Raiding For Power And Profit: Part 2
25104
I would like to thank the player's behind the toons Avenger and No Bueno for their assistance in researching and refining the information in the raids section of this series, as well as those players behind toons that helped create data, like Zombie Ex-Girlfriend and Shinobi. And a special thanks to Justin, who often helps point us in the right direction.
In the last chapter, we discussed how to increase your volume of hits on a raid. In this chapter, we will discuss how to increase your damage. More damage per hit increases your efficiency and allows you to grow your toon at a higher power gain per exp ratio. It's essentially a snowball effect.
When the game began, there were only really two paths to success in the game. Slow lvl to the point of level camping or spending a ton of money. One way was expensive and only proved one could spend more money. The other is pretty boring and makes me, at least, question the point of playing a game one isn't actually playing........ This is just my opinion of course.
But now there is a 3rd way. One that favors the free and budget players, if they are willing to put the time into it. In the 1st chapter, we discussed Supercharges (SC). Supercharges changed the game. While they can be bought in the daily store or Black Market, they can also be won in raids (and occasionally in events). Aside from SC, raids also provide powers, gear, consumables, and provide a source for mining resources like Bux, Crystals, and MP, all of which helps power up your toon. Whether you're a free, budget, or whale player, raids have a lot to offer.
When in a raid, scroll down until you see what the raid boss is strong and weak against. You'll find that it is often weak against one type of damage. You will also find it will be strong against other types. The degree of these strengths and weaknesses will be designated as Low, Medium, or High. Please note, some raids are neither strong nor weak against certain element types. As seen in the Fenrir raid, this raid boss is neither strong nor weak against Tech.
Obviously, the thing to do here is pack as much Supernatural Plus damage and 3X damage in as I can, right? Not exactly. You do want to try and stick to 1 element for your damage as much as possible. But you do not necessarily need a different suit for each raid. I use 1 suit for all my raids. Because of how my toon is setup, my Tech only raid suit is more efficient and does more damage per hit than any suit I can design around a raid boss's weakness. I'm not saying pick Tech. That was just my choice. You could pick any element type, based on your gear selection and personal preferences.
Obviously, one of the big things to consider is how much gear you can pack onto your toon. More gear means more damage. That means leveling. Luckily, raids provide the perfect means to balance leveling with power acquisition. At level 1000, you gain a 2nd core. This is huge. A core adds between plus 2 and plus 6 damage to every gear of the same element type. This includes the core itself. So two cores add between plus 4 and plus 12 damage to each gear.
The real key lies in element specialization, however. By concentrating skill points into a specialization, you increase what that gear does. My specialization in Tech is over +110%. So if a gear does 30 damage, for me it is doing 63 damage. On top of that, my core now gives a plus damage bonus of 10.5 damage per Tech gear equipped, up from 5. At level 1k+, you get 2 cores. That means I am getting 21 extra damage for every Tech gear I have on. Now that gear that did 30 damage is doing 84 damage.
Not only is my plus damage more than doubling, my other effects are too. My Att bonuses have more than doubled. That means so has my base damage. My odds of X dam has also increased. So have my odds of poison going off and adding damage. It has increased the damage from effects like Drain or Burn. All this adds damage. But the biggest damage modifier is Aura and that's more than doubled for me too, thanks to specialization.
This brings me to my next point, residual damage effects in raids. There are 3 types of residual damage, Auras, Poisons, and Stackables. These work a little differently in raids than in normal battles. Stackables act much the same as in regular battles. There's a 30% chance they go off and add damage based on their score to your damage dealt. The odds of poison going off can be increased by increasing the poisons stat score. Unlike with regular battles, this does not take off 10% of the raid boss's life. It is more likely that it does damage based on the poisons stat score. The last residual damage, Aura, doesn't work at all like it does in regular battle, but is one of the biggest keys in doing massive damage.
Remember near the beginning of this chapter we discussed raid boss strengths and weaknesses? Remember how this means the boss has X number of points of resistance against each specific element type? Let's hypothetically say X is 25. This raid boss is reducing our damage by 25%. But Aura does something unexpected here. For every point of Aura, 0.5 points are removed from the boss's resistance. So if you have 50 in Aura for that type of resistance, you have dropped the resistance to 0. You just increased your damage by 33%, from 75% to 100%.
But it gets better. What If you're Aura stat is more than double the boss's resistance? What If, instead of 50 Aura, you have 100? The 1st 50 negated the 25 resist. The 2nd 50 now increases your damage by 0.5% per point. So now you are doing 25% more damage for 125%, up from 100%. Due to having a large number of gear thanks to my level, and due to my gear specialization bonuses, I'm running over 800 Aura, more than enough cover any resistance and then multiply my damage.
SC, Raids, and Skill Point Specialization has changed the game dramatically, and allowed free and budget players a real path to power that is both fun and rewarding. The specialized raid toon is the toon of the future. If done well, raiding can completely fund your toon and net you a LOT of power.
One more way to add damage to your raid hits is through the Badge Perk: Marauder which does an extra 10 damage in raids at lvl 1, 20 at lvl 2, and 40 at lvl 3.
Next chapter, we will be discussing Skill Point allocation.
