There are a number of qualities that are not defined or even mentioned in the help manual, and they don't even show up on the character sheet. What do they do? Additionally, the game doesn't even tell me what some of the normal traits affect. Does my Jedi Knight need Willpower? Does it need strength? The game doesn't tell me these things, and the game doesn't come with a manual. (Not if you downloaded it anyway.) Which is all really upsetting seeing as how I actually am paying to play, and pretty disappointing for a really popular game made on a huge franchise.

As a Jedi Knight you need:

Strenght, Endurance. Those are your 2 main stats.

 

Then comes Accuracy Rating, improve it till you have 100%, improve Critical Rating till you have 30%, and improve surge rating till you have 70 %. You can find the 2 main abilities you need in your codex under the ''Game Rules'' tab. (Strenght and Endurance) Strenght is the most important, so always choose the item with the most strenght. For example:

 

War masters Iightsaber

30 Strenght

90 Endurance

 

War hero's lightsaber

50 Strenght

70 Endurance

 

In this case you choose the War hero's lightsaber, because it gives you more strenght, and that is the most important to your Knight.

 

A short list of meanings:

Accuracy Rating: Indicates how much the chance is that you hit an attack. If accuracy rating is 100, you can't miss an attack. Very usefull for your Sentinel.

Critical Rating: The chance that you do more damage than you normally would with an attack. This is called a Critical Hit. Building more Critical Rating is especially usefull for a Sentinel.

Surge Rating: If you have a critical hit, Surge Rating amplifies the strenght of this critical hit. The more surge rating you have, the bigger the critical hit is.

Alacrity Rating: Makes stuff like cooldowns, casting times, go faster. You as a sentinel shouldn't pay attention to this.

Aim: Increases damage with ranged weapons, this is the main stat for Bounty hunters and troopers. So you also shouldnt pay attention to this , because a sentinel doesn't need aim.

Force Power: Increases Force powers, offensive and healing. This is included in every lightsaber you'll ever get, so don't worry about it.

Tech Power: Smugglers and troopers use this for example, so your sentinel doesn't need it. It increases the Smuggler/Trooper damage with tech abilities like Grenades, and death from above.

Shield Rating: This is only for tanks, it improves the shield you carry.

Defense Rating: Only for tanks.

Willpower: This increases the damage with force attacks, like throwing rocks at people, using the force to throw people away, and these are attacks that a Sentinel can't do, so Willpower isn't usefull for you either.. If you choose to become a Jedi Consular however, Willpower becomes your main stat.

 

However, this is only main information, it also depends on what you wanna do, do you plan to become a Pve player or Pvp? And it also depends on your skill tree, you choose it once you go to the fleet for the first time.. If you plan on becoming a Pve player, I advise you to take the Watchman skill tree. When you have chosen this skill tree, you should start using the Juyo lightsaber form once it is available. Hope this helps, if you have any more questions try google first, if you can't find your answers there then ask here! But I understand your confusion, this game is confusing to new players, and there should be a bit more guidance for new players imo. I myself only truly understood the gameplay for the Sentinel when I reaced level 55, so don't worry there are bigger noobs out there haha:)

 

Just continues with your sentinel and you'll start to see things for yourself!

Edited May 31, 2013 by Marvoussh

There are a number of qualities that are not defined or even mentioned in the help manual, and they don't even show up on the character sheet. What do they do? Additionally, the game doesn't even tell me what some of the normal traits affect. Does my Jedi Knight need Willpower? Does it need strength? The game doesn't tell me these things, and the game doesn't come with a manual. (Not if you downloaded it anyway.) Which is all really upsetting seeing as how I actually am paying to play, and pretty disappointing for a really popular game made on a huge franchise.

 

The game actually does give you all this information, although it doesn't do a great job of telling you where to look for it. When you pull up your character sheet, if you hover your cursor over each stat, the tootlip will show you its effects. The secondary stats are all separated into various tabs that you have to select from the pull-down menus on the character sheet. If you don't see them, and only see radio toggles for Show Dark Side Corruption and Hide Head Slot, then you've got your appearance customization window open and can get rid of it by clicking the little armor icon at the lower right of your portrait.

