Well the fighting is over, but I hope anyone still here wouldn't mind <3ing and voting in this please?
Next time the battle system is used, I'll make sure this topic gets reposted.
EDIT: So the battle system is here to stay! Guess Berry and I have another project with looking at our data to see if there's a pattern to critical hits so we can get that out in time for the next event. And we did confirm his formula for healing before the event ended.
Welcome to Infinity Science
Welcome to Infinity Science where we strive to analyze and understand the world we're in. Our current project is a dissection of Gaia's new Battle System that premiered in the Halloween 2013 event. Currently, it's just myself and Berryfarmer collecting and analyzing data and discerning the system's patterns. But seeing as it was a joint-venture we thought it would be fair to share our results with both sides of the event so sit down and stay tuned and you may learn something.
So there are some things to know before just diving into cutting and blasting each other in this system. Things such as what each thing means and what statistics are and what is that energy and experience thing. So here goes a basic guide to approaching combat.
So as you can see on the left, when going to someone's posts in a forum utilizing the battle system you can get some preliminary information by just looking at the information under their avatar. For example in this case the boxed portions tell you the person's class, level, and team. In this example, the poster is a Level 6 and on Team Easter Bunny, and the shield icon next to their level indicates that they are a Defender class. Currently, each class has their own icon that appears next to someone's level:
Defender has a shield
Knight has a broadsword
Mage has a staff
Cleric has a tome
Rogue has a pair of crossed daggers
These five classes create 25 possible battle scenarios when it comes to attacking and healing someone. And their team determines whether they are a friend or foe. Each class has their own set of attacks and heals, and stat progression (which Pantz will talk more on in the Meet the Classes section). For now you just need to know that what class you and your target are is going to affect the kind of damage you will be able to inflict/heal.
Continuing on our discussion about things to remember when going to attack someone. It is a wise idea to keep an eye on these three bars on both yourself and your foe. The upper bar is an indication of how many hit points your target has. When those hit points reach 0 you, or your foe, die. That's why it is a good idea to keep track of your hit points to ensure that you remain alive to continue battling. Depending on where you venture to around the forums your goal is kill your foe while remaining alive yourself.
The middle bar is an indication of how much energy the person has. Energy is what fuels your attacks and your heals. If you do not have enough energy to perform any attacks you will not be able to attack, and likewise if you don't have energy to heal you won't be able to heal yourself or others. With the current updates energy regenerates naturally at a rate of 2 points per minute. So if you need energy, you can wait a couple minutes to let it build up. (A good tip: Let your energy recharge completely before going on the attack so that you can remain attacking/healing as long as possible.)
The third bar is the experience bar. As you perform various actions you earn experience points, when your experience points reach a threshold and fill the bar you level up. The current level cap is level 10, however I believe according to some of the donation benchmarks in the pre-H2k13 event goldsink it was designed to accommodate levels as high as 20. At current each successful attack earns 3 experience points, each heal earns 2 experience points, and killing another player earns you 10 experience points (with some yet unknown bonus if you kill someone higher leveled than you). That being said each class has their own ways to efficiently gain experience, that will be talked about more in each class' in depth analysis.
Now that we've covered all that can we finally get to the actual battling?
Why yes we can. Now that you've got all that information floating around your head it's time to push that button labeled "Event Menu," depending on whether or not the person is a friend or foe one of two screens pop up when you press the button.
If the person is a foe this type of screen should come up:
When pulling up a screen for attacking or healing you will always appear on the left side of the screen (in this case the screen cap was from Pantz). But as you can see this screen shows us some very important information regardless of the friend or foe. The two upper boxed areas show us on the left your level, class, current HP, and available energy, and on the right it's the same information for your target. The lower two boxed areas show us some important stats information. When you go into combat these statistics, primarily melee and magic, affect both your resistance to attacks, and the power of your attacks. At current more research is being done on luck but it is currently suspected to play a role in the hit-miss-crit-counter dynamic, with higher luck giving you a better chance at scoring critical hits and a better chance of being able to counter attacks.
Let's assume you're planning on attacking your target. Depending on your class you have between 1-3 attacks to hit your target with. Attacks fall into one of three tiers: low, mid, and high. In the following picture we're looking at the Mage's attacks; the red arrow points to Pantz's high attack (Arcane Storm), the yellow arrow points to her mid attack (Enchanting Alchemy), and the green arrow points to her low attack (Mystic Wand).
