Frequently Asked Questions about Combat and Combat mechanics

Preface

This information has been collated from various sources, from the forums, the game's subreddit, discussions with other knowledgeable players, and my own game testing and experience. The information contained within is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability to check, but the game is constantly evolving and information can be dated. Some information may also be inaccurate through an error on my part, although I've done my best to check for that. Corrections and feedback are always welcome.

The intent of this FAQ is to answer commonly asked questions about general game mechanics, as well as certain specific questions that highlight more general principles and ideas. It is not intended to answer every question ever asked, as that would make the FAQ potentially too long to be as useful as a guide. If this is well-received and considered useful, I'm considering expanding to other guides that contain other information not appropriate to this guide.

Also, although I intend to try to support this FAQ as long as it is considered useful, we should consider this a community resource, used by and supported by the player community. Much of the information in the FAQ comes collectively from many discussions and observations from the community at-large. This FAQ is in no small part a product of the contributions of the players who take time to contribute to and educate the players as a whole, of which I'm only one of many. To every player that has put in the time to figure things out and share that information with the rest of the players, and whose work I've used to educate myself and construct this FAQ, thank you.

Comments

DNA3000

Frequently Asked Questions about Combat and Combat mechanics (part one)

Attacks and Damage

Q: How much damage do attacks do?
A: All attacks do a multiple of the champion’s attack rating in damage. In general, light attacks do 25% of attack, medium attacks do 40% of attack, and heavy attacks do 85% of attack (these three are generally referred to as “basic attacks”). Special attacks do different amounts of damage for different champions, although this is not usually specified in the character description. Buffs that increase attack rating (I.e. fury buffs) generally increase the damage of all attacks unless otherwise specified.

Q: What is a critical hit?
A: All attacks except special three attacks have a chance to deal bonus critical damage unless otherwise specified. Special three attacks do not deal critical damage unless otherwise specified. The chance to deal bonus critical damage is generally based on the champion’s critical rating. Critical rating is a “flat stat” subject to diminishing returns. Flat stats are converted to a percentage according to a DR formula (see: Diminishing Returns). The critical rating percentage is the chance for an attack to crit.

When an attack crits, it deals bonus critical damage based on the champion’s critical damage rating (a different rating from critical rating). Critical damage rating is also a flat stat which converts to a percentage. This percentage is the multiple of the attack’s normal damage that the bonus critical damage delivers. For example, if a champion has an attack rating of 1000 and lands a light attack that attack will deal 250 damage. If the attack also crits, and the critical damage percentage for that champion is 150% in this situation, then the attack will also deal 375 bonus critical damage.

Critical damage bypasses twenty percentage points of armor percent mitigation. See: How does armor work?

Some champions have attacks that only land critical hits under certain circumstances or whose critical chance is not based on the champion’s critical rating. If this is the case this should be noted in the champion’s abilities descriptions.

Damage over time debuffs and effects generally do not deal critical damage. See: How do damage over time effects work?

Flat Stats, Diminishing Returns, Challenge Rating

Q: What are flat stats? What is Diminishing Returns? Why are they in the game?
A: Some champion attributes are designated “flat stats.” Flat stats are part of the diminishing returns system that was added to the game in update 12.0. Flat stats are converted into percentage values using the DR formula Stat / (Stat + 1500 + CR * 5) where CR is the target challenge rating for all flat stats except for critical damage rating which uses a variation: DR(stat) * 5 + 0.5. In other words, critical damage rating follows the same formula as other flat stats, except the value generated by the DR formula is multiplied by 5 and then 0.5 is added to the final value. This means while the standard DR formula ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 (I.e. 0% to 100%), critical damage percentages range from 0.5 to 5.5 (I.e. 50% to 550%).

Flat stats and diminishing returns were added to the game to address the problem of (over)stacking. The short version is MCOC has a problem many games have, where the game designers want to allow the players to have the ability to increase a stat to X, but if they give multiple ways to do that the players can combine them in ways that become too powerful, especially when in comes to percentages. There's more to it, but that's the fundamental problem.

Some of this was eventually discussed by an official post by Kabam; see: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/2317/challenger-rating-explained

Q: Which stats are flat stats?
A: Armor, Armor Penetration, Critical Hit Rating, Critical Damage Rating, Critical Resistance, Block Proficiency, Block Penetration, Physical Resistance, Energy Resistance.

Q: Is there a flat stats calculator out there?
A: There is a rudimentary calculator on the auntm.ai site: https://auntm.ai/calc/. It displays both "normal" flat stats and the special critical damage version of the calculation.

Q: What is challenge rating?
A: Every champion has a challenge rating based on their star rating and rank (level within the rank doesn’t matter).

CR -> star & rank
10 -> 1* r1
20 -> 1* r2 / 2* r1
30 -> 2* r2
40 -> 2* r3 / 3* r1
50 -> 3* r2
60 -> 3* r3 / 4* r1
70 -> 3* r4 / 4* r2
80 -> 4* r3 / 5* r1
90 -> 4* r4 / 5* r2
100 -> 4* r5 / 5* r3
110 -> 5* r4 / 6* r1
120 -> 5* r5 / 6* r2

Note that challenge rating is only used within the Diminishing Returns formula. It is used for no other purpose and doesn’t affect any other aspect of the game. Your own flat stats are affected by the challenge rating of the champion you are attacking, not your own challenge rating, and vice versa. The higher the challenge rating of the champion you attack, the lower your own champion’s flat stats percentages become for that fight. But your own challenge rating has no effect on your own stats. Instead your challenge rating affects your opponent’s stats.

