Battle for Azeroth: New Formula for Calculating Ability Damage

Beta Posted 2018/02/15 at 9:03 AM by Archimtiros

alpha build 26010ArchimtirosnuoHepShield SlamHowling BlastHow it works in LegionFrostscytheCutlassFrost Death Knight

(7 + 10232 / 3.5 * 2.4) * 1.35 * 1.12 * 1.28 = 13,592 minimum damage
(12 + 10232 / 3.5 * 2.4) * 1.35 * 1.12 * 1.28 = 13,602 maximum damage
(13592 + 13602) / 2 = 13,597 average damage, which matches the tooltip

Changes in Battle for AzerothFrostscythe

(Primary Stat + Weapon DPS * 6) * AP Coefficient * Damage Multiplier

Authors note: Adjustments have been made over the course of the Alpha/Beta process - the formula is now AP + WDPS * 6 rather than multiplied by 7, as it was at the time of writing this article. Under Blizzard's new naming conventions, (Primary Stat + Weapon DPS * 6) is now referred to as "attack power".CutlassFrost Death Knight

(363 + 1.73 * 7) * 0.162 * 1.12 * 1.28 = 87 damage, which matches the tooltip

By using weapon DPS instead of the weapon's damage range, there's no variance in ability damage; every cast of the ability will deal the same damage (x, x+1), provided no change of de/buffs. Many AP-only scaling abilities, such as Shield Slam do this in Legion already, but others do not.

Due to common attack speeds across weapon types, there's no longer any need to normalize weapon speed, a feature that's been in the game since Vanilla Patch 1.8.

The auto-attack damage formula appears to have been changed in Battle for Azeroth as well, although we haven't quite figured out exactly how yet. Currently auto-attacks on the Alpha are contributing an inordinately large amount of damage for many classes, so it could very well change again. In Legion it's:

(Weapon Damage + Attack Power / 3.5 * Weapon Speed) * Damage Multiplier

Casters are not affected by this change; their spells currently gain no value from weapon damage on live or in the Battle for Azeroth Alpha. Instead, they use Spell Power via Intelligence, which their weapons tend to have a higher than normal amount of, to compensate for ignoring weapon damage.

With both the Legion and Battle for Azeroth formulas, abilities with offhand components, such as Raging Blow, use the formula separately for each weapon, halfing offhand damage as a final multiplier. This way, both attacks benefit from the combined attack power, but only their own individual weapon damage/DPS.

The new formula has been derived largely through exploration, and may not be exact. Although many abilities have been tested, some may still work differently, whether by oversight or design, while others currently have inaccurate tooltips.

always subject to change

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Comment by bloodmoth13sooooooo i can use dual daggers on my fury warrior? or on my enh shaman? or knifey outlaw rogue?Comment by GendouDruids have always had a weird relationship with weapon power - how do they stand now?Comment by Sywardsooooooo i can use dual daggers on my fury warrior? or on my enh shaman? or knifey outlaw rogue?http://www.wowhead.com/news=281764/battle-for-azeroth-class-abilities-scale-with-attack-power-instead-of-weapon-damComment by ArchimtirosIt's still early though, who knows maybe they'll remove the weapon restrictions on some spells?Comment by mobhunterThe big question that I have is whether this will affect basic pet damage for hunters as well. BM hunters especially got the short end of the stick in Legion with basic pet damage not going up much as artifact leveled up. Gear directly affecting all pet damage would be a big step in the right direction.Comment by evilmark443sooooooo i can use dual daggers on my fury warrior? or on my enh shaman? or knifey outlaw rogue?http://www.wowhead.com/news=281764/battle-for-azeroth-class-abilities-scale-with-attack-power-instead-of-weapon-damComment by ArchimtirosThe big question that I have is whether this will affect basic pet damage for hunters as well. BM hunters especially got the short end of the stick in Legion with basic pet damage not going up much as artifact leveled up. Gear directly affecting all pet damage would be a big step in the right direction.Comment by SalvadoreIt's Alpha your Damage is pointless untill they are more close to the final release...Comment by mobhunterThe big question that I have is whether this will affect basic pet damage for hunters as well. BM hunters especially got the short end of the stick in Legion with basic pet damage not going up much as artifact leveled up. Gear directly affecting all pet damage would be a big step in the right direction.Fast Times at Ridgemont High,Comment by hostilesooooooo i can use dual daggers on my fury warrior? or on my enh shaman? or knifey outlaw rogue?Comment by bass679sooooooo i can use dual daggers on my fury warrior? or on my enh shaman? or knifey outlaw rogue?Comment by rincewiz42This is essentially how Diablo 3 works – weapon damage * ability coefficients. The formula as presented is just one way to arrange the math for it.

