Mage Shield Bug: (in General)

Now I know that Decay isn't affected by Armor Class but look at this:

Mage Shield absorbs a minimum of 1% spell damage per enchantment level.

Some tests with a single tank character vs a really low character without any other ranged attacks, and hardly capable of dealing damage other than the Decay

Stats of the character:

HP: 16,420
A Magic Shield [0] (+33) (which should absorb 33% of the damage, minimum!


Now for the fights:

battles without mage shield:

8202
8202
8168
8203

which can be considered being 8200 average received.

battles with Mage Shield equipped:

8204
8194
8188
8188

which can be said to be 8200 average damage received also.


So a Mage Shield +33 which would supposed to absorb a minimum of 33% of the damage from DD spells absorbs absolutely NOTHING from Decay.

the decay damage with the MgS should be more around 5500 IF it would block decay damage also.



Is a Mage Shield indeed not to be used against Decay, as to Decay piercing ANY AC, or is this a bug and should it block Decay damage accordingly also?

Note: the character had a TSA equipped also.

a +37 named TSA which would act to be +39

neither characters had any ranged attacks so that is 39% DD protection in round 1 (melee)

So a TSA doesn't block any Decay damage either.


Bug?

MgS is armor, therefore it has no effect on decay.

same for TSA, I believe this is documented, or at least in the changelogs.

Try to do a test without TSA, because from what it is written and my understanding, the only armor which has some effect on Decay is TSA.

I have never relied on anything other then AMF to block decay damage. I guess this shows that my thinking is correct in that matter. However, it does indeed make AMF irreplaceable and almost required in order to beat specific teams.

The only thing I'm contemplating is weather or not things are better this way in order to promote a weakness and strength for every team, or if there really should be an alternative.

novice: it is said that Decay isn't affected by Armor Class...


ToE is also armor (though a tattoo) but Decay is affected by it.


both Mage Shield and Trollskin Armor have 'special abilities' to block Magic Damage

the Mage Shield is even more special because it ONLY blocks Magic Damage.

So why would an item blocking magic damage specifically, not block Decay Damage?

This was discussed in this thread when the MgS first came out:
As was found out then, the MgS acts as armor and does not stop decay.

Peter: tried that also, still ~8200 damage

Decay does damage which is 1/2 of the minion's current HP, if the HP is 16k then the damage is 8k (which is exactly what the damage with AND without are)

Vestax: the character is a single minion Tank, using no tattoo (old style CB1 strat then)

so the ability to use AMF isn't there as it would be negated by the Mage Shield.

the ToE effecting decay is news to me, but good news I guess...

I'm also not saying it makes sense Shade, I'm just saying that the way it's setup (and I believe it's done that way on purpose).

Ranger: didn't remember that thread or didn't look that good.

novice: thought it really did block Decay damage also, would have to check though...



So then even a TSA doesn't block Decay damage, while this is THE anti-mage Tank Armor.

Sigh, hope to have some more clearing up, and if it is how it is now, then i will add some things to the wiki about Decay, TSA, MgS and ToE

I was always under the impression that the only thing that stopped Decay was AMF. Certainly I've never noticed my ToE blocking any attack by Decay.......

Actually, to follow that - maybe Decay should have it's own class. I've never thought of it as a DD spell, more like an Uber Offensive Enchantment....

I'd have to hunt out the old posts, but I'm sure the MgS does nothing to stop Decay.

I'd assume a TSA works in the same way..

From MgS introduction changelog thread;

Dammit my Cut and Past went wonky.. :(

Towards the bottom of the thread (just under a post by Shade! :P ) Bolfen post's that according to his testing it does nothing versus Decay. :)

Just a quick comment:

Tattoos are NOT armor.

That is all.

Added information to the following wiki entries:

Tattoo of Endurance
Mage Shield
Trollskin Armor
Decay
Antimagic Field

And I thought the 'Spell and skill descriptions' page was clear enough on this ;)

That's what 'you' thought :p

I know that ToE is lowering Decays backfire damage,
but IMHO in the nature of Decays should be that it by-passes any AC and protection. (And Endurance is very much like Protection). So it it's effect should not be reduced by ToE.

Endurance only reduces the AMF backlash a Mage takes, and it does so for every spell. If the target of a Decay spell has Endurance, it does nothing to stop the damage inflicted.

Cool thing, that is how I imagine it should work.

ToE is reducing any backfire damage, but not the Direct Decay Damage... :)