Star Wars Galaxies: At first glance: Expertise system analysis

At First Glance

A Comparison and Contrast of The Jedi and Bounty Hunter Expertise Systems

[center]Bounty Hunter

[center]Jedi

• Character enhancements This is really the only thing in tier one for Jedi. However, do not laugh. Any true RPG'er would know that enhancements to constitution, strength, agility, and stamina are rather important.
• Crippling Accuracy Grants a 25% chance to snare the target of a Force Throw. Up to 100% chance if you max this modifier.

• Action cost reduction for assault/combat/maim/traps attack lines What can you say about this. It is self-explanatory and does offer the BH an advantage over the Jedi. Reduction of action cost results in more attacks.
• +500 defense against Kinetic attacks Again here is a modifier that is to the point. It is a saving throw of the dice, so to speak.
• +20% damage increase to maim line traps 20% is a lot for a modifier, but it will not be the biggest modifier we will see.

This is not the case, we assure you. Keep in mind that almost every BH attack is a ranged attack. Jedi, however, are more deadly with melee attacks and when it comes down to a melee versus ranged attack, the Jedi will nearly always have the upper hand.

Ranged attacks are just that, and anything inside of 5 meters limits the attack's damage. The only thing a BH can do is keep distance between himself and the Jedi and hope for good shots. Area attacks can help with this, but accuracy becomes a problem when both the target and the shooter are both in motion.

Action cost reduction is perhaps the biggest modifier in tier one. It provides the BH with the ability to get more shots off with fewer hits to his/her action bar.

The 20% increase in damage for maim traps can be a big deal. The Maim line is a Snare/DOT attack a BH can use to keep an opponent at a distance or just to inflict a bleeding wound.

On the other hand, a Jedi using Force Throw, with the Crippling Accuracy modifier, has an opportunity to snare the BH. A snared BH becomes an easier target for the Jedi, but beware; a snared BH can still be a deadly opponent.

• Improved force throw - This is a big one. Grants up to a 10% increase to the damage caused by Force Throw.
• 2% per point increase in dodge ability - Grants a 2-8% increase in ability to dodge incoming attacks. Very useful if you want to try to put away the BH quickly or if you just need to dodge a few attacks so that you can heal yourself.

• 10% increase to assault special damage This is nice, makes the action cost worth it when you can get a bigger bang for your buck. This is nothing more than a balance modifier to force throw.
• Return Fire This one is a problem child. It would seem that there are Jedi out there who think this ability give an unfair advantage to the BH, or actually be stealing an ability, that by definition should belong to the Jedi. However, let's call a spade a spade. The Jedi's entire ability tree has always been focused around "The Force". Everything that a Jedi can do is "Magic" based. Lightning from the fingertips, clouding people's minds, throwing people around a thought, I mean come on, do you think that if Jedi can do all this, that a person who has been hit can't immediately return fire? Seems plausible to us.
• 10% increase to ambush specials damage Same as the increase for assault specials.
• 2-meter increase in trap range Does not make much of a difference in PvP. Range is always reduced in PvP anyways. This ability is only useful as a first strike ability as a surprise attack.

• 2 second increase in Force Throw duration The longer you are attacking your opponent, the longer you are not being attacked. Time equates to winning or losing.
• Force Cloak
Useful if you are playing hide and seek. Offers you the chance to get some action back if you are not being attacked. [/li]
• 10% -40% increases to Force Run I have never seen a Jedi use Force Run in combat. However, if you really need to get away and break combat, this is the ability to have, plus the snare break at higher levels is a direct counter to the Bounty Hunters increased snares.
• 2-8% increase in strike/sweep damage The key to this ability is choosing the best basic attack to use to get the most damage possible.

• 1 second decrease in cool down timer for assault line attacks As we said before, time is everything in combat.
• Aggro Targets Useless in PvP combat, your opponent is already mad at you.
• +1000 point boost to energy protection Most useful against blasters, but also against sabers. Weapon damage ability is going to be the deciding factor here.

[li]2 second decrease in cool down timer for ambush line attacks Same as the 1-second timer for assault, only its 2 seconds. Again, every second counts in combat.
[li]3 second increase to maim trap duration In this case, time equates to more damage over a longer period.

• Saber Block Here it is the turning point of the skill trees. Using Saber Block, you can block up to 20% of incoming attacks. Very useful against a BH that is accurate with a blaster.
• Improved Saber Block Gives the Jedi the opportunity to increase Saber Blocks up to 80%. No self-respecting Jedi would be without this ability unless, they are confident in their own abilities to destroy a BH.
• 1-4% increases in ability to get a critical strike Used with the right basic skill, this ability could give the Jedi a very big upper hand in combat.
• Up to a 4-second increase in Force Run duration Not really much to say about this ability, might just give you the time you need to escape.

• Increase chance for a critical strike Using this with the right basic ability could yield very good results and give you just that push you need to get the kill.
• Increase an opponent's chance for a glancing blow by 20% Less damage is less damage, but it's better not to get hit at all.
• Reduce ambush line attacks cool down timer by 2 seconds The less time that it takes to recharge an ability, the more you can use it.
• Cause action damage to opponent In plain terms, the less action points your opponent has, the less specials they can accomplish against you. The result is that you might actually win.

The BH also has quite a few tricks in the bag. The biggest bang for the buck is Intimidating Strike. This allows the BH to do action damage, which if coupled with the Cripple ability, could also produce some very good results in either PvP or PvE combat.

The outcome is that player ability is still going to be the overall determining factor at this point. Pound for pound, each profession has abilities that could or can counter the others. A veteran player already knows that, if you take 2 equally matched opponents and place them against each other, the one who can read the battle situation better will win.

• Force Shockwave/Improved Force Shockwave Additional 2-6% of damage and a range increase of 2-6 meters. Every little bit counts in ranged combat, both in damage and in range.
• Extra Damage to opponents 1-4% increase to ALL damage done to opponents. Combine this with the right basic attacks and you could have the to answer to all your BH problems.
• Improved Force Cloak Allows player to break attack with NPC. This is not very useful in PvP, but good to have if you do a lot of hunting and things like that.
• Unstoppable Force Allows the player to break roots and snares, as well as allows the player to prevent roots and snares for the duration of the Force Run. This modifier is very useful because the BH has several root/snare attacks that could wreck havoc on the unprepared Jedi.

• Stun Give the BH to root the target, plus 100% for a glancing blow. Used with the right basic attack, this could also yield damage results. The Jedi's Unstoppable Force modifier could make this ability useless, but it is still worth having.
  [li]Chance for a 0% cost to action This is a good ability to have. It could allow the BH to get off a couple of attacks without cost to action. Use this with a big attack for the best results.
  [li]25% decrease to damage from opponents This is probably more useful than the Shield ability (+10000 Energy/Kinetic Protection, +50 Glancing Blow chance for 20 seconds, 5 minute cooldown). One, it does not have a lot of dependency on other abilities or modifiers, so there is less point expenditure here. That means that you can spend points on other things. Two, with a 30-second cooldown, it can be used much more often.
  [li]5% increase in chance for a critical strike Critical strikes do not occur often in combat, so any increase in chance to get one can be useful.

FINAL ANALYSIS