This is interesting because of how caster weapons currently work in WoW, which is to effectively remove "weapon dps" from the item in question to push into Intellect on the stat budget. If you didn't need to do that anymore because spells just used weapon dps directly, then more weapons could be shared amongst all classes (a most egregious example is the caster vs melee staff).

If Blizzard sees difficulty in obtaining weapons as a problem, I would think they would heavily consider this – sharing has generally made it easier for all since niche weapons always only seem to drop when the niche users aren't around :).

Of course at that point there also wouldn't be any difference between Strength/Agility/Intellect in terms of ability usage. But they could still limit auto-attack damage increases to Strength/Agility simply by having different "auto attack" spells under the hood – and Intellect classes just get one that doesn't include Intellect in the coefficient.Comment by rodalphoMonk abilities used to scale with Weapon DPS back in MoP/WoD. This allowed them to use both DW and 2H weapons largely interchangeably. This was changed in Legion for no reason that I can discern. I thought it was a bad decision at the time, but it didn't make a huge amount of difference because they had to use their artifact weapon anyway.

This is a great change, and long overdue. It means Fury Warriors, Frost DKs, and Monks can switch between DW and 2H as they like. It means Outlaw rogues can use fast daggers, as weapon speed no longer matters. With a bit of rejiggering on Lava Lash, Enhance Shamans could use 2Hers too. Flexibility is a good thing, particularly after an entire expansion where we were all forced to use a specific weapon the entire time!Comment by neoslayyerThe big question that I have is whether this will affect basic pet damage for hunters as well. BM hunters especially got the short end of the stick in Legion with basic pet damage not going up much as artifact leveled up. Gear directly affecting all pet damage would be a big step in the right direction.Comment by ArchimtirosMonk abilities used to scale with Weapon DPS back in MoP/WoD. This allowed them to use both DW and 2H weapons largely interchangeably. This was changed in Legion for no reason that I can discern. I thought it was a bad decision at the time, but it didn't make a huge amount of difference because they had to use their artifact weapon anyway.

This is a great change, and long overdue. It means Fury Warriors, Frost DKs, and Monks can switch between DW and 2H as they like. It means Outlaw rogues can use fast daggers, as weapon speed no longer matters. With a bit of rejiggering on Lava Lash, Enhance Shamans could use 2Hers too. Flexibility is a good thing, particularly after an entire expansion where we were all forced to use a specific weapon the entire time!possibleComment by ArchimtirosThe big question that I have is whether this will affect basic pet damage for hunters as well. BM hunters especially got the short end of the stick in Legion with basic pet damage not going up much as artifact leveled up. Gear directly affecting all pet damage would be a big step in the right direction.Comment by ArchimtirosThis is essentially how Diablo 3 works – weapon damage * ability coefficients. The formula as presented is just one way to arrange the math for it.

This is interesting because of how caster weapons currently work in WoW, which is to effectively remove "weapon dps" from the item in question to push into Intellect on the stat budget. If you didn't need to do that anymore because spells just used weapon dps directly, then more weapons could be shared amongst all classes (a most egregious example is the caster vs melee staff).

If Blizzard sees difficulty in obtaining weapons as a problem, I would think they would heavily consider this – sharing has generally made it easier for all since niche weapons always only seem to drop when the niche users aren't around :).

Of course at that point there also wouldn't be any difference between Strength/Agility/Intellect in terms of ability usage. But they could still limit auto-attack damage increases to Strength/Agility simply by having different "auto attack" spells under the hood – and Intellect classes just get one that doesn't include Intellect in the coefficient.Comment by mathiaslindbergWell-written post. I would like to see them couple 1 handers into a single item, like they've done with artifacts, so you don't need twice as many weapon drops if you prefer a wand over a staff.Comment by ArrayaI just really hope we're able to dual wield 1Hs on Fury Warrior again, and they remove weapon restrictions from Abilities like Sinister Strike, etc.Comment by rodalpho
Well, not really. There are no "fast daggers" anymore, they're all 1.8 speed(snip)

It doesn't mean you can switch any more than it did before either, whether DPS or Weapon Damage is used, the bigger weapon (2hr) always wins. The only way to enable swapping without an imbalance is creating an effect which increases the output of smaller weapons (or lowers the output of larger ones), such as Fury's old passive ability Single Minded Fury (increased 1h damage by ~15% iirc). While it's possible that they'll do this again, I doubt it. It's just another unnecessary balancing headache.Rising Sun Kickhttps://wow.gamepedia.com/Way_of_the_Monkexactly

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