and do so when you are

white-barred. This will help secure the victory without having any form of panic and make

it stress free.

Pyrotech: One of the weakest specs in the game as of current patch and meta. Its DOTs don't

do a lot of damage and really are only there to frustrate you. Similar to Innovative Ordnance,save your Evasion (Dodge) for when all the DoTs are on you. Another key mechanic is that their

Kolto Overload gives them 30% Damage Reduction while active, so when you see their Kolto

pop and start healing them it's best to Flash Bang them and wait out the duration.

Concealment Operative vs. Sniper (Gunslinger)

General Mechanics:

1) DO NOT EVER USE A CC INTO THEIR ENTRENCH (HUNKER DOWN). IF YOU

DO SHAME ON YOU!

2) IF YOU SEE THEM USE DIVERSION (NOTE THAT THE DEBUFF LOOKSEXACTLY THE SAME AS THE ABILITY!!!!) YOU MUST GET OUT! ROLL AWAY,

PROBE YOURSELF, AND USE ANY LOS THAT IS AVAILABLE. TRYING TO HIT

THROUGH IT IS POINTLESS AND CAN COST YOU THE DUEL!

3) BE MINDFUL, THEIR ROLL ALSO RESISTS LIKE YOURS SO DON'T PANIC IF

THEY ROLL A BACKSTAB (Backblast) OR SOME DAMAGE FROM YOU!

Marksmanship: A scary fight due to the high burst potential against you. Aside from the general

mechanics posted above there is only 1 real Marksmanship mechanic you MUST watch for. And

that is to roll their Ambushs. At one point you may be forced to take an Ambush but it's optimal if

you don't. Time the cast, roll accordingly, mitigate the damage, and proceed to ruin the Sniper(Gunslinger) while avoiding the diversion and stunning into Entrench.

Engineering: The 2nd most annoying duel matchup in this game. All this Sniper has to do is

drop that Plasma Probe and you will start ripping your hair out. Aside from the annoyance of

slows there is 1 key factor that comes into play just like facing Marksmanship spec. Save your

Evasion (Dodge) for when you see Explosive Probe on you so that not only does it cleanse any

debuffs, but they can't even proc the explosive probe until Evasion is over. If you have to gap

close often then use Evasion and start running once Evasion ends use your double roll making
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sure to not overlap resists and proceed to drop your burst. They have a secondary stun on EMP

Discharge which is a 2 second stun, DO NOT BREAK THIS, for then they can walk up to you,

Debilitate -> Explosive Probe -> Covered Escape ->Series of Shots and all of a sudden you are

missing a lot of health. Overall, keep probes up on you and avoid the Explosive Probe and stun

combos and it'll be a walk in the park.

Virulence: One of the easiest specs to play against in a duel setup. The only factor that plays in

is to use your Evasion when they Cull and you basically win the duel. No amount of kiting on

their part can win this as long as you hit Evasion on their Culls and roll the others you don't have

Evasion up for. Aside from that, same as all the other times, get in their face, keep probes up on

yourself, don't stun into Hunker Down / Entrench and proceed to ruin their life!

Concealment Operative (Scrapper Scoundrel) vs. Concealment Operative (Scrapper Scoundrel)

Key Note: This matchup is by far the most entertaining, stressful, beautiful fight in this entire

game. It requires the most focus and the most attention to all forms of dueling mentionedagainst other classes along with a few key specifics to fighting this mirror matchup.

WARNING: THIS PART WILL BE LONG, SO PREPARE YOUR EYES FOR THE READ OF A

LIFETIME!!!!!

Welcome to probably the most exciting duel you'll ever participate in! Aside from the basics I

listed in the introduction to dueling there will also be a few key points that will be introduced here

as well that only work when in this mirror matchup.

1) These duels typically go on for a long time. The best thing you can do is keep a calm

and steady mindset while dancing around with your opponent. Staying calm is very

important in pulling out this victory because even if you think you have it the otherOperative can just as easily turn it around and win.

