Dark and Darker Stat Mechanics: Stop Building True Damage & Beat Bosses Faster

[@Barbooian]

Hello my lovely amazing derka derka math enthusiasts! I have read a few comments and concerns on my equation and how certain pieces of the equation work (largely armor pen and damage reduction), so I figured the best I could do for now is to pin and make some clarifications. 1. My calculation formatting IS visually different from that of the wiki, but rest assured if you plug the numbers in as written, you WILL get the same output as what the wiki would give you (Remember that I mentioned I excluded certain factors from my calculation such as race damage bonus, race damage reduction, etc.) I linked the wiki's damage formula in my description for your own viewing pleasure. The reason for my formatting is as follows: I wanted this to be more easily digestible visually for those less math-apt. The wiki math equation is....ugly to be frank. Someone less savvy in math would probably look at it and be extremely turned off to learning it. My intention was to make it easier to look at and comprehend in order to break down any barrier preventing someone learning very important details of the game. Now to address the other concern on the interaction of Armor pen and damage reduction. Armor penetration interacts with a percentage of the target's PDR. This means that the higher someone's armor, the more effective armor penetration is. Your damage is mitigated by their armor (1 - Damage Reduction) and their damage reduction is mitigated by your penetration (1 - (Damage Reduction * (1 - Penetration))). This prevents penetration from reducing someone's P/MDR below 0 to the point where it becomes a damage bonus. I am not a math teacher, professor, or math widard, so if any of my explanations were confusing or misleading I do apologize. It is very hard to make a comprehensive in-depth math lecture in just 9 minutes, so the kindness and patience I have seen is very much appreciated. Lastly, if any of my explanation here still sparks questions or opinions, I am just going to direct you to the calculator provided in my description, as my lil brain has been cooked, baked, broiled, and fried from all the math I've been doing just for this video. The calculator there will give you the numbers you want with no fuss or confusion on how the numbers work, but I will note the disclaimer here as I did in the video: Gear added weapon damage is no longer a thing, so that portion of the calculator is outdated AND it does not include any projectile considerations. Thank you for supporting me through watching, it is much appreciated, and do not fret, more videos that include information not in this video (such as MAGIC) are on the horizon, they just need their own special spotlight because they entail a LOT of information. I will do my best to include these types of clarifications in future videos as I learn and grow in video creation and editing! Hope to see you all again next Friday!

[@jacobp6571]

The kinda of videos that this game needs in the community. Very helpful

[@MuscleWizard.]

We need this kind of behind the curtain videos in dark and darker community. I always found these useful when i played path of exile, useful here too! Love the content ❤

[@rfeefefefefe]

trueee

[@BboyJovi]

okay this is hella deep, and dude! voice is crisp!!!!! thanks for listening to us on the vocals!!!

[@commentsonly3212]

Didn't know Add damage was applied after power bonus but before hit location. The Bard vs Widard example was also insightful. Great video!

[@meekothedog1721]

7:04 Ghost Queen

[@Gobbyhoard]

She is gonna ✨ slay ✨ us

[@AllstarFPS]

you’re the first person I’ve seen who actually understands caps on phys power 😂 damn now everyone knows how easy it actually is to get to hard cap power bonus 😭 great video though!

[@jamessemaj5693]

This is actually pretty informative

[@FruppyNoot]

I have been looking for a video like this for months, thank you so so much

[@OdinCasts]

Good to see more folks making guides like this 🤠 - quick tip on your camera, if you have software available, turn your ISO and exposure down, should help with the framerate. Keep up the good work!

[@lorddrac7824]

This really feels like one of those algebra videos about algorithma they made us watch in highschool except I'm excited to watch it

[@jordanuecker7744]

Instant sub. So much so that I watched it and went onto another device I was logged into so I could reward such quality work

[@TheArcticBearboss]

The Mic upgrade alone made your videos a lot easier to watch. It shouldn't be a huge priority, especially since they're so expensive, but a cam upgrade would be a decent thing to think about too. The frame rate is a little low, and can be jarring to fixate on.

