Defense Acuity 2 (Source)

[quote:80bf375c1a]Teräs Käsi FAQ, Version 2.1

For Current "Hot Topics" and links to Useful Information (which may contain answers not found here), see this thread: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... 219#M78219

Note: This guide is intended to help new and old Warriors alike with any questions they may have about our great profession. Also note that this is a work in progress, and will continually change.

Contents:

1. Who is the current Teräs Käsi Artist Correspondent?

2. Character Creation Questions: 1. What race should I choose? 2. What do the attributes in Star Wars Galaxies mean? 3. "How should I distribute my attribute points?"

3. Achieving Teräs Käsi Novice: 1. "How do I get to Novice TKA?" (The unarmed grind revealed.) 2. Where are the Teräs Käsi Trainers? 3. "I made it to Novice, What do I hunt?"

4. Specials: 1. What are all of the Teräs Käsi (and related Brawler) Specials? 2. How does Powerboost work? 3. How does Meditation work? 4. How does Force of Will work?

5. Armor and Weapons 1. How does Armor work? 2. "Should I wear Armor?" 3. My Vibro-Knucklers have X-Y Damage and Z Speed. How do they compare? 4. How does speed work? Should I choose VKs for Speed or Damage? 5. Are there any other weapons available?

6. What consumables (food and spice) will help me?

7. What is the history of the Teräs Käsi?

1. Who is the current Teräs Käsi Artist Correspondent?

Ryutek

2. Character Creation Questions:

1. What race should I choose?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions on the forums. The answer really comes down to personal choice (especially if you are a role-player). All of the races have positive and negative aspects, and you will find on these forums that there are TK Masters in every possible race. If you want to play as a Twi'lek, don't let the starting racial bonuses force you into playing a Trandoshan. Also keep in mind that if you plan on joining the Imperial side of the Galactic Civil War, that all non-human races suffer faction point penalties. Here are some details on the races (note that I only list bonuses that apply to TKA directly):

• Trandoshan

+10 Unarmed Accuracy +5 Unarmed Speed +15 Unarmed Damage +10 Melee Defense +1 Regeneration

This is one of the most popular races for a Teräs Käsi Artist because of the easy to understand unarmed bonuses and the natural regeneration. Trandoshans cannot wear gloves or boots.

• Wookiee

+10 Warcry +1 Wookiee Roar

The bonus to Warcry means that the delay has a greater chance of sticking/working on the target. Wookiee roar is a move unique to Wooks. It is a cone version of the Intimidate special move that also boosts Mind by 20 points. Wookiees can use this move every 5 minutes. For more on these moves see the special moves section below.

• Human

As with most RPGs the human is the average joe of the group. No special bonuses, but the ability to be anything. Humans are the only race that don't suffer faction penalties as a member of the Empire. Currently you can migrate all of a human's stats so that they have a max of 1100 on Mind/Focus/Willpower (although not at the same time). This can be a big advantage (however there is talk of a change for this in the works).

• Zabrak

+10 Defense vs Dizzy (keeps you from falling again when you try to stand after being knocked down) +10 Defense vs Stun (when you are stunned you do less damage) +10 Defense vs Intimidate (when you are intimidated you do less damage) +1 Equilibrium +1 Vitalize

Lots of good stuff here. Equilibrium and Vitalize are both special moves that can be used once per hour. Equilibrium averages out damage to all your HAM bars (so if you have 300 damage to health, it adjusts it so you instead have 100 damage to each of the 3 stats). Vitalize is a power boost that gives you +50 to Health Action and Mind for a short period.

• Rodian

+15 Defense vs Blind (when you are blind your accuracy is reduced)

• Mon Calamari, Bothan, and Twi'lek

No special bonuses for TKA here, but they each have bonuses that my apply to whatever other profession you will be taking. Each race also has attribute bonuses that can help if used correctly. Bothans and Twi'lek have higher action pools, Mon Calamari have high mind pools. Check the FAQs for the companion professions you are considering to help you decide.

