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OceanWave · Guild Leader

Advanced Tip Guide by someone smarter than me o.o

OceanWave · Guild Leader

DPS (0 defence test)

What is DpS?

DpS stands for Damage per second. It refers to the amount of damage you can do to a target every second. It is useful to calculate just how much total damage output you have with your skills.

So why do I need to know my DpS?

Alot of people think that just because a skill can do alot of damage means that its damage is high. This is not entirely true(as proven later). If you know your own DpS, you can maximise your damage output and create the most devastating comboes you can achieve with your spells. This allows you do deal the highest damage, in the shortest time, utilising ur dmg potential to the fullest.

How do I calculate my DpS?

Here's a simple example as to how to do it. For this example we shall use 2 skills.
A beginner magic skill, terra arrow.
And an A.master skill terra break.

Here are the stats of the two spells

Quote:

Terra Arrow
1.65 amp
+63.4 additional attack
1.5 seconds cast time

Quote:

Terra Break
1.75 amp
+1045.6 additional attack
6.5 seconds cast time

Many will think that Terra break is the stronger skill. However, this is not entirely true. Let's calculate the DpS for both spells.
We can use a base of 500 atk 500 magic for this test.

Quote:

Terra arrow
1.65 x 500 (amp)
+63.4 (add. atk)
/1.5 (cast time)
DpS = 592.26

Quote:

Terra break
1.75 x 500 (amp)
+1045.6 (add atk)
/6.5 (cast time)
DpS = 295.48

So as you can see, terra arrow can easily do TWICE the amount of damage that terra break can do when casted consequtively. However, this does not mean that Terra break is weak, this will be explained in the next section.

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DpS (With defence)
Credits to ren99 for reminding me to put this part up

So why are we learning the higher ranks skill if even a novice skill can beat it?

The above shown calculations are done on a 0 defence test. In other words, they are the full damage you're going to be hitting. However, in reality this isnt possible. Even if a player strips himself of all his equipments and buffs, he's still probably going to have 100-300 def.

Why do we need to have a good gauge of an enemy's Def?

An enemy's defence is crucial into planning your perfect combo or your armour breaking comboes. Defence severely reduces th damage of your smaller DoC spells and thus effectively removes the ability for it to be used very well.

DpS calculation (with Def)

Assume the same 2 skills:

Quote:

Terra Arrow
1.65 amp
+63.4 additional attack
1.5 seconds cast time

Quote:

Terra Break
1.75 amp
+1045.6 additional attack
6.5 seconds cast time

Now we all know that 0 def does not exist. Let's calculate the DpS of the 2 spells when your target has 300/500/700 def, ignoring absolute guard.(See below for details on this)

Quote:

Terra arrow
1.65 x 500
+63.4
-------
0 Def damage = 888.4
300 Def damage = 588.4
500 Def damage = 388.4
700 Def damage = 188.4
-------
0 Def DpS= 593
300 Def DpS= 392
500 Def DpS= 259
700 Def DpS= 125.6

Quote:

Terra break
1.75 x 500
+1045.6
-------
0 Def damage= 1920.6
300 Def damage= 1620.6
500 Def damage= 1420.6
700 Def damage= 1220.6
-------
0 Def DpS= 295
300 Def DpS= 249
500 Def DpS= 219
700 Def DpS= 188

So as you can see, larger spells do have their uses. Small spells are affected largely by Def, their DpS dropping severely with each point of def your opponent has. Guessing your opponent's Def is very crucial into combo planning, otherwise, you'd be setback alot.

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DoC

What is DoC?

DoC stands for Damage on Cast. In Cabal, the damage for a spell, the ENTIRE spell, is registered once u cast it, not when the hit lands. So in simple terms, ur damage kicks in once u hit the hotkey for the spell, the cast time is just the delay before u can cast another spell.

Why is DoC important?

