Statistics

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Primary Stats

See also: Game Mechanics, Skills, Choosing the Best Class for Your Playing Style & Dumbledorf's Norrath in a Nutshell: A Beginner's Guide#Stats
File:Amax stats.png
Example view of primary and secondary statistics

You chose your character's stats when you create it, and have to live with the decision thereafter. There is no one perfect way to set up an individual character class. Much of it depends on your playing style, your preferences and the decision you make as to how you want your character to make his or her way through the world. Below are the basic descriptions of how the stats affect the characters.

Strength (STR)

Affects: Attack Power (see "ATK"), Weight Limit, Endurance (see "ENDR"), Bow Damage [1]

  • Max (hard-cap): 255

Strength is a valuable stat for melee and tank characters to increase both their max and average hit of melee and bow damage.

Brad McQuaid: "STR: determines how much you can carry; influences maximum and average damage; influences how quickly you learn many offensive skills"[2]

Stamina (STA)

Affects: Hit Points (see "HP"), Endurance (see "ENDR"), and Swimming Breath.

  • Max (hard-cap): 255
See also: Game Mechanics#Hitpoint Calculation

Controversial stat. Only tanks gain significantly from this stat, Warriors, Shadowknights and Paladins. Small benefit to other classes. The amount of HP received per point of stamina scales with level. The number can be observed experimentally by removing a piece of equipment with that status on it and observing the results. By way of example, a level 45 monk receives only 3 hit points for every one point of stamina.

Brad McQuaid: "STA: affects how many hit points you have, how long you can hold your breath"[3]

Agility (AGI)

Affects: Dodge skill up rate, Defense skill up rate, Avoidance Armor Class, Parry skill up rate, Run speed (below 75).

  • Max (hard-cap): 255

Classic hardcap: 200 unimplemented [4]

Agility influences the ability of an enemy to hit you. Above 75, the AC provided for each Agility is minor. Below 75 agility causes a large AC hit. For example, a level 60 Ogre Shadow Knight going from 76 to 85 AGI provides 3 AC, but going from 66 to 75 AGI provides 45 AC.

Beginning at ~25% HP, you being to take a hefty negative Agility modifier. This can have drastic effects on your AC if your Agility is low enough to cross the 75 threshold.

Brad McQuaid: "AGI: affects how quickly you can learn some defensive skills, how difficult it is to hit you as well as how much damage you take when you are hit "[5]

Dexterity (DEX)

Affects: Bard Song missed notes; Melee skill-ups, Procs, Crits .

  • Max (hard-cap): 255

This determines how quickly you learn weapon and rogue skills, and how often a magic weapon will process its skill (proc). For bards only, fizzle rate of songs (missed notes). For warriors only, it has a small influence on chance to crit with weapon strikes. For rangers only, small influence on rate of bow crits. For rogues only, small influence on thrown weapon crits.

Brad McQuaid: "DEX: how quickly you learn weapon skills; how often weapon will proc; how quickly you learn rogue skills; how hard you hit with bows"[6]

On Red server Dexterity affects PVP hit rate. It does this by comparing your dexterity to your opponent's agility. There is no evidence that Dexterity affects hit rate in PVE.

Wisdom (WIS)

Affects: How fast you learn general and craft skills if higher than intelligence. Raises maximum mana amount and speed of raising magic skills for Clerics, Paladins, Druids, Shamans and Rangers.

  • Max (hard-cap): 255
  • Soft-cap: 200

Brad McQuaid: "WIS: affects the amount of mana the priest classes have, also rangers; also affects how quickly you can learn many skills if your wisdom is higher than INT. "[7]

Intelligence (INT)

Affects: The rate of raising general and craft skills if higher than wisdom. Raises maximum mana and speed of raising spell skills for Necromancers, Magicians, Enchanters, Wizards, Shadowknights. Bards* gain maximum mana from Int, but instrument skill raises faster with more Dexterity.

  • Max (hard-cap): 255
  • Soft-cap: 200

Brad McQuaid: "INT: directly affects how quickly you can learn most skills; affects the amount of mana for bards and all mages, as well as shadow knights"[8]

Charisma (CHA)

Affects: Charming (ENC/BRD only) ; Merchant prices ; Increases success rate of a secondary check on the Lull line of spells which causes target aggro when failed [9]. Increases chance for memory blurs to process, both from direct blurs and the secondary effects of many mezmerization spells.

Myth: Lower CHA is beneficial for Necromancers.

Myth: CHA affects Druid and Necromancer charm spells.

  • Max (hard-cap): 255
  • Soft-cap: 200, around 104-132 for vendor pricing (for vendor pricing, exact level depends on merchant faction) [10]
Further information: Game Mechanics#Vendor Pricing, Charisma, and Faction

Brad McQuaid: "CHA: affects amount you will be paid for goods by NPC merchants, and how much they will pay you; affects the saving throw on certain bard and enchanter spells (charms in particular) "[11]

Secondary Stats

Armor Class (AC)

See also: Skill Defense

Armor Class as a whole is divided into two parts. The first determining how hard you get hit and the other when you will be hit.

The first part of the AC is "mitigation AC" which is calculated from the worn AC you gain from your gear, Defense skill, and it is assumed spells.

The other part of AC is the "avoidance AC" which is defined by your Defense skill and your AGI stat.

Max (cap): None [12]

Soft-cap (raw ac/worn ac): Level * 6 + 25 This only applies to characters level 50 or below. [13]

A fairly complete look at how AC works on live/EQEmu can be found at [14] [15]

Attack Power (ATK)

Attack, is a statistic used to compare against an opponent's AC. It is based on your Weapon Skills and Offense. While these are two parts of a whole they do differing things independently. Weapon skills will determine if you miss an opponent and Offense increases your damage multiplier (shown in "Role of STR on P99 Blue").