2. What do attributes in Star Wars Galaxies mean?

Attribute points are one of the most commonly misunderstood parts of the game. There are 9 attribute points: 3 primary vitality related stats, 3 move-cost related stats, and 3 regeneration related stats.

Health, Action and Mind (frequently abbreviated HAM) These are the primary stats used to reflect your overall health. When one of these attributes is reduced to zero, you will become incapacitated. Whenever you perform a special move, each of these attributes is reduced based on a formula (see special moves discussion below). Therefore it is very important to keep these stats in a useable range.

Strength, Quickness and Focus These are the move-cost stats. Contrary to any RPG training you may have had in other games, Strength does not affect the amount of damage you do. This is the #1 misconception by people playing Wookiee characters. These stats affect the HAM costs of your special moves. The general consensus is that for each 100 points available in one of these stats (in other words not used by armor or wounds) that the base HAM cost of a weapon is reduced by 1-2 points. This number is just based on perception (doing a stat migration and checking average damage) and is more likely to be a dynamic value. If anyone wants to point to some real data, I'd be happy to include it. Since wearing armor reduces these attributes (based on the encumbrance costs), most TKA quickly discover that wearing armor increases the costs of special moves (see the explanation of armor below).

Constitution, Stamina and Willpower These are the regeneration stats. Having higher numbers here means that you will regenerate the primary Health, Action and Mind stats faster. Since wearing armor reduces these attributes (based on the encumbrance costs), you will notice that you do not regenerate as quickly while wearing armor (see the explanation of armor below).

3. How should I distribute my attribute points?

This really depends on your play style as well as what other profession you have besides TKA (specifically if you will have any medic). When using a base set of Vibro-knucklers, you will find that your HAM costs are roughly 1 health / 1.6 action / 1 mind. So if you didn't take healing into account, you would want more action than either mind or health.

If you plan on having any medic you must take healing into account. First of all you should know that you cannot heal the Mind attribute (aside from using the Zabrak equalize). The only way to increase Mind is to regenerate it. Additionally you can heal Health and Action using stimpacks, but doing so drains your Mind attribute.

Additionally you should take the powerboost special move into account. Powerboost is a meditate move you get at level 2 Meditate (Advanced Meditative Techniques). Basically it will allow you to boost your Health and Action by 50% of your Mind. For example if you had 1000/1000/1000 and you did powerboost, you eventually ramp-up to 1500/1500/1500.

Considering healing and powerboost, most TKMs migrate their stats over to the Mind column (Mind, Focus & Willpower). The exact amount of the migration would depend on your play style, so experiment with it. You must visit an Image Designer to migrate your stats.

3. Achieving Teräs Käsi Novice:

1. How do I get to Novice TKA?

The unarmed skill tree in Novice Brawler is known for being one of the worst grinds in the game. However there are some tricks to help you get through it.

First of all, go purchase the fastest Vibro-knuckler you can find. Next get it sliced for speed. If it slices for damage, hold on to it, but go purchase another one. Ideally you want to get a VK with a speed of around 1.6. Now I hear you saying, "but I won't be certified for the VK until I reach Novice TKA." True, but by using the VK, you will notice that the speed of your attacks doubles or triples. You won't hit for as much damage, but you'll hit a whole lot more.

Method 1 Do it the normal way. Go to the newbie mob spawns and kill everything you see. Run destroy missions from mission terminals. Run hunting missions for the newbie mobs (great way to make money when starting out). If you want to take on heavy duty mobs, find a medic that needs healing XP and get him to come along and heal you.

Method 2 Go to any advanced planet with buffs. Use the Unarmed Spin Attack on the lair until it is destroyed, also killing all of the creatures around you. Make certain that you only attack creatures you know you can solo, such as Plains Tusk Cats, Pikets, Quenkers, Various Gurrecks, etc.

Method 3 Use a macro. Using the in game macros is not cheating and will not get you banned from the game, however many people still think it is lame. It is listed here as a full disclosure of what others are doing.

