FrostElfGuard
07-25-2006, 08:55 PM
CA and Spell Regeneration times (by Telenochek and Covenant)
Submitted by Librarian on September 19, 2004 - 4:57pm. Combat Arts
Written by Covenant and Telenochek for Sacredins.com
This is an article regarding calculation of Regeneration times for
Spells and Combat Arts. It should give you a good idea how to develop
your CA's and Spells correctly and to make sure you are not waiting for
5 minutes before using each spell. Ultimately, regeneration times are
all about maximizing your damage output. Some of these exact values may
change in subsequent patches as the game is balanced by Ascaron, but it
is very doubtful that the structure of the formulas will be changing.
Don't freak out once you see the general formula, plenty of examples
are provided ;)
Note: All of the data and formulas below have been tested for 1.7UK
final up to level 200. Not at every single level of course, but it
works ;)
Not surprisingly, Ascaron used exactly the same formula structure for
both Spells and CA regeneration times, which makes our task (and
theirs) so much simpler. There are far too many spells and CA's to try
and develop a separate formula for each of them. And there is no need
to do so either. We will be using Seraphim's, WoodElf and BattleMage's
Spells and CAs as examples since these are the characters we are
currently playing.
Here is how this article is structured:
General Formula for Spells and CA's
Examples of how to use the formula
Consequences of the formula -> the most interesting section!
[ list ]
How to manage your regeneration time properly -> a short guide and some
tips
Short Summary
Appendix
Ghost Meadow
Traps
Vampiress' CAs
1. General Formula for Spells and CA's
Note: to keep the formulas appearance as simple as possible, the effect
of Ghost Meadow, Vampirism, Ballistics and Trap Lore has been excluded
from the Spell Formula. Please see Appendix. Don't worry, if you
understand this formula, you will easily be able to extend it to those
effects.
So here are the two formulas (one formula is for CA, the other one is
for Spells):
CA Regeneration time =
{ Basic Time + Level Time *
(CA runes read + CA runes socketed / 2) } *
{ 1 / 1 + PR } * {1 / 1 + C } * {1 / 1 + RSM }
Spell Regeneration time =
{ Basic Time + Level Time *
(Spell runes read + Spell runes socketed / 2) } *
{ 1 / 1 + MR } * {1 / 1 + M + SR } * {1 / 1 + MS }
Definitions and explanations of variables:
Basic Time - The "starting" point for Regeneration time. See the table
provided at the end of the article.
Level Time - The factor by how much a CA/Spell increases its
regeneration time if you are learning a higher level CA/Spell.
CA/Spell runes read - how many runes of that specific CA/spell you have
read.
Spell runes socketed - how many runes of that specific CA/spell are
provided by equipment (rings, amulets, armor ... etc)
MR - Mental Regeneration / 100 ; For example, if your Mental
Regeneration is 48, you know that the regeneration time is reduced by
48%, or that MR = 0.48
M - Meditation factor; So if your Meditation is level 1 (or 12%
regeneration bonus), then M = 0.12
SR - Spell Regeneration factor that is listed on items; So if it says
Spell Regeneration + 30 on a certain item, then SR = 0.30 Notice the
Spell Regeneration is added to Meditation as opposed to having its own
separate factor. Note that SR is the sum of all the equipped items.
MS - Magic Specific Factor ; Magic Specific factor is the factor for
skills like Heavenly Magic, Moon Magic etc... For example, if you have
level 1 Heavenly Magic (6 % regen bonus), then MS = 0.06
PR - Physical Regeneration / 100 ; For example, if your Physical
Regeneration is 48, you know that the regeneration time is reduced by
48%, or that PR = 0.48
C - Concentration factor; So if your Concentration is level 1 (or 12%
regeneration bonus), then C = 0.12
RSM - "+ Regeneration Special Move" that is listed on items; If it says
+ Regeneration Special Move + 75 on a certain item, then regeneration
time decreases by 75% or RSM = 0.75 Note that RSM works slightly
differently from SR, because RSM has its own factor, whereas SR is
added to M.
2. Examples of how to use the formula
Example# 1
Level 3 Anna (beautiful name for a Seraphim ;) ) has:
Meditation = level 0 (she doesn't have Meditation), so M = 0.00
Heavenly Magic = level 0 (she doesn't have Heavenly Magic either), so
MS = 0.00
Mental Regeneration = 22; so MR = 0.22
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Basic Irritation Time = 20 seconds (see Table of Basic Times)
Irritation Level Time = 12 seconds (see Table of Level Times)
Irritation level 1 regen time listed as = 26.2 seconds (as displayed in
char. info)
Does this work with the formula?
[20 + 12] /(1.22) = 26.2 sec
Yes it does.
Example #2
Level 4 Anna, has 0 points in both Meditation and Heavenly Magic:
Meditation = level 0; M = 0.00
Heavenly Magic = level 0; MS = 0.00
Mental Regeneration = 26; MR = 0.26
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Irritation regen. Time = 25.4 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(20 + 12*(1+0))/(1.26) = 25.4 sec
Bingo.
