TL; DR Formula
If Attack Level > Defense Level:
damage = damage dealt * (1 + (A - D)/100)
else
damage = damage dealt / (1 + 1.2 * (D - A)/100)
Alright so there was some confusion about the effects of combining attack level and defense level. There were two theories...
1) damage = damage dealt * (1 + (A - D)/100)
2) damage = damage dealt * (1.01)^A * (0.99)^D
where A is attacker attack level and D is defender defense level
Feel free to skip this section. I tested on a target, Linnkotsu, in fb19 with a combination of lvl 10 Frenzy and the Dominance Blessing. My normal test dummy, Quilue, was unavailable. This was a duel using only punches which deal a fixed physical damage.
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Raw damage in a duel using punches
with dominance blessing and frenzy.
ATT+00 ATT+10 ATT+20 ATT+30
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+00DEF | 141 155 169 183
+10DEF | 126 141 155 169
Dividing out by the base damage 141 and keeping 3 significant figures:
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Normalized Damage
ATT+00 ATT+10 ATT+20 ATT+30
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DEF+00 | 1.00 1.10 1.20 1.30
DEF+10 | 0.90 1.00 1.10 1.20
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Values Predicted by (1.01^A * 0.99^D)
ATT+00 ATT+10 ATT+20 ATT+30
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DEF+00 | 1.000 1.105 1.220 1.348
DEF+10 | 0.904 0.999 1.104 1.219
This exactly matches: (1 + (A - D)/100) and disproves =1.01^A * 0.99^D.
Looking at Higher Defense Levels:=
After my initial results I was told that the formula doesnt hold for higher defense levels and collected data to test this. For this I used unarmed attacks against a psychic with varying defense levels.
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ATT DEF DAM DEC% ATT-DEF
0 0 1227 0 0
0 41.8 822 -33.00 -41.8
0 36.3 856 -30.23 -36.3
20 41.8 980 -20.13 -21.8
20 36.3 1029 -16.13 -16.3
0 5.5 1157 -5.70 -5.5
20 5 1411 14.99 15
20 0 1472 19.96 20
(1+(A-D)/100) matches exactly for positive values of (A-D) but not negative negative.
azukaya was able to find a matching formula in this post:
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=9805402&postcount=110For D > A: 1/(1 + 1.2(D - A)/100)
Effect of Full Sharding:
Let's see the effect on the effective enemy HP with full 24 stone sharding in addition to +8 attendance blessings.
Effective HP is how much damage an enemy can absorb before dying:
effective HP = base HP / defense reduction
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ATT+00 ATT+24 ATT+32
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DEF+00 | 1.000 0.806 0.758
DEF+24 | 1.288 1.000 0.926
DEF+48 | 1.576 1.288 1.192
DEF+56 | 1.672 1.384 1.288
If you have a ATT+32 advantage they are 24.2% easier to kill.
If enemy has a DEF+24 advantage they are 28.8% harder to kill.
If enemy has a DEF+48 advantage they are 57.6% harder to kill.
If enemy has a DEF+56 advantage they are 67.2% harder to kill.
Here's a chart showing the effectiveness of defense level sharding versus various attack levels
- Spoiler:
The blue line is for an attacker with attack level = 0 and corresponds to PVE pretty much.
The red line (attack level = 15) is for someone wearing the anniversary blessing.
The yellow (attack level for someone wearing Jones blessing.
The green is someone DoT Sharded with attack level = 45
You can see that defense sharding actually becomes more effective after you get more defense level then their attack level.
Conclusion:
The correct attack level formula is:
If Attack Level > Defense Level:
damage = damage dealt * (1 + (A - D)/100)
else
damage = damage dealt / (1 + 1.2 * (D - A)/100)
Attack level exactly cancels out defense level but attack level has diminishing returns while defense level has constant returns. The full sharding with DEF+1 stones isn't really more effective than Citrine gems or Vit stones for most classes unless they have high base HP. DEF+2 sharding is nice but when comparing them to Vit Gems keep in mind that Vit Gems add to both HP and defense.
Stolen from:
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=7770212