To be fair, I don't know the answer to the question posed in this thread's title. Quite a few of the random builds I've come across make use of it (the majority of them actually) and I was hoping to at the very least have it explained to me.

 

From what I've gathered, the increase in Aim (and as a result the increase to your base damage) will lend itself to improved threat levels. I just don't have enough end game experience to know how confident I should be about that.

 

Does anyone have an argument against Steely Resolve, or could someone further elaborate on why it is important for a tank? And if it isn't as clear cut as I thought, perhaps we could have some nice back and forth on the matter.

 

Thanks!

can you show some of the best builds you've seen just interested in these tor skill sheet things as of right now

can you show some of the best builds you've seen just interested in these tor skill sheet things as of right now

 

Well I don't know what I consider the "best" builds Predator, but I've mainly been looking over the builds (sorted by rating) on the DarthHaterDB here along with what folks posted from their ToRhead builds in this thread. I'll read the comments and see how they measure up to my own plans for a Powertech Tank build, and go from there.

 

Hope that helps

My understanding is the same as yours. In previous games, more Strength gave more damage and so more threat. I don't know how important threat will be in ToR. Likely very important. 9% more Aim to compensate for stacking Endurance for more health seems like a great deal. You need to go up the tree anyway and having a flat damage/threat boost seems awesome. No end-game experience in ToR though so this could be wrong. Edited December 14, 2011 by Goldtalon

This is how I look at the "%base stat increase" talents for all the classes:

 

Basically, if its better then a 1:1 ratio for point:percent then its ok to take it.

 

In this case, Steely Resolve is one of the better choices. 9% for 3 points is a nice 3-1 ratio.

 

However, for say, the Sith Assassin, in there tanking tree, there is a talent that gives 3% endurance for 3 points...this would be an example of a bad place to use it, as those 3 points can give dramatically more bonus' then 3% endurance when used basically anywhere else.

I remember fooling around with the calculator and passing up the steely resolve to pick up some nice overall damage and survivability points in the AP and Pyro trees.

 

This is just a guess, but since threat comes from things like flame sweep and other aoe damage, and shots that vent heat are most likely the only things that will benefit from aim, the talents might be better spent elsewhere.

 

I'm not sure how the system works though. If anyone remembers pally tanking in wow...hit actually ended up being fairly useful..that might be the mindset with aim.

 

That being said, from threat reports and damage, I don't think you can go wrong with your own spec.

THe energy rebounder thread has some of the math behind exactly what Aim does...

 

Long story short, if you have 1700 Aim at lvl50, then the 9% Aim increase results in about .8% crit chance and 2.5% damage (I believe) increase

 

The way my build works out, I'd rather take an additional 4% burn damage and 1% damage decrease. You'll generate enough threat if you know what you're doing.

From experience in most other MMOs, talents which increase a state but x% usually aren't as great as it sounds.

 

Granted, 9% DOES seem like alot, but you have alot more wiggle room than you think if you don't take this talent. Let me explain why.

 

Aim is a state that will have some sort of ratio attached to it. IE: 25 Aim increases damage dealt by 1. (These numbers are pull out of thin air for purposes of an example)

 

That's a 1:25 ratio.

 

So I just think that people have to realise that 9% more aim doesnt equate to a 9% increase in damage. Maybe 9/(insert ratio).

From experience in most other MMOs, talents which increase a state but x% usually aren't as great as it sounds.

 

Granted, 9% DOES seem like alot, but you have alot more wiggle room than you think if you don't take this talent. Let me explain why.

 

Aim is a state that will have some sort of ratio attached to it. IE: 25 Aim increases damage dealt by 1. (These numbers are pull out of thin air for purposes of an example)

 

That's a 1:25 ratio.

 

So I just think that people have to realise that 9% more aim doesnt equate to a 9% increase in damage. Maybe 9/(insert ratio).

 

According to what I've read the exact amount aim contributes varies by the ability used. Aim goes into tech power, then the role of tech power in the ability is modified again by a multiplier eg 0.8-1.22

All of the +% to stat Skills, regardless of class seem somewhat overpriced.

 

Aim adds 0.2 damage per point of Aim from what I've seen so far. 1500 Aim seems like a reasonable number at 50 from what I've seen as well. A 9% increase in Aim would give you 1635 Aim. 135 more Aim is 27 more damage per hit (135 x 0.2).

 

Torhead's got level 50 Rocket Punch damage at about 2400. Hitting for 27 points more is about a 1% increase in damage output. For 3 skill points.

 

One of the first things I plan on doing in game is setting up a spreadsheet to calculate my paperdoll stats so I can tinker with numbers with 100% reliability, but at first glance the skill does seem pretty bad.