Example #3
This time, lets see the effect of Meditation:
Level 3 Anna
Meditation = level 1 (12% regen. Increase); M = 0.12
Heavenly Magic = level 0; MS = 0.00
Mental Regeneration = 22
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Irritation regen. Time = 23.4 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(20+12) /( 1.12 * 1.22) = 23.42 = 23.4 sec
Correct.
Example #4
Now lets see the effect of Heavenly Magic on regen. time:
Heavenly magic is half as effective as Meditation at reducing
regeneration times, because it has half the percentage in progression
table.
Anna level 3 has:
Meditation = level 0; M = 0
Heavenly Magic = level 1 (6% regen. increase); MS= 0.06 (half as
effective as Meditation lvl1)
Mental Regen. = 22; MR = 0.22
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Irritation time = 24.7 seconds
Does this work?
Lets check: (20 + 12)/(1.22*1.06) = 24.74 = 24.7 sec
Correct.
Example #5
Level 7 Anna has:
Mental Regeneration = 32
Heavenly magic = level 0; MS = 0.00
Meditation = level 0: M = 0.00
Irritation runes read = 2;
Irritation runes socketed = 0;
Irritation regen time = 33.3 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(20 + 12*2) / 1.32 = 33.3 sec
Correct.
Example #6
What will happen on very high level? Is it still working?:
Level 200 wood elf, with a typical mage skills:
Mental Regeneration = 713
Moon magic = 146% (level 149); MS = 1.46
Meditation = 193% (level 150); M = 1.93
SR on items = 216 (100 on a rare shield and 116 on israfaels armor niob
version)
CoA runes read = 255 (CoA = Call of the Ancestors)
CoA runes socketed = 6
CoA regen time = 51.0 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(40 + 24 *(255 + 6/2)) / ( (1+7.13) * (1+1.46) * (1 + 2.16 + 2.93 ) ) =
51.166 sec
Why is this not exactly 51.0?
Well, the values of meditation and moonmagic are only rounded numbers.
So I guess level 150 meditation is more like 193.5% than 193.0%, or
it's 146.5% moonmagic. So the result could differ a bit from the
display in sacred, but it's not the fault of the formulas but rather
due to the rounding problems of the input data.
3. Consequences of the formula
PR, C and RSM are independent factors
RSM items are incredibly powerful
Meditation has to do nothing with MReg
Comparing RSM to Regeneration Spells
PReg is a very important attribute
MReg is second to none
Dispelling the myth about Heavenly Magic
Animation time
Socketing runes with RSM and RSp
Zero level CA regen. timers
a) Physical Regeneration (PR), Concentration © and +Regeneration
Special Move (RSM) are all independent multiplicative factors in the
formula
What this means is that you are trying to maximize the product of these
factors in order to get the lowest regeneration time. Lets see how to
do that most efficiently.
You have a product of 3 factors (1+X)(1+Y)(1+Z) and you want to make it
as large as possible and as efficiently as possible. Lets see some
examples.
Suppose that X=Y=Z=1
What the product?
Product = 2^3 = 8
Now suppose you have exactly 3 points that you can spend however you
like.
What would be the best way to spend these 3 points to achieve the
lowest regen. time?
i) lets try to put all 3 of these points in X:
so factor X = 1+3 = 4, Y = 1, Z = 1;
Product = 5*2*2=20
ii) lets try to put 2 points in X and 1 point in Y:
so X = 1+2 = 3; Y = 2, Z = 1;
Product = 4*3*2=24
Nice! It's bigger!
iii) lets try to put 1 point in X, 1 point in Y and 1 point in Z:
so X = 2, Y = 2, Z=2
Product = 3*3*3 = 27
This is the biggest number you can get!
Conclusion: To achieve lowest regeneration time, spread points as
evenly as possible between Physical Regen, Concentration and +RSM! This
fact can be quickly proven in the general case using the theorem of
Lagrange multipliers. (Note: If you know how it works, try maximizing
the function (A+X)(A+Y)(A+Z) subject to constraint X+Y+Z = B, where B
is positive, and you will find that the maximum is achieved when X=Y=Z.
)
b) +Regeneration Special Move items are incredibly powerful
It is not uncommon to find items with +50 Regeneration Special Move
modifiers even at very low levels (like level 10). If you take a look
at Concentration Progression table, an item with +50 Regen. Special
Move is equivalent to 7 levels of Concentration. An item with +100
Regen. Special Move is equivalent to level 16 Concentration. Incredibly
powerful!
Utilize a couple of items with these modifiers and save yourself some
points on Concentration, or use these modifiers to help out if you are
having trouble keeping your regen. times low!
+Regeneration Special Move is very important at high levels to keep
your regen times low while using a higher level CA/Spell. It's quite
easy to get +100 RSM, but +300 RSM is highly recommended (sounds like a
lot if starting a new character, but later in the game, +300 RSM will
be provided by 3 or maybe 4 rare items).
A +300 RSM on items will divide your regeneration time by 4. 1/(1+RSM)
= 1/(1+3) In other words you can read 4 times as many runes and still
get the same regen time, compared to not using any +RSM items. And, of
course, if the level of your CA/Spell is 4 times larger you are doing a
huge amount of damage.
c) Meditation has nothing to do with Mental Regeneration, despite the
fact that the game says so
Meditation (M) and Mental Regeneration are two completely separate
factors.
Meditation does not increase Mental Regeneration in any way.
