I was just looking at my Power Tech BH (DPS skill focus), I ask myself, "Should I redo my gear with the focus going towards cunning rather than aim?"

What do the knowledgeables of SWTOR say?

Aim. It's the BH's attribute.

yeah Cunning is for agents/smugglers. you want Aim unless your BH tank spec, then you dont have to worry how much aim you stack.

Is it really that hard to open your character sheet and move your mouse over your stats and READ THE TOOLTIPS?

Aim will give you: ranged bonus damage, ranged critical chance, tech bonus damage, tech critical chance

Cunning will give you: tech bonus damage, tech critical chance

So why would you ever want to replace a stat which increases BOTH ranged and tech damage with a stat that affects only tech damage?

For the billionth time, FOR EVERY CLASS THEIR OWN PRIMARY STAT WILL BOOST ALL OF THEIR ABILITIES, while one of the other classes primary stats will boost only one type of ability and the rest do nothing.

And one more time:

Press C to open your character sheet and move your mouse over each of the stats listed and READ THE TOOLTIPS!!!

(note those concerning primary stats will be different for each class)

Maybe I don't spend BILLIONS of hours playing the game...

That is easily the dumbest excuse for not checking your own tool tips.

Well THANK YOU SASSY PANTS!!! Jeez, ask a simple question and get a annoying response. Maybe I don't spend BILLIONS of hours playing the game and just had a simple question and didn't want to do something as stupid as creating a ticket in the help center.

To be fair, you got two perfectly valid responses before you started questioning the people you were asking for help. Nothing more annoying than someone who asks a question and doesn't accept the answer, IMO

To be fair, you got two perfectly valid responses before you started questioning the people you were asking for help. Nothing more annoying than someone who asks a question and doesn't accept the answer, IMO

Yeah, I probably was out of line there. Sorry to who ever I chewed out on. I just get kinda tired of asking questions that I honestly don't know the answer to, then someone treats me like an idiot for it. Not a warm, fuzzy feeling...

Yeah, I probably was out of line there. Sorry to who ever I chewed out on. I just get kinda tired of asking questions that I honestly don't know the answer to, then someone treats me like an idiot for it. Not a warm, fuzzy feeling...

It's ok, you're lucky we're patient and tolerant when dealing with idiots around here

Honestly this is more of a question for general chat on Dromund Kaas. Sure, they'll make fun of you, but at least then there's no permanent record...

I kid, I kid!

LOL. Yeah I just never really got into stats before, just stuck with the story line and just stayed away from pvp, but now am starting to get bored. So I thought I should just start beefing my PT up to be competitive.

Thanks all for the info and the patience:)

Lol sassy pants. best comeback ever. Love it. Hey guys should I stack alacrity and willpower on my Marauder? Nah im just kiddin...

You should stack Presence so your Unnatural Might hits harder.

Im sorry. No offence but i just had to.

https://imageshack.us/a/img26/2015/previewln.jpg

Lol some pretty funny responses here, but yes here is a quick run down

Agent/smuggler = Cunning

BH/Trooper = Aim

Inquisitor/sage = Willpower

Warrior/knight = strength

Secondary stats depends on what you are doing, tanking/dps

Presence is nice for leveling with companions.

Just thought I may chime in, but due to the fact that there is a DR on the crit from mainstat, it can actually be beneficial to stack some cunning over aim(especially since HiB and HS are your only 2 range attacks, I think). I'm no math wiz but there are some snipers that are in this thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=557158&page=4

Around page 4 is where the conversation begins, last post of page 4 has some math too

Just thought I may chime in, but due to the fact that there is a DR on the crit from mainstat, it can actually be beneficial to stack some cunning over aim(especially since HiB and HS are your only 2 range attacks, I think). I'm no math wiz but there are some snipers that are in this thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=557158&page=4

 

Around page 4 is where the conversation begins, last post of page 4 has some math too

No, dude...Cunning only adds to Tech Bonus Damage and Tech Critical Rating for a BH/Trooper. Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt is a "white attack", meaning the roll is generated from the Ranged attack table. Ranged attacks are NOT the same as Tech attacks and do not share roll tables.

To recap:

"White attacks" are Ranged attacks = Rail Shot, Rapid Shots, Unload

"Yellow attacks" are Tech attacks = Flame Burst, Explosive Dart, Flame Thrower, Flame Sweep, Thermal Detonator, Incendiary Missile, Immolate, Heat Blast, Retractable Blade, and all Internal/Elemental DOT's.

Also, you should never be stacking Primary stats over Secondary stats for DPS PT. Yes, for PVE, you pick up Steely Resolve, but that is only because it passively increases Ranged/Tech Bonus Damage and Critical Rating (where burst from TD is not as useful).

