Force Scream, Crits, Execute, etc.

[Archamedius]

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.

 

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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.

[Ridickilis]

Well I'm guessing you probably don't have much surge yet so you're sitting around 50% surge. That means a crit on an attack that does 400-500 will crit for an extra 200-250, so 600 is about right on a crit. Also, if you just got towering rage, you're not high enough yet for the extra 30% surge on scream crits from the talent sever, two tiers up in the tree. At endgame, your surge will be around 70-75% plus the 30% from sever on scream crits. That's where it really starts to show.

 

EDIT: Also forgot to mention you want to scream with your execute proc in your 4.5 second gore window once you get that ability. Seeing how scream is kinetic damage the enemies damage reduction from armor will reduce the amount of damage he takes. So screaming with 100 percent armor penetration will up the damage as well.

 

White numbers indicate weapon (melee in this case) attacks, yellow numbers indicate force attacks. Seeing how carnage doesn't have any dots and you're seeing those small yellow numbers, you probably used rupture and those are the bleed effect per second. Off hand hits with your second saber should be showing as white numbers.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Ridickilis