Talk:Damage calculation

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 * Archive -- User:Cloak of Letters's big list of questions and their responses. Most have been answered (and the articles explain them now).  The only question that seems to be unresolved is whether Necrotic/Tormenter take extra damage from light damage.
 * Archive2
 * Archive3 -- newest archive

Holy on undead: Double or -40?
I'll leave other ppl to figure out how to test it, I'm just asking the questions to make our knowledge more complete d-:

One interesting thing I noticed about holy damage on undead is that it can't crit. It will always do double the normal value, never critting.--Dragos 13:21, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

Lost in Translation: Lost in the plethora of rewrites over the past three days was a section on holy damage. Was it wrong? Was it inaccurate? Whatever became of it?

I strongly call upon the editors of this page to stop their "rewrites" and fix what is already there. This is insane. The article has been rewritten like 3 times in 3 days and each one offered different theories. --Karlos 07:07, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't think Holy ever had a section here. It's in my experimental article User:PanSola/Damage, and I don't think it ever got incorporated here.  Sorry to getyou confused.  But yeah, I did my own stuff in my experimental article precisely to avoid what you think is happening d-: -PanSola 07:12, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Holy is 4x the damage on Hell Hounds Fate 21:25, 28 November 2005 (UTC)


 * That's because they use frenzy. --Fyren 21:32, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Needed Testing on Damage Level Attribute Threshold
Characters level 2-7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17-19. Swing 10 criticals on a Whiptail Devourer (note, they're right outside Ascalon) and report your damage as well as the exact stats of your weapon/ what your attribute level is. We need to finalize the scaling diminishing returns, but I really don't want to do it all myself ><;; --Dragos 21:01, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
 * It's going to be tough getting a Lv1 character through pre-searing. Can you figure out the mob armor for pre-searing devourers?  I can do Lv18 tonight since my warrior is right there. -PanSola 16:22, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * In all fairness, level 1 and possibly 2 are not required. Level 1 has no skill points and level 2 can't over-allocate. :P --Dragos 18:39, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I heard of ppl who got Lv2 to post. Add headgear and sup rune to over-allocate.  I'm not sure if Lv1 can get to post. (-: -PanSola 18:54, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Ok, you're right that 2 can be tested with runes. Every time I've tried to get to post as a lvl1, I failed. It seems that doing the quests to get my second profession always level me >< --Dragos 21:09, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure how much exp will take you to Lv2 (no extra character slots ATM), but below is my proposed minimal exp way to get out of Pre-Searing:
 * 1. Never ever kill anyone. If there are reasons why something must be killed, try to utilize the NPCs or another player (while you stand far away to avoid Exp).
 * 2. Do ONLY the following quests: Elementalist Test and The Ranger's Companion. Elementalist because you can get someone else to kill the skale and obtain the shimmering skale for you.  Ranger because no need to kill anything.
 * 3. Enter Academy directly by talking to Sir Tydus. I have a hunch that the Path to Glory quest isn't listed as required, so I have a hunch that the A Second Profession quest is also not required.
 * 4. Lost the PvP part. If you are teamed with a real human who wants to kill, run as far away as possible to avoid exp gain.
 * 5. Let Rurik do all the killing for the PvE part. He won't die, and if you die you get resurrected anyways.


 * This way you should be able to keep your exp down to 1750 upon arriving Post Searing, not sure if that's low enough. -PanSola 22:13, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Lv18, battle axe 10 max damage, wild blow on Whiptail
 * 10 Axe Mastery, 24 damage
 * 11 Axe Mastery, 26 damage
 * 12 Axe Mastery, 27 damage


 * You do the math (-: -PanSola 22:31, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Is that standard slashing damage? --71.40.140.58 07:55, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, slashing -PanSola 19:14, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Cap is at 11. At 12 you should do 28 damage. --Dragos 06:46, 1 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Lv19, same axe as above (10 slashing), 0 strength, and same results as above, so cap is at 11 again. - PanSola 08:10, 3 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Awesome. Looks like I'll have to gain a level to confirm the level 17 values then :P --Dragos 05:55, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Level 1 in post is crazy! It was easy to do (didn't realize how many quests you can skip, I made it with 1k exp). Level 1 is capped at 2. (1/2)+2 = 2.5. Theory still holding :). With a Superior Rune I have 55 health lol. I'm gonna have to rely on henchies to try and get me to level 2 now. --Dragos 15:07, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Level 2 is being a problem. I *should* cap at 3 which means 3-6 damage w/ 8 crits. I seem to be capped at 4 w/ 4-6 damage and 8 crits. I've fought a crapton of whiptails and never hit a 3 yet. (This low level sucks, I can't get Wild Blow yet...) I'm gonna try to farm a low-req weapon for more testing. --Dragos 15:48, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Damage Calculation section is a mess
Forgive my negative comment, but it is seriously hard to read the damage calculation section with all the sub, subsub and subsubsubsections, not to mention the fragmentary explanations. There is very little fore-shadowing of the technical terms, and no justification given for naming all the various shifts and multipliers and whatnot. I think it needs to be simplified--presented in a tabular fashion with at most two subsections. &mdash; Stabber (talk) 16:42, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * How could this info be organized in a tabular fashion? I'm all for simplicity and less levels of sub-sectioning, but I can't think of a way to do it while keeping the information organized.  BTW, can you take a look at User:PanSola/Damage and see if it's better?  The sectioning problem is worse, but it addresses the foreshadowing issue.  It also might be slightly out of date in terms of the info, I haven't been making sure everything is in sync over the holidays. -PanSola 18:49, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your comment and the pointer to your page. I think the presentation of both versions can be improved. I'll take a crack at it after dinner, and post my version to my userpage or somewhere, leaving the Damage article alone for now. &mdash; Stabber (talk) 19:19, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Resurrecting the "Reduced AL vs Holy" question
Pulling only relavent parts from the Archive:
 * In a fit of inspiration I tested a few things on the doppelganger. First I took my necro and changed my second profession to monk to take Bane Signet and Banish against my necrotic armor. Each piece of armor increased the damage taken by 5.
 * --Cloak of Letters 08:10, 25 October 2005 (EST)


