McLove.
3rd May 2011, 14:05
molti di noi sono arrugginiti molti non hanno mai saputo alcune cose ecco una piccola guida da prendere cmq con le molle e da epurare da tutti gli aspetti di toa sulla matematica e ssul come funziona daoc, lo posto dato che a volte si sentono un sacco di domande specifiche e molte teorie
XP Calculations
Regeneration of HP, Power and Endurance
Primary Stats
Secondary Stats
Melee
Defensive Skills
Casting
Caps on Items, Buffs and ToA
HOW DO XP CALCULATIONS WORK?
Base XP
XP gained is primarily based on the level of the highest character in the group and the con of the monster in relation to the highest character. As you add more members into a group, the XP will drop. In general:
For solo you should kill yellow.
For duos you should kill ojs.
For 4 people you should kill reds/ojs.
For 8 people you should kill purples/reds.
Your base XP is capped at each level. This is to slow the rate of "powerleveling" and prevent exploitation. Nonetheless, if you see your XP is not higher for killing more powerful mobs, then you're likely at cap.
For a table of XP caps: Here.
In addition to base XP you can earn several types of bonus XP. This XP is in ADDITION to your base and is not restricted by a cap. So, even if you're at cap XP acheiving bonuses can make leveling even faster.
Camp Bonuses
Camp bonuses are designed to discourage "Camping" or staying at one particular location and killing the same mob repeatedly. As more and more mobs are killed from the same "camp" the camp bonus will drop until it hits zero.
Dungeons and underwater, in ToA, have longer lasting camps that are higher in general than that of other areas.
The best way to earn XP is to pick an isolated area, kill until camp bonus drops and then move on. This will ensure that you maximize your XP.
Group Bonuses
Some mobs, when attacked by a group, will bring several "adds" or additional mobs. This is called "BAF" or "Bring a Friend". Killing these mobs will give you a group bonus that is based on the number of adds and the base amount of XP.
In groups it is vital to kill mobs that BAF to maximize XP.
Outpost Bonuses
Finally, if you kill mobs within a certain radius of a keep that your realm owns, you earn a bonus on your XP in addition to the base XP.
POWER, ENDURANCE AND HITPOINTS REGENERATION
Hitpoints, Power, and Endurance each have three timers that determine how quickly you regain them. These timers are not effected by any spell in the game, and no effect you can do will modify the length of these timers.Stat In Combat Standing Sitting
Hitpoints 14 sec 6 sec 3 sec
Power 14 sec 6 sec 3 sec
Endurance none 1 sec 1/4 sec
Regardless of your level, with no spells cast on you, you will regain one unit of Hitpoints, Power, and Endurance each cycle. It is currently unsure if one unit is one point, or is multiple points at the higher levels.
Some spells will modify this amount gained per unit. Each tier of song will increase the units regained by (X * 100%) where X is the tier of the song being used. In other words, if you are playing Power song 5, you will increase the total amount regenerated per cycle by 500%.
HOW DO YOUR PRIMARY STATS AFFECT YOU?
Strength
Improves the total weight of items you can carry.
For Nightshades this increases your power.
Improves your weapon skill (100%) and damage with the following exceptions:
Thrust/Alb is 50% dex / 50% str
Pierce/Hib is 50% dex / 50% str
Staves are 100% dex
Bows are 100% dex
Hand-to-Hand/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Flexible/Alb is 50% str / 50% dex
Spear/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Constitution
Improves your hit points
On mobs and pets it will actually increase your absorption of damage (i.e. the pet will take less damage)
Dexterity
Affects the chance to parry
Affects the chance to block with shield
Affects the chance to dodge (50% dex / 50% qui)
Affects casting speed
Affects the weapon skill and damage for the following:
Thrust/Alb is 50% dex / 50% str
Pierce/Hib is 50% dex / 50% str
Staves are 100% dex
Bows are 100% dex
Hand-to-Hand/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Flexible/Alb is 50% str / 50% dex
Spear/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Quickness
Affects the chance to dodge (50% dex / 50% qui)
Affects swing speed (see below)
For necromancers, reduces pet's swing time
Casting Stat (Int, Emp, Pie)
Affects the size of your power pool
With some classes, affects the damage you do with any spell
Please note, the casting stat for Bards is Charisma and NOT Empathy
HOW DO YOUR SECONDARY STATS AFFECT YOU?
