User blog:Subaltern/Statistics Mechanics Update from an Underachiever

(First draft in progress)

There's so much to say about stats and mechanics that this is sure to be a series. For the most part I am imagining that my audience is new to EQ2. But I'm also using it as a refresher for myself because so much has changed since I was playing regularly a few years ago. If you've been playing a while, you probably have more memorized about stats than can be found online, about EQ2.

All games have some stats/mech mystery, but EQ2 has the most secretive system of stats I've encountered. It also changes, often without warning. Since I'm an underachiever, the changes are of casual interest to me. But as an underachiever, my perspective clears up the difference between "must have" and "would be nice" stats. The most obvious way this shows is that if you're not raiding, my advice is to take all the "you must have stat x at level y" stuff with a big grain of salt.

The meaning of Defensive Statistics, A Mage Example - Coercer

A typical mage skills window.

To some extent, Mages have the simplest skillset. They cannot block or parry,and use only their base mitigation ever, so not even buffs to defense make any difference (I've tested that, defense adorns have no visible effect on anything, but it could be a stealth statistic so if you know for sure, please comment). Many years ago I could solo heroic zones with a mage and lots of defense adorns (I think parry also, but I am no longer sure). They also fit on more pieces of equipment. In ordinary Skyshrine (not an instance), if the tank died, my Warklock could hold the mobs until the healer finished the rez. Defense did more for mages in the past, now it is not so.

This is a very simply geared Coercer, and very much neglected, really. Epic 2.0 is not complete, and neither has she done the KA timeline yet. She joins the PQ's occasionally and that's about all for now. Still the example shows how far you can go with just purchased gear, and a little luck at the PQs. She doesn't have her mercenary active right now, these are her solo stats and gear.

Armor and stats for Coercer May 2017

Coercer stats and equipment May 2014

Coercer Stats and Equipment May 2017 3of3

First in the defenses, you will notice that sometimes a piece of gear will have block but otherwise it is helpful. The mage can never block, so the tooltip is misleading. Also nothing will move the parry above 0% in Avoidance. If you want to be sure, ask, is there a Parry skill? No? Then any Parry adorn is a waste. Ditto for block, but that's harder to tell. Afaik, the only way to be sure your character can block is to know if they can equip a shield or if they are a brawler class. At this point, Uncontested Block is the real chance you have of blocking anything. There are two numbers because previously there was a contested mechanic which is not not in use. (although I'm not sure if it still applies in old zones)

Another note about defenses, many times you come across an adorn that says "Increases Riposte by 5" or some other number. Note that if your class is able to Parry, then your Riposte and Parry chances are equal unless modified by a skill or gear/adorn. It works like this: first you Parry, then you have a chance to convert it into a Riposte. Since my coercer cannot parry, riposte will not help her.

No block for mages.

Stats Coercer Mits and Resists May 2017

There are two things to notice about mage mitigation and resistance, first the cap seems to be 75% according to the tooltips, and second, it is giving you the statistic for a level 100 creature. Not even Advanced Solo mobs in AoM expansion are level 100, although the cap is 75%, it will be lower for level 107 mobs which are normally encountered in KA. Or to be more precise, if you over cap this a bit, you might still mitigate 75% of damage against some mobs of higher level. I'd certainly expect that to be true of "trash" mobs in Solo zones.

Damaging and DPS expectations - Coercer Continued

(this part is a stub and I'll expand it soon) https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/theres-something-im-not-understanding-about-combat-mitigation.574795/#post-6398018

As you can see, my coercer is lagging far behind the better geared players in damaging potential. The price of not playing heroic content with an alt is that they lose the ability to just jump in and play with groups, no matter what the Resolve statistic says.

(more to come... ) --Subaltern (talk) 17:40, May 23, 2017 (UTC)