163 respuestas en este tema

[WJC3688]

You may want to look at the technique of canceling auto attacks with the search ping to auto attack faster. It seems like it at least speeds up 2H attack rate by a noticeable amount.

[rpgplayer1]

@aznricepuff

Great guide!

 

Can you compare DPS of mage staff sequence over use of Spirit Blade?

 

While I know that blade has 300% ability damage, it is slower then staff attack sequence, so it would be interesting to see how does DPS calculation looks like.

[Exalus]

You may want to look at the technique of canceling auto attacks with the search ping to auto attack faster. It seems like it at least speeds up 2H attack rate by a noticeable amount.

I feel like this would be an exploit and in a game where I intentionally make it as hard as possible for myself, a bit counter productive. Now, if I were to do a solo nm run, maybe.

[WJC3688]

I'm not saying whether it's an "exploit" or not, just saying that information about it might be worth including in a guide. Whether or not to use it is always up to the individual player. Since it mainly seems to help 2H characters and this seems to be considered the weakest weapon type currently, you could argue it's actually good for the game's balance (plus it does take some skill to execute, definitely more than just holding the button down and auto-attacking normally).

[aznricepuff]

You may want to look at the technique of canceling auto attacks with the search ping to auto attack faster. It seems like it at least speeds up 2H attack rate by a noticeable amount.

 

I looked at this briefly and it does increase autoattack speed, not just with 2H warriors but potentially any other class+weapon combo with slow autoattacks. It seems that triggering the search ping immediately resets the autoattack sequence, but more importantly it also immediately resets the player-controlled character's animation set, allowing them to start the animation on the first attack of their autoattack sequence right away.

 

So theoretically, by using the search ping you can reduce the time between autoattacks to just the time it takes for the first attack's windup animation (the part before your guy swings/fires his weapon) and main animation (the part during which your guy swings/fires his weapon) sequences to complete.

 

However the search ping itself has a built-in cooldown time (roughly 1 second), so using it effectively and consistently with anything other than 2H warrior attacks is very difficult. It is possible though to use it every other attack and slightly increase effective attack speeds for other weapons and classes.

 

I'll make a note of this in the autoattack section under a [Bug] tag.

 

@aznricepuff

Great guide!

 

Can you compare DPS of mage staff sequence over use of Spirit Blade?

 

While I know that blade has 300% ability damage, it is slower then staff attack sequence, so it would be interesting to see how does DPS calculation looks like.

 

Did the testing - check the updated OP for details. Summary is that the spirit blade sequence has a much higher effective DPS than staff sequences (less so for fire staffs due to the extra damage from burning).

[TheThirdRace]

While I know that blade has 300% ability damage, it is slower then staff attack sequence, so it would be interesting to see how does DPS calculation looks like.

The point is moot as soon as you have more than 1 enemy in range. Spirit Blade will damage all enemies in range while a staff will only damage 1. And if you're playing your Arcane Warrior right, you'll almost always have at least 2 character to hit at the same time. Thus, Spirit Blade all the way.

[WJC3688]

I looked at this briefly and it does increase autoattack speed, not just with 2H warriors but potentially any other class+weapon combo with slow autoattacks. It seems that triggering the search ping immediately resets the autoattack sequence, but more importantly it also immediately resets the player-controlled character's animation set, allowing them to start the animation on the first attack of their autoattack sequence right away.

 

So theoretically, by using the search ping you can reduce the time between autoattacks to just the time it takes for the first attack's windup animation (the part before your guy swings/fires his weapon) and main animation (the part during which your guy swings/fires his weapon) sequences to complete.

 

However the search ping itself has a built-in cooldown time (roughly 1 second), so using it effectively and consistently with anything other than 2H warrior attacks is very difficult. It is possible though to use it every other attack and slightly increase effective attack speeds for other weapons and classes.

 

I'll make a note of this in the autoattack section under a [Bug] tag.

 

 

Did the testing - check the updated OP for details. Summary is that the spirit blade sequence has a much higher effective DPS than staff sequences (less so for fire staffs due to the extra damage from burning).

