Some thoughts about Companion Stats which led to my own stats...

[scarlet_magpie]

Hi.

Been thinking a bit since I got HK-51. I noticed he utilises both Cunning and Aim and that confused me a little, as I didn't know whether to stack a 50/50 balance or to lean more toward cunning (for the "assassin droid" aspect) or Aim (for the "war droid" thing). Anyway this made me think about some of my other comps and mull over the following:

 

Torian and Skadge: Both these comps use melee attacks and are tanky types (although Torian has a generator as opposed to a shield) and it made me wonder what type of effect it would have if I stacked Strength on them. I know having Strength on my Merc gives a small bonus to rocket punch , so I figured why not?

 

I appreciate that Willpower is useless to me and to be honest, unless the Stat is "free" (ie: it comes from a datacron or some such) I would never dream of sacrifincing Aim on my merc, but i am just curious as to the effect of mixing prime stats for companions and if these small bonuses would be worth having?

 

The most obvious (and for some , tempting) sacrifice would be for Endurance, especially for levelling DPS classes with no healing comp, but I am curious if anyone else has tried this and what your findings are?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Callaron]

You can mouse over the stats and see the effects.

I believe Torian would get tiny damage increases from Strength, but nothing like what he gets from Aim (Damage, better crit chance, etc).

I don't think it would work out all that well, since the bonuses are so small.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Callaron

[scarlet_magpie]

Hmmm, yeah I guess. Like I say I was just mulling over...

 

I'm also about to spend a FORTUNE swapping out all my endurance-heavy augments for purely Aim and Power ones on my main...

[DataBeaver]

For HK-51 it's best to aim as close to 50/50 with cunning/aim as you can. They both act as main stats and increase damage and crit chance, but are on independent diminishing returns curves. For instance, 1000 of each stat gives a combined 6.24% crit chance, while 2000 in one stat only gives 5.76%.

 

Some tech melee companions indeed use aim as main stat. In those cases that stat also gives melee bonuses in addition to ranged bonuses.

[Darth_Wicked]

For HK-51 it's best to aim as close to 50/50 with cunning/aim as you can. They both act as main stats and increase damage and crit chance, but are on independent diminishing returns curves. For instance, 1000 of each stat gives a combined 6.24% crit chance, while 2000 in one stat only gives 5.76%.

 

Some tech melee companions indeed use aim as main stat. In those cases that stat also gives melee bonuses in addition to ranged bonuses.

 

Wish I knew this before filling HK-51 up with Cunning or Aim mods, most of the time, on a random basis.

[PLynkes]

Torian isn't "tanky", he has two DPS stances, no tanking stance and no taunts.

[theStirge]

Hi.

Been thinking a bit since I got HK-51. I noticed he utilises both Cunning and Aim and that confused me a little, as I didn't know whether to stack a 50/50 balance or to lean more toward cunning (for the "assassin droid" aspect) or Aim (for the "war droid" thing). Anyway this made me think about some of my other comps and mull over the following:

 

Torian and Skadge: Both these comps use melee attacks and are tanky types (although Torian has a generator as opposed to a shield) and it made me wonder what type of effect it would have if I stacked Strength on them. I know having Strength on my Merc gives a small bonus to rocket punch , so I figured why not?

 

I appreciate that Willpower is useless to me and to be honest, unless the Stat is "free" (ie: it comes from a datacron or some such) I would never dream of sacrifincing Aim on my merc, but i am just curious as to the effect of mixing prime stats for companions and if these small bonuses would be worth having?

 

The most obvious (and for some , tempting) sacrifice would be for Endurance, especially for levelling DPS classes with no healing comp, but I am curious if anyone else has tried this and what your findings are?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

HK is unique in the game in that he has 2 main stats. He has 2 main stats because he is a droid and uses droid armor, and all droid armor has Aim on it(unless there are empty shells I'm unaware of, all moddable droid armor comes with Aim mods), but he also uses a sniper rifle and vibroknife, and while there are a few Aim knives that drop and empty shells for both into which you could put Aim mods, the vast majority of those weapons have Cunning on them. So rather than "inconvenience" people by forcing them to get moddable weapons into which to put the proper stats(which most people are going to do anyway), they chose to confuse people by giving him 2 main stats.

 

All other companions and all player characters have only one main stat.

 

Also, Strength does not, in fact, give you any sort of bonus to Rocket Punch. I know Strength says it gives a bonus to Melee attacks, and Rocket Punch looks like a melee attack, but it's actually a Tech attack. All you have as a Bounty Hunter are Ranged and Tech attacks, and neither Strength nor Willpower provide any bonus at all to Ranged or Tech attacks. Similarly, neither Aim nor Cunning provide any bonus at all to Melee or Force attacks. (If you'd like to test this for yourself, check your bonus damage then collect a Strength datacron and check your bonus damage again; you will see no change.)

[scarlet_magpie]

HK is unique in the game in that he has 2 main stats. He has 2 main stats because he is a droid and uses droid armor, and all droid armor has Aim on it(unless there are empty shells I'm unaware of, all moddable droid armor comes with Aim mods), but he also uses a sniper rifle and vibroknife, and while there are a few Aim knives that drop and empty shells for both into which you could put Aim mods, the vast majority of those weapons have Cunning on them. So rather than "inconvenience" people by forcing them to get moddable weapons into which to put the proper stats(which most people are going to do anyway), they chose to confuse people by giving him 2 main stats.

 

All other companions and all player characters have only one main stat.

 

Also, Strength does not, in fact, give you any sort of bonus to Rocket Punch. I know Strength says it gives a bonus to Melee attacks, and Rocket Punch looks like a melee attack, but it's actually a Tech attack. All you have as a Bounty Hunter are Ranged and Tech attacks, and neither Strength nor Willpower provide any bonus at all to Ranged or Tech attacks. Similarly, neither Aim nor Cunning provide any bonus at all to Melee or Force attacks. (If you'd like to test this for yourself, check your bonus damage then collect a Strength datacron and check your bonus damage again; you will see no change.)

 

Fantastic post. Thankyou. I can stop thinking now!!

[branmakmuffin]

Torian and Skadge: Both these comps use melee attacks and are tanky types (although Torian has a generator as opposed to a shield)

Torian is a DPS, not any kind of a tank. That's why he uses a generator.

 

If you were going to stack the wrong main stat on a character, the only one which make the remotest sense would be the other tech stat or Force stat, as applicable. As pointed out, Rocket Punch is not a melee attack as far as the game is concerned.

Edited January 29, 2014 by branmakmuffin