Written by: Kay-Droma

The Medic uses their extensive medical knowledge to strike their opponent in a vital spot with a level XX attack…


Many people have commented on the medic boards that using a lower mark vital strike is effective for controlling your action use, and can save you action for other moves, while not completly removing the DPS we have from the vital line, which would happen if you simply did not use the move. I am one of these people, but this quick guide will tell you exactly how much action cost each vital strike is, the average damage of the strike, and how much damage you are getting out, for each point of action spent to vital strike. Warning – Number crunching Involved!

Note, all tests are done with NO VITAL DAMAGE MODS, and NO VITAL ACTION COST MODS. You can add them in yourself by simple math! :p The tests were done against an Elder Jedi with 6500 armours. I used a malovent razorknucker, 1050 dps, no elemental. Most of the damage numbers should not be taken literally, and are used to compare between the marks of vital strike.

Vital Strike Cooldown

4 seconds

Vital Strike Action Costs

Vital Strike Mark 1: 100
Vital Strike Mark 2: 400
Vital Strike Mark 3: 500
Vital Strike Mark 4: 1,100
Vital Strike Mark 5: 1,400
Vital Strike Mark 6: 1,700
Vital Strike Mark 7: 2,180

So as you can see, if you want to save action, chances are you should use a lower marked vital strike attack. However, this means you will do less damage. So which one should you choose?
Well, to decide, we can find out a variety of information.

Average Damage of the attack

Vital Strike Mark 1: 637
Vital Strike Mark 2: 759
Vital Strike Mark 3: 809
Vital Strike Mark 4: 1,090
Vital Strike Mark 5: 1,174
Vital Strike Mark 6: 1,337 (no joke)
Vital Strike Mark 7: 1,590

The average costs were what we except, the higher up you go the higher the damage. However, comparing vital strike mark 4, which uses nearly half as much action as mark 7, while only losing a third of the damage, you immediatly see you can gain some action points for only a small sacrifice in damage. This is where using a lower marked attack can be very worthwhile.

Damage from Strike in 1 minute (if you spammed it)

Vital Strike Mark 1: 9,555
Vital Strike Mark 2: 11,385
Vital Strike Mark 3: 12,135
Vital Strike Mark 4: 16,350
Vital Strike Mark 5: 17,610
Vital Strike Mark 6: 20,005
Vital Strike Mark 7: 23,850

This information does not include any offensive or any defensive rolls, so can not be taken literally, only used to compare between each strike. We can see that the damage really picks up at mark 4, so that could be good to use for constant dps, however mark 5’s relatively small increase of damage compared to mark 4 means it would not be worth using, as you would waste action, for little gain.

Finally, we can bring the data togther, and see how many points of damage you are doing to an opponent, per 1 point of action used with vital strike.

Damage given out per point of action used

Vital Strike Mark 1: 6.370
Vital Strike Mark 2: 1.897
Vital Strike Mark 3: 1.618
Vital Strike Mark 4: 0.991
Vital Strike Mark 5: 0.838
Vital Strike Mark 6: 0.786
Vital Strike Mark 7: 0.729

This result gives a very, very impressive return for mark 1. It also shows that lower mark attacks are much more efficient. This trend follows down all the way to mark 7.

So what does this data tell me? What attack would I use when?

Well the data is there for you to comprehend as you wish. But if you can’t be bothered with all that, I will write here basically what the data tells you which move is best in which situation, and why.

Lowest Action Cost possible: Vital Strike Mark 1. You can spam it freely knowing that its the most effiecient action/damage ratio, and the lowest cost.

Highest Damage in shortest amount of time: Vital Strike Mark 7. Highest action cost, but highest dps too.

I am a support medic and dueling, I want to try and damage my opponent: Here, mark 4 would probably be best. It has a respectable DPS, and an action cost which is not high enough to greatly hinder you.

I am a combat medic and dueling, I want to try and keep DPS pressure on my opponent while debuffing him, etc: Here, mark 2 or 3 would probably be best. Slightly less action cost than mark 4, but your debuffs should make up for that, and the lower cost will help you with your debuffs. If you have alot of debuffs, prehaps mark 1 would be better, to keep your action cost at a minimum.

I want to be l33t, which should I use?: Vital strike mark 6, with an average hit of 1337, you can’t go wrong.

