Dark and Darker - Achilles Strike. (OUTDATED) @clowdk

clowd Just how good is this new skill? Too good?

At some point between last time and now, my mic settings got kinda scrambled, so apologies if there's issues there. I'm not an audio engineer.

I managed to get a good amount of testing done this playtest, so there's more topics I can cover. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see.

Here's the full footage of one of the fist-only Barb games I used in this video's background, if you want to see that: youtu.be/465_ghfbnLs

updated 3 years ago

Dark and Darker - Achilles Strike. (OUTDATED)

clowd 2023-04-21 | Just how good is this new skill? Too good?

At some point between last time and now, my mic settings got kinda scrambled, so apologies if there's issues there. I'm not an audio engineer.

I managed to get a good amount of testing done this playtest, so there's more topics I can cover. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see.

Here's the full footage of one of the fist-only Barb games I used in this video's background, if you want to see that: youtu.be/465_ghfbnLs

[PATCHED] PSA: All Players Have Hidden -10% Magic Damage Reduction

clowd 2023-09-16 | Recent discovery
Hopefully fixed soon
(It was fixed as of 2023/10/26)

curse of pain is not a projectile.mp4

clowd 2023-09-16 | seriously you people are driving me insane please stop calling it a projectile

there is no projectile data in the files, it has no travel time, it can't stagger shields, it can't headshot, projectile resistance doesn't affect its damage

there is 0 supporting evidence for it being a projectile, it's clearly hitscan and all evidence supports it being hitscan, same as haste, slow, zap, holy light, lesser heal, bless, protection, etc.

stop

Dark and Darker - Resting and Spell Restoration

clowd 2023-08-26 | We originally thought SP Restoration scaled with Knowledge, but when we tested it with JUST Spell Capacity gear, it worked out perfectly. Weird, but really simple once you know how it works.

Notes:
-Meditation is weird. Its duration scales with Spell Casting Speed, yet it always seems to give 17 ticks (16 from time, 1 from the "instant tick), regardless of duration.
-Tickrate in general is weird. Some ticks are much faster or slower than others. It might be some weird server-to-client communication issue.

Dark and Darker - Hotfix 7 Patchnote Clarification

clowd 2023-08-25 | (unscripted)
Please make sure you understand how Attribute Bonus Scaling works, because there is way too much misinformation about it flying around right now. This mechanic has been in the game since Early Access's launch and most people still don't understand it.

Dark and Darker - How To Fight Every Enemy

clowd 2023-08-20 | Edit: This is a pretty old video. There are plenty of new enemies in the game now. Still, the fundamentals described in this video should aid you in figuring out how to tackle anything that has come out since, or comes out in the future.

Learning to dodge and deal with enemy attacks is important if you want to not die. Not dying is usually a good idea. Better start learning!

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
Melee Enemies
2:00 Skeleton Footman/Guardman
2:46 Skeleton Swordsman
3:23 Skeleton Axeman
4:11 Skeleton Spearman
5:14 Mummy
5:36 Zombie
5:56 Mimic
6:00 Spider Mummy
6:26 Goblin Warrior
6:46 Goblin Axeman
6:57 Dire Wolf
7:09 Demon Dog
7:21 Giant Spider
Ranged Enemies
7:52 Skeleton Archer
9:06 Skeleton Crossbowman
9:21 Goblin Archer
9:36 Goblin Bolaslinger
Casting Enemies
9:49 Skeleton Mage
10:15 Goblin Shaman
10:38 Wisp
Flying Enemies
10:50 Death Skull
11:28 Mosquito- I mean Giant Dragonfly
11:50 Death Beetle
12:12 Giant Bat
12:28 Demon Bat
Mini-Bosses
12:40 Skeleton Champion
13:10 Wraith
13:26 Giant Centipede
13:40 Giant Worm
13:59 Cockatrice
14:32 Demon Centaur
14:51 Demon Berserker

