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Building a Template
A brief look at the reality of game mechanics in SWG as of Patch 7,
4/21/04.
Character builds are unique and diverse in SWG. Almost no two
characters have the same exact set of skills and if they do give it a
week. People shape their characters in a number of different ways.
Roleplayers typically build a character around a profession and an
identity they want to portray. Dabblers typically build characters for
skills they want to experiment with or those they want to for
convenience or preference. Min/Maxers typically build a character to
maximize certain skills and minimize skill point waste to optimize
their character for a certain purpose. Then lastly we have the
Hologrinders that are just chasing little cubes in hopes of becoming a
Jedi (Sorry, had to poke fun there). While I have stereo-typed
players, in truth most of us are a mix of all of these stereotypes to
a certain degree. What I am concentrating in this post is Min/Maxing
and understanding game mechanics and skills. This is combat
oriented.
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Skills, Mechanics and
Definitions
Defenses
There are 3 types of defenses in SWG. Primary, Secondary and State
defenses.
Primary Defenses
Melee and Ranged Defenses are primary defenses. These defenses work
regardless of what weapon a character is wielding. These defenses are
rolled against accuracy to see if an attack is successful. Currently
these defenses are capped at 125. Only Chef food, Squad Leader and
City bonuses can take these over the 125 cap.
Secondary Defenses
Dodge, Counter Attack and Block are secondary defenses. These defenses
are weapon dependant. Pistols and 1-handed melee weapons use dodge.
Carbines and 2-handed melee weapons use counter attack. Rifles and
Polearms use Block. These defenses come into play if and only if the
proper weapon is equipped and a hit is successful against the primary
defenses. These defenses do not block scatter hits, unarmed combos,
bleeds or DOTs. Currently these defenses are capped at 125. Only
Center of Being and Chef food bonuses can take these over the 125
cap.
Center of Being is a brawler skill that boosts secondary defenses. The
bonus is directly added to the secondary defense. CoB is also weapon
dependant, meaning that if CoB is active for 2-handed Melee, it must
be reapplied if you switch to a 1-handed Melee weapon.
Defense Accuity is a Teras Kasi skill. Defense Accuity has a random
chance to either Block, Dodge or Counterattack. While many complain
that this skill is not working, my own testing shows that it does
indeed work, is affected by CoB, but has a lower chance of working due
to comparably lower value to the other secondary defenses.
State Defenses
Defense vs. xxx are state defenses. State defenses are a roll against
accuracy to see if a state is applied. Each state skill then has an
inherent chance to succeed upon a successful roll. Currently all these
defenses stack across professions, but have a 95% cap. In other words,
no matter how high your state defenses there is always a 5% chance
that a succesful 'state hit' will be applied. When a
successful 'state hit' is applied, there is then a percent
chance based on the skill for it to work.
Defense vs. Knockdown - This defense is currently working. 70+ in this
skill is recommended for a noticeable difference. Thakitillo Chef food
provides 80% defense for 10 minutes (Highly recommended for those
lacking this defense.)
Defense vs. Posture Down - This defense is currently working. It is
more difficult to achieve high defense in this skill. No Chef food
exsists.
Defense vs. Dizzy - This defense is currently working. Dizzy is what
makes Knock Down and Posture Down so dangerous. Any attempt to change
posture, even if you are currently in that posture (i.e. hitting stand
while standing) results in a chance for a person to fall down.
Defense vs. Blind - This defense is currently working. Blind
significantly lowers an attackers accuracy. It is estimated at
applying -50 accuracy.
Defense vs. Stun - This defense is currently working. Stun halves the
attacker's damage and also lowers primary defenses by -50
defense.
Defense vs. Intimidate - This defense is currently NOT working. Even
at 90+ defense a novice brawler with no bonuses will land intimidate
50% of the time. Intimidate halves the attacker's damage, lowers
state defenses and negates all secondary defenses.
My experience has shown that certain state defenses matter more than
others and that certain states are harder to defend against than
others. It is also important to note that because accuracy plays a
role in determining the success of a defense it is much better to have
100 in one defense than 50 in two defenses. A player with 75 melee,
ranged and secondary defenses will be hit significantly more than a
person with 0 melee and ranged defense but 125 secondary defense. A
person with 50 def vs. knockdown and 50 def vs. dizzy will be much
easier to apply kd/dizzy to than a person with 0 defense vs. knockdown
and 100 defense vs. dizzy. Min/Maxing of skills is just that. Maxing
what skills you choose to and minimizing wasted skill points.
Accuracy
Accuracy is very simple. The higher your accuracy the better chance
you have to hit something and applying a desired effect/state.
Accuracy should be maxed if possible, especially against targets with
high defense. It is important to understand that your posture, the
target's posture, the target's defenses, intimidate on the
target, stun on the target, blind state on the attacker, aim, range
modifiers on the weapon and rate of movement of both you and the
target severly affect accuracy. Use all these to your advantage
whether you are the attacker or the defender.
