With the game sorely missing updated, relevant, and correct sources of information, I figured it was about time I jotted down some of the information so it does not become completely lost to all players. Beware of any guides dated before April 2014 as they all usually refer to the old stat formulas and builds. You have been warned.
Introduction:
This is merely a basic guide to stats. It is only meant to provide a quick glance for new players researching the game and to clear up common misconceptions that even old players have trouble with. An advanced version containing formulas may be created and posted separately, if I feel like doing so. This is so that I don’t have to bombard new players with too much information at once.
Changelog:
April 14-2017: Updated PVP Increase and Decrease descriptions.
Primary Stats:
The way stats work in RO2 are very different from RO1. First, there are only 5 primary stats: Strength (STR), Agility (AGI), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Vitality (VIT). Next, the current build in RO2 (known as AOV) has done away with the old “increasing cost to invest” stat model from RO1 and the earlier version of RO2 (known as LOTS). It is now just using a simple “1 point for 1 stat model”. Thirdly, you do not get any bonuses upon reaching certain multiples like you would in RO1. And finally, the impact of your stat build is fairly minimal (merely 3% to 8% of your overall stat pool in general)
Stat points (or Bonus stats) you can allocate freely are gained upon level up.
From levels 2 to 24, you will gain 1 point per level up (your total at level 24 is 23)
From levels 25 to 50, you gain 2 points per level up (your total at level 50 is 75)
From levels 51 and above, you will earn 5 points per level up (your total at level 85 is 250)
From levels 51 and above, you are eligible to purchase up to 100 stat points using 2990 Mastery Points each at the Dapara NPC in Morroc.
Note: Level 51 means Master Level 1. For formulaic reasons however, it is more useful to use level 51 notation rather than the Master Level notation.
To allocate skill points, open your Character menu (hotkey C) and look under “Bonus Stats”:
Between level 1 to 50, you are limited to investing only 50 points on a single stat.
From level 51 and above, the limit is removed from all stats.
Note: It is highly recommended to save up stat points once you reach the stat cap, then apply them after level 51, especially if you are using a stat build that focuses purely on a single stat.
As of April 23, 2014, every class has a different modifier (I refer to these as Class Bonuses) for their stat points. It is easiest to refer to this chart for the breakdown:
Unlisted in the chart above are the following two effects:
WIS - Increases SP recovery via potions by 0.10% per point
VIT - Increases HP recovery via potions by 0.20% per point
Random tips:
1. Because the stats are initially capped at 50, it is highly recommended to save up stat points once you reach the stat cap, then apply them after level 51 when the limit is removed. This is especially true if you are using a pure build so that you can save yourself the trouble of resetting your build in the future.
2. Do not worry if you’re off by a few points in your stat build. The impact of your bonus stats are negligible, they merely make up roughly 3 to 8% of your overall stat pool at most.
3. In general, it is not advised to get WIS at all. But if you did, don’t sweat it, refer to tip #2.
4. Many formulas have diminishing returns, so keep in mind that the returns from investing in a stat at different amounts are not equal.
Secondary Stats:
Level
Your level affects various formulas in different ways, usually increasing or decreasing rates depending on the stat. However, in general, higher levels will provide better combat ability.
A very important note is that your Character window displays rates for combat on your level. When facing an opponent of a different level, the rates of other stats will automatically adjust accordingly but are not displayed.
HP (sometimes mistranslated as Health)
Pretty basic. It is your life meter and you die when you reach zero. Slowly recovers when you are not in combat.
SP (sometimes mistranslated as Mana)
Also simple. SP is necessary to use skills. Reaching zero simply means you can’t use skills anymore, but your character will still be able to use its basic attack. Slowly recovers when you are not in combat.
Attack Power
Proper understanding of Attack Power would need a more advanced guide. Putting it simply, increasing Attack Power increases your physical damage output slightly. However, the disclaimer is that Attack Power is only a small fraction of how damage is calculated. A 50% increase in Attack Power will not result in a 50% increase in damage (unless you do not have a weapon equipped). The amount of Attack Power that you need to increase damage output by a certain percentage will vary depending on what weapon you are using, if it has refines, and a bunch of different factors. So to keep things very simple, Attack Power has a very minor impact and is not that good of a stat.
