JaySanti
New member
NOTE: The following information is for weapons, NOT DoT specials or specials that are purely an elemental damage type.
Pistols: 36
Carbine: 54, or 79 if you're using the Master EE3 (BH Locked)
Rifle: 74 (The non-legendary GLC has 155 elemental)
Melee: 91
Lightsaber: 91 (with a 6% crystal)
Heavy Weapon: 108 for Cold and Heat, 216 for for all other elements
Weapon based elemental damage not only has its own armor values for calculating mitigation, but landing a critical hit while using a weapon with elemental damage built into it will result in an (Elemental) Critical effect. This guide is to explain the different Elemental Crits, their use case, and when you should/should not be using certain elements to be as efficient as possible.
Will this be the difference between completing OGs or not? No, definitely not. However, if you intend to do hard modes with minimal headaches, PvP, and certainly for speed runs, this knowledge is fundamental to your success. Not every Elemental Critical Effect can stack on top of each other, and without this knowledge, you will find that many times you will be overriding someone else's crit proc for a less desirable effect, potentially leading to headaches, longer run times, or worse: the downfall of your group in PvP or in hard modes.
Before explaining what each Elemental Critical effect does, a player needs to understand "Recourse." In SWG, players will often refer to a term called a "Recourse", which just means a period of time in which the same effect cannot be applied to the target. With the exception of HEAT, all Elemental Critical effects will have a Recourse of 5 seconds before the Critical Effect can be applied again. This means that COLD, ACID, and ELECTRIC all have a Recourse. Not only do each of those elements have Recourse, but a Recourse of one will prevent any of the others (minus Heat) from proc'ing for the duration of the Recourse.
The name of this Recourse will appear as "Recovered" on the tool tip. For easy visual reference, the Recourse buff will look as follows:
The following effects will occur when you land a critical hit with a weapon that has the corresponding element.
1. COLD (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Increases all damage dealt to the target for the entire duration. Damage increased is based off of 20% of the weapon's Elemental Damage.
DURATION: 6 seconds
RECOURSE: YES
So, in other words, the following weapons will provides the following damage boosts for 6 seconds:
Pistols: 20% of 36 = 7.2%
Carbines: 20% of 54 = 10.8%
Rifles: 20% of 74 = 14.8%
Melee/Lightsaber: 20% of 91 = 18.2%
Heavy Weapon: 20% of 108 = 21.6%
USE: For group content (pve or pvp), it is strongly advised that only Commandos using Heavy Weapons run Cold element because 21.6% damage boost to ALL damage taken is VERY strong. Any Commando worth their salt should be critting pretty often with heavy weapons. Heavy weapons have AoE auto attacks, making the Cold procs even easier to spread around, Smugglers and Pistol BHs can accumulate very high critical hit chance, and having a Pistol Cold Critical effect will severely dampen the group's DPS by 14.2%. Melee characters can get away with running cold because 18.2% is not that much lower than 21.6%, but I'd still advise against it personally.
Cold becomes a little weaker in 1v1s or solo content, depending on your profession. Though it's certainly not a bad choice. Just depends what you're doing.
NOTE: Cold Critical effects cannot apply if there is an Electrical or Acid Critical already up, as all three share a recourse and debuff slot.
2. ACID (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Target will have a 75% vulnerability to be hit with a Critical Hit against all targets for the duration.
DURATION: 3 seconds
RECOURSE: YES
USE: I personally don't like Acid as an element very much and belive it has limited uses. The duration is just too short to make many builds very strong, however, if you're on top of looking out for the Acid proc, you can definitely burst someone down with Dark Fury DSJ or Spy. With a recourse that lasts longer than its duration, this should NEVER be used in group content, as the Cold procs will always be a better use of the Elemental crit. Remember that Acid, Electric, and Cold all share a debuff slot and recourse.
