Looking past the idea of scaling (personally not it favor of).
And looking past weapons not doing direct damage, but instead damage calculated off of item level (can I hold a breastplate as a weapon now?)
I've watch the official video, and I've read countless forum post, and yet I haven't seen the one question I have explained.
What does the % representing? What drives it up or down? And what is a bad % okay % or great %?
I can't tell if it's the % of the given stat that you are getting applied to your toon, or if it is representing the stat within the total capacity of that stat.
I'm no ultramath... I'm more of a simple math. And that % field makes no sense
1
Answers
The %'s that you see are the ratings compared to your total item level (TIL) displayed at the top of your stat sheet. For every 1000 the rating is below your TIL, you lose 1% off of the base 50%. Any ratings that are above the TIL are ignored and wasted.
Example: lets say you have 20000 crit chance rating and your TIL happens to be 22000. Your crit chance will be 48%. Because your crit chance is 2 thousand below your TIL, you lose 2% from the base 50%.
Now hold on -- it's not THAT simple, right? How would you ever get anything above 50%? For example the crit severity on my cleric is in the 60's. There's more to it, you see.... you can get direct modifiers to the %'s (not the ratings) based on your ability scores like DEX and INT and so on, boons, racial modifiers, and also more importantly there is the Forte stat.
The forte stat can have a relatively huge effect on your %'s. Each class paragon path has its own kind of forte stat that modifies different percentages based on what the devs decided might be useful for each role. Tanks get a lot of defense, DPS get power, that sort of thing. Your forte % is split three ways, based on the priority of three stats which is outlined in your powers tab if you hover over the little forte icon under class mechanics. Half of your forte stat % goes to the primary stat (like defense for tanks) and the other half of your forte stat is split evenly between the other two. So if a Tank's Forte is exactly 50% it adds an extra 25% to a Tank's defense and 12.5% to the other two. You can add directly to your forte rating with enchantments and mount insignias... I'm not sure if specific armor pieces have it or not. Also, Charisma directly adds to forte, and can have a sort of chain reaction impact on your stats by boosting forte. It also reduces your recharge timers, so... Charisma is kinda awesome.
and how does that % correlate to how it is used during combat?
lets take my fighter as you were talking on it in your response.
Fighter lvl 56
decent gear but could be upgraded if it was my main focus.
total item level: 10566
damage: 1268
Power: 4619 (70.4%)
combat adv: 5683 (55.1%)
Defense: 5119 (44.8%)
I go into a "lvl 20-25" leveling zone and I can barely take the first group of NPC's. how? why? and how is that not screwed up??
Your playstyle has to be mobile, always looking to avoid being surrounded, with a priority on preserving your health with well-timed blocks and health potion use. Use your charge attacks to devastate ranged trash mobs and eliminate them quickly, or else they will grind you down. You cannot disregard ranged mobs! Archers, Casters, Hurlers --> all these guys are your most immediate threat. You can avoid the melees by moving away from them, but the ranged guys can shoot you anyway... unless you break line of sight by moving behind an obstruction or around a corner.
Sometimes when you have a big group of enemies you're going to have to split them up or fight them one or two at a time. Using the terrain can be an easy way to accomplish this. Sometimes you need to control the battlefield and take down the melees from a position of cover so you aren't taking damage from ranged attacks. I would suggest getting a companion to help you gain combat advantage on your enemies, as that will double your damage output when you are in the "purple zone" around their feet. Companions that fight melee range will be the most likely to help you gain CA quickly and maintain it. Comps that have AoE attacks will be helpful in taking down troublesome groups, perhaps even drawing some attacks to them that could have been coming at YOU instead.
Thank you Arc.
Tanks don't have much power. WHAT?!
DPS need at least 5%-10% more defense perhaps as my suggestion. I can kinda manage for the most part and I'm tired of seeing my health bar almost dead or half! Too much potion use sometimes that it will get ridiculous for a new player not used to dodging; I don't think for only myself. Everything is hitting hard and I die more often if healer is low item level! It's not balanced out like it used to be and everyone is having the feeling that just upgrading your character a bit isn't doing much. I can't even solo encounters anymore in River District or the Chult. Then I'm like....
I pay for art! That means mounts, fashion, and etc! What I mean is why spend so much time implementing combat change, instead of making art?! It makes me ask what is Cryptic doing with their time? Cryptic needs to make more art! Plus it makes the job more enjoyable! I'm just waiting for some Kara-Tur regions and kitsune race; some day. Cryptic spends too much time implementing combat change and fixing the mistakes! Give it a rest once it's fixed and convenient for everyone!
I paid for the catti-brie hairstyle! Mmm what else? ART! The design of these combat changes are confusing to look at and that's the harsh part of it! It just feels weird with the all the % numbers. I'll get used to it. Forte is the only positive thing I've seen.
Do I care for Cryptic Studios? Yes I do-So take my money for ART!