User blog:Mich, Michele & Kuhla/Analysis: An In-depth look into Mechanics

Ever wonder how certain mechanics work? Well here's an analysis by one person from AI (Talukita). You can read it here if you don't want to read my version (which is pretty much the same thing lel)

http://appinvasion.com/threads/analysis-in-depth-look-for-atk-down-convert-and-various-other-game-mechanics.283692/

ATK Down
A new mechanic starting from Fiora and Ardin. One would assume that 50% Atk Down means 50% damage reduction right? The truth is much more complicated than you think. Here's Eltri's Eternal Zephyr attack without mitigation on the left and Eternal Zephyr with Atk Down on the right. You can check the damage Ardin receive, from 137 -> 102. Clearly this isn't -50% damage.

Remember how %ATK buff works? ATK down is basically the reverse version of ATK buff. In other words it works additively by adding a -50% to the total modifier. With normal attack it is indeed a 50% damage reduction. With a 200% damage skill, it becomes 25% reduction instead. Once again similar to ATK buff, the higher the modifier, the lower the effectiveness of ATK down.

In the pics above, Eltri was using a special move with % modifier higher than 100%, it's the reason why -50% ATK down doesn't make it deal 50% less damage. And this isn't even a powerful attacks yet. Want to see how ATK down fares against a massive skill instead?

In Ushi's Vargas test, he attempted to use Vargas UBB (100% chance to -80% ATK) on Maxwell Endless. To his surprise, despite -80% ATK and mitigation, his units still take a massive amount of damage. Making him believe that Endless is a fixed damage attack (yes ATK down has zero effect on fixed damage skills) However seeing how each unit of his receives a different amount of damage (Dia takes almost x2 damage compared to Darvanshel because of her low DEF), this is definitely NOT a fixed damage attack & ATK down is certainly in effect.

According to datamine, Zevalhua final form Endless has +250% multiplier, which means that it will deal 350% damage total. Let's just say this case applies to Max's Endless as well.

So a -80% ATK down will make 350% damage => 270% damage. 270/350 * 100 = around 23% damage reduction.

Yes, the highest ATK down effect in the game, on a UBB that requires 5-6 turns to fill + some other requirements only give you around 20% extra damage reduction. A normal -30% ATK down mean less than 10% reduction, AND they only have around 30% chance to apply. Just... eww.

Another painful fact is, since both ATK buff/down works additively, ATK down gets cancelled, HARD by ATK buff. A 50% ATK down basically gets thrown out of the window if the boss gets a +50% ATK up. Surely it still technically reduce the damage since the boss doesn't deal more damage now, it is still relatively annoying since you only have only a small chance to apply ATK down while ATK buff is up for basically all the time.

That said, ATK down still has its use, and I will cover it more in the DEF part. Just don't overestimate the effect of ATK down, but don't underestimate it either.

For me, the strategy of picking ATK down is when you can make use of its main buff, for example: In other words, if the boss is immune to Injury, or if you somehow can't make use of the element buffs, don't try to bring Ragshelm/Ardin/Fiora just because of the ATK down. The only exception is Belfura is because she has it on her very BB.
 * Kira: 60% crit buff + powerful Dark/Light + 30% chance to - 30% ATK/DEF
 * Ragshelm: 18% mass Injury buff + 25% chance to - 25% ATK/DEF down 2 turns (this is excellent because it leaves you a gap to reapply the ATK down effect if you miss it for a turn. -25% is enough to deal with chip attacks which is the true purpose of ATK down)
 * Ardin/Fiora: Dual elements buffs + ATK down.

Also, make sure that it is a fight that you can spam it. I tried using Ragshelm against Eze GGC and I think I was only be able to apply it once through the whole fight despite already using it every 2 turns. It is one of the major reasons I despise Zevalhua too much, offering nothing aside from damage and ATK down if you don't use her LS.

What about DEF down? Let's just say this is one of the most worthless buffs EVER! Poor Len, having so much potential only to get Gimu'd so hard.

Boosts ATK relative to DEF/REC/HP
Another new mechanic that has a lot of misconception. Well not that new since it already exists in ... Bahvel but no one bothers to use him even to know lol.

Anyway, it seems like Priscilla's SBB still does not work properly yet so I will use Ushi's test for this case instead.

