Sith Math Part 2: STR T6

Howdy, Legion. As I'm sure all of you are aware, the plan we put into place to gear up for the STR has worked out quite well, due in no small part to your fantastic efforts. My original post that called for a focus on the STR was, believe it or not, just a little over a month ago on Sept 7. After solving T4 in short order, the dev changes to the STR Health Pools finally arrived and, with them, we also solved T5 in a snap.

The next part of our STR plan is to solve T6. And, as some of you are aware, according to our timetable we'll begin in early November. I suggested this timetable for several reasons, but, in the main, I wanted to achieve two things:

1) Give everyone a window of opportunity to make sure key STR characters were at least 6*

2) Give those players who just landed a new, shiny JTR some time to gear, mod, and zeta their squad effectively, as well as to learn the strat(s) for P1.

In a nutshell, we're right on target. So far, so very good.

We should expect, however, a much tougher go of it in T6. While I'll be discussing Health Pool and Damage Percentages in this post, remember that the Sith keep hitting harder as the tiers progress. What's more, enemy defense tends to rise considerably. Comparatively speaking, when you make the jump from AAT to HAAT, the damage numbers that players post get cut down drastically. If I recall correctly, HAAT damage percentages amount to 1/3 of those posted in non-Heroic.

All this is a gentle reminder that T6 and, ultimately, HSTR will prove a considerable challenge. As a general rule, HSTR requires all our squads at G12. We can safely proceed with the assumption that, for T6, the minimum gear req is G11. While there are some exceptions, such as the specific gear reqs for NS in P3, the goal is to have all squads at G11 minimum for T6. This is basically to ensure survivability.

Now for some Sith math.

As you recall, the HP for each tier dropped significantly only recently. T4 dropped by 75% and T5 dropped by 65%. As an example, the 105m HP of T5 P1 was slashed to 37m or so, which made it much easier to achieve a 2% hit at 735k. T6 also received a HP reduction, but only by 50%. Interestingly, a 2% hit in T6 requires approximately double the damage of T5. Here's the breakdown:

T5 HP                                     T6 HP

P1 37m / 2% = 735k               P1 76m / 2% = 1.5m
P2 45m / 2% = 903k               P2 79m / 2% = 1.6m
P3 39m / 2% = 791k               P3 76m / 2% = 1.5m
P4 36m / 2% = 720k               P4 No Data

My guesstimate for P4 is that it's roughly double for T6, in line with the other tiers. That said, we're looking at 72m or so total. Here's the breakdown per Boss:

T5                                          T6

DN 14m / 2% = 280k            DN 28m / 2% = 560k
DS 13m / 2% = 260k             DS 26m / 2% = 520k
DT 9m / 2% = 180k              DT 18m / 2% = 360k 

Now, remember, the 2% rule is designed to show how much damage 50 players need to post per hit, per phase, to clear the raid. For the STR, P4 is tricky, since the logic of the 2% rule dictates that the phase will last 3 days! For each player -- this is 50/50 now -- the goal for P4 is to post at least 2% of the total HP for the Phase, which amounts to a grand total of 1.4m. That's a tall order.

In short, I hope these numbers are fairly sobering. We've managed to solve T5 with ease. Let's meet T6 with the same determination, Legion. Remember the cardinal rule: Gear, Gear, Gear. Gear all day. And then more Gear. With a triple shot of Gear. Then 31 Flavors of Gear. Then some Gear icing on the Gear cake. Then we follow the Yellow Brick Gear Road to HSTR.