In addition to the aforementioned, any DPS PT running outside of an RS build (Either AP or Pyro) is wasting their character slot. Therefor, you want to use only Aim as your Primary stat for the increase to Ranged stats.

No, dude...Cunning only adds to Tech Bonus Damage and Tech Critical Rating for a BH/Trooper. Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt is a "white attack", meaning the roll is generated from the Ranged attack table. Ranged attacks are NOT the same as Tech attacks and do not share roll tables.

 

To recap:

"White attacks" are Ranged attacks = Rail Shot, Rapid Shots, Unload

 

"Yellow attacks" are Tech attacks = Flame Burst, Explosive Dart, Flame Thrower, Flame Sweep, Thermal Detonator, Incendiary Missile, Immolate, Heat Blast, Retractable Blade, and all Internal/Elemental DOT's.

 

Also, you should never be stacking Primary stats over Secondary stats for DPS PT. Yes, for PVE, you pick up Steely Resolve, but that is only because it passively increases Ranged/Tech Bonus Damage and Critical Rating (where burst from TD is not as useful).

 

In addition to the aforementioned, any DPS PT running outside of an RS build (Either AP or Pyro) is wasting their character slot. Therefor, you want to use only Aim as your Primary stat for the increase to Ranged stats.

Just curious, but did you even bother reading what was posted? Don't get me wrong i still stack mainstat only, but to say there is no benefit from getting alittle bit of cunning(which the crit DR is nowhere near that of aim by now) at the loss of a small amount of range damage and crit, which only affects like 1 move really(RS) as you don't use unload,and rapid shots is just filler. Because of the DR you get off of mainstat crit, it can be beneficial to switch out a mod or 2 from aim to cunning

Just curious, but did you even bother reading what was posted? Don't get me wrong i still stack mainstat only, but to say there is no benefit from getting alittle bit of cunning(which the crit DR is nowhere near that of aim by now) at the loss of a small amount of range damage and crit, which only affects like 1 move really(RS) as you don't use unload,and rapid shots is just filler. Because of the DR you get off of mainstat crit, it can be beneficial to switch out a mod or 2 from aim to cunning

There is no benefit from stacking any Cunning outside of Datacron collecting. Also, I don't know about you, but my Rapid Shots hits as hard as my Flame Burst, costs no heat, and does not have a CD. The only thing it doesn't do is proc CGC every time I use it. If you're not using Rapid Shots regularly in your rotation, then you're not playing Pyro right.

You shouldn't even be stacking Aim to begin with, since end-game gear can be min/max'd to provide more secondary stats than stacking Aim would be able to provide. I only have ~1540 Aim, yet I DESTROY in PVP and PVE. It's not even funny how much damage I do to players with 1.3k+ Expertise.

There's a reason why no one stacks cunning outside of Datacrons - It's worthless, and if you're stacking Aim, please learn to min/max properly.

I'd advise looking at the link he suggested. On first impressions I'd agree with you, but always worth working out what they're on about. I remember when I thought alacrity was useless, only to be proven wrong by the mathematicians.

Reading the thread it looks to be aimed at a very specific spec for snipers, so would be interesting to see if other classes could benefit in certain specs.

I'd advise looking at the link he suggested. On first impressions I'd agree with you, but always worth working out what they're on about. I remember when I thought alacrity was useless, only to be proven wrong by the mathematicians.

 

Reading the thread it looks to be aimed at a very specific spec for snipers, so would be interesting to see if other classes could benefit in certain specs.

Yeah, the only sniper spec where you might take aim is if you go full MM, as all the damage in that spec comes from white damage, except for orbital strike.

To the other poster I like what you did with that "stacking aim" thing I said. The original poster was only referring between aim and cunning, so I only referred to those 2 stats. To be honest the whole cunning thing is ment for endgame pve, something that somebody with 1600 aim and 1.3k expertise wouldn't be doing. Another thing you would have gotten if you read the link

Yeah, the only sniper spec where you might take aim is if you go full MM, as all the damage in that spec comes from white damage, except for orbital strike.

 

To the other poster I like what you did with that "stacking aim" thing I said. The original poster was only referring between aim and cunning, so I only referred to those 2 stats. To be honest the whole cunning thing is ment for endgame pve, something that somebody with 1600 aim and 1.3k expertise wouldn't be doing. Another thing you would have gotten if you read the link

Exactly, it only makes some marginal sense for a single spec (and a specific build) of Marksman sniper b/c the entire spec is potentially ranged damage.

Since marksman has no (or few) normally used tech attacks, it's not horrendous to get aim instead. That said, the DR on critical rate from mainstat is pretty miniscule. You gain very little to ranged damage but loose a decent amount to your tech attacks. It's min-maxed to do one rotation very well but looses flexibility (e.g., you're weaker at taking out adds, orbital strike hits for less and it's the hardest hitting attack for snipers, some tech attacks are still useful for MM and are all weakened).