Do fractions for PEN or number of ticks have any effect?

[limaxophobiacq]

I know fractions are actually calculated for damage & health, but does having say 10.5 or 10.75 PEN make any difference from having 10 PEN?

Also for 'normal' damage over time effects that tick every 3 seconds (ApplyOnTick),  does increased duration have an additional effect if it falls between 2 potential ticks, i.e. is there any difference in the damage you'll do between an 18.1, 19.5, or 20.9 second duration for a damage over time like Shining Beacon or Meteor Swarm that hits every 3 seconds? Or do you want to try to hit just over a number of seconds divisible by 3 if you're trying to min-max for a specific damage-over-time effect?

Edited October 21, 2021 by limaxophobiacq

[Not So Clever Hound]

In short, I think yes every little bit helps and overall you don't need to try to shoot for round numbers. But I'm a lot more certain about this for PEN than for ApplyOnTick durations.  

For example when you start getting into Crit and Overpen mechanics, an initial 0.2 PEN difference can have a disproportionate impact on your end damage. But you're not going to see that make a crazy difference in every fight.

I think DoTs are a bit harder to grasp in Deadfire because there's a lot of hidden stuff that goes in. But generally my experience is that they can also get benefits from small increases in the various parameters, including duration, but I'm not sure exactly how it works - I **think** for small duration differences it is visible on your final DoT.

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[thelee]

2 hours ago, limaxophobiacq said:

I know fractions are actually calculated for damage & health, but does having say 10.5 or 10.75 PEN make any difference from having 10 PEN?

if you're talking about the final number you see in your combat log, then no it doesn't matter. it only matters if it's something that gets multiplied by a crit and is just enough to get you to that threshold for overpenetration bonus damage.

 

2 hours ago, limaxophobiacq said:

does increased duration have an additional effect if it falls between 2 potential ticks, i.e. is there any difference in the damage you'll do between an 18.1, 19.5, or 20.9 second duration for a damage over time like Shining Beacon or Meteor Swarm that hits every 3 seconds? Or do you want to try to hit just over a number of seconds divisible by 3 if you're trying to min-max for a specific damage-over-time effect?

it does matter, mostly.

For DoTs, damage ticks on application, and every 3s, and then there's one last tick of any remaining duration that properly pro-rates the damage done. any non-whole numbers accumulate and every time that's enough to qualify for an additional full point of damage or healing, it'll do so on the next tick. Stacking effects accumulate any rougness across the stack (so 1.5/tick and 1.5/tick will properly result in a 2x stack that does 3/tick).

For effects like Meteor Swarm or Relentless Storm or Chill Fog or Garden of Life, there are no partial hazard ticks or partial projectiles, but they also vary a lot in what kinds of effects they spawn so it's a little harder to come up with a general rule (missile salvo spawns tons so it's very sensitive to duration changes, whereas returning storm just spawns once/six seconds which leaves a pretty brutal cutoff).

Edited October 21, 2021 by thelee