Reasons to Limit Expertise to 20 (20% crit damage)
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:56 pm
Okay, so for many months, I have been vying for limiting expertise to 20, which would equate to a 20% chance. Now that I had managed to get a good discussion with Artemis on the subject of limiting expertise, I think it's about time I wrote all my reasons as to why Expertise should be limited to 20.
Expertise is a Crit Chance Stat
It went without saying that Expertise had always been a critical chance thing. The mechanic simply works like this: 1% of crit chance for every point of expertise. Crit damage is fairly high for an RPG: 3x base damage; 4x base damage with maxed crit damage skill (which everyone would've done anyway). This can hit 8x base damage with Devastating Hit. Most RPGs stop at 2x or 3x base damage for critical hits.
100 Expertise means automatic crits, which this game is not suited for given that I already have a very fair chance of one-shotting Scorpees with my H2 Lunatic Set, H1 Back Igneous Rock, and S3 E1 Lunatic Hammer (which is just a tiny bit less powerful than a basic Big Mace). I have 70 strength, and I'm at Level 49 (which is more or less where players are expected to fight Scorpees, Leaflings, Night Stalkers, and Mandrakes). I only needed skills to fight against Stalagmites, and I'm pretty convinced that Auroch Beetles were intended to be fought in small groups cuz I don't see myself being capable of fighting them without any help. Bear in mind, my expertise is 10 (which equates to 10% crit chance), which is considered high by most RPG standards (Pokemon had moves with a high critical hit ratio like Slash increase crit chance from 4.167% to 12.5%).
I'm suggesting a limit of 20 Expertise because I do think it's still very generous as far as critical hits go without making Expertise OP. RPG critical hit ratios tend to be fairly low, which made critical hits all the more rewarding. Here are several examples I got from varying RPGs.:
Pokemon: 4.167%
Final Fantasy 6: 3.125%
Epic Battle Fantasy 4: Typically 10% (http://prntscr.com/ywi2xh )
Dragon Quest: Varies, usually very low: https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Critical_Hit
Expertise is Currently Very Skewed
People say that expertise is OP or that its broken, but I think that expertise also had this going against it: skewed priorities. It takes 100 stat points, or around 34 levels worth of stat points, to max out expertise. Let me put it into perspective.
Say, in your first 10 level-ups, you equip a full Bowman set and an Elven Bow (28 weapon power) and you put 15 into archery 5 into defense, 5 into MP, and 5 into expertise. Each piece of Bowman set provides 12 archery, with 6 for the shoes. This works as the control value as the Bowman Set serves as a middle-ground set that works for nearly every player. I've made a graph where Y is the base damage output.
What 5% crit chance means is if you have 100 attacks, five will be crits (4x damage) and the other 95 will be normal hits. This would lead to an average damage multiplier of 1.15x
Our control value with the stats given is 1964.2 and our target value is 4000.: http://prntscr.com/10cv0qb
There will be two test players for this: Player A and Player B.
Player A is an honest player who used the stat points he gained fairly by putting just 5 into expertise with the rest being distributed into other stats.
Player B, on the other hand, is a dishonest fool who puts each and every point into expertise until it gets maxed out. Cheating cow.
Now, let's add two more lines. One would represent honest Player A while the other would represent the dirty cheater that is Player B. Here's what the graph looks like.: http://prntscr.com/10cv8vg
The blue line represents Player A while the green line represents Player B. The two lines intersect at x=17.264 before the green line zips past them. This shows that the expertise-cheater would overtake the honest player who kept his expertise at 10 if both players put just 18 points into expertise and archery respectively. A player with 19 archery and 23 expertise is more powerful than a player with 10 expertise and 37 archery.
What's crazier, assuming a target average damage value of 4000, Player B just needs 40 more expertise than the starting 5 points while Player A needs 49 more archery beyond 19 to reach that point: http://prntscr.com/10cvgax
A 19 archery, 45 expertise archer reached 4000 before a 68 archery, 10 expertise archer.
At 100 skill points, let's say Archer A put 60 points into archery, 20 points into defense, 5 points into MP, 5 points into HP, and 5 points into expertise (79 archery and 10 expertise) while Archer B put all 95 extra points into expertise. If we give them 10 more levels (30 points) we can simply have Archer B put 15 points into archery and defense respectively. We can also have Archer A try catching up by putting 30 points into strength. This is what we would get.: http://prntscr.com/10cvp0o
Player A would be far behind Player B while Player B basically gets away because in the end the 95 points that should've been used on more important stats just meant naught in the end.
