Overcharged Stats

grahamz1b14_ESO

I noticed something odd on my character screen for my level 18 Altmer Sorceror. It says that my Magicka Recovery is overcharged. I did some searching and saw that it meant that any additional magicka recovery will give diminshing returns, but how does that work exactly? Is it because I took too many skills that increase magicka recovery? Or is it because I put too many points into Magicka? And how many is too many (what's the formula)? What do I have to do to avoid this (I'm an altaholic, so this will not be the last time I need to be concerned with overcharging stats).

Lazarus_Long

There are several other threads that detail this but:

1.) The higher your level the harder it is to hit a soft cap. It's easiest at levels below 15
2.) Wearing 7 pieces of the same armor and/or taking skills that increase regen can cause it.
3.) Items can like jewelry cause it.
4.) It's a reminder that you may be using an unbalanced build if you see it over a long time.
5.) Other games do it too, but most aren't nice enough to tell you about it.

awkwarrd

Download addon "softcapinfo"
THis is just a handy tool to see if your losing points.

grahamz1b14_ESO

So adding points to Magicka is not the issue? I can still do that? But maybe I should swap some of my light armor for heavy and take fewer magick regen skills?

I'm talking mostly about what should I do in the long run.

Rev Rielle

Yes.
Magicka recovery (points/2s) and magicka (total pool) are two different things, so adding to one will not effect the other directly.
You'll know when you soft-cap magicka as that stat (on the left side of your character window) will turn orange.

Xezzu

It's a collective concept.

For you, every bit of Magicka-adding piece of gear or attribute is collectively causing the Overcharge. It's just suggesting, that should you not like the Overcharge, you may want to step back a bit. Naturally this will be more easily done by swapping gear and such, and not attributes.

Once you level, the softcap will raise again and you can raise the skill some more (assuming you aren't happy with the softcap).

On a related note, you may try Magicka-reducing effects as well. For me as a Healer and having played through the PTS a bit, I found that Magicka as a stat was great as it increased your resource, but depending on a large resource wasn't nearly as effective as having high Magicka regen and Magicka-reducing attributes on my gear. For me, Magicka-reducing attributes to my gear is my go-to, followed by regen, then pure Magicka. Granted, some types of gear can only have one as an option and not all three.

EDIT: I noticed just now that your issue is Magicka Recovery, not Magicka itself, though it doesn't really change anything.

grahamz1b14_ESO

Lol, since leveling to 19, I now have overcharged Magicka as well even though I put a point into health instead (must be my quest reward gear). As I get more pieces, I'm slowly swapping out my light armor for heavy, which should reduce both stats, while giving me better survivability.

My original intention was (as is probably obvious) to make a pure mage/dps (possibly using a healing staff as an alternate weapon to be a backup healer, but I haven't worked towards that much). So I intentionally was unbalanced (heck, anyone who knows me knows I'm unbalanced). I just didn't realize at first that I might be better off doing things a bit differently. Thanks everyone.

grahamz1b14_ESO

BTW, if I don't put any points into Stamina (which I don't need for my skills... maybe for the occasional sneaking and sprinting though...) will it cause a problem? Or should I occasionally stick a point into there as well? (In other words, if I split almost everything (points and gear) between health and Magicka, will it somehow be a bad thing?

Xezzu

No, there's no "wrong", per se. It's more of a "How much do you want to be able to Block?" or "How much do you want to be able to CC break?" or those sorts of things. The Sorcerer also has an ability that consumes Stamina to replenish Health and Magicka, if I remember correctly.

There is no wrong way, just your way

Svann

Xezzu wrote: »

No, there's no "wrong", per se. It's more of a "How much do you want to be able to Block?" or "How much do you want to be able to CC break?" or those sorts of things. The Sorcerer also has an ability that consumes Stamina to replenish Health and Magicka, if I remember correctly.

I think it doesnt matter though because it drains a % of your mana per second.

Xezzu

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

Xezzu wrote: »

No, there's no "wrong", per se. It's more of a "How much do you want to be able to Block?" or "How much do you want to be able to CC break?" or those sorts of things. The Sorcerer also has an ability that consumes Stamina to replenish Health and Magicka, if I remember correctly.

I think it doesnt matter though because it drains a % of your mana per second.

