I'll begin with a description of how ArPen currently works, and the issues that arise with its implementation.

The first thing you have to know is the armor of a target after debuffs have been applied. I'll be using the example of a boss level mob, which has a base armor value of 10643. Applying sunder and FF to the target reduce it's armor by 20% and 5%, multiplicatively. This gives a final armor value of 10643*.8*.95 = 8088.68.

Next, you determine the ArPen "cap" which limits the effectiveness of ArPen against high-armored targets. This is mostly necessary for PvP reasons, as 100% armor penetration would otherwise reduce any target, regardless of their armor, to 0. This is calculated as: (15232.5 + ArmorAfterDebuffs)/3. In the case of a boss mob, this cap is (15232.5+8088.68)/3 = 7773.73. If this value is higher than the armor of the target, the armor of the target is instead used. I.e. a clothie with 2000 armor will have a cap of 2000 rather than (15232.5+2000)/3 = 5744.17.

Next, you multiply the sum of ArPen rating and character buffs by the calculated "cap" to determine the actual amount of armor you are reducing. With Battle Stance(10%), Mace Spec(15%), and 30% ArPen from gear, this would be (.1+.15+.3)*7773.73 = 4275.55 armor reduction.

Finally, you plug this all into this formula to determine your damage modifier on the target: 15232.5/(15232.5 + Armor - ArPenReduction). Using the continuing example, this would be 15232.5/(15232.5 + 8088.68 - 4275.55) = 79.98% damage dealt.

This system has the issue that has been brought up recently, that there is no cap on armor penetration, and that armor penetration scales exponentially, as it has an inverse relationship. For example, at 300% arpen, your ArPen reduction becomes 3*(15232.5 + 8088.68)/3 which clearly equals 15232.5+8088.68. If you plug that into the formula, you get a division by 0... 15232.5/(15232.5 + 8088.68 - 15232.5 - 8088.68). This is why it scales up to infinite damage(although it is relatively unachievable for now).

AN ELEGANT SOLUTION THAT SOLVES EVERYTHING:

Rather than reducing the armor value itself, which has an inverse relationship with damage dealt, resulting in the exponential scaling and the issues that result, it makes more sense to turn the equation around and rather than reducing the armor, just increase a character's ability to deal damage through a target's armor. To clarify, this is much akin to how Haste effects increase your attacks per second rather than reducing your seconds per attack(which would have an inverse relationship and exponential scaling up to 100% haste).

To change the damage formula to implement this, you merely need to shift the "cap" into the numerator rather than the demoninator. That is: (15232.5 + ArPenReduction)/(15232.5 + Armor). This eliminates the exponential scaling of ArPen by turning it into a linear function, and maintains the current functionality of the system, in that arpen will have relatively little effect against cloth, while also not being devastating to highly armored targets. It also does this without needing a hard cap, since it will never approach infinite damage without... infinite ArPen.

Here's a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate this effect on a Sundered/FFed Boss mob. The lines intersect at the point where armor is reduced to 0, which is 104.05% on a boss mob. You can see that this change would cause ArPen to be nearly equivalent to its strength now up until you reach 0 armor/100% damage dealt, at which point it will continue to scale linearly rather than increasingly exponentially.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t313/Sabotage101/ArPen.jpg

Please consider this as a solution to the ArPen problem. Eliminating exponential scaling without the need to introduce a hard cap and also doing away with all the "So do I gem arpen after 30%??" questions due to the nature of the formula would be well received by the community. Balancing the strength of ArPen rating with a linear formula will also be far easier when there's no need to take into account the runaway effect that exponential scaling could lead to in the future.