Addendum January 2020: Challenge rating is now used in the Abyss of Legends to determine how many of each Skirmish charge you receive. This is the only other use of Challenge rating in the game besides its use in the Diminishing Returns formula.

Q: Are masteries affected by Diminishing Returns?
A: In general, masteries that affect a flat stat attribute are affected by DR, because they add or subtract to a flat stat directly. The most prominent exception is Parry. Parry adds a fixed percentage to the player's block percentage after DR. In other words, total block percentage = DR(block stat) + Parry. Parry was specifically altered in 12.0.1 after Diminishing Returns was introduced to ensure Parry would work as intended. DR would otherwise make Parry ineffective at high block stat levels.

Status Effects

Q: What is a status effect?
A: A status effect is what the game calls things that can affect a champion on an ongoing basis. Status effects can be Buffs, Debuffs, or Passive effects. Effects such as Armor Break which reduce armor rating or Poison which cause poison damage over time are status effects.

Q: How do damage over time effects (like Bleed and Poison) work?
A: Bleed and poison are damage over time (DoT) effects (other DoT effects are coldsnap, incinerate, and degeneration). Damage over time effects can be debuffs or they can be passive effects. DoT effects generally “tick” or apply damage twice per second, thus a DoT effect that deals 100 points of damage per second will inflict 50 points of damage to the target twice per second. Like basic attacks and special attacks, most DoT effects deal a multiple of the champion’s attack rating in damage, and increasing the champion’s attack rating will increase the damage of damage over time effects. Unless otherwise specified, damage over time effects cannot deal bonus critical damage. A few champions have DoT effects that can land critical damage: for example Domino has the ability to land critical bleeds.

Certain kinds of damage over time debuffs have secondary effects besides dealing damage. For example, poison debuffs reduce the effectiveness of healing by 30% per debuff. Incinerate debuffs reduce perfect block chance. If a champion is immune to a debuff, they are generally immune to all effects of the debuff, including both the damage the debuff deals and secondary effects, as that effect does not get applied at all.

Q: How does Immunity work?
A: Some champions are immune to certain kinds of effects, for example they may be immune to bleed or poison debuffs. If a champion is immune to a type of effect, they not only take no damage from that kind of DoT effect but the DoT effect doesn't "stick" to them. For example Colossus is immune to bleed, this means if an attack tries to apply a bleed damage over time effect on Colossus, that effect will simply fail to apply. This is different from champions that take no damage from certain kinds of effects. In this case, the damage "ticks" deal zero damage, but the effect is still there. This can have benefits (if the affected champion has Willpower, for example) and deficits (if the zero damage protection expires the DoT effect is there there and can start damaging the target).

It is possible to be immune to a type of status effect such as Bleed, and it is possible to be immune to a type of daamge such as Incinerate. Immunity to a damage type means the champion takes no damage from any damage effect of that type, while immunity to a type of status effect means that status effect never triggers at all when targeting that champion. It is possible to be immune to a type of damage but not immune to that same type of status effect. For example, Mephisto is immune to incinerate damage but not immune to incinerate effects. This means when Mephisto is targeted by an incinerate damage over time debuff he takes no damage from that debuff but he is still technically affected by the debuff. This can have interesting side effects, for example Mephisto can heal with Willpower when affected by Incinerate debuffs as it counts as a damage over time debuff, but doesn't actually harm Mephisto.

It is also possible to take "zero damage" from an effect. This is not the same thing as immunity, as the damage ticks still occur but simply deal zero damage. This can sometimes be an important difference: for example some abilities affect a champion when they are "taking damage." These abilities trigger even if they are taking zero damage ticks of damage, as the game considers this "taking damage."

Q: What’s the deal with passives verses buffs/debuffs?
A: “Buff” and “Debuff” have both a colloquial definition and a technical definition within the game. Within the game, effects are tagged as buffs or debuffs for the purposes of defining when other abilities and effects interact with them. When an ability interacts with “debuffs” it is specifically looking for the debuff flag, it is not trying to figure out if the effect “should be” a debuff or not.

Some effects are not tagged as buffs or debuffs, because the explicit intent is for those effects to not interact with other abilities and effects that interact with “buffs” and “debuffs.” These are generally instead tagged as "passive" effects to distinguish them from effects tagged as “buffs” or “debuffs.” A passive effect is not a buff or a debuff for the purposes of the game deciding whether another ability or effect should interact with it.

Note that when a champion is immune to Debuffs, they are not immune to Passive Effects, as Passive Effects are not Debuffs by definition. Therefore, Passive Effects that cause damage or other harmful effects can affect a champion that is currently immune to Debuffs.

