So I decided to remake my phasecast build. But without driver and elemental projector. 40% base reduction 40% elemental reduction from skills. (Up to) 29%+ 18% from class mod.
I feel like a tank, literally and metaphorically. Is this to much or should I try for higher by dropping defense?
It depends. If you’re killing things at a comfortable pace for you, then it’s good. If not, I’d drop some of the defense for more damage.
I know that damage reduction has diminishing returns, so the higher you go, the less it actually provides for you than what’s added up. I just don’t know the formula for those diminishing returns.
In BL2 at least, it was
Final damage= incoming damage / (1+ dmg reduction)
So for instance, 100% dmg reduction meant you took half damage. 200% meant you took one third, etc.
Nice rolls on that mod
I ran something similar for a long time. The tankiness is great and you can still kill with ease. I only ran into an issue when I did the raid, as I had an ammo issue. Could still kill stuff and tank, but eventually ran out of ammo at times. For all other content I never had an issue.
I’ve scored 1m using a few guns with Fl4k, no such thing as too much damage. You can get 1m with Amara driver builds using a hellwalker, that’s fun.
Did some tests on damage reduction today with Helping Hands and a class mod. Found the results surprising.
The class mod has “-18% Damage Reduction”:
This is calculated in the “diminishing returns” way known from BL2: 100% / (100% + 18%) = 100% / 118% = 84.7%. So with this one, you effectively take ~85% damage when hit.
However, the value from Helping Hands is actually “real” damage reduction: when it says “40% damage reduction” at 5/5, you actually take ~60% damage when hit. This is approximate because there’s some formula behind Helping Hands and the value it states is rounded.
Tested this with a grenade that dealt 2168 dmg to my shield:
Now without the class mod but 5/5 (“40%”) in Helping Hands:
With both (-18% from the mod and “44%” from 6/5 in Helping Hands), the formula should be this:
I’m pretty sure this is how it works; it is certain that 40% in Helping Hands does not do that “1 / 1.4” thing because the test results are much lower.
I’ve seen arguments about damage “reduction” vs. “resistance”, but in this case both are called “damage reduction” even though they’re calculated differently. So I don’t think you can make any general assumptions on calculation based on the description’s wording.
edit: by reverse-engineering I think I’ve found the actual formula for Helping Hands: 1 / (100% + 13.2% × rank):
Which would mean that it actually still works the old way, only that the description states the actual reduction in damage instead (12%, 21%, 28%, 35%, 40%, 44%, 48%) – while the class mod still gives the value that is actually in the formula.
Guess what, remember how I said that the formula resulted in 1300.8 but actual shield reduction was 1306? – 2168 / (100% + 0.132 × 5) = 1306.0.
With 6/5 and the class mod, now it’s 2168 × 1 / (100% + 13.2% × 6) × 1 / (100% + 18%) = 1025.3. Shield was actually reduced by 1025.
Ye, but using a Driver with the Hellwalker feels awful. Your Fire Rate is horrible compared to a Phasezerker. You end up doing way less damage than you could.
3 points in altricity or fast hands makes a world of difference, I have transcendence and fast hands on my driver build now and I run circles around anointed militants with the hellwalker but the buff from altricity is unreal with zerker.
