Crit padding?

[Asha]

Is this crit padding or could it be she had no mana?
An endroll that high on an empath should have ended very badly for her.



You trace an intricate sign that contorts in the air while forcefully invoking Dark Catalyst...
Your spell is ready.
>cast at sp
You gesture at Empath who can't stop pinching you..
CS: +401 - TD: +319 + CvA: +13 + d100: +97 == +192
Warding failed!
Spaewife is suddenly engulfed in brilliant white fire!
... and hits for 33 points of damage!
... 10 points of damage!
Burst of flames to chest toasts skin nicely.
... 15 points of damage!
Spaewife failed to sidestep the chilly blast. Bruised ribs anyone?
She is stunned!
... 5 points of damage!
Light shock to head. That stings!
... 15 points of damage!
Glancing blow to right eye scratches cornea!
You feel 5 mana surge into you!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

[Edited on 8-30-2005 by Drayal]

[ElanthianSiren]

Way to edit out her name then leave it in later :lol:

-M

(I have no idea, just found that amusing)

[Kitsun]

Name is still there even after one edit heh.

It might be elemental resistance, the successive damage looks elemental based.

[Asha]

I spelled pinching wrong . .

I never tried to hide her name.

[Janarth]

I've seen a good amount of DCs, and those damages do seem ridiculously low, sorta like what I see on naturally crit padded critters. You're older, warded her by a lot, and probably have decent share. She definitely had mana, as you got an average return (5 mana). I'm gonna go ahead and venture she was wearing crit pradded brig or something. I know a coupla empaths who wear FGB and take some ridiculous shots (pokes Ganalon).

[Asha]

Thankyou for your help Janarth.
Excellent.

(reaches for his bankbook while glancing at nice leathers)

[Gan]

My empath swears by FGB, I believe its the perfect armor for hunting empaths. The failure rate is 6 to 7% with regards to magical hindrance and I've got 40 ranks in it so there is no movement hindrance. I laugh at the war griffens when they decide to take me flying... except when they nab me before I can scoop up any residual treasure thats lying in the room I happen to be clearing. Leaving treasure behind makes baby jesus cry.

[Fallen]

Padding helps with warding spells? That would be a new one on me. The mana returns on DC is pretty much randomized, with a slight weight on your control training.

Likely she had little/no mana. Next time Torment. Lets see padding stop a rank 9 head wound.

[Edited on 8-30-2005 by Fallen]

[Asha]

So Fallen, you're saying that if I casted MD at someone in plate, with a decent endroll, here would be NO reduction to the crits or damage?

[Asha]

I mean someone in padded plate.
Like Changchuan for example.

[Xandalf]

As Fallen said, Crit Padding/Armor has NO effect on warding based spells.


EDIT: Except for a lower CvA which can lead to a lower end roll and thus less damage.

[Edited on 8-30-2005 by Xandalf]

[Janarth]

Why would the spell have an average mana return if the person didn't have any mana. The -most- mana I've ever gotten from the spell was 13 I believe, and the person had 200 mana.

And usually that kinda endroll should crit kill. Those look like really light damages to me. Where did this info come from that all warding spells are unaffected by armor?

[Janarth]

I don't positively know the answer, but here is my best guess based on some logical thinking.

5 Mana is considered an 'average' return for DC. If the target had no mana, why would there be an average return?

Those damages are light. The caster is much older than the empath. Mana controls, endroll and elemental lores affect the damage of DC...I bet the caster has atleast the minimal requirements to make DC good, 1x in each control.

Trali shamans and forest trali get different results from DC, the shamans recieving more damage and more crits for more lethal death; why? Well...they ward differently, but the shamans ward higher, they should take less damage on average. The forest trali wear heavier armor, does that save them at all? I say maybe, you say no. Is there some "magical" stat? I woulda thought empaths would be considered very magical, as they are pretty much pures now. What else could be the discrepancy?

So yeah, back to my best guess: padded armor is saving her ass. Anyone else who wants to respectfully disagree, well: I'm keeping my mind open, I just want to hear your logic first.

[Xandalf]

Originally posted by Janarth



Trali shamans and forest trali get different results from DC, the shamans recieving more damage and more crits for more lethal death; why? Well...they ward differently, but the shamans ward higher, they should take less damage on average. The forest trali wear heavier armor, does that save them at all? I say maybe, you say no. Is there some "magical" stat? I woulda thought empaths would be considered very magical, as they are pretty much pures now. What else could be the discrepancy?

So yeah, back to my best guess: padded armor is saving her ass. Anyone else who wants to respectfully disagree, well: I'm keeping my mind open, I just want to hear your logic first.


With regards to the Trali, it is how they are regarded by the system.
Anyone who has ever hunted Forest Ogres knows there are two types: Rogues and wizards. DC tears through the wizards and does minimal damage to the rogues. The rogues are in armor while the wizards are not. The heavier armor is NOT the cause of the lesser damage, but rather they are both syptoms of the same cause. Armor/Padding does not (and I'm fairly sure about this) have an effect on CS based spells.

As for the original question, the only thing I can think of is that she didn't have a lot of mana. My character cast DC against a PC several days ago, and got similar results. Granted it was a rogue, but she had exactly 20 mana at the time. If Spaewife had 20-40 mana (quite possible) then that could be the cause of the lessened damage.

[Drew]

I've never seen crit padding work on a warding spell.

[Ardwen]

Perhaps after the initial warding hit it ceases to be a warding spell, which would make padding and/or armor quite relevant.

Ardwen

[Fallen]

That's a possibility. As for power? Cast elemental strike/blast on someone in full plate. I bet they still pop on low endrolls.

If some warding spells are effected by padding, the majority are not.

Edited to add:

I remember casting MD at the Spectral Warriors in half-plate and getting less than stellar results. However, Disintegrate teared them to pieces.

[Edited on 8-30-2005 by Fallen]

[Gan]

With regards to DC, I always experienced greater damage/results when I used it on magical creatures (alive/undead alike), than when I used it on non-magical creatures. This ofcourse was after it was nerfed a few years back; prior to then it was deadly on most anything. I used to use it all the time on roa'ters when my sorcerer hunted corpses in Varunar; then when the nerf hit, I had to relocate because I could not kill a worm on one cast (even uphunting by 4 to 5 levels) as I had been doing.

[Fallen]

Perhaps empaths have somehow been flagged as semi-magical/non-magical targets with some recent change.

[Gan]

Perhaps, because its a player and not a 'critter', the mechanics of the spell are somewhat different.

However, I'm not that knowledgeable with mechanics of critters vs. mechanics of players when combat abilities (attack, spells, manuevers, etc) are used, or if there is any difference.

[Fallen]

It SHOULD work much like the spells do on critters.

Wizards, sorcerers, Clerics, empaths ect should be light up like crazy.

Rangers, paladins, and other semi's will get hit hard, but not as hard.

Rogues and warriors will laugh it off.

[Janarth]

Hey, waddya know? Mekthros, in a post on the officials, said damage padding affected DC. He's not a GM, but he also wrote the scroll infusion guide...
guess I was right, huh?

[Danical]

it's been known that damage padding has an effect . . . but I'm not sure that means crit padding effects it as well.

I assume it would since they seem to be on the same system. Ask Tsin to take a shot in and out of one of his incredible crit padded armors. I suppose that would be the real test - if you can get him to comply.

[Janarth]

Tsin's gone. To Ireland. No, I'm not taking the piss.