 

As far as your main stats, it's pretty easy to break down.

 

All Troopers and Bounty Hunters wear Heavy armor. Aim is their primary attribute.

All Jedi Knights and Sith Warriors have Strength as their primary attribute. Guardians and Juggernauts wear Heavy armor, while Sentinels and Marauders wear Medium armor. (All Knights/Warriors wear Medium armor until they choose their advanced class at level 10.)

All Smugglers and Imperial Agents wear Medium armor. Cunning is their primary attribute.

All Jedi Consulars and Sith Inquisitors wear Light armor. Willpower is their primary attribute.

All classes can substitute Adaptive armor for their native armor class. While you can wear lighter armors than your class's preferred armor type, it is a bad idea to do so and people will react negatively to seeing you wear it.

 

Endurance is beneficial to everyone, but especially so to tanks. Presence enhances your companions and does nothing for you personally; if you mostly solo it's an okay stat to have, but if you mostly run in groups without your companion it does nothing at all. Also, to note, your companions do not have a Presence stat and gain no benefit from having it on their gear.

 

For Force-using classes(i.e. Jedi Knight), there will be at least some benefit from Strength and Willpower and none from Aim or Cunning, and the opposite is true for Tech users(i.e. Trooper). However, you should still never wear gear or use item modifications that have a main stat that is not your class's primary attribute, as the benefit is so small that it's mostly a waste.

 

All the secondary stats will have a beneficial effect to a greater or lesser degree, with two exceptions: Shield Rating and Absorption Rating do nothing at all if you do not have a shield generator equipped in your off-hand; they only increase the effects of shield generators. For the most part, though, secondary stats are something to worry about at higher levels, and by the time you get to the point where you start seeing much if any on gear, you will hopefully have figured out what they do.

There are a number of qualities that are not defined or even mentioned in the help manual, and they don't even show up on the character sheet. What do they do? Additionally, the game doesn't even tell me what some of the normal traits affect.

Actually it is possible to figure effects of all of the stats, including all secondary stats, in your character sheet. One just needs to check all the sub-menus in the character sheet and read the on-mouse-over tooltips.

 

Even if they were too hard to figure out, there are guides all over the internet (some good and some bad)

 

Only thing one might need external sources is precise mathematical formulas of how gains from each stat are calculated, but average player does not need those.

 

Does my Jedi Knight need Willpower? Does it need strength?

Don't tell me you can't even find those stats in the character sheet.

 

For each class their own primary stat increases damage for multiple attack types while other classes main stats increase only one.

 

For Jedi Knight the character sheet tooltips tell that:

Strength increases melee bonus damage, melee critical chance, force bonus damage, force critical chance.

Willpower increases force bonus damage, force critical chance.

 

Now the relevant question is, would you ever want to use a stat that increases only force damage instead of a stat that increases both force damage and melee damage?

I'm not even going to offer an answer to that one.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Eternalnight

improve Critical Rating till you have 30%

 

30% crit is outdated information, and even back in the past when it was more up to date, highly inaccurate.

 

After patch 2.0 with critical rating stat being heavily nerfed, it is questionable if you want stack critical rating stat at all.

 

And your post is making an assumption that the op is a dps and is a sentinel, neither of which was said.

30% crit is outdated information, and even back in the past when it was more up to date, highly inaccurate.

 

After patch 2.0 with critical rating stat being heavily nerfed, it is questionable if you want stack critical rating stat at all.

 

And your post is making an assumption that the op is a dps and is a sentinel, neither of which was said.

 

after 2.0 it seems to be more simple:

if DPS - take accuracy to 100% (max goal 110% buffed) then go surge and power

if Heal - go alacrity, surge and power

If Tank - go defence & shield, accuracy and power the second goal for holding agro. absorp will be useful only in high tier gear.

a bunch of useful things

 

Thanks!

