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!

Juggernaut Vengeance Spec, Abilities Breakdown

After spending my time playing Rage PvP, I decided to try WZ as Vengeance. My spec is 3/31/7, I don’t really know if it’s the best but as I was in a rush to kill some reps I decided to go with this anyway.

My server is quite dead and I had a long queue so I decided to try the PvP dummy. My PvP gear is quite lame, mostly of Champion parts and not customized, with low critical and surge rating. That means that my dps was quite low but when I used my parser to analyze my damage, I got some really interesting results.

FORCE SCREAM, IMPALE, SHATTER. WHICH IS THE STRONGEST?

As you can see, the order is Force Scream>Impale>Ravage>Shatter from higher to lower. Bad thing with the parsers right now, is that all 3 bleeding dots that are results of Force Scream, Impale and Shatter have the same name but different ability ID. That means that they are measured differently but cannot say which one is which. Looking through the talents I know that all three abilities have a 9sec CD and that Shatter has the strongest dot. So I would say that Bleeding #3 is Shatter, Bleeding #1 is Impale and Bleeding #2 is Force Scream.

That means that the order changes to Shatter>Ravage>Impale>Force Scream.  I already use Shatter and Impale first, to get a standard critical Force Scream and I use Ravage on CD. Ravage is 3 sec casting ability but the 2/3 of its damage is done at the first 1.5sec of its duration with the final blow landed at the end.

I’ll play my Juggernaut more this week, I’ll try new builds and I would try to gear up a little. So expect more details and more abilities breakdowns in near future.

Sith Juggernaut Rage Spec Burst DPS Guide/Tutorial

After spending some time with my family and friends, I'm back in game and I'm pushing myself through the 1.2 content. With the introduction of dummies, I decided to make a video guide about jugg's rage spec burst damage. Through the next days, my old guides would be updated and new ones would be posted. Also expect more and more videos on youtube so, I recommend you to subscribe in my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kingofkalamos/

Hope you'll like the guide and I'm looking forward for your thoughts and comments

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.

Changes in Juggernauts/Guardians that makes me happy

I believe that people that have been to this blog and my youtube before, know that my first character is a Sith Juggernaut. It was my first character at SWTOR and I've spent a lot of time doing end game PvP and playing some PvE. As I've experienced most of the end game, I really wanted to try some other classes and after a while, I changed server and faction. I haven't played my Juggernaut since then and the thing is, I'm not really looking forward to do it. Focusing mostly in PvP, I was a little disappointed from the class. Juggs are a melee class that is missing a healing ability and even though they have great mobility, people could kite them easily. AoE tanking was a challenge, Vengeance has ok dps but more fitting for PvE and Rage's dps output relies on one strong hit. I'm not saying that the class is underpowered, I'm just feeling that it has a moderate performance in all fields.

Hopefully, 1.2 will make me play my Juggernaut again. Lots of changes for Juggernauts; they change and increase the dps rotations of all dps specs, better AoE for all three trees and finally, some self healing. So, let's analyse the new additions:

CRASH: You get this passive ability at level 10 and will cause Force Charge to stun your opponent for 2sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12sec. That will help a lot, as it can be combined with a Force Choke or Chilling Scream to pin your opponent after closing the gap. Don't know if and how much resolve it cause but definitely, a great tool for a melee class.

ENRAGE DEFENCE: The Juggernaut spend rage to lower threat and while active, one point of rage is spent each time damage is taken, heals the Juggernaut for a small amount. This ability is usable while stunned and is doesn't respect the global cooldown. AWESOME! Much needed, Juggernauts of all tree specs can use it and combined with Soresu Form and Saber Ward would make them un-killable. Enrage is mandatory for this skill as lot's of rage is needed and Vengeance specced would be more benefited, as they generate almost unlimited rage from Shien Form.

On top of those changes, some talents are relocated in different tier of their tree and some other have their effect change. The most important are:

VENGEANCE TREE

Single Saber Mastery: Now benefits all the three Forms.
Stagger: Now in the Tier 1 of the Vengeance tree. Good filler choice for all PvPers.
Rampage: Also generates 2 rage when is triggered.

Not a lot of changes on Vengeance, after all it was a decent spec, with a proper rotation. Still not the best for PvP but more viable now, very reliable in PvE.

RAGE TREE

Decimate: Is now relocated in Tier 1 of the Rage tree, a great filler choice for all speccs that need more AoE damage.

Force Alacrity is now gone. Good riddance I say as it's replaced by OVERPOWER, a new ability that would make Vicious Slash to generate to rage when it criticals hits. Much needed.

Force Crush: It's CD is reduced to 18sec from 21sec. COOL!

Obliterate also immobilizes the target for 1 sec that means it makes it a mini Force Charge.