Kabam has an article that officially defines the terms "buff" "debuff" "passive" and a few more. Link here: http://kabam.force.com/PKB/articles/en_US/FAQ/Battle-Status-Effects

Also note that a "Passive Ability" is just an ability that is always on, while a "Passive Effect" is a specific kind of effect, different than Buffs and Debuffs. Passive Abilities do not automatically create passive effects. For example, Medusa's signature ability is a Passive Ability, but what that signature ability generates are Fury Buffs.

Damage mitigation (armor, resistances, blocking)

Q: How does armor work?
A: Armor is a form of damage mitigation; the percent value is the amount that incoming damage is reduced by. For example, an armor percentage of 40% reduces incoming damage by 40%: an attack that would ordinarily deal 100 damage will only deal 60 points of damage if the target has 40% armor percentage. The armor stat is a flat stat, as such it is a number that is converted into a percentage using the diminishing returns system.

Armor only works against damage directly caused by attacks. Damage caused by damage over time effects or other non-attack sources ignore armor.

Critical damage from critical hits “bypasses” twenty percentage points of total armor percentage. In other words, if your overall armor percentage is 40%, critical damage lands as if your armor percentage was actually 20%. If your armor percentage is less than 20%, critical damage behaves as if your armor percentage was zero - “bypassing armor” never reduces the target’s effective armor percentage below zero.

Q: How do resistances work?
A: Resistances are forms of damage mitigation that work against all sources of damage (unlike armor that only works against attack damage) but resistances typically have a type, generally physical or energy resistance. Resistances only work against damage of that specific type.

Q: How does blocking work? How does Parry work? What is a “perfect block”?
A: Blocking attacks reduce the damage you take from an attack by a certain percentage. This percentage is based on the champion’s block proficiency. Block proficiency is a flat stat, and thus derived from the diminishing returns system. The higher your block percentage, the less damage you take from blocked hits.

For example, if an attacker lands an attack that does 1000 points of damage when you don’t block, and your block percentage is 65%, then if you did block the attack you would have taken only 350 damage instead.

The Parry mastery adds additional block damage mitigation when the champion executes a “well-timed block.” A well timed block is a block that is initiated at approximately the same time an attack would have landed, in effect blocking “just in time.” Some champion abilities trigger on well-timed blocks. The Parry mastery grants champions additional block damage mitigation on attacks that are well-timed blocked. This extra damage mitigation is unaffected by the Diminishing Returns system, and adds directly to the champion’s block percentage.

If the champion has a block percentage of 65% and the Parry mastery at rank 3, this adds 25% additional block percentage to the champion on well timed blocks. An attack that ordinarily lands for 1000 points of damage and 350 points of damage when blocked would land for only 100 points of damage if the champion executed a well-timed block.

Historically, it was often possible through masteries, synergies, and champion abilities to create a situation where the total block percentage of the champion was 100% on a well-timed block, meaning the champion would take zero damage. This was sometimes referred to as a “perfect block.” However, this was a misnomer, as the game actually has a game mechanic called “perfect block.” The perfect block mechanic is an effect that some champion abilities and a mastery confers which can reduce the damage of a blocked attack to zero. This effect generally has only a chance to occur and rarely happens reliably, although some champions can execute perfect blocks reliably in certain limited circumstances.

Block damage mitigation takes place independently of armor and resistances. In other words, if you’re attacked by an attack that normally delivers 1000 points of damage, and you have 25% armor percentage, and you have 60% block percentage and you block the attack, the attack’s damage is first reduced from 1000 damage to 750 damage by your armor (75% of 1000), and then from 750 damage to 300 damage by blocking (40% of 750).

Q: What is armor penetration? What is block penetration?
A: The two penetration stats were added during 12.0. They determine how much of each stat is "ignored" when damage is taken. They are also flat stats and subject to Diminishing Returns. When an attacker has block penetration and the target blocks the attack, the actual strength of the block is DR(block) - DR(blockpenetration). Similarly for armor penetration, the actual value for armor is DR(armor) - DR(armorpenetration) for attackers with armor penetration greater than zero.

Q: What is critical resistance?
A: Critical resistance is similar to the penetration stats: it allows a defender to ignore a portion of the attacker's critical rating. Critical rating determines the chance for an attack to crit, so critical resistance reduces the chance for an attack to crit in the same way armor penetration allows the attacker to ignore a portion of the target's armor. Basically, DR(crit) - DR(critresistance) becomes the true chance to crit.

DNA3000

Frequently Asked Questions about Combat and Combat mechanics (part two)

Ability Accuracy

Q: What is Ability Accuracy?
A: When an ability has a chance to trigger, or a chance for a particular effect to occur, that chance is referred to as ability accuracy. Some abilities have a base 100% chance to occur but this isn't explicitly stated in-game. For example, Ultron's heals at 50% and 25% health have a base 100% chance to occur, so they always occur unless ability accuracy is modified.

Q: What is Offensive and Defensive Ability Accuracy?
A: Generally, defensive ability accuracy refers to the ability accuracy of abilities that either trigger in response to being hit or defensive abilities that trigger when certain conditions are met. Offensive ability accuracy refers to the ability accuracy of effects that trigger when the champion attacks.

