maybe instead of adding armor reduction on items (ineffective since enemies usually have 1k armor and reducing by 50% to 500 would mean nothing to those small bits of <50 phys damage as damage reduced would be the same), instead add armor absorption reduction on items or skills. this will ensure that some parts of those small bits of phys damage can bypass armor and deal meaningful damage while big chunks of phys will probably be affected by a lesser extent. it needs some testing to find the perfect balance of armor absorb reduction but i think this is a way to give physical a helping hand without reworking the calculation and making all small pieces of phys combined beforehand before armor kicks in (which i think is a similar system to flat absorb so condensing small phys damage [and all other damage types if they use the same system] will indirectly nerf the effectiveness of flat absorb, though just my theory and i need confirmation)
When you think of physical dmg, AAR should come to mind because it’s one of the strongest phys builds. Not a big accomplishment but still.
And it’s strong exactly because of the armor: it only passes 4 armor checks. Attacking builds such as Blitz or RF have them in 10s, 20s and even more sometimes.
The 3 listed builds are just a very clear representation how similar on paper builds function completely differently because of the amount of armor checks.
I could in fact list 50 or more specific underperforming physical builds that are much better supported than the channelers. But
- Who even has time to read through it?
- Who even has time to fix them all individually? phys build balance is a nightmare
- It would be dishonest to what i believe
And what i believe is phys, the most basic dmg type, has a fundamental problem that needs fixing before FoA release to avoid a situation where all the new players who chose the obvious physical Soldier as a basis for their first build would deal no dmg in engame/ascension and ragequit the game.
I’ve “complained” about this problem multiple times but now i just so happen to have found a good representation of the problem. I thought it was clear.
I used to be into meme physical builds, until I came to understand the mechanics of them properly. Now I don’t make them anymore. None of that is relevant here, but I have nothing to add other than these feelings.
They were fine until the converted damage “fix”… Still salty about it…
I had mix feelings about it. I’m glad, that the mechanics is consistent now. It’s stupid when some Physical damage is affected by armor and some not. But it does feel like the change killed some meme builds, the ones that have many damage sources converted to Phys, like this one [1.1.8.1] Physical Caster Sentinel -> Crucible 5:05/ SR 100/ Ravager 1:30 + Crate I made builds like that myself. I did not make proper testing after the change, assumed these don’t work well anymore and moved to other builds.