Relentless Fury is now gone and it's replaced by EMPOWERING RAGE. Empowering Rages requires 2 points in Shockwave skill to be unlocked causes Enrage to immediately grant 2 stacks of Shockwave for each point spent on the talent. Another Smash is good.

Shockwave: now last 20 secs, up from 15.

As you can see, Rage is getting buffed in next patch. More stuns and control and more burst for this spec that were much needed as Rage still is the best PvP spec.

IMMORTAL TREE

There's only one big change for the Juggernaut tank, Thrown Gauntlet no longer reduces the CD of Threatening Scream. It would change their playstyle but with the Decimate in the first tier of Rage tree, level 50 tanks won't have a problem with AoE tanking anymore.

Overall, 1.2 finally buffs the Juggernauts and makes them stronger and more durable. Having access to parsers and combat log will help us evaluate our DPS and compare it to other classes but most of us knew that this class was kind of weak. Especially the nerfing of the Surge rating reduced the base of Rage juggs dps, effecting them more than almost all classes. I can predict from now that Juggernauts would dominate in rated Warzones. They would finally have enough survivability and damage to do what they were designed to do. Taunting off, controlling the battles with their charges and peel their opponents.

PvP Changes in 1.2

With the introduction of 1.2 a lot of changes will come in PvP

CHANGES IN DAILIES AND REWARDS

Right now, daily missions require players to win 3 matches. From 1.2 daily missions will require players to win a certain number of medals. That will make a lot of people happy, as people that don't play WZ in groups, tend to get steamrollered from premades. One day, a friend of mine that was PvPing solo had 9 consecutive loses... It took him more than 5 hours to get 3 victories. I know he's excited about this change.

Now, remember that winning and losing both reward medals. Hopefully this will address the situation where people that had a bad group would just leave the WZ. They said that they will be some restrictions for people abandoning the WZ before it finish but they din't give any details. I speculate that they'll do something like a penalty for leavers that would prevent them to queue for another WZ that would last for some minutes. 

Luckily for us, there are 18 new medals, many of which are objective based, like scoring a goal in Hutball or defusing a bomb in Voidstar. Healers right now are in disadvantage against other classes about wining medals, the new ones will boost them too. Like if an ally you are healing gets a killing enemy point, the healer will get one too. Now, to prevent medal's farming by dragging out matches, there's a cap of medals that can be earned in every match. To encourage faster games and more activity from players, finishing a match fast gives more medals. For example, finishing Huttball under 5 minutes will give you one more metal, finishing it under 4 will give two more metals. Now, there's a lot of AFKers in PvP, especially in Civil War and finally we have some good news: In order for players to earn medals, a minimal level of activity is required and  Vote to kick inactive players is in 1.2 where the open spots would be filled by players in the queue. There are measures in place to prevent abuse, like kicking someone because his level 10.

RANKED WARZONES AND RANKED GEAR

Ranked warzones will be introduced in 1.2. There will be a ranking system for bath group and solo play. For 1.2 Ranked Warzones will be SERVER SPECIFIC ONLY, cross-server matches will come later. Coming in the future will have cross-server queueing. When the new feature will be implemented will have a pre-season period. Each ranked game will reward a specific currency that would buy the new PvP gear. There going to be more than one tier of gear  but all tiers will have the same stats. Gear that require a higher rating are going to have different colours, only for prestige reasons.

NEW PvP GEAR AND VALOR CHANGES

Valor system will not be centralized from now on. It will still be in game and will also provide titles but will not be fundamental for acquiring the PvP gear. A new intro PvP set for new 50 players will be introduce to fill the gap in gear. More emphasis on expertise will be given on PvP to make it less powerful in PvE as they want to address  issues where people with Battle Master gear were raiding Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace. 

NEW WARZONES AND SAME FACTION MATCHES, NEWS ABOUT ILUM AND WORLD PvP

The new warzone will be Novare Coast. It can also be played with two teams of the same faction. It would be object orient and would has 3 points of focus. Two out of three must be captured from a team to 'do damage' to the object. Existing Warzones will be made same faction. That would either happen in 1.2 or 1.3. For now the matches will be from same servers. Sometime in the future cross-server matches will be introduced.  They want to introduce Tournament brackets to allow for mini-tournaments between PvP teams. Another new feature that would make a lot of people happy, YOU CAN NOW QUEUE WITH A FULL 8 PERSON GROUP AND YOUR GROUP WILL NOT BE DISBANDED AFTER A MATCH. They also enlightened us about some world PvP changes. They will pull back Ilum for a while to redesign it as they are not very pleased with it's current state and there were some technical difficulties. PvP in Outlaw's Den will be supported from now on. For world PvP in general, they said that they'll add a reward drop for world kills.

PvP Juggernaut Rage built!

