Critical Hits, worth it for an NPC?

[ajdaha]

I read somewhere that using master critical strike with two weapons and master speed can be more effective than using flurry under the same conditions. It involved using the lightsaber form that increases the multiplier by one. So overall, somehow the character would have his damage multiplied by 4 when he managed to get in a critical hit on the enemy.
I was wondering such an arsenal would be useful on an NPC such as bao-dur. I was planning on increasing handmaiden in the flurry path and bao-dur on the critical strike path. Increasing handmaidens dexterity whilst increasing Bao-Dur's strength. However, having recently found that the lightsaber form that I was thinking about could only be learnt by my character, I am unsure wether or not I should continue bao-dur on that path or weather I should level him up in flurry instead.
Which would be more efficient in that case?

Also, two questions:
1) What stats does the correllian powersuit have.
2) what chance would bao-dur have of striking a critical hit if I gave him 2 sabers with 2 keen crystals and 1 keen lense each (6 keen parts in total) and had him use master critical strike.
Thanks for your help.

[Warden Brows]

Critical strike, to be honest, is one of the more useless features of the game. With Master Critical Strike, you can do a buttload of damage *IF* you crit. But using it gives you no guarantees. Flurry does, however, since there's a very good chance you'll hit with all of it, and it's guaranteed damage. In addition, all boss characters and droids are immune to critical hits. Critical Strike will not help you in any way against HK50 droids, some Dark Jedi, Darth Nihilus, Sion, or Kreia, in addition to a good number of others.

Better to ignore it completely and go with Master Flurry, as that gives you consistent damage against all targets that is about the same as a critical hit. Basically, lots of creatures have defense against Critical Strike, NOTHING has defense against Flurry. It is the single most effective battle technique to "spam" during combat.

[ajdaha]

Uhuh, thanks.
So, hopefully I haven't invested any points in Critical Strike with Bao-Dur. I forget. And if I wanted to try for immense damage, might as well try hanharr and critical strike.
thanks again.

[ajdaha]

Also. My jedi master needs someone to protect him (well he doesn't really, but I want two people to protect him). I was thinking of Handmaiden and Bao-Dur, simply because they are the only guardians in my game. But now I am not so sure. Who would be the best two melee characters in the game, I'm suspecting visas and hanharr.
I mean, do guardians have any advantage over anyone else when considering that I shall be using flurry or critical strike anyway so there is no need for force jump?

[Warden Brows]

Probably the best two melee characters would be Handmaiden and Bao-Dur, though Atton isn't too shabby, nor is Visas. Handmaiden is a monster to begin with, and Bao-Dur has a high Strength, meaning higher damage (if you didn't know, your STR modifier (half your STR over 10) adds to both your attack bonus (chance to hit) and the damage dealt. My pet peeve in this game is what they did to all the Force-compatible armors by making them unequippable on Bao-Dur. It's not a major issue, though, if you just give him powers like Heal that are not affected, so just give him the best armor you can find or make. Guardians have no advantage using critical strike. I know many, many people will argue over which is better, critical strike or flurry, but the fact is, critical strike can work about 30% time AT MOST (assuming you have all the feats, single bladed lightsabers, and Keen). Flurry works 100% of the time. Ultimately, the damage does not lie, nor do the numbers.

Force Jump is an interesting (and rather fun) feat. It can do massive damage, roughly equivalent to a single Master Flurry strike. I like it for getting the drop on distant enemies. Take note, though, that there's at least 1 armor that gives this feat. There are also two paths you can take to get it, as I recall: Guardian / Jedi Master and Consular / Weaponmaster. Of the two, the first one creates a stronger character. Force Jump has one major problem, though, in that usually only 1 or 2 members of the party have it at a time. End result is they jump a long ways away to engage a distant enemy and often get in over their heads. I've seen party members die because of this more than once.


One final note: playing Let the Bodies Hit the Floor while doing the Trayus Academy is both funny and appropriate. The words match up perfectly with the situation.

"One! Nothing wrong with me! Two!. . ." - The Exile saying there's nothing wrong with him, despite what the Council said.

"One, something's got to give!" - It's either you or the Sith, and it definitely ain't you.

"Let the bodies hit the floor" - As you absolutely slaughter the Sith.

"Skin on skin, bone on bone. You're all by yourself, but you're not alone. You wanted in, and now you're here, driven by hate, consumed by fear." - Referring to the Jedi who were so eager to go to war with him and then turned to the dark side, who he's now fighting in the academy.

