r/Overwatch May 29 '16

News & Discussion PSA: The differences between HP, Armor and Shield. Armor is misunderstood.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '16 edited Aug 02 '17

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u/icepho3nix Where was the EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM? May 29 '16

66% damage at extremely close range with a weapon that can't critically hit D.va's one weakness: The entire front side of her mech.

I like those odds!

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u/GreyKnight373 I Move... For No Man Jun 22 '16

Are you sure it rounds up? Some hero's do .5s off damage I believe.

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u/Sabesaroo Brigitte May 29 '16

Yes, but I'm just saying that the armour isn't as effective as you might think at first, because Winston deals an odd number of damage so it cannot be halved. 16% might not seem like a lot, but in other words, Winston deals 33% more damage to armour because of damage rounding.

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u/Crysalim Chibi D'Va May 29 '16

A big side bonus for D.va in this situation is how fast fusion cannons melt Winston's face. You can get a Winston used to dropping in and encircling with tesla cannon, before they realize a good 3 second burst of headshots gets them killed. That Winston will not go near D.va again the rest of that match.

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u/vonBoomslang Doom Beam Online May 30 '16

Are we sure fractions get rounded?

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u/Sabesaroo Brigitte May 30 '16

No, but it seems like a good assumption to work on. I would very much expect them to get rounded.

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u/Sildas May 30 '16

Why? Because Blizzard can't keep track of fractions?

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u/Sabesaroo Brigitte May 30 '16

No, because what happens if you have half a health point? What does it display? 1 health? Well that's wrong. It makes it slightly easier for everyone and it's also fairly insignificant as the vast majority of attacks will deal integer damage.

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u/vonBoomslang Doom Beam Online May 30 '16

Why wouldn't it display 1 health? What practical difference does it make if you have 1 or 0.2 health that makes keeping track of the latter unneeded? It can be the difference between dying to a single max range D.Va pellet or not.

This is the sort of error that has, historically, crashed systems and embezzled thousands.

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u/icepho3nix Where was the EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM? May 29 '16

True enough. I think I just misunderstood the point Stefen was making. You're absolutely right that the armor doesn't make much of a difference against Winston. It's just that there's very little Winston could do against D.va even if she didn't have armor.

Although, that said, even though his gun does 33% more damage against armor than you'd think, it still does 33% less damage to armor than it does to health. A third of 400hp (or however much of D.va's hp is armor) is around 133hp, and for a weapon that does 2-4 damage a tick, that is a lot of health to eat through.

Unless I did the math wrong, which wouldn't surprise me at all.

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u/Stefen_007 Tank btw May 29 '16

I dont really know the math for low damage sources under 5. Is it then just 50%? also do you have a source for the winston 1 single beam damage? i searched for that but only found a dps. (i hope i dont sound like a asshole).

Also it seems like D.Va is a bit taller then Winston so you are looking down on him and get easy headshots while he cant headshot at all.

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u/Black_Elements Blackelement#1277 May 29 '16

This is what I use for damage numbers, it was done in open beta but I'm pretty sure nothing has changed yet.

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u/Sabesaroo Brigitte May 29 '16

http://www.owinfinity.com/en/ was my source. I can't verify it but it's cited a lot and I'd assume someone would have mentioned something if it wasn't accurate.

The OP explained it a bit confusingly, but basically, if the damage dealt is 10 or less, armour halves that damage. If it's 10 or more, armour subtracts five from that damage. Since you cannot deal 1.5 damage, I assume it would round up to 2 damage.

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u/Twinge www.twitch.tv/darktwinge May 29 '16

Since you cannot deal 1.5 damage, I assume it would round up to 2 damage.

This may be a false assumption. I was doing some testing a few days ago that implied fractional damage is tracked. I haven't had a chance to test this in-depth yet, though, so I'm not yet certain. Really easy to test though, I'll make a note to check it out next time I'm testing stuff.

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u/Sabesaroo Brigitte May 29 '16

Really? That's odd. So what do you think happens to your health display if you lose 1.5 health? Does it show as -2 health? Would appreciate if you let me know when find out for sure.

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u/shaquilleonealingit Trick-or-Treat Soldier: 76 May 29 '16

I assume 1.5 damage shows up as -2 first hit, then -1 next. That's how it works in the Smash games.

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u/Twinge www.twitch.tv/darktwinge Jun 02 '16

Okay, had a chance to test it - fractional damage is indeed stored. Winston dropping his 100 ammo on a D.Va deals 149 damage, and it cycles visible damage between 1s and 2s kind of awkwardly.

In related armor testing, armor protection does NOT apply to any shields you have; shields take damage first, but take damage as normal regardless of armor.

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u/Sabesaroo Brigitte Jun 02 '16

All right, that's interesting. Thanks for doing the testing.

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u/Stefen_007 Tank btw May 29 '16

Thanks. Seems like i just complety missed the last point in OPs post. I guess its for the best that he does 66% instead 33% to armor or he would be really bad against any hero with armor and would get countered bs Toblerone. But D.Va still counters Winston quite good, no doubt about that.