World of Warcraft Emulation Documentation

[Pedregon]

The following information is used for world of warcraft emulation to understand how each specific system works and could be used to improve the emulator.

This was taken from the Ludmilla Emulator Documentation and may be outdated.





Attributes

Spirit 
Increases health and mana regeneration. Spirit affects all characters' mana and
hit point regeneration rates in and out of combat.

Proposed formula (not verified): 

mana/sec = 7 + Spirit/10 (UPDATE: see Health/Mana Regen for more specific rates)

Also, sitting down does not speed up mana (or health) regeneration, only
drinking (respective eating) does that.


Quote:  
Spirit increases the rate of health and mana regeneration. 

Health regeneration only takes place out of combat. Mana regeneration may take
place in combat, but not for five seconds after completing a spell cast.

The formulas vary across class. Careful investigation is required. 

Sidenote: This comes to confirm my observations. It seems only mana regened for
me when I was fighting (true, since I was a mage and while casting mana never
regened)




Stamina 
Increases health points. Each point of Stamina gives you an additional 10 HP.


Intellect
Increases the rate at which you learn weapon skills. 
Increases your Mana points. 
Increases your chance to score a critical hit with spells.


Attack Power 
- Attack power increases your base melee DPS by 1 for every 14 attack power. 
- Strength increases your melee attack power by 2, except for rogues and
Hunters. Rogues and Hunters gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, and 1 per
point of Agility (see table on page 3 for more detailed calculation).

Attack Power calculation (high) 

Quote:  
Warrior Character Level*3+Strength*2-20 
Paladin Character Level*3+Strength*2-20 
Rogue Character Level*2+Strength+Agility-20 
Hunter Character Level*2+Strength+Agility-20 
Shaman Character Level*2+Strength*2-20 
Druid Strength*2-20 
Mage Strength-10 
Priest Strength-10 
Warlock Strength-10 

14 Attack Power = 1 Damage per Second



Defense 
- Increases the chance of being missed by an attack. 
- Increases the chance to dodge, parry, and block. 
- Decreases the chance of being affected by a critical hit. 
- Decreases the chance of being affected by a "crushing blow". Creatures that
are higher level than your character can land crushing blows that deal increased
melee damage. The chance of a crushing blow increases as the level difference
between you and the opposing creature increases. Players never deal "crushing
blows", only creatures.



Agility 

Increases your attack power with ranged weapons. 
Increases your armor. 
Increases your chance to score a critical hit with a weapon. 
Increases your chance to dodge attacks. 
Rogues gain a much stronger bonus to dodge from agility than other classes. 
Hunter & Rogue: Increases your attack power with melee weapons. 

From the Developers: 

Agility 

Increases Armor Class by 2 for every point of AGI. 

Increases the chance of a critical hit with melee and ranged attacks. The amount
of the increase is dependant on both class and level. For most level 60
character classes, approximately 20 points of AGI will increase your critical
hit chance by approximately 1%. Rogues require 29 AGI for an additional 1%
critical hit chance, and Hunters require 53 AGI for an additional 1% critical
hit chance, but both of these classes also gain attack power from agility and
the items available to them typically have much higher amounts of AGI.

Increases the chance to dodge an attack. The amount increased is dependant on
both class and level. For most level 60 character classes, approximately 20
points of AGI will increase your chance to dodge by approximately 1%. Rogues
only require 14.5 AGI for an additional 1% dodge chance. Hunters require 26.5
AGI for an additional 1% dodge chance, but Hunters typically have a high amount
of agility, as well as an Aspect spell that further increases their chance to
dodge attacks.



Strength
Strength increases your melee attack power by 2, except for rogues and Hunters.
Rogues and Hunters gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, and 1 per point of
Agility.

Attack power increases your base melee DPS by 1 for every 14 attack power. 

Increases the amount of damage you can block with a shield. 

Strength does not affect critical hit chances at all. Strength does not improve
your chance to block, but rather the amount of damage blocked when you succeed.
This amount is determined in part by Strength (and the other part by your
shield).





