I highly doubt they will allow for two different versions of stats for the same item. We can probably expect that they will fix the DG relics to match the live ones before the expansion is released -- this assumes that the relics on PTS have incorrect values. Alternatively, if they do indeed intend for the stats to change to the high endurance version that we see on PTS, then I would assume that all of our existing relics would be changed to match. All of that is to say, you probably won't have control over the stats on the relics by buying it early or late, you'll just save some comms if you buy it early.

Now is the time to buy these on live. Don't wait until 2.0 comes out or it will cost you more. Daily Commendations will convert at 4:1 (currently) to Classic Commendations. The DG relics are 150 classic comms in 2.0 which is equivalent to 600 daily comms on live -- twice what the DG relics cost now. Of course, you will get classic comms from tionese, columi, and black hole comms too -- I guess it all depends on how much gear you would want to buy with classic comms once the change goes live.

My energy trouble with 0 crit was including the 4pc PVE, it would be nearly impossible for me if I didn't have that -- which will suck because I do not have the 4pc on live right now, I and 2-and-2 pve + pvp right now. My problem is that while I'm plowing through my abilities I'm not sure if I should insert a rifle shot occasionally, even when I'm not waiting for anything to be off CD. Historically my preference has been to only use rifle shots as a last resort when everything else is on CD and I want to save energy instead of using snipe. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in 2.0 full lethality uses enough different abilities that I'm rarely waiting on cooldowns at all, and the only reason to use rifle shot would be for energy management.

I found it difficult to have enough energy when I tried running with 0 crit rating on a 5/5/36 build. Did you have energy trouble at all?

Likewise, many people don't realize it, but Kaliyo can equip blaster rifles despite the fact that the game always gives pistols as rewards for her. If you can find a modifiable blaster rifle and put an Aim barrel and mod in it then she will do more damage and be a better tank for you than if you give her a pistol.

I don't think anything requires a sniper rifle specifically, but ALL sniper rifles are higher damage than blaster rifles of the same level. If you are a Sniper, then you should ALWAYS equip a sniper rifle, otherwise you are just gimping your damage.

It sounds like your number must be close to what I posted above, does that look similar to you? If your crit rating is as low as you say, then you probably only have about 20-22% crit chance buffed. Of course if you don't have surge then the value of crit goes way down.

Any stat that uses a rating (crit, alacrity, shield, absorb, defense, surge, accuracy) all had their curves altered to account for the new levels being added. It always takes more rating to get the same % at a higher level, and they just added in 5 levels. The amount of crit chance you get from your primary stat (Cunning, Aim, etc.) was also adjusted. AFAIK there was no change at all to power, tech power, or force power as relates to bonus damage and healing.

This update is also a small nerf for the Eng/Lethality hybrid as Explosive Engineering now specifically DOES NOT affect Corrosive Grenade (nor Corrosive Mines for other specs). The irony is I was just doing some testing with EE to determine what the DPS change would be to lose those 3 points in a 2/8/36 build in favor of 3% accuracy in a 5/5/36 build. Bioware has just made that a no-brainer for full lethality I'd say.

Here's the best I've managed to do so far: 2312 DPS Full Lethality: 5/5/36 109.97% Accuracy (432 rating) 27.51% crit chance (393 rating) 67.61% crit multiplier (288 rating) 1278.9 Bonus Damage (986 power, 2801 cunning) 0 alacrity rating Purple Skill 22 augments in most slots War Hero relic of boundless ages / Dread Guard internal dmg proc relic Rakata cunning stim and Rakata power adrenal used. Full Class buffs

I'm interested in seeing how you guys are modifying the new Arkanian gear on the PTS -- especially those of you who are able to get very high parses. How much crit rating are you using? Are you Accuracy capped at 100% ranged/110% tech? If not, how much Accuracy Rating do you have? Do you have any Alacrity Rating? For those really high parses, did you have augments on your gear? If so, were they the new level 55 purples? Was it Skill Augments or something else? What relic combo did you use? I have been fooling around with all of this for a while and I can't quite figure out what is the best combo. I seem to get the best results when I am accuracy capped at 100/110%, but that means I have no surge or alacrity -- as full Lethality I have no room to pick up the Marksman skill for the free 3% accuracy.