However, +Spell Regeneration and Meditation are not separate.
They are added together before you divide by them.
Therefore, keep in mind, that a high bonus from +Spell Regeneration
items will lower the usefullness of meditation
(see some examples and calculations further down at d) )
d) +Regen Special Move compared to + Regen Spells
Since + Regen Special Move has its own factor, whereas +Spell Regen is
added to Meditation first, + Regeneration Special Move is a lot more
powerful than +Spell Regen if you happen to have Meditation.
If you don't have any points in Meditation at all, or in other words M
= 0, then +Spell Regen. factor is exactly the same as +Regen special
move. However, if you have a lot of points in Meditation, then +SR is
not too effective.
Examples of how this works:
A: Suppose you have + 100 Regen Special Move and your Concentration is
level 16 (98% )
Your regeneration time is reduced by a factor of (1+1)*(1+0.98) = 3.96
or about a factor of 4
B: Suppose you have +100 Spell Regen and your Meditation is level 16
(98%)
Your regeneration time is reduced by a factor of (1+1+0.98) = 2.98 or
about a factor of 3
Meditation and +Spell Regen modifier make each other a lot less
effective.
Therefore it might be a good idea to skip Meditation completely and
instead use +SR items to reduce your regeneration time, if you are
playing a hybrid character and are very short on skills. This decision
is entirely up to you. On the other hand, if you playing a primarily
magic-oriented character, skipping Meditation is not a good idea. At
least some points in Meditation are recommended. At higher levels ,
Specific Magic skills will hit diminishing returns and a few points in
Meditation will definitely be more effective than trying to increase
the level of your Specific Magic skills once they have hit diminishing
returns. It could also save you a couple of slots (so that you don't
have to socket too much +SR).
Compared to Meditation, Specific magic skills (Heavenly magic, Moon
Magic etc..) are invaluable, because they have their own factors and
remember that they also reduce animation time of spells! Please see
part g) for more comparison of Heavenly Magic and Meditation.
e) Physical Regeneration is a very powerful attribute because it allows
you to use higher level CAs
Physical regeneration allows you to maximize your damage at higher
levels. Lets face it, the way this game is designed, its all about
Spells and Combat Arts. The bonuses on Spells and Combat Arts are way
too good to pass up, therefore at higher character levels it is
beneficial to NEVER use your normal attack but instead rely on a set of
Combat Arts or Spells (or Combat Arts AND Spells if you are a hybrid).
At higher levels of play, its hard to find a skill that can beat
Physical Regeneration at maximizing damage. Lets take a ranged combat
Wood Elf as an example. We've got two choices here, Physical
Regeneration (PR) or Dexterity (Dex). PR will increase about 2.1 per
level, Dex 2.9 per level automatically. So we have one free point to
spend.
Let's assume we've got a level 50 woodelf. Here is a very typical
character setup:
Concentration is up to 150%; C =1.5 and we have +100 regen. special
move on our equipment and shooting with Multihit mainly.
Woodelf #1 without any extra points in PR: 124 points PR, so Multihit
level 5 (with 1 read rune and 4 socketed runes) has:
(5 + 3*(1 +4/2)) / ( (1 +1.24) * (1+1) *(1 + 1.5) ) = 1.25s regen time
and very nice to play with.
Woodelf #2 with the same equipment, but all free points in pR (173),
first we try multihit again an level 5:
(5 + 3*(1 +4/2)) / ( (1 +1.73) * (1+1) *(1 + 1.5) ) = 1.02s
and we've got a 22% faster regeneration of Multihit.
So if your WoodElf keeps shooting for about for about 10s, WoodElf#2
will shoot nearly 10 times, while #1 only 8 times.
Suppose we increase the regeneration time on WoodElf#2 to 1.25 seconds
by socketing 2 extra runes:
So now we have overall 1 rune read and 6 socketed on the equipment:
(5 + 3*(1 +6/2)) / ( (1 +1.73) * (1+1) *(1 + 1.5) ) = 1.245s
So #2 can use their CA at the same speed as #1, but the CA is 2 levels
higher!
What does this mean in terms of damage? This gives a nice +10% damage
of the overall damage in WoodElf #2 compared to WoodElf #1. Now, before
you conclude that this is not very impressive, let us point out one
very important thing: This extra damage bonus is multiplied (not added
to) by the weapon lore bonus! At higher levels multiplicative effects
always win over additive effects.
So, WoodElf #1 could spend their points on Dexterity (220 dex instead
of 171) but the damage boost of Dex (only increasing physical and fire
damage (at least in ranged combat)) is additive with the weapon lore
extra damage. Whereas the higher CA level that you can use with
physical regeneration is multiplicative with the weapon lore and
affects all types of damage!
So with lots of points in weapon lore, the damage boost provided by
Dexterity, cannot really compete with the higher CA level damage boost
allowed by Physical Regeneration. And you've got the +hitpoints using
physical regeneration as well!
This effect is even stronger at higher levels. For example, a level 150
WoodElf without spending any points on PR has 334 points in PR, with
spending every point on PR it's about 483. So the difference of no-PR
(quotient of 4.34 in the formula) to PR-only (5.83) is even bigger than
on level 50 with around 34% faster regeneration (or a 34% higher CA
level, keep in mind that CA regen. time has a linear dependence on CA
level (just look at the formula)).
