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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Shippuu
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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1 Empty A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Post by Shippuu Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:18 pm

    I have previously made threads covering these concepts, but I felt it would be convenient to have newer revisions of the information, all together.

    This thread is for those who are new to Vindictus and are interested in the combat mechanics. I will be covering each of the stats the player has that relate to doing damage, and each of the stats enemies have that relate to their own damage. Through this, I hope to make the many stats Vindictus has a little less confusing to newer players.

    Before getting into things in the following posts, I would like to give credits to the math wizards in the Vindictus community over these years. While I personally like to gather together data and see what I can do with it, I certainly do not have the capabilities to figure out these equations myself.

    Table of Contents


    1: Intro
    2: Player Stats Pt.1
    3: Player Stats Pt.2
    4: Enemy Stats
    5: Additional Damage
    6: Final Notes


    Last edited by Shippuu on Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
    Shippuu
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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1 Empty Re: A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Post by Shippuu Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:19 pm

    Player Stats Pt.1


    Before we get into more complex situations, let's first cover the stats themselves individually. Some of these will potentially be getting quite confusing later in, so let's start slow and work our way there gradually.

    ATT/M.ATT


    This is one stat with two names, really. When you look at your stat screen, if it shows ATT, you are a STR-type character; if it shows M.ATT, you are an INT-type character. There is no gameplay difference between the two types, but it is relevant for calculating them.

    Despite what normal RPG intuition may tell you, just stacking on more Att/M.Att won't necessarily make you do more damage. In Vindictus, each battle you run has an Att Cap. When running battles, you are not able to use more Att/M.Att than the Att Cap allows. All Att/M.Att above this amount does nothing for you.

    STR-type chars gain a bonus chunk of Att from Str, calculated at a ratio of 2.7 Att per 1 Str. EX: If you have 3000 Str, you will gain 8,100 Att from it. This value rounds down to the nearest whole number.

    INT-type characters gain a bonus chunk of M.Att from Int, calculated at a ratio of 2 M.Att per 1 Int. EX: If you have 3000 Int, you will gain 6000 M.Att from it.

    Att/M.Att is one of the most abundant stats, and can be obtained from a wide range of sources. Those are: almost all equipment, outfits (up to +500), weapon enhancement, accessory enhancement, power infusion, higher quality ratings, enchant scrolls, and buffs. Att chars start with 486 Att, and M.Att chars start with 700 M.Att. You can increase this base amount further from titles, Ein Lacher, and filling the Achievement meter in Redeemers raids.

    Balance


    Balance dictates the variance in your attack damage. It is easy to make this stat sound more complicated than it is, so I will just immediately present an example: Character A has 80 Balance. Every attack Character A does will deal between 80% and 100% of the damage the game calculates it can do. At 85 Balance, this range becomes 85-100%. Your average damage, then, can be calculated as (100 + your Balance) / 2. EX: (100 + 80) / 2 = 90%. This calculation caps at 100%, where all of your hits do their max potential damage.

    Starting with some Lv.100+ content, this gets very slightly more complicated. Enemies will start having a stat called "Balance Resistance", which reduces the effect of your Balance. In the case of Romel, the first such raid, he has a Balance Resistance of 7. If you have 80 Balance like in my above example, you'd first subtract the target's Balance Resistance from your Balance, then calculate like before. So you'd have effectively 73 Balance, giving 86.5%. To cap out the effect of Balance here, you would need 107 Balance.

    Balance is primarily decided by your weapon, but can also be found on enchant scrolls, some accessories, some outfits (up to +2), and from power infusing equipment. You can also gain a small amount of passive Balance by obtaining Silver and Gold medals in Ein Lacher. Passive Balance is present regardless of which gear you are or aren't wearing.

    Critical


    Critical hits are attacks that deal higher damage based on your Critical Damage stat (explained in the next section). Only some of your attacks will be critical hits. The chance of an individual hit being a critical hit is determined by your critical hit rate. You can find this rate by taking your Critical value and subtracting the target's Critical Resistance from it. The maximum critical hit rate you can have is 50% except for Lann, as he has a skill that increases it to up to 65%. The minimum critical hit rate you can have is 3%, in any circumstance.