 

Yea I noticed the CD on the ping, that's what makes it take some modicum of skill/practice to do consistently. It doesn't seem worth even trying to do with daggers, maybe if you get to the very end of the attack sequence. I agree it's most practical by far with 2H, mauls especially. Mauls as you already showed are quite bad otherwise, doing alot less than even the 100% per second which the game calculates for them. But even if you can do it very well, it doesn't really add as much effectiveness as you would think since you so rarely use only auto attacks for an extended length of time.

[rpgplayer1]

How do runes on weapons affect ability attacks?

[Highlor3]

I don't know if it's the right place to ask for it... but can you explain the differences between difficulties?

[Rynas]

Referring to the OP: Enemies get a damage multiplier on higher difficulty levels (difficulty_multiplier).  Not sure what the value is at each difficulty, but it's noticeable.  Players apparently get an armor bonus (2x) on Nightmare only.

 

It seems that some enemies also have increased health.

 

Those are the only differences I can think of.  XP, loot, etc. are all the same.

[Rynas]

How do runes on weapons affect ability attacks?

 

They don't, except for Spirit Blade (and maybe another exception or two?).  With SB, it just acts as a separate, lower-damage SB.  Except that it doesn't proc on-hit abilities.

[aznricepuff]

Updated the OP with some new stuff.

[Exalus]

Payback Strike

• Hits all enemies in a roughly 180-degree arc in front of the caster.
• If not recently taken damage: deals 200% weapon damage to all targets.
• If recently taken damage: deals 300% weapon damage to all targets and knocks them back.

Sweet Revenge (Upgrade)

• Changes the damage output of Payback Strike to the following:
  • If not recently taken damage: ability_multiplier = 200%.
  • If recently taken damage: ability_multiplier = 200%; flat +100% to damage_multiplier.

 

 

 

 

So if I have base 100 damage:

PS when not recently taken damage 200 damage

PS when recently taken damage 300 damage

 

PS+ when not recently taken damage 200 damage (unchanged)

PS+ when recently taken damage 400 damage (doubles damage if prior damage multiplier was 0) 

 

Is this correct? 

 

 

Winter Stillness

• [Mistake/Bug - v1.03] While active, also reduces cooldown times of all abilities by 33.3%.

 

 

Andraste's ******, if I combine this with a superb cooldown amulet my abilities have 48% cooldown reduction?

[aznricepuff]

So if I have base 100 damage:

PS when not recently taken damage 200 damage

PS when recently taken damage 300 damage

 

PS+ when not recently taken damage 200 damage (unchanged)

PS+ when recently taken damage 400 damage (doubles damage if prior damage multiplier was 0) 

 

Is this correct? 

 

Yeah, that's correct.

 

Andraste's ******, if I combine this with a superb cooldown amulet my abilities have 48% cooldown reduction?

 

Not sure if they stack (and if they do whether it is multiplicative or additive)...I'll look into it.

[Rynas]

Winter Stillness

• [Mistake/Bug - v1.03] While active, also reduces cooldown times of all abilities by 33.3%.

 

Can you provide a little more detail on this?  What does this mean?  E.g., Fire Mine has a 24-second cooldown.  So is it:

 

1. I run around a lot.

2. I cast Fire Mine, which starts the 24-second cooldown.

3. I stand still for 3 seconds and Fire Mine's cooldown suddenly decreases by 8 seconds.

 

Or:

 

1. I run around a lot.

2. I stand still for 3 seconds

3. Fire Mine's cooldown is 16 seconds instead of 24 seconds.

 

Or both?

[aznricepuff]

Hmmm, maybe it's better for me to explain it this way:

 

As long as Winter's Stillness is active, the cooldown timers on all abilities are sped up by 50%.