Conclusion: Strength and Weapon Lore weapon bonus are added to each
other. But the damage bonus of CAs is multiplied with the bonus of
Weapon Lore. So PR is much more effective than Strength or Dexterity.
f) Mental Regeneration
Exactly the same ideas as in e) and a) apply to Mental Regeneration and
regeneration time.
Usually there is no way around Mental Regen for a caster-type build.
You desperately need higher levels of Spells to be able to kill the bad
guys. And the only way to have higher levels of Spells is to somehow
keep the regeneration times low. You need Mental Regeneration. Keep in
mind that Mental Regeneration also directly increases the damage of
spells.
g) Dispelling the Myth about Meditation and Heavenly Magic
There is a myth circulating that Meditation is better than Heavenly
Magic at higher levels, because it says in the description that it
"increases Mental Regeneration". What Ascaron probably meant to put
there is that Meditation increases Spell Regeneration rate. (SR is
added to M) Meditation does NOT increase mental Regeneration in any
way.
Although Heavenly Magic lists 1/2 the percentage of Meditation in
progression table, it can easily become more powerful than meditation,
even if you ignore the increase in animation time.
Yes, Heavenly Magic lists 1/2 the percentage and even if you ignore the
animation time bonus (which is great), it still can become more
powerful than Meditation. What?? How is this possible?
Lets take a look at the quotients: Heavenly Magic has 'its own'
quotient (1+MS) but Meditation has to share it with +Spell Regen. In
fact, as soon as you have at least +100 regenerate Spells on the
equipment, Heavenly Magic is equally powerful as Meditation.
Example:
Suppose you have a hypothetical spell called MoonShine (;-) and that it
has a base regen. time of 100seconds.
Suppose you have equipped an item with +100 Spell Regen; (SR=100)
Lets compare the effects of Heavenly Magic and Meditation by spending
50 point in each in turn.
So you put 50 points in Meditation (198% in progression table), regen
time = 100s/(1+1+1.98) =25.1seconds
50 points in Heavenly Magic gives (99% in progression table), regen
time = 100s/((1+1)*(1+0.99)) = 25.1 seconds
So in this particular example, putting 50 points in Heavenly Magic
gives exactly the same result as putting 50 points in Meditation.
If you have an even larger +SR bonus equipped, meditation will be worse
than heavenly magic.
For example, in the MoonShine example above, suppose you had +300 SR.
50points on Meditation only: 100/ ( 1 + 3 +1.98) = 16.7s
50points on Heavenly Magic: 100/ ( ( 1+3) * (1+0.99) ) = 12.6s
So when your character is low level (when it could be hard to get even
+50 reg spells) you should keep Meditation a bit higher than the
specific magic, but on higher levels with tons of +reg spells items ,
the specifc magic is far better than Meditation.
The 'best' is a mix of both. So 10 Meditation and 40 Heavenly Magic
will get us:
100 / ( ( 1 + 3 + 0.69) * ( 1 + 0.88 ) ) = 11.3s
But, of course, Heavenly Magic also has the bonus of decreasing
animation times.
h) Minimum regeneration time versus Animation time
The minimum regeneration time is 0. The formulas work out so that you
can never reach 0 regeneration time, since its not possible to increase
PR or Concentration to infinite values. You would expect that the
ACTUALLY MEANINGFUL minimum regeneration time is the time it takes your
character to perform the CA/Spell (spell-CA animation time). However at
higher levels there are many different things you have to take into
account, so here is a flavor of it:
There are some CAs which need some time to be completed, like attack on
the woodelf. If you get the regen time as low as the time it takes to
complete the attack, it's very nice to attack everytime and don't even
think about using the 'normal' left mouse button attack. But there are
other CAs which start regenerating after the last hit of CA completes,
so you'll really need a very very low regen time, to compete with an
angry mob around you (so you never get out of life with life-leech).
i) About socketing runes and + Spell Regen and +Regen CA modifiers
Even though +Spell Regen items are powerful, Meditation is still pretty
decent because for your spells to be effective you will need to keep
increasing the level of the spell, and Meditation could work to keep
regen times from becoming huge.
However, at higher levels, there are TONS of + Spell Regen items. And
as have been pointed out many times in this article, Meditation and +SR
make each other a lot less effective.
With an item +200 regen spells, its exactly the same as having 50
points on meditation. So If you are planning a hybrid build (hybrid =
short on skills) and you plan to get to higher levels, you might want
to try and "optimize" your build by leaving meditation out and only put
points in the specific magic. Specific magic with a few powerful +Spell
regen items will be quite effective and Meditation won't help THAT
much.
So what about socketing runes? When you socket runes, the regeneration
time increases by half as much as it would if you read the rune.
Whether you want to rely on socketing runes or not, depends on how you
are planning to use that particular spell.
If it's a Spell which you don't need every second, maybe its only a
supporting/additional CA, then reading runes is fine. But if you're
planning to use the CA as the main attacking option (WE multihit) and
want it to use constantly, the best way to go is to try and reach a
high level of that CA by reading ONLY one rune, and socketing the rest
(there are items with +13 Multihit also which you can use etc..)
