... Leveling Up :DLVLD:
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Skills......................................................................
If you can take a large amount of skills, take them all. Here's how I
prioritize what is important.
Persuade
Repair
Demolitions (stop taking at 10 ranks)
Security (stop taking at 15 ranks)
Awareness (used to find mines and in dialogues, stop taking at 15 ranks)
Computer Use
Treat Injury
Stealth (Only take if you're going to be a Sith Assassin later)
Note: I stop taking Demolitions, etc., because the difficulties of the
tasks assigned to those skills don't go that high. Because of that
I find that you can stop taking skill ranks there at these points
and still recover all mines out there (or opening all Locked
doors). There will still be the occasional thing that requires
a higher Security, such as a metal box in the Onderon Vault, so you
can either go to 20 ranks there, or keep someone else working on
it.
This way, when I play Jedi Sentinal, my favorite class, I have to
take the Class Skill feats to get Repair and Demolitions. Then I
follow the priority list to put points in that order. However,
despite being a lower priority, both Computer Use and Treat Injury
will end out higher than Demolitions/Security/Awareness because
those stop.
Also note, if you keep up on all your skills (really only possible
with an 18 INT) the only particular benefit is when Creating Items,
but you can do that with anyone. Repair is needed for breaking down
items, as has been noted before, only the Exile's skill is used
when breaking down items, regardless of who uses the workbench.
Skills on your other characters, I almost always just give them their
class skills. There's no need for all of them to be able to do everything.
(Except Bao-Dur who can do everything if you get his INT up to 16)
Feats.......................................................................
Here's the priority I take on Feats:
Class Skill (Repair, Demolitions or Security)
Two Weapon Fighting (and its upgrades)
Flurry (and its upgrades)
Toughness (and its upgrades)
Weapon Feats (Lightsaber)
Regenerate Force Points (only helps at low levels)
Note: Even though various characters can become Jedi, it is sometimes
better to keep them as Ranged weapon specialists. There are some
really good blasters out there, and the Precise Shot feat tree
gives good damage bonuses.
Feats to Skip:
Armor Feats (the best Force Powers can't be used in armor)
Weapon Feats (Melee, Ranged)
Dueling (the bonus isn't that useful, unless you are fighting Unarmed)
Dual Strike (again, not that useful)
Regenerate Vitality Points (you regenerate out of combat anyway)
Combat Feats:
On the three major combat feat front (Power Attack, Critical Strike, and
Flurry), the absolute best of these is Flurry. (Replace with the Ranged
versions if you are using blasters) Why? Because an extra attack is always
more valuable than some minor extra damage to your existing attacks. This
is more apparent at the higher levels when a fully upgraded lightsaber gets
close to doing 100 damage per attack. Let's just say that you do 50 damage,
however, and have both Master Power Attack and Master Flurry.
Note: You can get "up to" 50 damage by upgrading fully just after
Dantooine. That's one of the reasons I go there first, to get
Lightsaber Crystals.
This is an abstraction, not an actual damage comparison. This is just to
demonstrate the differences between Flurry and Power Attack.
Flurry vs. Power Attack
Master Flurry: (1 Lightsaber) Master Power Attack: (1 Lightsaber)
============================= ===================================
50 damage, hit one 62 damage, hit one
50 damage, flurry
============================= ===================================
100 total damage 62 total damage
Master Flurry: (2 or Double) Master Power Attack: (2 or Double)
============================= ===================================
50 damage, hit one 62 damage, hit one
50 damage, offhand 62 damage, offhand
50 damage, flurry
============================= ===================================
150 total damage 124 total damage
Master Flurry, 2 Weapons, Master Power Attack, 2 Weapons,
Master Speed Master Speed
============================= ===================================
50 damage, hit one 62 damage, hit one
50 damage, offhand 62 damage, offhand
50 damage, flurry 62 damage, speed one
50 damage, speed one 62 damage, speed two
50 damage, speed two
============================= ===================================
250 total damage 248 total damage
You can see that in every situation, Flurry is better than Power Attack,
even at the Master Level. Master Flurry has an unnamed -1 penalty to hit,
and Master Power Attack gives you a -3 penalty to hit. So, Flurry is
better.
