Savage Guide

By Trevanti

May 8, 2003  

Version 0.94 (Editor's note: last update was 12/15/02)

- Added explanation of Advanced Evade.
- Clarified HP Table question a bit.
- Corrected the weapon speeds. I'll fix the Haste equations when I get the time.

The Savage FAQ

I. Miscellaneous
II. Savagery Abilities
III. Hand-To-Hand Combat


I. Miscellaneous


What races can be Savages?

ALL Midgard races may join the House of Kelgor upon attaining level 5.


What are the primary statistics of the Savage?

Primary: Dexterity
Secondary: Quickness
Tertiary: Strength


What armor can the Savage wear?

The Savage starts wearing studded leather and will wear it their entire life.


What HP table is the Savage on?

A Level 50 Savage with 86 CON and no +Hits has ~1050 hitpoints.
A Level 50 Savage with 292 CON and ~+175 Hits has ~2100 hitpoints.


What kind of weapons can the Savage use?

The Savage may specialize in Hammers, Axes, Swords, or Hand-to-Hand weapons.


Can Savages use shields?

The Savage retains the small shield ability when becoming a Savage, but cannot specialize in the ability.


What level of Evade does the Savage get?

At level 30 the Savage gets Evade IV. At level 35, the Savage gets Advanced Evade.


What is Advanced Evade?

Advanced Evade allows you to "roll" for the chance to Evade an incoming attack in a full 360 arc around you. Normal Evade only allows for this chance in your frontal "in view" arc.


How much impact does QUI have on Evade?

This is something we'll never, ever know for certain. Mythic is not willing to release the formula to us because it is too ingrained in many other highly secret formulae. I am getting very conflicting statements pointing both directions (little effect, large effect), and am trying to find out for certain; especially considering the 50% Evade cap.


Can the Savage hit the 50% Evade Cap?

We have been told that if we expect to be highly buffed on Dex/Qui, then we probably won't need the Dodger RA.


What RA table is the Savage on?

The Savage RAs have not been published to the Herald yet. I will explain them as soon as I have the full information.


What is the Savage's unique RA?

I have heard it is called Ravager, but I do not have any information on it yet.


What are the starting stats of the Valkyn?

While not a Savage-specific question, I get this a lot: 55 STR, 45 CON, 65 DEX, 75 QUI, 60 PIE, 60 CHA are the Midgard relevant stats.


Why is the Valkyn, with it's low CON, such a poorly designed Race for Savages? I thought the new race would be designed for the new class!

I have no idea why they chose to do that. Honestly, I don't know what class the Valkyn IS best suited for!


Do any skills Autotrain?

No.


How many Specialization Points does the Savage receive each level?

1.5x




II. Savagery Abilities


What Savagery abilities does the Savage get?

See the Camelot Herald's listing of Savagery abilities.


Savagery abilities cost health instead of power. How does this work?

When the Savage chooses to activate a Savagery buff, the system checks to see if the savage currently has enough hit points to cover the cost of the ability. If he does not, the ability will not fire. If he does, the ability fires and lasts for it's given duration. At the end of the duration, the buff drops and the cost of the ability are taken from the Savage's hp pool (whatever the level of hits the Savage has at the time the buff drops).


How much health do Savagery abilities cost?

The cost of the abilities are based on a percentage of the Savages base hitpoints, rather than the level of hitpoints as a result of buffs, items, or stat bonuses. The first level buffs cost 5% and the top level cap out at 9%. This is with the exception of Health-to-Endurance ability, which starts at a cost of 5% and caps at 15%.


Can I activate more than one ability if I only have the health to cover the cost of one ability?

Yes. If you have 10% health, you can activate as many 9% (or less) abilities as you want.


Can using these abilities kill me?

No. If you do not have enough hits to cover the cost of a buff when the buff drops, you will simply be left with 1 hit point.


How long do the abilities last?

The Savagery abilities last for 30 seconds.


How many abilities can I have active at one time?

As many as you want.


How does the DPS buff work?

The DPS buff works differently than a standard Damage Add. Instead of adding a specific amount of damage to each hit, the DPS buff actually increases the DPS rating of your weapons for the duration. The DPS buff ranges in effect from 5% at the first level to 25% increase at the top level. This means if you have 16.5dps weapons and activate the 25% buff, you will effectively have 20.6dps weaponry for 30 seconds.