Health regen 

No regeneration in combat. 
There is 1 tick of regeneration every 2 seconds. 
Its value depends on class and spirit : 

Mage = Spirit*0.10 
Priest = Spirit*0.10 
Warlock = Spirit*0.11 
Druid = Unknown 
Shaman = Spirit*0.11 + 9 (from pionere) 
Rogue = Spirit*0.50 
Warrior = Spirit*0.80 
Hunter = Spirit*0.25 
Paladin = Spirit*0.25


Mana regen 

No regeneration while casting (except when specialized in talents that override this) 
Regeneration starts again 5 seconds after casting is over. 
There is 1 tick of regeneration every 2 seconds. 
Its value depends on class and spirit : 

Mage = Spirit/4 + 11 
Priest = Spirit/4 + 13 
Warlock = Spirit/4 + 8 
Druid = Spirit/5 + 15 
Shaman = Spirit/5 + 17 (from pionere) 
Hunter= Spirit/4 + 11 
Paladin = Spirit/4 + 8


Probably outdated with new patches or even then they was not correct  
Shaman: 
Mana += spirit/5 + 17; 
HitPoint += spirit/9 + 9; 

Paladin: 
Mana += spirit/4 + 13;

Combat Aggro

Aggro 

A contraction of "aggression", also sometimes refered to as "hate" ot "threat".
Once a mob is "aggroed" it will begin attacking you.

Neutral mobs will become aggroed only after you begin attacking (like those near
starter towns); these are surrounded by a yellow circle when you target them.
However, most mobs (with a red circle, known as Hostile) will become aggroed as
soon as you get too close. The maximum distance at which a mob will attack is
known as a mob's "aggro radius".

Aggro also refers to how much a mob hates a particular character or feels
threatened by that character. You can build aggro by dealing more damage or
other aggressive actions. You can also gain aggro from helping another character
who has aggro on a mob - for example, a Priest healing another player who's in
combat will then also generate some aggro. A Warrior has special Abilities such
as Taunt to help them build extra aggro and work as a tank in a party. Whichever
character has the most aggro will be the one the mob attacks. That person is
then said to "have aggro". (from WoWWiki)



NPC hate system (essential) 

Quote:  
Hate is the algorythm that allows the mob to decide who to attack, according to
the damage he is receiveing, the distance from it, or if someone heals mob's
target, it's generating hate against him... It's a pretty complicated system,
essential for the gameplay tactics, based on a hate table for each creature
involved in fighting someone. The player pulling a NPC is the first one entering
its hate table (with very low hate, something like 1). The hate for a player
increases with the amount of damage the player occurs to the creature (HPs
probably). Another player attacking the creature will enter its hate table as
well, and if the hate generated by him is bigger than the puller's, the creature
will focus attacks on him. A third healing a player currently in the hate list
of the creature will generate his entrance in the hate list of that creature.
The amount of hate that he will generate is proportional with the HPs healed
(equal or 1/2, I must search more). If the target of healing is in the hate list
of more creatures, healing him seems to generate the same amount of hate on
every creature. Still, if the second player is attacking the first creature
pulled by the first, healing him will generate hate only for that creature
(since he is only in her hate table). Also, buffing a player while in combat
(auras, seals etc) will also generate hate, probably according to the damage
power it adds to the player, or the damage power it substract from the creature.


As I said, it's a complicated system and needs more investigation. For the
community, there are various studies on WoW sites and forums, just search for
them


Tests of healing aggro (medium) 

Quote:  
You can find the entire story here (1st and 4th posts). I'll only post the
conclusions next:

Healing aggro is based on HP healed, and appears to be linear. With the Subtlety
talent (-20% threat), healing generates 50-60% of the aggro (or threat, if you
like) per HP that damage dealing generates. Since aggro is generated based on HP
healed, overhealing has no effect on aggro.

Aggro for a heal is only generated on mobs that are "aware" of the player being
healed. The most reasonable guess is that the mob's awareness list is the same
as it's aggro list. This means:

- as the puller *probably* has aggro on all mobs pulled (links may be
different), healing the puller generates aggro on all those mobs

- healing a damage dealer who is hitting one mob only generates aggro on that
one mob (I already stated this before, seems to confirm)

Aggro (generated by damage or healing) does not decay over time. (tested up to 3
minutes)

Greater Heal, Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing all generate the same amount of
aggro per HP healed, subject to the application rules above. This means that
using a Greater Heal or a Flash Heal to heal a player for the same amount of HP
generates exactly the same amount of aggro. Using Prayer of Healing to
effectively heal several players generates about the same aggro as Flash Healing
each of them individually.