Armor Factor (AF)
AF affects the damage absorbtion (i.e. higher AF means you will take less damage)
AF affects the chance to be hit (i.e. higher AF means less chance of being hit)
Hit Points
HPs is determined by several things:
Your class
Your constitution
Any +HP bonuses on items
RAs
Weapon Skill (WS)
WS determines the chance that you can by-pass another opponents defenses (evade/parry/block). It is stated by Mythic that weapon skill has nothing to do with hit/miss rates and only relates to harming your opponents chance to evade, parry or block.
WS is affected by:
Your class
Your weapon type
The stats that your weapon is based on
Whether you have a shield equipped or not
See this site for a possible calculator: Clicky
See this site for a test showing weapon skill versus miss rates: Clicky
HOW DOES MELEE WORK?
Please note that the combat engine is VERY complex but the information in here is, in general, quite reliable.
The Battle Order and the Effects of Conditional Probabilities
When someone attacks you, the order for determining your avoidance of attack (parry, block, etc.) is evade, parry, block, hit/miss, guard, intercept and bladeturn.
This order is VERY important because of the way DAoC checks each action. During a battle, if someone attacks you the program will go through each of these steps in order EVERY time.
For instance, if you evade, you cannot block. If you parry, you cannot block. For those meleers that rely on block styles, this is very annoying.
Because of the way these are checked, you ALWAYS want to improve your best defense FIRST. This leads to better overall defense. This will result in a small but noticeable overall improvement in defense.
It also means that if you have a 5% chance of evade, 40% chance of parry, and 30% chance of blocking, you cannot add these together. Conditional probabilities would mean that although you have a 40% chance to parry when checked, you will parry less often in battle due to the fact that you may evade 5% of the time, reducing the probability that during a battle you will see a parry.
Weapon Speed
Each weapon has a rated speed listed on the item. The formula for your effective weapon speed including haste and quickness is:
Eff Spd = Spd x (1-(Qui - 60)/500)*(1 - Haste)
So, if I have 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff using a 4.5 weapon I will swing every 2.26.
Please note that there is a cap in place for melee speed. You cannot swing faster than every 1.5 seconds. This means that if your effective speed is less than 1.5, you should switch your weapons because your losing damage. You would be near the cap with a 3.0 SPD weapon, 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff.
Try to avoid using fast weapons when you are at capped speed because this will reduce your damage overall.
Weapon Damage
Weapon damage is primarily based on the speed of your weapon and the damage per second ("DPS"). This number shows the potential maximum damage the weapon will do per second at its base speed. This number is modified by the speed (SPD) of the weapon. If the weapon is actually swung faster than the SPD of the weapon as we showed above, then the base DPS will increase linearly with the swing speed, and if the weapon is swung slower, than it will decrease linearly as well. This is very different than most other DPS based effects in DAOC.
Damage Cap = DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD - 2) * .03)
This means that slow weapons receive a slight bonus to damage. For a 16.5 DPS weapon that is at SPD of 5 the maximum damage would be:
Damage Cap = 16.5 * 5 * (1.09) = 89.925
This implies that your maximum damage would be 89.925.
Weapon SPD Effective Bonus
2.5 1.5%
4.0 6.0%
5.5 10.5%
Please also note that the weapon DPS and SPD have decimal values that you cannot see. A 16.5 DPS weapon may be 16.59 DPS.
Weapon Specialization
We covered the maximum damage that is done with a weapon above. However, your damage is also a function of how much you put points into the type of weapon your using.
In general, at 50 weapon your weapon damage will be maximized.
Weapon Styles
Weapon styles are very important to understand. The best research into them was done by Jay Ambrosini aka Wyrd. In short, each style has a "growth multiplier" that adds damage above the base damage you do. This growth multiplier is calculated as:
Style Damage = ((Growth Rate * Weapon Spec) * Effective Speed) / Unstyled Damage Cap
From this we can tell that your style damage is positively affected by your weapon spec, the style growth rate and by the factors that improve your unstyled damage cap (shown in the "Weapon Damage" section). It is negatively affected by haste and by quickness.
If I use the Bumblebee Style which has a growth rate of .58, with 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff using a 4.5 weapon I will swing every 2.26. The BM has 50+11 in pierce. The weapon damage cap is DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD - 2) * .03) = 239.4
Style Bonus = ((Growth Rate * Weapon Spec) * Effective Speed) / 239.4
Style Bonus = .58 * 61 * 2.26 / 239.4 = 33.4%
When I use this style my style damage should add 33.4% to every hit.
There are some exceptions. Starter styles (the first style you get) don't follow these rules. The stealth openers in Critical Strike are different and listed below:
Perforate Artery Cap = 75 + Critical Strike Spec * 9 + Damage Cap
Backstab II Cap = 45 + Critical Strike Spec * 6 + Damage Cap
Backstab I Cap = ~5 + Critical Strike Spec * 14 / 3 + Damage Cap
All other styles more or less follow these conventions.
