Full damage mitigation formula?

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

Does anyone know what the current full (as in places to factor additional non-armour weaknesses and resistances) damage mitigation formula is? I'd like to be able to reliably calculate how resistant I can get as a tank and how much different armour sets will change my ultimate value. I play on Xbox, so I can't exactly download an addon that runs all the numbers for me.

paulsimonps · October 2015

The resistance cap is 33.1k that is 50% dmg mitigation on its own. So every 662 resist is 1% more in mitigation. What you want to do is calculate how much your total is is this. take the % that you are reducing the dmg with in its decimal form, so 50% is 0.5, that's your capped physical resistance, blocking with just your fists is a flat 50% as well so 0.5 again, sword and board passive in 1h and shield is 20% more so 0.8 and say we use a DK then their passive is 10% so 0.9. Together you multiply them like this: 0.5x0.5x0.8x0.9=0.18 that is the decimal form of the % that is left, so 18% of the original dmg is what you will be dmg'ed with so your total mitigation is 82%. That is how you calculate dmg mitigation. Due note the diminishing returns on that.

Waffennacht · October 2015

There is also resist against their penetration.

So if they have no penetration then the max of 33k is all there is.

However if they (let's say for ease) 1000 armor pen, and you have 34k resist... then their penetration brings that resist to 33k and you still get full mitigation.

A few PvP builds rock a resist higher than the cap just to counter act any armor penetration.

Waffennacht · October 2015

I don't know if the mitigation from that ability counts towards the cap. Could be wrong, but its pure damage mitigation through an effect.

I would not be surprised if the math in game first stops the 30% or so from that ult move and then uses armor mitigation on the remaining damage (diminishing returns seem to have a huge following in ZoS)

paulsimonps · October 2015

GuyNamedSean wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

Being a DK nord with capped resist, footman, using sword and board with absorb magic, ring of preservation, deep slash and standard of might while having 1 NB and 1 Templar do Nova and Veil on you, you could in theory get 95.8% total dmg mitigation, but as you can see that's 3 ultimates and 1 high costs ability(ring of preservation) that is not sustainable. Take the ulties and ring away and you get 88.35% total mitigation. That is sustainable but with the ulties and ring its not.

I have to be doing something wrong because my math says I'm just barely below the cap right now.

25000 Armor rating (with Major and Minor buffs pre-added) divided by 662 gives me 37.764% mitigation. I'm supposed to use the decimals of how much damage I'm taking, so that's .62236. I'm going to round to three digits, so .622. Blocking with my shield is 50%, so the calculation now is .622•.5. I have the 1H&S passive for the additional 20% so now it's .622•.5•.8. Then I'm using my Dark Shades, which inflict Minor Maim, reducing the enemy's damage output by 15%. .622•.5•.8•.85. Now I'm adding on Veil of Blades for an additional 30% mitigation. .662•.5•.8•.85•.7. I'm a Vampire, so as I die, my Undeath passive kicks in for up to 33%. .662•.5•.8•.85•.7•.67. That gives me an effective resistance of 89.44%. If I change my Ultimate to Bolstering Darkness it adds an additional 30%. The new number would be 93.968%.

I'm not a Nord, so I don't get the bonus Nords can get. I'm not a DK, so I'm not getting the bonus they can get. I'm not wearing Footman or using multiple ultimates or Ring of Preservation or anything like that. I've gotta be doing this math wrong.

No your math is not wrong but I'll let you in on a little secret, you don't need >90% mitigation. Even without your veil when your vampire passive kicks in fully you get ~84.9% mitigation, that's more than I have and plenty enough. Also you should definitely use either Absorb Magic or its other morph defensive stance, it gives you 8% reduced block cost and 8% dmg mitigation from just having it slotted. with that you would get 86.1% mitigation with full vampire and even with no vampire you would get ~79.3% mitigation, and when using your ulti whenever you need it it will bumb up.