Q: What is an Ability Accuracy debuff?
A: Certain abilities debuff ability accuracy. When ability accuracy is debuffed, the chances for that ability to trigger its effects is reduced. It is possible to reduce ability accuracy to or below zero: in that case the effect will not occur. It is also possible for ability accuracy to be higher than 100%: in this case the effect will always occur and it will be more difficult for ability accuracy debuffs to affect the ability.

5* and 6* special abilities

Q: What is that bar I sometimes see when I use or get hit by a special three attack?
A: 5* and 6* champions have a special ability when they use or get hit by special three attacks. A bar will appear during the cutscene and the player can attempt to time a tap to stop the bar in one of two bonus sections, a 12% and a 20% section. If the player is using a special three attack they will get a damage bonus equal to the bonus reached in the bar (0%, 12%, or 20%). If the player is getting struck by a special three attack they will reduce the damage taken by the same amount. The player gets this bonus whenever playing 5* or 6* champions, regardless of the rank or rarity of the champion they are fighting.

Q: Why is some of my health bar white when I'm playing 6* champions?
A: 6* champions have a special ability called Adrenaline. When 6* champions take damage 30% of that damage is converted into Adrenaline which shows as a white bar in the health bar. When the player deals damage in combat, some of that Adrenaline is converted back into normal health, in effect healing the champion. At the moment, only player champions have Adrenaline, NPC 6* champions do not have Adrenaline.

See: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/46362/adrenaline-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work for the official announcement for Adrenaline.

Miscellaneous Mechanics

Q: How does Bane work? Why do I take way more damage from Bane than the AI does?
A: Bane deals damage based on the current health of the enemy. In other words, if you are in a fight that contains a 2.5% Bane node, then when Bane is on you your champion will be taking 2.5% of the AI’s current health in damage every second. When you transfer Bane, the computer will be taking 2.5% of your current health in damage every second. If you’re in a fight where the opponent champion has a huge amount of health, you’ll be taking significantly more damage when you have Bane than when the computer has Bane.

This changes during the fight, because Bane works on current health not max health. So if you deal enough damage to bring the current health of the enemy low, Bane will do less damage to you than at the start of the fight. The lower you bring down the opponent champion, the less dangerous Bane gets. Conversely, if you let your own health drop low, transferring Bane to the AI will have less effect on it.

Q: How do effects like Petrify “reverse” healing?
A: Petrify effects reduce the effects of healing by a percentage (this percentage is different for different champs that have petrify effects). This percentage can be reduced below zero if you apply enough debuffs. If healing strength drops below zero and becomes negative, healing effects will also become negative and turn into damage.

Q: I’m applying -120% healing debuff, but the champion is still healing. I should be reversing that healing into damage. How is this possible?
A: In general, buffs and debuffs apply additively. In other words, if you buff a stat by 50% and also debuff it by 35% those two effects combine to become a 15% buff: 50% - 35%. They do not apply independently” or “multiplicatively.”

Ordinarily you would expect that -100% debuff should reduce an effect to zero every time, but if those effects are already being buffed by a high amount, say +200%, then the effect of -100% debuff is to reduce that +200% buff to +100% buff. This means if you want to reverse the healing of something that is under the influence of healing strength buffs, you must first cancel out the effects of those buffs, and then further reduce the strength of healing below zero. If the target has high order buffs, this can be difficult or impossible to do.

It is also possible the target is under special ability or node effects. Some nodes make it impossible to reduce healing strength below zero: you can reduce healing to zero but you cannot reverse it to apply damage by going negative. And some effects make the target immune to healing debuffs, which insulates them from the effects of debuffs like petrify.

Q: Do all champions gain power at the same rate?
A: Actually no. This was recently revealed by Kabam after players noticed discrepancies. Power gain is increased slightly with rank, but not star rating. A rank 4 3* gains power at the same rate as a rank 4 5*, but rank 4 champs gain power slightly faster than rank 3 champs. See: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/974985/#Comment_974985

Q: How was Pure Skill nerfed?
A: Pure Skill wasn't nerfed. This is a long standing misunderstanding. This was discussed and tested by the players when the issue was first brought up. Pure Skill works exactly as it is described, and in exactly the same way it used to (to the best anyone could test). The problem wasn't that Pure Skill was changed, it was that the rest of the game did. Pure Skill allows critical hits to ignore armor (similar to how armor penetration works). Critical hits naturally ignore some armor, and Pure Skill allowed critical hits to ignore even more armor. But you can only ignore armor that the target has; unlike armor break that can make armor go negative, you can only "ignore" armor up to ignoring all of it, making effective armor zero. The average amount of armor you're likely to face has dropped as a result of changes made in 12.0, and thus the opportunities to use Pure Skill's highest tiers of strength have dropped. This makes Pure Skill's top two tiers less valuable, but they haven't actually been nerfed. What should be done about this is beyond the scope of this FAQ.

Miscellaneous Champion Questions

Q: I notice Vision’s SP1 and SP2 attacks do not deal more damage when I am under the influence of the Power Shield node. Is this a bug?
A: No, this is not a bug. What’s happening here is that Vision’s special one attack and special two attack deal zero damage. The only thing those attacks do is apply a power burn effect on the target. The power burn effect drains a certain amount of power from the target, and deals direct damage to the target in proportion to the amount of power that is burned. This effect is not considered “special attack damage” and thus the special attack bonus that the Power Shield node grants does not increase the damage Vision deals with SP1 and SP2 attacks (note: SP3 both power burns and deals actual damage).

