Assuming a thrust 50 spec infiltrator, and assuming you'll use Dragonfang when you evade, then I'm unsure why an infiltrator should spec CS to 44 instead of 39.

To review, the 39 CS is the PA chain (CS 21 Perf Art --> CS 34 Creep Death --> CS 39 Stunning Stab). The 44 CS is an EVADE chain (CS 12 Hamstring --> CS 29 Leaper --> CS 44 Rib Separation). The problem is the CS 44 is an evade chain of styles, but I assume when I evade I should be using Dragonfang (duh) for the stun.

The only thing I can think of is that after I evade and use Dragonfang, I can then also use Hamstring since my last reaction was an evade and the enemy hasn't yet attacked me again because of the stun. It's just I would assume that after getting off the stun, you would be better off doing positional styles like 39Thrust Basiliskfang to slow combat speed or whatever.

I was hoping to get some experienced players to respond, as I've traditionally only played archer classes and unsure why to spend the points to 44CS or should I only go for 39.

Thanks in advance.

Moondragon1 wrote:Assuming a thrust 50 spec infiltrator, and assuming you'll use Dragonfang when you evade, then I'm unsure why an infiltrator should spec CS to 44 instead of 39.

To review, the 39 CS is the PA chain (CS 21 Perf Art --> CS 34 Creep Death --> CS 39 Stunning Stab). The 44 CS is an EVADE chain (CS 12 Hamstring --> CS 29 Leaper --> CS 44 Rib Separation). The problem is the CS 44 is an evade chain of styles, but I assume when I evade I should be using Dragonfang (duh) for the stun.

The only thing I can think of is that after I evade and use Dragonfang, I can then also use Hamstring since my last reaction was an evade and the enemy hasn't yet attacked me again because of the stun. It's just I would assume that after getting off the stun, you would be better off doing positional styles like 39Thrust Basiliskfang to slow combat speed or whatever.

I was hoping to get some experienced players to respond, as I've traditionally only played archer classes and unsure why to spend the points to 44CS or should I only go for 39.

Thanks in advance.

Assuming you will land DF on your first Evade, what will you use as an after Evade style on your next Evade (you get nothing out of spam DF)?
Some times people will Purge your DF stun and on some rare cases, enemies will survive your 9 sec stun (not occasionally but some times will happen).

Also with higher CS skill your PA dmg and style damage will rise.

Am not that good at inf. However ..

If you plan on using PA alot, 44 will give more max damage.
About evade, you stun on evade only once in a fight. But you evade alot more.
If the target purge your stun, or have stun immune already, when you do the next evade, what will you do ? Hamstering ?

Those two points could help you make the good choice (am NOT saying 44 is the good choice, i don't know).

Yeah, I should have thought about the purge after the stun. First infiltrator, I get dumb dumb moments occasionally.

Thanks.

WAssup moondragon This is Ibendagord/Tmart/BigSteve

Reason I always go 44 cs because it gives another part to hamstring combo. It has low end usage, no defense penalties, and nice dps. Hamstring gives medium bonus, which causes more evades. So you never want to be spamming garrotte you want to use hamstring and maybe that one low level thrust style that does little damage but gives defense bonus. Garrotte is for finishing people and obviously snare. If I remember right it's been a few years. So ya, you Evade and do hamstring, then you don't evade, so you use second combo, then you don't evade again, so you do third part, then you evade and hamstring starts again! Repeating this combo keeps your end high and your DPS high.

In the CS evade chain all parts but 'Rip Separation' has some bonus to defense, 'Harmstring' medium bonus rest low bonus.

44 or 50 cs will increase the damage of your cs styles (stealth openers, garrote chain, etc.), and will give you access to the full hamstring chain (which does quite a bit of damage), but speccing this way at low-mid rr sacrifices your offhand swing chance.

personally, i don't think the growth rates you get on the high cs chain styles or the extra points in damage on perf make up for losing the offhand swing chance, and as such i think that anything above 34 or 39 cs should only be considered at higher rank when you can invest enough leftover points into dw for a decent offhand swing rate.

remember that when you talk about offhand swings, you're not just talking about damage from the hit itself. you're also talking about any procs or poisons you have on your offhand weapon, any damage add you may have, as well as the dw swing speed bonus that you get from both weapons swinging (assuming you're using a faster offhand weapon). over the course of a fight, it adds up to a lot.

offhand swing rate is capped at 65%, and you need 59 composite spec to achieve that rate. just to put it into perspective, if you keep cs at 34, you would need to be rr8 in order to cap your swing rate at 41+18 dw. you need 37 composite dw in order to achieve a 50% offhand swing rate. to me, this is the bare minimum. that means 26+11 dw at rr1. any less than that is a bad spec in my opinion, so going above 34 cs at low rr is a mistake.

That's an interesting analysis. Does the off swing cap apply to the RA Dualist's Reflexes? That gives a 3% boost per rank.
Thanks for your reply by the way.

Moondragon1 wrote:That's an interesting analysis. Does the off swing cap apply to the RA Dualist's Reflexes? That gives a 3% boost per rank.
Thanks for your reply by the way.

dualists reflexes brings you closer to the swing cap but doesn't raise it.

To the OP. After some practice you should be able to start your CS evade chain right after you land DF, unless they purge and get in another attack that you don't evade. It's a thing of beauty to land DF and go into hammy chain while they stand there helplessly.