A General Guide to Dark Age of Camelot gameplay mechanics.

Damage Variance

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Important Notice: I have come to information (wyrd's test logs and artemis' test in particular) that indicates that the following information is at least partially incorrect. According to these logs from live, the variance max is around 141% of the base figure that originates from the damage calculation. Until I find concrete and up to date information, use the following data with caution.

Summary

http://www.excalibur-guild.com/pages/specguide.html
http://www.camelotherald.com/more/20.shtml

Nov '03 current patch: 1.66

The effect of specializing your weapon is primarily one of reducing the variance in your damage output. This damage variance is a factor of your character’s level compared to your actual specialization in a particular weapon. Thus, at level 50, with 50 levels of training in thrust style for instance, you would be said to have 100% thrust, or “thrust specced at level”.

Some characters can use a weapon, but cannot train or specialize in it (clerics and cloth casters for instance). Essentially these characters use their weapons “unspecced” or at 0% of level. The variance in their damage output is 25% to 125% of their standard damage. Thus, if they would normally do 20 points of damage with their weapon, they could do as little as 5 to as much as 25 points of damage, for an average damage output of 15.

The lower end of the damage output variance increases as your weapon spec/character level ratio increases. Thus, the closer your weapon specialization level is to your character level, the higher minimum damage you will do.

When your weapon spec is at 2/3 of your level, your damage output variance is 75 to 125% of your maximum. The upper range of your damage potential does not increase from unspecced up to this point. Thus, the same character whose base damage output is 20 points but is now swinging with 2/3 weapon specialization will be generating from 15 to 25 points of damage or an average of 20 pts of damage or 100% of base damage.

If weapon specialization increases beyond 2/3 of your level, your upper limit starts to also increase along with your lower limit of damage variance, until at weapon specialization of 100% of your level, your damage output is between 100% and 150% of your base damage. Using our 20 point damage model, a character with 100% spec in that weapon would do from 20 to 30 points of damage for an average of 25 pts of damage or 125% average damage output.

This progression of damage variance is relatively linear in that there are no large jumps in the variance at any particular level, except at that 2/3 level point at which your upper limit of damage variance starts to increase where it had previously not. Note also that your base damage is determined by many factors including your character level, your weapon, your weapon quality, weapon condition and the ability scores your character has (strength, dexterity, and quickness).



OK I think I get all that… what about spell casters? For spell casters, specialization in the various schools or types of magic works in the same way as specializing in your weapon does for melee damage output. Thus, at 2/3 of your level magic spec, your spell damage output will be 75 to 125% of the spell’s base damage and at 100% of level magic spec; your spell damage output will be 100-150% of the spell’s base damage. So a wizard with a spell that is listed as doing 100 points of damage, if they had their skill specced at 2/3 of their level for that type of spell, would do from 75 to 125 points of damage for an average of 100, and if they were specced at 100% of their level, would do from 100 to 150 pts of damage with that spell for an average of 125.


Further Reading...

http://kaber.bladekeep.com/bow.htm

"With no specialization, your damage varies from 25-125% of your base (which is determined by your weapon's stats and your level). From there to 2/3 specialization, the minimum damage you will do is increased linearly up to the 75% mark, at 2/3 specialization it will be 75-125% of base per swing. Past 2/3 both minimum and maximum raise until at 100% spec your range is 100-150%. Points from items *do* count in this calculation."
- Dave Rickey, Mythic Class Developer

This is a smooth curve, so there are no jumping points; for example you would not suddenly go from 75-125% damage to 100-150% if you spent the spent the proper amount of spec points. It is in relation to your current level, so a level 10 Ranger with 10 points in bow would have the maximum damage range (100-150%), while someone with 9 bow at level 10 would have a 90-140% damage range.


Grab Bag 8-30-2002
http://www.camelotherald.com/more/474.shtml


: I am level 40. I have Celtic Dual specced to 39, and Blades to 21. I’m seeing seriously conflicting answers as to whether or not I should take the blade spec higher. What is optimal?

A: Well, that depends on what type of character you want to play, but I do understand what you’re getting at. Just as the game assumes that characters past level 30 have gone to the trouble of enchanting their armor and weapons (covered in an old grab bag, that), the PVE game assumes a certain level of proficiency with your weapon.

First, I’m going to answer in a general way, applicable to all classes who can spec in their weapon. This formula doesn’t take styles into account at all (as in, most people only spec up to the style they like best and then stop), it’s simple math that determines the damage you will do.

If you have NO trains in your weapon at all, each swing may do 25% to 125% of X in damage. X is equal to the result of a complex formula, taking into account weapon quality, condition, bonuses, your strength or dex, the opponent’s armor, and some other things.

If you have trained up to 2/3 of your level in your weapon, each swing may do 75% to 125% of X.

