[Design Blog] Updates to Aimed Shot

[VROOMIGoRealFast]

Hey Everyone,

I'll start with the tl;dr: Aimed Shot now does more overall damage!

It's time to learn about the new Aimed Shot!
Ok so I call it new Aimed Shot but there's not a whole lot different. The design team found an issue with Aimed Shot where the damage was incredibly inconsistent when it comes to which upgrades you use. I want to walk players through the entire process of how we found this issue and how we addressed it.

The Inconsistent Aimed Shot
Most abilities in Arcane Legends use a player's Bonus Damage when calculating how much damage to deal. Abilities in Arcane Legends also have a minimum amount of damage, as well as a maximum amount of damage they can deal, which provides the damage range you see in game. Specifically in the case of Aimed Shot, if you have the upgrades Accuracy and Critical Shot, the maximum damage the ability could do was applying a player's bonus damage twice. This resulted in the maximum damage for Aimed Shot if you have these 2 upgrades dealing a lot more damage than any other combination of Aimed Shot. This difference became more exaggerated the higher your Bonus Damage was which means that as Rogues level up higher and put more points into Dexterity the problem would only get worse.

Why this is a problem
Before I start this section I do want to reiterate that the point of this update is not to make Aimed Shot deal less damage. These changes are being done to make Aimed Shot more consistent both from a player perspective, and from a balance perspective. When any class has a skill or item that behaves in a crazy manner, it affects the balance of all classes and how we perceive them. When we make balance changes, especially large ones like the PvP adjustments earlier this year, we consider all classes under the expectation that they're behaving as we've intended them too. Anomalies like Aimed Shot dealing double Bonus Damage, or the Wildfire proc ignoring armor make us think Rogues are dealing the right amount of damage, or that Sorcerers are dealing too much damage, and so on. This isn't the actual case though, because a Rogue without Critical Shot and Accuracy is not doing enough damage by a large margin, and a Sorcerer not using a staff with Wildfire isn't dealing too much damage to mobs. Once we identify and correct these anomalies, we can better maintain the balance of all classes in AL.

The Adjustments
Again, the goal is not to reduce the amount of damage Aimed Shot does overall, but to make Aimed Shot more consistent and predictable. We have removed the issue of Aimed Shot with Critical Shot and Accuracy counting Bonus Damage twice, but to compensate for the loss of potential damage that Rogues are used to, we have increased other multipliers of Aimed Shot so that the average damage before the change will be the same after the change.
To more clearly show how the Aimed Shot will be affecting players, I've taken stats from various Rogues in Arcane Legends. With their STR, DEX, and INT values, I calculated their Aimed Shot damage if they were wearing the Immortal Corruption Bow. These calculations do not include any form of pet bonuses and damage jewels were not added.



Here is how the 6 Rogues looked before any changes were made to Aimed Shot.

Player	STR	DEX	INT	Aimed Shot Minimum Damage	Aimed Shot Maximum Damage	Aimed Shot Average Damage
Rogue 1	168	787	158	1383	3106	2244
Rogue 2	104	650	94	1155	2548	1851
Rogue 3	119	707	117	1247	2775	2011
Rogue 4	135	821	182	1443	3254	2348
Rogue 5	75	785	211	1392	3127	2259
Rogue 6	135	835	197	1469	3318	2394

Here are the same 6 Rogues after the upcoming changes to Aimed Shot go live

Player	STR	DEX	INT	Aimed Shot Minimum Damage	Aimed Shot Maximum Damage	Aimed Shot Average Damage
Rogue 1	168	787	158	1669	3060	2365
Rogue 2	104	650	94	1385	2519	1952
Rogue 3	119	707	117	1500	2739	2119
Rogue 4	135	821	182	1744	3203	2474
Rogue 5	75	785	211	1680	3080	2380
Rogue 6	135	835	197	1777	3265	2521

As you can see, the results of this change were to increase the minimum damage of Aimed Shot, while bringing down the maximum damage of Aimed Shot slightly, resulting in most cases a slight increase of Aimed Shot average damage. Because this new formula doesn't count Bonus Damage twice in the equation, it won't be scaling out of control as Rogues acquire more DEX through levels and gear.

As always we appreciate the community's feedback and understanding while this issue with Aimed Shot has been fixed!

PewPewPew,
-STSVroom