Here is a quick analysis of the 25% DPS buff done by malak8 (slightly altered for formatting by myself):

The Damage Formula is:

Damage = WeapDmg (which is a possibly capped weapon DPS) * Delay * Quality * Condition * (WeapSkill / Target's AF)

The AF of your target is:

Effective AF = Listed AF * Quality * (1 + (absorb * quality))

For total AF you multiply the AF formulae results by 6.(assuming all pieces are same AF and quality)

Effective AF = (Listed AF * Quality * (1 + (absorb * quality))) * 6

Effective AF = (102 * .99 * (1 + (.27 * .99))) * 6

Effective AF = (102 * .99 * (1 + (.26))) * 6

Effective AF = (102 * .99 * 1.26) * 6

Effective AF = (127) * 6

Effective AF = 762
___________________________________________________________________
Damage = WeapDmg (which is a possibly capped weapon DPS) * Delay * Quality * Condition * (WeapSkill / Target's AF)

Damage = 16.5 * 3.5 * .99 * .99 * (1600 / 762)

Damage = 16.5 * 3.5 * .99 * .99 * 2

Damage = 113

Now we activate the Savage DPS buff:

DPS = (WEAPON_DPS * .25) + WEAPON_DPS

DPS = (16.5 * .25) + 16.5 OR DPS = 16.5 * 1.25

DPS = 20.6

Now we do the damage formula again with the new DPS.

Damage = 20.6 * 3.5 * .99 * .99 * (1600 / 762)

Damage = 20.6 * 3.5 * .99 * .99 * 2

Damage = 141

So the difference in damage is 141 – 113 = 28.

So 28 / 3.5(weapon SPD) = 8 DPS.


Does the DPS buff stack with other Damage Adds?

Yes. You can have a Skald DA, a Shaman/Runemaster DA, and your own DPS buff active simultaneously.


Is our DPS buff affected by resists?

Yes. Our DPS buff adds directly to the DPS of our weaponry, and thus the additional damage is tempered by the targets resistance to our weaponry damage type.


How does the Haste buff work?

The Haste buff works similar to that of the Warden or Friar. As such, I'm stealing my explanation from Neill, the Warden Team Leader's website (with slight alterations for the Savage specific info).

Haste reduces your swing time (weapon delay). As a result it magnifies your base and critical hit damage because you swing more times and because haste does not significantly lower your damage per hit. There is apparently a very minor reduction to damage due to not getting a slow weapon bonus, but this difference is in the area of a couple points of damage per hit (it's not significant). So with a quickness of 60 and a 39% haste you do 63% more base and critical damage (1/(1-0.39)).

As mentioned, haste only impacts base and critical damage. It does not benefit style or damage add damage. They are fixed at a specific DPS. So when you swing faster due to a haste effect the damage done with styles and damage adds is reduced for each hit such that over time you do the same amount of damage as if you were not hasted.

The downside to all this is that style fatigue cost is not reduced to compensate for the lessened damage of the styles while hasted. So with the haste buff up after burning a full bar of end you do 39% less style damage that if you had not cast it.

As an example of haste impact, suppose you have enough quickness to get a 10% haste effect (approximately 120), are spec 48 in Savagery (39% haste), and wield a 3.2s delay Hand-to-Hand Claw. Your effective delay is:
3.2s * (1-0.10) * (1-0.39) = 1.7s

Assuming the weapon has 16.5dps, the 3.2s weapon unhasted would hit for 16.5 * 3.2 = 52.8. Assume each base speed hit is augmented by either 20 points of style damage or 20 points of damage add.

In a 30 second fight (the duration of the Haste buff), the 3.2s weapon affected only by your natural Quickness haste would hit would hit 10 times for 528 damage and 180 style/DA damage (completely unhasted at 3.2 seconds you could only hit for 9 full styles/DAs at 180 damage). A hasted 3.2s weapon (effectively 1.7s) would hit 17 times for 897.6 damage and 180 style/DA damage (style/DA damage does not improve with Haste). The effective damage improvement is 1077.6 / 708 = 52% damage improvement with a 70% base and critical damage improvement.

This analysis is made assuming the presence of a Shaman to keep the Savage from running out of endurance.


Is the DPS buff affected by the Haste buff?

Using the example above for reference, we activate the DPS buff. The weapon becomes a 20.6dps weapon. A 3.2s weapon with 20.6dps will hit for 65.9 damage each swing.

In a 30 second fight, the 16.5dps, 3.2s weapon affected only by your natural Quickness haste would hit 10 times for 528 damage and 180 style/DA damage. A hasted 20.6dps, 3.2s weapon would hit 17 times for 1120.3 damage and 180 style/DA damage. The net improvement with both buffs is 1300.3 / 708 = 84% damage improvement, with a 112% base and critical damage improvement.

Again, this is with a Shaman endurance buff.


How does the Savage's ability to dual/triple/quadruple hit affect the DPS/Haste buffs?

The more the Savage swings, the more chances he has to dual/triple/quadruple hit his enemy.