Depending on your preference you can attack a foe with any of your attacks so long as you have the required energy to perform that attack. Different attacks have different energy costs, often times a high attack has the highest energy cost while a low attack has a low energy cost.
But what determines whether an attack is high, low, or mid? The base damage my friend, the base damage. If you take another look at each of those attacks you'll see a bit of information labelled as base damage. That base damage is the very minimum damage your attack does if it hits your opponent. REGARDLESS OF LEVEL OR STAT DIFFERENCES IF YOUR ATTACK LANDS IT WILL ALWAYS DO THE BASE DAMAGE AS A MINIMUM! With how some of the classes matchup against each other and level differences accounted, sometimes an attack should do less than base, but in the current system if that would happen the damage gets rounded up to the base damage of the attack, Pantz and I will talk about this more when we get to the in depth analyses of each class and the meet the classes sections.
There are two stats that affect how much damage your attacks will do and how much damage you receive, these are labeled as Melee and Magic. Depending on your class your attacks are labeled as being magic or melee. In the above example with Pantz as the attacker, you can see all three of her attacks are labeled as "a magic Attack," this means that when using one of those attacks her offense stat will be her Magic, and her opponent's defense stat will be their Magic. In the above example this would mean Pantz's offense is 18 while her target (me) has a defense of 14. But why is this important? Well, the way the system is set up the ratio of of those stats, as well as the attack's base damage, determine how much damage the attack does.
What did you just say?To compute how much damage your attack will do you need a few pieces of information:
What kind of attack is it? (Magic or Melee)
Your stat (Magic or Melee, depending on attack type)
Your target's stat (Magic or Melee)
And lastly the base damage of the attack/list]
In fact the formula for damage computation is quite simple once the pattern is recognized (though admittedly this took several hundred, close to 500, data points to realize), you ready for this magic bullet?
DAMAGE = (Attacker's Offense / Defender's Defense) * Base Damage of the attack
So let's apply this to our example and say Pantz decides to attack me with Mystic Wand, since it is a magic attack, with a base power of 10, it uses the magic stats for offense and defense:
Damage = (18/14)*10
Damage = (1.3)*10
Damage = 13
So at the minimum if Pantz comes at me with Mystic Wand and it hits, it will do 13 damage. The reason I say at the minimum, is because there is still the chance of scoring a critical hit. This is also why it is easier to get the K.O. Achievement at lower levels, because of the math, lower levels have higher multipliers when battling each other.
So getting back to our above screen shot, you'll notice there are two other options you can pick: Retreat and Items. Selecting Retreat will simply close the attack screen and refresh the forum page you were on. However, selecting Items, opens up another group of things you can use in battle.
When you need to use a potion in battle, this is how to do it. With the items tab open in battle you can select a potion to use on yourself to either raise your hit points, raise your energy, I hear there's even a potion that raises your luck. If you bought one of the class tomes either from the MP or the cash shop those also appear in the items tab, and you can use them to change your class by selecting the appropriate tome (be cautious though, once you change your class with a tome you will need another tome to change back to your class).
Okay that's nice, but what about if the target is a friendly? Well if the person you target is on the same team as you (and you can target yourself in this fashion) the screen that pops up should look similar to this:
As you can see the buttons that were attacks now inform you that the target is on the same team as you are, while the button that was saying "Target is not same team" has transformed to resemble one of the attack buttons from before. Like attacks, heals also have a base power and energy cost. And they even come in low heals, mid heals, and high heals (not those kind of heels! xd). As with attacks the minimum amount of hit points a heal will recover is given as the base restore. In this case the heal, "Healing Aura," has a base restore of 20. Which means at the very minimum it will restore 20HP to the target. Currently, we're researching into how healing is computed (we haven't officially begun collecting data yet but more on that in the Ways to Help and Ongoing Experiments sections).
**NOTE: Given this type of data has not been collected or analyzed yet the following information is subject to change/correction and/or removal.** Given current observations the suspicion is that heals work by adding the caster's healing stat (since all the current heals are magic based the healing stat would be magic) to the base restore. So it would look like:
RESTORE = Base Restore + Healing stat
In the case of Pantz's Healing Aura, a magic heal with a base restore of 20, it would look something like:
Restore = 20 + 18
Restore = 38
This means that when Pantz uses Healing Aura, she will be able to restore herself or others, if she heals them, a minimum of 38 HP. Like attacks though you can get critical heals, these however are labeled as "Super Effective."