The Details of Quickness and Damage
Quickness has multiple effects and some people get confused regarding whether it improves damage output or decreases damage output. Using the formulas above it is easy to test what is the answer.
@ 120 Qui / 0% haste you would do a total damage of 379 (140 style, 239 unstyled) at 3.96. Therefore, damage done per second is 95.71.
@ 250 Qui / 17% haste you would do a total damage of 321 (82 style, 239 unstyled) at 2.32. Therefore, damage done per second is 138.36.
Quickness does reduce the damage per shot, however, over time, the meleer with higher quickness will always out damage the slow one. The reason is that although the style damage is reduced, the fast meleer will be able to attack almost 2 times for every 1 time the slow meleer attacks.
Style Endurance Use
In general a meleer will have styles that use low, medium and high amounts of endurance. The styles usually list their endurance usage by:Style Integer General
High 3 Anytime
Medium 2 Positionals, Combos, Taunt
Low 1 Conditionals
END Cost = (Weapon Spd + 1) * Integer
Therefore, using the 4.5 SPD weapon from above, if we use a Medium endurance style it will take 9% of our endurance and if we use a High endurance style it will take 13.5%.
In general it is best using the lowest endurance style if you can help it.
How Left Axe (LA) Works
LA will always swing both weapons though you may miss. However, the damage done by both weapons is determined by your spec in LA. Your damage for each weapon is modified by:
Modified damage = Base damage * (.625 + .0034 * LA)
Therefore, if you're going to use 2 weapons with LA you should have a good spec in LA, otherwise just use one weapon. There is also some testing to support that your to-hit is also affected by LA spec.
With 0 LA, you will only do 62.5% of your normal damage.
With 50+11 LA, you will do 79.5% of your normal damage.
How Celtic Dual (CD) and Dual Wield (DW) Work
CD/DW differs in the sense that it gives you a chance to swing both weapons but doesn't modify damage.
Offhand Swing % = Level * .5% + .68% * CD/DW
@ Level 50 Swing % = 25% + .68% * CD/DW
With 0 CD/DW, you will swing both 25% of the time for full damage.
With 50+11 CD/DW, you will swing both 66.48% of the time for full damage.
Higher spec in CD/DW also improves style damage when using CD/DW styles.
How Haste on LA/CD/DW Works
As a dual wielder you can use two weapons of different speeds. When both weapons are swung the game takes the average of the effective speed of BOTH weapons.
If a BM wields a 3.6 adze and a 2.5 dagger with 250 quickness, they will swing the adze at 2.17, the dagger at 1.55 and both at 1.86.
Generally if you can use two weapons, especially with those using LA who get the haste 100% of the time, you should take advantage of using two different weapons.
Normal Damage Table
For a damage table, go to here.
DEFENSIVE SKILLS
Parry
Your chance to parry is affected by the number of attackers, the size of the weapon you're using, and your spec in parry.
Parry % = (5% + 0.5% * Parry) / # of Attackers
Parry: (((Dex*2)-100)/40)+(Parry/2)+(Mastery of P*3)+5. < Possible relation to buffs
So, if you have parry of 20 you will have a chance of parrying 15% if there is one attacker. If you have parry of 20 you will have a chance of parrying 7.5%, if there are two attackers.
From Grab Bag: "Dual wielders throw an extra wrinkle in. You have half the chance of shield blocking a dual wielder as you do a player using only one weapon. Your chance to parry is halved if you are facing a two handed weapon, as opposed to a one handed weapon."
So, when facing a 2H weapon, you may see a penalty to your parrying.
Parry is only possible if they are within your frontal arc of 180 degrees.
Evade
Evade is based entirely off of your level of Evade. For each level of evade you have a 5% chance of evading. Evade V would give you a 25% chance of evading an attack.
Evade: (((Qui+Dex)-100)/40)+(Evade*5)+(Dodger*3). < Possible relation to buffs
Evade is only possible if they are within your frontal arc of 180 degrees, unless you have "Advanced Evade" which is only given to Bezerkers, Savages, Blademasters and Mercenaries. Those classes with "Advanced Evade" can evade attacks from ANY angle.
Testing has indicated that when facing enemies using 2 weapons your chance to evade is halved. This is apparently a bug.
Test Data
Block
Your chance to block is affected by the number of attackers, the size of the shield you're using, and your spec in block.
Shield% = (5% + 0.5% * Shield)
Small Shield = 1 attacker
Medium Shield = 2 attackers
Large Shield = 3 attacker
Each attacker above these numbers will reduce your chance to block.