PW:S generates roughly half the aggro of a heal for the amount of damage it
absorbs. (note that the tests were all done by a priest with Subtlety talent =
-20% threat for healing, which does not affect PW:S).

PW:S takes AC into account. 

Warriors generate a very small amount of rage from taking hits. Switching to
defensive stance does not *appear* to significantly change this. With PW:S on
them, they still generate rage by taking hits. It may be reduced, but not
apparently (significantly) so.

A simple model for Fade is that it subtracts off an amount of aggro equal to
around two flash heals (~1000 HP for a 41 priest w/ Subtlety) and then returns
it after 10 seconds is up.

Note that a single Greater Heal can generate more aggro than Fade can get rid
of. If you are near even aggro with your tank and use it, Fade will not save you
from being attacked.

Healing done before and during the Fade have the same impact. 

After the fade expires, the amount of aggro is the same as if you never Faded. 

Fade appears to have several unintuitive behaviors which belie the simple model
posed above:

- We have seen several situations where Fade expired and aggro did not return to
us until we acted, at which point it behaved as expected. Other people have
attempted to replicate this behavior and not seen it. Chances are that this is a
bug, something you might want to play with but not depend on.

- When Fade fails to remove a mob from you, it does not make that mob easier to
remove. It's all or nothing.

- It is possible that when Fade fails it actually makes it harder to remove the
mob for the duration of the Fade.

HoT and DoT spells generate aggro on each tick, not on cast. 

Hunter traps generate aggro like any other DoT. 

Bandaging generates aggro like any other HoT. I did not test in detail for the
amount of aggro.

Health potions generate threat, although at a reduced rate per HP from Priest
healing spells.

Mana potions generate threat per MP returned, which can be quite a lot of threat. 

Surprisingly, engineering Explosive Sheep do not generate aggro. Most likely it
is treated like a pet and thus generates aggro for itself, lost instantaneously
upon it's tragic death by explosion.



The Random Secondary Targetting System (RSTS) is a system of much confusion
amongst the playerbase. Due to their experiences in other MMORPGS, they are very
slow to grasp how it works. The biggest mistake people make is not realizing
that it is indeed "random".

One of the best examples to illustrate the RSTS is with Gehennas. In the case of
Gehennas both the shadow bolt and the AE rain use the RSTS. The first thing
guilds tend to do when mages and priests start eating rains and bolts on
gehennas is yell at them for "over aggroing". In reality, their aggro level has
nothing to do with it - they were simply randomly selected by gehennas.

What further causes people to misunderstand it is the fact that Gehennas will
often use 2 or 3 shadow bolts in a row on the same person. They think because
that happened, it isn't random. This is false. The reason they are eating
multiple abilities in a row is because Gehennas simply hasn't yet "randomly"
switched to a new target in between the abilities. It seems in the case of
Gehennas and other mobs that they change their 2ndary target about every 5
seconds give or take.

Simply put - the use of abilities and the changing of the secondary target are
two completely seperate mechanics.. I believe the purpose of the system is to
provide an element of unpredictability that was usually absent in games like
Everquest and so on. It is there to "keep you on your toes".

Gehennas is not the only mob that uses this system. Indeed it seems like most
all abilities that do not hit the main tank use the RSTS.

Armor reduces physical damage done against you by a certain percent. It depends
on the level of the monster (or player) hitting you. Your own level doesn't
matter. By hovering your mouse over Armor on your Character screen, you can see
the value of this reduction for monsters that are at your current level.

This percent reduction will actually fall as soon as you gain a level if you're
still wearing the same armor. You haven't lost anything, it's merely showing you
that your armor isn't as effective against monsters one level higher than you
used to be.

Armor = 2 * AGI + objects armor + shield armor. 

%Reduction = (Armor / (Armor+400 + 85*Enemy_Level))*100 

The maximum damage reduction is capped at 75% of the damage.

Therefor, to determine which must be the AC of your character in order to absorb
the possible maximum of the received damage against an enemy of your lvl or lvl
lower (=75% of the damage he does), the formula is thus the following one:
Armor = 1200 + 255 * lvl. 