Speed
Speed works on an exponential scale in SWG. It is a continous curve
that is near constant at lower speed and then rises sharply as speed
approaches 100. Speed is capped at 1 second in SWG. Any attacks that
appear faster are due to lag. Due to SWG's speed formula any
weapon can be used at 1 attack per second at 100 speed. Due to
inherent weapon speed and special attack delay modifiers, all weapon
have a different cap which is below 100. What is most important to
note is that as you approach 100 speed, each bit of weapon speed
significantly increases attack speed until you hit the one second cap
(i.e. the difference between 75 speed and 85 speed is significantly
lower than the difference between 85 speed and 95 speed when using a
5.4 speed Power Hammer with Head Hit 3 in 2-handed melee). http://killyourpc.org/swg/speedguide.html offers an
excellent indepth view of the weapon speed formula in SWG.
Damage
Random HAM vs. Targeted HAM. Random HAM attacks are typically higher
damaging attacks. Targeted HAM attacks are typically lower damage but
only hit one pool. Your target, your special attack and the group you
are attacking with all determine what is the best type of damage to
deal when comparing Random HAM vs. Target HAM attacks.
Mind Damage vs. Health/Action Damage. Mind Damage is unhealable in
SWG. The Mind stats are also the most difficult to buff. In PvE, the
difference between attacking a targets mind vs attacking health or
action is not real significant. The only exception is against certain
NPCs that can heal themselves. In PvP, mind damage is king. Health and
Action stats are often times 2-3x higher than mind stats. Given the
reduced pool size, reduced regeneration and unhealable quality of
mind, mind attacks are far more effective than health/action attacks
in PvP.
Mitigation
There are two types of mitigation in SWG, melee and ranged. Mitigation
reduces the difference between max and min damage on an attackers
weapon. Mitigation 1 is 20% reduction, Mitigation 2 is 40% reduction
and Mitigation 3 is 60% reduction. Example: An attacker is using a
weapon with 50-150 damage against a Mitigation 3 target. The attackers
damage spread is 100. Mitigation reduces this by 60% making it a 40
damage spread. Effectively, the attacker's weapon now is a 50-90
damage weapon.
Mitigation cannot be stacked. Mitigation is always in effect
regardless of the weapon you are using. Your highest level of
mitigation will always be used. A person with Ranged Mitigation 1 from
Carbine, Ranged Mitigation 3 from Rifle, Melee Mitigation 2 from TK
and Melee Mitigation 3 from Fencer will always have Ranged Mitigation
3 and Melee Mitigation 3.
Armor
My quick opinion. Most people wear too much armor or too little. For
99% of PvE Kinetic Ubese is all you will ever need. For 99% of PvP
High Stun/Base Resists Helm and Chest with the rest average resists is
all you need.
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Analyzing a
Build
To close things up, I'm going to critique my own build, which is
designed to be an effective soloer in both PvP and PvE. It can't
do it all, but it does 99% of it very well. Hopefully, this sheds some
light in what you might do in applying the reality of game mechanics
into your own build.
My Current Build
Wylie Kai'Odi
Human
Master Heavy Sword / Master Brawler / TK 4304 / Fencer 4400 / Medic
4000
HAM 400/400/400 400/400/400 1100/800/1100
Melee Defense: 156 (163)
Ranged Defense: 134 (137)
Counter Attack: 110
CoB: 125
Mitigation: Melee Mitigation 3
Def vs. KD: 95
Def vs. PD: 90
Def vs. Blind: 20
Def vs. Dizzy: 25
Def vs Stun: 65 (85)
Def vs Intimidate: 20 (25)
2h Speed: 80 (90)
2h Accuracy: 130 (135)
Weapons: Power Hammer (5.4 spd 178-709 damage w/ power up), Scythe
(2.0 spd 200-330 damage w/ power up)
Armor1: 73% Kinetic Ubese with Encumberance Slice
Armor2: 84% Base/37% Stun Composite with Effectiveness Slice (Helm and
Chest); 78% Kinetic/69% Base/4% Stun Composite with Encumberance Slice
(The Rest)
Accesories: +10 2h Speed SEA's, +5 2h Accuracy SEA's, +8 Def
vs. Intimdate SEA's, +20 Def vs. Stun BE Shirt, + 7 Melee Defense
BE Shirt and Pack, +3 Ranged Defense Pack.
Comments
Human - Humans have no real bonuses or special abilities. What they do
have is the most flexible HAM stats of all races.
Master Heavy Sword - Specializes in Heavy Mind Damage. AP2 weapons and
Blast damage kill things very quickly.
Master Brawler - 20m ranged KD is great. Intimidate2 lasts much longer
than Intimidate1. The added speed, defense, CoB and accuracy also make
it attractive.