From Grab Bag: "Dual wielders throw an extra wrinkle in. You have half the chance of shield blocking a dual wielder as you do a player using only one weapon. Your chance to parry is halved if you are facing a two handed weapon, as opposed to a one handed weapon."
Block: (((Dex*2)-100)/40)+(Shield/2)+(Mastery of Blocking * 3)+5. < Possible relation to buffs
Guarding
A tank who is specced in shield can "Guard" someone in their group. This gives them a chance to block an attack that would have hit the person they guard.
There are different levels of guard based on your spec in Shield. Each level of guard improves your chance of blocking for your teammate.
5 shield = guard 1
10 shield = guard 2
15 shield = guard 3
You must be within a certain range of your target (roughly 500 units) but you do not have to facing any particular direction to guard. For blocking for yourself, the 180 degree radius does apply BUT NOT FOR GUARD.
Intercept
All tanks can choose to intercept one attack for someone in their group.
If they get hit, they will take more damage then normal.
Protect
This tank ability allows you to take some agro generated by a player in your group and transfer it to you. However, this ability does have limits.
PBAEers will not receive the benefit of this ability.
Where do you get hit?
When you get hit the weapon may strike you on any one of your armor pieces. However, there are specific probabilities attached to each piece.
Torso 40%
Legs 25%
Arms 15%
Head 10%
Hands 5%
Feet 5%
Bonus %
Every item in the game has a bonus %. These bonuses make the item more effective. A weapon with a bonus will hit more often and do more damage. A shield will block more often, do more damage and hit more often.
In general, it is very worthwhile to put a bonus on all your items.
HOW DOES CASTING WORK?
Power usage and focus staves
Each spell has a cost to power that when cast successfully will deplete the caster's power pool. The only way to reduce this cost is to use focus staves.
From the Grab Bag: When you are not using any focus staff at all, a spell will cost you 120% of its delved cost to cast, provided it is a spell that uses focus. i.e. Healing classes do not use focus for their spells.
A focus staff will only benefit you if it has focus bonus in the same line as that spell, as modified below. (i.e. A staff with 50 levels in Mana will help Mana spells but not Void spells)
If you are using a focus staff, a spell will cost you between 80-120% of its delved power cost to cast, depending upon several factors.
If the condition of the staff is not 100%, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast spells.
If your modified spec level* is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.
If the focus level on the staff is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.
Note that all three of the above conditions factor into power cost. Thus, To get the the full 80% cost on your spells, you would use a 100% condition staff with a focus bonus greater than the level of the spell you want to cast, and cast a spell that is lower in level than your modified spec level. As each of these factors (condition, spec level, and focus level) gets further away from the optimal condition, the power cost slides from 80% to 120%.
A few examples:
If you have a staff with 50 levels in Mana, are casting a level 50 mana based spell. and your modified spec is 48 (35 spec + 11 in items + 2 for Realm Rank 3) you will get most of the power bonus from using the staff)
If your modified spec was 50 (35 spec +11 in items +4 for Realm Rank 5) then you would get all of the bonus.
If your modified spec was 16 (1 spec +11 in items +4 for Realm Rank 5) then you would get little bonus from the staff.
*Your base spec is the number of points you have put into the line. Your modified spec is that number plus items plus realm rank bonuses.
Power regeneration
It is widely known that pure cloth casters (enchanters, mentalists, runemasters, wizards, etc.) will regenerate power MUCH slower when below 50% power.
All other magic users will regenerate at rate that is constant at any level of power.
Therefore, if you're a cloth casters ALWAYS try to keep your power above 50%.
Specialization
Your specialization in a spell line affects your damage. The exact relationship is not known but the higher your specialization the less variance your spell will have and the more damage it will do.
Buff Effectiveness
Although all buffs have a delve value, the actual affect on a player is modified by their spec within that spell line. A warden with only 25 Nurture will have buffs that are MUCH less effective than a warden with 50 Nurture even when casting then SAME buff.
WHAT ARE THE CAPS IN DAOC?
Buffs
Base Buffs Cap = Receiver's level * 1.25 (62 at Level 50)
Spec Buffs Cap = Receiver's level * 1.875 (93 at Level 50)
A buff that goes above this limit will result in no further bonus. Therefore, it is a good idea to test the effect of a buff on a level 50 character and determine whether you can achieve similar results using a lower level buff.
With ToA items and high specialization in a buffing spell line, it is easy to make yellow buffs equivalent to red buffs.
