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HK-51: Aim, Cunning or both?


thewitchdoctor

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Quick question: would HK-51 benefit most from either stacking all Aim or Cunning; or splitting it equally between both Aim and Cunning?

 

My Google-Fu popped on some old posts suggesting that a split was best due to DR of primary stat. But those were some fairly old posts. I am inclined to stack one over the other.

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He benefits from either equally. So to the extent that there is a diminishing returns curve on the crit portion that mainstat provides, it probably is for the best to mix them up a bit. What I don't know is whether the contribution from Aim and Cunning is calculated separately for the purpose of crit rating. If not, and they are just added together, then it doesn't matter.
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My guess is that by the time you hit any noticable DR on primary stats... it simply won't matter anymore. Unless you're experimenting with some bizarre build meant to solo 55 Hard mode flashpoints there simply isn't any need to optimize to such an excessive degree on a companion. I usually just take the point of view that just using aim works well enough in case I want to swap the armoring pieces to any other droid companions once HK is done with them.
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Thanks all. That's about what I figured.

 

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be the setup for a mad experiment. More of my ongoing debate about who my primary DPS companion will be on my PT tank. If HK actually benefited more from a mix of Cunning and Aim then it just adds more utility to those Cunning pieces you cannot help but collect from the trash drops in ops and FPs.

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Thanks all. That's about what I figured.

 

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be the setup for a mad experiment. More of my ongoing debate about who my primary DPS companion will be on my PT tank. If HK actually benefited more from a mix of Cunning and Aim then it just adds more utility to those Cunning pieces you cannot help but collect from the trash drops in ops and FPs.

 

If its for your PT Tank, go blizz. It will let you have a dps set in the future, and Blizz in a DPS set + spec is almost as good as HK51 in equal gearing (but blizz can use 186 armorings, as well as augmenting his gear isnt a waste)

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Tbh mate. Depending which skilltree you use Its just like with your powertech. If you can get a cunning piece which is better than your aimpiece you should use it. The same goes for HK.

 

EDIT: just to clarify. for a PT the cunning piece must be high enough to offset the ranged dps loss. The more techdps you do the better cunning gets.

Edited by fire-breath
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HK is an excellent choice for DPS companion. He makes leveling fun. The only downside is max gearing him at end game can be expensive and challenging. Even at 55, the parts you can craft are 174 rating, if you wanted to get him in 180s, you'd have to have each armoring crafted separately and you could never put a 186 armoring drop on him.

 

In my own testing, most tank capable(like blizz or Xalek) companions make sub par DPS. They'll do if that's all you have the gear for, but in the case of a power tech I'd rather go for Torian or Treek. Torian could be better dps, but Treek can use the same pistol you can and heal.

 

Few more notes here on my guide if it helps:

[Guide] Companion Optimization, Gearing and Tips

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HK is an excellent choice for DPS companion. He makes leveling fun. The only downside is max gearing him at end game can be expensive and challenging. Even at 55, the parts you can craft are 174 rating, if you wanted to get him in 180s, you'd have to have each armoring crafted separately and you could never put a 186 armoring drop on him.

 

In my own testing, most tank capable(like blizz or Xalek) companions make sub par DPS. They'll do if that's all you have the gear for, but in the case of a power tech I'd rather go for Torian or Treek. Torian could be better dps, but Treek can use the same pistol you can and heal.

 

Few more notes here on my guide if it helps:

[Guide] Companion Optimization, Gearing and Tips

 

Maybe in the case of actual tanking capabilities they are bad, but according to this thread by Khevar where he tested the companions performance vs each other when in equal DPS gear, Forex was pretty damn comparable in DPS to Aric Jorgan. And that was in tank stance with a shield offhand.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=745097

 

Though it is possible he is stronger to account for the droid armor

Either wasy, if he's behaving damage wise like all ranged tank companions are, then Blizz is the best DPS option for you, because swap that offhand out and put him in the right stance, and he'd be comparable to an equally geared RPDS (aka Gault for bounty hunters) in terms of damage output. Sure he'd be behind HK51 and Torian (the numbers for Yuun there are with some of his abilities being glitched and running off willpower instead of aim, so Torian would do ~100 more dps in the same gear), but HK51 is stuck with droid armor and Torian with a 156 mainhand, And Blizz is able to run around in 180s (including mainhand - the big damage boost) no problem without it even being an over-investment.

 

Other thing about your guide - why accuracy to 97%? The only things with the 10% resist are operations and flashpoints bosses, so 95% is good enough for all the dailies (those bosses only have a 5% resist)

Edited by TACeMossie
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I lean towards accuracy because surge with low crit doesn't do as much and over 400 matters very little. Alacrity hasn't help too much and I still see a fair amount of misses on some skills. It doesn't make a giant difference though for most trash.

 

Here is some testing using the same set of dps legacy gear on the fleet Operations Training dummy average of 200k damage:

 

Treek in heal stance 720 dps

Treek in Tank stance 800 dps

Blizz in DPS stance 885 dps

Blizz in Tank Stance 800 dps

Torian in Armor pen dps stance 1040 dps

Torian in DOT dps stance 1050 dps (took much longer to ramp up on damage)

 

Torian had 156 rating mainhand without aug instead of the 180 with aug like others.

 

Treek does do a lot of AOE damage and is a bit smarter with his tanking than most. In heal stance he can put out 600-900 HPS as well.

 

HK 920 dps (similar geared)

Ensign Temple 880 (better geared)

Vector armor pen spec 1130 dps (better geared)

Vector DOT spec 1430 dps (better geared) (wow!)

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I lean towards accuracy because surge with low crit doesn't do as much and over 400 matters very little. Alacrity hasn't help too much and I still see a fair amount of misses on some skills. It doesn't make a giant difference though for most trash.

 

Here is some testing using the same set of dps legacy gear on the fleet Operations Training dummy average of 200k damage:

 

Treek in heal stance 720 dps

Treek in Tank stance 800 dps

Blizz in DPS stance 885 dps

Blizz in Tank Stance 800 dps

Torian in Armor pen dps stance 1040 dps

Torian in DOT dps stance 1050 dps (took much longer to ramp up on damage)

 

Torian had 156 rating mainhand without aug instead of the 180 with aug like others.

 

Treek does do a lot of AOE damage and is a bit smarter with his tanking than most. In heal stance he can put out 600-900 HPS as well.

 

HK 920 dps (similar geared)

Ensign Temple 880 (better geared)

Vector armor pen spec 1130 dps (better geared)

Vector DOT spec 1430 dps (better geared) (wow!)

 

Haha, see! Blizz is better than Gault for DPS! (well at least Ensign Temple. But then again, RDPS companions should be the same performance in equal level of gear).

But wow that Torian is still beating blizz when its 156 mainhand vs 180. I would have thought it would be closer. Or even a tie.

Edited by TACeMossie
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