Since the extra swing from Ataru form triggers at the end of a melee attack, could it be possible for the extra Ataru form attack to be preempted if I directly click another ability before the animation happens? Or is the damage from the Ataru form strike calculated with the melee ability that triggers it even if we go into another ability before we wait for the Ataru form strike to happen?

 

In some games there is a working concept known as animation cancelling whereby abilities can be chained and the full animation of certain abilities can be cut short by entering a sequence of other abilities. If I animation cancel out the Ataru form strike will I get the benefit of extra damage even though I am cancelling the animation of Ataru form strike?

There is no animation cancelling in SWTOR, it doesn't have action-based combat. Ataru strike is just a passive, think of it as just bonus damage, not an actual strike. If it procs, it procs. The only way to not get damage from it is for the enemy to die right before it lands; or if it gets mitigated by some DCD. Edited October 3, 2019 by Equeliber

Animation cancelling exists but not for ataru. It mainly revolves around channeled or delayed attacks.

 

However nothing immediately pops to mind for sents and maras.

Edited October 24, 2019 by RACATW