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

paulsimonps wrote: »

The resistance cap is 33.1k that is 50% dmg mitigation on its own. So every 662 resist is 1% more in mitigation. What you want to do is calculate how much your total is is this. take the % that you are reducing the dmg with in its decimal form, so 50% is 0.5, that's your capped physical resistance, blocking with just your fists is a flat 50% as well so 0.5 again, sword and board passive in 1h and shield is 20% more so 0.8 and say we use a DK then their passive is 10% so 0.9. Together you multiply them like this: 0.5x0.5x0.8x0.9=0.18 that is the decimal form of the % that is left, so 18% of the original dmg is what you will be dmg'ed with so your total mitigation is 82%. That is how you calculate dmg mitigation. Due note the diminishing returns on that.

Okay, so using your math, if I'm using major and minor ward and resolve, my physical resistance is about 28000, then blocking with maxed 1H&S plus my Veil of Blades ultimate and the Undeath passive for Vampires I should be able to get to the 90% cap as I begin dying and Undeath kicks in, correct?

paulsimonps · October 2015

Waffennacht wrote: »

I don't know if the mitigation from that ability counts towards the cap. Could be wrong, but its pure damage mitigation through an effect.

I would not be surprised if the math in game first stops the 30% or so from that ult move and then uses armor mitigation on the remaining damage (diminishing returns seem to have a huge following in ZoS)

ultimates such as nova and veil counts into the formula in the same way. so does minor maim like deep slash or the NB's shades. and its all done with multiplication so it doesn't matter which number is counted first. even though never stated to be so, Nova is a Major maim and works exactly like that and veil is a major protection. My guess is they never gave them those buff names because the other morph of veil gives 60% mitigation which would be two major protections and in the current buff system that is not allowed

GuyNamedSean wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

The resistance cap is 33.1k that is 50% dmg mitigation on its own. So every 662 resist is 1% more in mitigation. What you want to do is calculate how much your total is is this. take the % that you are reducing the dmg with in its decimal form, so 50% is 0.5, that's your capped physical resistance, blocking with just your fists is a flat 50% as well so 0.5 again, sword and board passive in 1h and shield is 20% more so 0.8 and say we use a DK then their passive is 10% so 0.9. Together you multiply them like this: 0.5x0.5x0.8x0.9=0.18 that is the decimal form of the % that is left, so 18% of the original dmg is what you will be dmg'ed with so your total mitigation is 82%. That is how you calculate dmg mitigation. Due note the diminishing returns on that.

Okay, so using your math, if I'm using major and minor ward and resolve, my physical resistance is about 28000, then blocking with maxed 1H&S plus my Veil of Blades ultimate and the Undeath passive for Vampires I should be able to get to the 90% cap as I begin dying and Undeath kicks in, correct?

Everyone talks about this 90% cap, where did this info come from? While in my testing I have never gone past 89.5% because of the heavy diminishing returns I see no reason for a 90% cap since getting passed high is only sustainable for like 10s or so by using every single buff there is plus as many passives you can and 1-2 ultimates. not sustainable so the cap is unnecessary if it even exists. if it does can someone give me a source on that.

Waffennacht · October 2015

paulsimonps wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

I don't know if the mitigation from that ability counts towards the cap. Could be wrong, but its pure damage mitigation through an effect.

I would not be surprised if the math in game first stops the 30% or so from that ult move and then uses armor mitigation on the remaining damage (diminishing returns seem to have a huge following in ZoS)

ultimates such as nova and veil counts into the formula in the same way. so does minor maim like deep slash or the NB's shades. and its all done with multiplication so it doesn't matter which number is counted first. even though never stated to be so, Nova is a Major maim and works exactly like that and veil is a major protection. My guess is they never gave them those buff names because the other morph of veil gives 60% mitigation which would be two major protections and in the current buff system that is not allowed

GuyNamedSean wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

The resistance cap is 33.1k that is 50% dmg mitigation on its own. So every 662 resist is 1% more in mitigation. What you want to do is calculate how much your total is is this. take the % that you are reducing the dmg with in its decimal form, so 50% is 0.5, that's your capped physical resistance, blocking with just your fists is a flat 50% as well so 0.5 again, sword and board passive in 1h and shield is 20% more so 0.8 and say we use a DK then their passive is 10% so 0.9. Together you multiply them like this: 0.5x0.5x0.8x0.9=0.18 that is the decimal form of the % that is left, so 18% of the original dmg is what you will be dmg'ed with so your total mitigation is 82%. That is how you calculate dmg mitigation. Due note the diminishing returns on that.

