Sith Math: The New STR Changes

Hello, Legion. As you know, the devs have recently made changes to the STR. With those changes, which you can read about on the forums, we should make some changes of our own. First and foremost, we've moved up to Tier 5 comfortably. Now that we're on T5, however, a few things have to happen. I'll cover them in this post.

First, I'd like to give you an overview of the most prominent change to the STR. Namely, Raid Boss Health Pools, which have received a drastic overhaul in terms of reduction. You can see this clearly in the chart that the devs provided.

This means that a given squad's damage output no longer corresponds to the old percentages we have posted on the STR channel. You'll note that Raid Bosses have had their HP reduced by 65% in T5, our current tier. Before the changes, T4 P1 had a 59m HP, which jumped to 103m in T5. After the changes, T5 now has a 36m HP -- even less than T4 before the changes -- which is minus 65% of 103m, or roughly 67m.

So what does all this mean for us, exactly? Well, in P1 a 2% hit is now approximately 735k. That means a 4% hit is now approximately 1.5m. Not a bad change at all!

We would do well to remember, however, that a drop in Raid Boss HP does not change the increase in difficulty we'll face with each tier. In other words, Darth Nihilus will put up a more challenging fight in T5 than in T4, even if he has less health.

Here are the hit percentages per phase for Tier 5:

P1 2% = 735k
P2 2% = 903k
P3 2% = 791k
P4 2% = See below

As per usual, these are approximations. But they're close enough. Please also note that P4 is tricky to figure out, since there are three Raid Bosses in that phase, each with their own HP. I have, however, hazarded a bit of deductive reasoning. Let's hope my Sith math skills are up to the task!

The individual HP for each Boss in T5 wasn't generally available, unlike T4. Before the changes, the individual HP for each Boss in T4 looked like this:

DN 21m 40%
DS 19m 36%
DT 12.5m 24%
Total = 52.5m

As I mentioned earlier, the jump from T4 to T5 meant that the HP doubled, roughly speaking. So the total HP for T5 was 103m. If I apply this jump in HP to the individual bosses in T5 P4, while keeping the percentages intact (this is a BIG IF, so the guesstimate is that the devs kept the percentages as a constant), then this is what I come up with:

DN 41m 40%
DS 37m 36%
DT 25m 24%
Total = 103m

65% of 103m is 67m. Thus, after the recent HP reduction our new total is 36m HP for T5 P4. For each Raid Boss, that translates into:

DN 14m 40%
DS 13m 36%
DT 9m 24%
Total = 36m

As for the new P4 hit percentages per Raid Boss, here they are:

DN 2% = 280k
DS 2% = 260k
DT 2% = 180k

The disclaimer here is that I've guesstimated quite a bit, especially when it comes to the constant percentage per Raid Boss. Even if this assumption is off, at least we have a decent place to start. Which leads me to the changes we should make:

1) Phase Specific Squad Hits

The STR generally begins at 12pm EDT. From now on, you should hit each phase ONLY with squads you have designated for that phase. Which means, no kitchen sink hits until either myself, or an Officer has announced on the STR channel that it's clear for everyone to do so. Again, ONLY hit with your Phase Specific squads at first.

I realize everyone wants to hit hard and hit often to secure their own spot at the top of the leaderboard, but to hold on throwing everything you've got at P1 immediately -- for example -- will help leadership determine how well we can handle our current tier as a group. Don't worry, you'll get to use your 5 squad limit per day, just not all at once. The guiding virtue here is patience.

2) Posting Hits

While I mentioned this in my previous blog post, it's worth mentioning again. Please post screenshots of your Phase Specific hits on the STR channel. This gives everyone in the guild an opportunity to see what comps you use and how much damage they do. It also gives us an opportunity to discuss comps and strats. Communication will make us stronger.

3) Posting Phase Specific Squad Comps on Discord

I will be creating a new STR channel for us to list our Phase Specific squads. Akin to the TW Data Room, this new channel will give everyone an overview of squad comps for the entire guild. We'll be able to see, for instance, just how many JTR squads we have for P1, how many Chex Mix squads we have for P3, how many NS squads we have for P4, etc. If we want to know where we're going, in other words, it's a good idea to take stock of where we are currently.

So there you have it. The next step in STR prep. If you have any questions, comments, etc., find me on Discord! And good hunting, Legion.

P.S.

I'm much better with words than with numbers, so please feel free to check the approximations I call math!