Mechanics thread

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robble wrote:
One thing that still really confuses me are things like endurance charges. I read about expending them - I'm quite confused on how to get them or use them. I'll go read the section on them a few more times.


You can get endurance charges using two STR skills: Warlord's Mark and Enduring Cry.

Warlord's Mark is a curse and has a chance of giving you an endurance charge upon killing an enemy so it's almost useless on bosses as a charge source, unless they have many followers. The good thing is that the curse gives you life and mana leech too so it's useful even if it gave you no charges.

Enduring Cry gives you a number of endurance charges proportional to number of enemies in a (pretty large) radius. The calculation is a bit awkwardly displayed as "X charges per 100 enemies, one charge minimum", saying if X is 10 you get two charges if 20 enemies are on screen and one for everything under that. This skill also makes enemies target you so it's nice for drawing aggro if you're partying with squishy squigglies.

Endurance charges give you flat damage reduction that goes on top of armor reduction so it's best having them on characters that already have some armor as charges can further cut damage considerably. Let's say you have 60% damage reduction, with four charges of 5% each that goes up to 80% so you practically suffer only half of damage then you would receive without any charges.

You can expend charges via STR Immortal Cry or INT Discharge skill, the first one doesn't last long and the last requires a very specific elemental caster build to be even remotely efficient so it's probably better to just leave the charges on you.
Respect your passive skills and they shall respect you in turn.
Last edited by raic000 on Aug 11, 2012, 11:54:59 AM
There's also a Unique chestpiece that grants Endurance charges when you get crit. Not very reliable though.
How long does an endurance charge last if you don't do something to actively discharge them?

If i read that right just having them reduces damage.
Base duration of all charges is 10 secondes, but there are passives to increase it.

And yes, have endurance charge will reduce damage received.
Last edited by Kissan on Aug 11, 2012, 4:21:47 PM
you sure all charges are same duration base? i was trying to test why power charges had 15% boost and i came to conclusion they started at almost 11 while the other two honestly started at 10.
i don't think the increases are 15% due to power charges working as crit boost, although that is logical. 10.5 seconds +30% =13.65 while 10 +36% = 13.6
i'm likely very wrong and happy to be but this is what i experienced and it seems right XD.

-1 cred to me? XD
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soul4hdwn wrote:
you sure all charges are same duration base? i was trying to test why power charges had 15% boost and i came to conclusion they started at almost 11 while the other two honestly started at 10.
i don't think the increases are 15% due to power charges working as crit boost, although that is logical. 10.5 seconds +30% =13.65 while 10 +36% = 13.6
i'm likely very wrong and happy to be but this is what i experienced and it seems right XD.

-1 cred to me? XD


Well, all time i have used charges they all displayed 10 secondes on the screen, so i figured that they all had same base duration. I can't look at it this week end (not at home), but i will make tests on monday.
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Kissan wrote:
Well, all time i have used charges they all displayed 10 secondes on the screen, so i figured that they all had same base duration. I can't look at it this week end (not at home), but i will make tests on monday.

like i said, i am very likely to be wrong this time, i just wanted to comment to explain my possibility.
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Zakaluka wrote:
Spoiler
Character screen DR% woes

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If I chug both these flasks while at 6 stacks of endurance (yay for kaom's sign!!), the character screen tells me I have 26,000 armour and 90% DR.

But, if you're reading this thread you know that the character screen is extremely misleading. That figure is based on a very small "estimated" hit size. I'm level 58, and the character sheet bases my "estimated" reduction on a hit that damages me for 240. Isn't that a bit low? That's a very small number! I care far more about how much I'm reducing when I'm taking 800 damage at a time.

GGG has said they will eventually fix this - ie, give us a way to see exact stats for the last monster we were fighting - but for now it's useful for us to discuss how this works.

When do we actually CARE about DR?

Well, I had a screenshot of the Great White Beast chasing me, and a unique monkey with the %IPD aura standing right next to him, my healthbar at 30%. Definitely a scary situation. But I guess I didn't actually get the screenshot :(

Anyway, THIS is when I care about my DR, NOT when I have a pack of frenzy monkeys surrounding me but when a super-unique bear with IPD/2x map brutus appears. This situation matters so much more.

So let's see! In a controlled environment (room is clear)

case 1: 6 endurance, 2k armour, 61% DR on character screen. He hits me for an average of 350 damage. Solution: 49% DR, pre-mitigation it's ~700 damage.

case 2: 0 endurance, 2k armour, 31% DR on character screen. He hits me for about 550 damage. Solution: 19% DR, pre-mitigation it's ~700 damage.

Consistent, yes? Not proof that I am correct but it supports my reasoning somewhat.

So let's see, how much armour do I actually need to get 90% DR against this guy if he gets a 50% IPD buff? Now his hits are 1050 dmg each.

case 3: 6 endurance, ? armour, 1050 damage, actual 90% DR. Solution: 19,000 armour. Okay! So when I get both my flasks stacked up, I'm actually at 90% DR because those flasks combine to 26k armour. Good to know.

case 4: 0 endurance, ? armour, 1050 damage, actual 90% DR. Solution: 113,000 armour.

WOW. Without endurance you need over 110k armour rating to cap DR against a 1k hit. With endurance you only need about 20k armour, which anyone flasked like me can reach just through flask effects (wearing NO armour).

BUT wait! I don't have endurance, at all! And I can chug a granite to peg my DR at 90! It's not actually true, the game shows ME this as well. But my ACTUAL damage reduction, without endurance charges rolling, against a 1k hit, is only 55%. The links above all link to the same solver, so if you want to find out how much DR you're actually getting just plug in values.

Do you guys remember when I said that having 5 endurance charges stacked up, multiplies the value of your armor by 5x towards the cap?


You seem to be subtly complaining about the effectiveness of armor (unreasonably).
most merciless monsters in the game (including rares, magics, uniques) do not hit for more than about 1000 physical damage. The most physical damage in the game right now is probably falling rocks, aside from maybe some special aura or double aura monsters in maps lvl 62+. Falling rocks is about 800+ damage (maybe 800-1300)

A typical monster hit around level 58 is most certainly around that 240 that you said the game was assuming.

Just because armor damage reduction's cap is 90% doesn't mean that you should get 90% cap vs average monster hits — it's designed to work out to be 75%, like evasion or block. The 90% will more-so effect the smaller hits, and that's intentional.

Lastly, just the concept of reducing huge hits to 90% is kinda ridiculous; you sound like it should actually be easily possible or something. Why should it be easily possible? the fact that it would take lots of points to get such a reduction makes good sense!
If you want to be invulnerable to physical damage just use immortal call (stupid skill).


The biggest problem I see with armor is how much it will be stinky poo in PvP where people may often deal elemental damage or huge amounts of physical damage. That could be partially fixable with some sort of PvP damage reduction system though.


If you're just complaining that the reduction estimation is annoying why did you write so much about it? Most people know that system is annoying, and it only takes like a paragraph to explain it.
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Last edited by Xapti on Aug 11, 2012, 10:47:35 PM
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Hm, I'm actually not complaining, sorry it appears that way. I'm showing a small glimpse of what happens when you are OVERcap. And giving a few hints about how it may be possible to tank even bosses that hit for 2500+ damage.

To answer your, "why" question, I am breaking into this subject one step at a time. But I believe that all content in this game is tankable, even without a shield. That's the final goal, to demonstrate various ways you can tank the bossroom on a double-brutus map. Here is where most chime in "you can't". I'm slogging through the mechanics to understand them, so I can figure that out.

I am, somewhat, complaining that the character screen is misleading. Although GGG have acknowledged that, and will eventually fix it. It's more that I have begun to understand how to USE armour, and I think the community could use some hints.

No, I love my armour. My templar skips ES entirely to stack armour to the ceiling. That'd be pretty counter-productive if I thought armour were bad :). It is, though, a rather complex system. Takes some tinkering to figure out how to make best use of it.

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most merciless monsters in the game (including rares, magics, uniques) do not hit for more than about 1000 physical damage.


and yet, the character screen is basing my DR estimate on a 400 damage hit (mitigated to ~250) at level 60, which is about right to start farming pyramid. I'm not really interested in how much DR I have against the rank and file skeletons. How much DR I have against a unique with the %IPD aura would be much more interesting to know. Sadly, the character screen can't do that right now, and one of the points of my post is to shed some light on that.

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Lastly, just the concept of reducing huge hits to 90% is kinda ridiculous


This is where my sad face goes, because my overall goal is to point out that this is indeed very possible - and not only that, easy if you understand the mechanics. I'll try to demo this, assuming I don't die, since I play hardcore. I want to face tank map bosses, but still manage to farm quickly. Now tell me, "you can't do that" - and I'll still keep working on this concept :)

Trouble is - according to my calculations, I need about 8,000 armour rating (OOC) to do what I'm trying to do with 6 endurance, and I can't afford determination. With 8 endurance, 3k would be enough, but 8 endurance would gimp my build in other ways that I'm not willing to accept ><. 7 endurance MIGHT be workable. And right now I only have 2,000 armour. 8,000 armour isn't impossible to reach, but it'll take some time.

I'm sorry, xapti, but you've misunderstood my goal.
Let a man walk alone -
Let him commit no sin.
Let him bear few wishes,
Like an elephant in the forest.
Last edited by Zakaluka on Aug 12, 2012, 12:44:08 AM
Here's the table.

A complete turtle max-tank character, wearing a shield, with no DPS whatsoever can achieve 20k armour with the best possible gear in this game. It'll never happen, though.

Same idea, 14k armour with no shield.

A marauder with two Kaom's signs can get 8 endurance charges. It's kind of a gimped build, though. 7 is reasonable for most armour-aligned classes (more difficult for duelist, I think). Still takes two Kaom's signs and some cross-class skilling.

I'm sure I didn't COMPLETELY max so the table goes from 2k to 20k.



If you can make it into the yellow zone, and get your regen high with some combination of leech/LoH/Regen, or slow down incoming damage with some combination of elemental statuses, stun, block, evade, blind such that a saturated flask is enough to cover the health deficit.... AND you're flasked properly for it, you can tank endgame bosses.
Let a man walk alone -
Let him commit no sin.
Let him bear few wishes,
Like an elephant in the forest.
Last edited by Zakaluka on Aug 12, 2012, 1:40:34 AM

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