...
continued in part 2...
Submitted by Librarian on September 19, 2004 - 4:57pm. Combat Arts
Written by Covenant and Telenochek for Sacredins.com
This is an article regarding calculation of Regeneration times for
Spells and Combat Arts. It should give you a good idea how to develop
your CA's and Spells correctly and to make sure you are not waiting for
5 minutes before using each spell. Ultimately, regeneration times are
all about maximizing your damage output. Some of these exact values may
change in subsequent patches as the game is balanced by Ascaron, but it
is very doubtful that the structure of the formulas will be changing.
Don't freak out once you see the general formula, plenty of examples
are provided ;)
Note: All of the data and formulas below have been tested for 1.7UK
final up to level 200. Not at every single level of course, but it
works ;)
Not surprisingly, Ascaron used exactly the same formula structure for
both Spells and CA regeneration times, which makes our task (and
theirs) so much simpler. There are far too many spells and CA's to try
and develop a separate formula for each of them. And there is no need
to do so either. We will be using Seraphim's, WoodElf and BattleMage's
Spells and CAs as examples since these are the characters we are
currently playing.
Here is how this article is structured:
General Formula for Spells and CA's
Examples of how to use the formula
Consequences of the formula -> the most interesting section!
[ list ]
How to manage your regeneration time properly -> a short guide and some
tips
Short Summary
Appendix
Ghost Meadow
Traps
Vampiress' CAs
1. General Formula for Spells and CA's
Note: to keep the formulas appearance as simple as possible, the effect
of Ghost Meadow, Vampirism, Ballistics and Trap Lore has been excluded
from the Spell Formula. Please see Appendix. Don't worry, if you
understand this formula, you will easily be able to extend it to those
effects.
So here are the two formulas (one formula is for CA, the other one is
for Spells):
CA Regeneration time =
{ Basic Time + Level Time *
(CA runes read + CA runes socketed / 2) } *
{ 1 / 1 + PR } * {1 / 1 + C } * {1 / 1 + RSM }
Spell Regeneration time =
{ Basic Time + Level Time *
(Spell runes read + Spell runes socketed / 2) } *
{ 1 / 1 + MR } * {1 / 1 + M + SR } * {1 / 1 + MS }
Definitions and explanations of variables:
Basic Time - The "starting" point for Regeneration time. See the table
provided at the end of the article.
Level Time - The factor by how much a CA/Spell increases its
regeneration time if you are learning a higher level CA/Spell.
CA/Spell runes read - how many runes of that specific CA/spell you have
read.
Spell runes socketed - how many runes of that specific CA/spell are
provided by equipment (rings, amulets, armor ... etc)
MR - Mental Regeneration / 100 ; For example, if your Mental
Regeneration is 48, you know that the regeneration time is reduced by
48%, or that MR = 0.48
M - Meditation factor; So if your Meditation is level 1 (or 12%
regeneration bonus), then M = 0.12
SR - Spell Regeneration factor that is listed on items; So if it says
Spell Regeneration + 30 on a certain item, then SR = 0.30 Notice the
Spell Regeneration is added to Meditation as opposed to having its own
separate factor. Note that SR is the sum of all the equipped items.
MS - Magic Specific Factor ; Magic Specific factor is the factor for
skills like Heavenly Magic, Moon Magic etc... For example, if you have
level 1 Heavenly Magic (6 % regen bonus), then MS = 0.06
PR - Physical Regeneration / 100 ; For example, if your Physical
Regeneration is 48, you know that the regeneration time is reduced by
48%, or that PR = 0.48
C - Concentration factor; So if your Concentration is level 1 (or 12%
regeneration bonus), then C = 0.12
RSM - "+ Regeneration Special Move" that is listed on items; If it says
+ Regeneration Special Move + 75 on a certain item, then regeneration
time decreases by 75% or RSM = 0.75 Note that RSM works slightly
differently from SR, because RSM has its own factor, whereas SR is
added to M.
2. Examples of how to use the formula
Example# 1
Level 3 Anna (beautiful name for a Seraphim ;) ) has:
Meditation = level 0 (she doesn't have Meditation), so M = 0.00
Heavenly Magic = level 0 (she doesn't have Heavenly Magic either), so
MS = 0.00
Mental Regeneration = 22; so MR = 0.22
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Basic Irritation Time = 20 seconds (see Table of Basic Times)
Irritation Level Time = 12 seconds (see Table of Level Times)
Irritation level 1 regen time listed as = 26.2 seconds (as displayed in
char. info)
Does this work with the formula?
[20 + 12] /(1.22) = 26.2 sec
Yes it does.
Example #2
Level 4 Anna, has 0 points in both Meditation and Heavenly Magic:
Meditation = level 0; M = 0.00
Heavenly Magic = level 0; MS = 0.00
Mental Regeneration = 26; MR = 0.26
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Irritation regen. Time = 25.4 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(20 + 12*(1+0))/(1.26) = 25.4 sec
Bingo.
Example #3
This time, lets see the effect of Meditation:
Level 3 Anna
Meditation = level 1 (12% regen. Increase); M = 0.12
Heavenly Magic = level 0; MS = 0.00
Mental Regeneration = 22
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Irritation regen. Time = 23.4 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(20+12) /( 1.12 * 1.22) = 23.42 = 23.4 sec
Correct.