The exception to the “it’s not that good” statement is in terms of calculating combat pet damage. Pets that can attack use both Attack Power and Magic Power to calculate their damage (in addition to the pet’s level and an individual unique multiplier). Crecentias and Magic-based classes tend to have a naturally high total of these two stats which makes them superior pet users.
Magic Power
The same concepts as Attack Power apply here, but used to calculate magic-based skills of course.
Penetration
Penetration allows your attacks to ignore a portion of your opponent’s Defense Rate (not the raw amount) 100% of the time. Penetration is applied before the artificial Defense Cap is applied. This is currently one of the best stats in game for PVP settings, but not necessarily for endgame PVE settings.
A very similar skill is the Guild Skill “Strike a vital point” which affects the opponent’s Defense Rate directly.
Another similar concept is the Armor Rip debuff. This again affects the opponent’s defense directly, but it affects the raw Defense value, which is much less impactful than the Defense Rate.
Defense
In the simplest terms, it reduces the damage you receive by the Defense rate. Contrary to some claims, it does not necessarily decrease as you level up. The way it is calculated considers your opponent’s level, so its raw value is more important than the actual rate. But in very general terms, the level difference makes a negligible impact overall.
Defense Rates are directly affected by Penetration. In terms of damage calculations, it is artificially capped at 75%, but having more will help to mitigate the effect of Penetration.
Attack Speed
This determines how often you perform a basic attack. Mostly relevant only to physically based characters. The base amount is determined solely by your equipped weapon and is decreased by the Haste stat.
Haste (sometimes mistranslated as Acceleration)
The only purpose of this stat is to improve the Attack Speed, which is the rate of your basic attacks. It does not affect your skills at all. It does not improve casting time at all. It does not improve the travelling time of a skill at all. It does not speed up your skill animations. It only affects your basic attack.
Yes that is correct Rangers, increasing Haste will not increase the speed of your Charge Arrow/Arrow Shower cast times. The Wind Walk skill actually increase both Cast Speed and Haste despite how only Haste is in the description, which gives the illusion that Haste improves charging speed.
With the same raw Haste value, every time you level up your Haste Rate will decrease slightly. Haste Rate is artificially capped at 75%.
Cast Speed (sometimes mistranslated as Acceleration)
This determines how fast you cast a skill if it has a cast time. It does not improve the animation rate of the actual skill (how fast it travels) and it will not improve your Attack Speed stat. The higher your cast speed, the quicker you will cast. This is commonly mistranslated into Haste or Acceleration.
Yes that is correct Mages, Wind Emblem and Pyromaniac increases your Cast Speed and not your Haste like the description claims. Breathe a sigh of relief, your skills are working as intended.
With the same raw Cast Speed value, every time you level up, your Cast Speed Rate will decrease slightly. Cast Speed Rate is artificially capped off at 80%.
Acceleration
This is sometimes used to describe both Cast Time and Haste together, while at other times it is used to only describe Haste. Yes it is incredibly confusing, but it stems from the fact that Cast Speed and Haste were at one point the same stat. They were split up in the Advent of Valkyrie (AOV) update but not all text strings were corrected to reflect this. Please be very careful when reading this in game.
Vigor (sometimes mistranslated as Vitality)
This stat reduces the cooldown of most skills and items. In general, an extremely good stat for all classes and can sometimes completely alter a character’s skill rotation once certain amounts are reached. However, it is important to note that no matter what your Vigor is, all skills and items have a global cooldown of 1 second that cannot be affected.
With the same raw Vigor value, every time you level up your Vigor Rate will decrease slightly. Vigor Rate is artificially capped at 75%.
Hit (sometimes mistranslated as Accuracy)
Hit affects how often your skill and attacks will land on your target. It is directly related to the Dodge rate of your target. However, the calculation given by the game’s Character window is confusing and not a good standard to judge from. Analysis of the Hit and Dodge formulas have not helped me solve their relationship yet either. However, it still stands that having a high Hit stat is useful in PVP, but not necessarily in PVE.
There should be an artificial cap on the Hit and Dodge relationship so that you cannot hit something 100% of the time. A rough estimate would probably be that it caps at 90 to 95% but it’s hard to confirm.
