How combat works

How combat works in Wartune

I updated this article recently, thanks to Tihh! I was wrong at many things, but now getting closer to find the philopher's stone :)

The basic combat figure for Wartune is:

(ATK - DEF) /2.

There is also a spread, to make the combat a bit more random. So the damage can be 1, 2, 3, ... 10% less or more (but only these precise values). Brutal edge aura can alter this, more on it later.

So if you have no other modifiers, have an MATK of 10.000 and your opponent 8.000, most of the time you will deal 900-1100 damage with your auto-attack.

Of course, there are modifiers. Let's see how these work.

Skill modifier. Skill have a set formulae. Like Ligthning bolt: 110% + 95:

(ATK - DEF)/2.* 1,1+95

Intensity. It's +damage versus players, from your pvp medal. Like +40% for lord divine:

(ATK  - DEF)/2.* skill modifier * intensity item

Some items reduce the opponent's defense. No multipliers apply to this, so it's just:

(ATK  - DEF)/2.* skill modifier * intensity item + defense reduction/2

Some items just give a plain damage increase, like 70 set +1000 damage:

(ATK  - DEF)/2.* skill modifier * intensity item + defense reduction/2 + item bonus

The goddess blessing astral reduce damage much more efficiently than other astrals: 

(ATK  - DEF)/2.* skill mod * intensity * goddess blessing + def reduction/2 + it.bonus

Resistances and will crystals decrease / increase damage, every 10 point by 1.2%. The opponent's resist always check for your sylph type, even if it's not awakened. So if you have an apollo, your opponen'ts light resist is applied:

(ATK  - DEF)/2.* skill mod * intensity * goddess blessing * (1 + (your resist reduce - opponent's resist)/833)+ def reduction/2 + it.bonus

Please note the bonus you can get this way is capped at 1.2x. So if your opponent has no resistance, your resist reduce past 167 will do nothing.

Finally, there are two more multiplierm one depending on time passed (50% after 1^st minute, 100% after 2^nd, etc), and the other coming from the will destroyer astral:

(ATK  - DEF)/2.* skill mod * intensity * goddess blessing * (1 + (your resist reduce - opponent's resist)/833) * (time multiplier) * (will destroyer) + def reduction/2 + it.bonus

And if it weren't enough, crit and block also apply a multiplier as well :) Crit gives a base 1.5 multiplier, each level of your determination astral increase this by 0.05. Block reduces the damage by approx. 25%. Also when brutal edge triggers, a value is added at the end depending on your brutal edge level.

Ok, the above might have been boring, but there are a few facts you can use when developing your character:

• goddess blessing is a very good astral, it reduces the damage by a much greater amount than by other defensive astrals, like defense, illusion or block.
• if you can choose between increasing ATK or DEF (with mount whips, for example) ATK is a better deal, since there are multipliers which increase it for you.
• resist reduce is very powerful, no wonder you have to cough up about 1000-1680 balens to be able to get a will crystal from horns for sure. Every 10 resist reduce worth about +1.2% damage, so if you have a 40.000 MATK, it equals +480 MATK.
• resist is also a pretty good stat, directly decrease damage, so using orange maps worth until you have lvl 4 resist crystals inserted.
• block can happen during a critical, even when it's not displayed. Still, a block astral decreases the overall damage you take only by 5-8%.

Some extra notes about critical:

Your crit damage multiplier is not affected by your crit rating, it's a plain 1.5 multiplier, modified only by determination. Your crit chance is affected by your crit rating, but not by your opponent's crit rating. (Opponent's level might count, however, have to confirm yet).

will destroyer or critical?

(of course this question is for mages and knights)
If you are lucky, crit deals more damage than will destroyer. If you are unlucky, it deals less. So crit shines in sitations where you can repeatedly retry a fight to win eventually. Sky trial, necropolis are good examples. Also it simply deals more damage during WB in overall - prolly because the WB is low level and you crit more often vs him. I also used crit build in god's descent until the opponent's were lower levels.

In other situations, you best do the math.

Enchanted will destroyer is +50% damage, plain and simple.

Critical is +50% +5% for each level of determination IF it triggers. Trigger rate depends on your criticial, on the opponent's crit effect reducers (like guardian angel), and (maybe) on opponent's level.
I show you on an example how to calculate your average crit damage.
Let's say I have a 6500 crit, and my experience shows I crit 66% of my attacks in a given situation. I also have a lvl 9 determination. So my damage bonus:
0.66 x 1.95 (2/3 of the time I deal 195% dmg) + 0.33 x 1 (1/3 of the time I deal 100% dmg) = 1.61
So I will deal 61% more damage in overall.

There are 2 factors you have to consider when using critical:
You must give up some stats in your gems and refinement, so you will take 10% more damage.
If your critical is really high, you might sometimes crit heal as well.

Conclusion. In general, I recommend the following:
If you can make a crit less than 6000, and your determination is lower than lvl 8, use will destroyer everywhere except for world boss.
If you can make a 6000+ crit, and have a lvl 8-9 determination, use crit in pve situations like necropolis, sky trial, etc. For pvp, still use EWD.
If you can have a really high crit, 8000+ and determination 10, use crit as your main build, you can even kill your will destroyer. For CW - and only for that - convert determination back to EWD and the crit gems back to whatever they were.
.

2014-08-04 Update

I received a lot of help from Tihh, who not only pointed out some errors in my calculations, but did much more precise testings than I did. Soon we will have the exact formulae of all combat mechanism, and can answer all important questions of the universe, besides which is better, crit or ewd, enshieldment astral or illusion, gaia or hades :)

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