Critical and Surge caps!

After parsing as much as I could and while I was trying to adjust my stats to optimal. I decide to post the results of my research and the things that I find in the internet.


First of all, I'll have to determine what cap is. One rating is caped when it has reached the maximum number/percentage. For example reach 100% critical chance, when all of your attacks are critical. As you already know most of the rating have a diminishing scaling when you stack them. What I'm going talk now is soft cap. Soft cap is the point where a stat suddenly becomes less useful and another stat becomes more valuable.


Here is the graph that I found on mmo-mechanics:

As you can see, from a point and further, stats like surge and critical etc have a breakpoint, when if it reached, it stops to be optimal. Here:


SOFT CAP


Surge: 300 rating
Critical: 450 rating




An example to what soft cap, is surge rating. At 200 rating, you have 72% critical multiplier whereas 250 rating rise it to 76%. That means that the 50 rating that is spend to surge could be another stat that would benefit you more.




A general small guide to gear up is:


Accuracy, up until 100% cap
Surge, up until 300
Crit, up until 450
Power




Power on the other hand has no cap. In general you should know that power boost your baseline attack/heal and is a stat that increase your performance directly. I would just healer to focus more to power than surge/critical as they should be depended on RNG critical heals.




Finally, a small tip. You can get critical not only from your critical rating and your main stat but also from some of the base stats of other classes.


WARRIOR/KNIGHT: Strength AND Willpower
BOUNTY HUNTER/TROOPER: Aim AND Cunning
INQUISITOR/CONSULAR: Willpower AND Strength
IMPERIAL AGENT/SMUGGLER: Cunning AND Aim


So, if you are a min-maxer, don't forget to add some more datacrons to your hunting!

1.2 PTR Legacy Heroic Moments!

Devs announced that the renewed Legacy System will allow alts to use some abilities that are from another character of the Legacy. Some requirements are ment to be reached before the Legacy Heroic Moments are met. First of all, a companion must be present, that means that they can not be used in Warzones or Operations. But can still be used at Flashpoints and World PvP. To unlock one of those abilities you have first complete the class story of the specific class. Here's the list of the abilities that each class grands:

Imperial Agent: Orbital Strike.


Bounty Hunter: Flamethrower


Sith Warrior: Force Choke


Sith Inquisitor: Lightning Storm


Smuggler: Dirty Kick


Trooper: Sticky Grenade


Jedi Knight: Force Sweep


Jedi Consular: Project

After these abilities are unlocked it can be used by any other member of your Legacy, regardless their faction or class.

Guide: Operative Concealment PvE!

PROLOGUE


Hey people!


A very good friend of mine is a hardcore WoW's rogue player that raids and pvpes in top guilds. I respect his knowledge about the mechanics of his class and also for his fast decisions and reactions that are needed to play in high level.


During summer we had long talks about SWTOR and we had both decided to reroll to this new game. The Blizzard gave to him a Rogue's only legendary and his mind changed. I unsubscribed from WoW and started playing SWTOR. He was thinking playing the game later and I gave him my account to try it out. He was thinking playing an Assassin but I persuaded him to try Operative. And he did. And he loved it. Now, I have an Operative on my account and I have to say that I love her! They have an amazing playstyle that is really really strong even after last patch's nerf. I've seen a lot of Operatives PvPing but almost none at PvE. At least none dps as the few ops I've found where healers.


That's why I decided to make this guide for Operative's Concealment PvE. So, let's start.




1. SPEC


This is the spec that I use 3/31/7. It's NOT based on the most dps output possible and it's more of a starter for operation. It based on mobility (melee classes need to be fast in fights with a lot of adds, shit on the ground etc) and survivability (you can't dps if you are dead.

This is the spec with the most dps output: 3/31/7




2. ENERGY


Energy is very similar to WoW's Rogue but it's not linear. That means that it regenerates depending to the energy's level. That means:

ENERGY LEVEL	REGEN PER SEC
0-20	2
21-40	2.5
41-60	3
61-100	5

Now, there an ability call Stim Boost that recovers 3 energy every 3 sec for 45sec. It has a 35 sec CD and must be up ALL THE TIME.

With Stim Boost up the regeneration changes to this:

ENERGY LEVEL	REGEN PER SEC
0-20	3
21-40	3.5
41-60	4
61-100	6

Another way to get energy fast is Adrenaline Probe that recovers 50 energy in 3 secs with a 2 minute cooldown.

3. ABILITIES

Rifle Shot Basic attack costs no energy use it on your rotation to keep your energy from dropping.

Hidden Strike Highest damaging ability, grants Tactical Advantage and can only be used from stealth. Use it as an opener.

Shiv Use it to gain Tactical Advantage.

Laceration Requires the Tactical Advantage buff.  Has 50% chance to proc a second free attack that would also refresh Tactical Advantage if the target is poisoned.

Backstab Hits like a truck, must be always used after Acid Blade. Must be behind the target to use it.

Acid Blade Buff the next Hidden Strike or Backstab and applies a ridiculesly strong DoT over 6 seconds and increase armour penetration by 30% for 15 seconds. Backstab must followed. Needless to say, this is the funeral of every boss.

Fragmentation Grenade AoE attack. Hits up to 5 opponents.

Overload Shot. Short ranged attack, should be only used when you have plenty of energy and the rest of you abilities are on CD.


Corrosive Dart a good DoT that must be ALWAYS be up. If it's up, Laceration will refresh Tactical Advantage.

