I mean, maybe its just me, hell, it probably is, but for instance, I don't see the purpose in say putting 2 valuable skill points that increases your damage reduction by a measly 2%, or the same maybe for defense/shield chance, though I figure the latter two maybe stack better with gear, but still, it just feels kinda meh? I mean, you get more buff in some case from the class buffs, IA/Smuggler +5% crit, etc, etc.

Those "small passive buffs" are usually pretty damn good. Straight % increases add up pretty quick, tbh.

2 % isn't much for a level 12 character.

MMOs are all about small things adding up into something great.

2 % isn't much for a level 12 character.

 

!? Lol

The Agent/Smuggler buff is pretty sweet if you ask me

2 % isn't much for a level 12 character.

 

1. The buffs shouldn't be/aren't balanced around a low level char

2. 2% is exactly as much on a lvl 12 char as it is on a lvl 55 char

1. The buffs shouldn't be/aren't balanced around a low level char

2. 2% is exactly as much on a lvl 12 char as it is on a lvl 55 char

 

Fun thing, depending on the buff, it may actually be less on a higher level character due to diminishing returns in terms of final gain (as in, 9% to main stat will always be a 9% buff, but the end dps boost buff may get lower as you increase level as stacking the same stat has diminishing returns)

Skills like that couldnt have been created any more boring.

 

But yes, they definitely do help.

 

And dont listen to the guy saying 2% isnt much at level 12. It makes no difference. 2% is still 2% regardless of your level.

Percentiles have exponential gains to linear input. Consider the Balance Shadow talent that gives 2% damage reduction.

 

Say you have 20% damage reduction and get the talent to reach 22%. Your time to live goes from 125% to 128.21%

 

Now say you have 50% and go to 52%. your time to live goes from 200% to 208.33%. You're gaining 8.33 seconds of life rather than just 3.21. More than double the value.

 

It may not sound like much, but put all of these together and you get a lot more out of them.

Percentiles have exponential gains to linear input. Consider the Balance Shadow talent that gives 2% damage reduction.

 

Say you have 20% damage reduction and get the talent to reach 22%. Your time to live goes from 125% to 128.21%

 

Now say you have 50% and go to 52%. your time to live goes from 200% to 208.33%. You're gaining 8.33 seconds of life rather than just 3.21. More than double the value.

 

It may not sound like much, but put all of these together and you get a lot more out of them.

 

Better expressed (imo) as:

20->22% takes you from 80->78% damage taken, a 2.5% damage reduction.

50->52 takes you from 50->48% damage taken, a 4% damage reduction.

 

 

On the other hand though, numbers like crit goes the other way. Assuming crits do 100% more damage for easy math:

20->22% takes you from 120->122% damage done, a 1.6666...% increase

50->52 takes you from 150->152% damage done, a 1.3333...% increase.

This is of course of-set by low surge on low levels though, but the point is that reduction values give a larger and larger boost the larger the percentage values grow, while additive values have the opposite effect.

Edited April 30, 2013 by steave

MMOs are all about small things adding up into something great.

 

That's how I pick skills/buffs/etc/whatever. The way I figure it is that the numbers are always going to look underwhelming to me because they always have regardless of whatever game I'm playing so I've gotten into the habit over the years of not worrying about them but looking at whether or not I use the power that the skill/buff/etc/whatever is affecting with any regularity. And, that's worked out pretty well for me over the years.

 

I mean, I basically just trust that all of the alpha and beta testers have determined that those 10 extra points in "Fluff-i-nating attack" stacks pretty well with the extra 2% range to my "Fluff-zone" and the 20% chance for a "Sequence Flumeister Beta secondary attack" later on down the line- because, usually? It does.

 

May not max out anything but I've never had anything that wasn't playable either.

I think it also helps reduce the delta between good and mediocre players in most situations.

 

In WoW you have a problem where the passives / buffs are absolutely huge, so the deltas between "full buffs" and "properly spec'd" and "good rotation" and stuff are much sharper. The content has to be balanced accordingly; "easy" content has to be very close to braindead due to the huge gaps between skilled and unskilled players.

 

Here, the gaps between a player playing very well and attentively, and a player just sort of bumbling along, are smaller. This allows "easy" content to be designed with less looseness devoted just to compensating for totally clueless players (since their contribution is relatively "bigger" here). But, "hard" content can still be tuned tightly enough to make those smaller % gaps suddenly become relevant enough to be significant.

 

So, I think it helps make content aimed at casually-minded players more consistent and interesting while still allowing difficult content to filter out weaker players from the most dedicated.

Focued Leap (far left in the link) needs 2 skill points to give one extra focus per 12 seconds, or 13.5/15 seconds if Blurred Speed isn't maxed. So every 24 seconds i can use an extra slash(and that is assuming focused slash is maxed out and enough focus is available to activate it), yipee : /