Well that should about cover all the basics and even a primer to some of the class specifics.
Along your journey up the battle system you may find yourself with your back against the wall and in need of assistance at times. There are some items which can aid in that. Potions for example allow you to restore yourself health or energy, tomes can let you change class, and some of those other powerups with other effects are for sale at a price.
Class Alteration Effect
Cleric Class Tome- Changes your current class to Cleric when used. Availablility- Available in La Victoire for 99GC, marketplace.
Defender Class Tome- Changes your current class to Defender when used. Availability- Available in La Victoire for 99GC, marketplace.
Knight Class Tome- Changes your current class to Knight when used. Availability- Available in La Victoire for 99GC, marketplace.
Knight Class Tome- Changes your current class to Mage when used. Availability- Available in La Victoire for 99GC, marketplace.
Knight Class Tome- Changes your current class to Rogue when used. Availability- Available in La Victoire for 99GC, marketplace.
Health Effect
H2k13 Minor Health Potion- Restores 10% of your maximum health per potion. Availability- Available in Barton Boutique during the H2k13 event for 1k.
H2k13 Health Potion- Restores 25% of your maximum health per potion. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 12GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Large Health Potion- Restores 50% of your maximum health per potion. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 25GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Mega Health Potion- Restores 100% of your maximum health per potion. (Refills entire bar.) Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 50GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Virtual Piggy Potion- Restores some health per potion. Availability- One given as a freebie per day of the H2k13 event, marketplace.
Energy Effect
H2k13 Minor Energy Boost- Restores 10% of your maximum energy per potion. Availability- Available in Barton Boutique during the H2k13 event for 25k. (Was 1k prior to 10/24/2013).
H2k13 Energy Boost- Restores 25% of your maximum energy per potion. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 12GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Large Energy Boost- Restores 50% of your maximum energy per potion. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 25GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Mega Energy Boost- Restores 100% of your maximum energy per potion. (Refills the entire bar) Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 50GC, marketplace.
Luck Effect
H2k13 Virtual Piggy Luck Charm- Raises your luck stat by 1 point. Availability- Available in Virtual Piggy Luck Charm Bundle by purchasing $5 or more worth of GC, marketplace.
Leveling Effect
H2k13 Level Up Booster- Raises your current level by 1 permanently. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 1,000GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Level Up Booster Bundle- Contains 5 of the H2k13 Level Up Booster. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 3,750GC, marketplace.
Defense Effect
H2k13 Dinner Shield- Shields you from all attacks until you attack. (From my understanding it makes it so that you can't be attacked. But wears off when you make any attack.) Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 125GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Shield- Shields you from all attacks for 24 hours. (My understanding is it makes it so you cannot be attacked until this wears off.) Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 2,500GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Uber Shield- Shields you from all attacks for the duration of the H2k13 event. (To my understanding it works like the above only permanent until the event's end. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 25,000GC, marketplace.
Stat Alteration Effect
H2k13 Temporary Boss Mode Booster- Boosts your stats to a level normally reserved for NPC's, mods and members of Gaia staff, for 24 hours though. From what I've seen it drastically increases your luck, magic and melee stats. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 1,200GC, marketplace.
H2k13 Permanent Boss Mode Booster- Same as the temporary booster but it lasts until the end of the H2k13 event. Availability- Available in La Victoire during the H2k13 event for 12,500GC, marketplace.