As a long-time full lethality player, I'm liking the look of the hybrid spec a lot mainly because it has room to pick up the 3% accuracy skill from the MM tree. Anyone without that skill in their spec will have a much harder time with gear selections at the early stages of level 55 itemization. Also, as I move my way up the Lethality tree, I feel like I have to waste about 5 points to get to the top, 5 points that I simply don't care about where they go, as they really don't help me much. Sure, getting Weakening Blast and Lethal Takedown would be great, but I hate to have to spend extra points just to get there. The hybrid spec doesn't have this problem, I don't feel like I'm wasting anything in that build. I like it a lot, I think I'll probably use the same thing for leveling up from 50 to 55.

The title of this thread says "Builds requiring crit in 2.0". For Lethality in 1.7 you have specs which truly do require a certain amount of crit, otherwise you cannot sustain your abilities with available energy. I do not believe that this holds true in 2.0 for Lethality any more. I stripped out all the crit rating on my Arkanian gear on PTS except for the 90+/- crit rating on the earpiece; I replaced most of it with accuracy. I only had about 22% crit chance with all class buffs and no stim. Even with such a low amount of crit, I had no trouble maintaining a full lethality rotation for 5+ minutes. So at the very least, a Lethality sniper should not be concerned with maintaining enough energy to use all of your abilities in a normal rotation. Your reliance on crit will only factor into your DPS calculations, and no longer matter much for energy regen. NOTE: all of the above is for full lethality, I have not tested this yet with a hybrid spec, but I suspect it would not be as bad as many people think it will be. That energy cost change to CG and CD is quite significant.

I was able to verify that other snipers can use up your Weakening Blast charges on the PTS. I was really hoping that they'd fix this once and for all, but it doesn't look like they bothered with it yet.

Assuming the Accuracy cap is still 10%, you will need accuracy in EVERY item slot if you do not have the skill in the MM tree. I was able to get 110.27% accuracy using enhancement swaps in the Arkanian pieces and using accuracy earpiece and implants. That leaves no room for surge or alacrity on enhancements (at least at this gear level and a lethality spec). With no surge at all, I figure I may as well ditch crit for more power. So my gearing attempt looks like this: Accuracy + Power until 110% tech accuracy. If I had any room after that I would probably choose Alacrity + Power. I'm assuming that at some future higher item level that we could get enough surge on top of the needed accuracy to make swapping out some power for crit more worthwhile. With all dps class buffs, a full set of Arkanian Professional gear straight off the vendor, no relics, no consumables and no augments, using a 2/8/36 spec I pulled about 1850 dps in a very laggy fleet on the 55 target dummy. This set of gear will give you about 104% tech accuracy, 4% alacrity, 27% crit and 70% multiplier. I changed the gear around to remove almost all crit in favor of power, and removed all surge and alacrity rating for accuracy I managed to do 1925 dps. The stats were about 22% crit, 51% multiplier, 2% alacrity, 110.27% tech accuracy and well over 1000 power. So the accuracy does help a lot. Adding in relics, consumables and augments should bump that up a fair bit. Even with such low crit, I still had no energy management issues running the usual full lethality spec.

It is a TON better than before. All armorings are Skill that I have seen, no Patrons at all. All mods I have seen are the high secondary stat versions (power or crit > 50, unlettered Adv. Keen or Artful mods). Some pieces have alacrity on them now that alacrity was redesigned. The Professional set is simply more power based and Field Tech is more crit based. They share the same set bonus, so you can mix and match to get the desired stats. I don't think one is necessarily for one spec vs. another, it will just depend on what stats you want/need the most.