Teras Kasi - Meditation and Defenses. Meditation cures bleeds, poison,
disease and wounds. It also provided PowerBoost and Force of Will.
Fencer - Defenses and Blind/Dizzy AOE attacks. It also gives me a stun
damage option.
Medic - I have played builds without medic, but felt that the ability
to heal self and others in combat is critical, especially in high end
PvE. Medic 4000 lets me cure bleeds and provides 1k+ heals with stim
b's. Novice Medic is also the coolest title in the game. I missed
not having that.
HAM - I always play buffed. My stat migration gives me a very even
stat balance after buffs. 3300/2100/2100 3300/2200/2200 3500/1800/2400
are what my stats look like after buffs, powerboost, composite armor
and stacking two brandies (my standard set-up).
Melee/Ranged defenses - I'm over the cap for two reasons. First,
I'm lazy. I should probably drop to TK 4302 and pick up some
Aukuan rings and SEA's to optimize. I could then go Medic 2040
giving me 1.5-2k heals with stim D's. Second, I'm convinced
that stun is applied to defenses before the cap. This means that when
I'm stunned my melee/ranged defenses are 103/87 rather than
75/75.
Counter Attack/CoB - I'm 235 in secondary defenses with CoB
running on a looping macro. I have a +10 Counter Attack SEA to add
when I get around to it. This makes up for my lack of ranged
mitigation in PvP.
Melee Mitigation 3 - This makes a huge difference in both PvP and PvE.
I can take a lot of melee damage. High Secondaries make up for my lack
of ranged mitigation except in high end PvE against ranged opponents.
Super Battle Droids hurt. This is my main weakness as defenses
don't do much against high level PvE MOBs.
State Defenses - I am near impossible to Knock Down or Posture Down.
This makes up for my low dizzy defenses. High Stun defenses make stun
very difficult to apply. Defense vs. Intimidate is broken, so I gave
up on that defense (I used to have +91). Blind is a major weakness
against melee attackers, but doesn't seem to hurt too badly if
they are intimidated. Against ranged attackers, I have a 2.5x to-hit
modifier, making Blind inconsequential.
2h Melee Speed - I am very close to the speed cap with a 5.4 Power
Hammer (1 attack every 1.25 seconds with my slowest special). I hope
to get some nice SEA's to complete my set up.
2h Melee Accuracy: Every bit helps. Swordman have poor accuracy
compared to other Melee classes. Accuracy powerups, SEA's and
Intimidate help make up the difference.
Weapons - One heavy hitting Blast damage weapon and one accurate
Kinetic damage weapon. I also carry a speed sliced power hammer
(fighting w/o SEA's), a damage sliced 2h curved sword (for lairs
to limit decay on Scythe), a stun baton (fencer), and a few DOT
weapons when I need an edge.
Armor - I wear my Ubese almost all my PvE. The lower encumberance and
cheaper cost of replacement make it attractive. My Composite is full
of SEA's and is pretty expensive to replace. I wear it for PvP and
some high-end PvE. I kill NS Elders in my Ubese.
Accessories - I have a few skill tapes that I use as well as some BE
clothing and +skill items. A few high value SEA's in a Ubese
shirt, Ubese bandolier and Mabari belt would be ideal due to no decay,
but this works for now.
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Summary
I have completed, tested and played various build in SWG:
CH 4404/ BH 0004 / Novice Medic
MCH / BH 0004
MBH / CH 1100 / Novice Medic
MBH / Pistol 0030 / Novice Medic
MBH / Medic 3200
MBH / Carbine 0403
Master Carbineer / BH 0430
Master Heavy Sword / Master Carbineer / TK 4004 / Novice Medic
Master Heavy Sword / Fencer 4440 / TK 4004 / Carbine 0030
Master Heavy Sword / Master Fencer / Master Brawler / TK 4304
Master Heavy Sword / Master Brawler / TK 4304 / Fencer 4400 / Medic
4000
I am most happy with by current build. With it, I've soloed around
20 NS Elders, I've soloed 2 Giant Canyon Krayts, I've killed
the Giant Dune Kimo solo a number of times and I'm able to run
most of the Geonosian Caves without armor. I never wear armor doing
faction missions, running average MOB missions or fighting average
NPC's. In PvP, I can solo multiple elite professions quite
succesfully. My only real weakness in PvP is Combat Medics, but
that's the case for most non-Doctor builds. I have yet to lose to
a Combat Medic 1v1, but add in a group and they become very
powerful.
I was asked by a few people to make this post and share a little
knowledge on the reality of game skills and mechanics. I can't
cover everything and I'm sure things will change. Of course, most
of what I've written is subject to opinion and personal
experience. I just hope that this summary of 6 months of reading,
trying and testing builds in both a PvE and PvP enviroment helps some
understand the poorly documented and complicated combat system in
SWG.
Have fun and play the game...you might actually like it.
RC
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