Knowing your DoC is very important. It allows you to put in crucial hits when u need them, where u need them. The fact that the damage is applied instantly means that even if ur skill takes 90seconds to cast, if you judge it correctly, u can use it to kill someone instantly, leaving the cast time just as nice animation.

Using DoC well.

Most spells with high DoC have very high cast time, making their DpS weak. However if timed well, you can use it as a 0.1 seconds nuke to kill off someone. If someone will die when the spell is casted, the cant move during the whole duration of the skill and stands there to let u finish him off. However, if he will NOT die when the skill is casted, it means u just gave him a few seconds to beat on u while u cast ur sluggish spell. Using DoC spells are all about timing and judgement. Get a feel for ur skill and how much it hits an opponent, thats the best way to assure a smooth win.

How do I calculate my DoC?

This is alot simpler compared to DpS since cast time does not matter here.

Take the previous 2 examples.

Quote:

Terra Arrow
1.65 amp
+63.4 additional attack

Quote:

Terra Break
1.75 amp
+1045.6 additional attack

And here's the DoC calculations. Similiarly with a 500magic 500 attack base.

Quote:

Terra arrow
1.65 x 500(amp)
+63.4 (add. atk)
DoC : 888.40

Quote:

Terra break
1.75 x 500(amp)
+1045.6 (add. atk)
DoC: 1920.6

As you can see, Terra break is much larger in DoC, and thus can be casted when the person has more hp, and allows more room for mistake.

OceanWave · Guild Leader

Disclaimer

For this part of the guide its based on research done by me and my guildies. I tried my best to get as close to the actual number as possible. If anyone wants to correct me on this section, feel free to do so, I'd change it and credit it to you. All names of skills and people are fictional.

Def

What is Def?

Def is short for Defence. Defence is probably as important in cabal as attack and magic. 1 defence DOES NOT block 1 damage all the time. I was wrong about this part in my previous versions, defence calculation is THE MOST COMPLICATED calculation in advanced gameplay. I shall explain later.

How is Def important?
Defence in cabal is very crucial. It gives ur survivability and the ability to take in many hits even with a low hp. The ability of absolute guard also adds to how important this stats is.

For those who has played maple out there, all know that defence in maple is bulls**t. With 0 seconds cooldown pots and an invunerability frame, def is just about as useful as dung. However, any player of cabal attempting to play with 0 def and 92342834672435423232364 magic and attack is prolly gonna die at least a hundred times before he hits lvl 50.

------------------------------------

Defence and damage block

Ok first of all, after 3 days of testing during our grinding breaks. Me and my research team has only scratch the very minimum of this part of cabal. It's almost impossible to set all the constants here to a lab-scenario and thus we have not come up with the formula yet. However we DID find out ALL the factors affecting defence and damage block and how it relates to the calculation.

The following are a list of the factors and how they relate:

Damage
Amazingly as it seems, damage DOES affect the calculation. We stumbled upon this when testing damage and formulaes. Here's what we found out:

The higher the incoming damage, the higher the amount of damage blocked PER point of defence. Graph is a curve with a high gradient value

Eg.
(With assumption you have 800 def, and there is no level difference.)

2 attacks come at you, Sissy Slap (1195 dmg) and Wail-of-the-Ah-Gua (1500 dmg)

Your defence will block around 1080 dmg from Sissy slap,
and around 1289 dmg from Wail-of-the-Ah-Gua

Defence amount

This is amount of defence points you have. This is also another very amazing factor. What we have found out if actually controversial to what was previously assumed by alot of players.

The more defence you have, the less amount of damage blocked PER point of defence. Graph is a curve with a very gentle slope

Eg.
(With assumption attack damage is 1266 and there is no level difference)

2 people recieve an attack,
1337dudewithcraparmour (600 def) and DaPhatTanker(800 def)

1337dudewithcraparmour's defence block around 902 damage; or 1.503 damage per point of defence
DaPhatTank's defence blocks 1124 damage; or 1.405 damage per point of armour

Level difference

Tadah. We now have solid evidence that level difference DOES affect the amoung of damage blocked. Noone ever tried proving this before and now we have >

==v

The higher the level difference the more damage is blocked. Unable to plot graph due to lack of data.

