drumpel
03-13-2019, 01:45 PM
**UPDATE 4/3/19**
There appears to be correlation between your AGI, DEX and INT bonuses when it comes to reducing your armor's SMRv2 penalty. I though it might be level based (but that just sounds stupid, why penalize younger characters just because of level, so I dismissed this idea) at first or even profession based (the differences I found came across square professions, semis and pures). I'll post a quick snip below in the next table.
I don't know where the cutoff is at (maybe 50 combined bonus points?), but here's my current findings, usual testing is done. Test dummies do not have any PF, CM, Dodge or Perception ranks and is not encumbered.
Dark Elf|Wizard|Level 65|AGI: 94 (27)|DEX: 91 (30)|INT: 88 (24)||||
Base SMRv2 = 116|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|125|125|116|116|116|116|116|116|116
Penalty|-9|-9|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|152|152|140|140|129|120|120|120|120
Penalty|-36|-36|-24|-24|-13|-4|-4|-4|-4
Dwarf|Rogue|Level 49|AGI: 100 (25)|DEX: 100 (25)|INT: 74 (12)||||
Base SMRv2 = 179|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|194|194|179|179|179|179|179|179|179
Penalty|-15|-15|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|221|221|221|221|201|186|186|186|186
Penalty|-42|-42|-42|-42|-22|-7|-7|-7|-7
Dwarf|Rogue|Level 49|AGI: 100 (20)|DEX: 100 (25)|INT: 74 (12)||||
Base SMRv2 = 179|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|194|194|179|179|179|179|179|179|179
Penalty|-15|-15|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|221|221|221|221|201|201|186|186|186
Penalty|-42|-42|-42|-42|-22|-22|-7|-7|-7
Dwarf|Wizard|Level 27|AGI: 92 (16)|DEX: 79 (14)|INT: 73 (11)||||
Base SMRv2 = 255|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|287|287|255|255|255|255|255|255|255
Penalty|-32|-32|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|287|287|287|287|287|287|269|269|269
Penalty|-32|-32|-32|-32|-32|-32|-14|-14|-14
I could post more (a lot) data in the above table, but it's very tedious in the forums.
Dark Elf has a total of 81 bonus between AGI/DEX/INT stats.
Dwarf (rogue) has a total of 57 bonus between AGI/DEX/INT stats.
Dwarf (wizard) has a total of 41 bonus between AGI/DEX/INT stats.
Dark Elf is a wizard (so issue isn't profession based). He gets 3 steps for armor penalty reduction on leather breastplate.
Rogue dwarf exceeds 50 combined bonus points and gets the extra reduction for armor. He has 3 steps for armor penalty reductions on leather breastplate.
Wizard dwarf falls below 50 combined bonus points and only gets 2 steps for armor penalty reductions on leather breastplate.
**UPDATE 4/2/19**
Sorcerer tested with 704.
From what it appears, every 25 ranks of Demonology lore gives +1 to your SMRv2
**I can't say this is 100% accurate, this is just my findings with my limited testing pool of characters**
Race = Forest Gnome
Level = 38
AGI = 75 (22)
DEX = 76 (18)
INT = 72 (11)
Armor worn = robes (no impact on SMRv2 based on all my testing)
Armor Use ranks = 4
Encumbered = No
CM ranks = 0
PF ranks = 0
Dodge ranks = 0
Perception ranks = 0
Demonology ranks = 0
No active spells
No 704 active||704 Active, no lore ranks|Bonus|704 Active, 25 lore ranks|Bonus|704 Active, 50 lore ranks|Bonus|704 Active, 75 lore ranks|Bonus
Stance|Base SMRv2|SMRv2||SMRv2||SMRv2||SMRv2
Defensive|208|206|2|205|3|204|4|204|4
Guarded|213|212|1|211|2|209|4|209|4
Neutral|218|216|2|215|3|214|4|213|5
Forward|221|219|2|218|3|217|4|216|5
Advance|224|222|2|212|3|220|4|219|5
Offensive|226|224|2|223|3|222|4|221|5
I make multiple casts, at least 6, under every stance and I keep the highest number as my final result. For example, with 704 active, no lore ranks, guarded stance; a few casts gave me an end result of 211, but 212 is the highest number I got from a couple of casts. This is why guarded stance appears to have less of a bonus. This difference in guarded stance over the others may be simply due to the way the overall SMRv2 defense equation is calculated. You'll notice a similar result for 75 ranks of Demonology in the table above.