Example #4
Now lets see the effect of Heavenly Magic on regen. time:
Heavenly magic is half as effective as Meditation at reducing
regeneration times, because it has half the percentage in progression
table.
Anna level 3 has:
Meditation = level 0; M = 0
Heavenly Magic = level 1 (6% regen. increase); MS= 0.06 (half as
effective as Meditation lvl1)
Mental Regen. = 22; MR = 0.22
Irritation runes read = 1
Irritation runes socketed = 0
Irritation time = 24.7 seconds
Does this work?
Lets check: (20 + 12)/(1.22*1.06) = 24.74 = 24.7 sec
Correct.
Example #5
Level 7 Anna has:
Mental Regeneration = 32
Heavenly magic = level 0; MS = 0.00
Meditation = level 0: M = 0.00
Irritation runes read = 2;
Irritation runes socketed = 0;
Irritation regen time = 33.3 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(20 + 12*2) / 1.32 = 33.3 sec
Correct.
Example #6
What will happen on very high level? Is it still working?:
Level 200 wood elf, with a typical mage skills:
Mental Regeneration = 713
Moon magic = 146% (level 149); MS = 1.46
Meditation = 193% (level 150); M = 1.93
SR on items = 216 (100 on a rare shield and 116 on israfaels armor niob
version)
CoA runes read = 255 (CoA = Call of the Ancestors)
CoA runes socketed = 6
CoA regen time = 51.0 seconds
Does this work with the formula?
(40 + 24 *(255 + 6/2)) / ( (1+7.13) * (1+1.46) * (1 + 2.16 + 2.93 ) ) =
51.166 sec
Why is this not exactly 51.0?
Well, the values of meditation and moonmagic are only rounded numbers.
So I guess level 150 meditation is more like 193.5% than 193.0%, or
it's 146.5% moonmagic. So the result could differ a bit from the
display in sacred, but it's not the fault of the formulas but rather
due to the rounding problems of the input data.
3. Consequences of the formula
PR, C and RSM are independent factors
RSM items are incredibly powerful
Meditation has to do nothing with MReg
Comparing RSM to Regeneration Spells
PReg is a very important attribute
MReg is second to none
Dispelling the myth about Heavenly Magic
Animation time
Socketing runes with RSM and RSp
Zero level CA regen. timers
a) Physical Regeneration (PR), Concentration © and +Regeneration
Special Move (RSM) are all independent multiplicative factors in the
formula
What this means is that you are trying to maximize the product of these
factors in order to get the lowest regeneration time. Lets see how to
do that most efficiently.
You have a product of 3 factors (1+X)(1+Y)(1+Z) and you want to make it
as large as possible and as efficiently as possible. Lets see some
examples.
Suppose that X=Y=Z=1
What the product?
Product = 2^3 = 8
Now suppose you have exactly 3 points that you can spend however you
like.
What would be the best way to spend these 3 points to achieve the
lowest regen. time?
i) lets try to put all 3 of these points in X:
so factor X = 1+3 = 4, Y = 1, Z = 1;
Product = 5*2*2=20
ii) lets try to put 2 points in X and 1 point in Y:
so X = 1+2 = 3; Y = 2, Z = 1;
Product = 4*3*2=24
Nice! It's bigger!
iii) lets try to put 1 point in X, 1 point in Y and 1 point in Z:
so X = 2, Y = 2, Z=2
Product = 3*3*3 = 27
This is the biggest number you can get!
Conclusion: To achieve lowest regeneration time, spread points as
evenly as possible between Physical Regen, Concentration and +RSM! This
fact can be quickly proven in the general case using the theorem of
Lagrange multipliers. (Note: If you know how it works, try maximizing
the function (A+X)(A+Y)(A+Z) subject to constraint X+Y+Z = B, where B
is positive, and you will find that the maximum is achieved when X=Y=Z.
)
b) +Regeneration Special Move items are incredibly powerful
It is not uncommon to find items with +50 Regeneration Special Move
modifiers even at very low levels (like level 10). If you take a look
at Concentration Progression table, an item with +50 Regen. Special
Move is equivalent to 7 levels of Concentration. An item with +100
Regen. Special Move is equivalent to level 16 Concentration. Incredibly
powerful!
Utilize a couple of items with these modifiers and save yourself some
points on Concentration, or use these modifiers to help out if you are
having trouble keeping your regen. times low!
+Regeneration Special Move is very important at high levels to keep
your regen times low while using a higher level CA/Spell. It's quite
easy to get +100 RSM, but +300 RSM is highly recommended (sounds like a
lot if starting a new character, but later in the game, +300 RSM will
be provided by 3 or maybe 4 rare items).
A +300 RSM on items will divide your regeneration time by 4. 1/(1+RSM)
= 1/(1+3) In other words you can read 4 times as many runes and still
get the same regen time, compared to not using any +RSM items. And, of
course, if the level of your CA/Spell is 4 times larger you are doing a
huge amount of damage.
c) Meditation has nothing to do with Mental Regeneration, despite the
fact that the game says so
Meditation (M) and Mental Regeneration are two completely separate
factors.
Meditation does not increase Mental Regeneration in any way.
