In an effort to better understand how wizard spell accuracy works, I started casting some spells on the rest of my party to see what the numbers told me.

 

Let's start with Slicken:

 

 

When I moused over the individual hits, I noticed something that I couldn't make sense of. 5 hits; the first had an accuracy of 85, the second of 90, and the rest alternated like this (85, 90, 85). 

 

 

This is issue #1. Interestingly, I noticed that if I string a couple of spells together just right spell 1 will show 85, 90, 85, 90, 85 and spell 2 will show 90, 85, 90, 85, 90. 

 

 

Let's take a second an point out that I have no idea where the first number is coming from (if I point a single-target spell at a few different people, it consistently shows 85, so I'm assuming that 85 is the "real" number). Aloth's accuracy should look something like this:

 

56 (base 20 + 36) + 4 (PER bonus) + 10 (Spell bonus) + 6 (Zealous Focus from Pallegina) = 76 Accuracy

 

If 85 is the real number, then I have no idea where the other 9 points of accuracy are coming from (though I suspect it's a single-weapon-only bonus being applied, and if so it's still being applied when the caster is wielding a two-handed weapon - I checked using Durance's quarterstaff). So, this may or may not be issue #2.

 

Here's a save for testing. I hope this helps.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a4oso8j72l4i2or/71e8c801ead54c11852e638b89f3be50%2014794478%20Chapel.savegame?dl=0

Edited November 14, 201510 yr by Achilles

Your base Accuracy at level 12 is not 56; it's 20 + (11 * 3) = 53.

 

Spells get an undocumented Accuracy bonus equal to the level of the caster (so do all non-weapon attacks from any character.)

 

53 (Base) + 4 (PER) + 6 (ZF) + 12 (Lvl) + 10 (Spell) = 85

 

You can see this by hovering your cursor on the Slicken spell icon:

 

 

(this is from your saved game.)

 

Aloth is also a Wood Elf, so he gets +5 Accuracy against distant targets (which in PoE means targets who are 4+ meters away), so those will get checked against an Accuracy score of 90.

 

 

With that said, how did you get the details of the 3 Grazes / 1 Hit / 1 Crit (your first screenshot)? I can't seem to get those in my game.

Edited November 14, 201510 yr by AndreaColombo

With that said, how did you get the details of the 3 Grazes / 1 Hit / 1 Crit (your first screenshot)? I can't seem to get those in my game.

Would interest me too.

@Xaratas - if you click on the line item in the combat log, the details will expand out and you can mouse over each for additional details. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for everything shown in the combat log (good luck trying to find out how some of the enemy special abilities work )

 

@Andrea,

1. I'll wait to hear what the devs say, as an "undocumented" bonus sounds fishy to me (why would they have two different per level accuracy bonuses? You get 3 per level + 1? It sounds like you get 4 per level to me)
2. The wood elf accuracy against distant targets wouldn't apply as all the targets were within 4m.
3. The wood elf accuracy against distant targets wouldn't explain why the difference would be listed in an alternating pattern (which is the primary reason I posted this as a bug, hence why I labelled it "Issue #1). First thing I did was look to see if their placement in relation to Aloth could explain what I was seeing.

 

@Andrea,

1. I'll wait to hear what the devs say, as an "undocumented" bonus sounds fishy to me (why would they have two different per level accuracy bonuses? You get 3 per level + 1? It sounds like you get 4 per level to me)

 

 

It's on the Wiki, but undocumented in the (outdated) game manual and within the game (then again, you could fill a canyon with stuff that goes on under the hood and is not communicated to you by the game's interface.)

Characters get +3 Accuracy per level; non-weapon attacks get +1 Accuracy per character level. Aarik will be able to confirm.

It is documented, just not very clearly. Check the Cyclopedia -> Combat Mechanics -> Accuracy (last sentence)

 

I tried your save and the accuracy seems correct for me. With the positions in which the game loaded I cast slicken on eder, so that it hits everyone. It used 90 accuracy for Durance, who is far enough to trigger the racial bonus, and 85 accuracy for the rest. Do you have some mod installed that messes with it?

Nope no mods. And to be clear, this wasn't something I noticed once, on one load. I reloaded the game a couple of times and spammed each of the spells I tested at least half a dozen times just to confirm what I was seeing.