Very solid. I was skeptical when I saw it announced as an "elegant" solution, but you're right, it's a very smooth way to fix the problem. Added to that is the fact that it scales almost identically to the current formula until you reach around 100%, and proc effects won't be wasted since there isn't a cap. Hope this gets some attention.

i dont know about you but im all for infinite damage.

in all seriousness i think your arguement is well thought out and valid. as long as it keeps ArP from going down the crapper like it used to be then i support this idea.

the data on this is great and it should be implemented over capping arp

This actually looks like a very good solution. Almost too good that I'm afraid Blizzard wouldn't even consider it since it's something they didn't come up with in regards to a major component to their game. I'm not even trolling now; I'm dead serious. I hope this comment doesn't get perceived the wrong way. Don't ban me again GC! :P

It's a nice solution and gets rid of a cap, but I still don't think they're going to not implement a cap. Really though, I like it and I hope this gets a serious look at.

GC:

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Q u o t e:
We will continue to work to make the game better, but we are going to be the ones who define what that is. Blizzard has a responsibility to make the best games we can make. Part of that process involves listening to our players. It does not mean getting them to design the game for us. Customers choose whether they like a product or not. They rarely design the product themselves.

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dude above me:

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Q u o t e:
This actually looks like a very good solution. Almost too good that I'm afraid Blizzard wouldn't even consider it since it's something they didn't come up with in regards to a major component to their game. I'm not even trolling now; I'm dead serious. I hope this comment doesn't get perceived the wrong way. Don't ban me again GC! :P

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ya know, i think after reading this GC might have to bite the bullet and accept your suggestion. it just makes more sense. it scales better on the front end, theres no cap, and it doesnt fly out of control on the back end. also, even if they do implement a 100% cap but use the inverse formula, we still end up benefiting more than the current setup with a 100% cap.

We already have linear scaling stats like Crit, Hit and Haste.

I don't want to see Armor Penetration become linear too, that would be boring.

Armor Penetration cap at 100% makes sense because after 100% you start to do more damage to targets with heavier armor, which is a bit wierd.

There's nothing inelegant about the current implementation - your DPS increases exponentially as you get closer to the cap, and then there's no more benefit from it. So you stack AP/Strength up to the point where Armor Penetration becomes worth it, then you stack ArP up to cap, and then you go back to stacking AP/Strength.

Please, Blizzard, for the love of Saurfang, do this.

Very nice, very elegant, easy to implement, works at all gear levels. Will never see the light of day. But I applaud your efforts

The Armor pen and Armor debuffs as a whole being percentage based IS the problem.

While yes there are diminishing returns on mitigation provided by armor, there are infact no diminishing returns on armor. There is a linear relationship between armor and effective health, meaning that each point of armor adds the same amount of effective health as every subsequent point.

Percentage based armor reducers make the stat more valuable as the target's armor increases, whereas the previous flat armor reductions reduced the same amount of effective health regardless how much armor the target had. To say that flat armor reductions were more penalizing for cloth classes was and is complete hogwash especially since then armor could not be reduced below zero (whereas now it can... no no no I don't care that you tell me GC told you all about how it works and thus armor cannot be reduced below zero, I read it too, read it again carefully).

This is a very good solution. No stat should scale exponentially with itself.

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Q u o t e:

While yes there are diminishing returns on mitigation provided by armor, there are infact no diminishing returns on armor. There is a linear relationship between armor and effective health, meaning that each point of armor adds the same amount of effective health as every subsequent point.

Percentage based armor reducers make the stat more valuable as the target's armor increases, whereas the previous flat armor reductions reduced the same amount of effective health regardless how much armor the target had. To say that flat armor reductions were more penalizing for cloth classes was and is complete hogwash

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Yeah... no.

It's a linear increase in Time To Live, but an exponential increase in DPS. Taking 5s off the TTL of a player with let's say a 30s TTL is a 20% DPS increase. Taking 5s off the TTL of a player with a 10s TTL is a 100% DPS increase.

Flat armor reductions absolutely are more valuable as the target's armor gets lower.

/bump

/ bump #2

Another brilliant post with an ideal solution that will not be used, or even considered because "Blizz knows best"