For many people this post is going to be stating the obvious, but having seen people gloating and deriding others recently over scenario scores, I figured I’d have a little chat about it.
Scenario damage scores are funny old things. People often use them to show this class is OP, this one gimped, and this person is amazingly skilled, this one a noob, etc, etc… but really most of the time those damage scores are very misleading. Here are a few examples why this happens:
AoE damage inflates scores hugely, but if nobody actually dies then all that damage doesn’t mean much. If a Sorcerer (or whatever) does nothing but bomb, regardless of whether it was actually sensible or not, then they can have massive damage scores yet not really contributed or played well at all.
A tank can have massive damage scores, but if that tank wasn’t targeted much and doesn’t get killed often, then they will have more active time to be causing damage. That tank could also be causing lots of damage but lacked any real contribution. Alas those big scores are one of the major contributing factors into the widely believed, but essentially flawed, crying about tank DPS.
A Witch Hunter or Witch Elf could have low damage scores when compared with the above, but what if they actually burned people down so quickly that they didn’t need to do more damage than their targets basic hit points? In that case the reality could be that their DPS and effectiveness is much greater than it appears.
Where the scenario scoreboard gets interesting and starts to actually provide some meaning is when you start comparing and combining the different statistics it holds; damage, killing blows, solo kills and healing. Should the Sorcerer mentioned above also have a high number of killing blows, then it is looking more likely that they were impactful. If the other player’s damage was much lower and the Sorcerer’s enemy healer’s scores were high, then it’s pretty bloody certain that Sorcerer was the primary threat.
So be a bit wary of hawking scenario scoreboards based on the damage dealt, because that damage score alone is just a number and not a lot else
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About Me
- Bootae
- Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.
Yea, i don't put too much stock in them. As an Engineer I can top the charts almost anytime I feel like it. It is meaningless without the win and a good amount of killing blows :)
ReplyDeleteIt was time someone said this :)
ReplyDeletereally annoying that as a bw you are always measured on the ammount of killing blows.... so when you brought a lot of people down to 10% health and a level 33 comes in and does the last 10% he has more killing blows so he is better.... pfff....
It's all about the deathblows, well for me anyway,
ReplyDeleteIt is not about the deathblows.. deathblows are for glory hunters.
ReplyDeleteTake the marauder for example, who makes it easier for 'deathblow' classes to finish players off by debuffing and hitting them with a steady stream of damage.
There is strategic relevance to keeping large levels of damage up, it keeps healers on their toes (particularly when it's them, so their concentration is diverted from healing a main tank, say).
These deathblow junkies are irritating bad losers who can't take that their few 'spikes' that win them their ego boosting deathblow over a class that does less damage per hit, happen to be behind on the overall damage score on the scoreboard.
GET OVER IT.
You are not better than anyone else just because you get the deathblow, you didn't 'kill them' you killstole them at best.
It's a combination of stats that matter and different ones for certain situations and careers. Either damage or killing blows on their own does not give any real indication of anything. Good fodder for the assumption hungry mind you.
ReplyDelete@dave
ReplyDeleteLet me give you a fuller answer, since I'm not sure you're complete on board. If I'm focusing firing on one target that's with the purpose of making him dead and therefore requiring a rez.
I could AOE and get more damage, but that does achieve anything. Since a person on 1%, 10% or 100% can still inflict damage and heal.
If spike damage is what's needed, then so be it, it achieves a purpose. The problem with steady dps, is that it's easier to heal through. It gives time for the healer to react.
The damage indicator as Bootae said, is simply not any form of guide, it's misleading.
I think your sweeping assumption of my playstyle is a little bit off by the way.
The deathblows comment was tongue in cheek, maybe next time I will put a smiley face on it to make it more obvious.
As a path of immolation BW, it's all about debuffing, dots and robbing your target of AP's, making them susceptible to other people's damage. So if I see a good DB score, then for me, that means I have suceeded. It's the only guide I have.
Fix typo in 2nd paragraph.
ReplyDelete.... but that doesn't achieve anything ....
Well Bootae
ReplyDeleteKnows kbs or damage done means nothing but if i wish to i can throw out some quite big numbers but now a days it means nothing and has never been proven fact how good a player is..
But in the case of Karak Norn it seem most fools think damage done means some thing but it means sweet f a at the end of the day
If you need to look at a scoreboard to tell you whether you played well or played badly, you probably played badly regardless of how you translate the fact you came top of the damage or killing blows or whatever.
ReplyDeleteCamping a base in BF1942 that doesn't get attacked much but when it does, you're there to fend off the chumps or running a flag or protecting your healers or leading the idiots on the other team off on a merry chase while your team do what they need to won't give you the same eboner as running around spamming AoE attacks but it gets the job done and you'll know you've played well before the scoreboard even hits your screen. Win or lose.
When I started playing my BO I thought I did amazing damage each scenario until my heartless bastard guild leader crushed my dreams by pointing out I was just tickling people while they ignored me and killed my mates.
Heh, it just occured to me that paragraph should end with me realising how to play my class to it's strengths whereas what actually happened was I rolled a choppa which I continue to play badly to this day. /selffail
Better performance should trump whining dbags who did'nt even know it had been taken out until they were told by the devs. Better performance will bring and keep more players in game... leave it out!!!
ReplyDelete