Best ranged & melee weapon attack?

[justabeginner]

Let's see, for melee attacks there's:
Master Critical Strike: x4 critical range, -5 defense, Fortitude save vs. attacking character level + STR bonus or stunned for 6 seconds.

Master Flurry: Extra attack, no penalties.

Master power attack: +12 damage, -3 to hit, +1 critical damage multiplier, Fortitude save vs. attacking character level + 2x STR bonus or knocked back.


I used to be a master flurry fan, but I've found that it is less effective vs. opponents with high damage absorption. You can hit many times, but only do little damage. In KOTOR1 when I fought 2 Terantatek's on Korriban simultaneously, I was saved by Critical strike as I was able to stun one, attack another, stun that one, etc.

IMHO it is better to stun an opponent with the Critical strike than to knock them back, because it just delays their death and you waste time chasing them . BTW, can anyone confirm that big creatures like Hssiss or certain droids can't be knocked back?



For ranged attacks, there's:
Master sniper shot: x4 critical range, -5 defense, Fortitude save vs. attacking character level + INT bonus or stunned for 6 seconds.

Master rapid shot: +1 attack, no penalties

Master power shot: +12 damage, -3 to hit, +1 critical damage multiplier, Fortitude save vs. attacking character level + 2x DEX bonus or knocked back.


I'm not much of a ranged person myself so I am not sure about this. The thing about the INT bonus for sniper shot is that there are not many characters with an INT bonus of more than +4 or so (not that it matters that much if your character has a high level). Most players who use ranged weapons boost their DEX stats anyway, not their INT...

Master power shot IMHO isn't that good because it is just +12 damage, you can easily get more than 12 or 24 if you have an extra attack with a fully beefed up blaster.

So it looks like master rapid shot is the best, but it still would have problems against high damage absorption enemies.

What do you people think?

[Ergophobia]

I think the major beasts just cannot be knocked back since they have a MASSIVE constitution score, and thus immense fortitude saves. If you have a strength of 80 or so, you should be able to knock them back. Gotta test that out with Hanrarr some time.

[jeremiah]

Contrary to Flurry's description, Master flurry does impart a -1 to hit. Yeah, ticked me off too.
I don't know if you would say the same about Master power blast after seeing Mira do 150 damage per pistol on a successful hit. With both hands hitting, 300 damage is kind of awesome to see. Still thing is, master power blast main drawback as well as sniper shot is that their attacks are not multiplied by Jedi Speed powers. Only the meelee attack versions are multiplied.

[Ergophobia]

Well, that kinda hurts. Let's keep Rapid Shot as the best ranged feat then. Not being able to get two extra attacks really cuts in the damage.

Though please explain how on earth you can get 150 damage in one hit with Master Power Blast. I suppose we're talking about a weapon with a 3x critical bonus?

[stormcloud]

double bladed lightsaber...
because if you are using two single-handed, its hard to get the your-name crystal in both.

i like disruptor rifle for atton.
its unstoppable.

[Grishnakh]

Mandalorian Repeating Blaster Rifle with full upgrades in the hands of anyone with Master Sniper. Thats fun.

A double-blade saber definately does more damage and is nice because the name crystal affects both blades.

Nevertheless, I prefer dual wield twin sabers. I can buff a single saber to be almost as nasty as one half of a double blade and simultaneously buff the other saber (off hand) for massive defensive bonuses. Thats an advantage of "double slots" that a single double-blade saber can't match. I like having a weapon in each hand when I'm wading through rooms full of moronic Sith.

For pure defensiveness, a single blade with Master Duelling is nice. Make the blade Keen and go for Criticals when you attack to strike people down in a single blow. You can be so untouchable this way that you hardly need to buff and easily forget Force Armour. I can definately see going this route for a Sith Marauder who wears Heavy Armour. You'd be an invulnerable brick with a big nasty club.

[jeremiah]

Yeah 150 damage with a nice keen fully upgraded pistol (micro pulse blaster, mandalorian disintegrators woohoo). Don't forget that Mira if you wait until level 21 scout to jedify, gets all the Precise shot feats for extra damage with ranged weapons. They only do *2 but since power blaster adds another critical mutliplier (not range but damage), the critical damage multiplier is *3. And if she is a non-Jedi actually, power blast is viable vs rapid shot. One extra attack versus chance to do massive damage .

Kind of why it is nice to give HK a Wookie Bowcaster. Nice critical range that can be improved with a keen upgrade. It already does *3 critical damage multiplier so power blast can push that to *4. Still prefer to use Charric if it can be found. With his assasination protocols, that really hurts the enemy a lot.

[UserUnfriendly]

master power attack and master power blast...

the trick is choosing the upgrades do +4, +5, +6 damage...

for example, if you upgrade with a weapon mod that does 2-20+ damage, its going to do that amount of extra damage...

but a weapon upgrade that does +3 damage is going to triple/quadruple in a critical hit...

make a pair of lightsabres with improved beam gem on main hand, and follow this guideline...

and make a sith disrupter/mandalorian ripper/disintegrater with precision scope...

these max out your chances to make a natural critical hit...with power attack and shien form you can do x4 damage..

max lightsabre using power attack in ONE hit 234
max mandalorian disintegrater with power blast in ONE hit 153..

[justabeginner]

[QUOTE=UserUnfriendly]
max lightsabre using power attack in ONE hit 234
max mandalorian disintegrater with power blast in ONE hit 153.. [/QUOTE]

So I guess it is a question of doing a few devastating criticals rarely or a few moderate criticals often. With keen and master critical attack, my PC gets criticals from 5-20 . With keen and master power attack it is 17-20.

I must say though, that even when beefed up on all the strength bonuses, the enemies still rarely get stunned. I guess the same argument will go with ranged weapons too.

[Ergophobia]

No, a keen weapon does not stack with Critical Strike. Critical strike takes the base range and adds it one extra time, or two times, or three times, and keen also adds one time the basic range. So with Master Critical Strike you'd get a critical range of 11-20, still not a bad thing.