When compared against an opponent's Mitigation AC it is further added to by the Strength stat and +ATK mods on items or from spells.

Max (cap): None

Hit Points (HP)

Sometimes known as "health", a character's HP determines how much damage you can sustain before dying.

Max (cap): None

Hit points can be increased directly through +HP gear, or indirectly through +STA gear, or temporarily through HP enhancing spells like the Cleric's symbol line and the Shaman's talisman line of spells.

Mana (MANA)

A character's mana pool determines how many spells you can cast. Mana is increased directly through equipment, through WIS for priests, rangers and paladins, and through INT for casters, shadowknights and bards.

Max (cap): None on p1999 however in era there was a hardcap on mana gained from items. [16]

There are many spells that enhance the rate of mana regeneration, which are always prized by casters. There is also a single Enchanter line of spells that increases maximum mana directly, and another Enchanter line to increase Intelligence, as well as two spell lines which increase Wisdom, and both will increase mana indirectly.

Based off this thread: [17]

Below or at 200 WIS/INT

Mana gained = ((80 * LEVEL) / 425) * WIS/INT

Above 200 WIS/INT

Mana gained = ((40 * LEVEL) / 425) * WIS/INT

NOTE: This calculation will often be a few points of mana off. This is because the decimal seems to fluctuate based on how much WIS/INT is added, probably due to a rounding issue of some kind. For example:

1. Adding 100 WIS/INT gives you roughly 11.27 mana per point of WIS/INT at level 60 under 200 WIS/INT.

2. Adding 10 WIS/INT gives you roughly 11.3 mana per point of WIS/INT at level 60 under 200 WIS/INT.

3. Adding 5 WIS/INT gives you roughly 11.6 mana per point of WIS/INT at level 60 under 200 WIS/INT.

4. Adding 2 WIS/INT gives you roughly 11.0 mana per point of WIS/INT at level 60 under 200 WIS/INT.

5. Adding 7 WIS/INT gives you roughly 11.5 mana per point of WIS/INT at level 60 under 200 WIS/INT.

Endurance (ENDR)

Affects: Jumping, Disciplines.

Endurance determines how long you can perform strenuous activities before becoming fatigued.

Resists

A character's resistances determine the chance for detrimental spells to be resisted by the character and the damage those spells may deal. The resistance type checked is an attribute of the spell that is being cast. Resistances can be raised or lowered through beneficial or harmful spells (buffs like Resist Cold and debuffs like Tashani) and equipment. Many spells have adjusted resistance values (such as Malo or wizard lures), and many NPCs have adjusted resistances, especially to Magic type spells. The difference between two characters' levels is also a major factor.

The five resistance types are:

  • Poison
  • Magic
  • Disease
  • Fire
  • Cold

The following information is based on EQEmu development discussions [18], and is not necessarily correct for P99. But it's probably pretty close.

Every 6 resistance points give a 1% greater chance to fully resist a spell.

A difference of 7 levels changes resistance by approx. 12% and a difference of 10 levels by 20%, following a curve.

There are minimum and maximum hard caps of 5% / 95% in PVE, unless there is a large level difference, immune NPCs, or unresistable spells are used.

Weight (WT)

A character's weight describes how much mass from items and coins they are carrying or have equipped. STR determines the maximum weight before penalties. Certain Weight-reducing Bags will reduce the weight of items placed inside of them.

Overweight characters move more slowly according to how many WT points they are over their maximum. At excessive weight levels a character will be completely immobilized and may also take additional fall damage. They will also take damage from falling shorter distances than they normally would (a tiny step or running over a seated player can be lethal). Monks will lose AC at certain weight thresholds according to their level.

These penalties seem to be applied or adjusted on server ticks. Items or coin in a trade window do not contribute to either players' weight. If a player has any movement speed increasing effect (SoW, Jboots, Selo's, etc.) then they will always at least be able to move some minimum speed. Levitate effects will protect the user from the fall damage, but not from the movement speed or monk-specific penalties.

Tertiary statistics

Damage Per Second (DPS)

See also: Haste Guide

DPS is an informal metric which compares the damage output of a character over time. Increasing the value or speed of a character's attacks increases DPS. For melee, DPS can be improved through weapons with better ratios, haste items, STR, DEX and buffs to those statistics. For spell casters, little can be done to improve immediate DPS, though a larger mana pool can allow for more spells before a required med break, and mana regeneration spells can reduce those breaks.

DPS Meter

Weapon Ratio

See: Game_Mechanics#Melee_Combat_and_Damage

Simple Ratio: (DMG / DLY) = Ratio Example: (18 / 27) = 0.666 DPS This ratio is reasonably useful for most players, especially lower level players. You can use this simple ratio to compare weapons accurately until level 28 when damage bonuses kick in. As you get higher level, bonuses become more important. Don't forget damage caps, though.

Extended Ratio: ( ((DMG * 2) + Bonus) / DLY ) At level 28, players get a damage bonus on their main hand weapon. For one handed weapons it is: Bonus = ([Player Level] - 25) / 3 (rounded down) For two handed weapons it's the same as 1H until a Velious update, where it's increased to values on a table according to the weapon's DLY. This formula is very accurate for comparing weapons, although it doesn't consider procs, the effects of STR, or haste items.

Hate Ratio: ( (DMG + Bonus) / DLY ) The hate generated by melee damage does not include STR or Offense modifiers. It is the same DMG+Bonus value on every swing, regardless of actual damage done or misses. The outcome of this is faster weapons tend to generate more hate than slower weapons with similar ratios.

Regeneration

  • To learn about HP regeneration rates, see here.
  • To learn about mana regeneration rates, see here.

Reference

keywords: base character stats