Okay, so using your math, if I'm using major and minor ward and resolve, my physical resistance is about 28000, then blocking with maxed 1H&S plus my Veil of Blades ultimate and the Undeath passive for Vampires I should be able to get to the 90% cap as I begin dying and Undeath kicks in, correct?

Everyone talks about this 90% cap, where did this info come from? While in my testing I have never gone past 89.5% because of the heavy diminishing returns I see no reason for a 90% cap since getting passed high is only sustainable for like 10s or so by using every single buff there is plus as many passives you can and 1-2 ultimates. not sustainable so the cap is unnecessary if it even exists. if it does can someone give me a source on that.

I think they are referring to a soft cap. Like they did what you did, rounded up, and can't find anymore ways to increase it. I have not seen a hard cap listed anywhere. But just like ur information on the Ultimate, i could be wrong

paulsimonps · October 2015

Being a DK nord with capped resist, footman, using sword and board with absorb magic, ring of preservation, deep slash and standard of might while having 1 NB and 1 Templar do Nova and Veil on you, you could in theory get 95.8% total dmg mitigation, but as you can see that's 3 ultimates and 1 high costs ability(ring of preservation) that is not sustainable. Take the ulties and ring away and you get 88.35% total mitigation. That is sustainable but with the ulties and ring its not.

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

paulsimonps wrote: »

Being a DK nord with capped resist, footman, using sword and board with absorb magic, ring of preservation, deep slash and standard of might while having 1 NB and 1 Templar do Nova and Veil on you, you could in theory get 95.8% total dmg mitigation, but as you can see that's 3 ultimates and 1 high costs ability(ring of preservation) that is not sustainable. Take the ulties and ring away and you get 88.35% total mitigation. That is sustainable but with the ulties and ring its not.

I have to be doing something wrong because my math says I'm just barely below the cap right now.

25000 Armor rating (with Major and Minor buffs pre-added) divided by 662 gives me 37.764% mitigation. I'm supposed to use the decimals of how much damage I'm taking, so that's .62236. I'm going to round to three digits, so .622. Blocking with my shield is 50%, so the calculation now is .622•.5. I have the 1H&S passive for the additional 20% so now it's .622•.5•.8. Then I'm using my Dark Shades, which inflict Minor Maim, reducing the enemy's damage output by 15%. .622•.5•.8•.85. Now I'm adding on Veil of Blades for an additional 30% mitigation. .662•.5•.8•.85•.7. I'm a Vampire, so as I die, my Undeath passive kicks in for up to 33%. .662•.5•.8•.85•.7•.67. That gives me an effective resistance of 89.44%. If I change my Ultimate to Bolstering Darkness it adds an additional 30%. The new number would be 93.968%.

I'm not a Nord, so I don't get the bonus Nords can get. I'm not a DK, so I'm not getting the bonus they can get. I'm not wearing Footman or using multiple ultimates or Ring of Preservation or anything like that. I've gotta be doing this math wrong.

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

paulsimonps wrote: »

No your math is not wrong but I'll let you in on a little secret, you don't need >90% mitigation. Even without your veil when your vampire passive kicks in fully you get ~84.9% mitigation, that's more than I have and plenty enough. Also you should definitely use either Absorb Magic or its other morph defensive stance, it gives you 8% reduced block cost and 8% dmg mitigation from just having it slotted. with that you would get 86.1% mitigation with full vampire and even with no vampire you would get ~79.3% mitigation, and when using your ulti whenever you need it it will bumb up.

I just find it hard to believe that on a single bar I'm able to hit the damage mitigation cap with blue armour at Vet5.. That definitely makes it easy for me to set some good stuff for my back bar. Currently I'm running heals on it, but I'm trying to pick skills for a second 1H&S bar. Probably damage shields, not sure. I have enough skill points that I've got options for multiple setups.