 

Actually it is possible to figure effects of all of the stats, including all secondary stats, in your character sheet. One just needs to check all the sub-menus in the character sheet and read the on-mouse-over tooltips.

 

Sub-menus? OH. I looked at those once or twice right when I started out, thought the ones other than melee and defense looked like things that affected character-classes that weren't my own, and promptly forgot they existed. Regardless, the information is hidden, rather than immediately apparent, which is just awful in terms of ease-of-entry design. The more you're forced to search for an answer because you can't see it right away, the worse the product is. It blows my mind that the game has existed as long as it has without a much more comprehensive tutorial or help section. Searching for "alacrity" in the online support or in the game's support both turn up nothing, which is ridiculous.

 

Even if they were too hard to figure out, there are guides all over the internet (some good and some bad)

 

The fact that a massive company like EA would leave customers to have to scour the internet for such things is pretty abhorrent. As for my experience doing so, I've googled a little to try to find information on things in the game and mostly found it useless. In particular I'm thinking of torhead.com, which (as far as items go, at least) seems to have just about no information whatsoever of any use. Basically it seemed like a waste of time. And again, I shouldn't have to waste my time searching to figure out which are the good or bad websites when it would take an employee an hour to type up a guide similar to what people here are effectively giving me. (For which I am extremely grateful.)

 

 

Don't tell me you can't even find those stats in the character sheet.

 

I could find the main stats just fine, but it doesn't tell you (for instance) what abilities "use the force". Presumably ALL of my Jedi abilities would be "force abilities", seeing as how they're things that only a Jedi can do, and ability to use the force is really the only difference between a Jedi and a normal other being. Charging my lightsaber with flame using Overload Saber, does that use Willpower, or Force Power? Or both? Or neither? How much of a change in the effectiveness of the ability does that have? How about my Cauterize abilitiy? Which stats affect that? Does Shield Rating affect defense, or only an ability like Saber Ward? (I would assume one or both of those things, but apparently it's neither. Thanks, EA!) Also, Shield Rating doesn't even show up in any of the sub-menus, as far as I noticed.

 

You're kinda acting like these things are no-brainers, and really, none of it is. Of course the blame doesn't fall on you, it falls on EA.

 

After all of your answers (thank you all) I'm still unsure if Alacrity affects the cooldown of things like Saber Ward, Master Strike, Rebuke, or Resolute. (Resolute in particular seems like it's pretty essential for PVP. Getting stunned seems to usually result in getting shot by more than one opponent simultaneously and dying within seconds.)

Edited May 31, 2013 by TogashiDeckard

If Tank - go defence & shield, accuracy and power the second goal for holding agro. absorp will be useful only in high tier gear.

 

No, just no. Especially not if generalized to all tanks.

 

Defense heavy and low absorption stat distribution is mainly a thing for Guardian/Juggernaut tanks. Though it is also viable (but not the only) way for Vanguard/Powertech tanks.

 

Shield rating all tanks want in every possible piece of gear, mainly because it is not directly tradable for other tanking stats in normal gear.

Although it is tradable for other tank stats in augments but you usually don't want much shield rating in augments (except maybe for Powertech/Vanguard for whom going full shield augments is still viable alternative, which if they choose that route makes absorption more valuable and defense less valuable for them)

 

Shadows/Assassins will want much higher amount of absorption rating than defense rating across all stat budgets that you can realistically expect to have. Of course for everyone the proportional amount of absorption rating compared to other stats will increase at higher stat budgets.

 

No tank should ever wear accuracy rating in their gear at all. There is no reason to trade survivability stats for it. It is easy enough to hold aggro even without any accuracy rating on gear, and if you can't, the solution is to learn to tank better, not to stack accuracy.

 

The only power tanks should ever wear is the power found as a second stat on tanking stat augments, and on some tank relics.

T

I could find the main stats just fine, but it doesn't tell you (for instance) what abilities "use the force". Presumably ALL of my Jedi abilities would be "force abilities"

No they are not. Open your abilities window (the other icon on top of the screen) and it lists what abilities are melee and what are force.

