A look at MDEF and why Magic Users Need MDEF Pierce
Mar 26, 2019 12:59:02 GMT
GM Mercy and averagecabbage like this
Post by jaywalker on Mar 26, 2019 12:59:02 GMT
PART I - How Defense Works
Before we discuss why MDEF Pierce is necessary for magic users, we must first understand how damage is calculated in Ragnarok Online.
During the Pre-renewal days, DEF and MDEF were very straightforward. 1 point in DEF/MDEF gave a 1% reduction in damage received accordingly. This meant that if you had 90 DEF, you basically only take 10% of the physical damage you would have otherwise taken at 100% because 90 DEF gave 90% physical damage reduction. It works the same for MDEF and magic damage as well.
Then, everything changedwhen the Fire Nation attacked. in Renewal. Renewal introduced us to the concept of Soft and Hard defense values.
(Lowres pic incoming)
Soft DEF/MDEF provide flat damage reductions. Having 100 Soft DEF will reduce physical damage taken by a flat 100. Useful? Not so much. Perhaps in the early game, hence, we forget it ever exists. Like that ex you had back in High School who got mad at you because you were partnered up with a different girl at prom and it wasn't your fault because of the stupid rules of the- anyway, yeah, pretty useless stuff Soft DEF/MDEF is. You get the picture. Soft DEF/MDEF is gained from VIT and INT respectively.
Hard DEF/MDEF, however, is the beefier cousin of soft defense values. They provide percentage damage reduction. This is where it gets tricky. Hard DEF/MDEF affects damage received differently. Hard DEF/MDEF is gained from equipment.
For reference, here is a table interpreting the data taken from iRO.
For Hard DEF:
For Hard MDEF:
There are two things we can take-away from this:
1) stacking Hard defense values give diminishing returns.
PART II - The MDEF Problem
The Problem is that in Renewal, monsters have bloated MDEF values compared DEF values. To elaborate on this, I'll list down a few MVPs and analyze their DEF and MDEF values. Data will be taken from RMS.
Amon Ra:
DEF: 213 = 25% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 123 = 50% Magical Damage Reduction
Atroce:
DEF: 316 = 35% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 176 = 57% Magical Damage Reduction
Bacsojin:
DEF: 210 = 25% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 178 = 57% Magical Damage Reduction
Beelzebub:
DEF: 418 = 45% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 165 = 65% Magical Damage Reduction
Charleston 3:
DEF: 200 = 25% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 90 = 42% Magical Damage Reduction
Detale:
DEF: 364 = 35% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 166 = 57% Magical Damage Reduction
We can see that the damage reduction for Magical attacks are always higher. This, I feel like, is one of the main factors why magic users feel underwhelming in their damage outputs.
PART III - The Need for MDEF Pierce
With the crazy amounts of magical damage reduction monsters have in renewal, magic users output little damage compared to other DPS classes and they need some love. A solution to this is to bypass the high MDEF with MDEF Piercing gears. However, there are only very few gears with this ability making it a very limited option for magic users.
How does it work?
An equipment that has MDEF Pierce basically reduces the Hard MDEF of a monster by a specific percentage.
Let's say an equipment has an MDEF Pierce of 30% and he attacks Amon Ra (123 MDEF)
We remove 30% of Amon Ra's total Hard MDEF:
123 MDEF x 0.3 = 36.9 MDEF
123 MDEF - 36.9 MDEF = 86.1 MDEF
Without MDEF Pierce:
123 MDEF = 50% Magical Damage Reduction
With 30% MDEF Pierce:
86.1 MDEF = 43% Magical Damage Reduction
However, because of the low amount of MDEF required to achieve a high magic reduction, we can see that having low amounts of MDEF Pierce is actually pretty negligible. In order to make MDEF Pierce more effective, It has to be at a high value as well.
Let's try setting MDEF Pierce to 75% against Amon Ra as well:
30.75 MDEF = 21.5% Magical Damage Reduction
We see a big improvement to magical damage (+29% total damage). In theory, it should bring the raw damage up to par with other DPS classes.
To illustrate this point, I would like to show the difference between MDEF Pierce values of 0%, 30%, and 75% and then compare it with the Physical Damage Reduction:
Based on the table above, we can see that at 75% MDEF Pierce, the Magical Damage Reduction is normalized to the same amounts with the Physical Damage Reduction (with a little damage boost).
If we're considering creating gears that reach 100% MDEF, It's going to give a boost to MATK which I think is another great way to boost MATK users.
I'm also planning to design custom items that relates to this topic
PS. I enjoy creating analysis like these and I'm treating it as practice for my research and writing skills as well. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to write them down below.
Before we discuss why MDEF Pierce is necessary for magic users, we must first understand how damage is calculated in Ragnarok Online.
During the Pre-renewal days, DEF and MDEF were very straightforward. 1 point in DEF/MDEF gave a 1% reduction in damage received accordingly. This meant that if you had 90 DEF, you basically only take 10% of the physical damage you would have otherwise taken at 100% because 90 DEF gave 90% physical damage reduction. It works the same for MDEF and magic damage as well.