And all those s'wits in Belkarth that are Vet16 PC transfers that keep telling me I'm tanking wrong because I'm not a DK and not an Imperial can shut their pie holes.

paulsimonps · October 2015

GuyNamedSean wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

No your math is not wrong but I'll let you in on a little secret, you don't need >90% mitigation. Even without your veil when your vampire passive kicks in fully you get ~84.9% mitigation, that's more than I have and plenty enough. Also you should definitely use either Absorb Magic or its other morph defensive stance, it gives you 8% reduced block cost and 8% dmg mitigation from just having it slotted. with that you would get 86.1% mitigation with full vampire and even with no vampire you would get ~79.3% mitigation, and when using your ulti whenever you need it it will bumb up.

I just find it hard to believe that on a single bar I'm able to hit the damage mitigation cap with blue armour at Vet5.. That definitely makes it easy for me to set some good stuff for my back bar. Currently I'm running heals on it, but I'm trying to pick skills for a second 1H&S bar. Probably damage shields, not sure. I have enough skill points that I've got options for multiple setups.

And all those s'wits in Belkarth that are Vet16 PC transfers that keep telling me I'm tanking wrong because I'm not a DK and not an Imperial can shut their pie holes.

NB Tanks are actually really good, I would recommend you to use Refreshing path, mirage or which ever morph of that is best and use the non toggle version of siphon strike. If you animation cancel light attacks into blocks you can keep block up almost always and keep getting stamina back that way. I never done a NB tank outside of the PTS but I had lots of fun with it there. I think my favorite thing is that it can use a magicka ability to get the Major Evasion which makes it so you can use a 5p set that is not hist bark. and using refreshing path not only heals you over time but activated the passive that gives you major ward and major resolve.

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

paulsimonps wrote: »

NB Tanks are actually really good, I would recommend you to use Refreshing path, mirage or which ever morph of that is best and use the non toggle version of siphon strike. If you animation cancel light attacks into blocks you can keep block up almost always and keep getting stamina back that way. I never done a NB tank outside of the PTS but I had lots of fun with it there. I think my favorite thing is that it can use a magicka ability to get the Major Evasion which makes it so you can use a 5p set that is not hist bark. and using refreshing path not only heals you over time but activated the passive that gives you major ward and major resolve.

I was planning to use Refreshing Path as a heal for my double shield setup in the future. Right now I'm coated in Siphoning abilities to bump up the Healing bonus from my Siphoning passives. My tanking bar currently is Dark Shades, Mirage, Leeching Strikes (I deal next to no damage already and I figured the little bit of health would be nice) and then whatever the damage shield version of Invasion for 1H&S is (I always forget) and finally Pierce Armor. I probably will change Leeching Strikes to the other morph soon, as the 2% health isn't making any difference at all. I am already doing a Light Attack>Block>Bash manoeuvre. Unfortunately as far as I can tell, using a controller doesn't allow me to keep block up constantly and I get a little bit of downtime before the light attack. Not sure if it's having a controller or the slight downtime exists on PC as well.

jnelson1182 · April 2018

ok so I play on xbox1 Na serve, I'm wondering what I should aim my resistances to be as a dps mag DK? I am currently only concerned with doing end game pve stuff so I am only asking in regards to that because I know pvp is a little different but I figure I should learn one part of thengamemat a time to make sure I'm actually learning.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · April 2018

jnelson1182 wrote: »

ok so I play on xbox1 Na serve, I'm wondering what I should aim my resistances to be as a dps mag DK? I am currently only concerned with doing end game pve stuff so I am only asking in regards to that because I know pvp is a little different but I figure I should learn one part of thengamemat a time to make sure I'm actually learning.

As a dps you don't worry about resists. Get to 17-18k health that is all you have to worry about.

Septimus_Magna · April 2018

Holy necro (october 2015)

jnelson1182 · April 2018

yea sorry I noticed it was kind of an older post but couldn't really find anything else relating to the question I needed to ask, thanks for the answers tho.

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