For example, on the database site I found recently, they have modifiers for “added”, “increased”, and “more”. Is this sort of like Path of Exile? (The “more” pool in POE for example is a rather specific and big deal) Which pool is which? How do they function internally, and in what sequence do they apply to each other?
Is poise the super-armor values before something suffers hitstun, and stagger the “fill meter = help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up [for however long it would take for you to circle behind me minus half a second]”, or vice versa? Are they related, as in poise damage values do contribute to stagger (or vice versa), but have checkpoints while helping fill up the meter to see if the target can be interrupted along the way?
With armor penetration %, is this a direct subtraction from the enemy armor % value, or is it a “this much % removed” from the enemy armor value? Does “overpenetration” exist in some form regarding this, or can it only drop to 0/generally never goes to zero but functionally at X point of reduction?
Is armor a universal damage reduction layer, so that all damage benefits, or is it specific?
Does armor damage reduction get calculated after elemental resists, before, etc, if it’s involved?
There seems to be no facets for bleed (but why though) and from what I’ve seen, every other form of “buff weapon with element X” is a full conversion of the physical damage into X? Except for bleed (I assume) which isn’t elemental damage (for the sake of resists), and retains physical damage of the weapon? How does bleed work, can it be scaled in some way like elemental DoT?
If you use rune attacks that temporarily infuse your weapon with an element for the sake of the attack, and you have bleed on it, because Bleed is “technically” an element as far as infusion goes, does that mean it doesn’t apply any bleed status at the same time?
I see there was only 1 bleed “element” rune attack in the entire game so far, an attack for dual daggers - does that mean using that move is the opposite, where if you had something infused to a different element, this move would temporarily force the weapon to deal pure physical damage again while also applying bleed ailment buildup? I ask because I saw a common issue with freeze element was that the infusion converts all your physical, including runes that would do physical, into the ice element, so you cannot shatter the enemy with the same weapon under normal circumstances, and need to swap to something physical - would a bleed rune attack be an exception to this, since it’s “element” is physical?
I’ve seen the handful of combined elemental reactions, but I haven’t gotten too crazy with it - how many be activate at a time? Can you bleed and burn something, or does one take precedence? Can you freeze a plagued enemy while they take the DoT? When you plague a bleeding enemy, can you stack both plague DoT and Bleed DoT, or is the combo interaction simply that plague element damage soft pauses bleed recovery to extend it?
Some of the criticisms of bleed are that it’s only activate when the enemy is moving - does attack count as moving? Does being knocked down or pushed back by incoming attacks count as moving? Would backstab animations that push enemies away count as moving? Some people were saying bleed lacked interesting elements and agency, perhaps something like “damage dealt increases severely while enemy is staggered or being backstabbed” could be added innately, or perhaps some value of bleed could instantly “pop/exsanguinate” if they get fully staggered or get backstabbed while affected.
What is “kickback multiplier”?
Does increasing elemental damage and does damage dealt in general apply to ailment buildup related to the element (does high physical damage improve bleed application?") or are there ways to amplify application beyond the obvious?
Attack speed seems rare to obtain, at least initially - how does it scale? Do multiple sources of it act as multipliers to each other, or is it additive?
The “X% to deal X more damage” stat that differs regularly between weapons, I assume this is the “natural crit chance” of that weapon, and it’s baseline crit damage? Are crits checked for each individual hit, so for example if a normal attack or rune attack has multiple hits from 1 button input, each one is checked for a crit chance?
Can backstabs crit? (I don’t really have access to a lot of it since I am recently playing the game, so I haven’t really seen it happen if it does, or I wasn’t checking floating damage text if it killed them)
Do weapons have different backstab ratios innately, or is it a static universal modifier?
If you have stats from a given source, when are they local versus general? For example if I have lifesteal gem on a shield, is it only when I deal damage with the shield it will lifesteal, or will it combine with lifesteal on a 1 handed weapon provided I have them both out when I do damage with the 1 handed weapon? I assume lifesteal applies to all damage, including elemental?
When something mentions it only scaling from weapon damage exclusively, what does that mean, since your weapon damage scales with stats? (The stamina costing melee strikes seem to all be like this) Do runes scale from stats beyond your weapon damage otherwise?
What’s your favorite color? Favorite snack?
There looks to be a rather extensive community for the game and solid third party tools for info, so I figured I would lean upon the expertise of those playing a bunch before me. I don’t mind vibing through games to a degree, but I get to a point where I want to understand what I’m looking at and how it works, especially in an ARPG, where you get to a point that bricking is possible and the waters get muddy in terms of game clarity - it’s also a genre favorite for anything souls-like to be intentionally obtuse about power and scaling.
Please help me! I guarantee I will leverage what I learn for my friends who will or already play, as well as any newcomers to the game I meet in the future to pay it forward.