With all that in mind, plus the fact my sorcerer is only level 38, I can only test so far.
From what it appears, every 25 ranks of Demonology lore gives +1 to your SMRv2. I am only tested up through 75 lore ranks
**UPDATE 4/1/19**
*Base SMRv2 level increase bonus
It appears that every level you gain, you automatically earn +3 to your SMRv2 defense.
I had a level 12 Human I put his stats on the server to set his AGI/DEX/INT stats so he received a zero bonus on all. No PF, Perception, Dodge or CM ranks. No armor worn, no encumbrance and stance defense:
Level 12 Base SMRv2 = 332 (36 point difference over 368)
I ran out of stat resets so I just rerolled him on the test server, now he's level 0.
Same setup as above, I set his stats to be 0 bonus on AGI/DEX/INT and same setup with skills/armor/encumbrance, etc:
Level 0 base SMRv2 = 368
I ran him to level 1 visiting spots around WL, made sure all above factors were still at 0.
Level 1 base SMRv2 = 365 (3 point difference over 368)
I took him through some rats and used some instant mind clear boosts to get him to level 2 right quick
Level 2 base SMRv2 = 362 (6 point difference over 368)
As you can see, it appears every level improves your base SMRv2 by 3.
*More Stance Info
After tanking the level 12 Human's DEX/AGI/INT down to a zero bonus across the board, his SMRv2 did not fluctuate between stances.
Defensive stance = 332
all the way through
Offensive stance = 332
It appears there is an overall correlation between your stats (most likely any bonuses and/or penalties also play a role) and your stance.
**UPDATE 3/31/19**
I've been playing with 917 and how SMRv2 works for a while now. I think I've put in about 10 hours on re-working what I know and testing things out on just 1 character and from what I've learned from my original testing on a different character as the test dummy, the numbers don't match. I'm thinking this has to do with your race. What I know for sure, I've listed below in the "Here's what I've been able to pin down so far" section.
I've removed some info I posted originally because it's not 100% accurate and hopefully the stuff I left still holds true as I continue to do my research.
* Wizard Ranks and 917
Every Wizard Spell level over 917, up to your level gives +1 to your SMRv2 casting power. It appears that every 2-3 wizard ranks over your level nets an extra +1.
I was testing with a level 95 wizard for casting the spell. With only 17 Wiz Spells his SMRv2 with 917 = 118 against the target (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense).
Increasing his wizard spells to 1x his level (96 Wizard Spells) his SMRv2 casting power = 197
At 97 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 197
98 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 198
99 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 198
100 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 199
101 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 200
103 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 201
106 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 202
so on and so forth.....
144 Wiz spells (1.5x his level), SMRv2 = 221
I do not know how level of caster vs target plays into things - probably be something I never figure out without a lot of planning and testing.
* Encumbrance
My testing appears to point towards once you exceed 15% encumbrance, you will not incur any extra penalty to your SMRv2 defense. I even put him at 110% encumbered and he still had the same penalty as being only 15% encumbered.
My testing dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense) had the following penalty to his SMRv2 defense:
% Encumbered|SMRv2 Penalty
0|0
1|-3
2|-5
3|-7
4|-9
5|-13
6|-15
7|-18
8|-20
9|-23
10|-26
11|-29
12|-32
13|-36
14|-38
15|-42
* Armor - more info
Using my test dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense) I found that his largest SMRv2 penalty for any armor (from full leather to full plate) was -42. That -42 is achieved only from scale armor and up, anything under the penalty is less, but still noticeable if you're not trained up to the armor's RT Penalty. No armor past Full Leather can have the SMRv2 penalties trained off. All armor over Full Leather will incur some sort of penalty to your SMRv2 defense.
* Stance
My test dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense), from defensive stance thru offensive, these are his SMRv2 penalties:
Stance|Dwarven Rogue|Dark Elf Wizard
Defensive|0|0
Guarded|-5|-10
Neutral|-10|-15
Forward|-13|-20
Advance|-16|-25
Offensive|-19|-30
I tested this many, many times and they always came out the same. Those numbers are very different from my other character I tested against (level 65, Dark Elf, Wizard) - See table above.