Classes, classes, classes... Which class to select? Do I go with the Mage, the Knight, or the Defender? Should I be a Rogue or a Cleric? In the battle system there are 5 classes, each one has their strengths and weaknesses. In this section we're going to give a rough look over each class and maybe help you make a decision about class. But if you want a nice summary here it goes:
Knight
Pros: High melee stat pair well with decent cost attacks to dole out damage
Low attack at 5 energy yields a pretty efficient 0.6 experience points per energy point used
High melee stat means you'll be getting at least a 1.1 multiplier in all your matchups (except against other Knights)
High melee stat gives you resistance to damage from other melee users (other Knights, Rogues, Defenders)
Decently priced heal means you can rapidly heal if need be
Cons: Low magic stat leaves you pretty close to the base level healing if you need to heal yourself
Low magic leaves you very vulnerable to Clerics and Mages when they use their magic attacks
Mage
Pros: High magic stat pairs well with decent cost attacks the shred non-magic based classes
Low attack at 5 energy yields a pretty efficient 0.6 experience points per energy point used
High magic stat means you'll be getting at least a 1.1 multiplier in all your matchups (except other Mages)
High magic gives you fairly good resistance to other magic users (Clerics and other Mages)
High magic allows you to heal sizable chunks of health in a pinch
Cons: Low melee stat leaves you pretty vulnerable to classes which use melee to attack (Knights, Defenders, Rogues)
Higher cost heal at 10 energy points could leave you depleted of energy without being able to heal too much
Defender
Pros: Fairly well balanced stats give you all around durability, unless you are low leveled other classes won't hit you with more than a 1.4 multiplier.
Low cost heal combined with medium magic allows you to heal yourself or others and stay in a fight longer.
This class boasts the highest total HP of any level meaning it takes longer to kill
Cons: At 8 energy an attack, attacking for experience yields a low 0.4 experience points per energy.
Balanced stats don't give you much extra damage multipliers at higher levels (highest is 1.4 against Mages and Clerics)
Cleric
Pros: High magic stat coupled with low energy heals means you can shrug off a lot of damage to both you and allies by simply healing it off
Three heals to choose from gives you a wide range of options for restoring health
High magic stat gives a damage resistance to other magic users (other Clerics and Mages)
High magic makes your one attack powerful against melee users (Knights, Rogues, Defenders)
Cons: Low melee stat makes you vulnerable to melee users (Defenders, Knights, Rogues)
Only one medium priced attack means most of your experience is going to come from healing. Leveling by attacking only yields 0.2 experience points per energy
Rogue
Pros: This class has the most energy efficient means to level up. At 4 energy an attack, that's a remarkable 0.75 experience points per energy point
Fairly balanced stats give decent survivability unless facing off against Mages and Knights
Yet to be determined how, possibly the high luck, makes this class hard to hit, while being able to hand down statistically higher rates of critical hits
Medium magic stat compared with a decent powered heal gives fairly good health restoration
The most powerful attack of this class is priced at 12 energy and is slightly more powerful than other class' mid attacks
Cons: That medium melee stat means you aren't doing much against Knights, Defenders, and other Rogues
The low damage of your attacks means you'll be reliant on level and class matchups, and critical hits to deal out significant damage.
At 10 energy a heal, depending on how aggressive you are, your energy could burn out fast if you heal
So now that that's out of the way let's talk about leveling up. Just about any action in the battle system earns you experience points. Attacking earns 3 if the attack lands, healing earns 2, and scoring a kill nets you a nifty 10 points, and if you're lucky and counter someone's attack you get 3 experience points for it. So with all that, how many points do you need to reach level 10? Let's have a look:
Wowzers, it will take nearly 40k experience points to reach level 10 from starting out. To put some perspective on that that's about 13050 attacks, assuming they all land, or around 19500 heals, or if you're just sniping kills about 3900 kills.
So what do you get from leveling up? Currently, when you level up each of your stats (melee, magic, luck) increase by 2 points, which means your attacks get stronger, and your chances of scoring crits increases. Also your energy and health increase by 20 points each, which means you can fight longer and harder. Not to mention when you level up your health and energy are fully restored, so you can immediately work on the next level.
So when it comes down to attacking which classes use which stat? Each attack varies on whether it uses melee or magic to attack, but it does tell you on the attack's information which it uses. As a general rule:
Magic- Used by Mages and Clerics
Melee- Used by Knights, Defenders, and Rogues
Where to begin with an analysis? How about we begin with attacks and level up information. This is the Knight, he/she posses a high melee stat and a low magic stat, bolstered by some good luck. He has average health and average energy to go with his abilities. So the following is a look at the Knight's skill set:
And this is the level up progression of the Knight and their stats:
So what does all that information mean exactly? It means the Knight is going to be able to hit with some high power melee blows. But as far as healing goes, if they get beat up too much they're going to have to be a bit reliant on one of the more magic endowed classes to keep them in fighting shape.