 

So let's say you cast Fire Mine and 5 seconds later Winter's Stillness kicks in for exactly 6 seconds, then you start running around until Fire Mine is out of cooldown. In this case what happens is:

1. Fire Mine is cast. Cooldown remaining = 24 seconds.
2. 5 seconds elapse. Cooldown remaining = 24 - 5 = 19 seconds.
3. Winter's Stillness activates, speeding up cooldown timers by 50%. In other words every 1 second of game time is worth 1.5 seconds of cooldown time.
4. 6 seconds (game time) elapse. Cooldown remaining = 19 - 6 x 1.5 = 10 seconds.
5. You start running around and Winter's Stillness deactivates. Cooldown timers are reset to their default tick rates.
6. 10 seconds elapse. Cooldown remaining = 10 - 10 = 0 seconds.
7. Fire Mine comes off cooldown.

In this case the total cooldown time was reduced from 24 seconds to 21 seconds.

 

In general the time saved on any cooldown by Winter's Stillness equals half the time Winter's Stillness is active during the cooldown period.

 

Taking this formula and back-calculating cooldown time assuming that Winter's Stillness has a 100% uptime:

total_cd = actual_time_on_cd + time_saved
total_cd = actual_time_on_cd + actual_time_on_cd * 0.5 // per statement above
total_cd = 1.5 * actual_time_on_cd
actual_time_on_cd = 0.67 * total_cd

 

Hence why I originally described it as a 33.3% cooldown reduction.

[Rynas]

Ah, ok, so cooldowns reset 50% faster while it's active.  That is a pretty huge bonus for a lot of builds.  Not for a KE, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for all the testing and work, as always.

[aznricepuff]

Not sure if they stack (and if they do whether it is multiplicative or additive)...I'll look into it.

 

Just did the testing. Cooldown amulets and the bonus from Winter's Stillness stack multiplicatively, which is what I was expecting from how the two are likely to be coded.

 

It's also probably worth mentioning that lots of things break Winter's Stillness. The character moving (or getting knocked back/knocked down) is the obvious one, but there are also a lot of spells with animations that break it as well. I've compiled a full list:

 

Spirit

• Barrier: on aim.
• Revival: on cast finish (sometimes).

Storm

• Energy Barrage: on cast begin.
• Static Cage: on aim.

Inferno

• Immolate: on aim.
• Fire Mine: on cast finish.
• Wall of Fire: on cast finish.

Winter

• Fade Step: on cast begin.
• Ice Mine: on aim, on cast begin.
• Wall of Ice: on cast end (sometimes).
• Blizzard: on aim, on cast begin.

Knight Enchanter

• Spirit Blade: on cast begin.
• Disruption Field: on cast begin.

Rift Mage

• Veilstrike: on aim.

Necromancer

• Horror: on cast begin.

Note that this list is applicable to Action Mode (third-person behind-the-shoulder) only. Tactical mode plays with its own set of rules that is not consistent at all, mainly because characters in tac mode tend to randomly make tiny adjustments in positioning and facing that trigger animation sets that break Winter's Stillness. The only consistent rule in tac mode is that aiming spells never breaks Winter's Stillness, probably because the aiming animation never actually fires in tac mode.

[WJC3688]

Jeez that's broken. I thought Stonefist had an eerily short cooldown already. Now I'll be firing those things like my staff is a semi auto. I guess the fact that the effect can be broken by a lot of stuff sort of balances it.

[Exalus]

I could of sworn non-tac cam casting of immolate did not break winter stillness. Hmm regardless its pretty much core on every build as there are so few ways to get mana regeneration and cooldown reduction.

 

How much better would the game of have been if magic granted slight mana regeneration bonus instead of worthless barrier damage. 

[aznricepuff]

Another update. More bugs. More surprises. Especially how Lightning Cage handles its damage.

 

Also, I got a PM from Luke Barrett informing me that the devs have seen this thread and are currently working on fixes. No details on what is getting fixed and when, but it's good to know that they are at the very least aware of these issues. Hopefully the next patch will be a big one for combat fixes.

[Exalus]

Honestly the fixes to 2handed detonators were more than I ever expected even though they turned out to be very mediocre due to how 2h compares to dual wield dagger.

[Firky]

This is brill.

[WJC3688]

That's great to get personal word from a dev that they are aware of the issues. This is far more attention than Origins got in this regard, good stuff to Bioware.