* Here's some interesting info about the correlation between Encumbrance and Armor and Stance.
My test dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense), his base SMRv2 was 179.
Upon being 15% encumbered he gained -42 to his SMRv2 defense. This put his SMRv2 defense at 221.
Upon not being encumbered and wearing Chain Mail (no Armor Use ranks), he had a -42 penalty for the armor he was wearing. This put his SMRv2 defense at 221.
Using the information I've learned from all the testing and basic math reasoning, mixed with a logical guess, I figured hitting 15% encumbered and wearing chain mail (with no Armor Use ranks) his SMRv2 would be 263......
Nope, it wasn't. It was still only at 221.
I did a mix of testing between Armor Use ranks to lower the SMRv2 penalty between multiple different sets of armor and different levels of encumbrance, and they all returned the same results: -42 was the max penalty between the two.
I now tried mixing STANCE into the equation on my excel sheet, thinking I had it all figured out....Nope! STANCE throws me another curve ball. I put on some Studded Leather, no armor ranks, not encumbered, stance offensive. Based on my findings I thought the rogue's SMRv2 would = 240.
I was wrong, his SMRv2 was 221.
I put the target dummy's Armor Use ranks to 15. That 15 ranks reduces the armor penalty from -42 to -26.
Stance offensive (-19) + Armor Penalty (-26) = 45
SMRv2 should (179 base + 45) = 224 (or in this case, if it holds the same behavior as before, only -42 for a max penalty, so 221)
Nope, neither 224 or 221 is correct.
He ended up with a SMRv2 of 213.
I went back and double checked my findings with Studded Leather and Armor Use ranks, I confirmed 14 ranks, in defensive stance = -42 and 15 ranks in defensive stance = -26
I cast at him again with him at 15 Armor Use ranks, defensive stance and his SMRv2 = 205 (just like I can calculate). Base 179 + 26 from the armor penalty = 205
Anyway, this will take a lot more playing around with to figure this shit out. If anyone has read through this new update and even is remotely interested in it, let me know and I'll keep plugging away. If the interest isn't there, I'll probably just poke at SMRv2 with 917 at my leisure when I'm really bored.
Old info below this line
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what I've been able to pin down so far with SMRv2:
Spell Bonuses:
913 - gives 2-3 SMRv2 defense points [ http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Professions/Wizard/view/734 ]
911 - base bonus = 20 dodge ranks. That means the spell gives 3-4 points to your SMRv2 defense. (was tested in the Dodge skill bonus since the spell gives phantom dodge rank) *note* Dodge skill ranks may have a diminishing return, but it is unknown. 911 will give 20 phantom Dodge ranks, but if you have high Dodge skill, the bonus defense you gain for SMRv2 may be less than 3 or 4 points.
Skill Bonuses:
My lack of reading skills, it clearly indicates that CM, Perception, FP and Dodge skills are all weighted the same.
I've messed around some. It appears that there is some kind of diminishing return after 100 combined ranks of CM/Perception/FP/Dodge.
It also appears that the equation has some sort of weight built into it between full numbers, think of how they setup the new CER for weighting/padding/sighting. For example, if you're 20% of the way to getting your CER to +5 on your weapon, every swing you have a 20% chance to hit that +5, the other 80% you get +4. Same thing appears to be happening with SMRv2 defense.
Right now under 100 total ranks the rate of increase looks to be about the same; I gain roughly 1 point to my SMRv2 defense for about every 4-5 skill ranks. At 100 skill ranks I have a +22 to my SMRv2 defense. I do bounce between +22 and +23 about half the time based on my testing
If 100 ranks always gave that +22, at 200 combined ranks I'd expect to see +44-45 points on my SMRv2 defense, but that's not the case. I only see a 38 point bonus to my SMRv2 defense.
Armor:
Over training in armor does improve your SMRv2 defense based on the Action Penalty over training benefits (see over training benefits on gswiki (https://gswiki.play.net/Armor_Use)). Not being fully trained can really hinder your SMRv2 defense. Just going off my data from full leather and leather breastplate, it appears any training over an armor's RT penalty does not increase your SMRv2 defense until you hit 50 AU ranks over the armor you're using.