And the Knight's fastest and most efficient level up path? Unleashing a fury of Hacking Slash, actually. Each use costs 5 energy and nets 3 experience giving a 0.6 xp/energy return. With the Knight's energy reserves they can unleash between 12 and 48 Hacking Slashes, assuming they all hit, that's 36 to 144 experience points per bar of energy. Not to mention, unleashing that wave of attacks in a no-holds setting where you can kill your foe, you can score additional experience from a kill or two (assuming your foe neglects to heal themself).
How about those multipliers that Berry and I keep mentioning? Well, it's about time we finally got around to explaining those. When gathering data on attacks and damages and who was fighting whom and a what level, a pattern began to emerge as far as what the damage being done was. After collecting several data points across several matchups at varying levels, we began to work out that the damage was computed by using the ratio of the attacker's to defender's stats relevant to the attack: ie Knight's melee vs Mage's melee to determine the damage a Knight would do in a fight vs a Mage.
The following are the resulting tables created from all that data, across the top row is the attacker's level, and the vertical column is the defender's level. As noted by Berry before, some of these matchups would yield multipliers of less than 1. In these instances the multiplier used is 1, however we put the mathematical values into the charts. Certain points are blacked out on each chart to indicate that an attacker of that level cannot, in the current system, attack a defender of that level, for example a level 10 Knight cannot attack a level 1 Mage.
Knight vs Cleric
Knight vs Defender
Knight vs Knight
Knight vs Mage
Knight vs Rogue
So what do all these charts tell us?
Knight's best matchups are against: Mages, Clerics, Defenders, Rogue in that order
Unless fighting another Knight or someone much higher leveled than them a Knight will be able to hit for damage greater than the base damages of their attacks.
If going for highest damage target a Mage that is 2 levels lower than you.
Just a quick reminder of that damage equation Berry showed you earlier:
Damage = (Attacker stat / Defender stat) * Attack's base damage
So let's see some examples?
Using Hacking Slash Level 10 Knight vs Level 8 Mage
Damage = 1.8 *10 = 18
Using Unlimited Blade Works Level 5 Knight vs Level 7 Cleric
Damage = 1.3 *45 = 59
Using Cleaving Blade Level 3 Knight vs Level 1 Rogue
Damage = 2.3 *20 = 46
Using Hacking Slash Level 1 Knight vs Level 5 Defender
Damage = 0.8 *10 = 8 --& Because multiplier is less than 1, Damage = Base = 10
So let's jump into this analysis with looking at the Mage's attacks, heals and level up information. This is the Mage, he/she posses a high magic stat and a low melee stat, bolstered by some good luck. He has average health and average energy to go with his abilities. So the following is a look at the Mage's skill set:
And this is the level up progression of the Mage and their stats:
So what does all that information mean exactly? It means the Mage is going to be able to hit with some high power magic strikes. But as far as healing goes, if they get beat up too much they might need to lean on another class to heal them since their heal energy is very energy intensive.
And the Mage's fastest and most efficient level up path? Unleashing a fury of Mystic Wand, actually. Each use costs 5 energy and nets 3 experience giving a 0.6 xp/energy return. With the Mage's energy they can unleash between 12 and 48 Mystic Wands, assuming they all hit, that's 36 to 144 experience points per bar of energy. Not to mention, unleashing that wave of attacks in a no-holds setting where you can kill your foe, you can score additional experience from a kill or two (assuming your foe neglects to heal themself).
How about those multipliers that Pantz and I keep mentioning? Well, when gathering data on attacks and damages and who was fighting whom and a what level, a pattern began to emerge as far as what the damage being done was. After collecting several data points across several matchups at varying levels, we began to work out that the damage was computed by using the ratio of the attacker's to defender's stats relevant to the attack. For example: Mage's magic vs Knight's magic to determine the damage a Mage would do in a fight vs a Knight.
The following are the resulting tables created from all that data, across the top row is the attacker's level, and the vertical column is the defender's level. As I noted before, some of these matchups would yield multipliers of less than 1. In these instances the multiplier used is 1, however we put the mathematical values into the charts. Certain points are blacked out on each chart to indicate that an attacker of that level cannot, in the current system, attack a defender of that level, for example a level 10 Mage cannot attack a level 1 Cleric.
Mage vs Cleric
Mage vs Defender
Mage vs Knight
Mage vs Mage
Mage vs Rogue
So what do all these charts tell us?
Mage's best matchups are against: Knights, Defenders, Cleric/Rogue in that order
Unless fighting another Mage or someone much higher leveled than them a Mage will be able to hit for damage greater than the base damages of their attacks.