Dodge (sometimes mistranslated as Evade)
Dodge affects how often you can nullify your opponent’s attack on yourself. It is directly related to Hit, but like I mentioned with Hit, it is quite difficult to judge how the relationship is calculated. The character window is again a poor indicator of its impact, but having high Dodge is very effective as a defensive stat. It is a very valuable stat once you cap your defense.
Critical (and Critical Damage)
Critical Hits are instances where you will deal greater than normal damage or heal greater than normal health. How often this occurs is the Critical Rate and this is directly related to the Parry Rate of a target. Parry does not affect critical heals as far as I can tell. When a Critical hit is Parried, it simply results in a normal attack.
Critical Damage is usually 100% more damage for most classes. The exception to this rule would be the Swordsman passive called Battle Tactics which changes the Critical Damage Stat based on their INT. Pets can also perform critical attacks, but they have only 50% additional damage instead.
Critical Rate is artificially capped at 90%, but the formula has a natural cap of 50%. The only way to exceed the natural cap is to use items and buffs that affect Critical Rate (not the raw stat).
Parry (sometimes mistranslated to Block)
Parry offers a chance to half incoming damage and is directly related to Critical hits. If a Critical hit is Parried, the result is simply a normal attack.
A minor bug related to Parry is that a parried attack does not appear on the chat log, but you can still hear the sound of a Parry (apparently, I don’t play with my sound on so I can’t confirm).
It’s difficult to check if the cap on Parry has been changed since the beginning of the game, but it’s highly unlikely. As such, it most likely still has a 70% artificial cap.
Damage Increase (PVP)
As the name implies, it increases the damage dealt to other players. It is just a simple multiplier and it is directly cancelled by the Damage Reduce (PVP) stat. One sure thing is that it is another great stat in PVP.
A probable bug however is that it is not being applied in Colosseum, which is supposed to be a PVP setting. The stat adjustment does not provide a clause that allows players to change this value if Colosseum gear is equipped, despite being the original purpose of Colosseum gear. So fair warning, Colosseum gear does not help in the Colosseum.
My estimate is that it caps at around 80% to 85%. I have not personally tested it and I’m not particularly interested in doing so. Heck, it might not even have a cap.
Damage Reduction (PVP)
This does exactly what it implies. It works the same as Defense, meaning it is another layer of multiplication that mitigates a portion of damage. This nullifies PVP Increase point for point.
Similarly, it has the same bug in Colosseum where it is not considered. So once again, Colosseum gear does not help increase your defenses in Colosseum. It should have a cap of roughly 80% to 85% but once again I have no interest in testing it.
Tertiary Stats
Drop Rate
Drop Rates vary depending on your level as indicated on the chart below. While I don’t have an exact formula, we can confirm that Drop Rate increasing buffs are not added (a 10% drop rate increase on a 1% item does not result in a 11% drop chance).
Our assumption is that it is most likely multiplied through, so a 10% increase on that 1% chance item will have a 1.1% chance of dropping. The thing we’re not certain of is whether multiple buffs are added together or multiplied together. For example, if you had two sources of 10% Drop Rate increase, would it be a 20% overall increase (added) or would it be a 21% increase (multiplied)? Based on how the other formulas were designed, I would bet my money on the former.
Experience
Without delving into formulas, Experience is determined on the following factors:
Monster’s Base EXP Rate, Level Difference, Number of Party Members, EXP Modifiers
In general, the best exp you can receive is from a monster within 2 levels of you. A difference of 7 levels or more reduces the base exp to 1. There is no penalty on EXP for a party of up to 5 players (in fact there is a bonus amount), but when there are 6 or more, the EXP is divided evenly amongst the total number of members. EXP modifiers will stack upon each other (two sources of 10% increase results in a 20% increase).
Experience is converted to Mastery Points once you reach level 51. The following conversions are made:
1000 Combat Experience = 1 Mastery Point
10000 Job Experience = 1 Mastery Point
Conclusion
That’s all for now folks. If you’re still confused about something, I’ll try my best to explain it more clearly. If there is something I have not covered, please do not hesitate to ask and I’ll see if I can amend the guide to cover it as well (assuming it’s not delving into the advanced mechanics too much). If you’ve understood everything above, then you are unofficially certified to be smarter than the average bear.
Edited by Arbalist, 14 April 2017 - 07:49 PM.
