- For combat mechanics in Dragon Age: Origins, see Combat mechanics (Origins).
Combat mechanics comprise the technical details relevant to combat in Dragon Age II.
Damage
Damage is the value assigned to the damage effect. When the effect is applied to a creature, it has a couple other things that modify it. These are steps done on the creature when the effect is processed.
Order of operations for damage
Each is a separate step.
Base Weapon Damage (in the weapon description, not including on-hit bonuses) + Primary Attribute Modifier (0.5 per point over 10) * Ability Damage Factor (Winter's Grasp is 4.48833 for example) * Hit Result Modifier (1.0 for normal hits, 1.5+ for critical hits) + Berserk Bonus Damage * Damage Type Modifier (stuff like +15% fire damage) * Blood Frenzy/Veneer of Calm Modifier (1.0-2.0) * Cross class Combo Multiplier (if applicable)
- Dual-wield weapons hit individually. Basic attacks usually alternate which weapon hits, and abilities usually hit with both (to avoid biasing towards one hand or the other). The "Base Weapon Damage" as well as what on-hit properties apply is determined by which weapon hit with that particular strike. There is no penalty or other trickery involved with calculating dual weapon damage.
- Ability damage works the same for all the classes.
- Accessories with +X% to *TYPE* damage modify a character property, which is included in the "Damage Type Modifier" step.
- On-hit bonuses are applied, when hit with an appropriate weapon (basic attacks, a lot of Warrior and Rogue abilities), it looks at the individual weapon that caused the hit. It runs through each of the on-hit properties on that weapon and applies its effect. So a staff with the following properties:
Staff 69 fire damage per hit (whatever DPS) +10% spirit damage +7 electricity damage 2.5% chance to stun normal enemies for 3s
- You hit with a basic attack. It processes that attack normally, applying damage, force and secondary effects from other abilities/modes you may have on you. Then it checks the weapon for on-hit properties. In this case, that's electricity damage and chance to stun. The damage it just applies straight, the stun it checks against the percentile chance of it happening before applying.
Damage effect
Damage Effect determines how much damage the creature takes and what number appears above its head. That's not the actual amount of health deducted from it, though, since that is abstracted a bit to allow for better scaling between difficulty levels.
Damage * Templar Damage Bonus (vs fade creatures/spellcasters) * Damage Type Resistance Modifier (armor, fire, resistance, etc.) * Damage Resistance Modifier (flat damage resistance) * Magic Resistance Modifier (flat magic resistance) * Rear Vulnerability Modifier (Shield Defense gives this unless you upgrade it) * Blindside Modifier * Brittle Modifier (if a critical hit) * Damage Redirection Modifier (if Aveline absorbs damage from the target, etc.)
Armor and resistances
Armor and resistances decrease the amount of damage a character takes, it is always measured in a percentage resistance. All types of resistances are cumulative.
Damage type resistance is, as the name suggests, based on the type of damage received. Armor decreases physical damage, fire resistance reduces fire damage etc. These values are only affected by item bonuses that add an amount of armor/resistance, from this amount the percentage resistance is calculated based on the characters' level. It is worth noting that this type of resistance can't exceed 95%, although higher values might be shown on screen.
Magic resistance determines how much damage a character can disregard from a magical attack, as well as determining the duration of hostile magical effects. However, it is only half as effective against spirit damage.
Damage resistance reduces all damage regardless the type or source. However, as with magic resistance, it is only half as effective against spirit damage.
Note : Unlike Origins, Armor and Defense receives a substantial penalty when facing elites and bosses, which favors a DPS heavy party setup. This makes it very difficult to make characters that are hard to kill without relying on damage resistance from talents. With sufficient damage/force, you can even stun lock enemies and kill them without them being able to attack back as they will constantly get interrupted.
Attack/defense calculation
Formula
Values for attack and defense are calculated using the following formula:
StatLevel = (Attribute - 10) / ScalingCoefficient StatValue1 = PropertyData(INTEGER_PART(StatLevel)) StatValue2 = PropertyData(INTEGER_PART(StatLevel) + 1) StatValue = StatValue1 + FRACTIONAL_PART(StatLevel) x (StatValue2 - StatValue1)
- Attribute is Cunning for defense, Strength (warrior), Dexterity (rogue), or Magic (mage) for attack.
- ScalingCoefficient is 1.0 for defense and 1.25 for attack (defined in 2da.rim/property_functions.gda file).