If going for highest damage target a Knight that is 2 levels lower than you.
Just a quick reminder of that damage equation I showed you earlier:
Damage = (Attacker stat / Defender stat) * Attack's base damage
So let's see some examples?
Using Mystic Wand Level 10 Mage vs Level 8 Knight
Damage = 1.8 *10 = 18
Using Arcane Storm Level 5 Mage vs Level 7 Cleric
Damage = 1 *45 = 45
Using Enchanting Alchemy Level 3 Mage vs Level 1 Rogue
Damage = 2.3 *20 = 46
Using Mystic Wand Level 1 Mage vs Level 5 Defender
Damage = 0.8 *10 = 8 --& Because multiplier is less than 1, Damage = Base = 10
So let's jump into this analysis with looking at the Defender's attacks, heals and level up information. This is the Defender, he/she posses a balanced set of stats. He has high health and average energy to go with his abilities. So the following is a look at the Defender's skill set:
And this is the level up progression of the Defender and their stats:
So what does all that information mean exactly? It means the Defender is going to be able to hit with some decently powered melee hits. And be able to heal themselves and others effectively in the thick of combat.
And the Defender's fastest and most efficient level up path? Actually it's about equal between unleashing a fury of Shield Bashes, or hunkering down and spamming Helping Hand. Each use of Shield Bash costs 8 energy and nets 3 experience giving a 0.4 xp/energy return. And each use of Helping Hand costs 8 energy and nets 2 experience giving a 0.4xp/energy return. With the Defender's energy they can unleash between 7 and 30 Shield Bashes, assuming they all hit, that's 21 to 90 experience points per bar of energy. Likewise, with that energy they can spam between 12 and 48 Helping Hands, which yields between 24 and 96 experience points. Not to mention, unleashing that wave of attacks in a no-holds setting where you can kill your foe, you can score additional experience from a kill or two (assuming your foe neglects to heal themself). Or if you start getting assaulted, you can effectively heal yourself and keep going.
How about those multipliers that Pantz and I keep mentioning? Well, when gathering data on attacks and damages and who was fighting whom and a what level, a pattern began to emerge as far as what the damage being done was. After collecting several data points across several matchups at varying levels, we began to work out that the damage was computed by using the ratio of the attacker's to defender's stats relevant to the attack. For example: Defender's melee vs Mage's melee to determine the damage a Defender would do in a fight vs a Mage.
The following are the resulting tables created from all that data, across the top row is the attacker's level, and the vertical column is the defender's level. As I noted before, some of these matchups would yield multipliers of less than 1. In these instances the multiplier used is 1, however we put the mathematical values into the charts. Certain points are blacked out on each chart to indicate that an attacker of that level cannot, in the current system, attack a defender of that level, for example a level 10 Defender cannot attack a level 1 Cleric.
Defender vs Cleric
Defender vs Defender
Defender vs Knight
Defender vs Mage
Defender vs Rogue
So what do all these charts tell us?
Defender's best matchups are against: Clerics and Mages
Unless fighting a Mage or Cleric or someone much lower leveled than them a Defender will be hitting for damage equal to the base damages of their attacks.
If going for highest damage target a Mage or Cleric that is 2 levels lower than you.
Just a quick reminder of that damage equation I showed you earlier:
Damage = (Attacker stat / Defender stat) * Attack's base damage
So let's see some examples?
Using Shield Bash Level 10 Defender vs Level 8 Mage
Damage = 1.4 *12 = 17
Using Crushing Blow Level 5 Defender vs Level 7 Cleric
Damage = 1 *25 = 25
Using Shield Bash Level 3 Defender vs Level 1 Rogue
Damage = 1.3 *12 = 16
Using Crushing Blow Level 1 Defender vs Level 5 Defender
Damage = 0.3 *12 = 4 --&; Because multiplier is less than 1, Damage = Base = 12
So jumping into this analysis with looking at the Cleric's attacks, heals and level up information. This is the Cleric, he/she posses a high magic stat, low melee stat and high luck. He has average health and very high energy to go with his abilities. So the following is a look at the Cleric's skill set:
And this is the level up progression of the Cleric and their stats:
So what does all that information mean exactly? It means the Cleric is going to be able to lay down some high power and high frequency healing. Though attacking is going to be very energy intensive for them. Tactically, they should partner up with one of the other classes and heal while the other class goes attacking, but that is up to what your preference is.
