Hey all, Can someone help me understand something? I have been watching my #s as I level, trying to make sure I get a feel for my strong abilities, etc. I am going down the carnage tree, and have picked up execute, and most recently towering rage, which says it increases the critical strike change of force scream by 100%. So my question is this, in my experience with other MMOs, the text of Towering rage would suggest that when execute procs, the next force scream will auto crit. However my experience in game seems to be different. I was watching my numbers yesterday, and the tooltip for force scream suggested that the damage of it was 410ish-510ish. My force screams when execute proc'd were consistently the top end number of that range, no matter what it was. I did have a few times where I saw that number rise over 600, however this was when I was in a group, so it could be attributed to group buffs, etc. So my question is, how should I be interpreting the tooltips and talent choices? Does the tooltip for Force Scream's damage range include the crit (I.E. 400ish if you hit normal, 500ish if you crit)? Does Towering Rage make Force Scream an auto crit with Execute proc'd? Or does it simply double your change to crit (for instance, if I have a 10% chance to crit, and execute procs, it increases the 10% by 100%, for a total of 20% chance to crit)? Or am I interpreting everything wrong and should I be understanding this differently? This has obvious implications for me as I gear, since if force scream is auto-crit with execute, that reduces the value of crit, and increases the value of surge and power since force scream seems to be a big hitter for me and appears like it will be an ability I will be gearing around. ---- Another question I had, revolves around abilities that say "If wielding two weapons, strikes with both". How does striking with both weapons interact with the damage of the ability? I will often times as I am fighting see tiny numbers scroll through the SCT, like I am doing damage in the 300-600 range based on ability, etc., and as I am using abilities I will see #s fly by that are like in the 50-70 range. For a long time I just attributed them to the bleed damage of rupture, but yesterday while trying to sort out the Force Scream business, I noticed some of these small #s were yellow (suggesting power damage) and others were white (suggesting physical damage). I know TOR does not have auto-attack damage like other MMOs, but is it something where when you use an ability you also have an "auto-attack" that just does the damage of the weapon? Or am I reading too much into things, and should I expect an ability that strikes with both to do damage equal to 1.x(ability damage) where x is the % of damage the offhand weapon does? Thanks for all the help in advance folks.

I think its a little more on par with the damage from assassinate, but I am only 43 so assassinate may outstrip it at 50. Right now my mauls are hitting for 1100 and my tumults hit for 1300 (non crit for both). Still with it's 45 sec cd, it's not a huge increase to dps, so it shouldnt make us OP in operations, but at the same time give us another nice tool to use in conjunction with adrenals and relics, adding a little more spice to the rotation in PVE as well. And of course the added burst timing in PVP should help improve our skirmish/edge tactics and use, thus solidifying deception assassins into that role of picking off people on the eges of combat.

For those looking for a slight damage increase for Deception what about the following: I like Tumult. It's fun to watch your character round kick someone in the face. How about adding a debuff to low slash that last for say, 10 seconds, and while on the target allows them to be affected by Tumult regardless of state (I.E. Tumult currently cannot be used on players, champions, bosses, etc. and it would also lift the stun requirement)? This would give us some additional burst (timing tumult with discharge+fully buffed shock) and give low slash and Tumult some usefulness in Operations! ((Sorry, as a martial artist, and a fan of the way Darth Maul fought in Ep. 1 I'd love any change to bring my assassin closer to that fighting style. To me this is a good way to do it, while at the same time giving us another longer cooldown dps item.))

You missed the part where there are two components to the epic item. The crafted "unactivated item" which cannot be worn, and the "activation module" which when used with the unactivated item transforms both into a piece you can use. The activation module would be acquirable through Operations and be BOP thus preserving the need to perform well in an Operation and actually complete content. EDIT: Spelling

Could someone please help me understand why this system (proposed below) is fail and would not work? It seems so simple to me, and keeps crafters completely integrated into the end game process, which I think everyone would agree is what people want. Right now we have a loot system in end game where you loot drops off bosses, and possibly have to turn those into vendors for a piece of gear. It's simple, and mundane but it worked for other games so it feels like Bioware copped out a little by just porting it over. Why not instead have the bosses drop a series of crafting materials, and a special token, called an activation module. The activation module is tied to a specific piece of gear and is BOP. The crafting materials are all components to the various pieces of gear out there we have in place now. Crafters can learn how to craft "Inactive" items which represent the various pieces of gear. Once you have your "activation token" (Which represents you participating in the event that earned you the right to wear the gear) and the "Inactive" piece of gear, you put them together and boom, you have your piece. This keeps crafters involved in the end game process; and, with overlap in crafting materials, limits the risk of duplication of drops. This would also help the longevity of Raid cycles, as guilds that get certain Operations on farm, could continue to run them and sell the BOE materials on the Galactic Trade Network. This would help newer guilds who do not have these instances on farm get access to the materials faster which would then in turn assist them in gearing up faster. And the cash flow for the More progressed guilds would help them bankroll their bleeding edge progression when new content comes out. You could also have trash mobs drop crafting materials in the Operations, leading to a desire to fully clear instances for guilds, as the extra mats would be useful in crafting gear. Guilds would have a choice, do we want a quick run, and so we skip unnecessary pulls, or do we take our time and clear every last mob in the instance. This application could equally apply to the PVP side of the game, where you buy the "activation item" and the materials to give to your crafter with warzone tokens instead of just buying the armor/weapon. The result here is crafters are integral to the end game gearing process and no longer obsolete at 50. If you wanted to take it a step further, you could tie learning the patterns to reverse engineering, provided of courses that something was done to improve the reverse engineering proc rate. Allowing for crits on the crafting could allow for some spice to our end game gear with possible augment slots, etc. (How balanced that would be, I am not certain) If this were implimented the new options available could be tremendous, and groundbreaking. Think for a moment if you could craft your epic gear, and get it to look how you like? Imagine if a crafter could, during the crafting process, select any other pattern he knows and have the item mimic the look of that item in game while retaining the stats of the epic item. We already sort of have that in a limited sense with modable gear, but even that apparently becomes obsolete at 50. If crafters were involved in the crafting process at this level, why not let crafters do this? This makes a crafter's earlier skills worth while at the end game. Someone comes along and really likes the look of the level 25 jedi lower robe. He wants his end game robe to appear that way, so he seeks out a crafter who knows that pattern and his epic pattern to craft his robe for him to look like how he wants. Suddenly finding those rare patterns at low levels with unique looks actually matters long term! This all seems very simple from an ideological standpoint (and while I am not a programmer, with their implimentation of moddable gear, I cannot see that the programming would be all that difficult either), so I cannot fathom Bioware not having thought of this already. Which means there had to be a reason they chose not to go with it, so can someone help me understand what I am missing?

It has nothing to do with your armor. It has everything to do with being a Sage. The empire has picked up very quickly that Sages vastly outstrip all other republic (and imperial) classes in shear beat down ability, and the common tactic in most conbative situations is to eliminate the most powerful tool your opponent has first. This means killing all Sages first, before dealing with the others.