TL:DR, The trade-off that was supposed to come with putting points into expertise is easily rendered naught so long as you're a ranged class like an archer or a gunman. This is especially annoying when those who shove everything into expertise just get away with it.
Expertise Leaves Other Stats Behind
Okay, so because people think exploiting the lack of an expertise limit is cool, they often leave their more important stats behind. I'm talking HP, MP, Defense, and their attack stat. Anyone with 100 expertise and 50 of their attack stat, for instance, could've had 110-130 of their attack stat depending on how many they put into other stats instead should Expertise be limited to 20 instead. This alone should make their attack stat more useful.
Expertise Makes Runes Seem Useless
Currently runes are based off a player's damage total, which I think is a good thing. Thing is, rune damage doesn't crit. I think it's a good thing because giving runes crit damage would've made runes OP since expertise is not limited to 20. On the other hand, 100 expertise rendered runes useless since it feels like runes did only a quarter of the damage they should as a result. Really, limiting expertise to 20 would be a really huge buff to runes.
And no, Robby, tethering runes to the player's base attack stat won't work well. I would know; I checked the formula.
Limiting Expertise to 20 Helps With Skill and Item Variety
Okay, being real, not only are critical hit chances low in RPGs, but they also had it so that certain items or skills provide higher crit chances. Let's look at Pokemon for example:
Pokemon: 12.5% (with increased crit moves ex. Slash), 50% (with Focus Energy (which takes up a turn), Dire Hit (which again takes up an entire turn))
In pokemon, you have a 1 in 8 chance of landing a crit with moves like Slash and Air Cutter and a 1 in 2 chance of landing critical hits when a Dire Hit or the move Focus Energy is used.
Should expertise be limited to 20, I had thought of making up for it by giving archers an increased crit chance passive skill (I would think 2% additive for each level up to 10% for a total of 30% crit chance) given archers are meant to be sharp shots. If need be, there could be an equippable necklace or even set bonuses that would provide crit chance (albeit multiplicatively; e.g. 1.2x for a 24% crit chance).
Crit-damage items or skills would also come into fruition should expertise be limited to 20.
Because expertise is limited to 20 as opposed to being left unlimited, crit-chance items won't be rendered completely useless and crit-damage items won't be rendered OP.
Conclusion
Really, limiting expertise to 20 will be the smartest balancing move you will ever make for the game. Trust me on this; I do everything I can to make sure things go well.
Expertise is a Crit Chance Stat
It went without saying that Expertise had always been a critical chance thing. The mechanic simply works like this: 1% of crit chance for every point of expertise. Crit damage is fairly high for an RPG: 3x base damage; 4x base damage with maxed crit damage skill (which everyone would've done anyway). This can hit 8x base damage with Devastating Hit. Most RPGs stop at 2x or 3x base damage for critical hits.
100 Expertise means automatic crits, which this game is not suited for given that I already have a very fair chance of one-shotting Scorpees with my H2 Lunatic Set, H1 Back Igneous Rock, and S3 E1 Lunatic Hammer (which is just a tiny bit less powerful than a basic Big Mace). I have 70 strength, and I'm at Level 49 (which is more or less where players are expected to fight Scorpees, Leaflings, Night Stalkers, and Mandrakes). I only needed skills to fight against Stalagmites, and I'm pretty convinced that Auroch Beetles were intended to be fought in small groups cuz I don't see myself being capable of fighting them without any help. Bear in mind, my expertise is 10 (which equates to 10% crit chance), which is considered high by most RPG standards (Pokemon had moves with a high critical hit ratio like Slash increase crit chance from 4.167% to 12.5%).
I'm suggesting a limit of 20 Expertise because I do think it's still very generous as far as critical hits go without making Expertise OP. RPG critical hit ratios tend to be fairly low, which made critical hits all the more rewarding. Here are several examples I got from varying RPGs.:
Pokemon: 4.167%
Final Fantasy 6: 3.125%
Epic Battle Fantasy 4: Typically 10% (http://prntscr.com/ywi2xh )
Dragon Quest: Varies, usually very low: https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Critical_Hit
Expertise is Currently Very Skewed
People say that expertise is OP or that its broken, but I think that expertise also had this going against it: skewed priorities. It takes 100 stat points, or around 34 levels worth of stat points, to max out expertise. Let me put it into perspective.