[@MrSenger00]

Really refreshing to see a female creator putting out such good and informative videos. I'd love to see a few more practical comparisons (like the +truePhys vs +armorPen) - like what is better enchant for different weapons, on a longsword, assuming max rolls, is it +weaponDmg or +physicalPower? Anyway, I love your approach in these videos, cheers

[@deanodynamo]

Well explained breakdown. Thanks for doing this.

[@BrokeSill]

Queen of Knowledge 🙏🙏

[@TheGodhan]

Very good info , it would be great to see a vid on Magic Damage also.

[@sirps6185]

Good video thank you 🙏

[@larsennebl6172]

Data analyst in its natural habitat

[@soyzeze]

this is my fav dyd content thanks

[@Dominossek]

Damn, didn't knew Shriek reduced them to -78%, that's crazy.

[@camerontippit]

Great detail u got a sub keep up the good work

[@outlawjaw1639]

Awesome video! Keep it up!

[@afoekon]

I'm pretty sure that armor pen doesn't effect PDR but armor rating. Example is clerics divine protection skill isn't effected by armor pen at all. So 5% armor pen takes way 5 armor from someone with 100 armor rating.

[@richardbarajas6953]

Dope video thank you

[@twistednapkins]

Sly Dimo shoutout at 5:01.

[@DamnPeasants]

Great video

[@SeanMarcusReel]

Wow, awesome...

[@TankyJohnny]

what would you recommend for the quarterstaff? armor pen or true phys?

[@InvectivusTaco]

i was told that armor pen can scale beneficially if you have more armor pen than the targets pdr, putting them in to the negatives totaling more damage? pvp wise. i don't think armor pen affects bosses though

[@mrperson1324]

1:01 I believe you mean physical DAMAGE bonus not power, but also throughout the section you keep saying "50 strength" strength does not have a cap at 50. Physical power does. If you have 35 strength and 15 physical power bonus you will hit the soft cap of 50 and only get 0.5% more damage bonus for any additional strength/power. The phrasing and incorrect text will confuse anyone who doesn't already know how physical power works. 3:30 Almost all classes have some form of projectile. Listing everything would take too much space, but in general anything which moves through the air is a projectile, and if it is hitscan/AoE then it is not a projectile. As an example Wizard's fireball has the fireball itself as a projectile, meaning its damage would be reduced by projectile reduction. Meanwhile the explosion part of the wizard's fireball is not a projectile; it is AoE, and does not get reduced by projectile reduction. This information is technically in the video but unless I missed it, it is not stated directly even though it's super important to know. Armor penetration does NOT reduce PDR by a set amount. 50% armor pen does not turn 50% PDR into 0% PDR. It in cuts it in half making it 25% PDR. A bit off topic from the video, but the EFFECTIVE hp of a target is more important than their actual HP. a Fighter with 150HP and 75% PDR has effectively 600HP if you only have physical damage. Meanwhile a fighter with 50%PDR and 300HP also has an effective health of 600HP despite having 100% more HP and only 25% less PDR. Reducing PDR on high armor targets is much more impactful than low armor targets, because armor penetration scales with the % of PDR your target has, and because the higher the % of PDR the more each % of that PDR is worth.

[@Barbooian]

