wow, i knew we could deflect stuff but i'm actually going to be facetanking Dragon Breath? hell yeah!
Well, look at this crafting video, at http://youtu.be/IYAE...ehIuKY?t=1m24s
and this PC UI gameplay: http://youtu.be/xtF8z3YSbHg
I've gathered a bit of data:
Level 7 Crafted Mace: 74 physical damage, 108 DPSLevel 10 Unique Axe: 103 physical damage, 116 DPSLevel 11 Unique Maul: 158 physical damage, ??? DPSLevel 11 Common Staff: 30 electricity damage, 49 DPSLevel 11 Common Axe: 114 physical damage, 129 DPSLevel 14 Common Dagger: 73 physical damage, 185 DPSLevel 20 Rare Maul: 239 physical damage, ??? DPSLevel 20 Unique Staff: 43 electricity Damage, ??? DPSAm I going to deal 129 damage per swing with my mana-spending spirit blade ability while the Warrior auto-attacks and regains stamina for 239??? Is this right?Then again, it's likely that spirit blade (like other spells) will ignore armor. It's impossible to figure out how balanced this is from video data, I suppose.
Spells have always gone off of elemental resists solely, an not armor right?
althought this could explain why a baseline mage spell deals 300% weapon damage but out of all the warrior and rogue stuff we've seen there's maybe one or two spells among those classes with that kind of scaling.
Spells have always gone off of elemental resists solely, an not armor right?
althought this could explain why a baseline mage spell deals 300% weapon damage but out of all the warrior and rogue stuff we've seen there's maybe one or two spells among those classes with that kind of scaling.
Yeah, they always have and I'm sure they'll continue to. But honestly, on warrior and rogue stuff the weapon damage%s can get pretty large. For instance, the full draw ability on Archery Rogues does 800% damage, and ANOTHER 800% damage for 1600% if you use it outside of combat (i.e. to open the fight)
So given a 30 damage Staff, the bow will probably hit for 90~ and be reduced by armor, and also our spirit blade attack will deal the same, but hopefully unmitigated? But then their activated attack can deal something like 1,440 damage... but then be mitigated by armor rating to an unknown extent. Many Warrior active talents deal either 200% weapon damage or 300%, I've found.
Now we're down to not knowing how effective armor rating is at decreasing physical damage in Inquisition. At least we can probably be assured that Spirit damage is still a very rare thing for enemies to be resistant to.
While this does worry me, i have faith that Bioware will not make mages useless in the damage department.
Am I going to deal 129 damage per swing with my mana-spending spirit blade ability while the Warrior auto-attacks and regains stamina for 239??? Is this right?
I would guess "weapon damage" would be based on DPS rather than damage per hit. Otherwise it'd risk making the faster weapons rubbish for the talents that work with both weapon options available for a class.
Well, look at this crafting video, at http://youtu.be/IYAE...ehIuKY?t=1m24s
and this PC UI gameplay: http://youtu.be/xtF8z3YSbHg
I've gathered a bit of data:
Level 7 Crafted Mace: 74 physical damage, 108 DPSLevel 10 Unique Axe: 103 physical damage, 116 DPSLevel 11 Unique Maul: 158 physical damage, ??? DPSLevel 11 Common Staff: 30 electricity damage, 49 DPSLevel 11 Common Axe: 114 physical damage, 129 DPSLevel 14 Common Dagger: 73 physical damage, 185 DPSLevel 20 Rare Maul: 239 physical damage, ??? DPSLevel 20 Unique Staff: 43 electricity Damage, ??? DPSAm I going to deal 129 damage per swing with my mana-spending spirit blade ability while the Warrior auto-attacks and regains stamina for 239??? Is this right?Then again, it's likely that spirit blade (like other spells) will ignore armor. It's impossible to figure out how balanced this is from video data, I suppose.
