CUEmu - Thread Posts

Uthyr

Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:36 pm

CorenLanra wrote:
Do you really see yourself using just Ranged & Placed shot?

I have been playing that way for some time now. Those are not the only specials I use--just the ones I've been usingwhen I am trying to pile on the damage quickly. I use other shots (Cover, Conceal Shot, Sniper Shot, Torso Shot, Imp Underhand Shot, Spray Shot, etc) to open and close my battles and when I need to heal, or in special circumstances, but I alternate just two specials during the main part of the battle for dealing damage. As for playing with different PUPs, that is what I am in the process of doing right now, but it's hard to compare when I haven't decided how to slice the weapon yet.

Col. Uthyr Pendragon | Artorius Pendragon
Elder Pistoleer/Rifleman/Bounty Hunter/Combat Medic
Elder Architect
Naritus vendors:
Tatooine (2369 -4123) - Castle Uthyr, Mos Eisley West

Uthyr

Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:58 pm

#28

Uthyr wrote:

So now I am left wondering if a speed PUP is the best thing to use if I will be alternating higher-SAC specials, because I will be firing too fast for my action regen to keep up with my firing rate (even with a SAC 83 rifle). It seems to me that the only way I can sustain firing of alternating high-SAC specials is if I am using a SAC PUP. So the question becomes, for protracted battles against high-level mobs, is it more effective to alternate low-SAC specials using a speed PUP, or to alternate high-SAC specials using a SAC PUP? During some field tests today with my SAC 83 rifle, I found that I could not sustain my attacks for very long with a speed PUP attached, before running out of action.

Idid some more field testing just now and came to the following conclusion: it's better to alternate the higher-level specials with a SAC PUP than to alternate lower-level specials with a speed PUP. My actual DPS (as measured in field testing) is 730 in the former case (and will be much higher once I've speed sliced this rifle), but is only 696 in the latter. High-SAC specials simply cannot be sustained indefinitely in rapid succession without a SAC PUP in my experience, even with a rifle close to the SAC cap.

Col. Uthyr Pendragon | Artorius Pendragon
Elder Pistoleer/Rifleman/Bounty Hunter/Combat Medic
Elder Architect
Naritus vendors:
Tatooine (2369 -4123) - Castle Uthyr, Mos Eisley West

Uthyr

Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:05 pm

#29

Holbrook wrote:

you could try a full 8%damage slice, 3%crit, 2%speed, your max damage on the rifle wont go up more then it is, but you min damagewould go up orsince you are BH you could for a full Crit slice along with the speed pup, which would really raise your damage with the upped crit chance and number of citical shots you can fire

but testing this is something im not familar with, and sice it woudl require 1 or 2 more rifles with simialr stats not sure how worth while i would be to test as it would get a lil costly

also, you have starting changing my mind on the this issue, your testing has been very interesting, hope it works out for you and doesnt break you at the same time lol, good luck

I must admit that getting a full 8% damage slice with the goal of increasing my minimum damage never even occurred to me. Intuitively though, it seems like it would be better to put those customization points into something that gives a moredirect boost to my DPS. As for putting the points into critical strike chance, that is actually something that I was just trying to calculate when I read your message. On the banthas I have been testing, the frequency of critical strikes that I've been getting is the equivalent of adding perhaps 25 points to my DPS overall (seems to be about a 5% chance). With a full critical slice, that adds 10%, or an additonal 50 points DPS, if I understand how that is calculated. This number will of course vary depending on the mob type. So it's a question of whether that would add more actual DPS than a speed and/or damage slice would. I just did a quick calculation for these banthas, and I figure a 12% speed slice might add more to the DPS than a 10% critical slice, but I'm not 100% sure, and I'm also not sure if that would apply the same way to other kinds of mobs.

Col. Uthyr Pendragon | Artorius Pendragon
Elder Pistoleer/Rifleman/Bounty Hunter/Combat Medic
Elder Architect
Naritus vendors:
Tatooine (2369 -4123) - Castle Uthyr, Mos Eisley West

Uthyr

Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:52 pm

#30

Okay, I've completed my testing (at least as much of it as I can stand to do). By alternating Advanced Critical Shot and Improved Head Shot, the actual DPS (let's call it "aDPS" to distinguish it from the DPS stat on the weapon properties window) of my unsliced rifle came out to the following with different PUPs attached:

Speed PUP (-33.65 speed/ -28 accuracy): 805 aDPS

Damage PUP (+33.42 damage, +12.72% speed): 756 aDPS

SAC PUP (-27.68 SAC, -13 accuracy): 730 aDPS

If anybody wants more specifics on the data I used to calculate these, I'd be happy to provide it.