And the Cleric's fastest and most efficient level up path? It's unleashing a flurry of healing with Mend. Each use of Mend costs 5 energy and nets 2 experience giving a 0.4 xp/energy return. While each use of Decay Strike costs 15 energy and nets 3 experience only giving a 0.13xp/energy return. With the Cleric's energy they can use between 20 and 56 Mends, that's 40 to 112 experience points per bar of energy. Whereas, with that energy they can use between 6 and 18 Decay Strikes, which yields between 18 and 54 experience points, assuming each one hits. Not to mention, unleashing that wave of attacks in a no-holds setting where you can kill your foe, if you start getting assaulted, you can effectively out-heal anything the other classes can throw at you.
How about those multipliers that we keep mentioning? Well, when gathering data on attacks and damages and who was fighting whom and a what level, a pattern began to emerge as far as what the damage being done was. After collecting several data points across several matchups at varying levels, we began to work out that the damage was computed by using the ratio of the attacker's to defender's stats relevant to the attack. For example: Cleric's magic vs Mage's magic to determine the damage a Cleric would do in a fight vs a Mage.
The following are the resulting tables created from all that data, across the top row is the attacker's level, and the vertical column is the defender's level. As I noted before, some of these matchups would yield multipliers of less than 1. In these instances the multiplier used is 1, however we put the mathematical values into the charts. Certain points are blacked out on each chart to indicate that an attacker of that level cannot, in the current system, attack a defender of that level, for example a level 10 Cleric cannot attack a level 1 Rogue.
Cleric vs Cleric
Cleric vs Defender
Cleric vs Knight
Cleric vs Mage
Cleric vs Rogue
So what do all these charts tell us?
Cleric's best matchups, if they attack, are against: Knights and Defenders
Even when they have a matchup in their favor, Clerics aren't going be hitting for high damage unless they get a critical
If going for highest damage target a Knight or Defender that is 2 levels lower than you.
Just a quick reminder of that damage equation shown to you earlier:
Damage = (Attacker stat / Defender stat) * Attack's base damage
So let's see some examples?
Using Decay Strike Level 10 Cleric vs Level 8 Knight
Damage = 1.5 *16 = 24
Using Decay Strike Level 5 Cleric vs Level 5 Defender
Damage = 1.2 *16 = 19
Using Decay Strike Level 3 Cleric vs Level 1 Rogue
Damage = 1.7 *16 = 27
Using Decay Strike Level 1 Cleric vs Level 5 Cleric
Damage = 0.4 *16 = 6 --& Because multiplier is less than 1, Damage = Base = 16
So jumping into this analysis with looking at the Rogue's attacks, heals and level up information. This is the Rogue, he/she posses a balanced melee and magic stats and high luck. He has average health and low energy to go with his abilities. So the following is a look at the Rogue's skill set:
And this is the level up progression of the Rogue and their stats:
So what does all that information mean exactly? It means the Rogue is going to be able to frequently attack, even though they'll be small that increased luck can really effect the critical hit rate to effectively chip away a foe. Though healing is going to be very energy intensive for them, the Rogue has a strong enough heal to remain in the fight for a bit.
And the Rogue's fastest and most efficient level up path? It's spamming attacks with Dagger Strike. Each use of Dagger Strike costs 4 energy and nets 3 experience giving a 0.75 xp/energy return. With the Rogue's energy they can use between 10 and 55 Dagger Strikes, that's 30 to 165 experience points per bar of energy, assuming each one hits. Not to mention, unleashing that wave of attacks in a no-holds setting where you can kill your foe, with a high critical hit rate chances are while chipping away at their health you might be able to score a few kills and out damage most other class' healing (bar Clerics and healing focused Defenders).
How about those multipliers that we keep mentioning? Well, when gathering data on attacks and damages and who was fighting whom and a what level, a pattern began to emerge as far as what the damage being done was. After collecting several data points across several matchups at varying levels, we began to work out that the damage was computed by using the ratio of the attacker's to defender's stats relevant to the attack. For example: Rogues's melee vs Cleric's melee to determine the damage a Rogue would do in a fight vs a Cleric.
