Friday, February 26, 2010

What's the math behind stacking damage in Wizard101?

Math question from Wolf Dragonsteed/Blaine Bane, aka Geistreign (but I know him better as Dangermouse guy on Facebook ;p):

I was wondering if you knew about the way that blades and traps are calculated into an attack. I have read your post on Blade and Trap stacking, but I was wondering how exactly the mathematics is done. Are they all added at one time, then multiplied? i.e., (200 base attack) + (200)(0.20+0.30+0.25) = 350; or are they added some other way? Also, when is the item hit percentage added: before or after the blades and traps?

~~UPDATE TO POST~~

This is a very old thread and the program discussed below no longer works. However, there are a couple of other options that you have:

1- This is the damage calculator from Mercenaries for hire: https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid=p2rrn5ca9497c89e54e57aa6be82c7a2f2ef2
2- This is a video of a downloadable exe program (a bit out of date) with links in the description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ2FOdgTGZk

~~CONTINUE WITH OLD POST~~


Have you ever checked out the Damage Calculator Website? This is an incredibly accurate site. Sometimes people will have it up as they play to check their math live. I'm going to use it to illustrate your math question.

In the picture below I'm showing you that I used a Wraith (500 base damage) with a deathblade (40%) and a feint (70%). This gives me an attack that does 1190 points of damage.



Now let's take that to Excel and see how the numbers work out with two different methods of calculating.



In the method of stacking percentages (the blue results) I'm adding up the percentages and then applying that to the base damage. So 500 times 110% plus the original base damage (or 500 times 210%). This does not give me the right damage number. (The formula in cell C5 = C2*(C3+C4)+C2)

In the method of stacking base damages (the yellow results), however, I am getting the right number. I'm calculating a new base damage for each percent. So 500 times 40% plus the original base damage gives a new base damage of 700. 700 times 70% plus the new base damage gives the correct damage amount of 1190. (The formula in cell D4 = (D3*C4)+D3)

The second part of your question is when is the item +damage% statistic added. That's added before you apply all the other blades and trap, but really it wouldn't matter when it was added since it's added as a line item (like it's an invisible trap). If you mix the order of the line items up, it still comes out to the same damage. (by the way, battle potions are figured into the item +damage% figure . . . it's not a separate line item, which is unfortunate . . . it'd make it even more amazing to have a battle potion up, dangit)



Hope that answers your question and didn't give anybody a headache!

Happy Dueling!

8 comments:

Sierra Starsong said...

I take it boost/resist% is applied at the end?

Where do the +damage% domes get added in, or does it matter? Is it lumped into the caster's clothing bonus, or added separately?

I for one love seeing how the numbers actually work, thanks! (In the human world I'm an accountant.)

Fred Firepants said...

I got a headache @.@ I'll read it later XD

potroast42 said...

@sierra - from my understanding it doesn't matter which way the boost/resist is applied. It simply applies the law of commutativity. Everything is just multiplied together it doesn't matter which way it's applied.

M.W.S said...

Made sense this website is good...

Cole Liongem said...

it gave me a headache...

Anonymous said...

I am trying to calculate my spell on the link and it does not have efreet help

Unknown said...

Please give me the link, i cant find it anywere online

Stingite said...

I updated the post with a couple of links. Hope those help.