3. ELECTRIC (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Target will have a 75% chance to land a Glancing Blow against all enemies for the duration. (The tooltip incorrectly says 'Trivial Hit Chance' which is just a pre-NGE/CU modifier that no longer exists)
DURATION: 6 seconds
RECOURSE: YES
USE: For group pve and pvp, I would NEVER recommend using Electric. Perhaps there are some legendaries or hard modes where a Jedi tank may independently hold aggro away from the group and using an Electric saber will help keep them alive so the Medic doesn't need to focus on them too much, but even in those scenarios, it is advised you swap off the Electrical weapon and swap back to a Heat once the group is attacking them. You do not want to sacrifice a 21.6% damage increase for a 75% Glancing chance, especially when the target can usually only attack 1 person at a time. A group is better served doing 21.6% more damage than having Glancing chance against someone not even attacking them.
In 1v1s or solo content, however, I think Electric can be very viable. Since you don't have access to a healer or a tank sweeping things off you, the 75% Glancing chance gives you a better chance of staying alive. If using in 1v1 pvp, make sure you have some Critical Hit Reduction as well in your build, as Crits and Strikethroughs bypass the Glancing Blow defense modifier.
4. HEAT (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Inflicts a Heat DoT that will deal 750 Heat damage (before armor) every 2s for the duration.
DURATION: 6 seconds
RECOURSE: NO
USE: Heat is the holy grail of elements for group content. In my opinion, everyone minus the Commando should be on Heat. With no recourse, a group can keep the Heat proc up 100% of the time with enough crit rolls, which in turn kills things faster. In the vast majority of cases, it's better to have 750 damage (before armor) every 2s for a potentially infinite amount of time than to crit more for 3s with Acid and then not again for 5s after. Smugglers can make great use of Heat weapons when their Feeling Lucky/CUYS is proc'ing because they have guaranteed crits for the duration, meaning the Heat DoT stays on for the entire duration and then some. Moreover, a Heat proc will not override or block another Elemental proc from occurring. See below for an image of a Heat and Acid proc occuring at the same time.
IV. ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES
Elemental Resistance, or Elemental Armor, mitigates damage separately from Kinetic and Energy armor ratings. It's very common for players to stack Kinetic and Energy armor because most incoming damage will be either Kinetic or Energy. However, while Elemental Armors do mitigate Elemental Damage, they also apply a modifier chance to whether an Elemental Crit will occur. This has long been believed to be a bug or a myth, but as of last year I got a developer from another SWG server to dive into the public source code and figure it out.
For every 1 point in Elemental Resist a target has, they will have a 0.01% to resist the Elemental Critical effect. So if you have the standard 5600 Elemental Resistance from Primus capped armor, you will have a 56% chance to not receive an Elemental Critical effect. If you manage to et to 10000, you will completely negate all Elemental Critical effects.
Why does this matter? Well, as you can see, these procs are not guaranteed. Even NPCs have Elemental armor ratings. (Typically lowers than players, but still) So hogging up what could be a 21.6% damage boosting Cold crit with an Acid or Electrical crit and giving the target a 5s recourse makes it that much harder to get the effect again.
In conclusion, if you're doing group content, especially hard modes, speed runs, or PvP, you should carefully consider the group's weapon element makeup to maximize efficiency and not leave free damage on the table.
If you want a general recommendation of what a group's elements should be, I'll give you the following template that assumes a 16-man group.