[ajdaha]

heheh, nice.
I'll have to try that.

So I guess Hanharr is not up to the challenge then? Funny, I thought that, you know with his massive strength modifier he would be beter than bao-dur.
But this is good knews cause I was actually going to pick handmaiden and bao-dur anyway.

[Djengo Torx]

Three guardians is pretty solid though it a little too much of thrashy bashy to me.

The handmaiden is indeed a monster and 9 times out of 10, once she's trained, she's in my party. The only other time (whilst playing LS guardian) she wasn't in my party, I was on Onderon freeing Queen Thalia. The only reason was that the handmaiden was on Dxun, kicking ass with Atton and Visas. They're a pretty freakin' sick combo. Visas has some pretty decent force capabilities as does Atton who is also a decent fighter. While the handmaiden reduces the health of the enemies to almost nothing, the other two just zap 'em to finish things off. Health was never below 3/4's of the way.

On Onderon, I had Kreia (which was mandatory) and Canderous. If you haven't noticed, Kreia is grey throughout the game which means she can use either side of the force with ease. She was more usefull for thing like heal and valor though since Mandalore is king of the repeater. He would finish guys off before my player could. That was a pretty sick too. One guy to kick butt, one to heal/help that guy, and another to finish off anyone who might survive. It's hard to dodge blaster shots when you're dodging a light saber at the same time. Similarly, it's impossible to not die from force lighting when you got 10 health left, even if you do manage to save it.

[Warden Brows]

There's a couple ranged weapons in this game that simply should not be. Usually you won't encounter them until Telos (under attack) or later, but once in a while you'll get them earlier. One is the Zersium Rifle. Fully upgraded it can get to 62 damage with a +3 attack bonus. Worse, though, is the Mandalorian Disintegrator pistol. It can do 51 or 61 (can't remember at the moment) when upgraded. ONE-HANDED. So Mandalore, Mira, or Atton wielding 2 of these things can do lightsaber-level damage with a ranged attack. As you said, overwhelming an enemy by using both melee and ranged at once is very effective, and if you use these pistols, it becomes unstoppable.

[dorian_gray]

[QUOTE=Warden Brows]Critical strike, to be honest, is one of the more useless features of the game. With Master Critical Strike, you can do a buttload of damage *IF* you crit. But using it gives you no guarantees. Flurry does, however, since there's a very good chance you'll hit with all of it, and it's guaranteed damage. In addition, all boss characters and droids are immune to critical hits. Critical Strike will not help you in any way against HK50 droids, some Dark Jedi, Darth Nihilus, Sion, or Kreia, in addition to a good number of others.

Better to ignore it completely and go with Master Flurry, as that gives you consistent damage against all targets that is about the same as a critical hit. Basically, lots of creatures have defense against Critical Strike, NOTHING has defense against Flurry. It is the single most effective battle technique to "spam" during combat.[/QUOTE]

If you check my other thread you will find that, on average, given all other things equal, master critcal strike out does master flurry for damage, although as you say some are immune to criticals and it does give a -5 to Ac. However, to label it the most useless combat feat is RIDICULOUS!!!!!! It is easily on a par with Master Flurry.

[Djengo Torx]

[QUOTE=Warden Brows]There's a couple ranged weapons in this game that simply should not be. Usually you won't encounter them until Telos (under attack) or later, but once in a while you'll get them earlier. One is the Zersium Rifle. Fully upgraded it can get to 62 damage with a +3 attack bonus. Worse, though, is the Mandalorian Disintegrator pistol. It can do 51 or 61 (can't remember at the moment) when upgraded. ONE-HANDED. So Mandalore, Mira, or Atton wielding 2 of these things can do lightsaber-level damage with a ranged attack. As you said, overwhelming an enemy by using both melee and ranged at once is very effective, and if you use these pistols, it becomes unstoppable.[/QUOTE]

I really hate this random loot system. I haven't found either of those yet and I've played this game like a bizillion times. I really think some of these super insane items should be fixed at hidden locations and maybe even bound to quests.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of flurry. Especially for guardian. No, it's not a guaranteed hit but the chances of hitting are higher and damage is sick if you land all three. Even higher than crit hit. However, you'll come across foes that are particularly resiliant against a certain melee feat. As a guardian, it's best to have all 3, since force powers aren't quite as high. It's a completely different game if you play consular though. You typically wouldn't have the strength to make landing a flurry hit worth it. In that case, crit hit would be a nice break from zapping 'em... but that should be the primary focus instead of melee.