Item and Skill Statistics

[Calloe]

Hello, everyone. I have a few questions about the various modifiers from certain items. I read the appropriate guides, but, didn't find the answers I needed.

1.) Many skills in the guide have +% modifiers to the chance of things like counter-attacks, and, I need to know, is that percent, or percentage points? That is to say, if the base chance is 10%, and the skill has a modifier of +50%, does that mean the modified chance is 15% (+50% of 10), or 60%? If it is the former, does anyone know the base chances of stuff like continuous attacks and parrying, shield blocking, and counter-attacking?

2.) Some items add +1 to a various skill/outcome. Like, +1 Repel, or +1 Counter-attack, etc. Does that mean it increases the effective skill level one level, or increase the chance of it happening by, say, 1 percent? If it's the former: a) If my relevant skill is already S, does the item become useless, and, b) will two of the same items, or two different-slot items, stack on each other, or just the one with the highest bonus?

3.) Will different items/spells that influence elemental resistance stack, or just the spell/item with the greatest resistance?


4.) There are four stats below one's portrait when looking at his/her Status. Does the Rep (Repel, I assume) number mean the chance of evading in percent, or not?

[KFCrispy]

1. a 50% boost to a skill like critical hits will boost the base % by 50%. So your 10% becomes 15%.
2. +1 boosts increase the skill by 1 level, so A goes to A+. You can't boost beyond S level. Items will stack when boosting levels; Augustine can use multiple Rose Brooches or White Rose Brooches to raise his Swing skill significantly.
3. The highest resistance is used when it comes to equipment (http://suikosource.com/games/gs3/guides ... php#resist ), and the Sword of Magic resistance spell boosts your current resistance by 1 level.
4. REP is a stat, not percentage. The percentage chance of dodging is based on your REP, Repel skill, the attacker's SKILL/Accuracy, and other factors (Hazy Rune, Dream Robe, etc).

[Calloe]

Heh, it'd be nice if you could boost stuff past S with items... So, do you happen to know the base chance of something like parrying, shield defense, and counter-attack, or are those also affected by attributes and accuracy? When something like counter-attacking is made 100% more likely, I have no clue how to quantify that. If it means chance goes from 1 to 2 %, it's not worth it.

Also, regarding 'repelling'...

1.) Is that synonymous with 'dodge/evade'? I get the impression it means the chance of outright missing an attack, versus blocking or parrying.

2.) If the above answer is 'yes', and the character can also parry/block, are the two tests done separately, or can someone parry regardless of whether or not they passed the evade test? What I'm try to figure out is, if someone is very evasive, but also have skills that affect counter-attack rates (Percival and Watari come to mind), does being more evasive mean less counter-damage overall, especially if he/she has a parry/block skill. The parry skill especially seems to have a very strong counter-attack modifier in it.

3.) If someone has a parry/block AND counter-attack skill (like Percival), does the Counter-attack skill add to the chance of a counter-attack upon a parry?

[KFCrispy]

1) dodge and parry are slightly different. dodge is based on REP, while Parry can only be enabled with the skill and uses your SKILL stat. Parry also has a higher chance to allow a counter-hit. i don't know the formulas. you also have Armor that Protect increases your chance to Guard (i think) and Full Defense (definitely), and you also have shield users who get a chance to block.

i'm pretty sure Repel plays a role in enemies taking just 1 damage from special attacks, but i don't think i've ever seen my own characters take just 1 damage unless they're really pumped up PDF-wise where they naturally take 1 damage.

2) the counter-attack chance only comes into play once an attack is avoided, so reducing Watari's REP won't help him counter more... he'll dodge less and therefore counter less.

3) i would think so.

[Calloe]

Huh, Parry chance is based on Skill? Also, Parry has a higher chance to counter-attack? Which do you think would counter more: Someone like Watari with S Counter-attack, or someone like Thomas with S Parry? I wonder if anyone has Parry, Counter-attack, and Shield Defense...

[KFCrispy]

i've never really tested trying to have characters counter, but i think Watari will counter more because with an A in Repel and a really high REP stat, he can dodge most low-level enemies, while Thomas still has average Skill so he won't get to parry every attack. if you're talking about the counter-rate AFTER a repel or parry occurs, then according to the Skills List, Thomas may counter-attack more often per successful repel/parry.

oh and by the way, the Skills List shows that the Counter-Attack skill separately boosts Parry and Shield counter-attacks on top of the normal counter rate.. or something like that. Unfortunately we don't have a source that actually explains all of the mechanics.

[Calloe]

i've never really tested trying to have characters counter, but i think Watari will counter more because with an A in Repel and a really high REP stat, he can dodge most low-level enemies, while Thomas still has average Skill so he won't get to parry every attack. if you're talking about the counter-rate AFTER a repel or parry occurs, then according to the Skills List, Thomas may counter-attack more often per successful repel/parry.

oh and by the way, the Skills List shows that the Counter-Attack skill separately boosts Parry and Shield counter-attacks on top of the normal counter rate.. or something like that. Unfortunately we don't have a source that actually explains all of the mechanics.

Yeah, I somehow overlooked some of the modifiers in the Counter-attack and Parry skills in that guide. Having an S in Parry AND Counter-attack, however, would make the parry counter-attack chance skyrocket, since the latter skill affects parry counter chances more than the Parry skill. I don't know the base chance of an evasion counter versus a parry counter, however, so I don't know whether Percival would have a higher counter rate than Watari. I guess I'm placing too much emphasis on the counter actions, but, I find the idea of doing damage in defense rather nice.

About dodging... Sometimes I see the word 'miss' below a character when the enemy misses, and other times I don't see the word, but see the character dodge. Is there a difference?

Speaking of Thomas and other characters... For some reason, his starting entourage seems to have a rather high skill total, yet characters I get later seem to have less, despite all being at about the same level. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

[KFCrispy]

i don't understand your question about Thomas, but his party is full of characters who require a ton of SP, especially their skills that max at A+.

if you want a really good defensive counter person, i'd go with Fred, who can achieve S-rank without the Chaos shield. He can opt for the Mangosh which boosts counter rate, or use a complete Guardian Set which has the same affect. unfortunately he's only limited to 1 rune, so you can give him Firefly so that he draws the attacks to counter more often, but his attack won't be very strong... or if you have women in the front, you can give them Blue Ribbons instead and give Fred something more fun, like Double-Strike.
one issue i have with counter-attacks is that some things don't take affect like they would in a regular attack, like Swing and the Magic Sword effect... so if you want to optimize counter-attack damage, go with the Damage skill instead. Double-Strike/Fury/Boost are still fine.

[Calloe]

I'm sorry. When I said 'skill totals', I meant to say attributes. You know, strength, skill, speed, etc. Thomas and his initial crew seem to have a high attribute total, but characters I find later seem to kinda suck, and they're about at the same level.

[Calloe]

Also, do you know if someone will benefit from a skill bonus for a skill he/she doesn't even have? Like, if have someone who doesn't have the support skill Treasure Hunt wear the Prosperity Hat, will he have an E in that skill, even if the skill page doesn't reflect it?

[KFCrispy]

Yes, you will have an E level in a skill if you're wearing Prosperity Hat. Some screens may actually show the skill, like wearing something that boosts a magic skill will show up when you're equipping that particular rune at the rune shop.

[Calloe]

Yes, you will have an E level in a skill if you're wearing Prosperity Hat. Some screens may actually show the skill, like wearing something that boosts a magic skill will show up when you're equipping that particular rune at the rune shop.

Hmmm, I see. Too bad so many skills kind of suck even at A and below. I guess having an item that gave Healing or Continual Attack would be beneficial even at E.