PvP Juggernaut Rage

Yo, fellow SWTORians!


For the past few day I have focused my play time to Jugg PvP. I used to be specced up to Vengeance tree for PvE. After checking the two DPS tree I decided to go Rage.

SPEC

This is the spec that I use now: 0/10/31


Now, let's break it down. I didn't take Strangulate as the pushback for a channelling ability that stuns for a melee class is not a priority for me. I didn't take Unbreakable Rage as Ravage in general is not mandatory to your dps rotation. I would come to this later. I put to Interceptor just one point just for filler. My other option was Brutality but I rarely use Vicious Slash and I think of it as a waste of rage in most situations. Interceptor is not to mandatory to juggs as the class is very mobile.


For my final 2 points at Vengeance tree I was in a dilemma. Playing Rage you'll find yourselves with less rage than playing Vengeance (pun intended). Unyielding would be my original choice but as to right now, geared half centurion, half champion I don't have enough accuracy to reach 100%. For that reason I decided to put my last 2 points to Accurecy. If you have enough accuracy choose Unyielding.

ABILITIES

DPS ABILITIES




Retaliation. hit it as soon as it procs.


Assault. Builds 2 rage, weak but mandatory


Sundering Assault. Use it to build 2 rage and stack 4% armor reduction up to 5 times


Vicious Throw. Our finisher move. Only usable on target's at or below 20% max health. Deadly indeed.


Smash. Main AoE ability hits up to 5 enemies STRONGEST ABILITY for Rage Juggs 


Force Scream. Hitting like a truck and has 10m range.


Force Crush. Our point 31 talent, slows our enemies, puts a DoT that last  seconds and at the end, deals more damage.


Ravage. 3 secs channel ability. Interrupted when moving or pressing another attack.


Vicious Slash. Use it as filler when you got rage to dumb and all of your main abilities are on cd.


Obliterate. Small charge (only 10m) costs 3 rage. Mostly a dps ability, use it with a snare to catch up ranged opponents that try to get away.


Saber Throw. You generate 3 rage, use it before you charge.


Sweeping Slash. AoE damage in a front cone a la Chuck Norris roundhouse kick. Still, pretty weak.


Enrage. Generates 6 rage. Use it after your burst and when you are under 6 rage.




STUNS AND SLOWING ABILITIES




Chilling Scream. Slow AoE ability.


Disruption. Use it to interrupt your target and lock their interrupted ability for 4 secs. In comparison to WoW, SWTOR's interrupts don't lock school abilities. That means, only the ability that you interrupt is locked.


Unleash. Removes all of your incapacitating and movement-impairing effects.


Force Choke. 3 sec channel ability. To stun and generate rage.


Intimidating Roar. 6 secs AoE fear




MOBILITY ABILITIES




Force Push and then use charge.


Force Charge. No description.


Intercede. Use it on friendly player to jump to him.




FORMS AND DEFENSIVE ABILITIES




Shii-Cho Form Dps form,


Soresu Form Tanking form. Use it only when you know that a lot of damage is incoming and you can't be on target to dps. Also, soresu form is needed to use Guard. Switching forms resets your rage to zero!


Threatening Scream. Use it to reduce the damage all enemies around you do to every other except you.


Taunt. Don't use it on PvE! Only in PvP to reduce the targeted enemy damage on every other except you.


Saber Ward. Main defensive cooldown. Increase your defence by 50% for 12sec. The passive ability Blade Turning makes the 2 first secs a 100% defence


Endure Pain. Main defensive cooldown. Increase your healthpool by 30% for 10sec.


Guard. Only usable when Soresu Form is active. I only use it on pvp. 




SECONDARY ABILITIES




Channel Hatred. Your off battle recovery ability.


Sprint. Keep it always on.


Unnatural Might. BUFF UP!

PvP SET BONUSES

• Bonus for 2: Intercede heals you for 8% of your total health.
• Bonus for 4: Increases all damage dealt by 10% for 5 seconds after using Force Charge.

DPS ROTATION AND PRIORITY LIST

To begin with, Rage's dps is based on Smash crits. So, let's analyse Smash.

-Smash is a Force ability

-Smash with the Shockwave skill stacks up it's damage up to 100%

-Smash with the Decimate skill increase it's damage by 30% and decrease it's CD by 3secs

-Smash with the Dominate skill makes your next Smash used within 15 seconds an automatic critical hit.

-Smash with the Dark Resonance increase the critical multiplier for or Force abilities by 30%

-Smash has a 9sec CD if you're specced

That means that with no surge considered your smash will have 100% critical chance (after a charge), 130% stronger (if you have 4 stacks of Decimate) plus 30% increase to the critical multiplayer to the total of 80% (base critical multiplier is 50%). In my warrior, the tooltip says that Smash hits for 1410-1501 kinetic damage. Let's say that my attack is 1450, we will add the 130% of it. That's 3335. Plus we will calculate the critical multiplier of 80% and we have 6003 kinetic damage. Now, add more surge, a relic usage, an adrenal, the expertise buff. Smash can do up to 9k damage easily and it can hit up to 5 people in a 9sec CD. (For each opponent it strikes, different base damage is calculated).