If one of the best staves in the game only deals 43 damage, then Fire Mine's 1600% weapon damage suddenly isn't sounding so good... and how is it that over the course of 9 levels, an electricity staff only deals 11 more damage? These numbers can't be finalized... can they? I realize that physical attacks have to deal with armor, but a "unique" level 20 staff does 30 damage less than a common dagger that's 6 levels lower? That doesn't sound right...
I can't post it, since i'm on the phone, but I have a pic of a staff called dissolving resolute scepter, level 23, which deal 69 Cold damage and had 193 dps.
So basically staves just aren't that strong.... hm... well, magic is still pretty versatile and can be used to exploit the weaknesses of some enemies, so maybe that makes up for the lack of power?
In light of this new information, I think I may need to go back and add Poisoned Weapons to all of my rogues... it seems that they can do substantial damage over time even with low level, common weapons...
If one of the best staves in the game only deals 43 damage, then Fire Mine's 1600% weapon damage suddenly isn't sounding so good... and how is it that over the course of 9 levels, an electricity staff only deals 11 more damage? These numbers can't be finalized... can they? I realize that physical attacks have to deal with armor, but a "unique" level 20 staff does 30 damage less than a common dagger that's 6 levels lower? That doesn't sound right...
It's important to break down that Maul and Staff's actual stats:
Maul has:
239 Physical Damage
is Rare rank
item level 20
requires level 9
+12 Strength
+42% bonus Guard damage
On Hit: Gain 10 Guard
and the Staff has:
43 Electricity Damage
is Unique rank
item level 20
requires level 17 (twice as high as the maul!)
+36 Magic
+6% Critical Chance
+6% Attack
10% Chance to grant 2 seconds of Walking Fortress
The staff is contributing a LOT more stats then the maul, I believe this could be the difference between the Unique and the Rare ranking? And it could be a result of crafting the weapon with a focus on magic stats instead of weapon damage? Perhaps the magic is much more valuable for boosting spell damage then increasing actual staff attack damage.
My theory is magic has a multiplier effect for dmg on spells a higher one than dexterity for rogues or strength for warriors as their auto attacks are meant to be weaker.
I can't post it, since i'm on the phone, but I have a pic of a staff called dissolving resolute scepter, level 23, which deal 69 Cold damage and had 193 dps.
That staff must have a very high attack speed.
I can't post it, since i'm on the phone, but I have a pic of a staff called dissolving resolute scepter, level 23, which deal 69 Cold damage and had 193 dps.
69 Damage > 193 DPS is a very much larger gap then the low level staff's 30 Damage > 49 DPS.
On the common staff, you're doing 163% of the staff's base damage rating in DPS.
If your scepter stats are right, then you'll deal 279% of the staff's base damage rating per second.
That implies it scaled up a LOT with magic stat, or else that higher level staff shoots a LOT faster than the former.
My theory is magic has a multiplier effect for dmg on spells a higher one than dexterity for rogues or strength for warriors as their auto attacks are meant to be weaker.
Either that, or they might scale at the same rate but +Magic is much more easy to come by on gear than +Strength/+Dexterity, and by that I mean when you do get +Magic, it's orders of magnitude more of a bonus than the others.
The stats are right, I can post other data:
crafted staff
+11 on both Will and Con
+24% Barrier bonus
+10% damage bonus if not hit for 5 seconds.
Interesting that it has a lot more weapon damage, but in return no +magic.
I'm curious which is truly better to have.
edit: So yeah... I was looking at a side-by-side comparison of a staff and dagger of equal level and rarity (common, 12) at 5:40 in this video: https://www.youtube....h?v=1_w_hnt9TH4
Acolyte Ice Staff [requires lvl 1] - 32 dam, 52 dps, + 28% Barrier, empty rune slot
Masterwork Stiletto [requires lvl 2] - 70 dam, 180 dps, + 3% Critical Chance, +8% Critical Bonus, +20% damage if not hit for 5 seconds, empty grip, and empty rune slot
I found this to be a bit shocking, since this is only one of the rogue's weapons, and the second would add even more bonuses from rune slots and custom components. However, I looked around a bit and found a one handed mace to compare with...