Sidenote: This formula is confirmed to be a good aproximation in various
websites. I'd attach the graph, it's a bit more relevant, but your phpBB doesn't
support attachements.

Combat Crit

For melee attacks with weapons, the chance to crit is based on agility and
critical strikes deal +100% normal damage (=200%). To see your chance to crit,
open your spellbook, and hover your mouse over the "attack" ability. The tooltip
will show your percent chance to crit.

For spells, the chance to crit is based on intellect. Critical damage spells
deal +50% normal damage (=150%). Critical heals will heal +50% their normal
amount (=150%). There is currently no way to see your chance to crit with
spells.

At level 60, the formula for critical hits is changed as below: 
Spells = [5 + INT/29]% 
Rogue = [5 + AGI/29]% 
Hunter = [5 + AGI/53]% ?? (NOT SURE) 
Warrior/Shaman = [5 + AGI/20]% 
Others = Unknown (most likely same as warrior/shaman) 

The weapon skill affects the chance to crit downwards (-0,04% per point of skill
below the current maximum). As an example, for a maximum weapon skill of 135,
with current weapon skill 112 = -0,92% less chance to cast a critical.

If the target is frozen, the chances to cast a critical hit are increased by 50%. 

The objects increasing crit chance add up. 


Info on crit and hit chances (from devs) 

part 1 

The way WoW calculates crit rate is over ALL attacks. Crit rate is not based on
hits only. In other words, if you have a 5% crit rate, that 5% chance includes
misses. (they're talking here about the in-game crit display tooltip, ignore
this if you don't know what it is)

All crit rate adjusting abilities, items, and talents add the flat % to the base
% crit rate. So if I have a 5% base crit rate and then use an item or talent
that increases that crit rate (let's use Improved Backstab talent for example -
+30% crit), my new crit with backstab is 35%.

Regarding how defense decreases the rate of critical strikes, each point of
defense that a target has over the attacker, the attacker loses 0.04% chance to
crit. So, for example, if a level 60 Rogue is attacking a level 60 Warrior who
has 25 defense, the rogue's crit rate will be decreased by 1%. (I think this
only applies in PvP)

part 2 

+toHit items subtract from your miss%. 

So, ignoring all defensive actions (Block/Parry/Dodge/etc..) if I have 20% crit
chance, 20% miss chance, and 60% hit chance and I equip an item that gives me
+5% toHit and +5% crit, my stats become 25% crit, 15% miss chance, 60% hit
chance.

New hit chance = (Original hit%) + (toHit modifiers) - (crit modifiers) 
60% + 5% - 5% = 60% 

New crit chance = (Original crit%) + (crit modifiers) 
20% + 5% = 25% 

New miss chance - (Original miss%) - (toHit modifiers) 
20% - 5% = 15% 

(seems pretty clear, I assume it generates a random action on strike according
the given probabilities - programmers 'language': random (1 - 10000); IF IN
1-6000 = hit, 6001-8500 = crit, 8501-10000 = miss)

Combat Defense

Each point of +Defense skill adds 0.04% to Parry, Dodge, and Block. 

This means +25 Defense will grant you an extra 1% Parry, Dodge, and Block. The
formula has been tested to be the same for both Hunters and Paladins. It's
probably constant across all classes. Rogues are most likely to have a differing
formula.

Defense has additional rumored effects: The following four effects of Defense
were supposedly posted by a CM on WoW's European forums. A link to the official
post would be nice.

Increases the chance of being missed by an attack. 

Increases the chance to dodge, parry, and block. 

Decreases the chance of being affected by a critical hit. 

Decreases the chance of being affected by a "crushing blow". Creatures that are
higher level than your character can land crushing blows that deal increased
melee damage. The chance of a crushing blow increases as the level difference
between you and the opposing creature increases. Players never deal "crushing
blows", only creatures

Combat Meelee

For melee attacks with weapons, the chance to crit is based on agility and
critical strikes deal +100% normal damage (=200%). To see your chance to crit,
open your spellbook, and hover your mouse over the "attack" ability. The tooltip
will show your percent chance to crit.

