Damage

Damage is split roughly into two parts : physical and magical. Magical damage is almost always given an additional type, of one of the Elements.

Damage is further categorized by two factors: damage dealt, and the amount of time before damage is dealt again. Or, to be more specific, the formula Damage / Time, commonly known in most games as DPS, for Damage Per Second. In PWI, this is more commonly known as Attacks Per Second, or APS.

Damage

Attack Level

From the other wiki:

"if ( attack level > defense level ) then:

damage taken = damage delivered * ( 1 + ( attack level - defense level ) / 100 )

if ( attack level < defense level ) then:

damage taken = damage delivered / ( 1 + ( 1.2 * ( defense level - attack level ) / 100 ) )"

Unity items

If the stats on high level Gems are anything to go by, then Attack level +1 (Diamond of Tiger) is better than Physical Attack +100 (Drakeflame Stone). If this is true, then the next levels, Deity Stone (Atk L+2) which is twice the damage, and Devil Stone (Atk L+3), 50% more than Deity Stone, compare favorably with the upgrade from Garnet Gem (Physical Attack +75) to Drakeflame Stone, only a 1/3 upgrade. Attack Level bonuses are much easier to find as random or set bonuses; even lowly Dungeon Gear can have significant Slaying Level bonuses

Slaying Level

Slaying Level is the same as Attack Level, but this bonus is not applied when fighting against other players. It only works on monsters.

Attack Speed

Attacks Per Second

In PWI, examination of the damage system has lead to characters being specifically designed to maximize the Attack Per Second items such as the Level 99 Ashura's set, with its reduction to the interval between attacks. This is a different system than usual in games, where weapons have a listed speed and damage speed buffs or equipment speed up those weapons by a percentage. The Interval system actually removes cooldown time, so the calculation of how much the reduction is over a given attack sequence is calculated differently in comparisons between weapons of different speeds. A fast weapon makes more attacks in a given amount of time, so there are more reductions, but this is different than saying it has a certain speed and this speed is increased by a percentage, or even saying there is a time taken between attacks and this time is reduced by a percentage. It is reduced, in PW, by a set amount of time, usually .5 seconds.

Channeling

A snapshot of some -Channeling % gear. Much easier to get than it used to be, and better than this is available.

Basically, the power of this ability is relative to what else is available; there is no corresponding amount of "increase damage %". It is not the fact that damage approaches infinity when it becomes instantaneous. Because there is another part of casting spells: casting time. This is a set amount of time for the animation to go off. Players experience this all the time but have become so used to it that they do not notice; it is nothing more than the amount of time they are rooted to the spot and cannot move, while the animation takes place. This is usually preceded by the channeling time, and the animation of the two parts is seamless. Reducing channeling time to near zero reduces the whole process considerably, somewhere near doubling damage output, but it is not instantaneous.

It is a rare ability whose channeling time is even one half of its casting time, yet the recorded video results of minus channeling gear is truly spectacular. It is possible that the actual game formula works to reduce casting time as well, despite the description. This is in line with anomalies in the interface between animation and damage resolution, such as creatures' animation showing a few giant swings, and damage on the HP bar coming in large chunks, while the damage log shows multiple fast regular hits (Damned Gaurnob in Wraithgate is a good example).

Defense

• Armor

The armor and stat system lends itself to mages being strong against magic (Magic Resist or Resist) and melee characters being strong against physical damage (Physical defense or Defense); light armor characters (including the exception to the rule of heavy armor for melee classes-Assassin) are the middle ground, with weaker totals than either, but with balanced protection. There is considerable risk of characters becoming weakened if they stray from this system, but a few templates that stray from it have been more or less successfully created.

The one chance that characters have to beat this system is with Accessories. There are no significant requirements other than level for Amulets and Belts, so melee characters are free to gain extra points of Resist and Arcane wearers to beef up their physical Defense.

Note that Defense Level, afforded by some items and abilities, is a separate quantity, which adds to both Defense and Resist. Each point of Defense Level is equal to +1% of armor total, so a set of armor with 10,000 Defense would get +100 defense from one Defense Level point.

Warding Level is equivalent to Defense Level in Player vs Enemy combat, but is negated entirely in Player vs Player combat

Obviously, the crucial question is, is this bonus sufficiently high to exceed other bonuses such as direct additions to Physical Defense? An example:

Dungeon Gear: Warding Level Quicksand Maze vs Twilight Temple high defense example:

Darknight Massacre light armor set level 70, total of 11 Warding Level, with a total of 1256 physical defense, multiplied by .11 for a total of 138.16 added physical defense and an overall total of 1,394.16

Swiftwind TT level 70 light armor set, overall defense 1,500

So in this case, no. As the total defense rises, the bonus from Defense and Warding levels would become greater. It is even possible, although unlikely, that a lower level Defense or Warding piece could add more than a higher one without.

• Stats

Strength and Vitality also add to Defense, and Magic and Vitality add to magic Resist. The amount can be quite significant, even for the type of protection that the class is weak in; ie, magic resist for melee classes and archers, and physical defense for arcane users, if the character has, as is much more common, made significant increases in their Vitality.

Defense / Resist Equation Update -forums

Miscellaneous

Level

Level affects damage; a damage dealer that is lower level than the target does less damage. Pets of Mystic and Venomancer ignore this rule, which is why they are effective at killing monsters with the mysterious ?? level, reportedly set at 150 for the purposes of their defense. Monsters in the City of Abominations event are either physical immune (bad? hmm) or have no physical defense, nerfing pets considerably

Exploding monsters

Some monsters, such as the beetles just north of Archosaur, and the Reverex in Gate of Delirium, will explode when they die. They do an amount of damage that is not in any way related to their HP, but is linked to their normal damage output; therefore Increased Damage versions of them will do a Final Attack that is more dangerous.

Kill credit

With some quests such as One Man Army or Oracle book quests and a few regular quests, the character must do a certain amount of damage to the monster themselves to get credit for the kill. Aim at getting more than 50% of the monster's HP. There are rumors, at least half false, that the first and last hit on the monster is needed; the last hit is definitely not needed; whether the first hit matters is uncomfirmed, but seems unlikely.

In the Solution part of the Goshiki Quest Chain, damage done by the Explorer NPCs to the Undead Army monsters will similarly negate kill credit for the character

Links

• Damage, PWI wiki
• Slaying Level, forums
• Slaying Level, forums
• Dream of Reality -6% channeling magic ring, Database