Flurry vs. Critical Strike vs. Power Attack

[Zaalbar's Uncle]

Which is better?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

No idea, I think there is a breakdown over at gamefaqs for people who are into that sort of thing.

 

I tend to just shift between them depending on whats going on.

[Sirus]

In KOTOR 2 you can use Master Flurry with no penalties, so I tended to use that alot.

[Guest Damar Stiehl]

Basically, Master Flurry is guaranteed high damage with no penalties.

 

Master Critical Strike is possible slightly higher damage with a -5 penalty to Defense.

 

Master Power Attack is... well... meh. You can crit with it too, which is why people use it.

 

Master Flurry is generally the way to go. And don't believe anyone who says that you can't make a critical hit with Flurry, you most certainly can.

[McRell@]

Power Attack is my favourite. I also sometimes use Critical Strike. In my party only Visas had Flurry at the Master level.

[JediExile]

I use master flurry usually. I figure you can't beat a no penalty extra attack per round.

[LadyCrimson]

Flurry all the way.

 

Although, if you have feats to spare for party members, it's a real hoot to watch them use power attack all the time.

[Spooky]

The way I see it, power attack goes to more martial characters like the handmaiden or Bao-dur, but soldiers and guardians get enough feets to max them all out, Critical strike and flurry for scouts, Visas comes with critical strike so I max it out for her. And I play consulars mostly, I figure only 1 attack is worth maxing out for a low-feet character, and that's flurry.

 

When it comes to ranged attacks, I mostly favor rapid shot, I figure it works better, targeted shot seems to be good too, frankly, I know very little about ranged attacks because no one really uses them except the droids. One thing I liked about Kotor is it gave you the chance to developp some pretty powerful ranged attack characters, meaning Carth and Canderous mostly.

 

I gotta ask, which ranged attack is best ?

[Darth Brooks]

low-feet character

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Like hobbits?

 

 

I tend to go for flurry because there's litte to no penalties.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, the best threat range you can get for critical strike is 11-20, so it's a 50/50 shot at extra damage. I haven't quite figured out how the extra damage is calulated so I don't know if that's a good trade off for the lowered defense.

[warstrekkid]

doesn't crit strike do a stun thing too? nifty for assassins and watchmen

[Yst]

Master Flurry seems as if it should be the best overall for persistent use, but this is just my impression.

[Darth Drabek]

I used to champion the old Master Flurry+Master Speed combo in KOTOR, but I think Power Attack is a better choice for TSL. I ran two characters through the game, a guardian with high strength+high dex, two sabers and flurry feats and a sentinel with medium strength+very high dex, one (keen) saber and power attack.

 

The sentinel walked through the game basically untouched and actually killed stuff faster too. With three attacks per round (Master Speed, again) and the increased critical probability from the keen saber and the crystal that doubles your crit threat range, PLUS the extra damage on critical hits with Power Attack, almost one of every three hits was for 150 damage.

 

Also, if you max dueling, the -3 to hit is negated. Oh yeah, and Master level Power Attack is +12 damage now, not just +10, in case you needed another reason to take it.

[jaguars4ever]

Master Power Attack + Master Two-Weapon Fighting + Master Speed + Juyo Form = Dead Mofo.

 

[Darth Gizka]

Power attack...

 

with keen weapons, you get a natural critical hit on a roll of 16-20 with lightsabre...

 

x3 critical multiplier, x4 with shien lightsaber form...

 

243 damage in ONE HIT...

 

plus knockdown effect if they fail fortutde save...

 

having said that, however, its pretty much been conclusively proven per round, its critical strike that's the most powerful....basically, half your attacks per round will do double damage. use with shien form for awesome damage..

 

lightsabre design is highly critical to get max damage...

 

improved beam gem lens

ultimate ditanium cell

expert fencing emitter... :cool:

[Darth Frog]

Master Power Attack + Master Two-Weapon Fighting + Master Speed + Juyo Form = Dead Mofo. 

 

 

Spot on.