Put a CDEF weapon of your choice in slot F5 Put your speed-sliced VK in slot F6

Create 2 macros:

UnattendedAttack

/ui action targetSelf; /ui action cycleTargetOutward; /ui action toolbarSlot04; /attack; /pause 3; /ui action toolbarSlot05;

UnattendedAttackParent

/ui action toolbarSlot06; /pause 20; /harvest meat; /pause 1; /ui action toolbarSlot07;

Put UnattendedAttack in F7 and UnattendedAttackParent in F8. Now find one of the newbie mob static spawn points. These are the places where the mobs just keep respawning over and over. There should not be a lair nearby. To get the most unarmed XP possible, you should not have a certification in the ranged weapon that you use. Basically you want your ranged attack to miss, since obviously if you kill the mob with your ranged weapon you get no unarmed xp. The mob will still charge you, even if you miss.

Now change your Field of View in your display settings to the maximum and zoom your camera all the way out. Press CTRL-SHIFT-S to make your camera go in a 360 degree spin. Go into your AFK options and make sure that auto-AFK is turned off. Press F8 and leave your computer running.

Here is an explanation of this macro if you are having trouble:

The UnattendedAttackParent macro is the outer loop. It calls the attack macro, waits 20 seconds (which should be enough time for you to kill the mob), harvests and calls itself again. The UnattendedMacro does the actual attacking. If you are having trouble getting the attack to work, just try hitting F7 instead of F8. You can also try typing each command manually one at a time to see what it does.

There are 2 important things to remember with the macros: 1. the slot numbers begin counting at zero (for example toolbarSlot00 corresponds to F1) and 2. macros are case sensitive, so if you type it wrong it won't work.

/ui action targetSelf; /ui action cycleTarget; These commands target you, then target the closest enemy.

/ui action toolbarSlot04; This is the same as hitting F5. If you have your CDEF weapon in F5, this command will equip it (or unequip it....which is why you need to start the macro while holding your VK).

/attack; This commands will cause you to attack the selected mob with the CDEF weapon.

/pause 3;/ui action toolbarSlot05; This command tells the computer to wait 3 seconds (to give you a chance to hit the mob with your CDEF), and then switch to your VK.

Here's what should happen.

1. You start the macro. 2. The macro targets the closest mob. 3. The macro equips the CDEF weapon. 4. The macro fires 1 or 2 shots with the CDEF (depending on the weapon's speed). 5. The mob charges at you. 6. The macro switches so that you are holding your VK. 7. Since you are already in attack mode, you finish off the mob with your VK. 8. The macro harvests the corpse and begins again at #2.

Some other notes on this macro:

1. This macro is only intended to be used against the easiest newbie mobs (like Minor Worts and Lesser Womp Rats outside Mos Entha, Mos Eisley and Mos Espa on Tatooine). These mobs are not social, and will not aggro you, making it fairly easy for the macro to work. If you try to use this macro unattended against an aggro NPC spawn, it is likely that you will come back to find your character dead.

2. If you plan on leaving your PC totally unattended, it would be a good idea to have some fairly decent kinetic armor. Since you won't be using any specials, the armor will help protect you from most of the damage.

3. Some people recommend adding a /follow into the macro. This macro can work fine without this command. Additionally, you may find that your toon has run off to god knows where by the time you get back.

4. Use the /dump command to end the macro.

5. If you have problems with all the mobs running out of range, try adding a separate loop macro for your pet to attack your current target every 5 minutes or so. Create 2 macros:

MobCleanup (put in F9)

/ui action targetSelf; /ui action cycleTargetOutward; /tellpet attack;

MobCleanupParent (put in F10)

/ui action toolbarSlot10; /pause 300; /ui action targetSelf; /tellpet follow; /pause 5; /ui action toolbarSlot11;

Since your toon is standing on top of the mob spawn, by having your pet kill any mobs out of range, you will cause them to respawn within range.