 

 

 

Charging my lightsaber with flame using Overload Saber, does that use Willpower, or Force Power? Or both? Or neither?

I already explained why you don't what willpower.

 

Read this again:

 

For each class their own primary stat increases damage for multiple attack types while other classes main stats increase only one.

 

For Jedi Knight the character sheet tooltips tell that:

Strength increases melee bonus damage, melee critical chance, force bonus damage, force critical chance.

Willpower increases force bonus damage, force critical chance.

 

Now the relevant question is, would you ever want to use a stat that increases only force damage instead of a stat that increases both force damage and melee damage?

 

As for forcepower it is only found on weapons for class balance reasons to benefit those abilities that do not benefit directly from weapon damage.

 

 

Does Shield Rating affect defense, or only an ability like Saber Ward? (I would assume one or both of those things, but apparently it's neither. Thanks, EA!) Also, Shield Rating doesn't even show up in any of the sub-menus, as far as I noticed.

Oh, dear gods.

 

Shield rating increases the chance to shield an attack with a shield that tank classes can equip in their off-hand.

Being obviously a sentinel, since you mention sentinel abilities, the shield rating and absorption rating will do absolutely nothing what so ever for you since you can't wear a shield generator.

Get rid of all of it immediately!

You don't really want defense rating either, since not a tank class, even if it technically does affect all classes.

Even classes that can use shields will only use those stats only if they are tank spec, not as a damage dealer.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Eternalnight

Just to add, your Codex has a TON of information...

Hit L, then at the bottom, hit the Codex tab.

This grows over time the more you interact with stuff all over the galaxy.

Unfortunately, the Codex never informed me about "absorption", "surge" and all of these little middle-tier key words ...

No they are not. Open your abilities window (the other icon on top of the screen) and it lists what abilities are melee and what are force.

 

Again, nice of BioWare to tell me where to find that info.

 

I already explained why you don't what willpower.

 

Read this again:

 

Your opinion is nice and all, but especially seeing as how this game at least pretends to be an RPG, we should likewise pretend that my decision making (based on whatever criteria I choose) is paramount to the experience of playing the game. Maybe Willpower isn't an effective stat for me to boost, however, according to the ability list, Overload Saber is a "force" ability, and should somehow be affected by Willpower. Personally I'm curious as to how that is. Presently I have 9 melee attacks and 4 force attacks, which hardly makes Willpower useless. Regardless, it is still extremely disappointing that I'd have to turn to the internet to learn what the primary stats in the game ACTUALLY affect. This is the sort of thing that should have been explained (in detail) in a tutorial in my first quest, and available for review afterward in the Help menu's knowledge base. Really, go there and search for "alacrity". It's a great knowledge base.

 

I believe the game also never tells you about the "unify colors" tab or the sub-menus, which are both situationally rather important, depending on the player. In any case, BioWare should be explaining the CRAP out of stats and their effects, seeing as how a huge part of progression in this game is effectively choosing new gear as you level. Like, are they new to this? Have they ever made a video game before?

Edited June 2, 2013 by TogashiDeckard

Nobody said Willpower is useless for a Sentinel. +2 to willpower will change force power/force crit by the same amount as +2 Strength. However, +2 to Strength will also increase melee damage and (I think) power. This means, if you need to choose between Strength and Willpower (i.e. items modifications) a Sentinel should ALWAYS take strength. However, if you come across a Willpower datacron, you should still pick it up as the bonus will help you and you won't lose out on another stat.

Thanks for making this thread, just thanks.

 

sticky please

Maybe Willpower isn't an effective stat for me to boost, however, according to the ability list, Overload Saber is a "force" ability, and should somehow be affected by Willpower. Personally I'm curious as to how that is. Presently I have 9 melee attacks and 4 force attacks, which hardly makes Willpower useless. Regardless, it is still extremely disappointing that I'd have to turn to the internet to learn what the primary stats in the game ACTUALLY affect

 

When you first started playing did you mouseover strength, presence, aim, cunning and all that stuff on your character sheet? That's the first thing i did...in fact thats one of the first things i do when i load up a new game or new program. Rule #1 of figuring stuff out on your own is its ok to hover your mouse over stuff and even click around. Just pay attention, and if you see the words "delete", "are you sure" and "choose one yes/no" then you need to stop.