    Your weapon provides the majority of your Critical stat, but you can also gather it from a variety of other sources such as: some accessories, power infusion, enchant scrolls, and a bonus chunk based on your WIL. Every 133 WIL gives 1 Critical up until this bonus caps and ends at 2000 WIL, to a max of 15 Critical. Aside from gear and WIL, every character starts with 3 Critical, which can be increased further through the Critical Hit skill, obtaining Silver and Gold medals in Ein Lacher, and filling the Achievement meter in Redeemers raids.

    Critical Damage


    Critical Damage is a multiplier for how much damage your critical hits will do. This one is pretty straightforward.

    The majority of Critical Damage comes from your Critical Hits skill. At Rank 3, it grants +65% Critical Damage. The remaining portion comes from STR or INT, depending on your character's stat type, up to 2000. Whichever it is, you can calculate it as 0.3 * ([Stat] / 2000). As this caps at 2000, the highest bonus you can get from it is 0.3 (+30%). This caps Critical Damage at 195% except for Sword Lann, whom has a skill that adds a further +30% and raises the max to 225%.


    Last edited by Shippuu on Mon Jan 03, 2022 1:24 pm; edited 6 times in total
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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1 Empty Re: A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Post by Shippuu Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:19 pm

    Player Stats Pt.2


    Additional Damage


    Additional Damage is the most challenging of the stats to explain. Post #5 has the full details on its workings, but I will provide as simple an explanation as I can think up here. If you are interested in the fine details, check out the deep dive post below.

    Additional Damage is not a flat damage increase to your attacks, or anything like that. It is an extra source of Att/M.Att that is not subject to the Att Cap, but it is not a 1:1 ratio. There is quite a bit of number work involved in determining the exact ratio, but there is a convenient reference point to use. When you are Att capped for a battle, and have 0 ATT Surplus (see below), this ratio is 1:6.25. What this means is that if you have 4000 Additional Damage, you are not getting +4000 Att/M.Att, you are getting +25000 Att/M.Att. Shockingly big, isn't it? If you are not Att capped, this ratio will slowly decay to 1:1.875 at minimum, when your Att is barely better than the enemies Def.

    Additional Damage almost exclusively comes from enhancing weapons and armor. The Superior Campfire buff and Goddess Guidance buff are both able to temporarily increase Additional Damage.

    ATT Surplus


    ATT Surplus increases the Att Cap of battles, at a 1:1 ratio. This stat is subject to a level penalty when the battle you are fighting is higher level than your equipment is. Equipment that is lower level than the battle, but within 5 levels of it, will only apply 90% of its ATT Surplus. If it is not within 5 levels, it will only apply 80% of its ATT Surplus. This is determined per item.

    As an example where your gear is max level, if the Att Cap of the battle is 35,000 and you have 3000 ATT Surplus, the cap would be raised to 38,000. If the battle was Lv 105 and your gear was all Lv 100, the cap would instead be raised to 37,700.

    Raising the Att Cap doesn't immediately mean you will deal more damage. You need to have enough Att/M.Att to reach past the normal cap to get any benefit out of it. If your Att is only 36000, then in the above example, even though your cap might be 38,000, you will not benefit from the last 2000 ATT Surplus.

    The majority of the possible ATT Surplus comes from Material Synthesis on composite gear. It can also be acquired from filling the achievement meters of Redeemers raids, from some temporary event items, from the Transformation skill, and from the Superior Campfire buff. All of the non-gear sources are not subject to the level penalty in any battle, and event gear is never penalized either.

    Counterforce


    Counterforce is a stat that only starts applying in Lv 100 and up battles. For enemies that have Counterforce Resistance, the damage you can deal to them is heavily reduced unless you have sufficient Counterforce to hit through their resistance and do full damage. Capping this for a battle requires you to have 100 more Counterforce than the bosses Counterforce Resistance.

    The damage you deal in these battles is calculated as:
    Damage % = 30 + 70 * (Your Counterforce / (Enemy Counterforce Resistance + 100) )
    This caps at 100%.

    Counterforce is found on enhanced accessories, some temporary event items, and Kitty's Encouragement Potions.


    Last edited by Shippuu on Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:19 am; edited 1 time in total
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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1 Empty Re: A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Post by Shippuu Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:19 pm

    Enemy Stats


    ATT


    This value is never shown to the player, for whatever reason, despite being one of the main factors that dictates the damage you receive from enemy attacks.

    While I haven't fully cracked the enemy damage formula yet, I have been able to determine that once your Def matches the enemies Att, the next 500 Def past it reduce your damage taken somewhat substantially compared to the otherwise gradual effect before that point.