Check out the Dark and Darker Wiki: darkanddarker.wiki.spellsandguns.com/Dark_and_Darker_Wiki

Music:
Kirby Air Ride - Play Methods
Kirby Super Star - How To Play
Ape Escape 3 - Training Room
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Lower Brine Cave
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Sky Peak Cave
Crypt Of The Necrodancer - Tombtorial

Dark and Darker - Damage Calculations Explained

clowd 2023-08-15 | If you want the formula written out, here it is:
(((Weapon Damage * Impact Zone Bonus * Combo Bonus * (1 + Power Bonus)) + Additional Physical Damage) * (1 + Hit Location Bonus) * (1 - Damage Reduction) * (1 - Projectile Reduction)) + True Damage
I forgot to include Impact Zone and Combo bonuses. Think of Impact Zone as your sweet/sourspots on your weapon, and Combo as the bonus damage your weapon gets for latter hits in the combo. These only multiply Weapon Damage, same as Power Bonus.
Formula is same for Magical Damage, just substitute the words "Weapon" and "Physical" with "Magical".
The only time Combo and Impact Zone apply to Magical Damage is if it's the Crystal Sword's special "Magical Weapon Damage".

(Not like you'd know your enemy's damage reduction until after one of you is already dead, but that's a topic for another time.)

Check out the Dark and Darker Wiki: darkanddarker.wiki.spellsandguns.com/Dark_and_Darker_Wiki

Dark and Darker EA Launch: What Were the Balance Changes?

clowd 2023-08-11 | Same deal as before. Quick overview of what was changed.

Not scripted/edited because I'd rather not stare at Vegas for hours when I could be playing Dark and Darker. (Again)

Dark and Darker - The Incomplete Stats of PT5

clowd 2023-05-10 | Apologies for the lateness and the quality. I'm still recovering from a hand injury, and this test's stats were released just as I was leaving for the weekend.

Overall, I'd say the stats this time around were somewhat disappointing. I already knew they'd be difficult to draw conclusions from, due to the short time frame, server outages, and lack of Steam platforming, but I didn't expect the omission of that useful table or the inconsistencies between charts. There's really not a lot to work with here, so please don't treat this like some kind of perfect analysis. I'm sure there were more things I could've looked at if I was really reaching, but I just wanted to get this over with, because it's just not as interesting as I wish it was.

Dark and Darker - Debuff Duration & DOTs

clowd 2023-04-28 | cool now you know how debuff duration works yay

Random notes:
-Rupture only does 1 damage in the Cleric clip because I'm also running Perseverance. Perseverance + Protection from Evil makes you basically immune to Rogue DOTs.
-Zap's afterburn being negated is inconsistent at lower Will. With Cleric, it was 100% consistent, but with 16 Will Fighter, it worked maybe once every 4-5 attempts. I'm not sure what's going on there, but either way, it's good motivation to stack a bit of Will if you're afraid of Wizards who stack afterburn damage on Zap/Fireball/Ignite.

If you want to learn more about the game, check the wiki out: darkanddarker.wiki.spellsandguns.com/Dark_and_Darker_Wiki

Dark and Darker - The Impact of Magic Resistance?

clowd 2023-04-24 | Spoiler: Not very impactful.

For more information about the game's mechanics, check out the Dark and Darker Wiki: darkanddarker.wiki.spellsandguns.com/Dark_and_Darker_Wiki

Dark and Darker Alpha 5: What Were the Balance Changes?

clowd 2023-04-16 | Quick overview of what was changed. No new stuff, just balance adjustments on old stuff.

Not scripted/edited because I'd rather not stare at Vegas for hours when I could be playing Dark and Darker.

Dark and Darker - Are Adrenaline Rushs Penalties Warranted? (PATCHED)

clowd 2023-03-17 | EDIT: As of Playtest 5, Adrenaline Rush is now infinite-use.

Imagine if you gave Adrenaline Rush's downsides to any other perk. Would that perk be worth using?