Then, everything changed
(Lowres pic incoming)
Soft DEF/MDEF provide flat damage reductions. Having 100 Soft DEF will reduce physical damage taken by a flat 100. Useful? Not so much. Perhaps in the early game, hence, we forget it ever exists. Like that ex you had back in High School who got mad at you because you were partnered up with a different girl at prom and it wasn't your fault because of the stupid rules of the- anyway, yeah, pretty useless stuff Soft DEF/MDEF is. You get the picture. Soft DEF/MDEF is gained from VIT and INT respectively.
Hard DEF/MDEF, however, is the beefier cousin of soft defense values. They provide percentage damage reduction. This is where it gets tricky. Hard DEF/MDEF affects damage received differently. Hard DEF/MDEF is gained from equipment.
For reference, here is a table interpreting the data taken from iRO.
For Hard DEF:
| Hard DEF | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 | 300 | 350 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 |
| Damage Reduction | 3.2% | 6.3% | 9.1% | 11.8% | 14.3% | 20% | 25% | 29% | 33% | 37% | 40% | 45% | 50% | 55% | 60% |
For Hard MDEF:
| Hard MDEF | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 | 70 | 90 | 110 | 120 | 140 | 160 | 180 | 200 |
| Damage Reduction | 5% | 8% | 15.2% | 21.2% | 31% | 38.6% | 44.7% | 50% | 51.8% | 57.4% | 59% | 62% | 64% |
There are two things we can take-away from this:
1) stacking Hard defense values give diminishing returns.
- You need 260 Hard DEF to reach 30% damage reduction but to reach 60% damage reduction, you'll need a total of 800 Hard DEF. That's more than twice what you needed to reach 30% reduction.
2) You need significantly lower Hard MDEF values to reach high magic damage reduction compared to physical damage reduction.
- To reach 60% damage reduction, you need 165 MDEF for magic and 800 DEF for physical.
PART II - The MDEF Problem
The Problem is that in Renewal, monsters have bloated MDEF values compared DEF values. To elaborate on this, I'll list down a few MVPs and analyze their DEF and MDEF values. Data will be taken from RMS.
Amon Ra:
DEF: 213 = 25% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 123 = 50% Magical Damage Reduction
Atroce:
DEF: 316 = 35% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 176 = 57% Magical Damage Reduction
Bacsojin:
DEF: 210 = 25% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 178 = 57% Magical Damage Reduction
Beelzebub:
DEF: 418 = 45% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 165 = 65% Magical Damage Reduction
Charleston 3:
DEF: 200 = 25% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 90 = 42% Magical Damage Reduction
Detale:
DEF: 364 = 35% Physical Damage Reduction
MDEF: 166 = 57% Magical Damage Reduction
We can see that the damage reduction for Magical attacks are always higher. This, I feel like, is one of the main factors why magic users feel underwhelming in their damage outputs.
PART III - The Need for MDEF Pierce
With the crazy amounts of magical damage reduction monsters have in renewal, magic users output little damage compared to other DPS classes and they need some love. A solution to this is to bypass the high MDEF with MDEF Piercing gears. However, there are only very few gears with this ability making it a very limited option for magic users.
How does it work?
An equipment that has MDEF Pierce basically reduces the Hard MDEF of a monster by a specific percentage.
Let's say an equipment has an MDEF Pierce of 30% and he attacks Amon Ra (123 MDEF)
We remove 30% of Amon Ra's total Hard MDEF:
123 MDEF x 0.3 = 36.9 MDEF
123 MDEF - 36.9 MDEF = 86.1 MDEF
Without MDEF Pierce:
123 MDEF = 50% Magical Damage Reduction
With 30% MDEF Pierce:
86.1 MDEF = 43% Magical Damage Reduction
However, because of the low amount of MDEF required to achieve a high magic reduction, we can see that having low amounts of MDEF Pierce is actually pretty negligible. In order to make MDEF Pierce more effective, It has to be at a high value as well.
Let's try setting MDEF Pierce to 75% against Amon Ra as well:
30.75 MDEF = 21.5% Magical Damage Reduction
We see a big improvement to magical damage (+29% total damage). In theory, it should bring the raw damage up to par with other DPS classes.
To illustrate this point, I would like to show the difference between MDEF Pierce values of 0%, 30%, and 75% and then compare it with the Physical Damage Reduction:
| Monster | Physical Damage Reduction | 0% Pierce | 30% Pierce | 75% Pierce |
| Amon Ra (123 MDEF) | 25% | 50% --> | 43% | 21.5% |
| Atroce (176 MDEF) | 35% | 57% --> | 52% | 29% |
| Bacsojin (178 MDEF) | 25% | 57% --> | 52% | 29% |
| Beelzebub (265 MDEF) | 45% | 65% --> | 62% | 37% |
| Charleston 3 (90 MDEF) | 25% | 42% --> | 36% | 16% |
| Detale (166 MDEF) | 35% | 57% --> | 51% | 26% |
Based on the table above, we can see that at 75% MDEF Pierce, the Magical Damage Reduction is normalized to the same amounts with the Physical Damage Reduction (with a little damage boost).
If we're considering creating gears that reach 100% MDEF, It's going to give a boost to MATK which I think is another great way to boost MATK users.
I'm also planning to design custom items that relates to this topic
PS. I enjoy creating analysis like these and I'm treating it as practice for my research and writing skills as well. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to write them down below.
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