Anyone else having problems leveling a Sith Assassin?

[Idoru]

to be honest i have not had a single proble, im level 29 leveling as deception and i can go maybe pulls without needing to heal up, just keep khem out and use shock and discharge on cd with maul and everything dies in 1-2 hits also make sure khem is on his tank stance that plus his cleave makes him a beast and you worry about nothing

I had it pretty easy up to 33-34, then it started getting harder. Keeping Khem geared definitely helped past that, but now on Hoth at level 39 I run into packs with 2-3 Strong mobs and it's getting hard again.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the challenge and I hope they don't start nerfing.

And yeah, check that he's in tank stance. Most times when I log in he is not.

[activecks]

The reason Khem Val is breaking stealth, is because before he reaches the mobs, he is casting his taunt on the target. I have turned off every one of his spells and he will not break stealth. If you turn on *only* his taunt, he has a chance to cast the spell even though noone has aggro on the target.

It would be really nice if they would make the casting of that spell a little smarter and only have him cast the spell if a mob is actively attacking you.

[Harnace]

Levled as deception 1-50, very easy if you ask me. Used tanking companion's all the way - Khem val and Xalek

[belfpala]

So yeah I went with a death field build after the servers came back up .... blew through about 5 levels today with maybe 1 death. Sooooo much better damage and decent self heals.

Was going to say that you should, but you already got to it.

Also, ditch Khem the minute you get the next non-droid companion. Then ditch him when you get the healer companion. Running Madness spec, with dark charge (tank stance) and the healer guy I'm pretty tough to kill. Was killing gold star mobs 4-5 levels higher than me without much trouble.

Edit: I pull out the healer guy for tougher fights. Usually I have Andronikos out. I hate melee companions. They stand in bad stuff. Also, having to Seethe every couple pulls is pretty normal. Unless I'm using Talos (the healer), I do it every pull even if I'm not hurt much. I just have Seethe keybound to 1 on my numpad, hit it as the last mob is dying and I go straight into it after my last attack animation. While I'm seething, I queue up death field and plop it down when I'm ready to go for the next pack.

[Cakka]

Was going to say that you should, but you already got to it.

Also, ditch Khem the minute you get the next non-droid companion. Then ditch him when you get the healer companion. Running Madness spec, with dark charge (tank stance) and the healer guy I'm pretty tough to kill. Was killing gold star mobs 4-5 levels higher than me without much trouble.

Edit: I pull out the healer guy for tougher fights. Usually I have Andronikos out. I hate melee companions. They stand in bad stuff. Also, having to Seethe every couple pulls is pretty normal. Unless I'm using Talos (the healer), I do it every pull even if I'm not hurt much. I just have Seethe keybound to 1 on my numpad, hit it as the last mob is dying and I go straight into it after my last attack animation. While I'm seething, I queue up death field and plop it down when I'm ready to go for the next pack.

This. Andronikos is way more useful than Khem, his dps is actually pretty good unlike Khem whos only skill seems to be dying fast at the later levels.

[Ambrossius]

I recommend leveling Madness up to level 30/31 and then going Darkness and using Ashara/Andronikos until you get Talos Drellik on Hoth. You could probably go Darkness earlier but keeping Discharge and Wither up means the mobs really can't hit you much lol

As a tank leveling was an absolute joke.. it took me a few seconds longer to kill things, but ending every fight at full health meant I never seethed unless I took on an elite.. and even then after getting Talos I never went below like 95% health. You can also solo all the heroic 2 and heroic 4 daily quests at 50 with Talos.

I was also one of the first people to 50 on my server.. so leveling as a tank is definitely not slow. Doing all your dailies with absolutely no one around stealing your mobs was amazing while it lasted

[Vrachara]

So just as the title asks, is anyone else having a problem. Here is what i noticed at level 23, a lot of my early talents are spent on stealth which is unless for leveling. Why, because if you open out of stealth then all the mobs lock onto you until khem can get them. Some pulls this might take a few hits some pulls its half my hp bar and I have to rest in between every 2-3 pulls. If you send Khem in first and wait for him to get aggro before you run in then Khem (who seems a VERY squishy tank) is about half dead in between pulls. Not as big a deal since you can dismiss and resummon with full hp but if you dismiss then get a pat-ing mob or respawn and get stuck with no knem you are in for a ton of trouble.

I try to keep khem up to date with weapons and at least a few armor upgrades per planet but I seem to be VERY underpowered in the low to mid 20s .... does this even out soon .... has anyone else had this problem with the Assassin or Shadow??? I am at the point now where i have shelved hima nd have been working on my Sorc and Sniper alts seeing who i might make my new main.

Not even a little. Did you turn on Khem's abilities? He has an AoE ability called Consume Souls or something like that that instantly grabs anything off you (I don't mean it's an AoE taunt, it's just a simple AoE, but the initial aggro is not hard to get unless you're AoEing full time). He's right next to you when you open from stealth, so with all abilities on, he'll do something like "Consume Shadows > Taunt", I've never had a problem with being hit more than a few times (which is just as well as it split the damage between us - considering Seethe heals both you and the companion, it's better if you take a bit of the damage as well as your companion as it's more efficient).

He's also not squishy, you're probably just not paying enough attention to his gear. Do you have it on to compare items not just with yourself but your companion as well? You should be checking with every drop, the same way as you do with yourself, if he needs something. To be fair though, I have Synthweaving, so I never had trouble keeping him relatively decently geared, simply making gear for the both of us as we level (though I've now switched to a DPS companion as I've went tank for Flashpoints, but can gear her up with Synthweaving too).

All in all, no, never had any issues. But honestly, it might be that our definition of "issue" is different - healing between every 2-3 pulls is nothing out of the ordinary, although on the earlier levels you should be able to pull 3-4 regularly. Make sure you're using all your abilities, your cooldowns are good for more than just bosses, other than your 20 minute "shit hit the fan button" CD, you should be popping the rest fairly regularly.