Greedy Goblin

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Gearing for DP when everyone else gears for AP

Black Desert Online gear balance is far from perfect. Given two equal characters with equally skilled players, if we give one defense point to Adam and one attack point to Betty, Betty will start to win more in 1v1. This leads to people stacking AP. As armor has no AP (but can have accuracy), this means focusing on AP offhand and accessories, leading to the situation where top AP accessories are very expensive and people spend unhealthy amount of time trying to get them while top DP accessories are cheap. Also, most players play ranged glass cannon classes like wizzard or ranger to kill enemies before they can respond.

Why do I stack DP instead when "everybody" knows it's useless? Because I can't care less about 1v1. While I don't have time (or actual idea) to start a guild and not really thinking about joining anyone else's guild just to listen to stupid chat on the mandatory voice comms. These comms are a large negative to me in any game because no matter how good reason was behind their making, they quickly degrade to "friendly banther" which I can't suffer.

I participated in lots of Red Battlefield matches (no chat there) and saw the problem of this "warfare": everyone is skirmishing on the edges as moving in first would mean very quick death. Everyone is looking for someone making a mistake and people usually don't.

I realized that I can break this setup by charging in with full defense buffs as a Valkyrie. I still die fast, but as I force the enemy to focus me or I CC them, my team can finish them off. Every charge costs the enemy more deaths than my own. I don't see why would it work differently in other mass battles, like node and siege wars. Since I'm instantly focused, I'm lucky if I can cast a single CC before being CC-ed and then killed. So AP is worth near zero to me. DP and damage reduction on the other hand elongates my life, even if just by seconds, giving more time to my friendlies to finish them off.

This isn't just some random strategy, but comparative advantage at work. Someone has to move in first and no matter how little the difference of survival time of a glass cannon wizard and a full tank Valkyrie, it's obvious that the Valk is better to move in. Practically I trade my defense for their offense (I tank for them, they shoot for me), so I should focus on more defense.

I plan to prove this theory by getting to the Red Battlefield toplist. When I have more time playing (real life got really busy recently), I will test it in sieges too.

7 comments:

Empz said...

As far as I know, you need kills to get higher in den rbf list. Sure with def you could make kills too... but topping the rbf list would take longer. Don't get me wrong, i don't say its impossible, but i think there are faster ways.
One faster way would be playing only limited rbf with 150ap 150dp and +humandamage on every accessory slot that doesn't give you resist chances.
For a dp build i think the best place is in group pvp, where to group knows what you do and what they should do.
Charging in, cc AND get out(!) is something i do with my maewha if there are no viable targets i could kill. After that point i see a charge of a tanky dp char much more valueable to get the ranged dd in position.

maxim said...

I'd like to point out that gearing for DP in that scenario is not "fun" for most people :D
In fact, this is one of the main problem with the standart tank'n'spank model. Tanking is usually nowhere near as fun as dps (or even heals, for that matter).

Gevlon said...

@Empz: I usually have zero kills in Red Battlefield, yet I'm already in A grade. I guess it's winrate based.

@maxim: yes. "Fun", the ultimate defeat source of M&S. Although I can't imagine how can it be not fun to jump into a dozen players, cast a Divine Power: Ultimate and stun all of them and then just see them die in the arrow shower of Rangers.

Anonymous said...

"In fact, this is one of the main problem with the standart tank'n'spank model. Tanking is usually nowhere near as fun as dps (or even heals, for that matter)."

I hate DPS with a passion, I will do anything to avoid being a DPS class, but, different strokes for different folks.

I also have no real passion for wtfpwning dozens of players in one go like Gevlon either, keeping a dozen players alive while it is happening however....

Anonymous said...

These comms are a large negative to me in any game because no matter how good reason was behind their making, they quickly degrade to "friendly banther" which I can't suffer.
Ohh this! so very much this! I don't even bother anymore to join guilds with new games. I just solo or group up with my partner if he wants to play the game too. we duod the small guild bosses and consider BDOs pve "won". As duo, nodewars seems to be out of the question, daum PRed it that solo could participate but we don't see how.

I do miss healer gameplay and hybrid-healer gameplay. there is none in BDO so everything evoles around suicide-nuke-pvp, hence the redicilous AP stacking. Gevlons DP+CC charge strategy is the right thing to do. Also horsemounted wizards with max meteor and blizard is the right thing to do. These are viable options to disruped a back-and-forth zerg-v-zerg situation.

Unknown said...

Have you considered that the "full glass cannon builds on everyone and then we play a game of chicken where the first mover loses" is simply the Nash equilibrium of BDO PvP? Is powerful gear cheap enough that you can afford to invest in a set of completely useless gear if it turns out that your few seconds of tanking for a non-coordinated team of random M&S gives you less wins than (for example) using the established setup and trying to focus fire with your team. It wouldn't matter that a fully defense geared Valk can tank more than a glass cannon wizard if tanking is a bad idea in the first place.

Gevlon said...

@Unknown: no, I didn't even consider that "the people" do anything right.