Orbital Strike AoE damage to be used on CD. One of the strongest AoE attacks in game


Adrenaline Probe Not a damage ability but still must be used on CD. Use it when you want to burst


Cloaking Screen. Not a damage ability, puts you back to Stealth. Use it on CD with a Acid Blade buffed Hidden Strike following it.

4. TACTICAL ADVANTAGE

Tactical Advantage is the core ability in Operative playstyle. Defeating an opponent or activating Shiv or Hidden Strike puts you in a position of Tactical Advantage, increasing all damage dealt by 2% and enabling the use of executions for 10 seconds. Up to 2 charges of Tactical Advantage can exist at once.

Abilities that generate TA:

Shiv

Hidden Strike

Plus defeating an opponent give you TA. 

Abilities that consume TA:

Cull

Laceration

Stim Boost

Carbine Burst

Kolto Infusion

Remember, Tactical Advantage increased damage by 2%, so you should always have at least one stack up at all times if it's possible. Before using an TA consuming Ability, use Shiv to get 2 stacks before losing 1 and keep 1 stack up.

5. ROTATION


So, the rotation goes like this. Start with stealth and then use Hidden Strike. That gives you 1 TA. Use Stim Boost, that will consume the 1 TA. Acid Blade time then. It would be a preparation buff that does nothing until you use Backstab. 30% of the target's armor is ignored and a poison DoT is applied that lasts for 6 secs.  After that use Shiv to get 1 TA, Laceration will actually have a chance to consume and refresh your TA and keep it up. Use Corrosive Dart to have your DoT up as long as you can. As soon as your energy falls under 60 use Adrenaline Probe and try to have it on CD. Only reasons for not use it asap is that either your energy is high at the moment or you decide it to keep it to use it later with your Adrenals, Relics and the rest of your CDs. After that use Rifle Shot if your energy drops under 80. Also, use Cloaking Screen after the initial burst and the use of Adrenaline Probe and follow it with a Acid Blade buffed Hidden Strike. Use it on CD.


When you are in the the fight there's a priority list.

1. Stim Boost  must be always up

2.  Shiv to get TA


3. Adrenaline Probe to regen energy

3.  Rifle Shot to keep your energy up.

4. Cloaking Screen to get back to Stealth

5.  Acid Blade follow by

6. Hidden Strike if you are in Stealth or if you are not

7.  Backstab. 5, 6 and 7 must be always be used on CD. Those are you strongest hits

8.  Corrosive Dart to keep your DoT up

9.  Laceration. costs 15 energy. Use it when you have 2 TA and Stim Boost is up

10. Overload Shot. Cost 17 energy and only use it when you have high energy and you are out of melee range from the target or on burning phase.

6. STATS

Your Primary stat is Cunning. Your gear must always have Cunning.  For every 140 Cunning you get 1% crit and also, 1 Cunning gives 0.2 tech damage. As for the secondary stats, accuracy until you reach 100% and then I would suggest Critical and Surge for starters but DON'T stack more than 40% ratio. It seems that after a point critical and surge need much more rating to increase the percentage. After that, go for Power. It's a basic, normal,  very linear damage increase. Alacrity is useless, avoid it like Hell.

7. PvE TIER BONUS

• 2 pieces: Increases the critical chance of Backstab or Backblast by 15%.
• 4 pieces: Increases maximum energy by 5.

EPILOGUE

Anyway that's my guide for Operative Concealment PvE, just quite basic but I hope you find it useful. I will try to update the guide as much as possible, please comment to contribute.

See you around

Power VS Critical Rating!

One of the most common arguments it's the debate between power vs critical rating. I've tried to break down the pros and cons and make a small guide about them.

First of all, Power increase the base damage of all abilities that you use. That also means that critical rating will be calculated to damage that's been increased from the power rating. For pragmatic players as of myself, I much more rather prefer a solid damage increase against the RNG that is the critical rating. Playing Juggernaut Vengeance, I have 3 DoTs that I apply to my target and increasing my power rating will have a HUGE damage increase.

On the other hand crit will make you hit like a truck. For real. Your crits will make Force Scream and Vicious Throw hit for 4-6k damage. It should be noted here that your force abilities get ~5-7% more critical than your normal (white) damage dealing abilities.By speccing to Savagery you get 60% chance to those two skills to be a critical after you use Impale or Shatter. That means that if you get to have a proper rotation this buff will be almost 100% up. That's the reason you should aim for 40% soft cap to make sure that Scream and Vicious Throw will be a critical hit. The cos of critical rating is that by default, it only increase your damage by 50%. You'll need more of the surge rating to increase that percentage, forcing you to go after two rating.

In the endgame you will find an almost balanced combination between Accuracy/Power and Critical/Surge at Operations gear. Plus relics are on use and you can get a temporary rating increase that should be used on cooldown.

Concluding this post I want to say that always choose your gear depending of how much strength you will get. Strength is our main stat and I will always be our No 1 priority. As for the power/crit debate, IMHO I would suggest Power, as our base damage is by our bleeds/DoTs, though making power a more desirable stat. Still, as there are no parsers yet and none can know something for sure, try to balance your stats.

I haven't yet the time to look more to the armor penetration stat that is provided when you achieve more than 100% accuracy. Please, this is not a statement, but I have the feeling that ArPen is a very strong rating but it should be tested before reaching to a conclusion.

See you on Ilum guys!