Alright, hi there fellas! Was thinking that I should start with introducing myself and answer a few questions. If you have more, please write!
There is already a Decimation topic up, why repost? Well I need to be able to update the op for new versions for a start.
Why post it here?I've had Decimation up on general news sites since late September last year (the development has been longer than that), and while I believe users appreciate the efforts, I'm not THAT interested in the general mass that is out there. saesa has been pushing me to this site, and while I do understand that it isn't a 100% international site, I don't mind exposing it to a different crowd who possibly can make use of it as well.
Who the fuck is Superstate?Former raid leader and guild master of the best raiding Swedish WoW-guild for several years (Memento Mori). First time I played D2 was in 2000, and D2 was the first game I played hardcore, in 2003 and forward. IRL I'm a regular guy, I don't work with mathematics or programming, I just enjoy doing it as pastime; I find logical builds and systems extremely interesting.
How accurate is this spreadsheet? What are some of the unknown variables?It depends on what area of the spreadsheet you're looking at. The defensive portion with %DR, effective life, resistance DR and so forth is extremely accurate (100% in fact). There is one exception in the version that I posted now, and that's dodge, but that's fixed to the next version. The reason why is because dodge uses a very strange formula to determine dodge yield (0,1% dodge / dex up to 100 dex, 0,025% dodge / dex from 100-500, 0,02 from 500-1000, 0,01 from 1000-8000 [where you reach 100% dodge]). In this formula, 100% dodge is a possibility.
Most of the defensive calculations are derived from formulae that I haven't myself theorycrafted (I've spent my time on the offensive portion). Here is a source for the DR% Armor for example:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3967597687?page=1I've tested this ingame and it matches 100%. So does the resistance formula, which is found elsewhere.
As for the offensive mechanics, I've found several interesting things. A few of them are very "old" now, but keep in mind it was in September when the beta started that I was really looking at this stuff, now it has all been determined and proven and instead I sometimes confirm they haven't changed any of the mechanics. Some mechanics I've found several months ago are:
- DW bonus
- Spender IAS bonus (around 10%)
- Additive IAS
- Additive DIM's
- Non prim gens uses an APS of around 1,2
- Determining elemental effects
and more..
With all that said.. there are areas where the accuracies falls off, but that's not due to calculation errors. This is due to presumptions we have to make about the game. For example, we're assuming for several reasons that IAS effects from abilities we can't reach such as Wrath of the Berserker, and DIM's such as WotB's Insanity runestone, are all additive.
In the case of IAS effects this is something I've found in game. I've tested Frenzy shrines, DW bonus, WM spear/polearm, gear bonuses and so on, and they are all additive. Most importantly, I've also tested Frenzy, and decided that it too appears to be additive. This is why it appears very likely that WotB is another additive IAS effect, and so it is modeled.
For DIM's there quite recently was a sum added to the character details depicting damage from skills. We do know that Battle Rage is a multiplicative damage boost, and it goes in this number. On another occassion I noticed that WM sword also does, which very much does make sense. Otherwise it would be increasingly powerful to stack all multiplying effects, and well.. it isn't. It's a linear return, as is most aspects of the D3 mechanics.
This is a beta, doesn't mechanics/abilities change a lot? All passive / active skills are dynamically linked, all their tooltips as well, and names. In the Actives/Passives tab any number can be tweaked and the spreadsheet is immediately updated. Reworking percentages to match a patch for example literally takes 1 minute, and you can easily do it yourself (this is the main reason for dynamically linking everything).
As for basic game mechanics, surprisingly few has changed since September. The most notable changes have been the nerfs of runestones / passives rather than game mechanic changes. In fact, I can't really think of any mechanic that has changed.. The stat change wasn't that much of a change in the spreadsheet, just had to rehook Attack into Strength really.
So all in all.. I've spent hundreds of hours of my limited free time to do this. Hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions, go ahead and ask them..