2. Where are the Teräs Käsi trainers?

Player Cities Have Them If The Mayor Places One. Tatooine: Mos Espa (-2812, 1973) Wayfar (-5054,-6632) Corellia: Kor Vella (-3570, 3146) Talus: Daeric (418, -2906) Naboo: Theed (-5649, +4205) Rori: Narmle (5287, -2508)

3. I made it to Novice, now what do i hunt?

Try out the Tusken Fort on Tatooine (-4000 +6250). The highest level Tuskens only have 15% kinetic armor, and the ability to knock them down for long periods of time using a dizzy makes them a piece of cake. Make sure you get a full set of buffs before going, and try not to fight them at long range (Warlords have a Surprise Shot that easily tops 2000 dmg). Catch them at close range and force them to change to melee to avoid this.

Another frequent suggestion is to run Huurton (Hurrton Stalker, Hurrton Huntress) missions on Dantooine or Kamurith Defiler missions on Dathomir, because they both have infrequent spawns, or randomly spawn babies instead of full grown adults.

4. Specials:

1. What are all of the Teräs Käsi (and related Brawler) Specials?

Warcry1 and Warcry2 Warcry is a special move you get as a Novice Brawler. When it sticks, your target's next action (i.e. attack, stand, etc.) will be delayed for 10 seconds, or until damaged again. It is frequently combined with a knockdown move in order to keep the target on the ground for an extended period of time. If you decide to pick up Master Brawler, you will get Warcry2 which has a duration of 20 seconds. Note that Intimidate does not break Warcry as it causes no damage

Intimidate1 and Intimidate 2 This move is an absolute must when facing any opponent that you can't knockdown. When it sticks, your target will only do 50% of their normal damage against you. So if they normally hit you for 300 points of damage, after you intimidate them, they will only hit you for 150 points of damage. Intimidate is a novice brawler skill, Intimidate 2 is a master brawler skill. The only difference is the length of time that the target is intimidated (Approximately 30 seconds and 120 seconds respectively). Note that intimidates stack timewise. Each time you intimidate the target, it will add on the the total length of time that the state lasts.

Berserk1 and Berserk2 Berserk will be your friend while you are grinding unarmed 1-4 in the brawler tree. While you are Berserk, you basically do +75 damage. The main problem with Berserk as a TKA is that you can't do any special moves while in the Berserk state. Watch for the icon next to your HAM bars. You get Berserk2 at master brawler, which lasts much much longer (which means you will be locked out of doing specials for minutes instead of just seconds).

Unarmed Lunge 1 and Unarmed Lunge 2 Unarmed Lunge 1 is a novice brawler skill that does little damage other than the fact that it has an extended range (15m?). It can force the target to kneeling. Some people use this in PvP to try to slow down someone that is kiting them (a ranged person that shoots at you while running away just out of your range). Unarmed Lunge 2 is a master brawler skill that has similar range but provides a knockdown. Note that the knockdown skill is on a timer so that it can only knock the target down every 30 seconds (at the most).

Unarmed Knockdown 1 and Knockdown 2 Unarmed Knockdown 1 is similar to Unarmed Lunge 2. Lunge 2 does more damage and has greater range (with a moderate increase in HAM costs), so if you have Master Brawler and can choose between these 2, choose Lunge 2. Unarmed Knockdown 2 provides a knockdown and dizzy state. While the knockdown lasts for 5 seconds, the dizzy state means that if the target tries to stand, they may fall down again. Very useful move. Note that you can also get this by separately doing unarmedknockdown1 and unarmeddizzy1, and in fact it is often useful in PvE to make sure that the target is dizzy before issuing the knockdown. Knockdown skills are on a 30 second time so that it can only knock down the target every 30 seconds (at the most). Knockdown2 also has a cool attack animation.

UnarmedSpinAttack1 and UnarmedSpinAttack2 These are area attacks. They are not very useful unless you are being attacked by multiple mobs, and they are all within our limited range. UnarmedHit2 does more damage for the same HAM cost.