Notes:
-I calculated Weakpoint's "DPS Increase w/ First Hit" with the following: Most Rogue weapons have a swing speed of about 0.7 seconds. With Rogue's 25% Action Speed, this brings the average down to about .53s. With this, we can assume that Rogue will hit once with Weakpoint, then can potentially hit 9 times during the 5-second window, and use that to calculate the overall average DPS increase. Chances are, the Rogue won't hit nearly as many as 9 hits in that time, or the cooldown on the third swing of the weapon will make the potential hits lower, but that would bring the potential DPS average up, as it would make the first hit's 50% outlier more impactful overall.

Dark and Darker - The Impact of Armor Rating (Outdated)

clowd 2023-03-10 | Outdated as of 2023/08/22

How useful is Armor Rating anyway, and what does it mean for each class?

Notes:
When talking about the impact that AR has on the "one-shot meta", AR itself is just one contributing factor. The main issue is that damage outpaces defense. There are many ways to address the issue, and the AR curve is just one potential avenue.

Magic Defense is handled identically to AR, even using the same curve to translate the raw number into a %. Sources of Magic Defense are very rare, and so it's near-impossible to exit the lower levels of the curve, unless you're a Barbarian with Iron Will.

Dark and Darker - Rage Followup/Corrections

clowd 2023-03-07 | After doing some more personal research, I stumbled upon an important fact regarding Rage, and it does impact the analysis somewhat. Here's a quick rundown of that. I've been doing a lot more research lately, so hopefully corrections won't be necessary past this point, except in cases where patches completely change mechanics.

Dark and Darker - Is Rage Actually A Defense Buff?

clowd 2023-03-04 | Corrections/Followup: youtube.com/watch?v=VqOrtjMuVXU

The skill says that your defense is reduced, but how accurate is that in practice?

Notes:
As noted in the video, there are many possibilities for what the defense penalty could actually mean. There are two possibilities I did not explore here (multiplying the AR by 80%, and multiplying the Reduction by 20%), but their result would be somewhere in between the two that I did explore (multiplying damage taken, and flat 20% subtraction of Reduction). If anyone knows for sure exactly which version of defensive penalty it uses, please comment and let us know!

(On that note, if you know which version of defense reduction Weakpoint Attack uses, that would also be very helpful.)

I also don't know how Strength is rounded during the buff. In the tables you'll see values like "52.5 Strength" which aren't possible. The difference that rounding would make is very minor, but until I can test to see how Rage interacts with odd numbers, decimals will have to do.

Dark and Darker - What Do The Stats Tell Us?

clowd 2023-03-02 | The Dark and Darker stats contain a ton of information. Let's use some of it to try and figure out how each class did!

As with any statistics, data doesn't always tell the whole story. I tried to use as best metrics I could with the data provided, and used data for "total performance" and more specific performances based on lobby type. The stats that were released are missing very useful data, like escapes, so take everything with a grain of salt!

And of course, as with any statistics, the conclusions provided are based on the presenter's interpretation of the data. If I missed something, or you've got a different interpretation, let me know!

Here's a written copy of the script, with images and links provided inside:
docs.google.com/document/d/1OBhNrjf7cUkGmzLjMyLehB0Z7cq7c9Zb4JraejNWYK8

Errors/Corrections:

1. 2023/03/02
For total HR stats, I was using an older screenshot that wasn't displaying correct data. The ratios should be:
Barb: 1.98
Ranger: 1.81
Wizard: 1.44
Fighter: 1.3
Rogue: 1.17
Cleric: 0.45

This doesn't change my analysis much. Fighter drops off less than I said, and Wizard still outperforms Fighter and Rogue by a significant amount.

Dark and Darker - Important Dummy Tip

clowd 2023-02-23 | EDIT: As of Early Access, the Training Dummies now have -12% Damage Reduction instead of -10%.

Dummy damage numbers are not what they seem!

This is how the dummies behaved during Playtest 4.

Music: OSRS - Venture