edited for brevity
While reviewing these examples, please keep the following points in mind:
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[*] To calculate Constitution’s stamina return relative to block costs, we need to figure out how much stamina is being returned every half second. Constitution gives 247 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second. We can then subtract that 43 from the amount each block is charging you since you are being charged that block cost every half second.
Live
Base Block Cost: 2160
25% Champion Cost Reduction: 2160 * .75 = 1620
3x purple block cost enchantments: 1620 – 191x3 = 1620 – 573 = 1047
Fortress, Bracing, and Defensive Stance: 1047 * 0.42 = 440
Constitution: 440 – 43 = 397
PTS
Base Block Cost: 2160
25% Champion Cost Reduction: 2160 * .75 = 1620
3x purple block cost enchantments: 1620 – 191x3 = 1620 – 573 = 1047
Fortress and Defensive Stance: 1047 * .56 = 587
Sturdy x1: 587 * .96 = 563
Constitution: 563 – 163 = 400
PTS – Boss Fight
Base Block Cost: 2160
25% Champion Cost Reduction: 2160 * .75 = 1620
3x purple block cost enchantments: 1620 – 191x3 = 1620 – 573 = 1047
Fortress and Defensive Stance: 1047 * .56 = 587
Constitution 1 second: 587 – 326 = 261
Assuming the worst case scenario where you get hit exactly every half second, you only need 1 piece of Sturdy gear equipped to keep the current block cost…
Champion System
We recently moved the block cost reduction from the Steed tree to the Shadow tree. This change was made to give more options in customizing your defenses, and help reduce the amount of time spent blocking. When spending Warrior points, you don’t need to invest in block cost; you can now consider increased healing taken, stronger damage shields, or more damage reduction. Let’s dive into how this will affect the stats of a character with 501 Champion Points who is trying to maximize their block time and damage resistance:
Live - Warrior
100 Block Expertise – 25% Block Cost Reduction.
33 Hardy – 11.5% Reduced Poison, Disease, and Physical Damage.
34 Elemental Defender – 11.8% Reduced Flame, Frost, Shock, and Magic Damage.
Unique unlocks the PTS build does not have (Invigorating Bash, Phase, Shield Expert)
Live - Thief
100 Warlord – 16% Cost Reduction Stamina abilities
67 Magician – 12.6% Cost Reduction Magicka abilities
Unique unlocks the PTS build does not have (Mara’s Gift, War Mount)
PTS - Warrior
83 Hardy – 21.9% Reduced Poison, Disease, and Physical Damage reduction.
84 Elemental Defender – 22.1% Reduced Flame, Frost, Shock, and Magic Damage.
Unique unlocks the Live build does not have (Critical Leech, Unchained)
PTS - Thief
100 Block Expertise – 25% Block Cost Reduction.
67 Warlord - 12.6% Cost Reduction Stamina abilities.
Unique unlocks the Live build does not have (Fortune Seeker, Merchant Favored, Treasure Hunter)
The average ability cost is 2700 resources. That’s going to be reduced to 2268 when maxing out the Magician Champion star, or 2365 with lesser investment. If you cast an ability every 2 seconds, you will end up with more magicka after the Dark Brotherhood changes because Constitution is giving more magicka. The difference in only putting 67 points in Magician is 2365 – 2268 = 97 magicka (480 every 2 seconds from Constitution – 97 every 2 seconds nets you 383 magicka every 2 seconds). Even if you put no points in Magician, you still end up with more magicka because of the Constitution buff. Magician gives 2700 – 2268 = 432 magicka (480 every 2 seconds from Constitution – 432 magicka from Magician = 48 magicka every 2 seconds). Overall, you have more magicka and more defense if you choose to put Warrior Champion Points into Hardy and Elemental Defender. Putting 83 points into these stars instead of 34 nets an additional 10% damage reduction.
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Champion passive Shield Expert gives about 1290 armor and spell resistance all the time. However, this is a great passive that is currently in a tree that is PvP and medium armor focused. To help remedy this, we’re looking into swapping Shield Expert with Resilient so the passive to reduce critical hit damage and the unlock to heal on critical hits are together. This also makes a key tanking unlock more accessible for players with lower Champion Points, requiring 30 Champion Points instead of 75.
If you cast an ability every 2 seconds, you will end up with more magicka after the Dark Brotherhood changes because Constitution is giving more magicka.
[*] Block cost has a cooldown of 0.5 seconds - No matter how many monsters are attacking, you can block every single attack and will only be charged every half second.
