Introduction[]
In this entry into the Game Mechanics 101 series, I'm going to discuss the basics of Damage in AdventureQuest (AQ). As a topic, Damage is far more complicated that the previous topics I've covered. To calculate it, you need to obtain a number of different components that interact with one another. At the same time, running through this process can introduce you to a number of important mechanics in AQ very quickly.
Please note that everything I explain below relates to calculating Damage, not whether the attack will land. We'll cover that in a later post on Accuracy. For a less in-depth version of damage calculation, please see Nivpil's DIY Calculation Guide
Visit the Content Hub for other parts of this series
Calculating Damage[]
This section describes how to calculate the Actual Damage of an attack. We don't use this formula to determine how an item should be balanced (we simplify to Melee/Magic attack strength of 100/75% Melee respectively). With that said, it's still useful to discuss how Actual Damage is calculated so you can see how each component interacts with one another.
The following formula can be used to calculate Average Actual Damage:
Standard Attack = Weapon Base * Armour Base + Weapon Random * Armour Random / 2 + Stat Damage * Armour Stat / 2 Weapon Special = Weapon Base * Special Base + Weapon Random * Special Random / 2 Spell = Spell Base + Spell Random / 2 + Stat Damage * Spell Stat / 2 Pet/Guest = Ally Base + Ally Random / 2 + Stat Damage * Companion Stat / 2
Each attack (almost) always deals a certain amount of Base Damage, as well as a certain amount of Random Damage that varies per hit. Adding the /2 modifier calculates average damage. Random damage can range from between 0 and the maximum range between min and max weapon damage (in this case 24). Meanwhile, stat damage can only range between 25 and 75% of the maximu. So, if we wanted to calculate Minimum/Maximum Damage, we'd need to use /4 and *3/4 modifiers respectively. You can find those formulas here.
I'm going to show you how to calculate the Standard Attack for a Level 150 Player. To keep things simple, they'll be using a Pyromancer Bloodblade (Magic Form) in The Pyromancer Bloodmage Armour. As we did when calculating HP, we'll break the formula down to make things easier.
Base and Random[]
The first component of the formula reads:
Weapon Base * Armour Base + Weapon Random * Armour Random / 2
What does this mean?
Weapon Base refers to the Base amount of damage a weapon can deal. For Pyromancer Bloodblade, this value can be seen on its Encyclopedia entry as well as in-game as the lowest amount of damage the weapon can deal. The Level 150 Magic Pyromancer Bloodblade deals 12-36 Damage, meaning that its Base is 12. (NB: So, if the weapon were in its Melee form, its Base would be 16 as it deals 16-48 Damage).
Weapon Random refers to the difference between the Base and the maximum amount of damage the weapon can deal. Since our weapon deals 12-36 Damage, its Weapon Random is 36 - 12 = 24 Damage. Let's feed those into the formula:
12 * Armour Base + 24 * Armour Random / 2
In contrast, Armour Base and Armour Random are modifiers that multiply our Weapon Base/Random values. You can't find these in-game - only in the Armour Encyclopedia Entries in the BR% row (standing for Base + Random Multiplier). Be very careful when looking for this online - sometimes the values refer to each hit of the attack rather than the attack in full. Pyromancer Bloodmage is a good example; the numbers for its standard attack in the main entry are calculated per hit. You have to scroll to the bottom to see the final value - 559%. Before we use it, we also have to convert it into a decimal:
12 * 5.59 + 24 * 5.59 / 2 = 134.16
This process requires you to dig into the equipment entries to get the information you need. Although the AQ Encyclopedia can give you this information for older entries, you may have to delve into the Info Submission section for newer data, This process would need a separate entry in the series.
Stat Damage[]
We now come to the second component:
Stat Damage * Armour Stat / 2
Armour Stat is, once again, found using the Enclyclopedia (located in the Stat% row). For Pyromancer Bloodmage, this is 1110%. We also have to convert this value to a decimal:
Stat Damage * 11.1 / 2
In constrast, the value for Stat Damage is more complex and depends on the type of attack:
Melee Weapon: STR/8 Ranged Weapon: DEX/8 Magic Weapon: INT*3/32 Melee Skill/Spell: STR/4 Ranged Skill/Spell: DEX/4 Magic Skill/Spell: INT/4 Pets: CHA/15 Guests: CHA/15
We are trying to calculate the damage for a Standard Attack using a Magic Weapon. This means our formula is INT*3/32. To keep things simple, we'll assume our imaginary player is a Mage (250 INT and 0 STR):
250 * 3/32 = 23.4375
We then plug this number into our Stat Damage component:
23.4375 * 11.1 / 2 = 130.078
Finally, we need to add our Base and Random Damage to our Stat Damage:
134.16 + 130.078 = 264.238 Damage
...and we're done!
Boosting your Attack Damage[]
... except we're not! We've just calculated the bare bones of an attack. There are a number of additional modifiers to include.
First, Pyromancer Bloodblade is a no-proc Weapon. This means it doesn't have a weapon special. (For context, a 100-proc weapon has a 100% chance to activate its special when you attack, a 20-proc 20% of the time, and so on). As of Version Update 44, all new no-procs receive a *1.08 damage bonus because they don't have a special. You can see this in the EFFECT notes of the Pyromancer Bloodblade Encyclopedia Entry,
Pyromancer Bloodblade also has a special effect - you pay a certain amount of HP to deal an additional 20% Damage. As Pyromancer Bloodblade is in its Magic form, it receives +25% Damage instead (I'll explain this in a later post). It also has a Set Bonus effect - attacks deal +10% damage if you're wearing the Pyromancer Bloodmage Armour!
Finally, we also need to include Pyromancer Bloodmage's Fully Offensive Armour Lean. This means that player attacks deal *1.25 damage, but they also take that extra from incoming monster attacks. Adding all of this together:
1.25 * 1.08 * (264.238 + (0.1 * 264.238) + (0.25 * 264.238)) = 481.574 Damage
The Problem with Armour leans[]
Armour Leans modify the amount of damage the player takes from their enemy in exchange for modifying their own direct attacks. The possible multipliers are:
Fully Defensive: 0.8 Mid Defensive: 0.9 Neutral: 1 Mid Offensive: 1.125 Fully Offensive: 1.25
This sounds fair, but remember my post about the Player Turn Formula. Monster attacks are worth 140% Melee, but the Player Component of the Player Turn Formula is only worth 100% Melee. In other words, Armour Leans aren't balanced. Offensive Leans are too weak because they provide a smaller boost than the player receives in increased Monster Damage. Defensive leans are the opposite.
There are other issues too. It may strike you as odd that there are almost no Mid-Defensive Armours. Why? The reason is Weapon Specials, Spells and Spell-type skills aren't modified by Armour Lean. You can sit in a Fully Defensive armour (taking *0.8 damage), whilst also using these attacks and dealing Neutral levels of damage (*1). It's highly efficient... and invalidates the need for Mid-Defensive armours. Why bother when Fully Defensive armours do everything they do more efficiently.
As was mentioned, Spells aren't affected by standard armour leans. However, they are affected by the Spellcaster Lean. This forces the user to take *1.25 Damage but deal only *1. In exchange for this, the damage of Spells and Spell-type skills is boosted by *1.375.
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