Note that if the target has no power or if Vision cannot drain any power from the target then those two special attacks won’t deal any damage, as the only source of damage for SP1 and SP2 is the power burn effect.

Q: CapIW doesn't remove Unstoppable.
A: CapIW needs a kinetic charge to nullify Unstoppable buffs. So the three ways this can fail are: 1) Cap doesn't have a kinetic charge; 2) the Unstoppable effect is a passive and not a buff; 3) the target has some sort of protection from nullify effects

Q: Why doesn't Face Me trigger when affected by [blank] effect?
A: Good question. At the moment there's no definitive answer to these questions other than "the devs didn't make it work that way."

CoatHang3r

Well done! As to Face Me. https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/53815/gladiator-hulk-doesnt-trigger-face-me-against-degen-under-investigation

Hey there, I found the answer to your question. This Degeneration from the node is not counted as a passive or active effect, and so wouldn't be altered by any abilities that interact with those types of effects. It can encourage some more aggressive play in a fight [snip]

HCMmcoc

thanks for doing this. it even answered some questions I had and were too embarrassed to ask.

DNA3000

Well done! As to Face Me. https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/53815/gladiator-hulk-doesnt-trigger-face-me-against-degen-under-investigation
Hey there, I found the answer to your question. This Degeneration from the node is not counted as a passive or active effect, and so wouldn't be altered by any abilities that interact with those types of effects. It can encourage some more aggressive play in a fight [snip]

Using the current "official" language Kabam now acknowledges, Zibiit is saying that the node is not a Passive, Buff, or Debuff, which is correct (or was, at that moment). The question I was addressing was more along the lines of why certain nodes aren't buff, debuff, or passive effects and thus don't obey any of the rules of buffs, debuffs, or even passives, and at the moment the only reason I have is "because that's what they decided to do." I think this is in part a historical artifact of the fact that type tags were not used in a holistically consistent fashion in the past, and the way Kabam wants players to think about the tags today isn't always consistent with how they were used in the past.

In other words, there's always a mechanical reason why we see what we see, but there isn't always an explanation for why the devs apply those mechanics in a way that doesn't seem to follow any sort of rules that the players can rely upon. Sometimes in the case of CapIW and unstoppable, things happen in a way that new players might think is wrong, but more experienced players can see makes logical sense. But sometimes like in the case of Face Me, the behavior only makes logical sense if you have information the game doesn't really give to the players, so even experienced players won't know what will happen until they test it (or someone tells them).

The "subtext" of those last three questions is that sometimes we veterans can explain the game to the newer players, and sometimes we're still a bit in the dark; a situation I hope to improve over time.

unknown

This content has been removed.

DNA3000

So if they have 90% armor a critical hit has a 70% damage reduction because that doesn’t seem to be the case

Is this 90% armor, or +90% armor? Because I believe +90% armor doesn't add 90 percentage points of armor strength, it increases armor rating by 90% of its current value. In other words, if the champion has an armor rating of 300, +90% armor increases armor rating to 570 (300 * 1.9). That would increase armor damage mitigation from about 13% to 22% (@ CR100). A critical hit would ignore all of the armor in the first case, and all but 2% armor in the second case. You'd see a 2% increase in damage for the critical bonus part of your damage (which is not all of the damage). This doesn't count the effects of resistances, which add some complicating effects.

To reach 70% damage mitigation would require an armor rating of about 4660, and to reach 90% damage mitigation would require an armor rating of about 18,000. We don't generally see those kinds of armor ratings in the game.

If you have a specific situation in mind, I can try to investigate further to see if there's something unusual happening there.

Terra

There is 2 things I'm curious about.
1. Does poison debuffs reduce the healing of 6*s adrenaline mechanic or is it normal levels?
2. From using my 6* Strange in AQ, he bypasses the heal block/negation node (what the name is escapes me) with his adrenaline mechanic. Is this supposed to happen or not?

DNA3000

There is 2 things I'm curious about.
1. Does poison debuffs reduce the healing of 6*s adrenaline mechanic or is it normal levels?
2. From using my 6* Strange in AQ, he bypasses the heal block/negation node (what the name is escapes me) with his adrenaline mechanic. Is this supposed to happen or not?

Adrenaline is not true healing, and isn't affected by things that affect healing. So things like poison, petrify, and heal block do not affect the Adrenaline health recovery mechanism.

In fact, although I haven't tested this recently, Adrenaline behaves completely differently from normal healing in another interesting way. Here's a trivia question you might stump your friends with. Can you heal after you kill the opponent in a fight?

Normally: no. The instant the target dies, all healing stops. Heal buffs stop. Healing mechanisms fail after the target dies: if you are executing an attack that is supposed to proc a heal at the end (like Rogue's SP1 or Omega Red's SP1) and the target dies during the attack, the heal fails. Basically, although the computer "plays out" the last seconds of the fight, all beneficial effects stop the instant the opponent is defeated.

