Agility's effect on Parrying and Shield rate

**Martel** · 2011-09-15 12:13

I was browsing the BG wiki the other day and I came across this tidbit in the Shield Skill page.

"In addition to skill, Agility is the determining statistic for shield blocking. Increasing a player's agility can help to increase the block rate. "

I know that rumor has been around forever, and its not an unreasonable assumption, given that all the other defensive skills do benefit from AGI. But it is just that, an assumption. Unless I missed some testing somewhere. The only test I have ever seen was tiny and inconclusive.

As I was scoffing at such an old rumor being on a wiki without even so much as a verification tag I realized I was doing exactly what others were. Assuming it didn't affect it while they assumed it did. Wups. ^^;

So I decided to go test it. And abyssea and atmas make it fairly simple to do so.

Data:

Spoiler: show

So.

Koenig shield
AGI 64, Skill 369. Block Rate: 44.9%

AGI 64+90, Skill 369. Block Rate: 42.9%

I'd assume the 2% drop is just variance. But in any case there doesn't appear to be any noticeable gains from adding massive amounts of AGI.

I also did similar tests for VIT and DEX, with the much the same result. I'm suspecting that Shield skill doesn't have a governing attribute like other skill types do. That might be part of why it's so damn hard to cap on mobs of even a decent lvl.

I'll probly do a base stats test, then one with full cruor buffs later to confirm.

**Radec** · 2011-09-15 14:39

The question I have there with having pld16 only, can you push block rate above ~45% otherwise?

**Byrthnoth** · 2011-09-15 14:42

I've always strongly suspected that the AGI rumor (exists for both shield and parrying) was bullshit, and I remembered some testing to the contrary from ages ago.

Now that I think about it, I think I actually removed it from the Parrying Skill page a little while ago. It's gone from the Shield Skill page too now.

**Martel** · 2011-09-15 15:50

Originally Posted by Radec

The question I have there with having pld16 only, can you push block rate above ~45% otherwise?

Having not done many solid block rate tests(Aside from Ochain), I had to ask the same question myself. Sure, I see the block rate cap listed as 65%, but how much testing is behind that? And was that testing any good?

So, I did a third test, same mobs. But stacking shield skill to confirm that my block rate wasn't capped.

Code:

90 Koenig block. Monitor	
AGI 64+90	Skill 412
	
Blocked	
DMG	#
16	17
17	48
18	38
19	54
20	41
21	51
22	40
23	60
24	46
25	37
26	200
27	164
28	123
29	35
30	34
31	27
32	23
33	4
Block#	1042
AVG DMG	24.75

non-block	
DMG	#
58	6
59	1
60	11
61	10
62	9
63	12
64	16
65	14
66	22
67	12
68	16
69	23
70	17
71	23
72	18
73	14
74	19
75	17
76	12
77	12
78	21
79	14
80	19
81	11
82	12
83	20
84	15
85	77
86	73
87	65
88	72
89	67
90	10
91	12
92	11
93	15
94	14
95	11
96	12
97	9
98	7
99	5
100	8
101	4
102	2

Nonblock#	870
AVG DMG	81.2

Total Hits	1912
Block Rate	54.4%

So, after adding +43 skill(total 412 skill) my block rate jumped nearly 10%, going from 44.9 to 54.4%. Certainly doesn't seem like I was at capped block rate for a size 3 shield.

So, I'm pretty sure AGI's not doing anything for block rate.

**Martel** · 2011-09-15 15:55

Originally Posted by Byrthnoth

I've always strongly suspected that the AGI rumor (exists for both shield and parrying) was bullshit, and I remembered some testing to the contrary from ages ago.

Now that I think about it, I think I actually removed it from the Parrying Skill page a little while ago. It's gone from the Shield Skill page too now.

You know.. Parrying/AGI tests would be way easier to do than shield tests. For shield I have to take a fair amount of dmg so I can see the difference between blocked and non-blocked hits.

For Parrying I can just supertank a ton of mobs that are all hitting me 0. Then I'd have my whm mule keep one mob slept out of melee range and I'd engage that one. Then rake in the parse data.