Hi MrPerson! I hope you're enjoying your day and I appreciate you stopping by and giving me thorough feedback. I've read through your comment and want to address each of your points as best as possible. I hope none of what I say comes off as condescending or rude, and if it does I ask that you please tell me as it sincerely is not my intention. To address your first point, I both stated and wrote in the video the relation with strength/physical power, and so I use strength/physical power interchangeably as 1 str is 1 pp, 15 str is 15 pp, 60str is 60 pp, so on so forth. I also wrote on the screen str has a hard 100 cap, and mentioned verbally that once you reach 50 str you begin getting diminishing returns and therefore it is not worth it to continue building past 50 though it is entirely possible to do so. I apologize this may have confused you, and although I did write it on screen and verbally stated all of this I would invite you to let me know how I could have done so differently as to not confuse (I say things once as to keep the video short, so if you skipped past that, that cannot be helped). In this point of the video I said "ranger" because my example was an altered longbow example. It was assumed the viewer would understand "ranged attacks" applying for projectiles, as well as this being a physical-damage-only video. Magical damage requires its own video as I am sure you understand why, also projectile fall-off is not applicable to all projectiles, therefore more relevant for rangers and like damage. This is the purpose for the assertion of "ranger" being my choice of words. I can't exactly please everyone with my wording, but it was true and accurate to the context and point of the video at hand. Other classes also use bows, crossbows, etc. but notice I didn't include them either (don't even get me started on throwables lol!) it would have been impractical to go over every single form of projectile when I know my viewers are intelligent and can draw their own conclusions without me spoon feeding them everything. Again to reiterate, magic damage needs its own video, so it was not included in this video for that reason. A side note is that my title originally had "physical damage" in it but nobody was clicking it because of how wordy it was. I had to shorten the title and unfortunately that did not make the cut, though it seems no one else seems to be particularly bothered by this as it still delivers what was promised--how damage works. The information you say is not in the video is in it, all but magic damage and hp, which is not the purpose of this video, and require their own videos. Furthermore, when I discussed armor pen and its interaction with pdr in the equation I simply said the two interact to create a "damage modifier" of which is in the wiki which I invite you to look into if interested (though I think it's safe to assume you already have hehe). You are correct--this is off topic and not the point of this video. This is important and requires its own video. This is also correct and the point that I make in my armor pen vs true damage segment. Lastly, this video was originally 2-hours of footage and I like to assume my viewers are intelligent and can draw their own conclusions with my discussion on the topic (ie. armor pen working well because of the scaling mechanic with pdr and it being essentially useless against low pdr players such as wizard, as covered in my armor pen vs true damage section). This way I don't come off as condescending when discussing important topics as well as allowing my viewers to think with me rather than just be told everything in a "trust me-esque" approach. If there is anything that you take away from my very long winded comment, is that I am engaging with you as it is clear to me you are very intelligent and know your stuff when it comes to the game and I understand how certain points may get missed or overlooked with how fast I go through it all (seriously, 9 minutes for all this information is ridiculously short when you consider the nuances of different types of damage and how they interact such as magic as you stated). Just remember that this will not be my last video and I have plenty more time to create videos tailored to the exact topics you expressed to have great importance with the detail they deserve! :)

[@kevinkane8785]

good job nerd. I understand now.

[@CrescentSouls]

i have a question then, wouldn't it be better if a longbow ranger stack armor pen and true damage in order to do the most damage to all classes? ~ 35% armor pen with longbow out and +5 true for example?

[@bcmcameron]

Yep. Ranger can sometimes run additional for the extra HS damage but true is better in this tank meta.

[@benjaminaschlimanjr4939]

Not only does rondel dagger attack faster, allowing for more true damage procs, but it also has innate armor pen because why not

[@JELKEK]

Because rogues still suck, make it a rogue only weapon and suddenly the rondel fighter/bard problem disappears

[@gaborlukacs263]

Ehm, i have a question regarding the PDR / True Damage section ... what about the minus PDR? Since the game allows to go on minus PDR with armor pen ... so what is the break even point for the damage output there? Could you or someone answer that

[@checkthisout7616]

what ammount of strength is good on rogue?, i still dont know if it would be worth it to have 25 strenght or invest in other stats to only have 15

[@gaborlukacs263]

I would say depends on your build ... 15 is a good way to go in general ... if you play with toxic perk agility and dex is great since you want the 5 stacks to apply fast and then having true magical damage so strenght isn't big of a deal. But as i said it depends on your build and of course playstyle. At least that is my opinion.

[@noonegaming8685]

I usually focus on dex, vigor, and true damage. Just build the true first, then get positive physical power bonus/15 strength then focus on everything else.

[@juanchoovera9]

teacherrrr😋

[@marellius2868]

so hitting arms/legs is the same as hitting torso? i was misinformed then.

[@hollyone75]

Only for true damage

[@Barbooian]

Hi! The human shaped figure in my video is color coded to indicate different hit % damage according to what limb you are hitting. Ie:hands and feet are yellow because hands and feet apply same hit % damage. If you want to learn more about hit location bonus my last video about weapon damage goes over this. Sorry if I caused any confusion!

[@NottDuque]

Math teacher?

[@INFJ-ThaneTr]

Thumbs down because you use your thumb to count to three on your hand and you sound like a bop.

[@James-xb2yj]

fix ur posture and take a shower u greasy ass nerd. then maybe you'll realize girls are humans too.