2) Remember to NEVER EVER EVER break the first stun. If you break a non-white bar

you basically just killed yourself. Always try to break a white bar stun so that you have

time to deal damage without being slowed. If you see them break a non-white bar then

you need to punish them for breaking so early and at the wrong time. Do not be afraid of

going aggressive if they break a non-white bar, in fact it is correct to do so, but don't go

so aggressive as to lose your mind and focus.

Here are the key factors towards this mirror matchup:

1) What do I do if I lose the opener in the stealth phase?!!

A: This is a relatively easy answer with 3 sub-counters that I use.

1a) Hang tight and don't panic with the stun-lock combo. The usual

opener they will get off is a Sleep Dart (Tranquilizer) -> Volatile

Substance (Blood Boiler) -> Snipe (Charged Burst) + Debilitate (Dirty

Kick) and then burst. You can eat this and by no means have to panic

break the sap when he is preparing the burst. If you so desire to break at

some point in their opener then wait for the debilitate (Dirty Kick) and


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immediately CC break, camera spin, and follow up with your own

Debiliate stun combo.

2a) The same approach as 1a but instead of them using Debilitate they

use Crippling Slice (Shank Shot), then what? Well, just replace your CC

breaker with Countermeasures and either follow up with Debilitate (DirtyKick) or use your own Crippling Slice (Shank Shot) to reduce the early

pressure. If you accidentally break the Crippling Slice opener then stay

calm, yes it was a mistake, but all you have to do is play more defensively

than normal to make up for the CC break cooldown.

3a) The more rare of the openers I have used and seen, is the Sleep Dart

-> Volatile Substance -> Backstab burst. This one is extremely rare and

only really happens in a mirror matchup if the sap ends up white baring

you. The simple way to counter this is to Exfiltrate (Scamper) as the

backstab goes off delaying the Volatile Substance going off and creating

distance so they can't hit you. If you do the roll correctly you can actually

resist the entire Acid Blade DoT to avoid the Volatile Substance going offat all.

2) What do I do if I get the opener in the stealth phase?!?!

A: Once again, a relatively easy answer with 3 key points, 2 of which are viable.

1a) The primary and in my opinion optimal opener if you get it is as

followed: Sleep Dart -> Kolto Probe -> Volatile Substance -> Snipe +

Debilitate -> Veiled Strike (Bludgeon) -> Backstab . This gives you

maximum burst and allows it to go off when their Kolto Probes

(Slow-release Medpac) fall off for 6% less damage reduction.

2a) The secondary opener which is viable is the same thing as 1a butinstead of using Debilitate you will use Crippling Slice . The main reason

some operatives do this instead is to hope for a break on the Crippling

Slice. Since a good chunk of Operatives tend to break the Debilitate they

expect it coming and hit their CC breaker instantly instead of waiting a

second to see if it's an actual stun or if it's the root from Crippling Slice.

3a) The last one is as followed Sleep Dart -> Volatile Substance -> Kolto

Probe -> Snipe + Backstab . This I would only use if your Sleep Dart

(Tranquilizer) ends up white baring your target. This is a heavy burst

opener that can't be mitigated easily.

3) When should I be aggressive versus when should I be passive or more defensive?!

A: There are multiple answers with sub-explanations here as well.

1a) You have key times to be aggressive and that corresponds with both

your buffs, stuns, and your raid buff. As for optimal times the most

obvious

is to use your burst for the stun window with Debilitate (Dirty Kick).

Anytime you get a full Debilitate stun off you should try to get a full burst

in that window. With Debilitate being a 30 second cooldown you can fit 1


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Volatile Substance (Blood Boiler) in between the wait. Therefore every

other Debilitate window will allow you to setup a Volatile Substance burst.