UnarmedLegHit1, UnarmedBodyHit1, and UnarmedHeadHit1 Each of these allows you to target one specific HAM attribute. While damage from other special moves will be randomly selected from either Health, Action or Mind, these special moves allow you to pick which attribute to attack. These are really finishing moves due to the HAM costs, since you are better off using unarmedHit3 for twice the damage at .25 more HAM cost (This is a nice way of saying that these moves suck).

UnarmedDizzy1 When it sticks, this move will give the target the Dizzy state. When combined with a knockdown, a dizzy state will make sure that the target does not get up, even after the 5 second knockdown has worn off. Dizzy stacks with itself, so each time you can keep using /unarmeddizzy1 to add on to the total length of time that the target is dizzy. Note that the dizzy + knockdown only works on creatures with 2 legs. Animals with 4 legs will not fall down when trying to stand while dizzy.

UnarmedBlind1 When it sticks, this move will give the target a blind state that lasts for 50 seconds. During this time the target's accuracy is reduced. This move is fine, but you are pressed for time, you are better off going with Intimidate+unarmedStun1.

UnarmedStun1 When it sticks, this move will give the target a stunned state that lasts for 50 seconds. While stunned, the target makes fewer attacks per round. The end result of this is an overall reduced damage output. Usually UnarmedStun is a great first shot since in general it is much more successful than an Intimidate attack (although the damage reduction by Intimidate is more significant). Combining Stun + Intimidate is the key to surviving encounters with high HAM mobs.

UnarmedHit1, UnarmedHit2, and UnarmedHit3 These moves are the bread and butter of a TKA, and you will usually want to have two setup for use. UH2 is more efficient as far as HAM costs go, but UH3 does more damage in a shorter amount of time. UnarmedHit3 also has a chance to inflict the blind state on the target. A good TKA will know when they need to go for the heavy hit, and when they should conserve their HAM.

2. How does Powerboost work?

PowerBoost is a special action that Teräs Käsi can take once they get to Advanced Meditative Techniques (level 2). Basically the TKA while meditating will do the action. The Mind attribute will immediately be cut in half (although it will begin regenerating). The Health and Action will begin ramping up over the next 60 seconds, each getting a bonus equal to the amount that was cut from mind. After the first 60 seconds, the Mind attribute should reach the boosted state. Meditation skill affects the length of time that the bonus lasts. Here is the exact formula used:

Duration: 5 min + (meditation skill mod/100 * 5min) give or take 5%

For example, if your stats are 1000/1000/1000 and you do Power Boost, your mind immediately drops to 500. After 60 seconds you will be at 1500/1500/1000. After another 60 seconds you will be at 1500/1500/1500.

POWERBOOST ONLY TAKES THE BASE MIND STATS INTO CONSIDERATION.

Some people have seen bugs relating to the stats not returning to normal. Among these, your stats may appear to be 100% when in fact you have been damaged.

Here is a macro that you may find helpful when using PowerBoost. It will add alarms that will go off to indicate the various stages of the boost. Note that you will want to update the times based on your current meditation skill using the formula above.

/meditate;/pause 2;/powerBoost; /alarmAddIn 0 2 \#ff9900Power Boost Ready\#; /alarmAddin 0 6 \#ffff00Power Boost Two Minute Warning\#; /alarmAddIn 0 7 \#ffff00Power Boost One Minute Warning\#;

3. How does Meditation work?

When you issue the /meditate command, your toon takes a meditation pose. Here's what mediation skill can do for each level of meditation. Note that each additional level increases the speed of the previous levels heals.

Teräs Käsi Novice: cure bleeding Intermediate Meditative Techniques: cure bleeding + cure poison Advanced Meditative Techniques: cure bleeding + cure poison + cure disease Expert Meditative Techniques: cure bleeding + cure poison + cure disease (nothing new) Master Meditative Techniques:= cure bleeding + cure poison + cure disease + cure wounds

In addition, Meditate will make your HAM regenerate faster than standing. I'm unsure if it is faster than sitting (although it is at least as fast).

