Buff / Debuff Mechanics Questions

[Blitzen]

Are there currently any clsses that can debuff, IE remove a buff from an enemy target?

[Kaedis]

Quote:The damage types are Kinetic, Energy, Force, Tech, Internal, and Elemental. The latter two I'm pretty sure affect armor. I'm pretty sure only the first two are the only ones that can be shielded.

You're mixing types. There are four damage types: Kinetic, Energy, Internal, Elemental. The first two are mitigated by armor, the latter two are not.

There are also four attack types. Attack type and damage type have no correlation, you can have any combination of the two sets (though not all combinations exist in game). The four attack types are Melee, Ranged, Force, Tech. The first two are subject to defense (avoidance) and shield (partial mitigation), the latter two are subject to resistance. Resistances (which are just avoidance for Force and Tech attacks) are present as a mechanic, but very very few effects in the game grant them, so they can essentially be ignored.

Thus you can very easily have an attack that bypasses armor yet can be dodged or shielded (an internal melee attack, for example), or an attack that bypasses defense and shield yet is armor mitigated (an energy force attack, for example).

Quote:ere's a question. What attacks are affected by armor reduction? If this were WoW, Force Lightning would be magic and bypass armor. I typically just assume we're playing WoW in space until I'm told otherwise.

I though Force and Tech damage ignored armor. Incorrect? I'm not seeing it explained in the formula thread.

As above, Kinetic and Energy damage, regardless of the damage type (for example, Force Lightning

Force Lightning
Sith Inquisitor

Force: -30
Range: 10m
Channel time: 3.0 secs
Cooldown: 6 secs
Damage Type: Energy
Mirror: Telekinetic Throw

Deals [?] energy damage to the target over the duration of the effect. Also slows the movement speed of the target by 50% and immobilizes weak and standard enemies.

is a Force attack that does Energy damage) is mitigated by armor. The damage type of the attack will be stated in the tooltip. If it says "weapon damage" instead, it does damage typed based on the damage of the weapon (for example, Lightsabers do Energy, while Vibroswords to Kinetic). However, all weapons in game do either Kinetic or Energy damage, so "weapon damage" implies armor mitigated.

Quote:Are there currently any clsses that can debuff, IE remove a buff from an enemy target?

Purges (offensive dispels) do not exist in SWTOR at this time, at least for players. Certain mobs possess them (for example, the bonus force ghost boss in False Emperor), but not players. Players only get cleanses (defensive dispels).

[theothersteve7]

That is exactly what I needed! Thanks, Kor!

So Force and Tech can't be dodged, and are closer to what I was thinking of as "magic" effects. However, there's another layer regarding damage types. It sounds like most effects that aren't DoTs are affected by armor. That makes a lot more sense.

That also explains some confusion I had regarding the value of Accuracy. If the majority of your attacks are Force and Tech, the relative value of accuracy is reduced.

[Phalanx]

I looked through the posts and didn't find one that applied to my question. Feel free to point me to the correct one and berade me if I missed it.

Sunder Armor - 4% Armor reduction per stack, stacks 5 times

If there are 2 Juggs stacking this and a Sniper stacking his sunder @ 20%, how does this effect the bosses armor?

Additve or Multiplicative?

Are we talking 60% armor reduction or whatever the math ends up being?

I am not concerned with the math so much as the games general policy for how these type of things stack. I have heard "they stack," but without knowing how, the information does me no good.

Thank you.

[Stab]

I asked a similar question in the buff/debuff thread today. I am fairly certain same debuffs do not stack, you get the graphic for a debuff applied by another same AC player and your own displayed. However I am not sure if different AC debuffs stack or not. AKA Sniper, Jugg, Merc armor debuff. Additionally, if they do indeed stack, I am fairly sure it will be additive in nature.

[frmorrison]

From a game design point of view, you wouldn't want the debuffs to stack, since that leads you towards a certain composition to have the "best" dps.
However, I saw on the Assassin tank thread that Wither/Slow Time (-5% damage) debuff stacks from other Assassins. However, this may only be a display issue like showing the two -armor debuffs at the same time.

[Phalanx]

People in game have said "Yes the buff stack because there are 2 pictures of the buff shown."

However, I wasn't sure if anyone actually KNEW the answer to this, or if everyone is just guessing at this point.

[Freehugs]

Everyone's guessing. If you want to know for sure find a way to test it.

[Stab]

Find a damage type that is energy or kinetic with a damage range close to 0, Force lightning comes to mind(X damage over X time and I believe this is considered energy). Find a mob with high HP. Start debuffing and watch the tics. If nobody else tests this first, I will try to test it tomorrow.

[Phalanx]

I have been racking my brain for a way, but other than grabbing another Jug, finding a low level champion with a ton of health, and double stacking sunder, and only using sunder armor to kill it, then repeat with 1 jug while frapsing, then tabulating, I have no other ideas. Maybe even need to do a test with no sunders and just the basic strike too.

The RNG in that would be horrid, but that may be useful.