Say, in your first 10 level-ups, you equip a full Bowman set and an Elven Bow (28 weapon power) and you put 15 into archery 5 into defense, 5 into MP, and 5 into expertise. Each piece of Bowman set provides 12 archery, with 6 for the shoes. This works as the control value as the Bowman Set serves as a middle-ground set that works for nearly every player. I've made a graph where Y is the base damage output.
What 5% crit chance means is if you have 100 attacks, five will be crits (4x damage) and the other 95 will be normal hits. This would lead to an average damage multiplier of 1.15x
Our control value with the stats given is 1964.2 and our target value is 4000.: http://prntscr.com/10cv0qb
There will be two test players for this: Player A and Player B.
Player A is an honest player who used the stat points he gained fairly by putting just 5 into expertise with the rest being distributed into other stats.
Player B, on the other hand, is a dishonest fool who puts each and every point into expertise until it gets maxed out. Cheating cow.
Now, let's add two more lines. One would represent honest Player A while the other would represent the dirty cheater that is Player B. Here's what the graph looks like.: http://prntscr.com/10cv8vg
The blue line represents Player A while the green line represents Player B. The two lines intersect at x=17.264 before the green line zips past them. This shows that the expertise-cheater would overtake the honest player who kept his expertise at 10 if both players put just 18 points into expertise and archery respectively. A player with 19 archery and 23 expertise is more powerful than a player with 10 expertise and 37 archery.
What's crazier, assuming a target average damage value of 4000, Player B just needs 40 more expertise than the starting 5 points while Player A needs 49 more archery beyond 19 to reach that point: http://prntscr.com/10cvgax
A 19 archery, 45 expertise archer reached 4000 before a 68 archery, 10 expertise archer.
At 100 skill points, let's say Archer A put 60 points into archery, 20 points into defense, 5 points into MP, 5 points into HP, and 5 points into expertise (79 archery and 10 expertise) while Archer B put all 95 extra points into expertise. If we give them 10 more levels (30 points) we can simply have Archer B put 15 points into archery and defense respectively. We can also have Archer A try catching up by putting 30 points into strength. This is what we would get.: http://prntscr.com/10cvp0o
Player A would be far behind Player B while Player B basically gets away because in the end the 95 points that should've been used on more important stats just meant naught in the end.
TL:DR, The trade-off that was supposed to come with putting points into expertise is easily rendered naught so long as you're a ranged class like an archer or a gunman. This is especially annoying when those who shove everything into expertise just get away with it.
Expertise Leaves Other Stats Behind
Okay, so because people think exploiting the lack of an expertise limit is cool, they often leave their more important stats behind. I'm talking HP, MP, Defense, and their attack stat. Anyone with 100 expertise and 50 of their attack stat, for instance, could've had 110-130 of their attack stat depending on how many they put into other stats instead should Expertise be limited to 20 instead. This alone should make their attack stat more useful.
Expertise Makes Runes Seem Useless
Currently runes are based off a player's damage total, which I think is a good thing. Thing is, rune damage doesn't crit. I think it's a good thing because giving runes crit damage would've made runes OP since expertise is not limited to 20. On the other hand, 100 expertise rendered runes useless since it feels like runes did only a quarter of the damage they should as a result. Really, limiting expertise to 20 would be a really huge buff to runes.
And no, Robby, tethering runes to the player's base attack stat won't work well. I would know; I checked the formula.
Limiting Expertise to 20 Helps With Skill and Item Variety
Okay, being real, not only are critical hit chances low in RPGs, but they also had it so that certain items or skills provide higher crit chances. Let's look at Pokemon for example:
Pokemon: 12.5% (with increased crit moves ex. Slash), 50% (with Focus Energy (which takes up a turn), Dire Hit (which again takes up an entire turn))
In pokemon, you have a 1 in 8 chance of landing a crit with moves like Slash and Air Cutter and a 1 in 2 chance of landing critical hits when a Dire Hit or the move Focus Energy is used.
Should expertise be limited to 20, I had thought of making up for it by giving archers an increased crit chance passive skill (I would think 2% additive for each level up to 10% for a total of 30% crit chance) given archers are meant to be sharp shots. If need be, there could be an equippable necklace or even set bonuses that would provide crit chance (albeit multiplicatively; e.g. 1.2x for a 24% crit chance).
Crit-damage items or skills would also come into fruition should expertise be limited to 20.
Because expertise is limited to 20 as opposed to being left unlimited, crit-chance items won't be rendered completely useless and crit-damage items won't be rendered OP.
Conclusion
Really, limiting expertise to 20 will be the smartest balancing move you will ever make for the game. Trust me on this; I do everything I can to make sure things go well.