Alrighty. Time to reveal with I've discovered yesterday.
Basically, I found out how exactly the following things are calculated:
-total player HP
-PMit, MMit and elemental mitigations
-block chance
-and probably pretty much every stat
1) The truth about the Juggernaut potencyI'll start with player HP. The wiki has very little info regarding this:
https://ehwiki.org/wiki/Character_Stats#PointsQUOTE
Health Points = (500 + (Level * 10) + (END * 6)) * HP Tank * vigorous_vitality
The Hath Perk bonus is 1.10 if the appropriate perk is possessed. Otherwise it is 1.
We have absolutely no indication whatsoever regarding how other things that have an effect on HP ("Heavy HP" ability, "Light HP/MP" ability, Juggernaut potency) actually do it. At best, we could guess that the "HP tank" ability was bewteen 1.0 and 2.0.
Scoop: actually, absolutely every HP related buff is included in the "HP tank" indicated on the wiki, and they are additive between each other.
That "HP tank" in the wiki formula is actually the following thing:
1.0+HP tank ability+Light HP/MP ability+Heavy HP+Juggernaut
For someone like me, we get this:
HP tank ability maxed out => +100%
Juggernaut 22 => +44%
Heavy HP ability maxed out + 411 Heavy armor effective proficiency => +41.1%
"HP tank" = 1.0 + 1.0 + 0.44 + 0.411 = 2.821
And once I inject that in the HP formula (Lvl 371, 742 End, VV perk), I do get my total HP displayed in my stats: 27164.
I then wondered what was the actual influence of Juggernaut in all this: what would be my HP pool without any Juggernaut potency?
"HP tank" = 1.0 + 1.0 + 0.411 = 2.411
Total HP = (500 + (371 * 10) + (742 * 6)) * 2.411 * 1.1 = 22972
Actual increase of HP thanks to Jug22: 4192
Actual percentage of increase:
18.24%Shocking revalation:
Juggernaut is actually way weaker than one might think.This is due to it being combined additively with the HP tank, Heavy HP, Light HP/MP abilities, instead of being a layer by itself. In other words, all the abilities
and Juggernaut raise your HP pool by a percentage of the base HP (500 + (Level * 10) + (END * 6)), and Juggernaut itself has much less global impact due to the abilities weighing quite a lot in the balance (especially at higher heavy/light proficiencies, that grant a greater HP bonus).
I have calculated that the very first Juggernaut potency gained on the equipment of someone of my level represents a total increase of HP of
0.8% of my entire HP pool, not the 2% written in the equipment stats. For players of a higher level, expect something even lower due to the Heavy HP ability. Of course, subsequent potency levels represent an always lower increase.
You can also come to the conclusion that Cloth setups are those that have the most benefit in Juggernaut potencies, since there is no "Cloth HP" ability.
Likewise, it is very very likely that the Capacitor potency interacts with the MP abilities and the total MP pool, though I haven't checked it. And with the same logic, Heavy builds would benefit the most from Capacitor potencies, though frankly we don't need it anyway.
2)PMit, MMit and Elem Mits: how htey are calculatedBefore making discoveries regarding HP calculations, I was wondering why it was hard to exceed 60% elemental mitigations, despite having many potencies and mitigation prefixes. The total mitigation, whatever the type, is always lower than the simple addition of all percentages together.
So I asked myself the following thing:
"What if the mitigations worked in a similar way than how shielding armor interacts with a shield?"
After a few calculations, I found out the following thing:
All mitigations are applied after each other in a [en.wikipedia.org] Matryoshka doll (russian doll) fashionIn other words, total mitigation is calculated with "layers" that filter a percentage of the damage received: you have your "base mitigation" (endurance, agility, wisdom) as first layer, then every equipment that mitigates the associated percentage of what's left of damage from the previous layer.
Let's take the formula written in the wiki:
QUOTE
Physical Mitigation = 1 - (1 - equipment_bonus) * (900/(900 + END + (AGI/2)))
Magical Mitigation = 1 - (1 - equipment_bonus) * (900/(900 + END + (WIS/2)))
But it isn't explained anywhere what "equipment bonus" is. Here is how it actually works:
QUOTE
Physical Mitigation = 1 - (1 - mainhand_pmit) * (1 - offhand_pmit) * (1 - helmet_pmit) * ... * (1 - feet_pmit) * (900/(900 + END + (AGI/2)))
Magical Mitigation = 1 - (1 - mainhand_mmit) * (1 - offhand_mmit) * (1 - helmet_mmit) * ... * (1 - feet_mmit) * (900/(900 + END + (WIS/2)))
Of course, when there is no PMit/MMit stat (which is mostly the case for mainhand and offhand, save for shields), the associated factor becomes "1" in the formula. Once you apply that formula that way, you do find your exact PMit and MMit stats.