I want to use the best vital strike possible for my playstyle…: Check the information, and you can see how much damage you want to sacrifice in order to get the action you need. Test different marks with different buffs in order to get the best you possibly can.

for reference:

Vital Strike Action Costs (with expertise)

Vital Strike Mark 1: 75
Vital Strike Mark 2: 300
Vital Strike Mark 3: 375
Vital Strike Mark 4: 875
Vital Strike Mark 5: 1050
Vital Strike Mark 6: 1275
Vital Strike Mark 7: 1635

Thanks to Gedjo, Viper-Can, A’pone and Inglor for the testing!

Written by Kay-Droma

This ’short’ and sweet guide will point you in the right direction, if you like your red and green bars to have very high values! Anyone can do this, it does, in places, require specialist/rare stuff that you all might not have… but you can still achieve high values without this!
I have done the guide in 4 steps, with certain buffs in each step. The reason for this is for simplicity, and it goes from long duration buffs… to short duration buffs.
The numbers in blue are how much health you are getting from each buff.

For Step One, you will need

- +35×2 Armour, with constitution/stamina.
- All exotic slots must have +35 cons/stam aswell. The total amount of socketed pieces you can have is 13. +4550
- Bando with constitution/stamina. Alternative – Tusken Backpack.
- Any armour with +health mod is nice, too. +~350

For Step Two, you will need
- 5 peice heroism set. Alternative – Colonel ring, + +25 cons/stam jewellery from the heroic instances. +1500
- Ent buff with 150 cons / 150 stamina. +1500
- A full group with a master pilot to take you to the ISD instance, resulting in the +250 cons buff. +2000
- Village buff crystal(s) from the Pre-NGE villiage. +2000
- Aurellian Crystal which gives you +150 stamina. +300

For Step Three, you will need
- A medic who can cons/stam (rank 3) buff you. +2500
- A mouse droid familiar (try and borrow one – thats what I did) +320
- Constitution Powerups of value 100 – 115+. Higher the BETTER obviously +2640
- Lulrus Mushroom pie food (try bazarr) Try to get this, but as an alternative, use Breath of Heaven. +1000
- Spice which adds both +stam and +cons +500
- grouped an officer, with tactics (mark 6) +560
- grouped with a player with favour of the elders +200

For Step Four, you will need
- The medic banner, or a medic friend who has one (granted at Stim E, or at captain rank). +800
- Colonel Inspiration buff (or, again, a friend who can use it near you). +960
- Offensive mustafar shard Or defensive shard, no difference. +960
- Strange sith holocron. +1500
- Lair crystal. +600

- Finally, the Rare Nova Crystal. Make sure this is the last thing you apply. It adds 10% to your current health. Without this, you might struggle to hit 40k health. You can still get pretty close, though, by using the shard of retaliation in its place. If you do not have this, use a shard of retaliation.

If you think you can access all of these (or most of them), then your on the right track. Read the method below, and check the buffs (colour coded to each step) for best results!

Note: You may think I have missed things, such as officer tactical serum, or the omega hormone. The reason for this is that they do not stack with better giving constitution buffs, and therefore are not needed.

First Step – Your armour/shirt/weapon has 13 socket spaces, all of which add +35 cons and +35 stam. I used tusken which was 50 less health, because I had no space in my inventory to not use a backpack, and honestly could not be bothered to empty it. My armour was health modded +50 on every piece apart from gloves and boots, which gave me an additional 350 health. At this Stage, I have 17,750 health.

Second Step – Long term buffs: Put on your 5 peice heroism (or alternative), get an Ent buff of 150 cons / 150 stamina, take a group of 8, with a master pilot piloting to get the ISD travel buff of +250 cons. Add your villiage buff crystals (1 has +250 cons, the other +500 action) and your aurellian crystal (largest size) from the new villiage, which gives +150 stam. At this Stage, I have around 25,050 health.

Third Step – Land in restuss SP (so you can show off ) apply medium your term buffs: Cons and Stam medic buffs, drop a mouse droid familiar, apply your powerups, food, and spice. Make sure favour of the elders is up too. In addition, you need an officer in the group for the ‘tactics’ group buff, here. At this Stage, I have around 32,770 health.