ItemsName Formula Cap @ 50
Attributes Level * 1.5 75
Resists Level / 2 + 1 26
Skills Level / 5 + 1 11
HP Level * 4 200
Power Level / 2 + 1 26
Beyond this item bonuses will no longer benefit you.
XP Calculations
Regeneration of HP, Power and Endurance
Primary Stats
Secondary Stats
Melee
Defensive Skills
Casting
Caps on Items, Buffs and ToA
HOW DO XP CALCULATIONS WORK?
Base XP
XP gained is primarily based on the level of the highest character in the group and the con of the monster in relation to the highest character. As you add more members into a group, the XP will drop. In general:
For solo you should kill yellow.
For duos you should kill ojs.
For 4 people you should kill reds/ojs.
For 8 people you should kill purples/reds.
Your base XP is capped at each level. This is to slow the rate of "powerleveling" and prevent exploitation. Nonetheless, if you see your XP is not higher for killing more powerful mobs, then you're likely at cap.
For a table of XP caps: Here.
In addition to base XP you can earn several types of bonus XP. This XP is in ADDITION to your base and is not restricted by a cap. So, even if you're at cap XP acheiving bonuses can make leveling even faster.
Camp Bonuses
Camp bonuses are designed to discourage "Camping" or staying at one particular location and killing the same mob repeatedly. As more and more mobs are killed from the same "camp" the camp bonus will drop until it hits zero.
Dungeons and underwater, in ToA, have longer lasting camps that are higher in general than that of other areas.
The best way to earn XP is to pick an isolated area, kill until camp bonus drops and then move on. This will ensure that you maximize your XP.
Group Bonuses
Some mobs, when attacked by a group, will bring several "adds" or additional mobs. This is called "BAF" or "Bring a Friend". Killing these mobs will give you a group bonus that is based on the number of adds and the base amount of XP.
In groups it is vital to kill mobs that BAF to maximize XP.
Outpost Bonuses
Finally, if you kill mobs within a certain radius of a keep that your realm owns, you earn a bonus on your XP in addition to the base XP.
POWER, ENDURANCE AND HITPOINTS REGENERATION
Hitpoints, Power, and Endurance each have three timers that determine how quickly you regain them. These timers are not effected by any spell in the game, and no effect you can do will modify the length of these timers.Stat In Combat Standing Sitting
Hitpoints 14 sec 6 sec 3 sec
Power 14 sec 6 sec 3 sec
Endurance none 1 sec 1/4 sec
Regardless of your level, with no spells cast on you, you will regain one unit of Hitpoints, Power, and Endurance each cycle. It is currently unsure if one unit is one point, or is multiple points at the higher levels.
Some spells will modify this amount gained per unit. Each tier of song will increase the units regained by (X * 100%) where X is the tier of the song being used. In other words, if you are playing Power song 5, you will increase the total amount regenerated per cycle by 500%.
HOW DO YOUR PRIMARY STATS AFFECT YOU?
Strength
Improves the total weight of items you can carry.
For Nightshades this increases your power.
Improves your weapon skill (100%) and damage with the following exceptions:
Thrust/Alb is 50% dex / 50% str
Pierce/Hib is 50% dex / 50% str
Staves are 100% dex
Bows are 100% dex
Hand-to-Hand/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Flexible/Alb is 50% str / 50% dex
Spear/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Constitution
Improves your hit points
On mobs and pets it will actually increase your absorption of damage (i.e. the pet will take less damage)
Dexterity
Affects the chance to parry
Affects the chance to block with shield
Affects the chance to dodge (50% dex / 50% qui)
Affects casting speed
Affects the weapon skill and damage for the following:
Thrust/Alb is 50% dex / 50% str
Pierce/Hib is 50% dex / 50% str
Staves are 100% dex
Bows are 100% dex
Hand-to-Hand/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Flexible/Alb is 50% str / 50% dex
Spear/Mid is 50% dex / 50% str
Quickness
Affects the chance to dodge (50% dex / 50% qui)
Affects swing speed (see below)
For necromancers, reduces pet's swing time
Casting Stat (Int, Emp, Pie)
Affects the size of your power pool
With some classes, affects the damage you do with any spell
Please note, the casting stat for Bards is Charisma and NOT Empathy
HOW DO YOUR SECONDARY STATS AFFECT YOU?
Armor Factor (AF)
AF affects the damage absorbtion (i.e. higher AF means you will take less damage)
AF affects the chance to be hit (i.e. higher AF means less chance of being hit)
Hit Points
HPs is determined by several things:
Your class
Your constitution
Any +HP bonuses on items
RAs
Weapon Skill (WS)
WS determines the chance that you can by-pass another opponents defenses (evade/parry/block). It is stated by Mythic that weapon skill has nothing to do with hit/miss rates and only relates to harming your opponents chance to evade, parry or block.