I think you meantConstitution gives 247 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.
Constitution gives 346 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.And this is with 7 pieces of Heavy Armour.
Could you provide more explanation for this number? I created a histogram of the cost of all magicka based abilities with a non-trivial cost and came up with the followingThe average ability cost is 2700 resources.
Thank you @Wrobel for the detailed explanation. I've a few comments
TypoI think you meantConstitution gives 247 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.Constitution gives 346 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.And this is with 7 pieces of Heavy Armour.
Block Cost Formula
You suggest that the block cost formula on the PTS is
I would instead suggest
I compared both models to the block cost on the PTS and found my proposed formula to be slightly more accurate. I’ve included video evidence showing the block cost on the PTS for 0, 1 and 7 pieces of Sturdy (https://sendvid.com/o29cfk6c). There is some rounding to 3 significant figures going on with the base cost of 2160, the Sturdy part and Shadow Ward so I have to figure out a more accurate formula.
Stamina Loss on Block
Using your method of comparing stamina loss on block on Live and on PTS, I’ve extended to include a wider span of parameters. I used the following equations to draw the plots below. I used the following to determine the stamina loss on block and plotted the difference for a range of parameters.
In the image above, I'm showing slices corresponding to 0, 1, 2 and 3 purple block cost enchantments when wearing 7 pieces of Heavy Armour. The colour scale used changes at around 0 to accentuate the changeover. With 7 pieces of Heavy Armour, I find that unless a lot of block cost mitigation is used or with a low rate of attacks per second the stamina loss on the PTS is greater than on Live. This is even more true when considering 5 pieces of Heavy Armour, where the stamina loss on PTS is almost always greater than on Live. Due to the altered ability cost formula, 5 pieces of Heavy Armour is more strongly preferred as cost reduction from Light and Medium Armour are more valuable (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/262631/impact-of-change-in-ability-cost-formula-on-pts-gameplay). So I would argue that 5 pieces of Heavy Armour should be considered instead of 7. It also leads me to the conclusion that my block cost will be higher on the PTS than on Live, if I keep using the same gear.
But I do like the changes to the Sturdy trait as it will now be a reasonable idea to use Sturdy on small pieces instead of Infused as I'll be trading 81 Health or 70 Magicka/Stamina for somewhere between 30-50 stamina block cost reduction.
Clarification on average ability costCould you provide more explanation for this number? I created a histogram of the cost of all magicka based abilities with a non-trivial cost and came up with the followingThe average ability cost is 2700 resources.
The mean magicka cost is 3259 and the median is 3166. This is from Live. On the PTS, my testing suggest that the base cost of all abilities has increased by 10.8% meaning that mean is 3610 and the median is 3508. If I were to just consider some iconic tanking abilities the cost on Live and PTS are:
Increased ability cost
It seems that the base ability cost has increased by 10.8% on the PTS. It is not clear whether this is factored in when you discussed the Champion system.
Thank you @Wrobel for the detailed explanation. I've a few comments
TypoI think you meantConstitution gives 247 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.Constitution gives 346 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.And this is with 7 pieces of Heavy Armour.
Block Cost Formula
You suggest that the block cost formula on the PTS is
I would instead suggest
I compared both models to the block cost on the PTS and found my proposed formula to be slightly more accurate. I’ve included video evidence showing the block cost on the PTS for 0, 1 and 7 pieces of Sturdy (https://sendvid.com/o29cfk6c). There is some rounding to 3 significant figures going on with the base cost of 2160, the Sturdy part and Shadow Ward so I have to figure out a more accurate formula.
Stamina Loss on Block
Using your method of comparing stamina loss on block on Live and on PTS, I’ve extended to include a wider span of parameters. I used the following equations to draw the plots below. I used the following to determine the stamina loss on block and plotted the difference for a range of parameters.
In the image above, I'm showing slices corresponding to 0, 1, 2 and 3 purple block cost enchantments when wearing 7 pieces of Heavy Armour. The colour scale used changes at around 0 to accentuate the changeover. With 7 pieces of Heavy Armour, I find that unless a lot of block cost mitigation is used or with a low rate of attacks per second the stamina loss on the PTS is greater than on Live. This is even more true when considering 5 pieces of Heavy Armour, where the stamina loss on PTS is almost always greater than on Live. Due to the altered ability cost formula, 5 pieces of Heavy Armour is more strongly preferred as cost reduction from Light and Medium Armour are more valuable (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/262631/impact-of-change-in-ability-cost-formula-on-pts-gameplay). So I would argue that 5 pieces of Heavy Armour should be considered instead of 7. It also leads me to the conclusion that my block cost will be higher on the PTS than on Live, if I keep using the same gear.
