Damage Resistance Buffs and Armor Penetration Information.

kaylos29

I am currently experiementing with a Nature Tank PvP build. I have done some experimenting to see how the damage resistance buffs work in general and how they fare against armor penetration. My build is not ready for primetime to show without more practical pvp experience with HR in general and how the build works in pvp, but I thought I would share the results of my experiments.

The buffs in question?
Lone Wolf Class Feature
Oak Skin damage resistance buff
Boar's Hide Damage Resistance buff.
I did not have the feat for stag's heart, so was unable to test it.

TLDR version for the ADD:
1. DR buffs are additive with base resistance. This means over 80% damage reduction is possible as a Nature HR.
2. Armor Penetration will work through the Lone Wolf class feature, but not through Oak Skin and Boar's Hide.

1st Experiment: Buffs multiplicative or additive with base damage resistance

This is important because if the buffs were multiplicative, then the effectiveness would bemuch reduced. The result surprised me however. The buffs were entirely additive. I tested on a single level 25 mob with a base damage resistance of 29.6% at melee range.

The result = 29.6%+20% Lone Wolf+ 10% Oakskin+20% Boar's Hide = 79.6% reduction.

This worked everytime I tried it. It is very possible to get over the 80% reduction cap, but DR stops at 80%. Why would you want to go over 80%. Well that is part of my next experiment.

2nd set of Experiements: How Armor Penetration works against the buffs.

This is important for pvp, becaus most people run 20%-35% armor penetration. Some may be a little lower, some even higher (for instance my GWF has 39% and is working towards 40%). This would affect the amount of base defense I would want to run. If the buffs ignore ArPen, then building my defense up to 30-35% would be pointless and I could focus on other stats. If ArPen goes through the buffs, then it would be important to have a high base defense to buffer it because once you get past 50%, each 1% is worth 2% damage reduction or higher. It basically has a highly increasing effect.

For these tests, I stripped down to as little armor as possible. I still had 258 because of the Sharandar boon and being human. My opponent was another HR with 29% resist ignore (base 20% from ArPen stat and 9% from Str). I tested each buff separately and he was the only person near me.

Lone Wolf Results - 0%
The base at melee range against 1 target is 20%. So obviously his ArPen wiped out lone wolf.

Oak Skin Results - 10% reduction.
His ArPen did not reduce mitigation from Oak Skin.

Boar's Hide 10 stack results - 20%
His ArPen did not reduce mitigation from Boar's Hide.

For fun to see it, I equipped all my gear putting me at a bse of 32.5% damage reduction. Fully stacked with lone wolf, oak skin, and boar's hide, my DR was 82.5%. That means his ArPen would put me at 53% resistance. That is exactly what happened. His marauder's rush hit me for about 2300, I took approximately 1100 damage.

This also highlights why going over the 80% cap is useful in pvp. The extra over 80% still counts against Armor Penetration. You can theoretically push base defense to 35% and add on stag heart's buff from feat and get up to 95% mitigation. That would mean even 40% armor penetration would only knock you down to 55% damage reduction.

There you have it.

ximae

nice, good to know defense is not a useless stat in pvp.

GJ with testing stuff, the class still needs a butload of testing till it gets figured out.

obsidiancran3

Excellent stuff, thanks for doing this work.

xtraordinary91

kaylos29 wrote: »

I am currently experiementing with a Nature Tank PvP build. I have done some experimenting to see how the damage resistance buffs work in general and how they fare against armor penetration. My build is not ready for primetime to show without more practical pvp experience with HR in general and how the build works in pvp, but I thought I would share the results of my experiments.

The buffs in question?
Lone Wolf Class Feature
Oak Skin damage resistance buff
Boar's Hide Damage Resistance buff.
I did not have the feat for stag's heart, so was unable to test it.

TLDR version for the ADD:
1. DR buffs are additive with base resistance. This means over 80% damage reduction is possible as a Nature HR.
2. Armor Penetration will work through the Lone Wolf class feature, but not through Oak Skin and Boar's Hide.