Firm Kirkwaller Warhammer (common, lvl 14) [requires level 11 (???)] - 71 dam, 104 dps, +13% Guard damage, empty hit, empty rune slot
Now, compare that with a KE weapon generated by the Ice Staff...
Spirit Blade [requires lvl 1] - 96 spirit damage, +200% dam vs. Barrier, +400% dam vs. Guard, eldritch detonator, can be upgraded to deflect projectiles
When compared to the one handed mace, that sounds pretty solid despite the fact that it costs 10 mana per attack... I don't know how well that will scale, but the 69 damage staff would generate a 207 damage Spirit Blade, so that might be good enough. Not as powerful as a maul, but it bypasses armor and has other properties that should make it worthwhile... not that I have a problem with two handed weapons being powerful, since they seemed a bit weak in DA2. It's just that the staff damage numbers looked kind of too low when compared to other weapons. Even bows do almost double damage, but it's hard to say how any of this will look once armor, elemental resistance, and elemental weakness come into play...
My only concern now is the relatively low damage of spells, but I guess that's a separate issue...
edit: One last thing... there is a KE passive near the bottom left of the tree that shows a Spirit Blade inside a shield. Could this add additional armor piercing to the weapon? It looks like it will buff Spirit Blade in some way, whatever it does, so that's something to look forward to as well...
Here's a higher end staff for those interested...
Maybe the +50 damage to demons is factored into the DPS? Both are written in green, and there is an arrow next to the DPS value that's pointing upward... nothing about it seems to indicate a boost in attack speed...
Actually, that must be it since the dps value is 1.63 x damage, which is standard for staves.
Rift Mages are cooler
Whatever helps you sleep at night... 
Whatever helps you sleep at night...
I'm just a little salty that Viv is the one getting Resurgence lol. Now, I'm gonna have to bring more often than I thought I would have to.
I'm just a little salty that Viv is the one getting Resurgence lol. Now, I'm gonna have to bring more often than I thought I would have to.
Yeah, that does kind of suck... I also expected that to be a necromancer ability, although I guess I can't really complain... Still, it sounds like it will be awkward to have 3 mages in the same party on missions because of the class-based exploration abilities (wall smashing, lockpicking, etc). You will either need to do a lot of backtracking, forget about the secret areas, or switch out Dorian more than you might have liked. None of those sound like good options... 
Well, perhaps the Rift Mage will deal so much damage with their spells that you won't really need Resurgence... it's more of an "oh crap" ability anyway. I doubt it will be needed on every quest, except perhaps on Nightmare.
Yeah, that does kind of suck... I also expected that to be a necromancer ability, although I guess I can't really complain... Still, it sounds like it will be awkward to have 3 mages in the same party on missions because of the class-based exploration abilities (wall smashing, lockpicking, etc). You will either need to do a lot of backtracking, forget about the secret areas, or switch out Dorian more than you might have liked. None of those sound like good options...
Yeah, here's hoping! I believe that for big boss fights, I'll switch in Viv and for dragons, respec her so that she is proficient in that dragon's elemental weakness. But otherwise, I'll just have Dorian and I. Rift Mage sounds like the spec you want if you're gonna blow stuff straight to hell, which is what I always love playing.
Yeah, here's hoping! I believe that for big boss fights, I'll switch in Viv and for dragons, respec her so that she is proficient in that dragon's elemental weakness. But otherwise, I'll just have Dorian and I. Rift Mage sounds like the spec you want if you're gonna blow stuff straight to hell, which is what I always love playing.
Yes, hopefully they'll release some information on the Rift Mage spells so that we have an idea of how much damage they will do... if any mage can compete with a 2 handed warrior, it will be the Rift Mage (probably).
Retour en haut
