Damage type comparison (under construction)

[oposum]

I've been wondering about differences between various damage types and decided to do few tests. This is still under construction and will be
further updated.

Tests were done in current (6.1) version of NI singleplayer (just in case something was changed with damage calculation formulas, compared to
native). Character stats were the same as marauder or zweihander (STR/AGI 30/30, PS/2hWPF/poleWPF/ATHL 8/220/220/10). Testing weapons were
Thunder Pike (50p), Mjollnir (57b) and Volundr Great Sword (62c). Tests were done against targets with 40 body armor, 20 hits for each test.
Value of 40 armor was used since standard low-tier hard mode bots use it. Averages represent arithmetic means since it was years since I last did
anything with statistics

Test 1
Goal: Achieve the biggest speed bonus
Weapons used: Thunder Pike, Volundr Great Sword
Results: Thunder pike         Volundr Great Sword
Average damage : 127,85 Average damage: 117,38
Average speed bonus: 50,55 Average speed bonus: 37,52

Comment:
All TP attacks were normal stabs while all VGS attacks were side swings (to avoid inflating both values due to naturally higher overhead damage
and to avoid too much repetition due to lots of headhits) and all attacks were body hits.


Test 2
Goal: Damage done while standing still and slashing
Weapons used: Volundr Great Sword, Mjollnir
Results: Volundr Great Sword Mjollnir
    Average damage: 87,5 Average damage: 95,3

Comment:
All attacks were overheads and body hits.


As can be seen from this tests, while standing still, at 40 armor, high base cutting damage preforms almost as good as high base blunt damage
(8.5% higher cutting damage gives 8% lower damage at values this high). However, usual higher speed and reach of cutting weapons should make up
for this rather small damage difference.
When using speed bonus, at 40 armor, Thunder Pike does 9% more damage while having 20% less base damage than Volundr Great Sword. Since the
highest piercing base damage values don't go over 55 while the highest cutting base damage values don't go over 66 it's safe to say that, while
using speed bonus, top tier piercing weapons outpreform top tier cutting weapons by small margin (not so much due to stabbing being harder and stab stun).
However, since slashing weapons are rarely to never used in a way which achieves significant speed bonus (while standing still speed bonus you
get is usually well under 15%), we could compare stabbing weapons while using speed bonus with cutting weapons used as people usually slash. In
this comparison piercing weapons do 46% more damage while cutting weapon had 24% greater base damage.
Note that this values only work at precisely this base damages and armor values.

Anyone who wants to see data which was used in this or has any data to give, feel free to PM me.

[oposum]

I've done another set of tests, with same parameters as previous ones, except with armor value of 72. This armor value was chosen because stronger hard bots and most bots in ragnarok have armor values similiar to it, or in ragnarok case, well over it.

Test 1
Goal: Damage with speed bonus using normal stab
Weapon used: Thunder Pike
Results: Thunder Pike
Average damage: 107
Average speed bonus: 61,47%
Comment: All were normal stabs into the body.

Test 2
Goal: Difference  between similiar cutting and blunt damage
Weapons used: Mjollnir, Volundr Great Sword
Results: Mjollnir Volundr Great Sword
Average damage: 78,19 Average Damage: 55,2
Comment: All hits were overheads to the body.

Test 3
Goal: Same as Test 1, except using overhead stab
Weapons used: Thunder Pike
Results: Thunder Pike
Average damage: 54,4
Average speed bonus: -17,3
Comment: All hits were overhead stabs into the body (moving into the stab for maximizing speed bonus)

In Test 1 damage values are a bit inflated due to me often getting insane speed bonuses, for some reason (going well into 80%). Realistically, average damage with good speed bonus should fall somewhere around 80-90.
Test 2 shows that, as expected, at 72 armor blunt damage preforms significantly better than cutting (around 41,5% larger damage). Speed bonus isn't written for that test since it's barely noticable (<5%).
Test 3 was a bit surprising, since it shows that overhead stab uses overhead slash damage calculations. Moving into the overhead stab results in negative speed bonuses, only way I was able to produce positive speed bonuses was forcing target to be hit by withdrawing part of animation (while moving towards target). So, if you're using overhead stab, rather stay still (moving backwards while using it also seems to decrease the speed bonus penalty).

Comparing Test 1 and Test 2, it's rather easy to see that cutting damage effectivness falls off at armor values this high, however, using speed bonus with relatively low damage weapon seems to outpreform even high blunt damage. Ofcourse, if we take into consideration that stabbing with speed bonus requires special spots, blocked stabs get you stunned, how easy it is to get chambered (which will also stun you) and general stab awkwardness, in practice it's hard to preform as good.

Note that this values only work at precisely this base damages and armor values.

Anyone who wants to see data which was used in this or has any data to give, feel free to PM me.

[madjsoh]

hope that flows better now....SPEED BONUS FTW