Continue the Story
25104
I would like to thank the player's behind the toons Avenger and No Bueno for their assistance in researching and refining the information in the raids section of this series, as well as those players behind toons that helped create data, like Zombie Ex-Girlfriend and Shinobi. And a special thanks to Justin, who often helps point us in the right direction.
In the last chapter, we discussed how to increase your volume of hits on a raid. In this chapter, we will discuss how to increase your damage. More damage per hit increases your efficiency and allows you to grow your toon at a higher power gain per exp ratio. It's essentially a snowball effect.
When the game began, there were only really two paths to success in the game. Slow lvl to the point of level camping or spending a ton of money. One way was expensive and only proved one could spend more money. The other is pretty boring and makes me, at least, question the point of playing a game one isn't actually playing........ This is just my opinion of course.
But now there is a 3rd way. One that favors the free and budget players, if they are willing to put the time into it. In the 1st chapter, we discussed Supercharges (SC). Supercharges changed the game. While they can be bought in the daily store or Black Market, they can also be won in raids (and occasionally in events). Aside from SC, raids also provide powers, gear, consumables, and provide a source for mining resources like Bux, Crystals, and MP, all of which helps power up your toon. Whether you're a free, budget, or whale player, raids have a lot to offer.
We do not know what the ratios are for each, but let's assume that Low is anywhere from 1% to 33%, Medium is 34% to 66%, and High is 67% to 99%. So if a raid boss has a Low weakness against Supernatural, any Supernatural damage you do to it will include an additional 1% to 33% damage, based on the ratio assumptions. But for the other damage types shown, there is a reduction.
Obviously, the thing to do here is pack as much Supernatural Plus damage and 3X damage in as I can, right? Not exactly. You do want to try and stick to 1 element for your damage as much as possible. But you do not necessarily need a different suit for each raid. I use 1 suit for all my raids. Because of how my toon is setup, my Tech only raid suit is more efficient and does more damage per hit than any suit I can design around a raid boss's weakness. I'm not saying pick Tech. That was just my choice. You could pick any element type, based on your gear selection and personal preferences.
Obviously, one of the big things to consider is how much gear you can pack onto your toon. More gear means more damage. That means leveling. Luckily, raids provide the perfect means to balance leveling with power acquisition. At level 1000, you gain a 2nd core. This is huge. A core adds between plus 2 and plus 6 damage to every gear of the same element type. This includes the core itself. So two cores add between plus 4 and plus 12 damage to each gear.
The real key lies in element specialization, however. By concentrating skill points into a specialization, you increase what that gear does. My specialization in Tech is over +110%. So if a gear does 30 damage, for me it is doing 63 damage. On top of that, my core now gives a plus damage bonus of 10.5 damage per Tech gear equipped, up from 5. At level 1k+, you get 2 cores. That means I am getting 21 extra damage for every Tech gear I have on. Now that gear that did 30 damage is doing 84 damage.
Not only is my plus damage more than doubling, my other effects are too. My Att bonuses have more than doubled. That means so has my base damage. My odds of X dam has also increased. So have my odds of poison going off and adding damage. It has increased the damage from effects like Drain or Burn. All this adds damage. But the biggest damage modifier is Aura and that's more than doubled for me too, thanks to specialization.
This brings me to my next point, residual damage effects in raids. There are 3 types of residual damage, Auras, Poisons, and Stackables. These work a little differently in raids than in normal battles. Stackables act much the same as in regular battles. There's a 30% chance they go off and add damage based on their score to your damage dealt. The odds of poison going off can be increased by increasing the poisons stat score. Unlike with regular battles, this does not take off 10% of the raid boss's life. It is more likely that it does damage based on the poisons stat score. The last residual damage, Aura, doesn't work at all like it does in regular battle, but is one of the biggest keys in doing massive damage.
Remember near the beginning of this chapter we discussed raid boss strengths and weaknesses? Remember how this means the boss has X number of points of resistance against each specific element type? Let's hypothetically say X is 25. This raid boss is reducing our damage by 25%. But Aura does something unexpected here. For every point of Aura, 0.5 points are removed from the boss's resistance. So if you have 50 in Aura for that type of resistance, you have dropped the resistance to 0. You just increased your damage by 33%, from 75% to 100%.
But it gets better. What If you're Aura stat is more than double the boss's resistance? What If, instead of 50 Aura, you have 100? The 1st 50 negated the 25 resist. The 2nd 50 now increases your damage by 0.5% per point. So now you are doing 25% more damage for 125%, up from 100%. Due to having a large number of gear thanks to my level, and due to my gear specialization bonuses, I'm running over 800 Aura, more than enough cover any resistance and then multiply my damage.
SC, Raids, and Skill Point Specialization has changed the game dramatically, and allowed free and budget players a real path to power that is both fun and rewarding. The specialized raid toon is the toon of the future. If done well, raiding can completely fund your toon and net you a LOT of power.
One more way to add damage to your raid hits is through the Badge Perk: Marauder which does an extra 10 damage in raids at lvl 1, 20 at lvl 2, and 40 at lvl 3.
Next chapter, we will be discussing Skill Point allocation.
