New AL player with a couple of Q's (fair warning)

[Aerospacegod]

I capped in PL Sunday so I joined AL yesterday to see what's up here. Got to L17 and suddenly everything is way more expensive so I could use some game mechanics info. Most importantly how does armor work here? And what is bonus damage?

I'm playing Sorcerer and putting all stats in Str for the HP. I found Flap Jack so I've got 8h/s and 8m/s so I'm not overly worried about mana. Should I start putting a few points into dex and if so how many(2:1)?

Lastly the having to feed your pet is a gold sink and I don't have much lol. If I trade between my 3 pets is that going to seriously hamper his leveling? Do they level based on exp too? And do I need to use him in battle to help him grow faster?

Thanks for any help

[bramer]

First off you should put most (if not all) points into int. Second, wait for someone more knowledgable to come around.
Thanks.

This is bramer - signing out

[Commanderkeen]

As for the pets thing goes I usually use four within a day of playing. Their level has nothing to do with yours and will not affect how much xp you get unless the pet has a xp bonus ability. Now it will take longer to level the three pets if you keep switching them out. The only way a pet can gain xp is from being summoned and actively doing runs with you.

[xcainnblecterx]

Unlike pl classes are best with only one set of stats. For sorc i suggest pure int and use str passive for your str stat
Pet feed is a major gold sink so i suggest buying a couple more so you can switch between them and.save on feed. Whatever pet you have out will be the one getting xp but it has nothing to do with yours

[Venom]

Bonus dmg affects your overall damage when you equip a weapon. As a mage, go all int, str can be managed using str gear. Equipment at 17 is expensive as its the latest popular twinking level. About pets, if feeding costs are high, just switch between them. Aspen, Frost are good cheap pets for mage too..

[Energizeric]

Let's suppose your weapon has 80 damage, and your bonus damage is 200%. Then your damage (shown on your stat page) will be 80 x 200% = 160.

And let's suppose you have an amulet that adds 3.0 damage. Then that will add (3.0 x 200%) 6 damage to your total, so you would have 166 total damage.

[Morholt]

Erm, I believe bonus damage is ADDED to your damage.
By what you said, having 0% bonus damage--even with a weapon equipped--you'd do 0 damage.
X damage + 200% bonus = 3X damage.

So, 80 damage with 200% should yield 240 damage.

[Energizeric]

Erm, I believe bonus damage is ADDED to your damage.
By what you said, having 0% bonus damage--even with a weapon equipped--you'd do 0 damage.
X damage + 200% bonus = 3X damage.

So, 80 damage with 200% should yield 240 damage.

You can't have 0 bonus damage. Bonus damage is determined by your primary stat. So for a warrior it's your total STR, rogue it's your DEX, and sorcerer it's your INT. Also, that number has a base of 100%, so even with no stats you would have 100%. It grows from there based on your primary stat (and now certain rings/amulets give some extra bonus damage as well).

And it's not "extra" damage added, it's your total damage. For example, I have over 320% bonus damage, and my runic gun has over 100 damage. By your formula I would have over 400 damage but I do not. I have about 390 total damage.

Keep in mind that there are other "extra" damage stats. For example, sorcerers get some extra damage from DEX stat points, but they are not multiplied by the bonus damage number, they are instead a fixed amount per DEX point. I forget which stats the other two classes get these extra damage points from, but it works the same way.

[Taejo]

For example, sorcerers get some extra damage from DEX stat points, but they are not multiplied by the bonus damage number, they are instead a fixed amount per DEX point.

Do you have a resource available to expound upon this? When I did respec testing on my warrior, I could not figure out exactly how much +dmg a single point of DEX was. I hypothesize that this is because bonus damage effects it's value as well. For example, with base stats (10 STR, 6 DEX, 4 INT I think it is), I have 105% bonus damage. When I add a point of DEX, it gives me approximately 0.026 dmg per point. When my bonus damage is increased to 150%, DEX was then giving me more dmg per point. I am terrible at math, so I don't know how to analyze or dissect this formula. I can tell you with 100% certainty, however, that DEX is indeed a fixed number at it's base value, but it's total output of +dmg is dependent on bonus damage (for warriors). This might not be the case for sorcerers, however.

Sorry OP, didn't mean to throw your thread off track. But it's beneficial for you to learn this stuff anyway, now that you're playing AL. The game is very different than PL in terms of class/stat dynamics.

[Morholt]

I just ran a bunch of numbers with my screen. Yup, that seems to be how they calculate things (though not everything would come out perfectly--there seems to be a hidden, though quite slight, variable somewhere).

It's quite annoying that they used 100% bonus as their 'zero'...using the word 'bonus' improperly, sts.

[Aerospacegod]

Sorry OP, didn't mean to throw your thread off track.

This is what I wanted lol.

I didn't see a guide that explained bonus or armor and game mechanics *hint*.
Its important to know whether to choose 5 armor or 1% bonus damage, 2% dodge vs 20hp etc.
You can't do that if you only know more armor is better =)
Armor Good. Beer Good. Bills Bad. *burp*

[CallMeOops]

For a Sorcerer, I would put every skill point in INT

[Aerospacegod]

Ok so someone explain how armor works. I need to be able to figure out dodge vs armor as seems most items will make you choose.

[Energizeric]

Ok so someone explain how armor works. I need to be able to figure out dodge vs armor as seems most items will make you choose.

Unlike in PL, armor doesn't block its amount of damage in full. Basically the higher your armor, the higher percentage of incoming damage it blocks. STS has not said what the formula is though, so no way to really know the details.

[Aerospacegod]

Has no one tested, doesn't seem that hard.

Let yourself get hit at 100 armor at 200 at 300 and 400 and see what the difference is. If only I had the gold to waste buying a bunch of sets lol. Maybe if I get bored this weekend...

[Energizeric]

Has no one tested, doesn't seem that hard.

Let yourself get hit at 100 armor at 200 at 300 and 400 and see what the difference is. If only I had the gold to waste buying a bunch of sets lol. Maybe if I get bored this weekend...

It's not that simple. Apparently it changes based on the level of the enemy -- the developers have explained this much.

For example (I'm just making these numbers up for the purpose of this example), if your enemy is level 31, then perhaps 800 armor would block 25% of incoming damage. But if your enemy is level 26, then 800 armor may block 40% of incoming damage. And if your enemy is level 21, then 800 armor may block 55% of the damage. And if your enemy is level 10, maybe 800 armor would block 95% of the damage.

In the example they did show (which was when we were all level 21), an end game mage with top gear against an enemy the same level managed to block approximately 25% of incoming damage, while an end game warrior with top gear against an enemy of the same level had enough armor to block a full 50% of incoming damage. So that is most likely your range. Obviously if you are going up against an enemy of a lower level, then your armor will block a higher percentage of incoming damage. And if you are going up against an enemy of a higher level (i.e. level 26 player farming Shuyal), then your armor will block a much lower percentage of incoming damage.