Let's say the Savage has a 50% chance to triple hit their enemy. How does that change the effects of the DPS and Haste?

In a 30 second fight, the 16.5dps, 3.2s weapons affected only by your natural Quickness haste would hit 10 + (10*3*.5) = 25 times for 1320 damage plus 180 style/DA damage. A hasted 20.6dps, 3.2s weapon would hit 17 + (17*3*.5) = 42 times for 2217.6 damage plus 180 style/DA damage. The net improvement of both buffs if the Savage triple hits 50% of the time is 2397.6 / 1500 = 60% damage improvement, with a 68% base and critical damage improvement.

The ability to triple hit 50% of the time, combined with the DPS and Haste buffs, would improve damage over a non-hasted, single swinging character using the same exact weapon by 238% when using styles.


Are the Evade/Parry buffs additional or multiplicative?

The Evade/Parry buffs are additional. This means that, when active, the % of the buff is added to the base chance to Parry/Evade. I.e. - If the Savage has a base chance of 20% to Evade/Parry and activates the 25% buff, they will have a net 45% chance to Evade/Parry.


What about the Melee Resistance Buffs?

The same is true of the Melee Resistance buffs. They are additional as well.


Does the Savagery Taunt ability interrupt casters?

Yes.


Do +Savagery items have any effect?

I do not see a use for +Savagery items at the moment.




III. Hand-To-Hand Combat


What are the HTH styles?

See the Camelot Herald's listing of HTH Styles.


What are the stat modifiers on Hand-to-Hand weapons?

Hand-to-Hand weapons are based on Strength and Dexterity.


Can a Savage perform HTH styles with other weapons in either hand?

No.


Can a Savage wield any weapon in either hand?

The Savage can only wield weapons labeled "usable in left hand" in their left hand. There are now weapons other than axes in Midgard that are labeled this way that the Savage can use.


The Savage has PBAE weapon styles. How does this work?

When used, the ability will hit a designated number of enemies that are within melee range with the style.


What are the benefits of specializing in HTH weapons?

There are many benefits:

1. You gain access to two damage types: slash and thrust
2. You increase your chance to dual, triple, or even quadruple hit in a single combat round.
3. You narrow your damage variance when using HTH type weaponry.


What affects your chance to dual, triple, or quadruple hit?

Your chance to dual/triple/quad hit is based on your attack roll and your specialization in HTH. I have noticed that it is very rare to ever triple hit before ~20 spec in HTH (I had a total of two triples between spec 16 and 21).


Do dual, triple, or quadruple hits affect all enemies hit by a PBAE style?

I do not know yet.


How fast are HTH weapons?

Right now, from memory, it looks like the slash weapons are 3.5s and the thrust weapons are 3.7s. Please let me know if you find different.


Can you hit 3 or 4 times when using non-HTH weapons? (two axes or a hammer/sword for instance)

Yes. You can even use non-HTH styles and still hit multiple times.


Trolls start with very low DEX / QUI - won't they make terrible Savages?

Using a troll to start the game, with 35 Quickness. We then take him to level 50, adding 23 Quickness by way of autoraising (if Quickness is Secondary stat). Then buff him up with capped +75 QUI gear. Give him a Shaman Dex/Qui buff for another 70 points.

That gives Mr. Troll 203 Quickness.

Based on Neill's formula that 6 points of Quickness over 60 are about equal to 1% Haste, this 203 Quickness gives the troll a natural haste of 23% ( (203-60)/6 ).

So then we take his weapons, the slowest available HTH at 3.2s and apply his natural haste to the weapons. This results in a weapon delay of 2.4s. If this troll were to get Savagery up to the 39% Haste buff, he'd then have weapons whose delay is 1.5s, which is right at the speed cap.

Let's then say Mr. Troll can't find a Shaman to help him. He's got a Quickness of 133. That's a natural haste of about 12%. That gives him a natural weapon delay of 2.8 and a Hasted weapon delay of 1.7.

So you see, even a troll, starting with the lowest Quickness possible, is able to get near the weapon speed cap at level 50 with the slowest HTH weapon available. This is, of course, assuming that the 6 points per 1% haste is valid post-200.


Are there 16.5 dps HTH weapons?

Yes, player-crafted. There are also 16.2dps Darkness Falls weapons available.


Why would you make an Axe/Hammer/Sword Savage?

Some people prefer the Axe or Hammer style lines to the HTH line. There aren't really any good ANYTIME styles in the HTH line, while something like Axe has a pretty good anytime style and a decent Parry style. 2H Axe specs are certainly a viable option (My level 44 2h Axe/Savagery Savage was evenly matched against a level 45 Axe Zerker).

Trevanti - "Trevanti"