There appears to be correlation between your AGI, DEX and INT bonuses when it comes to reducing your armor's SMRv2 penalty. I though it might be level based (but that just sounds stupid, why penalize younger characters just because of level, so I dismissed this idea) at first or even profession based (the differences I found came across square professions, semis and pures). I'll post a quick snip below in the next table.
I don't know where the cutoff is at (maybe 50 combined bonus points?), but here's my current findings, usual testing is done. Test dummies do not have any PF, CM, Dodge or Perception ranks and is not encumbered.
Dark Elf|Wizard|Level 65|AGI: 94 (27)|DEX: 91 (30)|INT: 88 (24)||||
Base SMRv2 = 116|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|125|125|116|116|116|116|116|116|116
Penalty|-9|-9|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|152|152|140|140|129|120|120|120|120
Penalty|-36|-36|-24|-24|-13|-4|-4|-4|-4
Dwarf|Rogue|Level 49|AGI: 100 (25)|DEX: 100 (25)|INT: 74 (12)||||
Base SMRv2 = 179|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|194|194|179|179|179|179|179|179|179
Penalty|-15|-15|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|221|221|221|221|201|186|186|186|186
Penalty|-42|-42|-42|-42|-22|-7|-7|-7|-7
Dwarf|Rogue|Level 49|AGI: 100 (20)|DEX: 100 (25)|INT: 74 (12)||||
Base SMRv2 = 179|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|194|194|179|179|179|179|179|179|179
Penalty|-15|-15|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|221|221|221|221|201|201|186|186|186
Penalty|-42|-42|-42|-42|-22|-22|-7|-7|-7
Dwarf|Wizard|Level 27|AGI: 92 (16)|DEX: 79 (14)|INT: 73 (11)||||
Base SMRv2 = 255|||||||||
Full Leather|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|287|287|255|255|255|255|255|255|255
Penalty|-32|-32|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Leather Breastplate|||||||||
Armor Use Ranks|0|1|2|5|7|10|20|30|40
SMRv2 Defense|287|287|287|287|287|287|269|269|269
Penalty|-32|-32|-32|-32|-32|-32|-14|-14|-14
I could post more (a lot) data in the above table, but it's very tedious in the forums.
Dark Elf has a total of 81 bonus between AGI/DEX/INT stats.
Dwarf (rogue) has a total of 57 bonus between AGI/DEX/INT stats.
Dwarf (wizard) has a total of 41 bonus between AGI/DEX/INT stats.
Dark Elf is a wizard (so issue isn't profession based). He gets 3 steps for armor penalty reduction on leather breastplate.
Rogue dwarf exceeds 50 combined bonus points and gets the extra reduction for armor. He has 3 steps for armor penalty reductions on leather breastplate.
Wizard dwarf falls below 50 combined bonus points and only gets 2 steps for armor penalty reductions on leather breastplate.
**UPDATE 4/2/19**
Sorcerer tested with 704.
From what it appears, every 25 ranks of Demonology lore gives +1 to your SMRv2
**I can't say this is 100% accurate, this is just my findings with my limited testing pool of characters**
Race = Forest Gnome
Level = 38
AGI = 75 (22)
DEX = 76 (18)
INT = 72 (11)
Armor worn = robes (no impact on SMRv2 based on all my testing)
Armor Use ranks = 4
Encumbered = No
CM ranks = 0
PF ranks = 0
Dodge ranks = 0
Perception ranks = 0
Demonology ranks = 0
No active spells
No 704 active||704 Active, no lore ranks|Bonus|704 Active, 25 lore ranks|Bonus|704 Active, 50 lore ranks|Bonus|704 Active, 75 lore ranks|Bonus
Stance|Base SMRv2|SMRv2||SMRv2||SMRv2||SMRv2
Defensive|208|206|2|205|3|204|4|204|4
Guarded|213|212|1|211|2|209|4|209|4
Neutral|218|216|2|215|3|214|4|213|5
Forward|221|219|2|218|3|217|4|216|5
Advance|224|222|2|212|3|220|4|219|5
Offensive|226|224|2|223|3|222|4|221|5
I make multiple casts, at least 6, under every stance and I keep the highest number as my final result. For example, with 704 active, no lore ranks, guarded stance; a few casts gave me an end result of 211, but 212 is the highest number I got from a couple of casts. This is why guarded stance appears to have less of a bonus. This difference in guarded stance over the others may be simply due to the way the overall SMRv2 defense equation is calculated. You'll notice a similar result for 75 ranks of Demonology in the table above.
