deflection/parry/riposte

[Carouz]

<DIV>can see my deflection and parry stats in the Persona window</DIV> <DIV>but i dont understand exactly what deflection and parry mean and how they differ</DIV> <DIV>nor do i understand what an increase of say 10 to parry would result in</DIV> <DIV>also, i have seen references in this forum to riposte</DIV> <DIV>i cant find my riposte stat anywhere</DIV> <DIV>can someone please explain what these terms mean and how they effect game play?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Shock</DIV> <DIV>70 Bruiser</DIV> <DIV>Bazaar</DIV>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

<div></div><div></div>Deflection and Parry give two seperate, additional attempts to avoid being hit.Basically.. when something attacks you, you roll to see if you parry the blow, and if that fails, you roll to see if you deflect. Finally, if you fail to deflect, you roll to see if you can dodge out of the way (base avoidance.. which is increased by the Defense skill and Agility increases).So if you have say, a 35% Base avoidance, 35% Deflection, and 8% Parry, you'll roll:First you'll roll a 8% chance to parry the blow (odds are 92% of attacks will get past).Second you'll roll a 35% chance to deflect (so out of the 92% that get through,  about 59.8% will still get through).Lastly you'll roll a 35% chance to avoid the attack (so out of the remaining 59.8% that get through, you'll end up with roughly 39% still getting through).In the end, you have about 61% avoided attacks on average.As for ripostes, the dev's said in the latest Combat update, that 20% of parries will become ripostes. That means that if you have 8% chance to parry.. you'll have 1.6% chance to riposte an attack. Remember, you can only parry attacks that are made to the front of you too.. so if things are spread out, that % only applies to frontal attacks.Lastly... skill increases to any of Defense, Deflection and Parry will increase your % of avoidance. Anything over your regular max skill for leveling will result in a bonus to avoidance. There are dinimishing returns on this as well, meaning the higher you get the skill from the normal, the less benefit you'll see for each point of increase.Agility works in the same way for the Base avoidance too.. you'll see larger improvements in the beginning, and the higher you get the less you'll see for each point in it.The max bonus you can put on a skill is 1.5 x your level. So at lvl 70, with 350 normal skill, you can get 455 before you'll get no more benefit. Good luck finding +105 parry though, heh.For stats it's different, the max is your level x 15, plus your base from race and class choice. So at 70 it's in the 1080 range before it stops giving benefit at all.You start to see less benefits around 480 skill though. After that, the bonus to avoidance drops considerably. Enough to make anything over 600 or 700 really not worth sacrificing anything else for. If it goes higher by virtue of buffs, or temporary boosts, then you'll still see something for it... but don't sacrifice for it in the form of gear.I hope that explains it all for you!<div></div><p><span class="time_text">*Edit*</span></p><p><span class="time_text">Oh, and having 350 skill in Deflection and Parry will give a base avoidance check of 25% Deflection and 5% Parry. Each point put into those skills, bringing it over 350 and up to 455, will increase those % higher. I forget what the max is... 15 or 20% parry? 40 or 45% Deflection?The max % is not in the patch notes for the Combat Update, but I think it was stated someplace once... it might be higher than it was before with the new cap, so I have no clue on my own (i have no way to max out any of my skills, so I can't check in game).</span></p><p><span class="time_text"></span></p><p>Message Edited by Raidi Sovin'faile on <span class=date_text>01-15-2007</span> <span class=time_text>05:10 AM</span>

[Thoral]

Nicely put, and thanks for the effort!<div></div>

[DynamicPerforman]

<DIV>With diminishing returns its better to raise parry than deflection or defense. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, defensive stance gives a base UNMITIGATED deflection (master is 12%) which means that even with debuffs/mob level/ mob +tohit you will never fall below that.</DIV>

[Carouz]

<DIV>thanks for the great responses, this is just what i was looking for</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>but it also raises other questions</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>it was stated that parry only applies to a mob in front of me, not one flanking or behind me (although a post on the combat board seems to disagree, saying parry works that way for all classes except brawlers where it is position independent)</DIV> <DIV>do deflection and avoidance also only apply to mobs directly in front of me?</DIV> <DIV>or do they get adjusted based on a mob's position?</DIV> <DIV>or do they work at full value regardless of mob position?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and given the lower start value of parry vs deflection, doesnt that imply that the first +5 parry would give a considerably bigger benefit that the first +5 deflection?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and given that the parry roll takes place before the deflection and avoidance rolls, doesnt it imply that any improvement to parry is more important than an equal improvement to deflection or avoidance? (at least until diminishing returns begin)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>i guess what i'm saying is it sounds like i should push parry fairly high before i bother to work on deflection</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>or am i wrong?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Shock</DIV> <DIV>The Bazaar </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>p.s. i recently spent 8 AA in the brawler tree INT line to increase my parry by 16.8, and although i havent done any formal analysis yet i am thus far a bit disappointed that i haven't noticed much improvement in combat</DIV>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

We increase our own Defense and Deflection with our Defensive stance. At Master 1 at 70 I'm getting +28 to both those skills. I have no abilities that give +Parry.This means I'm at 378 in Defense and Deflection and 350 Parry, before any items or AA's.This means getting +5 Parry will give more for Parry than +5 Deflection will give for Deflection.Also, in our AA's, the bonus to Parry is our highest increase, so probably the best avoidance increase can be gained by going Int line and maxing out the Parry bonus.However, the same % amount increased to Deflection will do more over the equation than to Parry, because Deflection is higher. Increasing the higher stat will edge out a little bit more overall avoidance. (Basically, 5% higher Deflection will result in more avoidance in the equation than a 5% higher Parry).The thing is, when choosing AA's and Item bonuses, etc, it's more like a difference of 4% Deflection or 8% Parry, in which case it's better to get the Parry. The difference is minimal (I did the math and we are looking at ~0.5% or so difference for an EQUAL % between the two).<div></div>