Backstab, Ranged and Monk Kick attacks have insane damage in new AC system

[trevius]

Well, here are some real stats I got from testing tonight. I took the notes quickly, so they are fairly sloppy (sorry). I would go back through and edit and clean them up to be prettier and more organized at work tomorrow, but the 5 minute edit rule prevents that :P

Here is the paste directly from my notes:

All of this testing was done on a naked character using only a bow, so at level 70 with 254 str, attack was at 913 and at level 1 attack was 221. The bow used for testing is ID# 2743 Talisen, Bow of the Trailblazer. It has 25dmg, 50dly, 3AC, 3str, 3dex, 3sta, 10hp, 3svm, 10svp range 150. The arrow I was using is ID#8327 and is 6 damage 150 range.


Tested on a level 70 NPC with 1AC, and 75agi/dex from behind the NPC:

Level 1 ranger with no skills set:
Can barely land any hits

Level 1 with max skills:
Still barely landing any hits (less than 5%)

level 70 with max skills and 254 str:
Landing about 60% of hits mostly for max or close to max damage (124)

Level 70 with very low skills (around 1) and 254 str:
Missing almost all hits. The ones that do land are int he 20s-30s.

Level 1 with max skills and 254 str:
Still barely landing any hits but landing for more damage (max 84)

Tested on a level 70 NPC with 2000AC, and 75agi/dex from behind the NPC:

Level 1 with max skills and 254 str:
landing maybe 30% hits but landing for max 84 but with more of a range in damage.

level 70 with max skills and 254 str:
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges from 1 to 124

Tested on a level 70 NPC with 2000AC, and 500agi/dex from behind the NPC:

level 70 with max skills and 254 str:
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges from 1 to 124

Tested on a level 70 NPC with 1000AC, and 500agi/dex from behind the NPC:

level 70 with max skills and 254 str:
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges up to 124 but higher on average than the 2000AC NPC.

level 70 with max skills and 254 str and 255 agi (raised from about 75):
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges up to 124. Same as before raising AGI.

level 70 with max skills and 254 str and 255 agi and 258 dex (raised from 83):
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges up to 186.

Tested on a level 70 NPC with 1AC, and 500agi/dex from in front of the NPC:

level 70 with max skills and 254 str and 255 agi and 258 dex:
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges up to 186 but landing mostly max or close to it.

Tested on a level 70 NPC with 1AC, and 500agi/dex from behind the NPC:

level 70 with max skills and 254 str and 255 agi and 258 dex
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges up to 186 but landing mostly max or close to it.

Tested on a level 70 NPC with 1AC, and 1agi/dex from behind the NPC:

level 70 with max skills and 254 str and 255 agi and 258 dex
Landing about 60% of hits and the damage ranges up to 186 but landing mostly max or close to it.

level 1 with max skills and 254 str and 255 agi and 258 dex
Landing about 20% of hits and the damage ranges up to 155 but landing mostly max or close to it.

After training archery mastery AA, max hit went up from 186 to 279 and hit landing rates seemed to go up from about 60% to about 80%. Using trueshot then raised max damage to 571 and almost every hit landed and for close to max. No other AAs seemed to effect ranger damage.

I then equiped some decent, but not insane gear and used the same bow. STR, DEX and AGI were maxed at 355 with AAs and attack was 1635. Testing on the same level 70 NPC with 1AC and 1agi/dex, I was now hitting for 325 max.

I then changed bows to one that did 40 damage and max hit raised up to 483.

Then, I changed to an arrow that is 15dmg 150 range ID#8311 and max hit went up to 577.

Finally, I tried an arrow with 1dmg 150 range ID#8005 and max hit went down to 430.

So, it seems like the best way for server admins to help reduce this in the mean time is to only sell the normal 1dmg arrow on your main vendor instead of giving access to nicer ones, even for really high prices. Because once a ranger gets endless quiver AA, arrow cost doesn't matter.

I will be copying and then changing the stats on the arrows I currently sell to 1dmg. This will considerably lower the ranged DPS until a real fix gets into place. Of course if someone finds a way to get a better arrow in the normal PEQ database, they will still have access that way, but at least it won't be as easy as I have it now by just buying them in Nexus.