With all that in mind, plus the fact my sorcerer is only level 38, I can only test so far.
From what it appears, every 25 ranks of Demonology lore gives +1 to your SMRv2. I am only tested up through 75 lore ranks
**UPDATE 4/1/19**
*Base SMRv2 level increase bonus
It appears that every level you gain, you automatically earn +3 to your SMRv2 defense.
I had a level 12 Human I put his stats on the server to set his AGI/DEX/INT stats so he received a zero bonus on all. No PF, Perception, Dodge or CM ranks. No armor worn, no encumbrance and stance defense:
Level 12 Base SMRv2 = 332 (36 point difference over 368)
I ran out of stat resets so I just rerolled him on the test server, now he's level 0.
Same setup as above, I set his stats to be 0 bonus on AGI/DEX/INT and same setup with skills/armor/encumbrance, etc:
Level 0 base SMRv2 = 368
I ran him to level 1 visiting spots around WL, made sure all above factors were still at 0.
Level 1 base SMRv2 = 365 (3 point difference over 368)
I took him through some rats and used some instant mind clear boosts to get him to level 2 right quick
Level 2 base SMRv2 = 362 (6 point difference over 368)
As you can see, it appears every level improves your base SMRv2 by 3.
*More Stance Info
After tanking the level 12 Human's DEX/AGI/INT down to a zero bonus across the board, his SMRv2 did not fluctuate between stances.
Defensive stance = 332
all the way through
Offensive stance = 332
It appears there is an overall correlation between your stats (most likely any bonuses and/or penalties also play a role) and your stance.
**UPDATE 3/31/19**
I've been playing with 917 and how SMRv2 works for a while now. I think I've put in about 10 hours on re-working what I know and testing things out on just 1 character and from what I've learned from my original testing on a different character as the test dummy, the numbers don't match. I'm thinking this has to do with your race. What I know for sure, I've listed below in the "Here's what I've been able to pin down so far" section.
I've removed some info I posted originally because it's not 100% accurate and hopefully the stuff I left still holds true as I continue to do my research.
* Wizard Ranks and 917
Every Wizard Spell level over 917, up to your level gives +1 to your SMRv2 casting power. It appears that every 2-3 wizard ranks over your level nets an extra +1.
I was testing with a level 95 wizard for casting the spell. With only 17 Wiz Spells his SMRv2 with 917 = 118 against the target (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense).
Increasing his wizard spells to 1x his level (96 Wizard Spells) his SMRv2 casting power = 197
At 97 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 197
98 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 198
99 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 198
100 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 199
101 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 200
103 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 201
106 Wiz spells, SMRv2 = 202
so on and so forth.....
144 Wiz spells (1.5x his level), SMRv2 = 221
I do not know how level of caster vs target plays into things - probably be something I never figure out without a lot of planning and testing.
* Encumbrance
My testing appears to point towards once you exceed 15% encumbrance, you will not incur any extra penalty to your SMRv2 defense. I even put him at 110% encumbered and he still had the same penalty as being only 15% encumbered.
My testing dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense) had the following penalty to his SMRv2 defense:
% Encumbered|SMRv2 Penalty
0|0
1|-3
2|-5
3|-7
4|-9
5|-13
6|-15
7|-18
8|-20
9|-23
10|-26
11|-29
12|-32
13|-36
14|-38
15|-42
* Armor - more info
Using my test dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense) I found that his largest SMRv2 penalty for any armor (from full leather to full plate) was -42. That -42 is achieved only from scale armor and up, anything under the penalty is less, but still noticeable if you're not trained up to the armor's RT Penalty. No armor past Full Leather can have the SMRv2 penalties trained off. All armor over Full Leather will incur some sort of penalty to your SMRv2 defense.
* Stance
My test dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense), from defensive stance thru offensive, these are his SMRv2 penalties:
Stance|Dwarven Rogue|Dark Elf Wizard
Defensive|0|0
Guarded|-5|-10
Neutral|-10|-15
Forward|-13|-20
Advance|-16|-25
Offensive|-19|-30
I tested this many, many times and they always came out the same. Those numbers are very different from my other character I tested against (level 65, Dark Elf, Wizard) - See table above.
