Stat Stacking (And what not to do when doing so)

[KillJoy]

I haven't seen anything on this topic so thought I'd give some advice for those not knowing what this is or those using it incorrectly.

Stat stacking: This is when you use multiple professions to gain more of a stat of something, e.g. dodge, and improve it. This is considered a hybrid when you filter in to one profession to another to gain the advantage. In Pre-Cu we did this a lot but the concept escaped many.

Rules for it: You can't stat stack random skills. This means as fencer you could not combine counterattack (2h swordsman or carbines) with fencer. You had to combine pistoleer which is enabled as a dodge profession to itself. Just because you are a swordsmen doesn't mean when yielding a 1h you will obtain the counterattack skill.

Well what about knockdown and dizzy, etc?
Well, this also depends what you yield when fighting. Almost all professions have this skill somewhere for combat but there are those like commando that don't. They do not get these stat stacks unless a) they use a carbine, or b) use a pistol AND have the pistoleer or carbine profession with the bonus' as well. Commando is the interesting one as their "heavy" line contributes mainly to carbine speed which if you take carbine's also gives you counterattack. Here if you master Carbine in this example with obtain the bonus from commando plus the defensive's that carbine gives plus the offenses. Something you don't get with the flamethrower, rocket launcher, etc. Same with the lagfest pistol commando yields with pistoleer. You will gain the dodge plus speed bonus' from pistol lines.

What it won't do:
You cannot combine TKM with Swordsman or Fencer. It just doesn't work that way. You may get the dizzy defense and knockdown defense but you will never get the counter or dodge defense as you are not wielding a dodge or counterattack "enabled" weapon. This fools many new would be players as it doesn't state this but this IS HOW IT WORKS.

This won't be a long post as I believe this sums it up pretty well. Below I'll mesh some combinations that work well together for combat. This is by no means a for sure list or what should be done. This is what I have found fun.

TKM - Commando (no stack stacking) - BH investigation line only. Surprises the hell out of them. No one expects a flamethrower lol. You will lose but it's funny as can be as if you hit only once they black bar. Next BH will get them lol.

Fencer/Pistoleer 4xxx - Max dodge. Everything else is your preference. You will have misses and dodges from enemies most the time. Decent PvP, mind heavy though on skills.

TKM - Anything else. TKM doesn't really share anything but they are really fast at speed credit making on Dantooine. Janta/Kunga/Mokk die fast with area spins

BH/Pistoleer - Little more defense plus servers bonus should give an interesting twist. BH/Pistoleer was a FOM on offical though instead of month it was just standard
Master Brawler/Fencer/Swordsman - No stack stacking here but this gives you a chance to see multiple aspects. Spoiler, swordsman is more powerful PvE. Fencer is stronger in general in PvP due to specials. Both are viable either way.

TKM/Fencer - TKM and fencer is actually a good PvP usage but it has to be done correctly every move. TKM is only meant for one volley which you switch to fencer after. This is not a button mash. This is you knock your target down and dizzy then switch to a stun or other weapon in fencer. This is not just for fencer per say but this worked the best back in Pre-Cu due to the stun for the stun batton. You can easily mix TKM with swordsman with acid type or blast type weapon too. TKM hits the hardest for a dizzy though. Tested this on a few characters, just does. No real mechanical reason why, just works. Sorry for a lack reasoning why, just the way the game worked I guess.

Rifle/CM - Nothing like mind shots and diseases really. Sure, poison but be an annoyance. Give them that disease to let them know sharing is caring. If you want to stack defense here use Pikeman defensive line

Swordsman/Carbine - Counterattack stacking. Never use the Carbine, just use the swordsman skill. Carbine can be decent but a sword will do much faster work especially with a powerhammer or scyth.

Pikeman/ ? - Just don't. Literally unless you are looking to troll, don't. Cool animations but it's just not there. IF you decide this is your calling though go grind out on some nightsisters for some mind disease pikes. You are almost 75% reliant on this as a pikeman. Lowest defense of all melee, worst defense secondary (block) skill available, and just all around has no damage compared. On average a LVA does around 500 to 600 max, power hammer does up to 900 to 1k faster then you, TKM will just knock you down ignoring your block, and a fencer will laugh at you without you ever hitting them. Unless you like wearing leather and a ball gag regularly then by all means. Also nothing wrong with that but just saying, this is not a profession to even stack stack on. I'd almost go as far as saying even ignore this even as a rifleman. Now if you happen to be the lucky one to find a mind disease pike that actually hits for some damage on a nightsister lance, go ham on it because no one will like you. It hurts a lot lol. They may kill you but they are out of the fight after that unless a dancer happens to be around quickly for them. Unlikely outside a city.

Rifle/Ranger - Really only good for PvE but you'll get a lot of materials for armorsmiths. Fun class as you can basically just run up mountains like an Olympian.

My favorite though:
Doctor/Rifleman - No one expects the doctor to head shot. Support role but this is for you mainly that want to buff but have something to make some cash off of. Not much to say, you won't PvP here, you won't really do high content without a group, but you can solo dantooine missions and you can buff. That's about the end of that lol.

[Cynar]

6th paragraph in says this won’t be a long post, 10th paragraph later wraps up....

Good read, humorous at times.

[Drdeath50]

Hello! thank you for the awesome post, I just have one question as i was going to follow the build on the forums called Best swordsman build. Now i am wondering is that a bad choice as going fencer with swordsman does not help it? i want to play swordsman i just want to make sure i am not leveling anything by mistake. Thank you!

[atenskyhawk]

The thing to remember about stat stacking is that you are only stacking the state defense, i.e. Def vs dizzy, Knockdown, stun - things of that nature. Dodge only works with a one handed weapon or pistol equipped (Fencer/Pistoleer), Counterattack only works with a 2h weapon or carbine equipped (Swordsman/Carbineer) and Block only works with a Polearm or Rifle equipped (Pikeman/Rifleman). All that said, a pure defense stacker would be Master Brawler/Master Swordsman/0040 Pikeman/2440 Fencer/4304 TKM - This would give you the following:

Def vs Blind +80
Def vs Dizzy +85
Def vs Knockdown +115
Def vs intimidate +40
Def vs Posture Change (down) +110
Def vs Stun +85
Melee Defense +144
Ranged Defense +117

You will notice that I didn't list the Dodge, Block or CounterAttack, because they are not shared and only come into play when using a specific type of weapon. While this template looks great on paper it lacks to items that are also important - Terrain Negotiation and Healing. With the points in TKM, if you survive the fight you can meditate off the wounds, bleeding, poison or disease. While I have played this in Live and on Awakening, I tend to like to fight mobs that like to kill most classes (nightsisters, Krayts) - So I tend to only go 0004 TKM, 0440 Fencer so that I can pick up 2140 Medic and use stim-E's that have been experimented on for ease of use. That way I can stop the bleeding and drop and 1800 point heal when needed.

Hope all of this helps in your decision making.

Atenskyhawk

[RemusStorm]

Some insane Knowledge here, I'm definitely taking some notes!

Thanks dude!