Fourth Step – Apply the short term ‘burst’ buffs; drop the medic banner, and then activate (or get a friend to activate) the colonel buff. Then put on offensive (or defensive) burst shard, followed by strange sith holocron. Then add your lair crystal. At this Stage, I have around 37,590 health.

When and only when ALL this is done, you add the rare nova crystal, or, if you don’t have it, shard of retaliation. Adding 10% to this value, I would hit 41,349. Adding a shard of retaliation instead, I would hit 39,190.

NOTE!: With GU5, you can now increase your health further. 250 health enhancement on weapon and shirt, + and extra 14 cons on each, would increase your health by a total of 724.

Good luck to all of you! Note – obviously you don’t need to be a medic to do this, but I am a medic, and this guide is for medics! And yes, I made a few mistakes the first time around, which is why my health is 40k not 41k in the picture!

Have a G9 and wish you could bring your group with you to one of your 3 saved warp points in the galaxy:

First, call your G9 ITV.
Click it to bring up your travel screen, now, before you click where you want to go, call your multiple passenger vehicle, get in the vehicle and have all in your group jump into your vehicle too (must be grouped and able to board your vehicle, same factional status).
Once everyone is in, click your destination on your travel screen which should still be up, now you and all of your group in your vehicle will be ported to your destination.
This also works with the Solar Sail ITV which takes you home.
Does not work with a regular ITV as they do not allow travel while you have a droid or vehicle out. The G9 and Solar Sail do not share this restriction.
This can be very handy to get your entire group to a load point of your choosing all at once.

How to craft arms with 2 sockets:

To start with, make sure you are a Droid Engineer. Being level 90 is a plus, although a lower level DE should be able to achieve similar results at the cost of more material.

First, it should be noted, what is needed for each arm. At it’s simplest, you will need copper, steel, inert gas, polymer, lubricating oil, and steel, in the form of Control Units, Micro Sensor Suites, and Electronic GP Modules. Note that the quality of these materials are of no importance, as I’ll discuss later- indeed, I used smelted steel, copper, etc. whenever possible, and had no issues getting sockets on my cybernetic arms. The process of making an arm can be made time efficient by utilizing equipment factories; note that utilizing a factory is not necessary, and every cybernetic arm must be crafted by hand anyhow.

This content is for members only.

Have a G9 and wish you could bring your group with you to one of your 3 saved warp points in the galaxy? You can.

First, call your G9 ITV. Click it to bring up your travel screen, now, before you click where you want to go, call your multiple passenger vehicle, get in the vehicle and have all in your group jump into your vehicle too (must be grouped and able to board your vehicle,/same factional status). Once everyone is in, click your destination on your travel screen which should still be up, now you and all of your group in your vehicle will be ported to your destination.
This also works with the Solar Sail ITV which takes you home.

Does not work with a regular ITV as they do not allow travel while you have a droid or vehicle out. The G9 and Solar Sail do not share this restriction.

This can be very handy to get your entire group to a load point of your choosing all at once.

Requirements:
A smuggler with the ability to cloak ally – they must be in your group

Objective:
Recieve a cloak for about 20-25 seconds while running, driving, etc

We’ve all been hit by the smuggler’s ability to cloak an ally, which stealths you for about 20-25 seconds, which also works on any profession. However, if you try to move with it on you get the message “Moving around too much has revealed you!”

Here’s the fun part:
If the smuggler cloaks you “while” your running, driving, etc, you’ll be cloaked (unless you stop and try to move again). This works with vehicles as well- either the driver or passenger(s) can be cloaked while driving to remain under stealth. This is especially great since if you’re running with powersprint/force run, you’ll continue at that speed cloaked.

My favorite use:
When that pesky bounty hunter is camping the front door of your house, call you smuggler inside to get a cloak ally right as you run out the door! This is pretty useful since you get about 20 seconds head start, and if you can get behind a building when you uncloak you can pull out a speeder.

For those of you that wonder how to become lvl 90 entertainer in 2-3 hours (yes, it’s still possible)…

First, go to mustafar. Then, enter the cantina, and talk to one of the dancers there to learn the pei’yi dance.  Go outside.

Make a macro called “dance”
This content is for members only.

Pull out a droid. Make this macro and name it steal.

/target nandina
/pause .2
/ui action toolbarSlot00 (steal)
/pause .2
/tellpet attack
/pause 2.1S
/macro steal

Enjoy!