The only downside, is that adding alot of AGI is gonna make the mobs start missing alot, and slow down data collection. I might do that sometime.

Thoughts on what lvl and type of mob might be good? Not sure if it'd be better to test on higher or lower lvl stuffs.

**Lyall** · 2011-09-15 16:11

I'm not so good at the data-gathering but if you're looking for raw number of hits you probably want Mandies or something. Since you're already going to be dealing with a smaller-than-normal size due to evasion anyway, doubling attacks in a round would help. As for which ones to test on, I have no idea. How survivable is the top of Boyahda recently?

**Martel** · 2011-09-15 16:23

I could probly supertank every non-NM mob in that zone at the same time. Assuming I could get them all to stay in front of me, and the sheer lag didn't knock me right off the servers.

But I'm probly going to need to use an abyssea zone, for atmas. As PLD doesn't get a whole lot of AGI gear. And the few pieces I do have also have other stats. I'd prefer to have as controlled test conditions as possible. Test with base AGI, test with Large AGI+ and no other changes.

I might do something like the mandies in abyssea altepa. If I can catch them at a static lvl(base lvl or EM) I think mob lvl affects parry rate... right?

**Byrthnoth** · 2011-09-15 16:49

Mob level does affect Parrying rate, but the problem is more "how many monsters can you keep in front of you at once?" than "how many monsters would be good?"

I'm like ~95% sure Parrying is unaffected by AGI. It looks like a straight dLVL/Skill relationship to me.

**Martel** · 2011-09-15 18:02

Well, since it was such a fast, easy test.. I went and pulled all the fear dearg. I wish I could do block rate tests that fast.. If only blocking gave a different chat message. Or I could dat mod or flag them somehow...

Anyway. Tests.

Code:

Test 1
AGI 64 Skill 310
Melee Damage Taken
Player             Melee Dmg   Melee %   Hit/Miss   M.Low/Hi    M.Avg  #Crit  C.Low/Hi   C.Avg     Crit%
Arduwyn                  124  100.00 %       30/2       0/36     4.43      2       0/0    0.00    6.67 %
Martel                     0    0.00 %  3228/1032        0/0     0.00    237       0/0    0.00    7.34 %

Passive Defenses
Player             Evasion  Evasion %   Parry  Parry %   Counter  Counter %   Intimidate  Intimidate %
Arduwyn                  2     6.25 %       0   0.00 %         0     0.00 %            0        0.00 %
Martel                1032    22.48 %     331   9.30 %         0     0.00 %            0        0.00 %

Test 2
AGI 64+90 Skill 310
Melee Damage Taken
Player             Melee Dmg   Melee %   Hit/Miss   M.Low/Hi    M.Avg  #Crit  C.Low/Hi   C.Avg     Crit%
Arduwyn                 1931  100.00 %      84/10       0/43    21.58      3     49/70   61.00    3.57 %
Martel                   346   27.33 %  3186/3594       0/55     0.07    160     0/104    0.87    5.02 %

Passive Defenses
Player             Evasion  Evasion %   Parry  Parry %   Counter  Counter %   Intimidate  Intimidate %
Arduwyn                 10    10.64 %       0   0.00 %         0     0.00 %            0        0.00 %
Martel                3272    45.73 %     374   9.63 %       323     9.20 %            0        0.00 %

So, like you thought, AGI doesn't affect Parry rate at all. Except by making the mob miss alot and making the test take twice as long.

**Foldypaws** · 2011-09-15 19:43

Was that on the test server? 10% parry rate is way higher than I remember ever seeing, I know they supposedly changed it on the test server though.

**Byrthnoth** · 2011-09-15 19:59

It's Kparser, so it isn't test server. Also, superficially nothing has really changed on the test server.

**Martel** · 2011-09-15 20:23

They were EP~DC mobs, so that's probly why.

Thread: Agility's effect on Parrying and Shield rate

Thread Tools

AGI and shield block rate

Latest Threads

Up & Coming Threads

Hottest Threads