These numbers are only part of the story though. With either the speed or the damage PUP, I was completely running out of action when attacking more than one bantha in succession with no rest breaks(the equivalent of attacking a single higher-HAM mob). At that point, I then had to rest, during which time I was doing 0 DPS damage. I don't understand it when people tell me that with a SAC-capped rifle (as mine just about is--1 point away), you don't need to use a SAC PUP, because it's pretty clear to me that you do, if you want to maintain a high firing rate using high-SAC specials. Although I didn't calculate the aDPS of a high-HAM mob incorporating any rest breaks needed, it seems pretty clear to me that the overall aDPS is going to be higher when using a SAC PUP than either of the other two PUP types I tested. If you're only attacking low-HAM mobs and don't mind resting between mobs, then either of the other two types would be fine though, with the speed PUP apparently having a definite edge over the damage PUP. Note that these results are with one particular rifle, and with my personal character stats, and withthe type of mobs that I used for my tests, so your mileage may vary, but I would expect the trends to be similar.

As for slicing... I am not really sure about that, and unfortunately can't really test it without buying several identical rifles and getting them sliced in different ways to calculate their aDPS (not an option with this particular rifle!), but I can make educated guesses based on the calculations of the slice parameters. On the banthas I tested, I think that I would get slightly higher DPS by going with a 12% speed slice (level 4) instead of a 10% critical strike chance slice (level 4), but the difference is not large (13 points aDPS is what I estimate), and it's possible that the reverse would be true if I miscalculated or used any incorrect assumptions (a definite possibility). A speed slice is going to make my action run out faster though, and I am not sure at what point my SAC-PUP'd rifle would no longer be able to keep up with the speed, and thus lead to diminishing aDPS due to the need to take rest breaks. There is no such cost trade-off thatI can think of for getting a critical strike slice, so I wonder if a critical strike slice is better than a speed slice from that perspective. Similarly, there is no cost to getting a damage slice, but for this weapon of mine I would only need a level 1 damage slice to effectively cap my damage, so I'd have to decide whether it is worth the 2% damage increase, or if the customization points are better spent in something like the 4th level of critical strike. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Incidentally, on the topic of critical strike slices only really being useful for bounty hunters, I don't think that is true. I may be wrong about this, but it doesn't seem to me that a critical strike slice has anything to do with the Critical Shot special. The reason I say this is because I was getting occasional critical strikes when I was testing with nothing more than Ranged Shot... although the bonus is certainly far greater when using Critical Shot.If I am wrong about that, please correct me, because I'm not 100% sure how that works.

Col. Uthyr Pendragon | Artorius Pendragon
Elder Pistoleer/Rifleman/Bounty Hunter/Combat Medic
Elder Architect
Naritus vendors:
Tatooine (2369 -4123) - Castle Uthyr, Mos Eisley West

Holbrook

Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:55 am

#31

Uthyr wrote:

Incidentally, on the topic of critical strike slices only really being useful for bounty hunters, I don't think that is true. I may be wrong about this, but it doesn't seem to me that a critical strike slice has anything to do with the Critical Shot special. The reason I say this is because I was getting occasional critical strikes when I was testing with nothing more than Ranged Shot... although the bonus is certainly far greater when using Critical Shot.If I am wrong about that, please correct me, because I'm not 100% sure how that works.

thats how it works, it gives you a 10% chance to crit with any shot you do, though the damage seem insignificant when compared to 12% more speed or 8% more damage, as the most increase of i have seens was 154 extra damage

Uthyr

Sun Aug 21, 2005 7:44 am

#32

Holbrook wrote:

Uthyr wrote:

Incidentally, on the topic of critical strike slices only really being useful for bounty hunters, I don't think that is true. I may be wrong about this, but it doesn't seem to me that a critical strike slice has anything to do with the Critical Shot special. The reason I say this is because I was getting occasional critical strikes when I was testing with nothing more than Ranged Shot... although the bonus is certainly far greater when using Critical Shot.If I am wrong about that, please correct me, because I'm not 100% sure how that works.

thats how it works, it gives you a 10% chance to crit with any shot you do, though the damage seem insignificant when compared to 12% more speed or 8% more damage, as the most increase of i have seens was 154 extra damage

Is it 10%? I added up thte total number of shots I took during all this testing and the number of criticals that I recorded, and it came out to almost exactly 5.0% Maybe I was just unlucky, of neglected to record a few of them. Anway, my point of posting that comment above was that a lot of people have been telling me in this forum that because I am a bounty hunter, then a critical strike slice might make more sense for me than something like a speed slice, but I don't think it really makes any difference what profession you are. True, if I get a critical while I am firing BH's Critical Shot, the damage increase is massive, but I could probably get the same damage increase over time (higher, even) by speed slicing the rifle.

I actually did some more calculations on that topic last night... assuming my calculations are correct, I figure I can get almost 11% higher actual DPS with a full speed slice than with a full critical slice. My calculations also suggest that a full speed slice is the best slice you can get, provided that you can keep up with the increased speed without running out of action. If you tend to run out of action a lot (due to your playing style, or the type of PUPs you intend to use with the weapon), then you may be better off with a full damage or critical slice, because otherwise there is a HAM penalty to using a speed slice. Just my opinion--I could be wrong.

Col. Uthyr Pendragon | Artorius Pendragon
Elder Pistoleer/Rifleman/Bounty Hunter/Combat Medic
Elder Architect
Naritus vendors:
Tatooine (2369 -4123) - Castle Uthyr, Mos Eisley West

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