- PropertyData(i) is taken from Property Data table from the i-th row.
Example
Let's calculate the attack value for a rogue with a dexterity attribute of 88. StatLevel is (88 - 10) / 1.25 = 62.4. StatValue1 is 4331. StatValue2 is 4653. The resulting attack value is 4331 + 0.4 x (4653 - 4331) = 4459.8.
Due to diminishing returns, it is best to increase attack via your class's primary attribute till you stop getting +1% hit chance per point spent, then spend the remaining attribute points into other stats. +% hit chance from talents and spells will add a flat hit chance that is not subjected to dimishing returns.
E.G. If a character has 80% hit chance vs bosses and activates a talent that adds +10% hit chance, he will now have 90% hit chance vs bosses.
Note : Unlike Origins, Armor and Defense receives a substantial penalty when facing elites and bosses, which favors a DPS heavy party setup. This makes it very difficult to make characters that are hard to kill without relying on damage resistance from talents. With sufficient damage/force, you can even stun lock enemies and kill them without them being able to attack back as they will constantly get interrupted.
Possible bug : A warrior has a base dodge chance of 5%, but any abilities that increase defense such as Turn the Blade will only increase the dodge chance by the stated amount - 5%. Unlike talents/spells that increase hit chance equally regardless of enemy rank, defense increasing talents/spells will only increase the dodge chance vs normal enemies which is then modified by the rank penalty.
Attack speed
Attack speed (hits per second) for different weapon types is defined in 2da.rim/itm_base.gda:
- Bows: 0.94
- Daggers: 1.85
- Staves: 1.36
- Two-handed weapons: 1.64
- Weapon & Shield: 1.88
It can also be calculated by dividing displayed DPS by damage.
Threat
Threat is handled very differently compared to Origins. In Origins, a warrior in massive armor and using threaten was enough to hold aggro for most enemies without the player needing to resort to skils like taunt or disengage. In Dragon Age 2, this is no longer true. Enemies seem to heavily favor targeting the closest target and especially characters attacking them. They also appear to switch targets much less often, as it takes them a long time to switch targets from the character they first see to the tank behind him.
Attempts to use upgraded Battle Synergy combined with Shield Defense to draw threat proved ineffective as enemies would repeatedly target the melee rogue instead of the tank when they were side by side, despite the tank having +100% threat generation and 50% threat transfer. Taunt appears to be the only thing that will consistently draw threat from enemies, but the cooldown and the way enemies arrive in waves (typically waves that surround the party) make it quite difficult to reliably maintain aggro on the party tank. This heavily favors a party setup that emphasizes killing enemies as quickly as possible (preferably using two handed warriors to draw threat from being in melee) that can take a decent amount of damage but clear enemies quickly at the same time.
Regeneration rate
Regeneration rate refers to the rate at which characters will passively replenish a resource, either health or mana/stamina, over the course of a battle, without the use of potions, recovery talents/spells such as Heal and Bolster, or class-specific methods (see Active regeneration for examples).
All characters will regenerate health and mana/stamina each second by a fixed amount that depends on class and their maximum amount of that resource. The amount of regeneration can be increased by equipment, or spells/talents with +X Y regeneration rate property, where X is the numerical amount and Y is either health or mana/stamina.
The formulae for determining percentage per second are:
Default
R = C*0.01% of M per second or R = C/100 x M per second
and
Equipment/talent
R = N*0.01% of M per second or R = N/100 x M per second
- C is the default regeneration rate determined by the character's Class
- N is the numerical regeneration value stated in the ability or piece of equipment's description
- M is the Maximum amount of the resource, i.e. health or mana/stamina
In the simplest terms, the regeneration rate is 1% of its stated number, which in turn is multiplied by 1% of the corresponding max value. For example, a health regeneration rate of 10 is equivalent to 0.1% of base health per second, therefore 1% per 10 seconds, or 2 health every 10 seconds on a max health of 200. Thus, 100 health regeneration would be 1%, which on a max health of 200 is 2 health per second.
The following determines baseline values of regeneration depending on the character's class:
Health regeneration
- Warrior base health regeneration: 25 (0.25% of M per second)
- Rogue base health regeneration: 10 (0.1% of M per second)
- Mage base health regeneration: 10 (0.1% of M per second)
Effectively, warriors with 150 health recover 0.375 health per second, or 3.75 every 10 seconds. Rogues with 125 health and mages with 100 recover 0.125 and 0.1 health per second respectively, or 1.25 and 1 health every 10. However, if raised to 150 health to match a warrior's base health, they would only recover 1.5 per 10 seconds.