    This stat has an exception though. All red unblockable attacks, and some unblockable attacks otherwise, don't deal damage based on stats at all. In these cases, they deal the same amount of damage nomatter what. If a red attack does 3000 damage when you have 20k Def, it will still do 3000 damage when you have 29k Def.

    Balance


    Enemies do not have Balance. While each unique attack animation has its own damage value, the same attack will always deal the same damage to you unless the boss lands a critical hit on you or your Def stat changes.

    Critical


    Enemies can land critical hits too. Most enemy critical hits do 150% damage, but some enemies go low as 110%. Like with your own critical hits, Critical Resistance can reduce the chance of them happening.

    When your Critical Resistance matches the enemies Critical, their chance to critical hit you does not become 0, but it is minimized. This minimum rate is believed to be either 3% or 6%, but isn't known for sure yet.

    You can see an enemy's Critical stat by hovering on "View monster info" in the Battle Info.

    DEF


    Much like your own DEF, this reduces damage taken for the enemy. To deal full damage, your Att (or M.Att) needs to be 10,000 over the enemies DEF (usually). Refer to the Att Cap for the battle to know where the actual cap is. With ATT Surplus, you can raise this cap.

    While you cannot directly see the DEF of a boss, you can usually infer it by viewing the Att Cap for the battle in the battle info, and subtracting 10,000 from it. Some battles, such as Royal Army Raids, Abyssal Arena, and Red Moon's Energy battles, allow you to massively overcap by design.

    HP


    Hit the enemy until it dies. The number of HP bars a boss has does not have anything to do with how much HP it has, so don't panic when you see bosses with 30 HP bars or 100 HP bars.

    You cannot check this value in the game anywhere. Trust the wizards that we've got it right.

    Stamina


    Bosses don't have Stamina like players do. It's all nonstop action until one side dies. Probably them.

    Critical Resistance


    Much like your own, this reduces the chance of you landing a critical hit on the enemy.

    To have a maxed critical hit chance, your Critical needs to be at least as much as the enemies Critical Resistance + your max crit chance. EX: If the enemy has 130 Crit Resist and your max critical hit chance is 50%, you need at least 180 Critical to max out your critical hit chance.

    You can see an enemy's Critical Resistance by hovering on "View Enemy Info" in the battle info.

    Balance Resistance


    This stat begins appearing in Level 105 and up battles, and Royal Army Raids. Functionally, this works exactly like Critical Resistance, except in lowering your Balance.

    To max out your Balance and remove damage variation from it, your Balance needs to be at least 100 higher than the enemy's Balance Resistance. EX: If the enemy has 7 Bal Resist, you would max out at 107 Balance.

    You can see an enemy's Balance Resistance by hovering on "View Enemy Info" in the battle info.

    Counterforce Resistance


    This stat begins appearing in Level 100 and up battles. Counterforce Resistance directly decreases the overall damage you can inflict on the enemy. The effect of Counterforce scales differently than Balance or Critical, but you determine it the same way as you would for Balance. Your Counterforce caps at 100 higher than the enemy's Counterforce Resistance. EX: If the enemy has 45 CF Resist, you would max out at 145 Counterforce, which would allow you to do normal damage to that enemy.

    You can see an enemy's Counterforce Resistance by hovering on "View Enemy Info" in the battle info.


    Last edited by Shippuu on Sun Jan 23, 2022 8:59 am; edited 4 times in total
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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1 Empty Re: A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Post by Shippuu Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:20 pm

    Additional Damage


    As mentioned in the smaller section on Additional Damage, this stat is heavily influenced by Att/M.Att. The further away from the Att Cap you are, the lower this stat's multiplier will be. The opposite of this is actually true, with ATT Surplus. Just reaching the standard cap will give you a 6.25:1 ratio on Additional Damage, but surpassing the cap with ATT Surplus can increase it past that value, reaching past 8:1. The rest of this post will be covering the mechanics of this scaling.

    General Knowledge


    Additional Damage also uses the Att Cap for each battle, so extra Att/M.Att won't raise your multiplier any unless you have enough ATT Surplus to make use of it.

    Additional Damage is affected by Balance, as of a change with RISE several years ago.

    Multiplier scaling with poor Att/M.Att


    When your Att/M.Att is 7000 short of capping (or more), the multiplier for Additional Damage is 1.875:1. This is the lowest it can be.

