Today I was taking a look at the game guide and I was surprised to see the actual “order of defense”, I was pretty sure that in some previous version the %damage absorption was calculated much sooner (before armor) and shield much later, but I cannot find anything about it in the changelogs.
Was it always like this and I’m just wrong or?!?
On a side note I’m slightly confused about flat damage absorption. We have 2 types:
with a duration (blast shield, seal, overguard, stoneform, prismatic diamond, any other?). These reduce each attack by the listed amount.
without a duration, usually written with “protects against:…” but not always (turtle shell for example). These are like an health buffer I think.
Which one of the 2 types is applied first? They should be re worded, they are confusing.
Percentage absorption (worded as “X% damage absorption”). Reduces ALL incoming damage by a given percentage. Examples - Possession, Menhir’s Bastion active skill, etc.
Flat absorption (worded as “X damage absorption”). Reduces every portion of incoming damage by a given FLAT number (so is very good against many small hits, and bad VS big single hits). Examples - Blast Shield, Overguard, etc.
Buffer absorption (also worded as “X damage absorption”, but often, works only against certain damage types). Absorbs 100% of incoming damage, but has a limited “buffer”. When total damage absorbed exceeds “buffer”, the buff that provided “buffer absorbtion”, fades. Examples - Arcane Barrier (Crab const.), Mythical Fiendflesh Greaves’ shield, etc.
It’s quite clear that flat absorption comes last, as you can easily see from the Inquisitor Seal, and those damage absorption devotion perks. If they came earlier, you wouldn’t reach 0 damage from hits that started off harder than they absorb. Armor is another example of flat absorb. The math would not allow for 0 damage in many of the cases armor allows it (if you have 100% armor absorption).
Percent based absorption doesn’t matter where it is placed, as long as it is before flat absorption, and the same result occurs.
Misses due to DA, chance to dodge and so forth, doesn’t change the outcome no matter what order it is in, but doing those before damage is calculated saves processor time, so doing them first makes perfect sense.
When I saw the shield in the last, I was confused at first too, but realized they were not talking about the absorption part of the shield, but the chance to hit part of the shield.
Sorry but it still isn’t clear. So the order of defense was always like shown in game guide now (so game guide was wrong in the past) or was it changed in some recent version?
And which flat absorption is last? Buffer absorption?
I was also confused by the game guide, as I’d thought shield damage reduction took place after resist/armor. Given where it falls in the new order list, is shield damage reduction worthwhile?
The shield absorption may not be in the order given in the guild, but it doesn’t show shield absorption, it just says shield, which you first have to figure out if you block or not before the absorption takes place.
As far as flat absorption, the order doesn’t matter, as long as they are last. It’s all additive. It doesn’t matter what order the percent reductions are, as long as they are before the flat reductions. The end result is the same.
The shield is the only thing which may throw a wrench into things. As it has both a hit/miss and flat absorption category, and they did not make that clear.
Still not clear from any of this whether per-hit absorbers like Inquisitor Seal and Blast Shield apply their reduction before or after the damage hits ablatives like Turtle. I would hope that the ablative is last in order but it’s not at all clear from the guide or the discussion.