Def Formula

[fingolfin]

Can you explain how def works? I noticed that as i lvl my % reduction goes down, why is that

[Dlorak]

armor % =

Code:

             armorPower
------------------------------------
armorPower + 200 + 10*level

weapon % =

Code:

            4 * weaponPower
------------------------------------
weaponPower + 200 + 10*level

Two big points:
Always level and wear the best equipment your level will allow (regardless of rarity) and you have it figured out.
If you are ARMOR% hungry, be aware of deminishing returns.

The rest...
Quick points about what this formula means:
- as fing points out, it means your equipment becomes less effective as you level. You will need to replace it, upgrading it as you level.
- More power is ALWAYS better.
- deminishing returns are built in. Your first 100 power gives, say, 20%armor. you at 200 power is only, say, 35%.

Other thoughts:
- Rarity is a huge source of power. at least +15% from one class to the next.
- Weapons are hugely important to fighters. Especially their rarity. Obviously way less important to mages.
- At higher levels, weapons and armor can drop with 0mods but higher power in exchange.
- Armor is important. But a fully legendary set of high level armor is only 70% reduction. Approaching 60% the deminishing return is kicking in quite largely, consider getting more mods out of some of your armor slots.

- Notice how at low levels, equipment needs to be replaced RAPIDLY. The inverse is true at much higher levels.
- Intuitively you may or may not see what this does to the value of rarity at different points along the level curve...
- For example: high-level (250+) items last longer. Therefore quality is important. this implies rares, supers and legendarys will SKYROCKET in value! high-level commons and uncommons will plummet into shop-fodder (fetching nice cash, however).
- Another example: low-level (1-50) items in general: since you are going to replace them soon, the value is much lower, even if it is rare+!

[fingolfin]

Is there any chance you can tweak the armor formula? Its been about 40 lvls now for me with no drops that add any significant armor reduction. As such it seems like the small gain i get from adding my 5 stat points every lvl is offset by the loss in armor %. I cannot move up to fight harder mobs because it seems like with my stats added and reduction loss its a wash so i stay where i am. Meaning that each lvl I fall further and further behind the hopes of getting any useful drops.

[Pops]

Yeah im with fing on this, we cant find better armor fast enough .

[Dlorak]

Work on your builds, perhaps consider some new skills:
http://questrpg.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/five-new-skills-for-v514/

Remember the top of the game isn't for the faint of heart, you are at the highest resistance of the elastic band.

[fingolfin]

I suppose a simple "no" would have worked lol. I know where I am on the elastic band and working on my build in no way can change my damage reduction, only armor/accessories do that which cannot be be found fast enough to offset the losses from lvling. I saw the new skills and we cant exactly add those yet as its not 5.14. Im not sure how much the new skills will help, they do add a lot of choices, but you still get 2 skill points per lvl. Any points I choose to invest in these skills will come at the expense of what im adding now, and by subtracting anything im adding now it will only slow down leveling time. So while im sure they will be useful the question is will they offset the losses from switching off a current build. No way to know this until it gets testd out. Any idea when the new version will be released? As I have been wanting a stat reset so i can use a new wep but I know one is coming with 5.14 so I have been trying to wait.

[Dlorak]

working on my build in no way can change my damage reduction, only armor/accessories do that which cannot be be found fast enough to offset the losses from leveling.

Really well put. I was very afraid of this with a level-based formula... I recall arguing rather firmly against level-based formulas in the past for this reason.
I did run some numbers that suggested the armor% difference is negligible, but it is very real that the gains from leveling (in stats and skills) may not surpass the armor% difference... Fing, you are a holy-style guy. That is out-out combat only. Perhaps a more in-combat skill will boost you? A personal skill or one of the new ones.As you rightly point out thats not possible for you right now (unless you unwisely dump 5mil right before we reset your skills!). We will release very soon. Maybe even tonight (friday).

At 200+ gear rarity starts to become king.. rare equip lasts for 30+ levels before uncommons start to rival them, perhaps equipment is holding you up? Remember Weapons and chest slots are most important... It is ultimately that same old RNG that chooses if you get a weapon or chestpiece, but they are more important regardless.

Really really good post... This is kinda one of those issues we have to be real about, it is a negative. But the positives of its existence outweigh it. stats+skills synergizing should make it so the gain from leveling moreso outweighs the loss from armor% as you level.

[fingolfin]

It is the gear thats an issue. In 40+ lvls i have not found any new gear with more power then the stuff i have which prevents me from moving forward to search for better gear. Every lvl I dont find new gear I lose armor % which makes it even more difficult to move forward and find something with a higher power. The new skills could change this so we'll see how they play out. I was just thinking maybe have armor go down a lil less each lvl, maybe .5 of a % instead of 1, or something along those lines. The holy skill thing is a slightly different issue, not so much affecting how far out I can fight but rather my leveling speed.

I do understand its a lil different out at the front of the pack because you cant buy any gear from other players. I could use a new armor but as you pointed out, they are quite difficult to find. I guess its just an issue of being forced to stand still not moving forward even though you are lvling until you find new gear, just something new to get used to.

[fingolfin]

- deminishing returns are built in. Your first 100 power gives, say, 20%armor. you at 200 power is only, say, 35%.

This really starts to hit home as you get to be higher level. I'm at level 311, just found an armor that adds 300 power to what I was using previously, and went up 2.3%. That gives me 23 lvl's to find a nice uprgrade or im right back where i was

[Dlorak]

the deminishing returns are relative to the amount of armor power you have, not your level. When your overall armor % is above 50% you start seeing rougher % losses.