4. How does Force of Will work?

Force of will is the skill that allows the TKA to recover from being incapacitated faster than they normally would. Currently it gives you a chance to get up instantly from being incapped. It seems to work half the time.

1. Character must be incapacitated - Execute /forceOfWill - Roll d100 1. If the roll is less than 5, automatic failure 2. If the roll is greater than the character's meditation skill mod, failure 3. If roll less than or = character's meditation skill mod, success

Note: standard meditation skill mod for a TKA with /forceOfWill is 75

2. If the character fails the skill roll, he/she will remain incapacitated per normal rules and will be unable to use the command for the duration of that incapacitation.

If the character succeeds, the roll delta (skill mod - original d100 roll) is passed to the function where the following occurs: 1. If delta is less than 10, the character will sustain 100 wounds to each pool and 100 battle fatigue 2. If delta greater than or = 10 & less than 40, temporary reductions of 200pts to all pools will be applied (5min) and 100 battle fatigue 3. If delta greater than or = 40 & less than 70, temporary reductions of 100pts to all pools will be applied (5min) 4. If delta greater than or = 70, no negative effects are applied to the character 5. An effect similar to the Zabrak innate "equalize" is applied to the character 6. A 1 hour reuse timer is applied

5. Armor and Weapons:

1. How does Armor work?

When armor decreases the values of your Strength, Quickness and Focus attributes, the result is an increase in the costs of special moves. Additionally because of the decreases in Constitution, Stamina and Willpower, you will find that you do not regenerate your main stats as quickly.

Lets say you take a basic human brawler: 1100,600,500 / 900,450,450 / 600,400,400

If this person put on a composite armor chestplate with encumbrance costs of 250/100/100, the resulting attributes would be: 1100,350,250 / 800,350,350 / 500,300,300

Notice that the encumbrance cost of the armor is subtracted from each secondary. You can see how if you were to add a couple more pieces of armor, you could eventually end up with attributes of: 1100,0,0 / 800,0,0 / 500,0,0

Since you never actually take any damage to your secondaries (other than wounds) this setup would be perfectly acceptable. This human would be able to go out and fight. However, because all of the secondary attributes have been reduced, the human will find that they regenerate very slowly (if at all), and that the HAM costs for special moves would be higher.

Some common fallacies about armor:

• Armor reduces your quickness, which makes you slower and easier to hit. (UNTRUE)
• Armor reduces your strength, which makes you hit for less damage. (UNTRUE)
• Armor makes you run slower. (UNTRUE)

2. Should I wear Armor?

Note that I do not have updated information for Wookie Armor available, so it is not listed below.

There is a good bit of debate about this on the forums. Role-players tend to say no, simply because it goes against the idea of a martial artist. Personally, I say it depends on 3 things: 1. How good is your armor? 2. What opponent are you facing? and 3. Do you want to?

As mentioned above, it is important to measure the costs to your regeneration and special-moves with the savings on damage. As a general rule, I'd say that if the protection is not at least 20% kinetic, then it is likely that the cost of the armor outweighs the benefit. Bad Armor usually has just as high encumbrance costs as good armor. Don't let an experience with some low quality armor ruin your opinion of it. Armor can be invaluable when facing red-con mobs.

When it comes to armor there are 3 types of armor that a TK Master might wear: High-End Chitin, Ubese and Composite. For the novice brawler, you can usually find a good suit of Chitin armor for around 3k per piece on the bazaar. If you can find cheap Mabari Armorweave with similarly high resistances, by all means purchase it. However once you get enough money, you will find that Ubese and Composite offer the best resistances. On my server, you can easily find >75% kinetic ubese, and >80% kinetic composite.