1. Medic - HEAT
2. Medic - HEAT
3. Medic - HEAT
4. Medic - HEAT
5. GA - HEAT
6. GA - HEAT
7. COMMANDO 1 - COLD
8. COMMANDO 2 - COLD for large mobs, switch to KINETIC heavy weapon for single target boss for extra Mando DoT stacks.
9. COMMANDO 3 - HEAT
10. COMMANDO 4 - HEAT for large mobs, switch to ENERGY heavy weapon for single target boss for extra Mando DoT stacks.
11. SPY - HEAT
12. SPY - HEAT
13. JEDI - HEAT, maybe ELECTRIC for isolated boss
14. JEDI - HEAT, maybe ELECTRIC for isolated boss
15. MISC DPS - HEAT, unless this is Commando #5, in which case go ACID against single target boss for 5th DoT stack.
16. MISC DPS - HEAT, unless this is Commando #6, in which case go ELECTRIC against single target boss for 6th DoT stack.
I. INTRODUCTION
Every crafted end game weapon on SWG: Beyond will very likely have an elemental damage stat crafted into the weapon (unless your local weapon smith is trolling). This modifier stat is a value that is assigned to the weapon based on the weapon type. Elemental damage is as follows per weapon (generally):
Pistols: 36
Carbine: 54, or 79 if you're using the Master EE3 (BH Locked)
Rifle: 74 (The non-legendary GLC has 155 elemental)
Melee: 91
Lightsaber: 91 (with a 6% crystal)
Heavy Weapon: 108 for Cold and Heat, 216 for for all other elements
Weapon based elemental damage not only has its own armor values for calculating mitigation, but landing a critical hit while using a weapon with elemental damage built into it will result in an (Elemental) Critical effect. This guide is to explain the different Elemental Crits, their use case, and when you should/should not be using certain elements to be as efficient as possible.
Will this be the difference between completing OGs or not? No, definitely not. However, if you intend to do hard modes with minimal headaches, PvP, and certainly for speed runs, this knowledge is fundamental to your success. Not every Elemental Critical Effect can stack on top of each other, and without this knowledge, you will find that many times you will be overriding someone else's crit proc for a less desirable effect, potentially leading to headaches, longer run times, or worse: the downfall of your group in PvP or in hard modes.
II. Understanding "Recourse"
Before explaining what each Elemental Critical effect does, a player needs to understand "Recourse." In SWG, players will often refer to a term called a "Recourse", which just means a period of time in which the same effect cannot be applied to the target. With the exception of HEAT, all Elemental Critical effects will have a Recourse of 5 seconds before the Critical Effect can be applied again. This means that COLD, ACID, and ELECTRIC all have a Recourse. Not only do each of those elements have Recourse, but a Recourse of one will prevent any of the others (minus Heat) from proc'ing for the duration of the Recourse.
The name of this Recourse will appear as "Recovered" on the tool tip. For easy visual reference, the Recourse buff will look as follows:
III. Elemental Critical Effects
The following effects will occur when you land a critical hit with a weapon that has the corresponding element.
1. COLD (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Increases all damage dealt to the target for the entire duration. Damage increased is based off of 20% of the weapon's Elemental Damage.
DURATION: 6 seconds
RECOURSE: YES
So, in other words, the following weapons will provides the following damage boosts for 6 seconds:
Pistols: 20% of 36 = 7.2%
Carbines: 20% of 54 = 10.8%
Rifles: 20% of 74 = 14.8%
Melee/Lightsaber: 20% of 91 = 18.2%
Heavy Weapon: 20% of 108 = 21.6%
USE: For group content (pve or pvp), it is strongly advised that only Commandos using Heavy Weapons run Cold element because 21.6% damage boost to ALL damage taken is VERY strong. Any Commando worth their salt should be critting pretty often with heavy weapons. Heavy weapons have AoE auto attacks, making the Cold procs even easier to spread around, Smugglers and Pistol BHs can accumulate very high critical hit chance, and having a Pistol Cold Critical effect will severely dampen the group's DPS by 14.2%. Melee characters can get away with running cold because 18.2% is not that much lower than 21.6%, but I'd still advise against it personally.
Cold becomes a little weaker in 1v1s or solo content, depending on your profession. Though it's certainly not a bad choice. Just depends what you're doing.
NOTE: Cold Critical effects cannot apply if there is an Electrical or Acid Critical already up, as all three share a recourse and debuff slot.
2. ACID (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Target will have a 75% vulnerability to be hit with a Critical Hit against all targets for the duration.
DURATION: 3 seconds
RECOURSE: YES
USE: I personally don't like Acid as an element very much and belive it has limited uses. The duration is just too short to make many builds very strong, however, if you're on top of looking out for the Acid proc, you can definitely burst someone down with Dark Fury DSJ or Spy. With a recourse that lasts longer than its duration, this should NEVER be used in group content, as the Cold procs will always be a better use of the Elemental crit. Remember that Acid, Electric, and Cold all share a debuff slot and recourse.