Note: Master Flurry claims in the game to have no penalty, but it still
has a -1 to attack penalty.
Critical Strike (and its upgrades) doesn't really strike me as worth it.
It will increase the "threat range" and give a chance to stun enemies.
First the stun is only useful at low levels. At high levels, my Master
Flurry/2 Weapons/Master Speed setup kills almost all enemies in a single
shot. As for the extra "threat range" it takes your weapon from getting a
critical hit 10% the time (which is what the 19-20 means in the "Critical
Threat" line), to 40% (or 50% with a "keen" weapon, upgrade).
A normal "keen" weapon criticals 20% of the time. In a normal attacking
situation, with two weapons, using Critical Strike, you will get one
critical. If everything hits, you get, essentially a free extra attack from
the doubled damage. Now, with Master Speed you get 4 attacks, 2 of which
should be criticals, giving you 6 "effective hits." Our Master Flurry setup
gives you 5 attacks, and with the 20% critical chance, one of these is
likely to be a critical for, yes, 6 "effective hits." Thus, they are fairly
similar in power, but Flurry is guaranteed damage. Critical Strike
sometimes does more damage, sometimes does less damage.
Note: When you use Critical Strike + Keen, you do NOT get 80% criticals.
When you put them together, their increased threat ranges are
essentially added together, not multiplied.
If you double a threat range, you take it from 19-20 to 17-20, if
you triple it you take it to 15-20, and if you quadruple it you
take it to 13-20. Remember that you have to count where you start.
Keen can then take it to 11-20.
You can check this yourself by going to the Journal screen, press
(X), then (Y) over to Combat. Scroll up to your last critical to
see your threat range.
Critical hits typically do double damage, which is nothing to sneeze at,
however, "double damage" is actually the same thing as an extra hit. With
the maximum of four attacks you can get (2 weapons + Master Speed), and the
maximum of 25% critical hit chance, you will critical hit once in there,
for exactly the same damage you would have gotten with Flurry. And you take
a -5 DEF penalty to do that.
The Shien Lightsaber Style will increase criticals to x3, at which point
Critical Strike becomes much more worth it.
Here's how: the following chart is similar to the one above, assume that
"Master Critical Strike" is using normal lightsabers, as Doublebladed
doesn't work. Normal Lightsabers have a threat range of 19-20, while
Doublebladed has 20-20. Then, keen both lightsabers with a Crystal or Lens.
All of this together gets you a Critical rate of a 11-20, or 50%. Also,
unlike before since criticals count, they count for both sides. The flurry
side is also give a Keen weapon(s) and uses Shien at x3 as well, giving
them a 20% critical rate.
Flurry vs. Critical Strike
Master Flurry: 1 Lightsaber Master Critical Strike: 1 Lightsaber
============================= ======================================
50 damage, hit one 50 damage
50 damage, flurry (+50% at x3)
(+20% at x3)
============================= ======================================
110 average damage 75 average damage
Master Flurry: 2 Lightsabers Master Critical Strike: 2 Lightsabers
============================= ======================================
50 damage, hit one 50 damage
50 damage, offhand 150 damage (at 50%, we get one here)
50 damage, flurry
(+20% at x3)
============================= ======================================
190 average damage 200 average damage
Master Flurry, 2 Weapons, Master Critical Strike, 2 Weapons,
Master Speed Master Speed
============================= ======================================
50 damage, hit one 50 damage, hit one
50 damage, offhand 50 damage, offhand
50 damage, flurry 150 damage, speed one
50 damage, speed one 150 damage, speed two
150 damage, speed two
(flurry gets one critical) (at 50% we can assume 2 critical hits)
============================= ======================================
450 average damage 400 average damage
All things being equal, Flurry still wins in the end. But as the middle
chart shows, they are very, very close. It's still just random chance, in
the end. And remember that if you will never, ever see an all critical
hit sequence (4 or 5 critical hits in a row), as whatever you're fighting
will be long dead before that. Even with a 50% chance of criticals, you'll
still see many times when you don't critical at all in a round.
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