Intimidate1Context Source1

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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.