But last time I tested, this wasn't true for Adrenaline. If you deal damage after the target dies, Adrenaline will continue to restore health. This may be intentional or it may be an implementation oddity, but it is (or at least was when I last checked) another way in which Adrenaline shows its true colors as not a real heal, but rather a special game mechanical mechanism that isn't actually healing per se.

I will try to test this again soon, just to verify the behavior. But regardless, Adrenaline is not healing. It gives you back health, but it isn't considered a healing or regeneration effect. In fact, it isn't an "Effect" in the way the game defines the term.

Edeuink

So aar reduction works additively? Like if I use a neurotoxin(-33% aa) on a champion that has a 20% chance to proc something, the chance to trigger that would be -13%, not 6.6%?

DNA3000

So aar reduction works additively? Like if I use a neurotoxin(-33% aa) on a champion that has a 20% chance to proc something, the chance to trigger that would be -13%, not 6.6%?

I don't think so, but I'm not absolutely certain here. I *believe* what happens is that when you have a neurotoxin debuff and AA is awakened, that debuff reduces the target's base ability accuracy which by default is 100%. The chance for any ability to trigger is your base ability accuracy multiplied by the ability's chance to trigger.

This is actually something that pops up in a loading screen tip for the game, and it matches my experience in general. So if you have a max sig Archangel, the first neurotoxin debuff lowers the target's ability accuracy by 40%, from 100% to 60%. That means if that champion has an ability with 20% chance to fire, that chance is reduced to 20% x 60% (or 0.6) = 12%. A second neurotoxin debuff reduces champion ability accuracy from 100% to 20% (100% - 40% - 40%) and that champion's 20% ability gets reduced to 20% x 0.2 = 4%. The third debuff reduces ability accuracy to -20%, and that means essentially no ability with ability accuracy can trigger.

Devo2714

This is a great thing you’ve done @DNA3000 thank you

Colonaut123

Thanks a lot @DNA3000. This is great info for both newbies and veteran players.

But I would also add two FAQ's:

- the difference between "hit" and "struck", "contact" and "non-contact" and "physical" and "energy" hits.
- how the combo meters works and its importance for certain champions.

Colonaut123

To add to the immunity section:
Certain champions are not immune but resist certain DoT effects. For instant, Storm has up to 60% Shock Resistance. It isn't entirely clear to me, but I suspect this simply means Storm reduces shock damage by a flat 60% (e.g. 100% - 60% = 40% shock damage).

This is additive: if a certain node states it increases shock damage by 100%, then it is 200% - 60% = 140%. This confused a lot of players with the EQ UC Mephisto boss last year: Red Hulk's sig allows him have up to 20% Incinerate Damage Resistance per Heat Charge, but because Mephisto had like +150% incinerate damage, Red Hulk could only reduce that to 50% (250% - 200% = 50%). In regular match-ups, that amount can below zero but I don't think Red Hulk starts healing when taking incinerate damage. It is just zero.

Champions who have immunity, does not only fail to apply a certain DoT status effect on them, but do not suffer from other status effects that deal passive DoT damage. Iceman is immune to incinerate damage, so the incinerate debuffs from Mephiso's SP1 do not apply on Iceman but neither does the passive incinerate damage from his aura. This is mostly important in certain match-ups where immunity grants extra power (such as this month's EQ Iceman), as every tick that the aura deals triggers the immunity.

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Seraphion

So if they have 90% armor a critical hit has a 70% damage reduction because that doesn’t seem to be the case
Is this 90% armor, or +90% armor? Because I believe +90% armor doesn't add 90 percentage points of armor strength, it increases armor rating by 90% of its current value. In other words, if the champion has an armor rating of 300, +90% armor increases armor rating to 570 (300 * 1.9). That would increase armor damage mitigation from about 13% to 22% (@ CR100). A critical hit would ignore all of the armor in the first case, and all but 2% armor in the second case. You'd see a 2% increase in damage for the critical bonus part of your damage (which is not all of the damage). This doesn't count the effects of resistances, which add some complicating effects.

To reach 70% damage mitigation would require an armor rating of about 4660, and to reach 90% damage mitigation would require an armor rating of about 18,000. We don't generally see those kinds of armor ratings in the game.

If you have a specific situation in mind, I can try to investigate further to see if there's something unusual happening there.
Nah it definitely reduces non crit damage by 90% but crit damage is seemingly unaffected

This is what I found as well. Just try that fight vs Hulk (first enemy) in act 4 last lvl.

Another thing I found:

WS has below 20% armor (I think 15% or something). So when you crit him you should do "true damage".
Yet when I put another point into the "pierce mastery" (2/3 = +10% armor pen on crits) I got + ~1% damage on crits. So there has to be something else than flat - 20% armor.

DNA3000

So if they have 90% armor a critical hit has a 70% damage reduction because that doesn’t seem to be the case
Is this 90% armor, or +90% armor? Because I believe +90% armor doesn't add 90 percentage points of armor strength, it increases armor rating by 90% of its current value. In other words, if the champion has an armor rating of 300, +90% armor increases armor rating to 570 (300 * 1.9). That would increase armor damage mitigation from about 13% to 22% (@ CR100). A critical hit would ignore all of the armor in the first case, and all but 2% armor in the second case. You'd see a 2% increase in damage for the critical bonus part of your damage (which is not all of the damage). This doesn't count the effects of resistances, which add some complicating effects.