Aside from the Debilitate window the other obvious window is your

Crippling Slice. At some point they will not be able to cleanse or purge

that root, so there should be one or two Crippling Slice roots that you can

do a full burst into without having to worry about them mitigating some ofit.

2a) There is only one way to be passive and it's a little more

complex. Passive in this sense is more defined as "dancing" with

your opponent. Playing passive will allow you to play off their

mistakes while keeping yourself up and in a calm stature. This is a

more advanced play style for when you get comfortable with the

class and spec.

3a) Playing defensive in this matchup is fairly easy and allows you to

keep

a steady mind to focus on the fight instead of worrying about the fight andmanaging both offensive cooldowns and defensive cooldowns. To make

this work you need to constantly keep 2 stacks of Kolto Probes

(Slow-Released Medpac) on yourself and rotate a Kolto Infusion (Kolto

Pack) with every stun and Crippling Slice while bursting in the proper

burst windows (Debilitate and Crippling Slice). Doing this will make the

match last long but is a very safe way to play this mirror comp. Roll

according to their burst like stated above, keep your probes at 2 stacks at

all times, use Infusion in any window you can, and generally play back

more only going in on the windows where your burst is guaranteed.

Outside of that, peel for yourself with Crippling Slice and Sever Tendon

(Tendon Blast) and kite your opponent while waiting for your opportunityto strike!

This sums up a mirror match of Concealmentvs. Concealment. Following these rules,

following the basic rules, and mixing and matching what is explained in the mirror match

will help you win or at least perform at a higher standard. Do not expect to be able to take

on any Operativeby following these rules, you will be outplayed and you will get upset.

Keep calm and practice this against Operativesyou know and trust, even get their

opinion, because I am not perfect at this myself. Aside from that it all comes down to

reactions. Time yours to try and counter their movements and you'll see progress in no

time!

If you have questions about a more advanced part see the below section posted

underneath the Concealmentvs. Lethality portion for General Advanced Tactics!

Concealment Operative vs. Lethality Operative (Dirty Fighting Scoundrel)

Key General Note: This matchup is the longest duel matchup in the game as of current META

and patch. It's a healing fest where the burst put forth is simply healed back up. The only way


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this ends is by someone getting a perfect burst opportunity off in a full stun-lock window and

duration.

When facing a Lethality Operative there are a few main things you need to focus on paying

attention to. One is their ability called Weakening Blast (Sanguinary Shot), it sounds almost

identical to Cull and puts a short debuff on you. When you see this you need to either Exfiltrate(Scamper) away or use your Evasion (Dodge) to cleanse everything on you, otherwise they will

Debilitate you and proceed to Cull you for your health bar. Another point to keep in mind is that

they can't roll resist like you. The only thing Lethality gets on their roll is an instant Kolto

Infusion, so do not be scared to use your abilities for they will not be resisted when they roll.

Just keep on them and make sure they can't LoS you constantly. The easiest way to guarantee

the win is to work them down to ~50% health and when you get a Debilitate (Dirty Kick) off you

should pop EVERY FORM OF BURST you have including Tactical Superiority (Stack the Deck)

and just blow them up. There aren't many mechanics in play for this matchup, because all the

mechanics go down the drain with the amount of off healing that goes on. So here is a

refresher:

1) Watch for an ability called Weakening Blast, (this is what the debuff looks like) it can

be identified by green bolts (Imperial) or Yellow bolts (Republic) with a veryobnoxious sound. When you see this use your Evasion to cleanse the debuffs on you or

just Exfiltrate away and kite over the duration. Using Evasion is the safer route and for

those beginning out dueling.

2) Remember, THEY CAN'T RESIST YOUR ABILITIES WHEN THEY EXFILTRATE.

They only get an instant cast Kolto Infusion when they roll so make sure you constantly

stick to the target and keep him slowed or rooted as much as possible.

3) Try your best to save the Tactical Superiority (Stack the Deck) burst for when you get

a stun off with them at ~50% health. This will almost always guarantee a kill during the

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