Guide - Attack rating and weapon damage
Time for another "How does it work?" guide :-) Topic is how weapon damage is calculated, and specifically how the damage at high attack ratings work for fixers. Note : all of the above calculations are based on Player vs Monster (PvM) combat. In Player vs Player (PvP) combat the damage formula works differently.
The basic damage formula - up to 1000 attack rating
For up to 1000 attack rating the damage formula is quite well know. It is calculated as follows:
Normal hits
For attack ratings up to 1000, the damage your weapon does is calculated like this:
Damage range = [base_weapon_damage] x (1 + Attack_Rating / 400) + Damage bonuses
Example: Demofixer is using a QL 200 Perennium Beamer with a base damage of 175-425. He has an attack rating of 900 and is running "Greater Nano boost" for a +20 damage bonus. So Demofixer's total damage range when using his Beamer will be:
[175-425] x (1 + 900/400) + 20 = [175-425] x (3,25) + 20 = [569-1318] + 20 = [589-1338]
So vs an unarmored opponent, Demofixer will hit for 589 to 1338 damage on regular shot, with an average of 964 damage. If the target is armored (as most targets surely will be!) then the maximum damage is reduced by 1 point for every 10 points of armor the target has. Minimum damage is never affected. Lets say the target in the example has 5000 AC. Demofixer would then hit for: 589 to (1338 - 5000/10) = 589 to 838 damage, for an average of 714 damage.
Critical hits
A critical hit follows the same damage formula, but it always assume you hit for maximum damage with a critical damage bonus added on top of that. The critical damage bonus is the number listen in brackets in the weapon description. Perennium beamer has 150 points of critical bonus, as show by the description: 175-425 (150). Notice how the critical bonus in not expressed as a damage range, but rather a fixed value? In the damage formula that equals that the critical bonus is not affected by armor. So basically the (150), means that when scoring a critical hit, the Perennium Beamer increases from 175-425 variable damage to a critical hit of (425+150=) 575 damage which may be reduced by armor, but it will never fall below (175+150=) 325 damage minimum, no matter how much Armor the target has. Continuing the above example, when scoring a critical hit Demofixer will hit for:
(425+150) x (1 + 900/400) + 20 = 575 x (3,25) + 20 = 1869 + 20 = 1889 damage pr crit
The crit may be reduced by armor, but it will never fall below minimum crit damage of:
(175+150) x (1 + 900/400) + 20 = 325 x (3,25) + 20 = 1056 + 20 = 1076 minimum crit damage
Damage above 1000 attack rating is more complicated
Over 1000 attack rating the damage formula is changed. This was done by Funcom with the introduction of Shadowlands to reduce damage output from high level players (especially ones over level 200), so that they still would be somewhat comparable to lower level players. The exact mechanics of the reduction is currently unknown but this is certain:
- The reduction in damage done by players over 1k attack rating varies with character class. Primarily offensive classes like soldiers and enforcers have less reduction in damage than defensive classes like docs and traders.
- Only damage for attack rating over 1k is affected by the reduction. The damage you do for the first 1000 points of attack rating stays the same, and the extra damage for your attack rating above 1000 attack rating gets added to that. So, if you have 1050 attack rating, you will always have the potential to do more damage than when you had 1000 attack rating.
- Damage reduction is not linear. As your attack rating increases far beyond 1k, the extra damage from having high attack rating gets gradually decreased.
Testing fixer attack ratings above 1000
I have conducted a test to check how much damage is reduced for Fixers above 1000 attack rating. Test was conducted by recording critical hit damage vs leets and other lvl 1 backyard nasties (which have zero armor) at varius attack rating intervalls, all the way up to 2464 attack rating. I tested by using these weapons:
MTI - Russian Good Day - Deluxe @ QL 200
Premium Michael Patriot Ffi 29B @ QL 200
Both guns have 2500 Max Benefital Skill, thus ensuring that MBS will not screw up the results. Added damage was deducted from all hits, so only the base weapon damage and attack rating should be part of the equations.
