Friday, August 29, 2008

New Offensive Buffs

Some of my previous blog might be outdated and needs update.
HCS has recently turned on creature enhancements
This means creatures can now do piercing strike, critical attacks and other enhancements.

However, new buffs have also recently been introduced.
Two buffs I'll like to get my thoughts out on are Spectral Knight and Death Dealer.

Death Dealer adds damage based on your kill streak, but max out at 20% damage.
For a level 160 buff, a player will need a kill streak of 65 to max it out.
For level 170 or 175 buffs, a kill streak of 60 is needed to max it.
For the remaining of this blog entry, I'll assume the kill streak requirement has been met.

For 1-hitting, the damage needed was [Creature Armor]*1.1053 + [Creature HP]*1.053
For most players, this used to stop at level 186.
But Death Dealer allows for an additional 20% damage, so together with other buffs, it might be possible to continue to 1-hit.
With Death Dealer, the damage needed is reduced to [Creature Armor]*0.9211 + [Creature HP]*0.8775.

Other damage buffs adds damage based on stats or items but can be used in conjunction with Death Dealer :
Berserk : With potions, adds up to 70% of your base damage stats.
Fury : With a max level 175 buff, adds up to 17.5% of your base damage stats.
Enchant Weapon : With Potion of Truth, adds 100% of your weapon's stats.
Enchant Armor : With a max level 175 buff, adds 17.5% of your armor stats, and armor can have damage stats too.

The following buffs/enhancements are rather similar.
Piercing, reduce creature armor by 50%
Shatter Armor, reduce creature armor by 75%
Spectral Knight, reduce creature armor by 100%

However, they do not always activate.
Piercing, enhancement. At 100% enhancement, it activates 66% of the time.
Shatter Armor, offensive buff. At buff level 175, it activates 8.75% of the time.
Spectral Knight, offensive buff. At buff level 175, it activates 17.5% of the time.

These are useful when you cannot directly 1-hit a creature with full armor.
These skills should be used together with Wither buffs.
To 2-hit (or 1-hit when Wither activates), the damage required is
[Creature Armor]*1.1053 + [Creature HP]*1.053/2.
To 1-hit when Spectral Knight activates, the damage required is
[Creature HP]*1.053.
Since above level 186, the creature HP will be more than twice that of its armor, the damage requirement is higher.
To 1-hit when Shatter Armor activates, the damage required is
[Creature Armor]*1.1053/4 + [Creature HP]*1.053/2.
To 1-hit when piercing activates, the damage required is
[Creature Armor]*1.1053/2 + [Creature HP]*1.053/2.

Example :: Level 186 (Cacti Cat)
Creature armor (max) = 655, Creature HP (max) = 3104.
1-hit : 3992 damage
1-hit with death dealer : 3327 damage

1-hit when wither activates : 2358 damage
1-hit when spectral knight activates : 3268 damage
1-hit when shatter armor activates : 3449 damage
1-hit when piercing activates : 3630 damage

So depending on what you can achieve with your damage, you may or may not benefit from the new buffs. Count your damage before buying those buffs.

(Anyone wants to write a calculator for this? Please let me know and I'll post a link to it).