    Multiplier scaling without ATT Surplus


    If your Att/M.Att is within 7000 of capping and you do not have any ATT Surplus, or you do not have the Att/M.Att to make use of it, then you can calculate your multiplier like so:

    Multiplier = (Att/M.Att - Enemy Def) / 1600

    (Att/M.Att - Enemy Def) is going to give you a value between 3000 and 10000 here, with exception to Bathed in Red and Ainle at Stake, since those battles are weird. This means the multiplier you should get as a result will be between 1.875 and 6.25. Or to put it another way, every 100 Att/M.Att you gain will increase the multiplier by 0.0625.

    Multiplier scaling with ATT Surplus


    If you have enough Att/M.Att and ATT Surplus to exceed the normal 10,000 cap, the scaling for Additional Damage changes. It continues to increase, but at a slower rate. It looks like this:

    Multiplier = 6.25 + (Att/M.Att - Enemy Def - 10000) / 2400

    (Att/M.Att - Enemy Def - 10000) will give you a value between 1 and your ATT Surplus amount. If you are definitely fully capped, you can think of it like this:

    Multiplier = 6.25 + ATT Surplus / 2400

    Keep in mind the order of operations, and do the division first. ATT Surplus doesn't have any absolute limit, so I can't give you a range for this one. Using the same per 100 unit as before, every 100 Att/M.Att over the cap with ATT Surplus will increase the multiplier by 0.0416666.
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    A Primer on Damage, Pt.1 Empty Re: A Primer on Damage, Pt.1

    Post by Shippuu Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:20 pm

    Final Notes


    Doing good damage has a lot of stats involved, but it isn't as overwhelming a goal as it can initially seem if you are just starting out. Picking up a higher level weapon will usually fill in the majority of your stat needs, and leave you a path that is mostly clear for how to fill in the remainder. In the era of the Lv. 105 cap with Milletian, just amassing rank 6 and rank 5 scrolls on your gear will cover it.

    Stat Value


    In this section I will provide very simplified guideline numbers for the influence of each stat on DPS. The specifics of each are more complex than this, but are not relevant to just figuring out stat focus.

    Att/M.Att - This stat decides the value of every other, so rather than a number, just know it is the most important to actually have.

    Balance - Each Balance you gain up until the cap will increase your dps by 0.5%. If the enemy has no Balance Resistance, this cap is 100.

    Critical - Each Critical you gain up until the cap will increase your dps by 0.95%. This is 1.3% for Sword Lann due to a specific skill he has.

    Attack Speed - Mathematically each +1 Attack Speed increases dps by 0.5%, but math alone won't pin this one down. Make your own judgments about whether you want to be faster over other stats or not.

    Additional Damage - This stat provides the majority of your damage once your Att/M.Att is capped. Prioritize it most in gearing, as enhancing your weapon also raises your Att/M.Att.

    ATT Surplus - As a very rough estimate, every 300 ATT Surplus increases your dps by 2%, provided you have the Att/M.Att to make use of it.

    Counterforce - This stat's impact scales a bit per battle, but is generally worth capping.  Either you can blow past the cap with the accessories you have, or you need new accessories which will carry better stats for Balance/Critical, and then blow past the cap.

    Stat Priority


    In theory, by the numbers you should prioritize your stats in the order of Additional Damage, Critical, Att/M.Att, ATT Surplus, Attack Speed, Balance. In practice, some of those cost profoundly more than the others. Generally you should prioritize Additional Damage via enhancement, and work on Att/M.Att and Critical in parallel with it.

    Unless you are prepared to spend real money on runes, or you are getting a fortunate shower of runes from events, you will be time gated on enhancement. You can only buy one Unstable Enhancement Rune a week from the Seal of Bravery shop, limiting you to one reforge a week. This slows you down, but you can divert your leftover funding/time to building Critical (and Att/M.Att if you need it).

    Balance and Attack Speed are important, but not to the degree that Additional Damage, Att/M.Att, and Critical are. Attack Speed's value is more subjective though, as it directly changes the feel of gameplay.

    ATT Surplus is a tricky case. While maxing it on your gear increases your DPS by 25%, it also costs many billions of gold on its own. For this reason, it is usually recommended to not go for it if you plan to gear multiple characters. If you do decide to play only one or two characters, or you decide you want to completely max both, the general guidance is to do ATT Surplus only after literally everything else.
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