 

But anways it would make sense to boost Willpower because as you can see on the mouseover for Willpower it boosts force abilities. But yet when you mouseover Strength, you see that Strength also boosts Warriors force abilities AND their melee abilities. From level 1-10 all the quest rewards are specific to your class. Yes you could pick up a piece of light armor which would have willpower and equip it without knowing. But you do get a codex entry for your basic class that pops up at i believe level 10? possibly earlier that says what your primary attribute is and what it affects. Even though i had played WoW, STO and many other MMOs before i played SWTOR i still opened up the first codex entry and read it. If you skipped it or chose to ignore it, well then i dont know what to tell you.

Just because one or two abilities are force doesn't mean you take willpower. Sentinels are a melee class. Melee. Strength. While they have SOME force, why would you take willpower, when you get the exact same stat increase from strength for force, AND extra stat increase for melee? Really.

I think these are slightly clearer recommendations for end game secondary stats:

 

DPS: Accuracy/Power enhancements until 110%, then Surge/Power for the rest. Mainstat/Power mods across the board. Mainstat augments across the board. If you have less than 25% buffed crit still, *maybe* swap in a Mainstat/Crit mod, but I wouldn't bother. You'll get enough crit chance from your mainstat.

 

Heals: Alacrity/Power enhancements, Mainstat/Power mods. Mainstat augments. You'll probably have some surge on your ear/implants. You have to give up Alacrity for Surge, and you can if you want, but heals don't rely on crits, damage does.

 

Tanks: Depends on which class. Assuming 69 mods w/ +28 augs:

Guardian/Vanguard: 9 Defense Mods, 7 Shield/Defense Enhancements, 11 Defense Augments, 3 Absorb Augments

Shadow: 9 Absorb Mods, 7 Shield/Absorb Mods, 13 Defense Augment, 1 Absorb Augment. (Optionally go with 9 Defense Mods, and 14 Absorb Augments).

 

Bottom line is that the Guardian/Vanguard both want a lot of Defense and a little Absorb at elder game (Vanguard wants a little more, but not much), while the Shadow wants a LOT of absorb and not much defense. Shield is basically a fixed budget so we don't really look at it.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Eugee

DPS: Accuracy/Power enhancements until 110%, then Surge/Power for the rest. Mainstat/Power mods across the board. Mainstat augments across the board.

 

Red bolded part is highly debatable,myself I stack power on my Marauder.

Red bolded part is highly debatable,myself I stack power on my Marauder.

 

Fair debate to be had, but as mainstat crit has much kinder DR on it, I prefer to go ahead and get the crit. But yeah, you can just go power augs as well.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Eugee

True, mainstat DR's on crit start at 3,000 mainstat

My main point for DPS is don't touch Critical, and only take Surge after 110% Accuracy.

 

Main point for Heals is ignore Critical & Surge and just get all the Alacrity/Power you can.

 

Main point for Tanks is... learn to read the Optimal Stat Distribution tables. Barring that, the breakdowns I posted are a good breakdown for the 1843 budget you get from 69 rated gear (with blue 28 augments).

True, mainstat DR's on crit start at 3,000 mainstat

 

No, no and no.

 

DR does not start at 3000 or any such number.

 

The formula for calculating critical chance gains from main stat (at level 55 anyway)

20 * ( 1 - ( 1 - ( 0.01 / 0.2 ) )^( ( PrimaryStat / 55 ) / 5.5 ) )

 

The exactly same equation is used at every amount of main stat. There is no different formula used for when main stat is below 3000 that would give linear gains. The crit gains from main stat are calculated exactly the same way both below and above 3000.