Eg.
(Assuming damage is 1081 and defence is 600 and target level is 130)

Off topic: #%@$^%#@ You hve NO idea how much trouble it is to set all 3 damages to a similar value. It actually isnt 981 for all 3, it was 1079-1083, so I took the average

3 people are attacking,
N00bsauce(lvl 66), Fakepro1314(108) and PwnJ00rAssman(130).

N00bsauce did 6 dmg ( noob! hahaha ._.)
Fakepro1314 did 72 damage
PwnJ00rAssman did 114 damage

-------------------------------------------

Absolute guarding
How many of you are FSes or warriors here? For that fact, probably anyone would have encountered this:

Say you have X def and a mob comes along.

*WHACK*

He hits you for 100 dmg.

2 days later u come back with X+5 def and he hits you for 15 damage.

This is because you have absolute guarded his damage. This is how it works

From what I have researched, the absolute guard rate is 20% of your total def. What that means is this.

Let's assume u have 1000 def.
Lets assume there are 2 mobs,
Let's assumre 1 def blocks 1 damage here,
Squirrel has 1300 atk
Chipmunk has 1150 atk.

Without absolute guard, you would take:

1300-1000= 300 dmg from squirrel
1150-1000= 150 dmg from chipmunk

However, absolute guard exists.
The absolute guard amount is 20% of ur def, or 1000 x 20%, or 200.

So lets recalculate for the mobs.

Squirrel hits u for 300.
300 is larger then 200?
Yes.
So no dmg is guarded and he hits you the full 300.

Chipmunk hits u for 150
150 is larger then 200?
No.
So all the damage is guarded and u recieve minimum damage.

Minimum damage is 10% x character/mob level.

-- Edited by OceanWave at 08:45, 2008-08-01

OceanWave · Guild Leader

Combo sets

Why should I have different combo sets?

Combo sets are lineup of specific skills that allows to to adapt to situations as and when you need to. They also allow you more flexibility since squeezing all your skills into 1 bar is gonna be suicidal. In addition, different comboes steps provide on-the-fly adjustments to situations so when a new threat comes into the scene, you will be ready to take it on without much problems.

What are the main types of combo sets?

I shall go into these with abit of detail. An average person should pick 3 of of these and leave the last bar as a Buffs, Aura & BM bar. Choose according to what your skills can handle.

Note: No matter what set it is, your potion button should ALWAYS remain where it is. ALWAYS. Otherwise you'd find yourself dead cause you were tapping some other key.

Armour breaker

This set of comboes are geared towards attacking opponents that have amazingly high def values. In a pvp, its usually warriors and shielders and some of the other classes that went "heavy"

Skill types: You should go for skills with moderate-high DoCs and good cast times. These skills are least affected by the high def values and can easily nullify it. DoTs(Damage over time spells) are also a must in this set since they do full damage to all armours)

Good against: Slow, lugging, high armoured units. Warriors DO fall into this cateogory, shielders less so, heavy FBs less so. Amazingly enough, bladers ARE slow. Their main skills have disgustingly huge cast times: saying that, a heavy blader would fall pretty easily to this combo set too The DoTs skills in this are also extremely excellent in breaking through those thick plates.

Bad against: Agile, fast, martialed units. This includes archers, wizards and FBs. One of the primary reasons is that with proper tatics, these people can make you lose your combo and attack them without it. Your skills are also probably pretty slow and thus, missing ANY particular one of it would seriously put a dent into you.

Rapid/Peirce sets

This one is aimed at break down single units with moderate or low armour. Since they have lowish armour, it means all of your spells are gonna be hitting as close to their pure DpS as possible.

Skill types: You should set skills with very low cast times around 1-2.5 seconds. Skills like Shield sharge(1.3 cast time), Assualt(1.1 cast time), Shadow shot(1.3 cast time), Vital interfere(1.0 cast time) and other such skills are perfect examples of things to add this this set. Oh FYI impact stab has the one of the highest dps when used in a combo.