 

Dual-wielding + Master Speed + Juyo are also nice with Force Jump. One hop, one dead enemy. Some battlefields are nicely spaced so that the number of combat rounds for clearing the area is equal to the number of enemies if you have Force Jump, compared to the more pedestrian approach of walking from foe to foe in order to hit them.

 

Also, in KotOR the harder enemies used to be immune to critical attacks and had high defense, and these aspects made Critical Strike and Power Attack less attractive. The argument that the duelling feats negate the -3 the penalty for Power Attack is somewhat silly, since Master Flurry + Master Duelling actually give you +2 to hit compared to +0 for Master Power Attack + Master Duelling. Master Flurry + Master Duelling can be attractive for weak characters like Sentinels.

 

Be that as it may, unless you use magic AOE attacks you need at least one combat round per enemy, regardless of which kind you use. So, if even Sion goes down in a single flurry I don't think I have to look any further ...

 

P.S.: Master Speed + Juyo + Master Power Attack give 48 extra damage, so at low levels this may be attractive against weak enemies. At high levels you'll do more than 50 damage per attack on average and Power Attack loses out, not counting criticals (where the extra attack from Flurry gives you an extra chance for a crit).

[KungFuFerret]

I have to advocate Critical Strike.

 

I just recently finished a game playing a guardian/weapons master and there was no way flurry could touch it for multiple reasons.

 

One, flurry has a tendancy to average 1 miss per round, which negates the extra attack you can get from it. I messed around with Master Flurry using a single saber so I could keep my 70ish attack rating, and still saw misses. My only conclusion is either Flurry is bugged, or it's hardcoded to miss more often.

 

Two, your best threat range will be 17-20.

 

Three, you lock yourself into having to use Juyo for the extra attack. You also suffer the enemy crit attack modifer for doing so. Far far worse then the -5 defense from Critical Strike imo.

 

Critical Strike with improved beam gemmed sabers reduces your threat range to 11-20. On average you'll crit half the time. With shien form, you lose the extra attack of Juyo, for the extra multiplier to your crits. Net effect is, more damage overall. The other bonus is, increased blaster deflection. Combined with the feats you get as a weapons master, you're pretty much impervious.

 

The -5 defense is completely negated by Battle Precognition when used with Master Valor. I bumped CON to 16, and then pumped STR. I never touched DEX or WIS and still finished the game with a 55 defense (without force powers.)

 

The stun component isn't much of an issue as far as the game stands now. I very rarely got to see it come into play because 1 critical strike usually finished off whatever I was fighting on the first attack. It did work well on bosses though. Note, I was only using a single saber. With dual sabers, even the bosses would have gone down on the first attack.

 

It's not uncommon to hit 160-190ish crits if you maximize your damage potential with STR. You could definitely get higher with a Guardian/Marauder.

 

I messed around with Power Attack as well, but it just simply couldn't compare to the other two attack types. Your crit rate isn't any better then Flurry, and the extra +12 damage is added AFTER your crit multiplier is factored in, much like how Massive Critical mods are added after. Pity, because an extra 48 damage from a x4 multiplier would have made it pretty nice (300+ crits anyone?). After getting a 220ish crit with Critical Strike, I decided it was time to completely bury the idea of Power Attack being a power hitter.

 

 

 

Concerning Sniper Shot, I messed around with it with Atton. I had him max it and didn't boost his INT (which allegedly increases the chance to stun with it.) I gave him 2 Madalorian Rippers modified to 15-20 (before Master Sniper Shot.) Usually he'd stun whatever he was fighting in the first shot. Later on, his damage was insanely sickening.

[Rosbjerg]

and then here I am .. just wanting what looks cool, since no matter how lousy I play this game I always seem to win totally unharmed!

you are powergaming in a game that's hooked to a nuclear powerplant!

[LadyCrimson]

and then here I am .. just wanting what looks cool, since no matter how lousy I play this game I always seem to win totally unharmed!

you are powergaming in a game that's hooked to a nuclear powerplant! tongue.gif

 

Teeheehee....that's my thoughts exactly.