 

The diminishing returns, for every stat that does have diminishing returns, starts at when the value of the stat is greater than 0. As the value of a stat goes higher the gains from it get gradually more and more diminished.

 

 

For example

 

At 50 main stat the critical chance gained from main stat is 0.168847833% which makes up a gain of 0.003376957% crit chance per 1 main stat

 

At 100 main stat the critical chance gained from main stat is 0.336270186% which makes up a gain of 0.003362702% crit chance per 1 main stat

 

So since 0.003362702%<0.003376957% we can already see that even at very low amounts of the critical chance gained from main stat does diminish.

 

One more time: DR begins at 1, not at 3000.

 

Now there are of course points after which the diminishing has gone so high a stat becomes less valuable than another stat, which are not always same for all classes, but I have not seen any credible source (ie one that actually shows signs of knowing the mathematics behind the stats) that would put it at 3000

Edited June 4, 2013 by Eternalnight

but I have not seen any credible source (ie one that actually shows signs of knowing the mathematics behind the stats) that would put it at 3000

 

I used askmrrobot,when my STR got to over 3,000,the amount of Crit gained wasn't as valuable, and your gains from Power are more valuable point for point after that.

No, no and no.

 

DR does not start at 3000 or any such number.

 

The formula for calculating critical chance gains from main stat (at level 55 anyway)

20 * ( 1 - ( 1 - ( 0.01 / 0.2 ) )^( ( PrimaryStat / 55 ) / 5.5 ) )

 

Anyone familiar with how DR works in SWTOR (for example you) should also be capable of making the logical hurdle that when someone says "the DR kicks in around 3000" they are referring to the point when each point of that stat is diminished enough to have half the value of taking only 1 point. Soft-cap, half-life, DR-break-point, who cares what you call it. In a New Player Help forum, I'm pretty sure you have the ability to see the point being made was "you're not going to get a high enough mainstat-crit percentage to where DR is having a significant impact." Since that takes a long time to say, and longer time for a new player in the New Player Help forum to get their head around, we just say "DR kicks in around X".

 

And before you drop the hammer on the math showing that the half-life/soft-cap/DR-break for mainstat Critical is NOT 3000...

 

I don't care.

 

I mean when I'm tanking and tell a DPSer, "Could you kill the weaker mobs first please? Makes it easier to tank."

 

I don't care if he understands that it's inane for me to blow GCDs on mobs he'll drop in two GCDs, which will lower the incoming damage that must be healed, as well as protect the healer from gaining aggro in the initial opening of a fight, and allow me to build aggro on the big mobs that they might actually pass me in aggro on, or that they are killing off the mobs most likely to use special abilities that interrupts can't keep up with.

 

I just care if he does it. I don't care if a new player knows the DR formula--I just telling him that you'll get enough crit from mainstat to not take actual Crit rating. If he wants to understand the exact formulas, he'll Google it and get dressed down by folks like you.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Eugee

The game actually does give you all this information, although it doesn't do a great job of telling you where to look for it. When you pull up your character sheet, if you hover your cursor over each stat, the tootlip will show you its effects. The secondary stats are all separated into various tabs that you have to select from the pull-down menus on the character sheet.

 

No kidding. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, because perhaps this is more a reflection of my own incompetence than an issue with the game's design: but I just discovered the secondary stat pull-down menus a few days ago...having played the game for months. I'm not a "founder" or anything, but I have a little SWTOR experience; I have a 55, a 50, a 45, and a few other low-level characters...and I simply never knew those menus were there. I understood the general idea behind each secondary stat, and I knew, for example, that with 2.0 I should look for more alacrity on my operative healer. And of course I could see the alacrity rating on each piece of gear/mod, and as I leveled that toon post-2.0, I picked up alacrity when feasible. But I never knew where I could view the alacrity total. I just sort of assumed I could figure it out by totaling the numbers from all of my gear. And that was the only way to do it.

 

When I discovered the menus, it was a serious facepalm moment. I couldn't believe all that info was there the whole time. I felt like a complete imbecile.