Can someone edumacate me on the AC system?

[JustHavingFunBro]

I have 100 AC, 12% dodge, and a 25% displacement item. I am currently level 23. I have tested this in Borderlands epic elite and reaper.

According to this chart and my understanding a CR 31 mob should only hit me 45% of the time due to AC. Add in 12% dodge and 25% displacement trash mobs should only hit me 13% of the time. Instead in reaper CR31 trash mobs very rarely ever miss. In elite a CR30 trash mobs don't hit as often, but its certainly not 13% of the time. I'd say its about half the time or more that I am hit.

Why does it seem like not only is the AC not doing as well, but dodge and lesser displacement are also not working as well as advertised.

Thank you.

 

[PraetorPlato]

Attack bonuses are often higher than that, especially in reaper, where they're significantly higher. Displacement, dodge, and AC stack multiplicatively, not additively—you have a (1-0.12)(1-0.25)(~0.45)=30% chance of getting hit in elite. Displacement also gets reduced aggressively by reaper.

 

[JustHavingFunBro]

So, that chart is worthless for reapers. Odd that it would be broken down by CR.

 

[JustHavingFunBro]

Hmmm, also interesting to note that adding 10% incorporeality is actually only a 3% reduction. Disappointing to learn this, but explains why I have felt dodge and displacement didn't make me almost unhittable.

 

[Arkat]

Hmmm, also interesting to note that adding 10% incorporeality is actually only a 3% reduction. Disappointing to learn this, but explains why I have felt dodge and displacement didn't make me almost unhittable.

Reaper mode sucks if you're not ready for it.

 

[Zaszgul]

Unless you are really building for it, you can pretty much ignore AC. Monsters will miss when they roll a 1, and that's probably about the only time they will.

Incorp is reduced in reaper by 5% per skull. It is also essentially useless on reaper, since most characters cannot get more than 10% before reductions.

Concealment is reduced in reaper by 5% * (skulls+1). e.g., 10% on R1. Displacement is just about the only useful source of it.

Dodge is the most important avoidance stat. Make sure you get lots of it, and keep your armor's MDB high enough to use it.


Blind is very effective reaper, not reduced at all. Sleet Storm is an easy way to apply it to groups, if you can cast it or want to scroll it. You will need FoM or Immunity to Slippery Surfaces to not also be blinded by it.

 

[JustHavingFunBro]

Oh, wow. So, I just need to completely ignore Incorp. That is incredibly disappointing to learn.

Why does an armor's MDB matter for dodge?

Thank you all! I have learned a lot.

Also, one last thing does the elusive feat also have almost no chance to work in reaper?

 

[vryxnr]

Oh, wow. So, I just need to completely ignore Incorp. That is incredibly disappointing to learn.

Why does an armor's MDB matter for dodge?

Thank you all! I have learned a lot.

Also, one last thing does the elusive feat also have almost no chance to work in reaper?

If your max dex bonus on your equipped armor is less than 25 (plus any increases to dodge cap you have), than your max dodge becomes equal to your max dex bonus.

ie: if your max dex bonus is 5, then your dodge also becomes capped at 5%.

 

[Zaszgul]

Oh, wow. So, I just need to completely ignore Incorp. That is incredibly disappointing to learn.

Yep, very disappointing that they just remove parts of the game this way. It went from being a cool effect on some gear, to just worthless. Wish they would reduce it by a relative percent or something else instead.

Also, one last thing does the elusive feat also have almost no chance to work in reaper?

That is unaffected by reaper, afaik.


If you aren't already using light armor, you will discover it is the only useful type of armor for most characters because MDB is much more impactful than the small amount of extra PRR on heavier armors.

 

[woq]

They seem to have a way of devaluing their own content by making it pointless, sadly. This is one such case - the castration of these stats is a big reason why CC is so incredibly important in high reaper. Of course if they were left completely untouched then stacking all of them (disp, incorp, ac, blind) would make characters too untouchable so they had to do something. Just... the solution is unfortunately very heavyhanded and clumsy.

 

[Arsont]

Yep, very disappointing that they just remove parts of the game this way. It went from being a cool effect on some gear, to just worthless. Wish they would reduce it by a relative percent or something else instead.

This isn't really a problem with the effect itself; having those other sources of mitigation is still useful for anyone not running reaper or raid pushing (however many people that is).

Even just 10% incorp (Ghostly) is still functional for R1 quests, and LH is probably the most common difficulty for pug raids I see.

I think it's really more an issue with reaper itself. People wanted a harder game mode, but there's only so much that can be done to scale a quest from Elite to Reaper before the whole quest needs to be reworked. The current approach makes sense from a dev time perspective: buff mobs, nerf players. Too much mob buffing puts us right back in old Mass Hold+auto crit epics; too little player nerfing doesn't add any challenge.

Now, I agree that the way they scale down the effects could be reworked; it makes less sense that a comparatively rarer effect like Ghostly should be reduced at the same rate as Concealment, even with Concealment starting at -5%. A good compromise to help Ghostly effects feel better would be to leave them at base effectiveness in R1, then reduce by 2% per skull after.