Some add damage theory crafting
So I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, mainly because I'm playing AO again.
I've been playing all the profs I have access to, in different scenarios, doing different things, PVP, towers, dueling, AI raids, buff farming (DB2 particularly), a bit of collector, lowby leveling, tiigs, nasc hecks.
Thats it, for activities in the last few weeks.
But, I've been tossing ideas around in my head, and grappling with the effect, hypothesizing, and trying to max/min certain setups and wondering just how well things would fair under X,Y, Z type scenarios. Then I go home and after the kids are in bed and the wife is parked playing some game where she grows a garden, I fire up AO and see if I can test my theories and assumptions.
So, I've been playing 220 MA, 220 engi, 220 soldier, 220 advy, 220 crat, 170 keeper, 1-50 advy the last little while, and here's a few kinda interesting tidbits of knowledge I've pulled out of game lately.
1. high AR profs that gain a lot of damage from perks and procs are faring very well after Add Damage Patch (ADP)
2. evade profs that can avoid perk damage and proc damage are faring very well after ADP
3. profs with more damage perks, more procs, and more opportunities to LAND hits are doing very well
4. profs with naturally high AR, and naturally balanced AR and add damage are doing very well
5. profs that have good natural add damage, and have several options as to application are doing very well (nukes, low check perks, lots of specials, 100% to hit specials)
6. Profs that have low evades are faring worse than ADP (ie. rely on blockers, HP, healing)
7. Profs that are necessarily reliant on large damage specials, but relatively low AR are faring much worse than before ADP
Basically, this sums up my observations so far. A lot of these observations have occurred in skirmishes with players, roughly 5 or 6 vs a similar number of opponents.
So, I've been used to playing on an engineer in war (I play primarily engi or crat or both, with one on follow). But I had also brought my MA to war a few times because I was bored. Remarkably, some of the best fights I had was when I was on my MA and not my engi. Engies I've found, since the ADP are just getting raped.
And I don't mean that in the way where you get rooted and then you see incoming damage and then you're toast... I mean, if you get targeted by one person, they will just launch all their perks, chew through your coon, kill through your reflects and bio R and you will be roasted in a matter of seconds vs any reasonably offensive prof (enforcer, keeper, MA, soldier, fixer (ouch), shade obviously, NT obviously, advy). Remarkably, for most of the profs listed, specials weren't even an issue in the least. Sure, blockers go down more quickly now than they ever did previously, but, thats not even the issue. The issue is that your health just drops like a rock. The perk damage flying around is crazy. Engies are, unfortunately basically never able to avoid perk damage so, with the perk damage what it is now, engies really took the short end of the stick.
NT's, doctors, soldiers to some extent, all facing the same problem. Soldiers, however, still have a buttload of defence that works precisely well against perk damage so they are certainly not having a problem... docs are almost useless in PVP if they are known to the opposition, unless there is another doc who is dedicated to cross healing.
Kiting however, is still a very reliable way of removing the opportunity to take damage.
Evade profs, and, particularly evade profs with naturally high AR, and specifically high AR, high natural add damage, lots of perks/pecials, really came out ahead with ADP
* fixers gained hugely on this,
* MA's did as well, but have far fewer perk actions, far fewer specials, and have to balance AR vs defence in order to survive, whereas fixers have extra natural 1k AAD at 220 which means the rest of the setup can be dedicated to AR and add damage with no consequence),
* enforcers, obviously gaining a lot with lots of naturally available AR and add damage, and a large number of perks with low checks keeps enforcers as potentially the biggest gainers (but, interestingly, the gain isn't as signficant as enforcer killpower in the alpha has never been in question - for example, if enforcers had gained on sustainable damage, it would have been a significantly larger gain). And...
* keepers - remarkably have gained significantly. with the 2nd or third highest naturally occuring and maintainable AR, keepers have become undoubtably stronger in PVM and PVP. Normals, paired with the stacked add damage on procs and perks has greatly increased keepers alphas AND thier sustained damage - adding to that, their natural affinity for evasion (especially with OSB's+crat auras) keepers not only have very good ability to not suffer extra perk damage, but can mitigate damage that is taken with reflects and moderate healing capability. I see keepers as possibly the most significant gainers on the ADP for the following reasons:
1. highest (or close to it) naturally occuring AR
2. highest number of perk actions per minute (I counted 16 in another thread) in a DPS setup, 14 in a non DPS setup, not to mention SnD getting 4 hits with add damage affected
3. high naturally occuring add damage setup
4. moderately high evades with obvious support mechanisms for balanced defence if required
5. prof has access to proc damage sanctifier line offering 19% proc chance on http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=222983 which can provide potentially another ~6-8 hits per minute affected by add dmg
6. Benefits greatly from other profs auras (for example, keeper gains on both aspects of improved heroic measures, wheras, engineers conversly really only benefit from the 133 AAO portion)
So, based on all of this, I'm thinking of reactivating a friends account with a fully outfitted 220 keeper.
Despite being at a (sustained) retarded disadvantage in PVP due to kiting, remarkably the overall survivability vs offensive capability is good enough that it looks like it's worth playing again.
MA's as well gained a bit due to having the highest naturally occuring capability for add damage, but have very few perks, and MA attacks just aren't effective enough to merit real threat, swaps are and always have been buggy which on the move, resulting in lack of functionality, therefore my considerations of MA's involve a duel shen setup (which I've successfully used for PVP over the last 3 years or so despite peoples claims that it doesn't work), But MA's gains pale in comparison to fixers who gained far more just because of the non-requirement to balance offense and defence, and obviously because they have way more ranged specials. To add to this, MA's as well lost out hugely with lack of proc damage (most recent patch) which had previously added up to ~20 extra hits per minute that were all add damage affected (bringing natural dps capability above keepers and nearly that of shades in terms of net benefit) however, since that patch, MA's have gained less than almost every other prof (but because of naturally second/third highest naturally occuring evades, are coming out ahead in terms of relative survivability).
So, overall strongest prof right now in PVP: fixers, crats, advies (do NOT underestimate mother wolf! plus adding great team heals they are actually better than doctors by a significant margin imo)
Engies I think are actually not even on the "strong prof list" anymore due to prominence of perk damage over special damage and therefore are on the receiving end ALL the time of perks, and their special blockers are nearly useless compared to crats + advies+keepers bringing big evades to the table.
Prof on the move? keepers, without a doubt... keep an eye out, they may soon be much more dominant at TL7 mass PVP than they have been in many years.