WS is affected by:
Your class
Your weapon type
The stats that your weapon is based on
Whether you have a shield equipped or not
See this site for a possible calculator: Clicky
See this site for a test showing weapon skill versus miss rates: Clicky
HOW DOES MELEE WORK?
Please note that the combat engine is VERY complex but the information in here is, in general, quite reliable.
The Battle Order and the Effects of Conditional Probabilities
When someone attacks you, the order for determining your avoidance of attack (parry, block, etc.) is evade, parry, block, hit/miss, guard, intercept and bladeturn.
This order is VERY important because of the way DAoC checks each action. During a battle, if someone attacks you the program will go through each of these steps in order EVERY time.
For instance, if you evade, you cannot block. If you parry, you cannot block. For those meleers that rely on block styles, this is very annoying.
Because of the way these are checked, you ALWAYS want to improve your best defense FIRST. This leads to better overall defense. This will result in a small but noticeable overall improvement in defense.
It also means that if you have a 5% chance of evade, 40% chance of parry, and 30% chance of blocking, you cannot add these together. Conditional probabilities would mean that although you have a 40% chance to parry when checked, you will parry less often in battle due to the fact that you may evade 5% of the time, reducing the probability that during a battle you will see a parry.
Weapon Speed
Each weapon has a rated speed listed on the item. The formula for your effective weapon speed including haste and quickness is:
Eff Spd = Spd x (1-(Qui - 60)/500)*(1 - Haste)
So, if I have 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff using a 4.5 weapon I will swing every 2.26.
Please note that there is a cap in place for melee speed. You cannot swing faster than every 1.5 seconds. This means that if your effective speed is less than 1.5, you should switch your weapons because your losing damage. You would be near the cap with a 3.0 SPD weapon, 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff.
Try to avoid using fast weapons when you are at capped speed because this will reduce your damage overall.
Weapon Damage
Weapon damage is primarily based on the speed of your weapon and the damage per second ("DPS"). This number shows the potential maximum damage the weapon will do per second at its base speed. This number is modified by the speed (SPD) of the weapon. If the weapon is actually swung faster than the SPD of the weapon as we showed above, then the base DPS will increase linearly with the swing speed, and if the weapon is swung slower, than it will decrease linearly as well. This is very different than most other DPS based effects in DAOC.
Damage Cap = DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD - 2) * .03)
This means that slow weapons receive a slight bonus to damage. For a 16.5 DPS weapon that is at SPD of 5 the maximum damage would be:
Damage Cap = 16.5 * 5 * (1.09) = 89.925
This implies that your maximum damage would be 89.925.
Weapon SPD Effective Bonus
2.5 1.5%
4.0 6.0%
5.5 10.5%
Please also note that the weapon DPS and SPD have decimal values that you cannot see. A 16.5 DPS weapon may be 16.59 DPS.
Weapon Specialization
We covered the maximum damage that is done with a weapon above. However, your damage is also a function of how much you put points into the type of weapon your using.
In general, at 50 weapon your weapon damage will be maximized.
Weapon Styles
Weapon styles are very important to understand. The best research into them was done by Jay Ambrosini aka Wyrd. In short, each style has a "growth multiplier" that adds damage above the base damage you do. This growth multiplier is calculated as:
Style Damage = ((Growth Rate * Weapon Spec) * Effective Speed) / Unstyled Damage Cap
From this we can tell that your style damage is positively affected by your weapon spec, the style growth rate and by the factors that improve your unstyled damage cap (shown in the "Weapon Damage" section). It is negatively affected by haste and by quickness.
If I use the Bumblebee Style which has a growth rate of .58, with 250 quickness and a 17% haste buff using a 4.5 weapon I will swing every 2.26. The BM has 50+11 in pierce. The weapon damage cap is DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD - 2) * .03) = 239.4
Style Bonus = ((Growth Rate * Weapon Spec) * Effective Speed) / 239.4
Style Bonus = .58 * 61 * 2.26 / 239.4 = 33.4%
When I use this style my style damage should add 33.4% to every hit.
There are some exceptions. Starter styles (the first style you get) don't follow these rules. The stealth openers in Critical Strike are different and listed below:
Perforate Artery Cap = 75 + Critical Strike Spec * 9 + Damage Cap
Backstab II Cap = 45 + Critical Strike Spec * 6 + Damage Cap
Backstab I Cap = ~5 + Critical Strike Spec * 14 / 3 + Damage Cap
All other styles more or less follow these conventions.
