I had a longer discussion with Telenn, grumcajs und Andreas on he private server’s boards about stacking buffs. Since I’m pretty limited in styling that and making it readable, here it is again, including two examples.

I’ll use the following two groups made up of 2 characters of each mentioned class:

• (nearly)Fotm: Knight of the blazing Sun, Slayer, Warrior priest
• Test group: Swordmaster, Engineer, Archmage

Mechanic

The buffs are sorted by their strenght, with the strongest one first and the weakest one last and then added up in the following way:

final effect = Strength[1]/1²+Strength[2]/2²+….+Strength[Position]/Position²

As an example, we’ll use the strength aura of six grouped up Knights of the blazing Sun, that maximised it to 120 points of strength:

final effect = 120/1+120/4+120/9+120/16+120/25+120/36
= 163
+36%

Expected Buffs

Group 1

Knight of the blazing Sun

I expect each Knight to have the following buffs active a majority of the time:

• Press the Attack(+75 Strength,Aura) x2
• Stand Strong!(+75 Toughness,Aura) x2
• Perseverance(+618 Armor)
• Dirty Tricks(+10% critical chance)
• Focussed Mending(+15% incoming Healing) x2
• Prayer of Absolution(+418 Armor) x2
• Fierceness(+3 Weapon skill) x2
• Armor potion(+900 Armor)

Effekt	Alt	Neu
Strength	+75	+94	+25%
Toughness	+75	+94	+25%
Armor	+900	+1118	+24%
Critical chance	+10	+10	+0%
Weapon skill	+3	+3	+0%
incoming Healing	+15	+19	+27%

Slayer

I expect both Slayers to have the following buffs active:

• Press the Attack(+75 Strength,Aura) x2
• Stand Strong!(+75 Toughness,Aura) x2
• Dirty Tricks(+10% Critical chance) x2
• Focussed Mending(+15% incoming healing) x2
• Prayer of Absolution(+418 Armor) x2
• Fierceness(+3 Weaponskill) x2
• Armor potion(+900 Armor)
• Even the Odds(+150 Toughness)

Effekt	Alt	Neu
Strength	+75	+94	+25%
Toughness	+150	+177	+18%
Armor	+900	+1051	+17%
Critical chance	+10	+13	+30%
Weaponskill	+3	+3	+0%
incoming Healing	+15	+19	+27%

Warrior priest

I expect the warrior priests to have the following relevant buffs:

• Stand Strong!(+75 Toughness,Aura) x2
• Dirty Tricks(+10% critical Chance) x2
• Focussed Mending(+15% incoming heal) x2
• Prayer of Absolution(+418 Armor) x2
• Rüstungstrank(+900 Armor)

Effekt	Alt	Neu
Toughness	+75	+94	+25%
Armor	+900	+1051	+17%
Critical chance	+10	+13	+30%
incoming Healing	+15	+19	+27%

Comment

All in all mostly the group’s defensive capabilities increased. I assume, that the group would use that to manually increase offensive stats via gear and renown points.

Group 2

Swordmaster

I expect swordmasters to be buffed in the following way:

• Nature’s Blade(+75 to all Stats except for Health) x2
• Aethyric Armor(+418 Armor)
• Armor potion(+900 Armor)
• Prismatic Shield(+157 Resistances) x2
• Burn salve(+157 elemental Resist) x2

Effekt	Alt	Neu
All attributes	+75	+94	+25%
Armor	+900	+1005	+12%
Resitances(spirit&corporeal)	+157	+196	+25%
Elemental resistance	+157	+223	+42%

Engineer

I assume Engineers will have the following buffs:

• Nature’s Blade(+75 to all Stats except for Health) x2
• Armor potion(+900 Armor)
• Prismatic Shield(+157 Resistances) x2
• Burn salve(+157 elemental Resist) x2
• Flak Jacket(+644 Rüstung)

Effekt	Alt	Neu
All attributes	+75	+94	+25%
Armor	+900	+1061	+18%
Resistances(spirit&corporal)	+157	+196	+25%
Elemental resistance	+157	+213	+42%

Archmage

The archmages will most likely be buffed in the following way:

• Nature’s Blade(+75 to all Stats except for Health) x2
• Armor potion(+900 Armor)
• Prismatic Shield(+157 Resistances) x2
• Burn salve(+157 elemental Resist) x2

Effekt	Alt	Neu
All attributes	+75	+94	+25%
Armor	+900	+900	+0%
resistances(spirit&corporal)	+157	+196	+25%
Elemental resistance	+157	+213	+42%

Comment

Especially due to the increase in the stat buffs this group should profit from the changes. A huge problem will be the Archmage, since they don’t feature a second or third armor buff the way the warrior priests have them. I assume, that they will invest into their defense as far as possible to offset this.

Expected Debuffs

Gruppe 1

I expect the target of the first group to suffer from the following debuffs:

• Stand Strong!(-75 Toughness,Aura) x2
• Enervating Blow(-100% critical chance) x2
• Looks Like a Challenge(-50% incoming ealing) x2
• Numbing Strike(-50% Block,-50% Parry) x2
• Pulverizing Strike(-75 Toughness) x2

That ends up as:

• -63% heal,block and parry(instead of -50;i.e. +26%)
• -125% critical chance(instead of -100;i.e. +25%)
• -107 toughness(instead of -75;i.e. +43%)

That is mostly equivalent to the increase, that the group has in their defensive buffs as well. The further decrease of critical chance down to 125% should not really affect anyone ecept for a few wizards maybe. -100% already makes critical hits nearly impossible.

Group 2

I expect the second group to debuff their target in the following way:

• Nature’s Blade (-75 toughness,weaponskill,initiative) x2
• Dazzling Strike(+50% cast time) x2
• Wrath of Hoeth(-236 spirit resistance) x2
• Acid Bomb(-236 corporal resistance) x2
• Signal Flare(-5% evade and block) x2
• Coordinated Fire+Signal Flare(+15% incoming damage) x2

The following effects result from that:

• -94 attribute debuffs(+25%)
• +19% damage(+27%)
• -6% evade und block(+20%)
• +63% cast time(+26%)
• -295 spirit and corporal resisance(+25%)

Conclusion

From my point of view the 19 damage increase of the second group should take care of most differences considering the avoidance and toughness debuffs. The further buffs by nature’s blade should also help that group a lot.

Even if it’s hard to guess, do you believe, that the difference in power got smaler or did it get larger due to those changes? Is the old way of only taking the highest (de)buff better or do you think the new one would help? Do you think I messed up something about those groups, took the wrong buffs for example and therefore messed up the results?

yours
Idrinth