Post by Anatra on Feb 12, 2006 10:30:36 GMT -5
Taken from daoc.catacombs.com boards
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) doesn'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_________Generally...
High____3______________Anytime Styles
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") Works
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 LA, 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 normal weapons, see this.
Elemental Damage Table
For elemental weapons, see this.
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 evade.
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 attacker
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 B*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.
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) doesn'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_________Generally...
High____3______________Anytime Styles
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") Works
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 LA, 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 normal weapons, see this.
Elemental Damage Table
For elemental weapons, see this.
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 evade.
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 attacker
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 B*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.