The Details of Quickness and Damage
Quickness has multiple effects and some people get confused regarding whether it improves damage output or decreases damage output. Using the formulas above it is easy to test what is the answer.
@ 120 Qui / 0% haste you would do a total damage of 379 (140 style, 239 unstyled) at 3.96. Therefore, damage done per second is 95.71.
@ 250 Qui / 17% haste you would do a total damage of 321 (82 style, 239 unstyled) at 2.32. Therefore, damage done per second is 138.36.
Quickness does reduce the damage per shot, however, over time, the meleer with higher quickness will always out damage the slow one. The reason is that although the style damage is reduced, the fast meleer will be able to attack almost 2 times for every 1 time the slow meleer attacks.
Style Endurance Use
In general a meleer will have styles that use low, medium and high amounts of endurance. The styles usually list their endurance usage by:Style Integer General
High 3 Anytime
Medium 2 Positionals, Combos, Taunt
Low 1 Conditionals
END Cost = (Weapon Spd + 1) * Integer
Therefore, using the 4.5 SPD weapon from above, if we use a Medium endurance style it will take 9% of our endurance and if we use a High endurance style it will take 13.5%.
In general it is best using the lowest endurance style if you can help it.
How Left Axe (LA) Works
LA will always swing both weapons though you may miss. However, the damage done by both weapons is determined by your spec in LA. Your damage for each weapon is modified by:
Modified damage = Base damage * (.625 + .0034 * LA)
Therefore, if you're going to use 2 weapons with LA you should have a good spec in LA, otherwise just use one weapon. There is also some testing to support that your to-hit is also affected by LA spec.
With 0 LA, you will only do 62.5% of your normal damage.
With 50+11 LA, you will do 79.5% of your normal damage.
How Celtic Dual (CD) and Dual Wield (DW) Work
CD/DW differs in the sense that it gives you a chance to swing both weapons but doesn't modify damage.
Offhand Swing % = Level * .5% + .68% * CD/DW
@ Level 50 Swing % = 25% + .68% * CD/DW
With 0 CD/DW, you will swing both 25% of the time for full damage.
With 50+11 CD/DW, you will swing both 66.48% of the time for full damage.
Higher spec in CD/DW also improves style damage when using CD/DW styles.
How Haste on LA/CD/DW Works
As a dual wielder you can use two weapons of different speeds. When both weapons are swung the game takes the average of the effective speed of BOTH weapons.
If a BM wields a 3.6 adze and a 2.5 dagger with 250 quickness, they will swing the adze at 2.17, the dagger at 1.55 and both at 1.86.
Generally if you can use two weapons, especially with those using LA who get the haste 100% of the time, you should take advantage of using two different weapons.
Normal Damage Table
For a damage table, go to here.
DEFENSIVE SKILLS
Parry
Your chance to parry is affected by the number of attackers, the size of the weapon you're using, and your spec in parry.
Parry % = (5% + 0.5% * Parry) / # of Attackers
Parry: (((Dex*2)-100)/40)+(Parry/2)+(Mastery of P*3)+5. < Possible relation to buffs
So, if you have parry of 20 you will have a chance of parrying 15% if there is one attacker. If you have parry of 20 you will have a chance of parrying 7.5%, if there are two attackers.
From Grab Bag: "Dual wielders throw an extra wrinkle in. You have half the chance of shield blocking a dual wielder as you do a player using only one weapon. Your chance to parry is halved if you are facing a two handed weapon, as opposed to a one handed weapon."
So, when facing a 2H weapon, you may see a penalty to your parrying.
Parry is only possible if they are within your frontal arc of 180 degrees.
Evade
Evade is based entirely off of your level of Evade. For each level of evade you have a 5% chance of evading. Evade V would give you a 25% chance of evading an attack.
Evade: (((Qui+Dex)-100)/40)+(Evade*5)+(Dodger*3). < Possible relation to buffs
Evade is only possible if they are within your frontal arc of 180 degrees, unless you have "Advanced Evade" which is only given to Bezerkers, Savages, Blademasters and Mercenaries. Those classes with "Advanced Evade" can evade attacks from ANY angle.
Testing has indicated that when facing enemies using 2 weapons your chance to evade is halved. This is apparently a bug.
Test Data
Block
Your chance to block is affected by the number of attackers, the size of the shield you're using, and your spec in block.
Shield% = (5% + 0.5% * Shield)
Small Shield = 1 attacker
Medium Shield = 2 attackers
Large Shield = 3 attacker
Each attacker above these numbers will reduce your chance to block.