Be sure to find a good Slicer or Master Smuggler to slice each piece of armor for you. Expect to pay between 3000 and 13000 credits per piece. The slicer will do their magic on each piece and the outcome will be a random improvement in either encumbrance (secondary costs) or effectiveness (% resistance). If you get an effectiveness slice, sell or donate the piece, buy another one and try again. On my human toon, I could easily wear a full suit of encumbrance-sliced 52% resist composite and have at least 100 points left in each of my secondary stats while wearing it. If you have a lot of credits, follow this advice: find a master armorsmith. If they don't sell sliced armor, offer to bring along a master smuggler to slice the armor. Have the master armorsmith create 3 full suits. Tell them that you will pay your master smuggler to slice all 3 suits, if you can purchase the encumbrance sliced pieces at the armorsmith's normal prices.

Aside from having good armor, the trick is knowing when to use it. You need to be able to judge your opponent's ability to damage you versus your ability to damage yourself (by using special moves). If you are facing a krayt dragon, then the best strategy is to put on your 80% kinetic composite and avoid spamming specials. On the other hand, if you are facing opponents that you can easily knockdown and kill, don't wear any armor, because the cost of your special attacks and the lack of regeneration will outweigh the defensive value of the armor.

Setup a macro to easily put on and take off your armor. This way if you find yourself unexpectedly outnumbered, you can put on the armor with just a press of 1 button. Likewise when the battle is over, you can take off the armor so your HAM will regenerate normally.

Note that there is a timer on equipping and unequipping weapons and armor, so it will not be a fast process.

Here's how to setup the macro:

Create 2 macros (note that capitalization is important):

PutOnArmor

/ui action toolbarPane01;/ui action toolbarSlot00;/ui action toolbarSlot01;/ui action toolbarSlot02;/ui action toolbarSlot03;/ui action toolbarSlot04;/ui action toolbarSlot05;/ui action toolbarSlot06;/ui action toolbarSlot07;/ui action toolbarSlot08;/ui action toolbarSlot09;/ui action toolbarSlot10;/ui action toolbarSlot11;/ui action toolbarPane00;

TakeOffArmor

/ui action toolbarPane01;/ui action toolbarSlot12;/ui action toolbarSlot13;/ui action toolbarSlot14;/ui action toolbarSlot15;/ui action toolbarSlot16;/ui action toolbarSlot17;/ui action toolbarSlot18;/ui action toolbarSlot19;/ui action toolbarSlot20;/ui action toolbarSlot21;/ui action toolbarSlot22;/ui action toolbarSlot23;/ui action toolbarPane00;

Resize your toolbar so that it shows 2 rows. Now press CTRL-TAB to switch to the pane labeled 2 (there are 6 panes). Put all of your armor pieces on the top row, and all of the matching clothing pieces on the bottom row. To do this, open your inventory and drag them up onto the toolbar into the correct slot. So for example, under F2 put your ubese armor gloves...in row 2 F2 put your non-armor gloves. If you don't have a matching non-armor piece, just put the same armor piece in both spots (however it works best if you have a matching piece of clothing for each piece of armor). I usually put the chestplate/jacket in twice under F1 and F12. If you are wounded the F1 will make sure that the chestplate goes on before a bicep, and the F12 is useful when you accidentally run PutOnArmor twice and end up with half your armor on and half your regular clothes on. The jacket will be sure to remove any biceps or bracers you may be wearing.

Now press CTRL-TAB again to return to the first pane[/quote:80bf375c1a]

Defensive modifiers

[quote:80bf375c1a]

1. Defensive Acuity

THUNDERHEART wrote:

Teras Kasi Artist All player run tests to this point have shown Defensive Acuity, and thusly CenterOfBeing, to provide little to no benefit when used. Are these two abilities working as intended, and if not, what is the future of these two abilities for TKAs.

Defensive Acuity and CenterOfBeing are working, but like the original intent for “tumbling”, changes in the game since those two abilities were put in the game have really caused them to be ineffective tools at the high end of combat. These are two very important melee considerations for the combat balance. A melee artist’s ability to defend him or herself in a galaxy that is focused on ranged combat is a tricky thing. We want it to make sense in that a melee artist has a solid role in combat party make-up and to give the melee artist the tools they need to survive when they aren’t part of a larger combat unit.

