Merciless & Cauterize Questions

[Ixstab]

Does merciless slash depends on your strength to deal more damage? (in PVP)

 

How do you make cauterize deal more damage? (What stats you need to pump up?) (in PVP)

Edited May 16, 2012 by Ixstab

[paul_preib]

Strength is the universal main stat for Knights, that mean sentinels and guardians. It's going to have an impact on all of your attacks adding to both their power and a small amount to crit.

 

Power works for all classes and is a direct 'make things hit harder' ability

 

Crit-- works for all classes dictating how often you critically hit to do more damage

 

Surge-- Works for all classes making those critical hits themselves hit harder

 

 

These all will improve your attacks in one form or another, though strength and power will be the most direct noticeable ones, and also carry with them fewer diminishing return concerns.

 

 

Don't forget too that as a melee class weapon damage itself has a significant impact. If your strength/power are kept rather high for your level but you have a green or blue hilt that hasn't been replaced in several levels you will still be doing so-so damage.

Edited May 16, 2012 by paul_preib

[Ixstab]

So if I want to make cauterize do more damage, then I'll pick surge rating as for my augments?

[coille]

Just to add to the last question if I had an option to put a high crit rating crystal into my light sabre, would I be better to use that than a high endurance one?

[Ratatooey]

Bear in mind that most of your damage comes from your burn. I ran EV and KP last night, and running my combat log through my DPS utility, my damage comes out like this:

 

Burning: 36.4%

Merciless Slash: 17.8%

Master Strike: 7.8%

Force Leap: 7.1%

Strike: 6.2%

Cayterize: 6%

Zealous Strike: 5.8%

Blade Storm: 4.2%

 

They move around a bit, but Burning is always between 32-36%, Merciless Slash is always between 17-24%, and Master Strike is always between 6-12% and those are always the top 3.

 

Interestingly, for HTS, Merciless Zeal is at 31% for the two raids.

 

So to me, and please correct me if I am wrong, my focus should be on popping Zen, OS, and Merciless Slash as often as possible, and increasing surge for the crit damage on burns

Edited May 17, 2012 by Ratatooey
Sp

[paul_preib]

Bear in mind that most of your damage comes from your burn. I ran EV and KP last night, and running my combat log through my DPS utility, my damage comes out like this:

 

Burning: 36.4%

Merciless Slash: 17.8%

Master Strike: 7.8%

Force Leap: 7.1%

Strike: 6.2%

Cayterize: 6%

Zealous Strike: 5.8%

Blade Storm: 4.2%

 

They move around a bit, but Burning is always between 32-36%, Merciless Slash is always between 17-24%, and Master Strike is always between 6-12% and those are always the top 3.

 

Interestingly, for HTS, Merciless Zeal is at 31% for the two raids.

 

So to me, and please correct me if I am wrong, my focus should be on popping Zen, OS, and Merciless Slash as often as possible, and increasing surge for the crit damage on burns

 

Just for one quickie-- the Original poster mentioned "in pvp" with regards to context, this will alter the scenario in many different ways such as

 

A.Popping the transcendence at times over zen if it benefits the group (in huttball to run down a ballcarrier or having the ball to get ahead of bulk of the defense-- in alderaan/novare to reinforce a node under duress be it folks coming out of spawn or simply running from a different node). This will have some impact on your overall burn damage percentage (never bothered to parse a warzone to say what scale)

 

B.Burst vs. Sustained-- While you obviously want to maximize your dps efficiency at times bursting down targets will take precedence likewise expending focus on this like the heal debuff or dispatch will come into play far more often, these various things may not have a specific single ability rising past burns, but it will impact direct damage vs. burn damage totals overall.

 

C.Purges-- Healers can wipe burns (though not as many do as should) which will also cut into the direct damage vs. burn damage ratio.

 

 

So the reference point of this post while valuable for PVE purposes doesn't really paint a clear picture for the pvp-specific request of the original poster.

 

 

That said, until you reach the point of worrying about diminishing return caps (a stage at which you are likely geared enough to not be asking such questions) you would want to emphasize strength first and power/crit at relatively equal footing because no matter how much surge you have built up those burn crits are still healing for the same amount, so your overall benefit would be crit ahead of surge. That said, once you reach the stage of higher tier gear you will likely have your crit over 30% and surge over 70%, making power more and more the focal item ahead of those two until you get to about 35%/75% at which point attentions shifts almost solely to power.

[Ratatooey]

Just for one quickie-- the Original poster mentioned "in pvp" with regards to context, this will alter the scenario in many different ways such as

 

A.Popping the transcendence at times over zen if it benefits the group (in huttball to run down a ballcarrier or having the ball to get ahead of bulk of the defense-- in alderaan/novare to reinforce a node under duress be it folks coming out of spawn or simply running from a different node). This will have some impact on your overall burn damage percentage (never bothered to parse a warzone to say what scale)

 

B.Burst vs. Sustained-- While you obviously want to maximize your dps efficiency at times bursting down targets will take precedence likewise expending focus on this like the heal debuff or dispatch will come into play far more often, these various things may not have a specific single ability rising past burns, but it will impact direct damage vs. burn damage totals overall.

 

C.Purges-- Healers can wipe burns (though not as many do as should) which will also cut into the direct damage vs. burn damage ratio.

 

 

So the reference point of this post while valuable for PVE purposes doesn't really paint a clear picture for the pvp-specific request of the original poster.

 

 

That said, until you reach the point of worrying about diminishing return caps (a stage at which you are likely geared enough to not be asking such questions) you would want to emphasize strength first and power/crit at relatively equal footing because no matter how much surge you have built up those burn crits are still healing for the same amount, so your overall benefit would be crit ahead of surge. That said, once you reach the stage of higher tier gear you will likely have your crit over 30% and surge over 70%, making power more and more the focal item ahead of those two until you get to about 35%/75% at which point attentions shifts almost solely to power.

 

Actually, the ratios don't shift much in PVP. Burning will drop down to about 32% and Master strike will go up a bit, as will Merciless Slash. But they will be the same order.