3. ELECTRIC (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Target will have a 75% chance to land a Glancing Blow against all enemies for the duration. (The tooltip incorrectly says 'Trivial Hit Chance' which is just a pre-NGE/CU modifier that no longer exists)
DURATION: 6 seconds
RECOURSE: YES
USE: For group pve and pvp, I would NEVER recommend using Electric. Perhaps there are some legendaries or hard modes where a Jedi tank may independently hold aggro away from the group and using an Electric saber will help keep them alive so the Medic doesn't need to focus on them too much, but even in those scenarios, it is advised you swap off the Electrical weapon and swap back to a Heat once the group is attacking them. You do not want to sacrifice a 21.6% damage increase for a 75% Glancing chance, especially when the target can usually only attack 1 person at a time. A group is better served doing 21.6% more damage than having Glancing chance against someone not even attacking them.
In 1v1s or solo content, however, I think Electric can be very viable. Since you don't have access to a healer or a tank sweeping things off you, the 75% Glancing chance gives you a better chance of staying alive. If using in 1v1 pvp, make sure you have some Critical Hit Reduction as well in your build, as Crits and Strikethroughs bypass the Glancing Blow defense modifier.
4. HEAT (See below for debuff icon)
EFFECT: Inflicts a Heat DoT that will deal 750 Heat damage (before armor) every 2s for the duration.
DURATION: 6 seconds
RECOURSE: NO
USE: Heat is the holy grail of elements for group content. In my opinion, everyone minus the Commando should be on Heat. With no recourse, a group can keep the Heat proc up 100% of the time with enough crit rolls, which in turn kills things faster. In the vast majority of cases, it's better to have 750 damage (before armor) every 2s for a potentially infinite amount of time than to crit more for 3s with Acid and then not again for 5s after. Smugglers can make great use of Heat weapons when their Feeling Lucky/CUYS is proc'ing because they have guaranteed crits for the duration, meaning the Heat DoT stays on for the entire duration and then some. Moreover, a Heat proc will not override or block another Elemental proc from occurring. See below for an image of a Heat and Acid proc occuring at the same time.
IV. ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES
Elemental Resistance, or Elemental Armor, mitigates damage separately from Kinetic and Energy armor ratings. It's very common for players to stack Kinetic and Energy armor because most incoming damage will be either Kinetic or Energy. However, while Elemental Armors do mitigate Elemental Damage, they also apply a modifier chance to whether an Elemental Crit will occur. This has long been believed to be a bug or a myth, but as of last year I got a developer from another SWG server to dive into the public source code and figure it out.
For every 1 point in Elemental Resist a target has, they will have a 0.01% to resist the Elemental Critical effect. So if you have the standard 5600 Elemental Resistance from Primus capped armor, you will have a 56% chance to not receive an Elemental Critical effect. If you manage to et to 10000, you will completely negate all Elemental Critical effects.
Why does this matter? Well, as you can see, these procs are not guaranteed. Even NPCs have Elemental armor ratings. (Typically lowers than players, but still) So hogging up what could be a 21.6% damage boosting Cold crit with an Acid or Electrical crit and giving the target a 5s recourse makes it that much harder to get the effect again.
V. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, if you're doing group content, especially hard modes, speed runs, or PvP, you should carefully consider the group's weapon element makeup to maximize efficiency and not leave free damage on the table.
If you want a general recommendation of what a group's elements should be, I'll give you the following template that assumes a 16-man group.
1. Medic - HEAT
2. Medic - HEAT
3. Medic - HEAT
4. Medic - HEAT
5. GA - HEAT
6. GA - HEAT
7. COMMANDO 1 - COLD
8. COMMANDO 2 - COLD for large mobs, switch to KINETIC heavy weapon for single target boss for extra Mando DoT stacks.
9. COMMANDO 3 - HEAT
10. COMMANDO 4 - HEAT for large mobs, switch to ENERGY heavy weapon for single target boss for extra Mando DoT stacks.
11. SPY - HEAT
12. SPY - HEAT
13. JEDI - HEAT, maybe ELECTRIC for isolated boss
14. JEDI - HEAT, maybe ELECTRIC for isolated boss
15. MISC DPS - HEAT, unless this is Commando #5, in which case go ACID against single target boss for 5th DoT stack.
16. MISC DPS - HEAT, unless this is Commando #6, in which case go ELECTRIC against single target boss for 6th DoT stack.
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