Tired of looking so I figured I would ask here.

Stats are not one of my strong points in TL2.  I would like to replace the dexterity bonus of crit damage to a ranged weapons damage bonus (and have the crit% bonus be a affix for weapons only).  Where do I even start for this?  If I can find the files, I can take it from there.  I just don't know where to look.

Thanks.

Let's go with option 3 because all the stats need an overhaul anyway.

Do you know of a guide on how to create stats and get them implemented?

With out doing this, doing an item overhaul is a waste of time.  I has to be done imo, the stats are the games core.  With out stats that make sense, the game will always be broken.  If you want to take this on, it would be awesome.  I could certainly use the help in this area.  But there is no rush, so when it gets done, it gets done.  As long as I know what will be changed, I can balance the item overhaul around it.

Here is what I am thinking.

Remove all stat bonuses that have a cap that you get from stats, ie crit%, dodge%, fumble recovery etc.  Those values can be obtained pretty easily through affixes from items.  Having those built into the stats devalues a lot of possible affixes.

Stats only give 2 bonuses

Strength
1. Change the weapon damage bonus to Melee Weapon Damage + Cannons.  Remove Fists from getting this bonus.
2. Increase Critical Hit Damage Bonus

Dexterity
1. Ranged Damage bonus (this is already a stat, it's just not being used) + Fists, Remove Cannons from getting this bonus.
2. ??

Magic
1. Keep Magic Weapon Bonuses
2. Keep Mana bonuses

Vitality
1. Keep HP bonus (maybe tweak graph)
2. Keep AC bonus or transform into a Damage Reduction bonus as you suggested in the idea thread.  Can you remove the 75% cap?  If we keep the AC bonus, the graph would have to be altered for bigger bonuses.

I am not sure what other stat bonus to give Dexterity.  If you have an ideas, plug it in. 

I don't believe there's a way to change the 75% damage reduction cap, we just have to work with it.  So, I don't think Vitality should add bonuses to damage reduction.  How about either just +hp or +hp AND +hp regen?  I also think the +hp bonus should be a little better for Vitality than it is now.

Armor and shields should be the providers of damage reduction.  This would also allow us to balance things in a more satisfying manner in other ways as well:

1) Soft cap the maximum damage reduction from armor.  No combination of armor should allow one to hit the 75% cap.  That would devalue skills that add damage reduction (like the Engineer's Bulwark skill).

2) We can make light, medium and heavy armor significantly different.  Heavy armor could have a high strength requirement, meaning it's most useful for melee characters.  So, melee characters inherently get better damage reduction.  This means we can remove the 25% innate damage reduction on melee characters like the 'zerker and engi.  If they want to be tough, they have to spec for it.  Light armor can give less protection and require much less Strength, or it could require no stat whatsoever.  Medium armor could require a moderate amount of strength, giving rogues and archers a choice between maxing their dex and being total glass cannons or getting a little strength for some added protection.

##Dexterity##
We should keep the secondary bonus of stats meaningful for any character, like Str's bonus to crit damage.

For dex we have one good option:
+Attack/+cast speed.  +attack/cast speed bonuses should be somewhat lower than Str's +crit damage, since (for most characters) they're going to add to DPS faster in an environment where you can't get +crit from stats.  I feel like all of the other stat possibilities for dex are capped (dodge, crit, fumble, execute), and like you said, should be relegated to item bonuses.

I like Anarch's idea about reducing cooldowns, but that's just too much of a beast to take on.  There's no elegant, quick way to do it in GUTS.  It'd have to be worked into each and every skill individually.

##Magic##
Are you suggesting we drop bonuses to flat magic damage from this stat?  I would rather drop magic weapon damage bonuses.  Why?  Magic weapon damage bonuses don't affect flat damage spells.  Flat magic damage bonuses will affect both flat damage spells and wand/staff damage because wand and staff damage is all elemental.  I'm not sure if that would be overpowered compared to Str and Dex.


I'd love to hear from some more people here.

gyfunke,

I would rather lose the weapon damage bonus from Magic and keep the flat damage. 

For dexterity, there is a degrade armor effect.  It might work.  Not sure if it's capped, but it isn't a % value, just a flat value. 

I am pretty busy tonight, I will respond with more at a later time.

I don't terribly like the idea of crit damage bonus for Dex.  It doesn't seem like an appropriate primary attribute.  If you can't increase crit chance with a stat investment, you're not going to see your critical damage bonus very often early in the game (unless you're a berserker)

Also, what about doing away with dual stat requirements and just going for single ones?  E.g. bows require just dex and axes require just strength.

I kinda got the feeling you were trying to simplify it.  I don't actually want dex to give a +crit chance bonus.  I still think ASPD instead of +crit damage would be good.  Seems just as dex-y and yet scales more evenly.  My feeling is that +crit damage scales parabolically.  It's going to suck at low levels and be huge at higher levels when you get lots of +crit from items.  ASPD isn't dependent on any other variable, so the percentage you see is the percentage you get.  It's always going to be DPS = (damage*aspd).  Crit damage is DPS = (damage*crit chance*crit damage)/100.

I was thinking do away with the dual stat requirements AND make str modify melee damage and dex modify ranged, the way you had in your original post.  My personal ideal stat setup would be really close to your first post:

Str-
+melee damage
+crit damage

Dex-
+ranged damage
+aspd/cspd

Focus-
+elemental damage (not physical like it does now)
+mana

Vit-
+hp
+hp regen

Then, requirements are thus:
Melee+Crossbows/Cannons=Str
Ranged+Claws=Dex
Wands/staves=Focus
Heavy Armor=Str
Light Armor= either less strength or dex instead
Robes= Focus or no req


If you want to simplify it the way you're looking to simplify it, then this is what I would suggest:

Str-
+weapon damage

Dex-
+aspd

Focus-
+elemental damage  or  +mana

Vit-
+hp


Then it would make sense to have most of the armors and weapons require some amount of STR.



Of course, we can do whatever the heck we want with the stats if we're going to redo the UI and item database.  The question at that point is, what's the point?  To be continued...

I like the idea of % bonuses to stats.  It'll really reward those who invest in the stat.

As for crossbows being STR-based, I was stealing inspiration from Dragon Age.  Their xbows are Str-based.  It would make the xbow more different from the bow.  Right now it just has a longer range and no knockback.

However, thinking about it, it's a bit weird.