Let's start with her normal BB damage: Base ATK 2154, 250% BB modifier, 115% ATK buff (Michele), 100% Wicked Blade, 100% Brute + Ore, Dual Maxwell = x14 multiplier => 2154 * (1 + 2.5 + 1.15 + 1 + 1) * 14 = 200537 As you can see, the formula checks out with only a small difference gap due to max/min damage. Now let's move to her BB damage WITH the REC convert buff.

His Priscilla with Malice has 2195 REC, so the base REC should be around 2195/1.3 = 1690.

He has Wicked Blade but I will only use base value to safely measure it. Expected formula for most people is this: (2154 + 1690 * 0.7) * (1 + 2.5 + 1.15 + 1 + 1) * 14 = 310674 However even when using base REC only, the expected damage is still off the chart compared to the testing result. Why? It's because the actual formula is this:

[2154 * (1+ 2.5 + 1.15 + 1 + 1) + 3380 * 0.7] * 14 = 233611 Note: The 3380 is 1690 REC x2 because of Wicked Blade

In other words, %convert does NOT convert other stats to your base ATK (and therefore doesn't raise the value of ATK buff and receive benefits from %BB/SBB modifier). It is just another type of ATK buff but based on other stats instead and stack upon normal ATK buff. Disappointing? Hell yes, yes it is. Furthermore, currently most %convert buff is for self only, AOE convert only exists in UBB which is too impractical, while Balgeos lowers your team DEF which is lol worthy. So yeah very gimmick mechanic right now, one of the reason why Priscilla is non existent in JP.

Lexida and +Hit Count effect
To make it simple: Lexida doubles your normal attack hit count/damage. If your final attack damage to a target deals 1000 damage, it will provide a 1000 damage clone = 2000 for total.

Since the x2 effect is put at the end for the damage formula (aside from spark), it calculates after you receive %ATK buff, meaning that the value from that ATK buff will also gets doubled.

With enough +%ATK, it's possible to deal more damage than your own SBB even due to this x2 effect. Some tests: Left - Rowgen with no sphere Center - Rowgen normal attack with 2 Zurg lead (+200%), Michele buff (+115%) and Brute Elixir (+50%). Theoretically I should deal around 2k3 x (1 + 2 + 1.15 + 0.5) x 2 (Lexida) = 21390 damage. Yup, 11k x 2 = 22000 damage Right - Now Rowgen SBB with Zurg lead, Michele buff. Should be 2300 x (1 + 6.2 + 1 + 1.15) = around 21505 damage In the SBB test sure he doesn't have another Zurg lead + Brute, but keep in mind that this is Rowgen we are talking about with 620% bonus modifier (compared to the average 400-450% for normal units) which compensates for it.

Interesting? Definitely, however before it is more of a fun mechanic/interaction, mostly because you either usually spam your BB/SBB, and you can have only one Lexida to boost anyway.

Then Selena 7* appeared, with an UBB that gives Lexida effect TO YOUR ENTIRE TEAM. It is even more hilarious that her buff stacks multiplicatively with x2 hit spheres, which mean quadruple the hit/damage. Tests from JP What makes it so good, is that you can build a complete sustainable Water team, with all kinds of buff, and when your OD gauge is filled you can unleash Selena UBB and deals a MASSIVE amount of damage to a target. This is extremely useful when you wants to delete a certain threat quickly (say... Vargas in Seria trial), or burst someone before they get to a certain %HP mark (avoid special moves and such).

Anyway, ATK (most important) and Crit buffs are your best friends if you want to try the build out. Spark doesn't seem to work really well here, mostly because your attacks get splitted out too much (for example Selena with Lexida + UBB deal 48 hits for total). That and the clone hits appear extremely fast making it very hard to spark. Also Eliza is pretty good in this case, having 80% ATK buff + 40% crit buff, on top of being Water and farmable so you can pick Anima type for her.

This is even better in Global with the existence of Halloween spheres (though I am not sure how it interact with the penalty part because this doesn't exist in JP for testing). Sure no %HP, but if you are lucky enough to grab Animu 7* units then when maxed just with Ihsir/Magic Device in slot 2 they can still have a hefty amount of HP (yes this means the value of none %HP spheres are raising as well, especially Lafdonia/Edea sphere)