To reach 70% damage mitigation would require an armor rating of about 4660, and to reach 90% damage mitigation would require an armor rating of about 18,000. We don't generally see those kinds of armor ratings in the game.

If you have a specific situation in mind, I can try to investigate further to see if there's something unusual happening there.
Nah it definitely reduces non crit damage by 90% but crit damage is seemingly unaffected
This is what I found as well. Just try that fight vs Hulk (first enemy) in act 4 last lvl.

I will try to test this carefully when I get a chance.

Another thing I found:

WS has below 20% armor (I think 15% or something). So when you crit him you should do "true damage".
Yet when I put another point into the "pierce mastery" (2/3 = +10% armor pen on crits) I got + ~1% damage on crits. So there has to be something else than flat - 20% armor.

If you're referring to the RoL version of WS, this is tricky to test because apparently that version of WS isn't necessarily identical to the WS we get or that shows up in other content. That makes testing against him in certain circumstances complicated.

DNA3000

Thanks a lot @DNA3000. This is great info for both newbies and veteran players.

But I would also add two FAQ's:

- the difference between "hit" and "struck", "contact" and "non-contact" and "physical" and "energy" hits.
- how the combo meters works and its importance for certain champions.

I actually wrote up, then removed the section related to this. The reason being I'm pretty sure I understand how those things work in a practical sense, but I'm not 100% certain they work in the precise way I would describe. I'm working to solidify those descriptions, but for the purposes of a FAQ I want to be more certain about the wording than I am now.

I removed *a lot* of technical details from here that are either not 100% certain, or only confuse the important parts that the average player needs to know. For example, I did a deep(er) dive on types with knowledgeable sources, to the point where I'm much clearer about how that system works in the game, but its also much more complicated than most players would find useful. Also, the devs actively try to "hide" some of the complexity of the game with design rules that I don't want to contradict (you'd be surprised how potentially deep the hole is in understanding what an "energy hit" is in all respects).

I am working on some edits where I might be able to insert something about this though: in particular I now have to revise the section on challenge rating to state that the one exception to the rule that it is only used within the DR formula is now in the Abyss, where skirmish charges are based on attacker challenge rating.

DNA3000

Just try that fight vs Hulk (first enemy) in act 4 last lvl.

So I did some preliminary testing on those fights, and apparently some weirdness is happening there that I will need to investigate deeper. It isn't that criticals are completely ignoring armor, they are doing damage I can't account for at all.

I did a quick test using a CapIW, and I started just fighting the center Hulk. He has no armor boost, just 80% resistance. My CapIW has 2301+272=2573 attack, and if kinetically charged he has additional 1150.5 attack rating for a total of 3723.5 attack. That means a light attack should hit for 930.875 or about 931. Against 80% physical resistance that attack should land for 931*0.2 = 186.2. However, if we assume that the devs "under the hood" are actually buffing Hulk's physical resistance by 8000, his actual damage mitigation should be slightly higher because Hulk has some intrinsic resistance and armor: about 362 resistance and 579. Adding these up (why add? that's another long story) gets us to 8941 rating or 81.72% mitigation against CR 100. My Cap is CR120, so that becomes 80.98% mitigation. 931 damage vs 80.98 mitigation is 177 damage. In my test I'm actually dealing 178 damage with light attacks so that all works out very close.

However, light crits are dealing 1991 damage. My critical damage rating is 738 and vs CR 110 (Hulks' CR, not mine) that should be 180% critical damage. So a light attack that does 931 (before mitigation) should crit for 1675.8 bonus damage. Those numbers don't work in any way I can think of. First, if the non-crit damage is resisted normally that should mean that the total damage should be 178 + the bonus damage. 1991 - 178 = 1813. But the critical damage bonus calculated is 1675.8. Under these calculations the critical bonus damage is hitting *harder* than it would if the target had no armor or resistances which doesn't make sense. On the other hand if the entire damage dealt is handled identically that would mean that the total 931+1675.8=2606.8 was being resisted down to 1991 which implies 23.62% damage mitigation, which seems to be a completely random number.

This is *before* I even look at the 90% armor + 80% resistance fight in the corner, which seems to have its own strangeness with numbers. But FYI the equivalent numbers I get there are 95 damage on a light attack while kinetically charged and 1951 on a light crit. Interestingly the 95 damage also works out if you make reasonable flat stat assumptions, but once again the crit damage is too high. So I'm going to need to do a more in-depth investigation to try to figure out what's happening here. I'll try to spend more time investigating to see if I turn up anything noteworthy. Maybe the rules for crits got changed again silently, or maybe there's some strange mechanics going on when we encounter these legacy non-flat stat-looking node buffs.

(Incidentally, no cosmics on the team so no armor break effects happening to alter damage and no synergies so no extra crit rating)

Seraphion

Thx for looking into that. I cant explain it myself.
It always felt to me like crits ignore almost everything on nodes like + 90% armor.