Test results
Code:
MTI - Russian Good Day - Deluxe @ QL 200
Base damage 1-280 (280)
Attack calc Real
Rating Calc Real a 1k a 1k %Reduction
1000 1960 1960 0 0 0 %
1281 2353 2081 394 122 31,0 %
1329 2421 2110 462 151 32,7 %
1350 2450 2122 491 163 33,2 %
1384 2498 2141 539 182 33,8 %
1513 2678 2188 719 229 31,8 %
1636 2850 2225 891 266 29,9 %
1777 3048 2257 1089 298 27,4 %
1897 3216 2278 1257 319 25,4 %
2000 3360 2313 1401 354 25,3 %
2098 3497 2337 1538 378 24,6 %
2220 3668 2439 1709 480 28,1 %
2364 3870 2521 1911 562 29,4 %
2402 3923 2539 1964 580 29,5 %
2464 4010 2561 2051 602 29,4 %
Premium Michael Patriot Ffi 29B @ QL 200
Damage: 40-175(150)
Attack calc Real
Rating Calc Real a 1k a 1k %Reduction
1000 1138 1138 0 0 0 %
1329 1405 1224 268 87 32,5 %
1350 1422 1231 285 94 33,0 %
1384 1450 1242 313 105 33,5 %
1513 1554 1269 417 132 31,7 %
1636 1654 1291 517 154 29,8 %
1777 1769 1309 632 172 27,2 %
1897 1866 1322 729 185 25,4 %
2000 1950 1346 813 209 25,7 %
2095 2027 1381 890 244 27,4 %
2220 2129 1415 992 278 28,0 %
2364 2246 1463 1109 326 29,4 %
2402 2277 1466 1140 329 28,9 %
2464 2327 1486 1190 349 29,3 %
Legend:
Attack rating: The attack rating for each test as show in the Stats window.
Calc: The amount of damage the weapon should do at a given attack rating, according to the "below 1k damage formula, as shown above"
Real: The actual amount of damage the weapon did at a given attack rating. Every weapon was fired at least twice at each attack rating. If the results varied more shots were done, to rule out any oddball results.
Calc a 1k: Calculated damage above 1000 attack rating. I.e. the amount of damage the weapon should do for skill above 1000 attack rating, according to the "below 1k damage formula"
Real a 1k: The actual amount of extra damage gained for attack rating above 1000 attack rating.
%Reduction: How much the damage above 1000 attack rating was reduced to in percent compared to what the weapon should have done, had the damage formula not been changed at 1k.
Comments and observations
1) A few obvious points first but still worth mentioning. Damage reduction is close to identical for the 2 tested weapons, suggesting that the type of weapon does not influence on how much the damage is reduced. Also, when doing the tests I had plenty of opportunity to swap gear and compare the effectiveness of Add all offence items with pure SMG skill weapons. In regards to damage dealing the 2 values are identical. 100 points of SMG = 100 points of add all offence with regards to the damage dealt.
2) As the test shows, the damage reduction for fixers above 1k attack rating is not linear. The reductions varies from aprox 33% of regular efficiency close to 1k attack rating, down to aprox 25% at 2k attack rating.
3) Strangely enough, the reduction is less severe for attack ratings above the 2k mark - at 2,4k attack rating effectiveness is reduced to aprox 29% - significantly up from the reduction at 2k attack rating. This fact favors weapons with high MBS values, such as the new Alien Kyr'Ozch weapons.
4) If you want to do a quick and dirty approximation of Fixer weapon damage beyond 1k attack rating, assume that attack rating above 1k is about 30% as effective as attack rating below 1k. While not 100% perfect, 30% will give a decent average for all above 1k attack ratings.
The above 1k attack rating damage forumla
Using the above "quick and dirty" rule the damage formula for above 1k attack rating for fixers is:
Base weapon damage x (3,5 + ((attack rating - 1000)x30% / 400) + Add_damage buff
If you want a more accurate formula: feel free to insert the % reduction most closely matched to your attack rating from the test result tables above.
Thanks to Sparegris and Craticle who helped by buffing my attack rating for the top end tests :-)