Our rotation must be build around Smash to maximise it's huge crit hits. So our basic rotation goes like this,

Saber Throw ---> Charge ---> Force Crush  ---> Sunder ---> as soon as 4 stacks of shockwave are up Smash ---> Enrage ---> Force Scream ---> Sunder

To be more exact my priority list is:

1. Enrage on CD if you have less than 4 rage

2. Saber Throw

3. Charge

4. Smash if you have 4 stacks of shockwave

5. Vicious Throw

6. Force Crush

7. Sunder Assault

8. Force Choke

9. Force Scream

10. Obliterate

11. Vicious Slash

12. Assault

13. Ravage

So, to sum it up, you goal is build your Smash hit. Get 4 stacks of shockwave by either Force Choke or Force Crush and try to Smash as soon as possible after you Charge or Obliterate. I would suggest to use it after you Charge as Charge will make the next Smash used in the next 15sec a crit, plus your 4 set bonus from your PvP gear give you an extra 10% bonus to your damage. After that, keep your rage high enough to be able to burst.

STATS

You don't have to be a genius to know that Strength and Stamina is your main stats. After that you should check for your secondary stats. Expertise is the strongest stat for PvP. It will increase the damage you deal and decrease the damage you take. Expertise should always be on your gear. After that, go for Surge and Critcal ratings. That way your abilities and especially your Smash will hit harder. My experience tells me not to get more than 40% of either of those two stats as you'll need much more to achieve bigger percentages. After that, go for power. Power is a straight increase to your base damage of your attacks. That includes the base damage that your criticals are calculated.

TIPS

As we talk about PvP, your opponent will try to react to you. That's why you have to be use the correct abilities in the right moment. Here some tips for you:

-Apply your Chilling Scream to slow them for starters. Keep them slowed all the time.

-As you built up your Smash hit, they will hit you as hard as they can. I suggest you pop Saber Ward as soon as the opponent starts to fight back.

-Don't use Unleash (trinket for WoWers) if it's not a really need. More people will increase your Resolve with their knockbacks than their stuns. If your Resolve bar is filled you will be immune in every CC. Unleash will reset your Resolve bar so be careful!

-Have with you relics and adrenals with crit/surge and power. Use them in pairs, pop power relic and crit/surge adrenal and then pop crit/surge relic with power adrenal. That way you more burst damage.

-If your opponent pops his defensive or CDs from the beginning of your battle, try to sabotage his advantage as much as you can. Choke him, Push him, Charge him, Fear him. That way, his burst or his defences would have expired with no benefits for him. Remember, in most cases the one that uses his CDs first, is the one that loses.

-Your set 2 bonus from your PvP gear will make you heal after you use Intercede. To maximise the profit, first use Endure Pain and then Intercede. That way, you'll heal for more.

-Don't interrupt all the time. Your interrupt will lock for the interrupted ability only. For 4secs. Interrupts should only be used on spammed ability like Tracer Missiles and Force Strike or to interrupt the healer from healing himself.

-Beware of your surroundings. Most people will try to knock you back as soon as you charge them. Don't put yourself between your opponent and the edge of the ledge, or the acid pit or the fire.

That's all for now. I will update my guide with more informations and more tips in future. Stay tuned!

PvP Guide: Assassin Tip!

Hey guys!


Just tried my friends Assassin and I find him very interesting. A very powerful, very versatile characters, is actually downplayed from people than don't have a clue. Here some fast tricks for you, the people that say that Assassins are glass canons that need to burst to win.


USE YOUR DEFENSIVE ABILITIES!


Deflection 12sec duration, reduces the damage taken by 50%. I suggest to use it at start.


Force Shroud, think Cloak of Shadows here for WoW's rogues, Removes all hostile removable effects and increases your chance to resist Force and tech attacks by 100% for 3 seconds. That means 2 instant attacks. Does not break Stealth but it should be used before Force Cloak, the ability that puts you back to stealth. That way, any DoTs on you won't put you out of Stealth.

ASSASSINS CAN HEAL THEMSELVES!

Best COMBO EVER!


Force Cloak+Mind Trap+Seethe


Force Cloak puts you and your opponent out of combat and that means that you can Mind Trap them, stunning them and let's you Seethe to restore your life.


I would suggest to first force you opponent to use his CC ability early so when you use the combo he would be useless while you are regaining your health.


That's for now, PvP Assassin burst will come soon!