Btw wouldnt it be easier to test things with no extra damage (from champs) and 100% crit from champa like corvus/ghost? 😅

CoatHang3r

Karnak is a great option for grabbing numbers. He has true strike, which ignores armor and resistance, that you can easily turn on and off. When testing with him it becomes pretty obvious how much crits already ignore, and it’s been like this from day 1 of update 12.01.

DNA3000

Thx for looking into that. I cant explain it myself.
It always felt to me like crits ignore almost everything on nodes like + 90% armor.

Btw wouldnt it be easier to test things with no extra damage (from champs) and 100% crit from champa like corvus/ghost? 😅

Karnak is a great option for grabbing numbers. He has true strike, which ignores armor and resistance, that you can easily turn on and off. When testing with him it becomes pretty obvious how much crits already ignore, and it’s been like this from day 1 of update 12.01.

I just jumped in with the team I had at the time for a quick test. I'm going to do more extensive tests with different kinds of champs (i.e. the True Strike situation @CoatHang3r mentions above) as soon as I more or less finish up the acorns.

DNA3000

But I would also add two FAQ's:

- the difference between "hit" and "struck", "contact" and "non-contact" and "physical" and "energy" hits.
- how the combo meters works and its importance for certain champions.

I should ask, since I think this is important in the long run, if you can elaborate on why you believe these would be important to add to the FAQ. What I mean is, from your perspective what specific situations come up in the game where a player might get confused about what these terms mean, or alternatively would want to know but might not know from context what these terms mean? What's the specific downside to not knowing how these things work. I have my own ideas, but I would like to hear yours, because that context might be something important and worth incorporating into the FAQ beyond the raw information

I try not to get too sidetracked into tangents, but sometimes knowing the why something is important beyond the what can influence how the information is presented to players. Not always, but sometimes.

PsyLife

For the difference between passive and active effects, for me it has been the icon. The outside ring for actives, and a flat icon for passives.

Terra

Im curious about a specific champion v champion question. Nightcrawler (afaik) inflicts a invisible bleed on opponent, and I've noticed this works against Thing to keep rockstacks down, Im curious if this can work on debuff immune however.

Tara_Curtis

I really want to know how to unleash the big special attack that I have been hit with and KO’d by several times? Sorry, I’m new to gaming and this game.

DNA3000

I really want to know how to unleash the big special attack that I have been hit with and KO’d by several times? Sorry, I’m new to gaming and this game.

Every champion has three special attacks. To use those attacks you need to build power. This is the power bar down near the bottom of the screen, one on the left (player) and one on the right (computer):

Notice there are three bars of power total. If you have at least one bar and hit that hexagon button you will use a special attack instead of a normal basic attack (i.e. tapping). Every champion has different Special 1, 2, and 3 attacks that do different damage and different effects. The highest one, Special 3, is, well, special. Unlike all other attacks you can't really defend against it: you can't block it or evade it. It plays a special animation scene and just hits you. Some champions do a lot of damage with their Special 3 attack (there are other special rules like SP3 can't crit and other things I'm skipping over here).

So build that bar to three, and then tap the button and you'll unleash a SP3 attack.

Also, because you can't block it or evade it, you need to try to not allow the computer to throw it. You do that by trying to prevent the computer from reaching three bars of power on his side. Attacking him gives him power. Some champions have the ability to just generate power. You can drain power if you're playing a champ that can do that. You can temporarily lock his power bar so it can't move, if you're playing a champ that can do that. But the most common way to try to prevent the computer from reaching three bars of power is to do what MCOC players call "baiting." You try to get the computer to use a lower special attack, like special 1 or 2, so they use their power before reaching three bars of power.

If you're just starting out, there's a lot to learn in this game, because the game has rules, it has mechanics, and it is full of about two hundred different champions each of which has their own powers and abilities. You want to start with the easy stuff and build up over time (which is how we all did it). My recommendation is to start with DorkLessons' Youtube channel, and in particular his Training video series. Start from the bottom with "How to Parry" and work your way upward. There's a specific video on baiting specials there among other things.

Edeuink

Maybe you should add these things.
1. Passive stun on debuff immune vs. Passive stun on stun immune
2. Why isn’t x champion immune to y effect?
3. Why does a spider verse champion evade my venom?
4. Why doesn’t x champion who has energy attacks heal from psychic thorns?

lowlevelplayer

Maybe you should add these things.
1. Passive stun on debuff immune vs. Passive stun on stun immune
2. Why isn’t x champion immune to y effect?
3. Why does a spider verse champion evade my venom?
4. Why doesn’t x champion who has energy attacks heal from psychic thorns?

the answer to all of those are: because kabam said so. It makes no sense if you think about it, but its the battleworld. Different rules

Edeuink

Maybe you should add these things.
1. Passive stun on debuff immune vs. Passive stun on stun immune
2. Why isn’t x champion immune to y effect?
3. Why does a spider verse champion evade my venom?
4. Why doesn’t x champion who has energy attacks heal from psychic thorns?
the answer to all of those are: because kabam said so. It makes no sense if you think about it, but its the battleworld. Different rules

I understand all of those things, the reason I wanted those to be part of the faq is because I see them repeatedly asked in my alliance chat and on the forums.