1st Experiment: Buffs multiplicative or additive with base damage resistance

This is important because if the buffs were multiplicative, then the effectiveness would bemuch reduced. The result surprised me however. The buffs were entirely additive. I tested on a single level 25 mob with a base damage resistance of 29.6% at melee range.

The result = 29.6%+20% Lone Wolf+ 10% Oakskin+20% Boar's Hide = 79.6% reduction.

This worked everytime I tried it. It is very possible to get over the 80% reduction cap, but DR stops at 80%. Why would you want to go over 80%. Well that is part of my next experiment.

2nd set of Experiements: How Armor Penetration works against the buffs.

This is important for pvp, becaus most people run 20%-35% armor penetration. Some may be a little lower, some even higher (for instance my GWF has 39% and is working towards 40%). This would affect the amount of base defense I would want to run. If the buffs ignore ArPen, then building my defense up to 30-35% would be pointless and I could focus on other stats. If ArPen goes through the buffs, then it would be important to have a high base defense to buffer it because once you get past 50%, each 1% is worth 2% damage reduction or higher. It basically has a highly increasing effect.

For these tests, I stripped down to as little armor as possible. I still had 258 because of the Sharandar boon and being human. My opponent was another HR with 29% resist ignore (base 20% from ArPen stat and 9% from Str). I tested each buff separately and he was the only person near me.

Lone Wolf Results - 0%
The base at melee range against 1 target is 20%. So obviously his ArPen wiped out lone wolf.

Oak Skin Results - 10% reduction.
His ArPen did not reduce mitigation from Oak Skin.

Boar's Hide 10 stack results - 20%
His ArPen did not reduce mitigation from Boar's Hide.

For fun to see it, I equipped all my gear putting me at a bse of 32.5% damage reduction. Fully stacked with lone wolf, oak skin, and boar's hide, my DR was 82.5%. That means his ArPen would put me at 53% resistance. That is exactly what happened. His marauder's rush hit me for about 2300, I took approximately 1100 damage.

This also highlights why going over the 80% cap is useful in pvp. The extra over 80% still counts against Armor Penetration. You can theoretically push base defense to 35% and add on stag heart's buff from feat and get up to 95% mitigation. That would mean even 40% armor penetration would only knock you down to 55% damage reduction.

There you have it.

Now this interests me for a Node Control build. Will have to do some testing.

kaylos29

My thought was a tank build that could do well in both node control and as support. Don't forget, the buffs from boar's, oak skin, fox's, and stag's heart get applied to the party as well. I think fox's is the way to go for a node control build because it gives you more melee punch which you will need at close range to hold a node.

obsidiancran3

Just remember the buffs for party members have a line of site restriction, and the game doesn't always draw line of site the way you think.

masterjewstar

The stag heart has no duration so the feated 10% defense buff is always on so long as temp hp is on. i just leveled my nature ranger to 56 so I know.

I knew that nature wasn't going to be as bad as everyone else thought it was gonna be.

Plus the set bonus from the nature equipment; if defense is highest will bring it up even higher.

I fought the spider in Rothe and face tanked him for like 5 minutes he couldn't even scratch the paint (he couldn't beat stag heart's t.hp).

Plus with the feated oakskin buff and storm step feature the cool down is virtually non existent even if they fix it because the cool down is only 17 seconds and feated it lasts for 15 seconds use disruptive and bam as soon as it goes off you can put it back on immediately after.

kaylos29

That is what I was doing to keep Oak Skin up 100%. Enough recovery to get it to under 16 seconds and one disruptive to get it to 13 seconds. The buff only lasts 13 seconds feated, so you need to be under 16 seconds. Not sure if bug or not or if the base buff only lasts 8 seconds. I'll check on my other ranger.

masterjewstar

Ahh, I thought base was 10 seconds; thanks for clarifying that. If true its probably why you get a 5 second boost lol; it doesn't really change anything for my NHR though.