crit strick vs power attack vs flurry

[ProxyJames]

so I know the crowd favorite is the flurry but I got to thinking....its not that great, its just one extra attack, I was messing around with the basic moves and power attack hits WAY harder (note I am using two weapons) and crit strike...its meh but I am sure later on it will be pretty OP.
for the numbers I got I am around level 14 and with fury with my double saber I hit for 25-33 every hit, with power attack each hit lands at about 55-70 damage! that is 75-99 damage for fury and 110-140 for power attack! it would be great is someone ran these numbers on a min-maxed guardian at level 20 for all 3 moves at the max level!

[jmcavinue1]

I always chose my special attack based on the weapon I planned on using. If i went the single saber dueling route, I would do flurry to make up for lost attacks. for two lightsabers, I went critical strike with keen crystals in the sabers. Then for double bladed saber, power attack. Things usually just felt more "right" when you have your feats fit your play style, rather than changing things just to get absolute max damage.

[ProxyJames]

I found when using two weapon fighting, double sabers are the way to go, using 2 light sabers you have less of a chance to hit unless your using a small saber in your off hand witch means less damage, double sabers deal more damage to boot and you get a bonus to hit with max two weapon fighting, on top of that you dont have to hunt down 4 crystals just 2...UNLESS you want the benifit from both the manttle of the force/knight crystals then go two

[JaegerBane]

TBH I found the order of importance was Flurry -> crit strike -> power attack.

Flurry just can’t really be passed up if you’re serious about melee - an extra attack is just too useful. There’s an argument that the more advanced feats are pointless as they only reduce the penalty... but that’s really good so not sure why that is a bad thing.

Crit strike is something I actually use with a saber staff - your crit chances will always be a bit less than with individual sabres but with the level 3 feat and a keen crystal, you’re still getting crazy high crit chances plus if you’ve pumped STR then you get stuns too.

Power attack is just a bit eh, really. Extra damage is always nice but there’s a million ways to pump that without attack penalties and it doesn’t do anything else.

Generally on my guardian, I go master flurry and master crit strike and use the former for basic targets and the latter for tougher ones.

[Cookie]

Here you go.
https://slashnblast.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/kotor-power-attack-vs-critical-strike-vs-flurry/

[ProxyJames]

Originally posted by Cookie:

Here you go.
https://slashnblast.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/kotor-power-attack-vs-critical-strike-vs-flurry/

thanks! so power attack is the best unless you have 7 levels in scoundrel witch no one wants! so I guess I will re roll again lol

[JaegerBane]

That write up is pretty good but it is basically a very, very long winded way of restating power attack’s feat description I.e that it does more damage. If all you care about is raw damage then it’s defo the best option.

You pay for that with accuracy costs which will mount up over the course of the campaign.

I was a little surprised to see a crit on a power attack actually doubles the power attack bonus though. I’ve never actually seen that. I also wasn’t sure what he was talking about ‘alignment damage bonii’... as far as I was aware, that was KOTOR 2 only.

[cerberusiv]

I'm more familiar with Kotor 2 but my view on this is that in a perfect situation crit strike does more damage on average over a number of combat rounds. Flurry comes second and PA some way third. The more powerful the enemy the better crit strike performs because less than critical hits get through less frequently, counting against the other two while crit strike also does more damage when it does get through.

The problem with crit strike is that to get to that perfect situation you have to have the right weapons, feats, crystals, etc which means you are at least 2/3 of the way through the game. It is quicker and easier to get flurry working near its optimum so you get more use out of it.

[Cookie]

The attack bonus of a well optimized PC will always be excessively high in the mid to late game. You really don't pay for accuracy costs at all past the very early stages.

[ProxyJames]

Originally posted by JaegerBane:

That write up is pretty good but it is basically a very, very long winded way of restating power attack’s feat description I.e that it does more damage. If all you care about is raw damage then it’s defo the best option.

You pay for that with accuracy costs which will mount up over the course of the campaign.

I was a little surprised to see a crit on a power attack actually doubles the power attack bonus though. I’ve never actually seen that. I also wasn’t sure what he was talking about ‘alignment damage bonii’... as far as I was aware, that was KOTOR 2 only.

the alignment bonus is in part 1 lol its 1-8 extra damage if your dark side and 3 str if your light side.

[JaegerBane]

Originally posted by Cookie:

The attack bonus of a well optimized PC will always be excessively high in the mid to late game. You really don't pay for accuracy costs at all past the very early stages.

Conversely, you're doing so much damage in the later stages that the extra damage doesn't matter after a certain point since you're wiping out an opponent in 1-2 rounds regardless (particularly with Master Speed running).

Originally posted by ProxyJames:

the alignment bonus is in part 1 lol its 1-8 extra damage if your dark side and 3 str if your light side.

I understood that part, I was saying that I only remember seeing them noted in KOTOR 2.

As it is, I was half-right - the buffs are applied and the stats sheet reflects them, it's just that they're not explained anywhere (in KOTOR 2, they are). That +3 STR is going to come in mighty handy for my current Guardian.