Here are the questions for either developers or people good with maths and common sense.
First is the question of the Relentless passive skill. "While below 20% health all damage taken is reduced by 50%". The question here is the mechanics of the spell. Assume the situation: A character with Relentless and at 50% hp takes a whopping hit for 60% of his hitpoints. In the first calculation, the damage is worked out like this: first he takes unmitigated hit for 30% of his hp, bringing him down to 20% hp total, then Relentless kicks in and the remaining damage to the amount of 30% of his hp is halved, leaving him with 5% hp, but alive and taking half damage until his health gows up to 20% total. In the second calculation the damage is unmitigated, because Relentless only kicks in once the character is brought to 20%, and will not work if a single hit will bring the chaarcter from above 20% to zero and hence the character will die. In the first situation Relentless more or less gives a character extra 10% hp on top of his pool, while in the second one it will only activate once the character is below 20%. Which of the calculations is the correct one?
Second I have the question on damage modifiers 0n certain skills. While some, like Bash, specifically state that they increase ALL damage, for example "Punish : Each attack increasesIncreases the damage of all of your skills by 6% for 5 seconds after using Bash. This effect stacks up to 3 times.", the others do not say anything, like "Battle Rage Cost: 20 Fury / Enter a rage which increases damage by 15% and critical hit chanceCritical Hit Chance by 3% for 30 seconds." In D2 the % damage modifiers always were added together, never multiplied, so if a sword did 100 damage basic, and then you used a skill that added 100% damage and then you had an aura that gave you 300% increased damage, the damage total would be: 100+100*(100%+300%)=500 damage and NOT 100+100*100%*300%=700 damage (I might not typed the equation correctly, but the maths are correct none the less)
Lets us consider the following situation in D3: say I have a sword that does 100 damage and use HotA that hits for 200% damage. I also am going to hit the KILL button and activate Battle Rage, runed for 30% damage. Will I do: 100+100*(200%+30%)= 230 damage per HotA or will I do 100+100*200%*30%=260 damage. The damage difference might seem small, but it will be huge in game, hence the question of whether total damage modifiers will work separately from the weapon % damage modifiers. And now assume, that I also have a Brawler passive, incrasing my total damage by another 30%. In first case I would deal 260 damage per HotA strike and in the second case 300% damage, a very nice increase. And the you can assume that I used Frenzy runed for 4% damage per swing, 20% damage total. In first case I would get 280 damage and in second one I would get 360 damage, since I assume that total damage modifiersd will stack, not multiply (If they multiplied damage would go up to 406 damage or so)
If the total damage modifiers apply on top of weapon damage modifiers then builds like http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WgYeQU!ZgV!ZbZYca
would be quite good, and if not, then WotB, Battle Rage and any total damage modifiers would be quite bad.
P.S. If I used Earthquake with the above buffs active i would do a whopping 3600% weapon damage, probably enough to heal me several times over if I have any lifesteal active and put a serious hurt on a mob pack.
First is the question of the Relentless passive skill. "While below 20% health all damage taken is reduced by 50%". The question here is the mechanics of the spell. Assume the situation: A character with Relentless and at 50% hp takes a whopping hit for 60% of his hitpoints. In the first calculation, the damage is worked out like this: first he takes unmitigated hit for 30% of his hp, bringing him down to 20% hp total, then Relentless kicks in and the remaining damage to the amount of 30% of his hp is halved, leaving him with 5% hp, but alive and taking half damage until his health gows up to 20% total. In the second calculation the damage is unmitigated, because Relentless only kicks in once the character is brought to 20%, and will not work if a single hit will bring the chaarcter from above 20% to zero and hence the character will die. In the first situation Relentless more or less gives a character extra 10% hp on top of his pool, while in the second one it will only activate once the character is below 20%. Which of the calculations is the correct one?
Second I have the question on damage modifiers 0n certain skills. While some, like Bash, specifically state that they increase ALL damage, for example "Punish : Each attack increasesIncreases the damage of all of your skills by 6% for 5 seconds after using Bash. This effect stacks up to 3 times.", the others do not say anything, like "Battle Rage Cost: 20 Fury / Enter a rage which increases damage by 15% and critical hit chanceCritical Hit Chance by 3% for 30 seconds." In D2 the % damage modifiers always were added together, never multiplied, so if a sword did 100 damage basic, and then you used a skill that added 100% damage and then you had an aura that gave you 300% increased damage, the damage total would be: 100+100*(100%+300%)=500 damage and NOT 100+100*100%*300%=700 damage (I might not typed the equation correctly, but the maths are correct none the less)
Lets us consider the following situation in D3: say I have a sword that does 100 damage and use HotA that hits for 200% damage. I also am going to hit the KILL button and activate Battle Rage, runed for 30% damage. Will I do: 100+100*(200%+30%)= 230 damage per HotA or will I do 100+100*200%*30%=260 damage. The damage difference might seem small, but it will be huge in game, hence the question of whether total damage modifiers will work separately from the weapon % damage modifiers. And now assume, that I also have a Brawler passive, incrasing my total damage by another 30%. In first case I would deal 260 damage per HotA strike and in the second case 300% damage, a very nice increase. And the you can assume that I used Frenzy runed for 4% damage per swing, 20% damage total. In first case I would get 280 damage and in second one I would get 360 damage, since I assume that total damage modifiersd will stack, not multiply (If they multiplied damage would go up to 406 damage or so)
If the total damage modifiers apply on top of weapon damage modifiers then builds like http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WgYeQU!ZgV!ZbZYca
would be quite good, and if not, then WotB, Battle Rage and any total damage modifiers would be quite bad.
P.S. If I used Earthquake with the above buffs active i would do a whopping 3600% weapon damage, probably enough to heal me several times over if I have any lifesteal active and put a serious hurt on a mob pack.