Good against: Virtually anything with low armour. Your high speed attacks also mean that even if you miss an attack, its not gonna cost u alot.

Bad against: Armour-clad foes. Def is going to take a HUGE toll on this entire set. You're probably not even going to scratch your opponent very much. Which is why you need to have another set to take that on.

Hybrid Crud sets

As the name suggest this set of combo is meant to handle both the harder and softer targets. However it's somehow extremely effective to players equip with battle sets. This set is also effective against most boss typed monsters(they have higher defence values, but not all that high to need to use an Armour breaker combo)

Skill types: Spells with moderate-low cast times are the ones we're looking at here. These spells have cast times ranging from 2.0-3.2 seconds (give and take totally up to you). You'd want quick disablers thrown in every now and then too. Gravity bind vital interfere energyfield/spacial collapse are good additions to this set(Note: Stun doesnt work well when your opponent is combo-ing) Some DoTs spells are needed here too, but keep it minimum.

Important: You should only have a maximum of 1 disabler thrown in in every 1-2 combo loops

Good against: The thing about this set if that it is virtually possible to use it for any type of opponent. Also excels extremely well against FAs and FBs(non-heavy) The stuns, if triggered, buys you that few split seconds of time to break off their digustingly strong comboes.

Bad against: Nothing much to be honest. However the main weakness of this set is that it lacks the very impressive DpS provided by the last two sets. A simple beginner set though abit of tweaking can allow for better play too.

Destruction Db Mobbing set
It's a D(Flat) not a "Dee-Bee"

The only reason you'd use this set for pvp is either cause ur thick in the head or you made a mistake and chose it by accident. This is a mobbing set. Full stop. The Db set is tuned to take down small waves of mobs in the fastest time. However only use it if you can tank the mobs or if some party mate is using as stunlock combo. Good set for FA FB and bladers.

Skill types: AVOID KNOCKBACK SKILLS. I can't stress this enough. It's oh-so-pissing when you are mobbing and some nutjob partymate decides to hero (Especially smartalec archers and their thrusting arrows) and knock back all your mobs and you find yourself unable to mob them all. Limit 1 is pure crap. Limit 2 is your friend, Limit 3 is oookaaayyyy, but not advisable. Limit 4/5 is just overkill. Focus on high DpS(0 Def) spells here trying your best to avoid down and stun skills since doing so would easily ruin the combos of a stunlocker(potentially fatal).

Good against: If your spells are ranged, its a 2x2 square, if its melee, its a 3x3 square with you as the center. This set is amazingly good at mobbing and can rake exp and kills extremely well.

Bad against: PvP. Its a MOBBING set. Players are not mobs. Also extremely fatal if used against mobs with the potential to kill you or if noone is tanking those mobs for you.

Destruction D# Mobbing set

A larger version of the Db set. Another mobbing set suited for large mob quantities like in Ruina Station and EoD B1F/2F. More Mobs = More danger, so use this ONLY if you are sure your tanker can hold his aggro or is using a stun lock set. Good set for wizards warriors and FSes.

Skill types: Again, avoid knock back and try to reduce stuns and downs(its ok if you cant, don't compromise on DpS) Limit 1 and 2 shouldn't exist, Limit 3 is cool, limit 4 also alright. Limit 5 is still overkill. You don't need it. High DpS(0 Def) Spells are a focus here, you want to deal as much damage as you can.

Good against: Large waves of mobs. Range AoE for limit 3 is a 3x3 square; melee is a 4x4 square with you in the middle. Limit 4 is a 5x5 square with you in the middle. Another good set to rake major exp in one hit. Probably the best set for mass hunting.

Bad against: PvP; worse so than the Db set. Please make sure you can tank whatever you're hitting, or that they are being stunlocked, or you're gonna find 8-15 mobs slapping you madly lols.