Should DR have been percentage based?

[Zwiebelchen]

 

It should've been both.

 

Both percentage and flat modifiers

I agree with this. As stated, flat DR is hard to balance and easily leads to boring situations if you make optimal choices. Fast weapons being next to useless against meaningful enemies, plated tanks being pretty much completely immune to hordes and so on. Pure % DR is even worse as it makes all weapon type choices irrelevant like many of you already said, but a combination of those lets weapon type be meaningful while also dodging the annoying edge cases of flat DR system.

 

The problem of fast weapons being bad vs. all the cool enemies could be partly solved even with the current system by giving some of the tough enemies larger health pools with low DR.

 

 

But we have both percentage and flat modifiers.

Percentage = deflection

Flat modifiers = DR

 

The system works exactly as you described.

 

The second part of your post is actually the critical aspect here:

What we need are more varied encounter designs, not a change to the game system.

[MunoValente]

 

The problem of fast weapons being bad vs. all the cool enemies could be partly solved even with the current system by giving some of the tough enemies larger health pools with low DR.

 

 

New Vegas did a good job of mixing tough 0 DT enemies (Cazadores, Tunnelers, Nightstalkers) where DPS was the way to go, with tough higher DT enemies like Deathclaws where penetration was more important.    In this game ghosts, certain types of beasts and undead seem like good choices for where DPS weapon should shine.  

[s13ep]

DR is made equal by the attack speed modifier...

Shouldn't they be treated as a system?

 

Wearing light armor improves the speed of the 'smaller' fast attacks.

 

It's speed or power in my opinion.

 

Have you checked to see if, equally as damaging one-handed is out-paced by two-handed?

 

I think you're thinking of a game where combat is symmetrical rather than asymmetrical. What I mean to is the play-through was the focal point; you could get a real overpowered fast weapon, and then in boss battles switch to your two-handed to actually hit. Who's to say that completing the game in the fastest time isn't the good thing as opposed to fight only bosses? Overall I like DR because it balances well with attack speed and it makes a better game than having two-handed weapons on all your characters.

Edited June 10, 2015 by s13ep

[taek]

It seems like one of the main things to keep in mind when playing on PotD is overcoming enemy DR. Hence one seems to be able to get higher dps from Slow Two handed weapons than dual wielding light fast weapons, making Vulnerable attack a mandatory skill for many weapons (This is not based on any personal tests but just reading forums and playing the game). 

 

Dual wielding will generally outdamage 2H even on high DR targets assuming you are using a DPS class (who have damage modifiers) and give them your best weapons.

 

From the PillarsWeapons spreadsheet, taking a Monk who has a lot of lash bonuses (+50% TW, +25% lightning strikes) and a +25% lash enchant with 18 strength and +30% damage enchant, the DPS vs DR 10 looks like

 

Dual Stilettos: 15.00

Dual Sabres: 15.24

2 Hand: 11.07

Estoc: 12.82

 

This is without any weapon talents like Vulnerable Strike, taking that talent will push Stilettos past Estoc even on DR 16.

This also isn't adjusting for Torments Reach (+50% crush lash), crit modifiers, slaying modifiers, etc..

 

The reason to take 2H weapons IMO is not because they are innately better but because you find very powerful 2H weapons in the game.

 

And in the end that's basically what it boils down to anyway, min-maxing normal weapons isn't that useful because the most powerful enchanted weapons are the ones you'll be using and each one is going to be a per case judgement call.

Edited June 10, 2015 by taek