However, +Spell Regeneration and Meditation are not separate.
They are added together before you divide by them.
Therefore, keep in mind, that a high bonus from +Spell Regeneration
items will lower the usefullness of meditation
(see some examples and calculations further down at d) )
d) +Regen Special Move compared to + Regen Spells
Since + Regen Special Move has its own factor, whereas +Spell Regen is
added to Meditation first, + Regeneration Special Move is a lot more
powerful than +Spell Regen if you happen to have Meditation.
If you don't have any points in Meditation at all, or in other words M
= 0, then +Spell Regen. factor is exactly the same as +Regen special
move. However, if you have a lot of points in Meditation, then +SR is
not too effective.
Examples of how this works:
A: Suppose you have + 100 Regen Special Move and your Concentration is
level 16 (98% )
Your regeneration time is reduced by a factor of (1+1)*(1+0.98) = 3.96
or about a factor of 4
B: Suppose you have +100 Spell Regen and your Meditation is level 16
(98%)
Your regeneration time is reduced by a factor of (1+1+0.98) = 2.98 or
about a factor of 3
Meditation and +Spell Regen modifier make each other a lot less
effective.
Therefore it might be a good idea to skip Meditation completely and
instead use +SR items to reduce your regeneration time, if you are
playing a hybrid character and are very short on skills. This decision
is entirely up to you. On the other hand, if you playing a primarily
magic-oriented character, skipping Meditation is not a good idea. At
least some points in Meditation are recommended. At higher levels ,
Specific Magic skills will hit diminishing returns and a few points in
Meditation will definitely be more effective than trying to increase
the level of your Specific Magic skills once they have hit diminishing
returns. It could also save you a couple of slots (so that you don't
have to socket too much +SR).
Compared to Meditation, Specific magic skills (Heavenly magic, Moon
Magic etc..) are invaluable, because they have their own factors and
remember that they also reduce animation time of spells! Please see
part g) for more comparison of Heavenly Magic and Meditation.
e) Physical Regeneration is a very powerful attribute because it allows
you to use higher level CAs
Physical regeneration allows you to maximize your damage at higher
levels. Lets face it, the way this game is designed, its all about
Spells and Combat Arts. The bonuses on Spells and Combat Arts are way
too good to pass up, therefore at higher character levels it is
beneficial to NEVER use your normal attack but instead rely on a set of
Combat Arts or Spells (or Combat Arts AND Spells if you are a hybrid).
At higher levels of play, its hard to find a skill that can beat
Physical Regeneration at maximizing damage. Lets take a ranged combat
Wood Elf as an example. We've got two choices here, Physical
Regeneration (PR) or Dexterity (Dex). PR will increase about 2.1 per
level, Dex 2.9 per level automatically. So we have one free point to
spend.
Let's assume we've got a level 50 woodelf. Here is a very typical
character setup:
Concentration is up to 150%; C =1.5 and we have +100 regen. special
move on our equipment and shooting with Multihit mainly.
Woodelf #1 without any extra points in PR: 124 points PR, so Multihit
level 5 (with 1 read rune and 4 socketed runes) has:
(5 + 3*(1 +4/2)) / ( (1 +1.24) * (1+1) *(1 + 1.5) ) = 1.25s regen time
and very nice to play with.
Woodelf #2 with the same equipment, but all free points in pR (173),
first we try multihit again an level 5:
(5 + 3*(1 +4/2)) / ( (1 +1.73) * (1+1) *(1 + 1.5) ) = 1.02s
and we've got a 22% faster regeneration of Multihit.
So if your WoodElf keeps shooting for about for about 10s, WoodElf#2
will shoot nearly 10 times, while #1 only 8 times.
Suppose we increase the regeneration time on WoodElf#2 to 1.25 seconds
by socketing 2 extra runes:
So now we have overall 1 rune read and 6 socketed on the equipment:
(5 + 3*(1 +6/2)) / ( (1 +1.73) * (1+1) *(1 + 1.5) ) = 1.245s
So #2 can use their CA at the same speed as #1, but the CA is 2 levels
higher!
What does this mean in terms of damage? This gives a nice +10% damage
of the overall damage in WoodElf #2 compared to WoodElf #1. Now, before
you conclude that this is not very impressive, let us point out one
very important thing: This extra damage bonus is multiplied (not added
to) by the weapon lore bonus! At higher levels multiplicative effects
always win over additive effects.
So, WoodElf #1 could spend their points on Dexterity (220 dex instead
of 171) but the damage boost of Dex (only increasing physical and fire
damage (at least in ranged combat)) is additive with the weapon lore
extra damage. Whereas the higher CA level that you can use with
physical regeneration is multiplicative with the weapon lore and
affects all types of damage!
So with lots of points in weapon lore, the damage boost provided by
Dexterity, cannot really compete with the higher CA level damage boost
allowed by Physical Regeneration. And you've got the +hitpoints using
physical regeneration as well!
This effect is even stronger at higher levels. For example, a level 150
WoodElf without spending any points on PR has 334 points in PR, with
spending every point on PR it's about 483. So the difference of no-PR
(quotient of 4.34 in the formula) to PR-only (5.83) is even bigger than
on level 50 with around 34% faster regeneration (or a 34% higher CA
level, keep in mind that CA regen. time has a linear dependence on CA
level (just look at the formula)).