From Grab Bag: "Dual wielders throw an extra wrinkle in. You have half the chance of shield blocking a dual wielder as you do a player using only one weapon. Your chance to parry is halved if you are facing a two handed weapon, as opposed to a one handed weapon."
Block: (((Dex*2)-100)/40)+(Shield/2)+(Mastery of Blocking * 3)+5. < Possible relation to buffs
Guarding
A tank who is specced in shield can "Guard" someone in their group. This gives them a chance to block an attack that would have hit the person they guard.
There are different levels of guard based on your spec in Shield. Each level of guard improves your chance of blocking for your teammate.
5 shield = guard 1
10 shield = guard 2
15 shield = guard 3
You must be within a certain range of your target (roughly 500 units) but you do not have to facing any particular direction to guard. For blocking for yourself, the 180 degree radius does apply BUT NOT FOR GUARD.
Intercept
All tanks can choose to intercept one attack for someone in their group.
If they get hit, they will take more damage then normal.
Protect
This tank ability allows you to take some agro generated by a player in your group and transfer it to you. However, this ability does have limits.
PBAEers will not receive the benefit of this ability.
Where do you get hit?
When you get hit the weapon may strike you on any one of your armor pieces. However, there are specific probabilities attached to each piece.
Torso 40%
Legs 25%
Arms 15%
Head 10%
Hands 5%
Feet 5%
Bonus %
Every item in the game has a bonus %. These bonuses make the item more effective. A weapon with a bonus will hit more often and do more damage. A shield will block more often, do more damage and hit more often.
In general, it is very worthwhile to put a bonus on all your items.
HOW DOES CASTING WORK?
Power usage and focus staves
Each spell has a cost to power that when cast successfully will deplete the caster's power pool. The only way to reduce this cost is to use focus staves.
From the Grab Bag: When you are not using any focus staff at all, a spell will cost you 120% of its delved cost to cast, provided it is a spell that uses focus. i.e. Healing classes do not use focus for their spells.
A focus staff will only benefit you if it has focus bonus in the same line as that spell, as modified below. (i.e. A staff with 50 levels in Mana will help Mana spells but not Void spells)
If you are using a focus staff, a spell will cost you between 80-120% of its delved power cost to cast, depending upon several factors.
If the condition of the staff is not 100%, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast spells.
If your modified spec level* is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.
If the focus level on the staff is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.
Note that all three of the above conditions factor into power cost. Thus, To get the the full 80% cost on your spells, you would use a 100% condition staff with a focus bonus greater than the level of the spell you want to cast, and cast a spell that is lower in level than your modified spec level. As each of these factors (condition, spec level, and focus level) gets further away from the optimal condition, the power cost slides from 80% to 120%.
A few examples:
If you have a staff with 50 levels in Mana, are casting a level 50 mana based spell. and your modified spec is 48 (35 spec + 11 in items + 2 for Realm Rank 3) you will get most of the power bonus from using the staff)
If your modified spec was 50 (35 spec +11 in items +4 for Realm Rank 5) then you would get all of the bonus.
If your modified spec was 16 (1 spec +11 in items +4 for Realm Rank 5) then you would get little bonus from the staff.
*Your base spec is the number of points you have put into the line. Your modified spec is that number plus items plus realm rank bonuses.
Power regeneration
It is widely known that pure cloth casters (enchanters, mentalists, runemasters, wizards, etc.) will regenerate power MUCH slower when below 50% power.
All other magic users will regenerate at rate that is constant at any level of power.
Therefore, if you're a cloth casters ALWAYS try to keep your power above 50%.
Specialization
Your specialization in a spell line affects your damage. The exact relationship is not known but the higher your specialization the less variance your spell will have and the more damage it will do.
Buff Effectiveness
Although all buffs have a delve value, the actual affect on a player is modified by their spec within that spell line. A warden with only 25 Nurture will have buffs that are MUCH less effective than a warden with 50 Nurture even when casting then SAME buff.
WHAT ARE THE CAPS IN DAOC?
Buffs
Base Buffs Cap = Receiver's level * 1.25 (62 at Level 50)
Spec Buffs Cap = Receiver's level * 1.875 (93 at Level 50)
A buff that goes above this limit will result in no further bonus. Therefore, it is a good idea to test the effect of a buff on a level 50 character and determine whether you can achieve similar results using a lower level buff.
With ToA items and high specialization in a buffing spell line, it is easy to make yellow buffs equivalent to red buffs.
ItemsName Formula Cap @ 50
Attributes Level * 1.5 75
Resists Level / 2 + 1 26
Skills Level / 5 + 1 11
HP Level * 4 200
Power Level / 2 + 1 26
Beyond this item bonuses will no longer benefit you.
