Accuracy to 100% or 108% ?

[PhoenixUnity]

I've seen a lot of conflicting information. Some guides list 108%, some list 100%. I know bosses have around 8-10% defense chance over normal mobs, but 108% accuracy seems like a ridiculous goal to reach. Even with the accuracy talent.

 

What is the definitive amount of accuracy I should have for OPS?

[MrWoolie]

Accuracy over 100% reduces enemy armor. Around 108 to 112%, you will receive the highest armor penetration from accuracy possible. You will neglect almost all target armor, but at the expensive of other stats. I recommend having 108% accuracy, solely for operation and flashpoint bosses. Plus, getting to 108 is not hard for a sentinel. All specs can now benefit from the 3% boost in the first tier combat tree, and Ataru form gives an additional 3% accuracy.

[Doyletdude]

Accuracy doesn't do anything to anyone armor, and this is a common misconception since the launch of the game. He is correct that 108% is a good goal to aim for. However any accuracy above 100% counteracts the enemies "Defence" stat, not armor. It won't increase you DPS due to armor penetration but it will make the enemy less likely to dodge your attack altogether.

The rule of thumb for Operations is 108-110% because it is believed through trial and error that Operation Bosses have a defense chance of about 8-10%, so by achieving 110% accuracy on your force attacks, they can't dodge them, increasing your overall DPS for the long run.

[Ilayas]

Just to clarify are you talking mele accuracy or force accuracy? Because they are 2 different things. From my understanding as a watchmen sent I should have 100% mele accuracy.

[Doyletdude]

You are correct. Melee would be ~100%, while special attacks would be 110% and force attacks would be ~110%

Sure 110% melee accuracy would mean they can't dodge your basic attack, but to get that much accuracy would require an overall DPS drop from losing other secondary stat points

Edited April 18, 2013 by Doyletdude

[PhoenixUnity]

Oh so you mean get 108-110% FORCE accuracy? and yes I am a watchman.

[atschai]

108-110% force accuracy is for your burns and force attacks, melee accuracy should be around 100%. If you hover your mouse over the accuracy number you also see special accuracy which is 10% higher than your melee accuracy and thus as high as force accuracy. This is the accuracy value that counts for all your melee attacks except for basic strike, i.e. merciless slash.

[KarethRiker]

Has anyone done math to see if melee accuracy over the cap is better than surge for increasing off hand chance to hit?

 

I'm assuming the answer is no thanks to high crit rate on WM burns, auto crit on Combat Bladestorm, and autocrit on force sweep, but thought I'd check.

[Lanja]

Yeah, this confused the crap out of me as well, back in the day. My understanding is that the sweet spot for Melee Accuracy is between 98% and 100%. Melee accuracy applies to your basic attack only (i.e. Strike). Everything else in your arsenal is considered a "special attack" and works off Force Accuracy.

 

Force Accuracy is essentially your Melee Accuracy +10%. So if you're shooting for 100% Melee Accuracy, you will end up with 110% Force Accuracy. That gets you past the Ops Boss 10% Defense buff, ensuring that 100% of everything but strike will hit the mark (and even Strike will hit 90% of the time). If you dial back to the low end of the desired range (98% MA / 108% FA) you're still going to be very unllkely to miss.

 

I've heard that the upside is greater from stacking other things like power or surge instead of pushing for the last 2% of Acc. I don't know for certain if that's true, but so long as my Melee Accuracy rate falls in that 98% - 100% range, I figure I'm good to go.

[iheartnyc]

Just to be clear, this is for PVE only?

 

There can be an argument for having accuracy lower than 100% for PVP.

[Clown_Envy]

Yeah, this confused the crap out of me as well, back in the day. My understanding is that the sweet spot for Melee Accuracy is between 98% and 100%. Melee accuracy applies to your basic attack only (i.e. Strike). Everything else in your arsenal is considered a "special attack" and works off Force Accuracy.

 

Force Accuracy is essentially your Melee Accuracy +10%. So if you're shooting for 100% Melee Accuracy, you will end up with 110% Force Accuracy. That gets you past the Ops Boss 10% Defense buff, ensuring that 100% of everything but strike will hit the mark (and even Strike will hit 90% of the time). If you dial back to the low end of the desired range (98% MA / 108% FA) you're still going to be very unllkely to miss.

 

I've heard that the upside is greater from stacking other things like power or surge instead of pushing for the last 2% of Acc. I don't know for certain if that's true, but so long as my Melee Accuracy rate falls in that 98% - 100% range, I figure I'm good to go.

 

Ok so here is my question...this whole 100% thing...is 100% acc just .10% better than 99.9 or is 100% really a magical number where there is greater benefit when you DING it. Please explain because sometimes when min/maxing im close to 100% and i work it out to just hit it because it seems from the description of acc that dinging it does more benefit than just a bit more accuracy than 99.9%.

[shadowflit]

Ok so here is my question...this whole 100% thing...is 100% acc just .10% better than 99.9 or is 100% really a magical number where there is greater benefit when you DING it. Please explain because sometimes when min/maxing im close to 100% and i work it out to just hit it because it seems from the description of acc that dinging it does more benefit than just a bit more accuracy than 99.9%.

It is not a magical number.

 

100% accuracy means your mainhand (non-strike) attacks will never miss. However much less you are than 100% is the chance that you will miss with those attacks. Offhand hits will miss occasionally regardless, as they have less base accuracy.

 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that if an attack misses, it won't apply its affect either. So for instance if you're Watchman spec and you're counting on attacks to hit in order to apply burns, you might get thrown off your rotation if you miss. Getting to 100% gives you a guarantee that you don't need to worry about things like that.

 

Personally, I aim towards getting just barely over 100% when done gearing. If during the course of upgrading enhancements I have a choice between 101.x% accuracy or 99.5% accuracy + another surge enhancement, I'll go for the surge.

Edited April 25, 2013 by shadowflit