Reduced Throwing Attack Mana Cost not working properly?

General
1

I am trying to use some rings with reduced Throwing Attack Mana Cost and they don’t seem to be working properly… or maybe they are???

On one of my rogues, I have a mana cost of 16 on my Explosive Trap skill, but two -4 rings (for a total of -8 mana cost) only brings the cost down to 13… by my math, that is only -3 instead of -8.

Is the -8 mana cost supposed to be counted before any other skill modifiers? Or should it be counted after all the skill modifiers? As it appears that is the former and not the latter. If this is the way it is intended, then fine, but it isn’t very intuitive.

Explosive Trap w/o rings: 8 + 11 + 16 = 35 mana cost (Base + Automated Bombardment 1/1 + Clustered Explosives 2/2)
40% reduced mana cost
35 x 0.6 = 21 mana cost
32% mana efficiency
21 / 1.32 = 15.9 mana cost…
Explosive Trap = 16 mana cost. Then apply the -8 to get 8 mana cost…

Explosive Trap w/ rings (??): 8 + 11 + 16 - 8 = 27 mana cost (Base + Automated Bombardment 1/1 + Clustered Explosives 2/2 - [-4] Throwing Attack Mana Cost Rings 2/2)
40% reduced mana cost
27 x 0.6 = 16.2 mana cost
32% mana efficiency
16.2 / 1.32 = 12.27 mana cost… rounded up (or 17 / 1.32 = 12.87, still rounded up)
Explosive Trap = 13 mana cost. The -8 mana cost is counted before any percentage modifiers…

2 Likes
2

It makes sense that the reduced mana cost is factored in before any multiplication (2nd case) because a) it is consistent with all the other modifiers that increase the base mana cost of your trap b) according to the in game help all computations are products of sums, i.e. cost/dps = (a1 + … + aN) * (b1 + … + bN) * … (this makes the first case impossible)

3

Yes, it is logical enough where I was able to get the numbers to work, but that’s a bit of math to figure out… If my skill says it uses 16 mana after I have my skill points invested in it, and I put on a ring that says it reduces the mana cost of that skill by 4, I expect the skill to then cost 12, not 15… which is why I say it is unintuitive.

Again, if that is the way it is intended, then so be it.

1 Like
4

I agree it’s unintuitive and probably every1 falls into that trap sooner or later. (But to be fair this applies to all other mods as well – what is +17 spell damage even?)

I would prefer your first version too and I don’t think it would hurt the game if the mod would actually be “-4 to total Throwing Attack Mana Cost”.

5

It is, what you’re advocating for is a re-ordering of the operations such that % modifiers happen first then flat. Your request implies that not all of the cost reduction is applied when it is. It would be weird if some flat modifiers wete applied before some % modifiers.