Edited December 14, 2011 by JusticeG

Looking at Steely Resolve in a vacuum isn't very useful. I think we can all agree that 9% aim isn't amazing. But the real question is "Is this better than the alternative?"

 

In most builds I see, the points from Steely Resolve could only be reallocated four places: Neural Overload, No Escape, Jet Speed, and Rail Loaders. Of these, the first three are utility talents, leaving Rail Loaders the only threat increasing talent we can compare to Steely Resolve.

 

Rail Loaders gives 6% Rail Shot damage for two skill points. Steely Resolve gives 6% aim for two skill points. Which is better?

 

Let's look at a simplified example. Rail Shot's level 50 damage is about 2900. Rail Loaders gives an extra 6%, or 174 damage.

 

Now I'll borrow JusticeG's estimate of 1500 aim at level 50. With two more points of Steely Resolve, we get an extra 90. If each point of aim is about 0.2 damage, this is 18 more ranged damage.

 

Rail Loaders seems to win, right? However, keep in mind that Rail Shot has a 15 second cooldown. In 15 seconds there are 10 GCDs, which means Steely Resolve has added 180 damage to your rotation, barely surpassing Rail Loaders. In fact, in any scenario where you are not using Rail Shot on cooldown Steely Resolve would pull ahead quite a bit, as well as in AoE tanking.

 

In reality the situation is a lot more biased towards Steely Resolve since some abilities have tech ratios and get more than 0.2 damage per aim point, but this shows the basic idea. A small increase across the board is better than a slightly larger increase on a long CD single target skill, even if that skill is as awesome as Rail Shot

It depends on the attack type

 

Tech:

 

An ability trained at level 50 will do (708 + aim * .23) * Coefficient

 

Weapon:

 

An ability trained at level 50 will do (708 + Weapon damage + aim * .2) * Coefficient

 

Aim adds to crit chance using the Diminshing return formula: 5 +30 * (1-(1-(0.01/0.3))^((Stat/Lvl)/2.5))

 

Plugging the sample stats of 1700 aim and 300 weapon damage you get the talent adding about 3.2% damage to tech attacks 2.3% weapon attacks and .8% to crit

+% stat talents probably aren't worth grabbing until you're geared up and the gain is more significant

What I find strange are the inconsistencies between the relative strengths of skills. Assuming the .2 or .23 dmg per Aim formula is correct, a skill like Steely Resolve seems to pale in comparison to Ion Overload, which should contribute substantially more DPS, despite being in the same tier of the tanking tree. This assumes that the tooltip for Ion Gas Cylinder on torhead is accurate, which might not be the case.

It is actually a fairly good skill. It is about a 1% damage per point to all abilities. There a definitely some better talents that are more spec defining, but it is a solid passive talent and will get better as time goes on

 

If you want to complain about a talent I would pick integrated cardio package

Edited December 14, 2011 by suleri

Hey everyone,

 

How does this PVP Advanced Prototype build look for DPS ? I orginally had 3 points in Steely Resolve (Aim), but I decided to take those 3 points and distribute them into Ion Overload (2) and Neural Overload (1).

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301GRMZMsrRRrfk0s.1

All of the +% to stat Skills, regardless of class seem somewhat overpriced.

 

Aim adds 0.2 damage per point of Aim from what I've seen so far. 1500 Aim seems like a reasonable number at 50 from what I've seen as well. A 9% increase in Aim would give you 1635 Aim. 135 more Aim is 27 more damage per hit (135 x 0.2).

 

Torhead's got level 50 Rocket Punch damage at about 2400. Hitting for 27 points more is about a 1% increase in damage output. For 3 skill points.

 

One of the first things I plan on doing in game is setting up a spreadsheet to calculate my paperdoll stats so I can tinker with numbers with 100% reliability, but at first glance the skill does seem pretty bad.

 

Now that I've spent a day in game and worked up a spreadsheet to accurately reflect my paperdoll stats and tooltips, the skill is a bit better than my above example illustrates. This is due to the coefficient that our ability bonus damage is multiplied by. While the 27 points more damage is accurate for for 1500-->1635 Aim, that 27 damage will be multiplied by the ability coefficient. This varies by ability, but almost all of them greater than 1 (except for Rapid Shots, Flame Thrower, Ion Gas Cylinder and Flame Sweep if my datamined numbers are correct). Some examples would be x1.82 for Rocket Punch, x1.61 for Explosive Dart and x1.61 for Rail Shot.

 

I'll have to wait to higher level to verify the coefficients for higher level skills, but it means that instead of a 1% increase, it's looking more like a 1.5-2% increase in overall damage. Still not great, but considerably better than my initial calculations showed.