Mana/stamina regeneration
- Warrior base stamina regeneration: 20 (0.2% of M per second)
- Rogue base stamina regeneration: 20 (0.2% of M per second)
- Mage base mana regeneration: 30 (0.3% of M per second)
Put another way, a warrior or rogue with 100 maximum stamina passively regenerates 2 points every 10 seconds, or 1 every 5 seconds. A mage with 100 maximum mana passively regenerates 3 mana every 10 seconds, or 1 every 3.33 seconds.
These modest auto-refills can be quite useful, as sustained abilities tend to dip the character's mana/stamina pool just a few points shy of being able to use one more activated ability, allowing it to be used after what amounts to a slight wait. Certain passive abilities such as Elemental Mastery, Galvanism, and Overtime add +10 to the mana/stamina regenerate rate, effectively restoring an additional 1% of max mana/stamina per ten seconds, making them worthwhile later in the game in more protracted fights. Rivalry passives like No Compromises and Man Of The Crown can also be valuable, as +50 to health regeneration gives them a health recovery of 0.6% of M per second, or 1.2% every two seconds.
For these reasons, abilities can be much more valuable than equipment for raising regeneration. An accessory with 2 mana/stamina regeneration per second, on a base maximum of 100 stamina, yields a final increase of +0.02 per second. In short, this would provide 2 additional stamina per 100 seconds, or 1 every 50. These rates are vastly inferior to the basic recovery rates and are, in most cases, not worth the accessory slot compared to those that simply raise a resource's maximum amount.
- The following method may be used to calculate which is most efficient on a piece of equipment for "+[resource] regeneration in combat" versus "+max [resource]". Whichever side of the ratio is greater is the accessory the player should use:
Regen:Max = [(+GameRegeneration)*(Max)*0.0001]:[(+Max)*(TrueRegeneration)/10]
- (Note: TrueRegeneration is the percentage of resource per second, not the "integer" value as shown in the game i.e. +100 in GameRegeneration = 1% in TrueRegeneration. When using that, divide by 1000)
- Essentially, a piece of equipment with 1 point of extra mana/stamina would raise a maximum stamina/mana amount to 101. On a warrior, 0.2% of this effectively increases the amount of stamina regenerated from 0.2 per second to 0.202 per second. An item with +2 regeneration on a warrior with 100 stamina yields 200*0.0001 = +0.02 per second, added to a stamina of 100 becomes 0.202 stamina regenerated per second. Thus, this situation is equal. In a health example, 1 point of health added to a mage gives them 101 health, and effectively an additional 0.001 health per second, increasing the final amount from 0.1 per second to 0.101. In this situation, +2 health regeneration would be the superior value, though not by enough to matter on a practical scale. Given that few accessories actually get above +2 for either type, and how effortless it is to swing the ratio permanently in favor of raising the maximum (a few attribute points in Willpower or Constitution will suffice), accessories that raise maximum health and mana/stamina are preferable.
Active regeneration
While not "regeneration" in the same sense as the above, the following methods are still classified as "regeneration" within the game's terminology. They differ in that they require action, such as attacking the enemy, to activate their effects, and they have a flat-rate, clear-to-understand percentage of maximum resource, thus they are not influenced by the mechanics listed above.
- Rogues regenerate stamina on every basic attack (1% for dual weapons, 2% for archers, 0.25% and 0.5% respectively prior to patch 1.03) and warriors gain stamina upon every kill (+10% per rank: Critter = 1, Normal = 2, Lieutenant = 3, Boss = 4, Elite Boss = 5)
- The Scoundrel tree offers Follow-Through, which adds 1% more stamina per hit, effectively doubling the recovery rate for dual-wielders and increasing by 1/2 the recovery rate for archers.
- Additionally, talents such as an Assassin's Bloodlust provide stamina recovery for kills where none exists, and similarly the a Berserker's Death Blow builds upon a warrior's innate trait.
- Death Syphon restores 5% of mana for every nearby corpse, and its upgrade restores 5% more mana and 5% of health.
- Arlathan's Grace, an upgrade to Merrill's Wrath of the Elvhen, allows her to recover 1% of her health every 4 seconds for every enemy in range.
See also
External links
Lead Game Designer Peter Thomas on Dragon Age II Combat mechanics http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/6578772