* Here's some interesting info about the correlation between Encumbrance and Armor and Stance.
My test dummy (level 49 dwarf, 20 AGI, 25 DEX, no armor, no skills to aid in SMRv2 defense), his base SMRv2 was 179.
Upon being 15% encumbered he gained -42 to his SMRv2 defense. This put his SMRv2 defense at 221.
Upon not being encumbered and wearing Chain Mail (no Armor Use ranks), he had a -42 penalty for the armor he was wearing. This put his SMRv2 defense at 221.
Using the information I've learned from all the testing and basic math reasoning, mixed with a logical guess, I figured hitting 15% encumbered and wearing chain mail (with no Armor Use ranks) his SMRv2 would be 263......
Nope, it wasn't. It was still only at 221.
I did a mix of testing between Armor Use ranks to lower the SMRv2 penalty between multiple different sets of armor and different levels of encumbrance, and they all returned the same results: -42 was the max penalty between the two.
I now tried mixing STANCE into the equation on my excel sheet, thinking I had it all figured out....Nope! STANCE throws me another curve ball. I put on some Studded Leather, no armor ranks, not encumbered, stance offensive. Based on my findings I thought the rogue's SMRv2 would = 240.
I was wrong, his SMRv2 was 221.
I put the target dummy's Armor Use ranks to 15. That 15 ranks reduces the armor penalty from -42 to -26.
Stance offensive (-19) + Armor Penalty (-26) = 45
SMRv2 should (179 base + 45) = 224 (or in this case, if it holds the same behavior as before, only -42 for a max penalty, so 221)
Nope, neither 224 or 221 is correct.
He ended up with a SMRv2 of 213.
I went back and double checked my findings with Studded Leather and Armor Use ranks, I confirmed 14 ranks, in defensive stance = -42 and 15 ranks in defensive stance = -26
I cast at him again with him at 15 Armor Use ranks, defensive stance and his SMRv2 = 205 (just like I can calculate). Base 179 + 26 from the armor penalty = 205
Anyway, this will take a lot more playing around with to figure this shit out. If anyone has read through this new update and even is remotely interested in it, let me know and I'll keep plugging away. If the interest isn't there, I'll probably just poke at SMRv2 with 917 at my leisure when I'm really bored.
Old info below this line
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what I've been able to pin down so far with SMRv2:
Spell Bonuses:
913 - gives 2-3 SMRv2 defense points [ http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Professions/Wizard/view/734 ]
911 - base bonus = 20 dodge ranks. That means the spell gives 3-4 points to your SMRv2 defense. (was tested in the Dodge skill bonus since the spell gives phantom dodge rank) *note* Dodge skill ranks may have a diminishing return, but it is unknown. 911 will give 20 phantom Dodge ranks, but if you have high Dodge skill, the bonus defense you gain for SMRv2 may be less than 3 or 4 points.
Skill Bonuses:
My lack of reading skills, it clearly indicates that CM, Perception, FP and Dodge skills are all weighted the same.
I've messed around some. It appears that there is some kind of diminishing return after 100 combined ranks of CM/Perception/FP/Dodge.
It also appears that the equation has some sort of weight built into it between full numbers, think of how they setup the new CER for weighting/padding/sighting. For example, if you're 20% of the way to getting your CER to +5 on your weapon, every swing you have a 20% chance to hit that +5, the other 80% you get +4. Same thing appears to be happening with SMRv2 defense.
Right now under 100 total ranks the rate of increase looks to be about the same; I gain roughly 1 point to my SMRv2 defense for about every 4-5 skill ranks. At 100 skill ranks I have a +22 to my SMRv2 defense. I do bounce between +22 and +23 about half the time based on my testing
If 100 ranks always gave that +22, at 200 combined ranks I'd expect to see +44-45 points on my SMRv2 defense, but that's not the case. I only see a 38 point bonus to my SMRv2 defense.
Armor:
Over training in armor does improve your SMRv2 defense based on the Action Penalty over training benefits (see over training benefits on gswiki (https://gswiki.play.net/Armor_Use)). Not being fully trained can really hinder your SMRv2 defense. Just going off my data from full leather and leather breastplate, it appears any training over an armor's RT penalty does not increase your SMRv2 defense until you hit 50 AU ranks over the armor you're using.