The following are the resulting tables created from all that data, across the top row is the attacker's level, and the vertical column is the defender's level. As I noted before, some of these matchups would yield multipliers of less than 1. In these instances the multiplier used is 1, however we put the mathematical values into the charts. Certain points are blacked out on each chart to indicate that an attacker of that level cannot, in the current system, attack a defender of that level, for example a level 10 Rogue cannot attack a level 1 Knight.
Rogue vs Cleric
Rogue vs Defender
Rogue vs Knight
Rogue vs Mage
Rogue vs Rogue
So what do all these charts tell us?
Rogue's best matchups are against: Clerics/Mages and Defenders
Even when they have a matchup in their favor, Rogues aren't going be hitting for high damage unless they get a critical
If going for highest damage target a Cleric or Mage that is 2 levels lower than you.
Between low energy cost and high critical hit rates the Rogue is arguably one of the best classes for leveling up
Just a quick reminder of that damage equation shown to you earlier:
Damage = (Attacker stat / Defender stat) * Attack's base damage
So let's see some examples?
Using Dagger Strike Level 10 Rogue vs Level 8 Knight
Damage = 1 *8 = 8
Using Midnight Shadow Level 5 Rogue vs Level 5 Defender
Damage = 1.2 *15 = 18
Using Coup de Grace Level 3 Rogue vs Level 1 Cleric
Damage = 5 *32 = 160
Using Dagger Strike Level 1 Rogue vs Level 5 Rogue
Damage = 0.4 *8 = 3.2 --& Because multiplier is less than 1, Damage = Base = 8
Mathematical Healing- Just how much health will those heals restore?
Luck and Criticals and Super Effective- Determine if there is a connection between luck and critical hits, and luck and super effective heals. If so how does it work, is it possible to compute chances of a critical/super effective?
Counter Attacks- What triggers them? Is it also luck or is something else at work?
Want to join the science team? Or just give us some information? Here's what you can do:
To help us with data collection you'll need to collect some information when you attack or heal. Pantz and I put together a nice little form to use that should make sharing data a piece of cake. And once you've got it, you can PM or post it.
[quote="Berryfarmer"]Shut up and take my data![/quote]
[quote="S3xy Pantz"]Well met everyone![/quote]
My Class and level:
My Stats: Melee/Magic/Luck
Target's Class and level:
Target's Stats: Melee/Magic/Luck
Action Performed: (Attack or Heal) Please list the name of the attack or heal you used
Damage Done/Health Restored: How much did the attack do, or how much did the heal restore
Critical Hit/Super Effective: If it was an attack was it a critical hit, if it was a heal was it super effective
Hit or Miss: Did the attack Hit or Miss the target
Countered (y/n) : Did your attack get countered, if so for how much
So some examples of this form would look like:
My Class and level: Defender Level 5
My Stats: 12/12/12
Target's Class and level: Mage Level 4
Target's Stats: 8/16/12
Action Performed: Attack- Shield Bash
Damage Done: 24
Critical Hit: Y
Hit or Miss: Hit
Countered: N
My Class and level: Defender Level 6
My Stats: 14/14/14
Target's Class and level: Defender Level 6
Target's Stats: 14/14/14
Action Performed: Heal- Helping Hand
Health Restored: 24
Super Effective: N
My Class and level: Rogue Level 6
My Stats: 16/16/20
Target Class and level: Knight Level 7
Target's Stats: 22/14/18
Action Performed: Attack- Dagger Strike
Damage Done: 0
Critical Hit: N
Hit or Miss: Miss
Countered: Y- 8
heartemotion_bigheartheartThe very biggest thank you of all. For creating the battles system.heartemotion_bigheartheart Uncle Kenny
Uncle Kenny
If it isn't too much a bother could you have a look at our work and give us an idea of how close we are? If you aren't too busy.
heartBecause your guys' low attack/no-kill threads provided us a wide range of samples to collect data from, Infinity Science would like to thank:
Pir2
Malchihiro Soulstar
Kid Jak
real kayla wassup
Doll Shi
emotion_bigheartBecause of being so kind and volunteering to aid in data collection, Infinity Science would like to thank:
Klatt
Hirome-Chan
Razareil
Ramo4000
Cloud Riven
subtledrop
ASTOR0364
Ren Orenji Doragon
your bridges burned
Pantz wanted me to make sure you all knew how valuable you were to the data gathering process. And would be able to find something your efforts and threads helped build.
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