But I do like the changes to the Sturdy trait as it will now be a reasonable idea to use Sturdy on small pieces instead of Infused as I'll be trading 81 Health or 70 Magicka/Stamina for somewhere between 30-50 stamina block cost reduction.
Clarification on average ability costCould you provide more explanation for this number? I created a histogram of the cost of all magicka based abilities with a non-trivial cost and came up with the followingThe average ability cost is 2700 resources.
The mean magicka cost is 3259 and the median is 3166. This is from Live. On the PTS, my testing suggest that the base cost of all abilities has increased by 10.8% meaning that mean is 3610 and the median is 3508. If I were to just consider some iconic tanking abilities the cost on Live and PTS are:
Increased ability cost
It seems that the base ability cost has increased by 10.8% on the PTS. It is not clear whether this is factored in when you discussed the Champion system.
They are selling this game on the lie that you can play anyway that you want and with these new so call combat improvements, you really can't. My question is to anyone at Zos did @Wrobel didn't get that memo and forcing players to conform. And now everyone will have to run these so call cookie cutter builds.
VaxtinTheWolf wrote: »Thank you @Wrobel for the detailed explanation. I've a few comments
TypoI think you meantConstitution gives 247 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.Constitution gives 346 stamina every 4 seconds, which equates to 43 every half second.And this is with 7 pieces of Heavy Armour.
Block Cost Formula
You suggest that the block cost formula on the PTS is
I would instead suggest
I compared both models to the block cost on the PTS and found my proposed formula to be slightly more accurate. I’ve included video evidence showing the block cost on the PTS for 0, 1 and 7 pieces of Sturdy (https://sendvid.com/o29cfk6c). There is some rounding to 3 significant figures going on with the base cost of 2160, the Sturdy part and Shadow Ward so I have to figure out a more accurate formula.
Stamina Loss on Block
Using your method of comparing stamina loss on block on Live and on PTS, I’ve extended to include a wider span of parameters. I used the following equations to draw the plots below. I used the following to determine the stamina loss on block and plotted the difference for a range of parameters.
In the image above, I'm showing slices corresponding to 0, 1, 2 and 3 purple block cost enchantments when wearing 7 pieces of Heavy Armour. The colour scale used changes at around 0 to accentuate the changeover. With 7 pieces of Heavy Armour, I find that unless a lot of block cost mitigation is used or with a low rate of attacks per second the stamina loss on the PTS is greater than on Live. This is even more true when considering 5 pieces of Heavy Armour, where the stamina loss on PTS is almost always greater than on Live. Due to the altered ability cost formula, 5 pieces of Heavy Armour is more strongly preferred as cost reduction from Light and Medium Armour are more valuable (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/262631/impact-of-change-in-ability-cost-formula-on-pts-gameplay). So I would argue that 5 pieces of Heavy Armour should be considered instead of 7. It also leads me to the conclusion that my block cost will be higher on the PTS than on Live, if I keep using the same gear.
But I do like the changes to the Sturdy trait as it will now be a reasonable idea to use Sturdy on small pieces instead of Infused as I'll be trading 81 Health or 70 Magicka/Stamina for somewhere between 30-50 stamina block cost reduction.
Clarification on average ability costCould you provide more explanation for this number? I created a histogram of the cost of all magicka based abilities with a non-trivial cost and came up with the followingThe average ability cost is 2700 resources.
The mean magicka cost is 3259 and the median is 3166. This is from Live. On the PTS, my testing suggest that the base cost of all abilities has increased by 10.8% meaning that mean is 3610 and the median is 3508. If I were to just consider some iconic tanking abilities the cost on Live and PTS are:
Increased ability cost
It seems that the base ability cost has increased by 10.8% on the PTS. It is not clear whether this is factored in when you discussed the Champion system.
I dont know what all of THIS is, but it looks smart and intimidates me so you get an insightful.
Make it so....snip...
... we’re looking into swapping Shield Expert with Resilient so the passive to reduce critical hit damage and the unlock to heal on critical hits are together. This also makes a key tanking unlock more accessible for players with lower Champion Points, requiring 30 Champion Points instead of 75.
...snip...
Seems like there was a lot of drama over nothing then. My gut feeling on the pts wasn't that far off after all.
Seems like there was a lot of drama over nothing then. My gut feeling on the pts wasn't that far off after all.