Conclusion: Strength and Weapon Lore weapon bonus are added to each
other. But the damage bonus of CAs is multiplied with the bonus of
Weapon Lore. So PR is much more effective than Strength or Dexterity.
f) Mental Regeneration
Exactly the same ideas as in e) and a) apply to Mental Regeneration and
regeneration time.
Usually there is no way around Mental Regen for a caster-type build.
You desperately need higher levels of Spells to be able to kill the bad
guys. And the only way to have higher levels of Spells is to somehow
keep the regeneration times low. You need Mental Regeneration. Keep in
mind that Mental Regeneration also directly increases the damage of
spells.
g) Dispelling the Myth about Meditation and Heavenly Magic
There is a myth circulating that Meditation is better than Heavenly
Magic at higher levels, because it says in the description that it
"increases Mental Regeneration". What Ascaron probably meant to put
there is that Meditation increases Spell Regeneration rate. (SR is
added to M) Meditation does NOT increase mental Regeneration in any
way.
Although Heavenly Magic lists 1/2 the percentage of Meditation in
progression table, it can easily become more powerful than meditation,
even if you ignore the increase in animation time.
Yes, Heavenly Magic lists 1/2 the percentage and even if you ignore the
animation time bonus (which is great), it still can become more
powerful than Meditation. What?? How is this possible?
Lets take a look at the quotients: Heavenly Magic has 'its own'
quotient (1+MS) but Meditation has to share it with +Spell Regen. In
fact, as soon as you have at least +100 regenerate Spells on the
equipment, Heavenly Magic is equally powerful as Meditation.
Example:
Suppose you have a hypothetical spell called MoonShine (;-) and that it
has a base regen. time of 100seconds.
Suppose you have equipped an item with +100 Spell Regen; (SR=100)
Lets compare the effects of Heavenly Magic and Meditation by spending
50 point in each in turn.
So you put 50 points in Meditation (198% in progression table), regen
time = 100s/(1+1+1.98) =25.1seconds
50 points in Heavenly Magic gives (99% in progression table), regen
time = 100s/((1+1)*(1+0.99)) = 25.1 seconds
So in this particular example, putting 50 points in Heavenly Magic
gives exactly the same result as putting 50 points in Meditation.
If you have an even larger +SR bonus equipped, meditation will be worse
than heavenly magic.
For example, in the MoonShine example above, suppose you had +300 SR.
50points on Meditation only: 100/ ( 1 + 3 +1.98) = 16.7s
50points on Heavenly Magic: 100/ ( ( 1+3) * (1+0.99) ) = 12.6s
So when your character is low level (when it could be hard to get even
+50 reg spells) you should keep Meditation a bit higher than the
specific magic, but on higher levels with tons of +reg spells items ,
the specifc magic is far better than Meditation.
The 'best' is a mix of both. So 10 Meditation and 40 Heavenly Magic
will get us:
100 / ( ( 1 + 3 + 0.69) * ( 1 + 0.88 ) ) = 11.3s
But, of course, Heavenly Magic also has the bonus of decreasing
animation times.
h) Minimum regeneration time versus Animation time
The minimum regeneration time is 0. The formulas work out so that you
can never reach 0 regeneration time, since its not possible to increase
PR or Concentration to infinite values. You would expect that the
ACTUALLY MEANINGFUL minimum regeneration time is the time it takes your
character to perform the CA/Spell (spell-CA animation time). However at
higher levels there are many different things you have to take into
account, so here is a flavor of it:
There are some CAs which need some time to be completed, like attack on
the woodelf. If you get the regen time as low as the time it takes to
complete the attack, it's very nice to attack everytime and don't even
think about using the 'normal' left mouse button attack. But there are
other CAs which start regenerating after the last hit of CA completes,
so you'll really need a very very low regen time, to compete with an
angry mob around you (so you never get out of life with life-leech).
i) About socketing runes and + Spell Regen and +Regen CA modifiers
Even though +Spell Regen items are powerful, Meditation is still pretty
decent because for your spells to be effective you will need to keep
increasing the level of the spell, and Meditation could work to keep
regen times from becoming huge.
However, at higher levels, there are TONS of + Spell Regen items. And
as have been pointed out many times in this article, Meditation and +SR
make each other a lot less effective.
With an item +200 regen spells, its exactly the same as having 50
points on meditation. So If you are planning a hybrid build (hybrid =
short on skills) and you plan to get to higher levels, you might want
to try and "optimize" your build by leaving meditation out and only put
points in the specific magic. Specific magic with a few powerful +Spell
regen items will be quite effective and Meditation won't help THAT
much.
So what about socketing runes? When you socket runes, the regeneration
time increases by half as much as it would if you read the rune.
Whether you want to rely on socketing runes or not, depends on how you
are planning to use that particular spell.
If it's a Spell which you don't need every second, maybe its only a
supporting/additional CA, then reading runes is fine. But if you're
planning to use the CA as the main attacking option (WE multihit) and
want it to use constantly, the best way to go is to try and reach a
high level of that CA by reading ONLY one rune, and socketing the rest
(there are items with +13 Multihit also which you can use etc..)
...
continued in part 2...