Physical/magic pierce?

Idk...it might be super obvious but I just don't really get what exactly they do haha. If someone could explain to me what physical pierce and magic pierce are, that would be greeeeaaaaaaaat.

 

try using the search function

 

As a matter of fact that was the first thing I tried. Nothing that came up actually explains them.

 

Something like ignore enemy def I guess.
Another tricky stat to have, Idk it's worth or not.

 

Done searching...there no thread about M or P. Pierce yet... ( or do i miss something here ?? )

 

Hopefully a mastermind *cough* @Mugami *ehm* enlightens us with this one.

 

So after doing some searching around on other mmo's MOST of the time, physical/magical pierce is a stat that basically means that you partially ignore a mobs defense when using physical or magical attacks. I never really understood this until now and it's probably the reason why I always had trouble with bosses on iruna. I never had any physical pierce, so no matter how strong my char got, I always seemed so weak against bosses because I couldn't get over their high defense.

 

Pierce let's u penetrate through your enemies defense if u put it that way. Haha learned what pierce is from playing random games.

 

Honestly, I've had my own questions about the ability. But with very few items that have it and the very small percentage, it remains untestable. I need a sub of at least 5% to be able to field test this. But be sure it's on my queue.

The thing is it can work one of two ways:

Either it mitigates it's percentage from the enemy's def/Mdef
OR
The percentage is it's chance to completely ignore the enemy's def/mdef.

But this is hard to test now as the percentages (if theory A is correct) are so small as to fall within a standard deviation of damage to begin with. So there's little difference between pierce 3% and a good solid hit. Same for magic pierce.


Its a similar problem (if theory B is correct) that should you need 33 hits to have a chance at one that ignores def entirely; this is still close enough to max damage for weapons that the occurrence would be close to unnoticeable. So we would need to be at much higher lvls, close to lvl 100.

 

i did reply on a thread regarding them. But like what mugami said:

a percentage to bypassing enemy's def/mdef resistance

or

bypassing a percentage of enemy's def

 

I can say one thing conclusively tho.

Pierce will increase your DoT average by the percent it lists. That's a given.
So it's a decent substat to have. And about the same as +atk% in DoT average increase.

(Damage over Time)

 

there are categories of monsters which pierce might have an effect

seltirio has low base def (kind of a creature monster) so pierce wont have much effect...
same goes with forestia,,, high eva rate but low def
in those monsters we can see high amounts of damage as compared to other monsters/bosses

other monsters however, like colon commander have high def and pierce might work on it more than on other monsters

anywy, the options are quite low atm, up to 2% only.. so its hard to verify what kind of mechanic it really has

 

Agreed

 

Generally it ignores a portion of the targets defense.

If you played Iruna and remember the boss false grecia her def and mdef got progressivly higher as her hp got lower until you were literally doing 1 damage UNLESS your attack was sufficiently high enough.

(Volg currently does this in game, your damage is steadily reduced once his hp drops below half)

In the case of pierce, youre chopping off a portion of that defense via the % to allow your damage to get through.

Ie: you have 10% phys pierce against a target with 100 defense before your damage roll is applied, the targets defense is effectivly reduced to 90 due to the pierce. (Thus increased damage)

At least thats how it generally works in games. I could be wrong.

 

Frankly, I've seen it work both ways in different games and even tho this is pretty much a sequel to Iruna, I don't want to just take a guess and say so. It would cast doubt on the accurate data I've provided thus far. Plus, it's better to test and make sure, than to assume and be wrong.

When it gets to 5%, I'll do 1000 battles and run the numbers against two controls for baseline and put this to rest.

 

I dont see it coming off as a chance to ignore defense, that would make it incredibly overpowered since there isnt (and im grasping at straws here since we all know how well the devs word skills...) any kind of unspoken information of if %pierce chance succeeds roll ignore all defense from that target... and then you add in is that per swing? Permanent? Duration?

I think its more likely and balanced that it applies a flat reduction.

Also, based on your observation with dot damage, if it was % to ignore, your damage would skyrocket.

Again, i could be wrong, and i wish you luck in the testing.

 

Just a theory..if not bypassing..maybe the devs. made pierce to assist your attacks not being blocked/guard by the enemy.. XD

 

Isn't it easy to get 5%?
I believe you can add physical pierce/magical pierce on both weapons and armors(4%).
EDIT: Meant armors can get 4% pierce by themselves, so an extra 1% from the weapon shouldn't be hard.

 

Ahhummmm...that's what I meant by 5.
5% primary weapon
5% armor
I need 5% on both for test.

There are two reasons I need 5%:
1.) I have to test value of 5% and compare to 10% to make sure it stacks. Just in case it doesnt, it's the only way id know for sure.
2.) Then I have to test 5% (or 10%, if it stacks) against the double baseline.

Also secondary weapon subs don't apply. Only dagger and shield subs do. Same with xtals not working on secondary weapons.
(Its because secondary subs on bd sword cause game to freeze when you attack and then it force closes. Double relic makes the screen go black after it successfully guards. They never figured out the bug for that part of dw. That's why they pushed the release date back twice and then did that sudden fix right after release. "Minor bug fixes" lol)

Anyways, 10% is enough to test on knuckles because they have 90% stability. Which means that it's outside of the normal damage range of knuckles if I have 10% equipped. But even 5%, at that point is a large enough offset. I like to keep my numbers "round" so it's easier to show others and see myself.

 

Ah, dang, thought you could use either 2% and 4% or something.
Good luck on the research in the future!