I can't imagine trying a full Lethality build now without having the 4pc PVE bonus. With Lethal Takedown you will be using Takedown after every Cull which is once every 9 seconds. Saving 7 energy every 9 seconds will be huge. Obviously other specs will not rely on the 4pc PVE bonus as much.

I highly doubt there will be a different set bonus for professional. Having the same bonus as Field Tech is probably by design. I think they just wanted to give us a little more variety for selecting gear upgrades. I heard that Marauders also got a second gear set. My favorite part of the new Arkanian gear is that ALL of the armorings are the high cunning/low endurance variation (all skill and no patron armorings). Likewise all of the mods I have seen in them are the versions with the high value secondary stat, i.e. power or crit > 50. For the most part it looks like the main thing you'll need to worry about is what enhancements you want to use.

All of the enemy spawn rates and mission item drop rates for the Gree event seem appropriate to me except for this one mission: [Daily] Supplemental Research. The drop rate for the Data Chips from the combat specimen animals is way too low to account for the 15 you need to collect. It takes me 2-3 times as long to complete this mission than any of the other missions in the event. This drop rate would be bad even if there was no one else on Ilum to compete with, but when you factor in how busy the place is, the animal spawns are highly contested. I suggest you either increase the drop rate of the Data Chips, or reduce the number required by the mission to 8 or 10. I do NOT think you need to add more of the animal specimen enemy spawns to Ilum.

This is also my new favorite. I grabbed it because I liked the look, but was pleasantly surprised at how awesome the sound effects are with it. I had not realized that different guns have different sound effects -- I assumed all sniper rifles would sound the same. Unfortunately you can't preview the sound when CTRL-clicking it, but if sound matters as much to any of you as the look then give this gun a try.

Having the 2pc PVE bonus for that extra energy has helped me to actually remember to use the TA skill more often. Previously I always managed to forget about it which is bad since it is nice for the armor penetration. I find it handy usually when I use Orbital Strike since that is the costliest ability I use and it tends to put me below 60%.

I'm just hoping for the chance to have ALL my attacks usable from 35m, and not just rifle attacks. Orbital strike, frag grenade, corrosive grenade, corrosive dart are still only 30m just to name a few. I never understood why some abilities are longer range and not all of them -- especially since we are so often stationary in cover, if we were more mobile, then it might make more sense. Just modify the "Advanced Training" skill we get at level 10 and make all non-knife skills be 35m.

I just came back to the game after a hiatus of about 6 months and I wanted to try some PVP. The problem was I only had a few old champion/centurion pieces that were highly outdated. So I decided to jump into some PVP in my PVE gear which is full BH/Campaign. Someone inspected me and told me to leave the match and get recruit. I blew the guy off and stuck it out in that match and I did ok -- my damage was good and I had decent survivability (I'm lethality sniper). After that match I picked up recruit which is what the stickied guides here say to use and gave it a try in a few matches. It was horrible. I had crappy stats by comparison and the expertise simply did not make up for the huge tier difference in the two gear sets. I could barely scratch enemies with my damage and I was killed super fast. I went back to my Campaign set and again I did much better with it. So I certainly don't agree with the idea that you should never use PVE gear in PVP. To me it seems that there is probably a gear tier below which recruit will be better, but beyond which PVE would give better results than recruit. Perhaps the sticky guides should be updated to reflect what a well geared PVE player should do when trying to enter PVP. They seem to expect new PVPers to also be new 50s which isn't always the case.

It is in Tibbel's guide, see section II.3.1.A, there is a neat chart that shows regen rates accounting for your skill selections. Energy regenerates over time at a rate that varies based on how much current energy you have. The lower your current energy, the slower the regen rate. This means that if you spend too much energy then it will take a much longer time to get it all back. If you look at the chart in Tibbel's guide, you will see that the top bracket is 60% energy and up, so as long as you don't drop below 60% of your energy then you will regen at the maximum possible rate.

When in doubt, it's usually best to go for the one with less endurance, in this case I think Edge is the one to choose. The Cipher Twenty Energy Blade wastes 21 points on endurance that could otherwise have been used for damage stats.