I killed about 10 assassins with a steel broadsword with these abilities up.

>
You are currently practicing the Bear Form and will hold focus of it for a very long time. (strength)
You are currently practicing the Eagle Form and will hold focus of it for a very long time.
You are currently practicing the Piranha Form and will hold focus of it for a very long time. (balance)
You are currently practicing the Dragon Form and will hold focus of it for a very long time. (to-hit melee)
You are thoroughly inflamed with the Wildfire Berserk. (agility)
You are thoroughly inflamed with the Tsunami Berserk. (held weapon power/balance)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>|>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>- - - -
You feel a jolt as your vision snaps shut.

Then I killed 10 more assassins without them up with the same weapon and I didn't noticed a difference at all. I realize I could've just used Wildfire, Piranha, Bear, and Tsunami but I just threw the rest up. I made sure to give Bear + Piranha plenty of time to fully function before testing. Is it possible some of these aren't working properly?

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Individuals, families, countries, continents are destroyed at the heavy hand of Vinjince.

-GM Abasha

10 enemies is hardly enough to say something isn't working correctly. What was your hits-to-kill with and without the abilities?

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

>>Gonna log in soon and kill a total of 100 assassins with and without abilities and record the hits-to-kill, as well as using the same attacking sequences (not gonna use the 'attack' verb).

Alright, so I went ahead and did this test. Let me preface this by listing the precautions I took:

1. I watched out for berserks ending. Anytime a berserk ended (always was Tsunami before Wildfire), I'd cancel the recording on the current critter, stop my Wildfire berserk, use Med Fill, then activate both Tsunami and Wildfire again. The forms lasted throughout the whole time, so there was no need to re-activate them.
2. I only used 'Slice' over and over and over.
3. I used the exact same weapon for both tests.
4. I made sure each kill started out at melee, meaning I didn't charge at any time from pole ranged.
5. I ignored the random misses and didn't include them in my data.

First, here's a list of hits-to-kill with abilities.

With Dragon, Bear, Wildfire, and Tsunami up:

5,7,9,7,6,6,7,6,7,7,8,7,7,8,6,6,8,6,6,9,6,7,8,7,8,3,8,8,7,7,7,7,6,5,7,8,6,8,5,7,7,7,5,7,6,7,7,8,7,6.

50 kills, average of 6.8 hits per kill.

Then I tested without abilities and found that I was missing more often, so I just threw up Dragon. No bear, wildfire, or tsunami:

7,9,8,8,8,9,9,7,5,8,9,8,7,7,9,8,7,8,8,8,7,8,8,9,10,9,6,8,8,8,9,7,8,9,7,7,8,7,6,7,8,7,5,9,8,8,9,5,10.

50 kills, average of 7.6 hits per kill.

So obviously there is a difference. At the same time, the combination of Wildfire and Tsunami (which is incredibly taxing on Inner Fire, I was barely able to keep it above the passive regen cap, that's after using Med Fill between berserks ending and constantly killing) + bear only netted me an average of less than one hit per kill.

Both Thrown and Bows can't benefit from Tsunami, so I don't think it's unreasonable to request some kind of ability that works for both and does a little more damage. Even if we sacrifice defenses or Inner Fire, we're Barbarians! We should have something more damaging.

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Individuals, families, countries, continents are destroyed at the heavy hand of Vinjince.

-GM Abasha

>>I think another way to look at it is you were killing things about 15% faster with the other abilities up, and given how vitality works now as a damage mitigator (meaning you got to go through a wall of vitality before you can kill something) I think thats pretty substantial.

I don't think it's substantial. That's not including how crazy of a hit Wildfire and Tsunami is to Inner Fire. I'd bet not one Barb will use those two together even in PvE, let alone PvP. Perhaps you should try a similar test as a Paladin?

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Individuals, families, countries, continents are destroyed at the heavy hand of Vinjince.

-GM Abasha

I'll be reducing how much IF berserks require to activate next... and we'll see about ranged damage boosters. Rewriting Eagle to work better for thrown weapons is taking longer than expected.

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

Weapon skill is the base base from which we calculate OF. OF vs DEF determines the to-hit %. OF factors into damage, by modifying it from 20% to about 200%. However, you hit the 200% mark long before you cap to-hit, and this is where a majority of people find themselves hunting.

This low cap from ranks usually has me referring to skill boosters as more of to-hit boosters than damage boosters. OF/ranks can increase damage it just isn't as common or as noticeable for people. This is a good thing because we have 50-some factors that can increase OF. If the damage bonus from OF was not capped, you'd have players getting splattered all over the place again.

Damage itself is not really capped anywhere. Contributions from weapon power, strength, weapon stats, special attacks like smite, and damage buffs can all combine to ruin someones' day.

Note - if OF vastly exceeds DEF you can hit the overkill mechanics that increase damage by 1000%. This is to allow for one-hit kills of players that are stanced down to 0, and very low-circle critters by higher circle players.

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

>>Meanwhile a to hit bonus only bonuses the chance to hit.

Correct, though right now the "to-hit" bonuses players refer to are just bonusing either ranks, or OF directly. I don't know of any static to-hit bonus available outside of things like smite or stealth attacks.

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

>>Note - if OF vastly exceeds DEF you can hit the overkill mechanics that increase damage by 1000%. This is to allow for one-hit kills of players that are stanced down to 0, and very low-circle critters by higher circle players.

Should you always be able to one hit kill people that are stanced down to 0 at least with reasonable ranks say 350-400. Just curious because at one point in test I did this to someone and it didn't kill him to my surprise. Wounded him pretty bad but took a second shot to kill him.

_______________________
It is impossible to strive for the heroic life. The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.
-Johan Huizinga

The Light is Crimson through the Darkness.

Headshot
_______________________
It is impossible to strive for the heroic life. The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.
-Johan Huizinga

The Light is Crimson through the Darkness.

>>Much like in real life, sometimes you just manage to partially chop off his head. Be sure to specify where to hit him, and target something critical like the neck. Removing an arm might not be enough to end his miserable life :P

To add to this), I got a messaging in test last month about cutting someone in half. It didn't kill him, which felt rather like Monty Python's bit about it being a flesh wound.

Hmm, as of November that kind of messaging should not be possible. If you can find a way to reproduce it or a log that would be fantastic. Also if it only happens on players or whatnot.

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"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes