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Old 12-07-2017, 04:25 AM
Torven
Sarnak
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 52
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I went on Live and parsed some pet avoidance rates to estimate skill caps. I also parsed my 2015 logs and the results matched logs that I produced in November, so they don't appear to have been modified in the last couple of years.

At some point Sony granted pets (Mage, Ench and Necro pets anyway) the block skill and raised avoidance skill caps considerably, while still leaving the parry skill (monks don't parry). Block is a very effective avoidance skill, so all 4 combined result in avoidance rates of around 30% BEFORE avoidance AC checks which is insane. This is a large reason why modern pets are so much more powerful than they used to be, and yet another reason why I wonder why the TLPs are so popular when TAKP and P99 are significantly better classic EQ experiences. (although I'm unfamiliar with p99's pet stats)

Beastlord and Shaman pets have lower skill caps, shaman pets don't have block, and beaslord pets don't parry. Beastlord pets had block instead of parry on AK as well and were the only pets that did as far as I'm aware.

I updated my pet data spreadsheet with the avoidance skill data, which is located here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...Zu1xUHSgsZL9U/

The following are simple skill formulae that match the data:

Beastlord
Riposte = min(level * 5, 100) add 25 for PoP pets
Block = min(level * 5, 50) add 25 for the highest Kunark pet, the Luclin pet and PoP pets
Parry = 0
Dodge = min(level * 5, 125)

Enchanter
Riposte = min(level * 5, 200)
Block = min(level * 5, 225)
Parry = min(level * 5, 200)
Dodge = min(level * 5, 150) add 25 for PoP pet

Mage
Riposte = min(level * 5, 200)
Block = min(level * 5, 225)
Parry = min(level * 5, 150) add 25 for Kunark and PoP pets
Dodge = min(level * 5, 150) add 25 for Kunark and PoP pets

Necro (not Emissary of Thule)
Riposte = min(level * 5, 200)
Block = min(level * 5, 200) add 25 for PoP pets
Parry = min(level * 5, 175)
Dodge = min(level * 5, 175)

Emissary of Thule - this had atypically low skill levels
Riposte = 150
Block = 0
Parry = 200
Dodge = 225

Shaman
Riposte = min((level - 12) * 5, 100)
Block = 0
Parry = min((level - 7) * 5, 125)
Dodge = min((level - 11) * 5, 125)

Caveats:

* I didn't parse anywhere near every pet, because these took 8 hours each to make.
* It's possible/likely that RNG resulted in a few estimates that were off by a percent, but the above formulae all fit the data except for one case I believe. Again, not all pets were parsed so it's likely not perfect.
* The avoidance rolls are ints, so a parsed result even if accurate would indicate a range of possible skill caps. It's possible, for example, that the 175 caps I have up there could actually be 200, but the avoidance rate would be the same regardless.
* The level 9 beastlord pet did not rip, parry or dodge. It did block however. The level 11 enchanter pet did use skills. On AK, NPCs didn't use avoidance skills until level 11ish, so it's possible that the very low level pets all don't have avoidance skills like AK's normal NPCs. (other than the blocking) I only parsed the one pet under level 11 though.


Now on to old EQ. Old EQ logs of pets tanking are hard to come by; let alone the same pet tanking for thousands of hits and not getting hit from behind. I do however have two logs of pets with known summons used in the arena to raise skills:

Code:
Al'Kabor pets

level 65 Beastlord pet Spirit of Sorsha
Total Swings: 18633;  Landed Blows: 10196 (54.72%);  Avoided Swings: 7363 (39.515%)
 - Misses: 6074 (32.598%)
 - Dodged: 685 (3.676%)
 - Parried: 0 (0%)
 - Riposted: 604 (3.241%)
 - Blocks: 1074 (5.763%)

Greater Conjuration Earth + 2 Kintaz`s Animation (attacker rotated to keep them aggro)
Total Swings: 2641;  Landed Blows: 705 (26.694%);  Avoided Swings: 1936 (73.305%)
 - Misses: 1701 (64.407%)
 - Dodged: 75 (2.839%)
 - Parried: 90 (3.407%)
 - Riposted: 70 (2.65%)
 - Blocks: 0 (0%)
Total Swings: 1052;  Landed Blows: 311 (29.562%);  Avoided Swings: 741 (70.437%) - off-hand
 - Misses: 646 (61.406%)
 - Dodged: 28 (2.661%)
 - Parried: 41 (3.897%)
 - Riposted: 26 (2.471%)
 - Blocks: 0 (0%)
The avoidance rates are much lower than Live's, indicating significantly lower skill caps, which is unsurprising since the double attack and dual wield skills were modified as mentioned previously.

I do however think that the avoidance formulae were also modified at some point. My old EQ logs show lower avoidance rates for riposte and parry. Dodge i'm not as sure about as it is harder to estimate since it comes after rips and parries. On TAKP I just increased the avoidance divisors for Riposte and Parry by 5, to 55 and 50 respectively, but I'm far from certain of those values. It makes sense however for Sony to have modified these because they added a bunch of strikethrough in the game, and it's much easier to change the code literals than it is to modify skill caps for every NPC and PC. Block rates seem the same; my old EQ log actually parsed above expected. Block is so strong that it makes sense that they left it alone.

Back in 2003, I created some prepared logs to compare Monk vs. Warrior defensive ability. Since these were carefully prepared, no hits were from behind, and all from the same two NPCs, so it's good data; albeit still not as much as we would like for this case.

Code:
Level 65 Monk w/ Ton Po Chestwrap defending vs Defender Filorou (Shadowhaven Guard), Oct 30 2003:
Total Swings: 3381;  Landed Blows: 1139 (33.688%);  Avoided Swings: 2242 (66.311%)
 - Blocks: 500 (14.788%)
 - Parried: 0 (0%)
 - Riposted: 152 (4.495%)
 - Dodged: 196 (5.797%)
 - Misses: 1394 (41.23%)


Level 65 Warrior w/ Raex BP defending vs Defender Kealren (Shadowhaven Guard), Oct 30 2003:
Total Swings: 3373;  Landed Blows: 1340 (39.727%);  Avoided Swings: 2033 (60.272%)
 - Parried: 184 (5.455%)
 - Riposted: 178 (5.277%)
 - Dodged: 172 (5.099%)
 - Misses: 1499 (44.441%)
Using the modern EQ formulae, expected avoidance rates would be:
Monk block: (100+230)*1.08/25 = 14%
Monk riposte: (100+225)/50 = 6%
Monk dodge: (100+230)/45 = 7%
Warrior parry: (100+230)/45 = 7%
Warrior riposte: (100+225)*1.08/50 = 7%
Warrior dodge: (100+190)/45 = 6%

Keep in mind however that avoidance order back then was: Block, Parry, Riposte, Dodge. Parsed riposte and dodge rates will parse a bit lower due to skill order.

For TAKP pets, I capped avoidance skills at 100 and added another 25 points for PoP pets. Along with the +5 to the skill divisors, it comes about to what the parsed results above were. (a bit too forgiving if anything) Beastlord pets I capped at 50 block.
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