19 Answers, April 29, 2004 Defensive Acuity is a Teräs Käsi specific defense modifier that allows us a chance to Dodge, Block, OR Counterattack our opponent. Basically it works as follows:

1. Opponent attacks TKA. 2. Opponent succesfully "hits" TKA. 3. TKA rolls to see if they make a "save" (the game handles all "rolls"). 4. If the roll is succesful then another roll occurs to see if the TKA Dodges, Blocks or Counterattacks.

For Other Professions the second roll never takes place. Their "save" type is predetermined by the weapon they are holding (Dodge for Fencers and Pistoleers, Block for Riflemen and Pikemen, and Counterattack for Carbineers and Swordsmen).

1. Stacking Defenses

• Defensive Acuity Has No Counterpart and Therefore Does Not Stack.
• Ranged and Melee Defense Stacks up to +125.
• Defense Versus States Does Stack.
• Dodge, Block, and Counterattack are Tied to The Weapon You are Using, and Therefore Do Not Benefit TKs.

1. How Defenses Work

Utess created a very well written summary of how the defenses in the game work together, that I am reposting here:

Utess wrote: The best way to think of this is to see it as different layers of defense.

First layer: Melee and Ranged defense - This determines your chance of getting hit by those types of attacks.

Second layer: Dodge/Block/Counterattack/Defensive Acuity - If you do get "hit", these mods determine your chance of avoiding/countering the damage. In our case as TKAs, this layer is very weak for us because defensive acuity has a very low chance of success.

Third Layer: Melee/Ranged mitigation - These shrink the damage range of those types of attacks. Making it so you get hit closer to the minimum damage instead of the max damage of a weapon/creature.

Fourth Layer: Armor - This absorbs some of the damage you take.

Final Layer: Toughness mods - This acts as a natural armor that absorbs even more damage. In the case of TKAs, ours works on melee damage.

One other thing worth mentioning: Dodge/Block/Etc and Toughness are based on the weapon you are holding. You will use the mods appropriate for that profession. Also, mitigation just simply picks the highest melee and ranged mod you have and always uses that. Melee and ranged defense stack regardless of profession.

And, of course, all this could very well change once the CURB happens But, this is how it works right now.

1. How Mitigation Works

Mitigation Explained

Damage mitigation reduces the "damage range" of the weapon you are being attacked with. Basically, it reduces the maximum damage of the weapon, but does not change the minimum damage. The reduction percentages are:

• Level One - Damage is limited to 80% of the Damage Range
• Level Two - Damage is limited to 60% of the Damage Range
• Level Three - Damage is limited to 40% of the Damage Range

Some rules to consider:

• You can have Ranged and Melee Mitigation, but the highest rank of each one you have is the one that will be used. (For example, if you have Melee Mitigation 2 and Melee Mitigation 3 you will use Level 3)
• Mitigation functions in PvE and PvP combat.

To determine the amount of the reduction the following formula is used:

Max Damage - Min Damage = Range Range x Remaining Percentage = New Range Min Damage + New Range = New Max Damage

To give an example I'll use a weapon with 100-250 Damage against a target with Level 3 Mitigation.

250 - 100 = 150 150 x 40% = 60 100 + 60 = 160

This makes the new damage range 100-160.

1. Blacksun Razor Knucklers (Alternate Damage Type)

Yes they were pulled before they hit live Servers. Yes they will be back in the game eventually (Official word is after the Combat Balance).

Razor Knuckler / Alternate Knuckler Discussion Thread

1. Unarmed Damage SEA's

They DO NOT work per the Developers.

Official information on Unarmed Damage and Caps - 26 Oct 2004

Ryutek wrote:

Unarmed Damage Attachments do not work. The Issue is known to the Developers, and will be corrected with the Combat Upgrade (per the Developers themselves).

Hard Caps are on Dodge, Block, Counterattack, Melee Defense, and Ranged Defense of +125, which can be reached through a combination of skills and tapes/attachments. The only things that will help beyond the +125 cap are Chef Foods and Squad Leader Bonuses.[/quote:80bf375c1a]