KBAP Info Thread

[Granamyr]

Zech, you make some great points.

I largely changed my strategy away from boosting attack toward focusing on criticals as a result of what you've posted. There is a small detail though that has me wavering though.....critical % is exactly that, a % so you're having to depend on "the odds". I'm of the opinion that the sure thing is a better option even if dmg ceiling is lower than if you were to roll the dice.

Knowing that you'll always do 3x the damage even if there are a few times when those extra Attack points are overkill (and thus wasted) seems like a better plan than upping critical %....even late in the game. Yes, late in the game you're going to have absurdly high attack on your units but you're also fighting plenty of high level units with high defense or heroes with absurdly high defense. I'd rather depend on 3x damage than hoping I critical enough to take something out.

The other variable is that usually the best way to raise crit % is via items and those are usually race or individually troop based. I ran into this when deciding if I should replace Banner of Faith with something else. The added crit % to Paladins seemed so appealing that I've never replaced it but in practice, my Paladins rarely ever attack. I would have benefited much more by having a +Atk regalia all this time. Also consider those units in which you regularly use their abilities, (which don't trigger criticals, like elves. My archers have huge critical %'s but that gets wasted at least half the time with elves because I use their double arrow ability (which would benefit from higher attack) first.

I don't want to derail an informative thread into an Attack vs Critial% debate. My point is, I think it's best to take the regular sure thing over the situational roll of the dice.

[DGDobrev]

I agree with that point. Having higher damage output is better than having a high crit in some cases. Critical is 1.5x the max unit damage, which in some cases may be surpassed by a decent attack value of your troop.

However, it still depends on the army setup, hero class and enemy army composition. Against armies of tough lvl 3-5 units, critical may be better, because you simply won't be able to get to that 3x attack due to the strong defense of your opponent's units. Against armies with low defense, going for 3x attack is much better.

In the end, the ability of being flexible in various situations is the key. You may utilize both tactics if you have the proper items

[Zechnophobe]

I completely agree it depends largely on army makeup. High power and low power units both tend towards wanting +crit gear. The former because they are close to max damage from attack anyway, the latter because they have a larger variance of damage.

For example, my final army finishing as a Warrior on hard was: Inquisitors, Red Dragons, Black Dragons, Paladin's and Royal Griffons. The griffs I added right at the end.

Paladin's had Banner of Faith, everyone had Dagger of Judgement and Axe of Lightning, attached is the stats on my Red Dragons.

Over 100 Attack, 78% crit. Gaudi as my companion means 100% crit (maybe 95 is cap, don't recall) against demons and undead. Black dragons are similarly pimped out. So long as I ain't fighting Ancient Vampires in vampire mode (Shudder) I do just about maximum possible attack damage from each stack on every attack.

[Elwin]

100% is max no cap here , my archcages are at 100% and rest of army is at least 60% but i tihnk i can get more since maybe i find belt of luck in elon :p

[Elwin]

1 point of atack was 4% damge right??i don t rember the formula and i am thinking what is better claw of ktahu or +25% damge from drill

[Zechnophobe]

1 attack is 3.33% damage. Drill however, ought to multiply with it instead of add. That is damage = base*(1+.0333*(A-D)). If you have +25% damage to that flat out, than that entire thing is multiplied by 1.25. If you increase attack by 7 (about 25%) you are increasing the damage only by 25% of the BASE damage.

Example:

Unit with 45 attack, 2.5 average damage attacks something with 15 defense.

2.5*(1+.0333(45-15)) = 2.5*(2) = 5 damage.

If we increase by 7 attack

2.5*(1+.0333(52-15)) = 2.5*(2.2333) = 5.58 damage

As opposed to adding the drill

5*1.25 = 6.25 damage

As you can see the comparison of additional multiplier to bigger existing ones isn't as straight forward as it looks.

[aj2000]

Regarding destroyer of chains, being saturating sword with dragon souls. It seems to be an incredibly powerful quest item, open to abuse. I read it as converting each dragon killed to 1 might rune, unless enemy army has >15 dragons. Is it possible to look for all the stacks with <15 dragons and turn them all into massive amount of might runes or are there limits to it? I've just gotten the quest and killed the Rusty Anchor dragon in cave spot and extracted a might rune, and I'm drooling over the prospect of more might runes. Although I expect that there aren't a lot of <15 dragon stacks around.

Reference:

15. Destroyer of Chains - Sheterra, the quest for saturating the sword with dragon souls - if you kill even 1 dragon (but the sword isn't saturated yet), and use it, you'll gain 1 Might Rune, and the counter will be reduced by 1.

[Urbz]

Yeap this should work I reckon, i couldnt be bothered with it myself this playthrough but i might try it some other time.

[Zhuangzi]

Originally Posted by aj2000

Regarding destroyer of chains, being saturating sword with dragon souls. It seems to be an incredibly powerful quest item, open to abuse. I read it as converting each dragon killed to 1 might rune, unless enemy army has >15 dragons. Is it possible to look for all the stacks with <15 dragons and turn them all into massive amount of might runes or are there limits to it? I've just gotten the quest and killed the Rusty Anchor dragon in cave spot and extracted a might rune, and I'm drooling over the prospect of more might runes. Although I expect that there aren't a lot of <15 dragon stacks around.

Reference:

15. Destroyer of Chains - Sheterra, the quest for saturating the sword with dragon souls - if you kill even 1 dragon (but the sword isn't saturated yet), and use it, you'll gain 1 Might Rune, and the counter will be reduced by 1.

Thanks for the tip. I did not realise that you could get Might runes from the sword! Surely by mid-game the runes are worth more than completing the quest, and you'll end up finding a stack of 15 dragons sometime anyway.