AC issues are starting to be really problematic.

[Alunova]

I'll also mention that we do have tank characters with different AC values that we use for testing, some of which have far more hours in at taking a beating from raid bosses then any normal character. AC most definitely works when comparing different AC values on the same NPC over a significant time period.

[wycca]

Side note, if it helps for verifying resists or AC/NPC dps/stats - I've got a lvl 76 monk on Test who cannot die. Can easily parse anything in Velious you want (if I can find it up). I also reset the AA, so those wont be a problem.

While a lvl 76 toon isn't directly comparable to P99, I'm guessing that you guys could duplicate the character/skills & lvl 76. A velious npc parsing/resisting the same on both P99 and live would suggest the systems are very similar.

[Haynar]

Added some changes to the code, so if you remove armor against lower level mobs, it will be more noticeable. Not perfect, but definitely an improvement.

So maybe next patch, you will see some differences.

Maybe we can got from "AC is broke" to "AC is overpowered" or "AC works" or "AC needs tweaked when _________" (insert specific case here).

H

[Splorf22]

nice!

[Alunova]

Originally Posted by wycca [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Side note, if it helps for verifying resists or AC/NPC dps/stats - I've got a lvl 76 monk on Test who cannot die. Can easily parse anything in Velious you want (if I can find it up). I also reset the AA, so those wont be a problem.

While a lvl 76 toon isn't directly comparable to P99, I'm guessing that you guys could duplicate the character/skills & lvl 76. A velious npc parsing/resisting the same on both P99 and live would suggest the systems are very similar.

One of the problems with this is that we will never get all the values.

Attack, multiple layers of AC, accuracy, haste, strength, individual resists, dex, attack speed, hps, special attack flags, agility etc etc. and this is only the value side of it. The code would also have to work exactly the same for both NPCs and players for each value to get an exact replica. This is simply not feasible even if we worked on velious for the next 10 years.

Since that is not feasible, we work to balance bosses and npcs to the approximate difficulty or slightly above through testing.

What is useful is listing comparison data such as so and so is really resistant to disease or this boss attacks superninjafast or like Haynar mentioned, AC doesn't seem to work in this range or for this NPC. We need the little corrections such as "this boss is not supposed to enrage" or "this guy is really easy/hard to hit".

Changing things at this point will mean retesting and rebalancing everything done so far, when we know that AC is working in normal situations.

[Zuranthium]

Given that it can't be recreated perfectly, I really do hope you guys are erring on the side of making the content slightly more difficult in your calculations when there is uncertainty. The game is so much easier now than it was back then.

[Scrubosaur]

Hopefully shield AC will be working well when Velious comes out. Back in the day my guild actually had to start using a warrior with a shield to tank things like AoW and ToV dragons. We usually started out with a ranger tagging off of a monk and then weapon shielding / flame licking (warriors all bow shot for rampage) after about 5-10 secs warrior would spam taunt and either ranger would die or MT would taunt off mob. This gave warrior a HUGE threat lead so dual wielding wasn't necessary to keep aggro, and using a shield gave a warrior a nice boost in damage mitigation.

[Nirgon]

How much does a compilation of all boss min/max hits help? Or you already got this?

Is there a focus on getting resists capped at 255 for this expac? It will be VERY easy to hit 350+ with gear/bards. I linked a video of classic Klandicar where fear is landing even on the bards (who are in full Velious gear), I'm not so sure having the entire raid fear immune on a fight like that is a good thing.

[pasi]

Originally Posted by Nirgon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How much does a compilation of all boss min/max hits help? Or you already got this?

Is there a focus on getting resists capped at 255 for this expac? It will be VERY easy to hit 350+ with gear/bards. I linked a video of classic Klandicar where fear is landing even on the bards (who are in full Velious gear), I'm not so sure having the entire raid fear immune on a fight like that is a good thing.

I've posted min/max hit infos easily calculated through mobs DIs and DBs before. Max Hit is always just 20*DI+DB whie minimum hit is DI+DB. That's the easy stuff.

The difficult part with both AC and Resists is tuning. Having the proper AC code means little if the NPC values are not known and visa versa. In the same vein, capping resists at 255 means little if resists rates are not proper. Currently, resists against spells are quite a bit weaker than expected. However, characters are able to obtain 500 to resists which has an end result of making more resistant PCs possible. Some of this may be attributable to level difference being less of a factor. It's difficult to tell since there's not exactly tons of live data to compare this against.

It's all about tuning to a comfortable level.

[Nirgon]

tru