What about the elemental mitigation stats? They work the exact same way, except that there is no "base mitigation" given by the player stats. Potencies and prefixes are applied the same way. It's still calculated the same way for physical mitigations (crushing/slashing/piercing), with the heavy crush/slash/piercing potencies acting as one of the layers.
What conclusions can we take regarding mitigations?1) The more redundancy, the less influence on the actual number displayed in the player stats
2) One single strong layer is more efficient than several small layers. Fireproof 5 will be more efficient than Fireproof 2+Fireproof 3 : 0.8 (20% mit) < 0.92 (8% mit) * 0.88 (12% mit) = 0.8096
3) All equipments mitigation bonuses, mitigation abilities, should be considered as a global mitigation buffs on their own
3) What all of this should change in our way to play and work potencies?I'll be frank: if I did all this work of research to understand how exactly the game works, it is because I want to optimize my builds to have the most efficiency.
First huge thing: everyone should stop looking for "Jug25" without asking himself questions, even less without knowing what exactly is the benefit of Jug25. Jug25 will never, ever, actually increase your HP by a flat 50%. At best, it will raise your total HP tank by (2.50-2.0)/2.0=
25% for a cloth setup. Much less for a Heavy setup with 500 proficiency: (3.0-2.5)/2.5=
20%. Furthermore, Juggernaut will not buff the power of any of your regenerations (Cure, Regen, draughts, potions), so it will
not help you tanking incoming damage effectively
Second thing: instead of Juggernaut, raising the individual elemental mitigations could be a good idea. It takes
only one potency to raise the associated mitigation by 20%. Do it a second time, and the total mitigation for that element is already at 1-0.8*0.8=
36%. You can get such a 36% for every elemental attack quite easily for a 1H build, without having any mitigation prefix: 2 potencies for each equipment. That won't protect you from crushing/slashing/piercing/void attacks, but it's still great anyway. Not to mention that you could very well focus your efforts on elements frequently used by monsters (Dark,Holy,Fire) to enhance your resistance regarding these elements. If you use a full mitigation prefix set (one of each prefix), you can reach a whooping 55% mitigation for all elements (20% due to potencies, around 30% for prefixes)!
But further than raising the mitigations, chosing that way of IWing your equipments will make your healing more efficient overall.
Third thing: all your potencies should always be "5" in terms of optimization. As desmontrated by the Fireproof 5 VS Fireproof 2+Fireproof 3 calculation made earlier.
Fourth thing: there is no such thing as Protection being better than Warding, or the other way around. There is only one type allowing a given equipment to raise the overall physical/mitigation of the entire build more than the other, along with you estimating what needs to be mitigated more than the other. If I take a Peerless Power Helmet of Protection, it will have a 11.16 base PMit instead of of a 8.11 base PMit, which means you will mitigate physical damage
37% better
for the entire build. Likewise, Peerless Power Helmet of Warding will provide a magical mitigation (11.48-6.26)/6.26=
83% better for the entire build. I let you imagine what it gives against Celestials when you have two Warding in your armor.
Note that taking into account scaled/forged stats is not needed, as the ratios would remain the same.
4) Global conclusionI am not saying that going "Force Shield Rapier Jug25 Power of Slaughter" is a bad thing. If anything, it is even the smart way of playing 1H
in an endgame scope, as you do can tank the attacks well enough in order not to need any buff in PMit, MMit or elemental mitigations. Likewise, it all explains why 1H players who are not endgame should prefer Protection/Warding power armor, as their effect is quite significant on one's survivability (probably by 10-20% per equipment, according to the calculations I made in the 4th conclusion regarding Protection/Warding suffixes).
That much, we already knew it.
What should really change, is:
-how one should see the Juggernaut potency
-elemental mitigations (and prefixes) are to be considered seriously in stead of Juggernaut, if one wants to increase his survivability
-how we see plate armor, they could very well allow us to play 2H instead of 1H by having a comparable defense (if not even higher)
For my part, I am determined to become an endgame player who will play Power 2H and to see if it's possible to be as fast (if not even faster) than a 1H build.
TL;DRJuggernaut is far, far from being the best potency. It will only allow you to tank damage bursts in a short span (which has its advantages), but elemental mitigations are way better in the long run (by allowing Regen and draughts to be more efficien overall) if you receive damage in a continuous way. They are even to be considered very seriously in the scope of a potential Plate/Power 2H build that will compensate its much lower natural defense by the defense provided by his armor and its lower base damage by the domino strike.