 * Try again with a different holy damage skill, since the damage for those two is nearly the same for 12 smiting. But, I'd guess each piece is giving you -5 AL versus holy, applying globally and stacking.  --Fyren 09:15, 18 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I found out the doppleganger has 15 in all atributes which happens to result in both spells doing the same damage (56 I think it was). 5 more damage works out to be some irrational number of "reduced AL" so I concluded it was simply +5 damage. Plus, I'm short on skills points and not playing much anymore. Also, awhile ago I took a smiting rod against Elemental Resistance.


 * He has had 12 since the patch that made him easier. What I said before about armor ignoring is right.  It "ignores armor" because the target's real AL doesn't matter.  Of all the ways to get this to work, the one that makes the most sense is to set the target AL to whatever value makes that work out.  --Fyren 17:05, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

I tried crunching on the numbers, and found that whether I use 49 or 50 base damage (Banish / Bane Signet), the theory of "each piece contribute -5 AL" won't always work out. For 49 base damage, one piece of necrotic would lead to 53.43 effective, rounded to 53 (only increase by 4). For 50 base damage, two piece would lead to 59.46 effective, rounded to 59 (only increase by 9). Thus assuming Cloak of Letter's report of "each piece increase damage taken by 5" is exactly correct and not approximated, Fyen's theory is incorrect. Using 56 damage as a base also doesn't work out.

However, because the armor description does say "Reduced armor against Holy" as opposed to "Take additional damage against Holy", I'm inclined to consider that something else is going on. Unfortunately I won't be able to get a Necro to Lion's Arch anytime soon, so in the meantime hopefully someone can test it.

Smite is a good skill to test with, since it deals two separate damages (assume target is attacking) that are easily distinguishable at 12 Smiting. Also, Charr Shaman right outside of the courthouse uses low ranked Banish and Bane Signet, very useful for comparison too.

When reporting results, please specify exactly how much damage total was deal in the control case (standard armor) and variable case (reduced AL vs Holy armor) as opposed to just saying "it dealt xx more damage". Basically we need more detailed data to either confirm Cloak of Letter's "+5 damage per piece" is correct, or come up with some other theory. -PanSola 12:14, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * attribute level 15 Banish with 0 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 56 damage
 * attribute level 15 Banish with 1 piece of Necrotic Armor: 61 damage
 * attribute level 15 Banish with 2 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 66 damage
 * attribute level 15 Banish with 3 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 71 damage
 * attribute level 15 Banish with 4 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 76 damage


 * attribute level 12 Banish with 0 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 49 damage
 * attribute level 12 Banish with 1 piece of Necrotic Armor: 54 damage
 * attribute level 12 Banish with 2 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 59 damage
 * attribute level 12 Banish with 3 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 64 damage
 * attribute level 12 Banish with 4 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 69 damage


 * attribute level 12 Bane Signet with 0 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 50 damage
 * attribute level 12 Bane Signet with 1 piece of Necrotic Armor: 55 damage
 * attribute level 12 Bane Signet with 2 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 60 damage
 * attribute level 12 Bane Signet with 3 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 65 damage
 * attribute level 12 Bane Signet with 4 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 70 damage
 * --Cloak of Letters 15:51, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Very nice base set of numbers. I'm a noob as to your actual testing methods, but is it possible to test below 12? Attribute 0,5 and 10 would give much more solid listings. ^_^ --Dragos 16:36, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I used the doppelganger. I got the 15 attribute set from before a patch that changed it's attributes to 12.--Cloak of Letters 17:50, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Can you also try the Charr Shaman outside the courthouse in Ascalon? Using the control (0 pieces) we can easily figure out what their rank in smiting prayers is.  And also test Smite from Doopleganger.  But I think it's looking clear that Anet simply botched on the description (-:  -PanSola 19:43, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * attribute level 4 Banish with 0 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 30 damage
 * attribute level 4 Banish with 1 piece of Necrotic Armor: 35 damage
 * attribute level 4 Banish with 2 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 40 damage
 * attribute level 4 Banish with 3 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 45 damage
 * attribute level 4 Banish with 4 pieces of Necrotic Armor: 50 damage
 * Charr Shamen. Looks like its +5. | Chuiu 20:48, 4 December 2005 (UTC)