Now trying to make it as simple as possible.

 

Out of the 4 primary stats (strenght, willpower, aim, cunning) you need to have only the one that is your classes own primary stat. Never wear anything with one of the other 3.

Your primary stat will boost all your abilities. One of the others maybe partially beneficial (so it is worth picking datacrons with that stat) but you don't want any of it in your gear. 2 of them will always be completely useless.

 

What do primary stats do for each class:

 

If you are TROOPER or BOUNTY HUNTER

AIM will give you:

Ranged bonus damage

Ranged critical chance

Tech Bonus damage

Tech Critical chance

Healing power (for Commado/Mercenary)

 

CUNNING will give you:

Tech Bonus damage (which is not needed since they get this from aim)

Tech Critical chance (which is not needed since they get this from aim)

 

STRENGTH will give you:

No benefit what so ever (you don't have abilities that use strength)

 

WILLPOWER will give you:

No benefit what so ever (you don't have force abilities)

 

 

If you are SMUGGLER or IMPERIAL AGENT

CUNNING will give you:

Ranged bonus damage

Ranged critical chance

Tech Bonus damage

Tech Critical chance

Healing power (for Scoundrel/Operative)

 

AIM will give you:

Ranged bonus damage (which is not needed since they get this from cunning)

Ranged critical chance (which is not needed since they get this from cunning)

 

STRENGTH will give you:

No benefit what so ever (your abilities that look like melee are actually classified as tech abilities)

 

WILLPOWER will give you:

No benefit what so ever (you don't have force abilities)

 

 

If you are JEDI CONSULAR or SITH INQUISITOR

WILLPWER will give you:

Melee bonus damage (for shadow/assassin)

Melee critical chance (for shadow/assassin)

Force bonus damage

Force critical chance

Healing power (for sage/sorcerer)

 

STRENGTH will give you:

Melee bonus damage (which is not needed since they either get this from willpower or don't need to use melee)

Melee critical chance (which is not needed since they either get this from willpower or don't need to use melee)

 

AIM will give you

No benefit what so ever (you don't have ranged weapons)

 

CUNNING will give you

No benefit what so ever (you don't have tech abilities)

 

 

If you are JEDI KNIGHT or SITH WARRIOR

STRENGTH will give you:

Melee bonus damage

Melee critical chance

Force bonus damage

Force critical chance

 

WILLPOWER will give you

Force bonus damage (which is not needed since they get this from strength)

Force critical chance (which is not needed since they get this from strength)

 

AIM will give you

No benefit what so ever (you don't have ranged weapons)

 

CUNNING will give you

No benefit what so ever (you don't have tech abilities)

 

 

So again: Use only gear with your own primary stat and endurance and whatever secondary stats you will later have, but never use any gear with the other classes primary stats.

 

And all this information can be discovered on your own in the game if you just open your character sheet in the game (press C) and move your mouse over each of the stats and read the tooltips.

Greetings Eternalnight!

 

We just wanted to thank you for taking the time to create an overview about primary stats and how they function in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ regarding each class!

 

We hope you have a great day!

Now trying to make it as simple as possible.

 

Out of the 4 primary stats (strenght, willpower, aim, cunning) you need to have only the one that is your classes own primary stat. Never wear anything with one of the other 3...

 

So again: Use only gear with your own primary stat and endurance and whatever secondary stats you will later have, but never use any gear with the other classes primary stats.

 

And all this information can be discovered on your own in the game if you just open your character sheet in the game (press C) and move your mouse over each of the stats and read the tooltips.

 

Just picking niits, but I would amend that statement somewhat:

 

A trooper and BH should not look twice at anything that doesn't offer +aim if they already have +aim gear equipped in that slot.

 

A smuggler and agent should not look twice at anything that doesn't offer +cunning if they already have +cunning gear equipped in that slot.

 

A knight and warrior should not look twice at anything that doesn't offer + strength if they already have +strength gear equipped in that slot.

 

A consular and inquisitor should not look twice at anything that doesn't offer +willpower if they already have +willpower gear equipped in that slot.

 

But if that slot is empty? Then it is just a question of whether you want to try and sell an item for a few credits on the GTN or whether you want to add some HP to yourself and possibly some other limited bonuses.

 

I wouldn't tell anyone that they were wrong for putting a +cunning earpiece on their trooper or BH if they do not have an earpiece equipped.

 

Unless they were like, level 30 or something. By then they should have a real earpiece.

Edited May 16, 2012 by Mithros

Great post, just a small addition tho: strength does affect your characters atributes (ie. additional hp), so no matter what class you're playing, if you're a tank of any kind, additional hp can mean the difference between the time for th next heal and a rez .

strength does affect your characters atributes (ie. additional hp),

No!

The stat that affects your HP is ENDURANCE.

Not really listed here since all types of gear have endurance anyway.

 

Now if you are tank you might want more endurance than whatever else the gear has, but certainly not strength if not a class whose primary stat is strength.

 

Strength does not do anything other than what was listed in the first post.

No!

The stat that affects your HP is ENDURANCE.

Not really listed here since all types of gear have endurance anyway.

 

Now if you are tank you might want more endurance than whatever else the gear has, but certainly not strength if not a class whose primary stat is strength.

 

Strength does not do anything other than what was listed in the first post.

 

My bad, that's what I was thinking, just not what I typed You don't have to get all upset child. It's ok!!!!

My bad, that's what I was thinking, just not what I typed You don't have to get all upset child. It's ok!!!!

 

Well I can't speak for Eternalnight but one reason people get upset about inaccuracies being posted in this forum is that they get picked up on and propagated. A month from now someone will say something along the lines of "But strength also increases HP, I saw it on the forum somewhere ..."

 

This doesn't matter so much on the general forum, where all sorts of rubbish is posted, but in the New Player Help forum the posts tend to be more factual ... well, some of the time

 

Anyway, good post eternalnight, because as you well know it is a massively misunderstood topic despite there being a thorough explanation including secondary stats in the sticky fleet pass. But then if people read the posts in the sticky in the first place this forum would be a lot of quieter.

With Willpower using characters why is Primary Damage set to Melee? I use a sorcerer and all me my gear is charged for Willpower, Endurance and Power as mainstream modding. On my character sheet it lists Primary Damage and Secondary Damage in Melee...Which as you all know..IS NOT a Sorcerers damage role!! When in PVP I'm told that my primary and secondary damage stats are super low...and as stands being listed as Melee both are super low. I've followed Skill tree recommendations for Sorcerer and all gear is PVP with Willpower and Power as highest stats on all mods and gear. Isn't primary and secondary damage supposed to reflect a characters usable stats while viewing them on the Character Sheet!?!?

With Willpower using characters why is Primary Damage set to Melee? I use a sorcerer and all me my gear is charged for Willpower, Endurance and Power as mainstream modding. On my character sheet it lists Primary Damage and Secondary Damage in Melee...Which as you all know..IS NOT a Sorcerers damage role!! When in PVP I'm told that my primary and secondary damage stats are super low...and as stands being listed as Melee both are super low. I've followed Skill tree recommendations for Sorcerer and all gear is PVP with Willpower and Power as highest stats on all mods and gear. Isn't primary and secondary damage supposed to reflect a characters usable stats while viewing them on the Character Sheet!?!?

 

Use the pulldown menu to switch that part of the character sheet to Force. It always defaults to either melee or ranged, depending on your whether you are force-based or tech-based.

 

Of course, if you were playing a techie, you would use the pulldown to change that part of the character sheet to Tech, but you figured that out already, didn't you?