If you are trained up to your level, each swing may do 100% to 150% of X.

The optimum level as far as the game is concerned is 2/3 your level.

For YOU, Mr. Blademaster, the game takes an average of Celtic Dual and your weapon spec. And since you are 40th, and your average spec in the two areas is 30, you are currently running better than optimal.




http://daoc.catacombs.com/class.cfm?ThreadKey=10852&DefMessage=324516&classid=41

The following is a formula used to approximate base damage.

In practice this looks like:
EDPS * (your WS/target AF) * (1-absorb) * slow weap bonus * SPD * 2h weapon bonus


Where EDPS is the effective dps on the weapon being used

SPD is the listed weapno speed

2h weapon bonus = 1.1 + (0.005 x spec)

SLow Weapon bonus = 1 + ( (spd - 2) x 0.03)

Absorb is the absorption figure of the armor as a percentage (.27 for scale)

As you can see, the maximum damage per hit is really just the Base Damage multiplied by the Damage Multipliter. This is the 100% mark referred by the weapon specialization section. If you are completely unspecced (i.e only 1 in your weapon specialization), then the damage variance of your weapon will fall between 25-125% of this 100% mark. If you are fully specced composite 51 skill, then the damage variance will be 100-150% of this mark. As you can see, "Max Damage" is really a misnomer, as you can still go over this. The damage variance is not something that appears on your character sheet, it is an intangible benefit to speccing in weapons. The actual variance in damage itself (not the range you fall within from speccing) is not linear.

There are several other unknown factors involved in this equation, but their effects are small enough that it does not ruin the approximation. These include: condition of the armor worn on the location hit, the CON of the target, and potentially other factors.


http://p207.ezboard.com/fhexedaocmidguardiansfrm17.showMessage?topicID=332.topic

Weapon Specialization Chart
                                    
                                    =================================
Spec = Weapon specilization / character level
Min D = Minimum Damage
Max D = Maximum Damage
Avg D = Average of Minimum and Maximum Damage

Example:
Level 50 Hero with 28 points in the Blades style
28 / 50 = .56 or 56%
Look up 56% on the chart
Spec - - Min D - Max D – Avg D
056% - 067% - 125% - 096.0%
Our Hero has enough knowledge of blades to do about 96% of their possible damage

Spec - Min D - Max D – Avg D

002% - 027% - 125% - 075.8%
004% - 028% - 125% - 076.5%
006% - 030% - 125% - 077.3%
008% - 031% - 125% - 078.0%
010% - 033% - 125% - 078.8%
012% - 034% - 125% - 079.5%
014% - 036% - 125% - 080.3%
016% - 037% - 125% - 081.0%
018% - 039% - 125% - 081.8%
020% - 040% - 125% - 082.5%
022% - 042% - 125% - 083.3%
024% - 043% - 125% - 084.0%
026% - 045% - 125% - 084.8%
028% - 046% - 125% - 085.5%
030% - 048% - 125% - 086.3%
032% - 049% - 125% - 087.0%
034% - 051% - 125% - 087.8%
036% - 052% - 125% - 088.5%
038% - 054% - 125% - 089.3%
040% - 055% - 125% - 090.0%
042% - 057% - 125% - 090.8%
044% - 058% - 125% - 091.5%
046% - 060% - 125% - 092.3%
048% - 061% - 125% - 093.0%
050% - 063% - 125% - 093.8%
052% - 064% - 125% - 094.5%
054% - 066% - 125% - 095.3%
056% - 067% - 125% - 096.0%
058% - 069% - 125% - 096.8%
060% - 070% - 125% - 097.5%
062% - 072% - 125% - 098.3%
064% - 073% - 125% - 099.0%
066% - 075% - 125% - 099.8%
068% - 076% - 126% - 101.0%
070% - 078% - 128% - 102.5%
072% - 079% - 129% - 104.0%
074% - 081% - 131% - 105.5%
076% - 082% - 132% - 107.0%
078% - 084% - 134% - 108.5%
080% - 085% - 135% - 110.0%
082% - 087% - 137% - 111.5%
084% - 088% - 138% - 113.0%
086% - 090% - 140% - 114.5%
088% - 091% - 141% - 116.0%
090% - 093% - 143% - 117.5%
092% - 094% - 144% - 119.0%
094% - 096% - 146% - 120.5%
096% - 097% - 147% - 122.0%
098% - 099% - 149% - 123.5%
100% - 100% - 150% - 125.0%


Minimum Damage ramps from 25% at 0 spec to 75% at 2/3 spec.
Maximum Damage is constant at 125% from 0 to 2/3 spec.

Minimum Damage ramps from 75% at 2/3 spec to 100% at 1/1 spec.
Maximum Damage ramps from 125% at 2/3 spec to 150% at 1/1 spec.



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