I guess it depends on how you look at it. If it drains 25%, then 25% of 100 would be far less left over than if it were 25% of 500. I guess if you were to use ALL of your Stamina, then yeah, definitely. It wouldn't matter.

jimmulvaney

Man, I have been researching this topic ad-nauseum for weeks now and I still can not wrap my head around it? Kinda new to MMOs (last one I played was GW1)... My issue is Armor. I am 2h/SwSh Heavy DK Nord. I don't want to wear medium or light armor I like looking like a death knight juggernaut, but this has a serious effect on my group dungeons because I am usually the designated tank. Especially when the Earthen Heart abilities raise armor and regen! Why cant they have a hard cap and let me be what I want so long as it is level appropriate while I "grow" into my stat? This becomes so frustrating that I just play with the cap on but I still do not understand how it effects my game play. I understand that overcharged stats level slower which is fine as a consequence for playing with the cap but is there a specific rate at which the return gets diminished?

Shimond

Yea, there's an addon that will show your stats in terms of a fraction (current/overcharge) so you can build around them if you want. I can't remember the name of it offhand.

Elder_III

There is a softcap and a hardcap both, basically the softcap is there to indicate that you character is leaning toawards a one dimensional build, which is not a bad thing in every case by any means.

Zakua

I use hvy armor and my armor stat is always overcharged so I just live with it...I die easily enough already (if I am not paying attention) so to even think of replacing a heavy piece with a piece of light or medium armor doesn't make sense. Less is not more is some cases .

Now if you are really deeply overcharged to the point you could swap all your jewelry pieces and only loose a few points of the overcharged stat...then by all means use that jewelry for a better attribute.

The fact that wearing a matched/complete set of any armor puts you into overcharged is a bit over the top IMO....

grahamz1b14_ESO

I created the original post because I was new and I didn't understand overcharging either, but I kind of understand it now (not in a mathematical sense, but in an overall sense). It's not that you HAVE to replace a heavy piece with a light piece, and in fact, it might actually be better if you don't, depending on what your intent is. I think that some people are still in the place that I was before I started posting here.

The truth is that before you are overcharged, there's a one to one ratio of points in the stat to effective points in the stat. When you reach the OC level, it's no longer 1 to 1, but it might be 3 to 2 or 2 to 1 (as I said, I don't know the mathematics of it all). It's a concept that actually exists in other MMOs and rpgs as well, only they either have their own name for it, or they don't tell you about it. Or they might simply cap it (which is actually worse).

Remember also that level is taken into account, so while your stats may be overcharged at your current level, once you level, that may not be true. So instead of swapping armor, you can just sit it out, and make sure that you put your next skill point into something that is more constructive than merely increasing that stat. OR, if to your build, that stat is the be-all and end-all, you can ignore the fact that it is overcharged, and continue to put points into it. It may not give you the same return on investment that you would get from improving a different stat, but it's what you actually need to meet your goals (because it's not like you hit the cap, it's more like you no longer are getting a 1 for 1 return but maybe a 2 for 3 or 1 for 2 return, or whatever).

jimmulvaney

So are you saying if I break the soft cap I still get minimal benefit BEYOND what my level already allows or is it diminshed up to what my level allows? For example...
Armor : 100/ 90 (I pass the cap by 10pts)
Do I still receive the full benefit of the 90 armor?
Plus a percentage of the additional 10pts?
If yes, then I can live with that no problem.

Also, I understand that leveling a stat takes longer when capped any idea how that works out?

cromica81_ESO

jimmulvaney wrote: »

So are you saying if I break the soft cap I still get minimal benefit BEYOND what my level already allows or is it diminshed up to what my level allows? For example...
Armor : 100/ 90 (I pass the cap by 10pts)
Do I still receive the full benefit of the 90 armor?
Plus a percentage of the additional 10pts?
If yes, then I can live with that no problem.

Also, I understand that leveling a stat takes longer when capped any idea how that works out?

Yes that is correct.

Not sure about the taking longer to level, I though that was just based on how many items of the type you are wearing + what ever percentage you have add with traits.


Basically what happens is you are wasting points in say Heavy armor when you could put on a piece of light and have you class skills cost less magicka or medium and get more crit.

It takes some time but there are ways to mix and match the types of armor to make it look really nice and still get the look you want and not gimp your character.

jimmulvaney

Thank you for the reply. As much as I was originally against soft caps, this actually intrigues me and is a welcomed challenge for me. Kudos!