For spells, the chance to crit is based on intellect. Critical damage spells
deal +50% normal damage (=150%). Critical heals will heal +50% their normal
amount (=150%). There is currently no way to see your chance to crit with
spells.

At level 60, the formula for critical hits is changed as below: 

Spells = [5 + INT/29]% 
Rogue = [5 + AGI/29]% 
Hunter = [5 + AGI/53]% ?? (NOT SURE) 
Warrior/Shaman = [5 + AGI/20]% 
Others = Unknown (most likely same as warrior/shaman) 

The weapon skill affects the chance to crit downwards (-0,04% per point of skill
below the current maximum). As an example, for a maximum weapon skill of 135,
with current weapon skill 112 = -0,92% less chance to cast a critical.

If the target is frozen, the chances to cast a critical hit are increased by 50%. 

The objects increasing crit chance add up. 


Info on crit and hit chances (from devs) 

part 1 

The way WoW calculates crit rate is over ALL attacks. Crit rate is not based on
hits only. In other words, if you have a 5% crit rate, that 5% chance includes
misses. (they're talking here about the in-game crit display tooltip, ignore
this if you don't know what it is)

All crit rate adjusting abilities, items, and talents add the flat % to the base
% crit rate. So if I have a 5% base crit rate and then use an item or talent
that increases that crit rate (let's use Improved Backstab talent for example -
+30% crit), my new crit with backstab is 35%.

Regarding how defense decreases the rate of critical strikes, each point of
defense that a target has over the attacker, the attacker loses 0.04% chance to
crit. So, for example, if a level 60 Rogue is attacking a level 60 Warrior who
has 25 defense, the rogue's crit rate will be decreased by 1%. (I think this
only applies in PvP)

part 2 

+toHit items subtract from your miss%. 

So, ignoring all defensive actions (Block/Parry/Dodge/etc..) if I have 20% crit
chance, 20% miss chance, and 60% hit chance and I equip an item that gives me
+5% toHit and +5% crit, my stats become 25% crit, 15% miss chance, 60% hit
chance.

New hit chance = (Original hit%) + (toHit modifiers) - (crit modifiers) 
60% + 5% - 5% = 60% 

New crit chance = (Original crit%) + (crit modifiers) 
20% + 5% = 25% 

New miss chance - (Original miss%) - (toHit modifiers) 
20% - 5% = 15% 

(seems pretty clear, I assume it generates a random action on strike according
the given probabilities - programmers 'language': random (1 - 10000); IF IN
1-6000 = hit, 6001-8500 = crit, 8501-10000 = miss)


DUAL WIELD
-----------
Possible only for warriors, rogues and hunters. 

Inflicts a 24% base miss rate (compared to 5% for wielding a single weapon). 

(this applies for maximum weapon skill for current level and is likely higher if
skill is lower than maximum)

The weapon in the off hand inflicts only 50% of its damage. 

Note: The Rogue's dual-wield talent increases the off-hand weapon's damage from
50% up to 75%.

Combat Dodge

Parry, Dodge, Block (high) 

Quote:  
Each point of +Defense skill adds 0.04% to Parry, Dodge, and Block.

This means +25 Defense will grant you an extra 1% Parry, Dodge, and Block. The
formula has been tested to be the same for both Hunters and Paladins. It's
probably constant across all classes. Rogues are most likely to have a differing
formula.

Defense has additional rumored effects: The following four effects of Defense
were supposedly posted by a CM on WoW's European forums. A link to the official
post would be nice.

Increases the chance of being missed by an attack. 

Increases the chance to dodge, parry, and block. 

Decreases the chance of being affected by a critical hit. 

Decreases the chance of being affected by a "crushing blow". Creatures that are
higher level than your character can land crushing blows that deal increased
melee damage. The chance of a crushing blow increases as the level difference
between you and the opposing creature increases. Players never deal "crushing
blows", only creatures


Quote:  
Dodge 

General formula at level 60 = [AGI/14,5 + (Defense*0,04)]%. 
Rogue = [(AGI/(1,15 + AG base/20) - lvl/5 + (Defense*0,04)]%. 

Note : Dodge works also against spells. 


Quote:  
Block 

Block chance doesn't mean fully blocking the damage of that hit, but a partial
absorbtion of a quantity of damage, as follows:

X = [(Shield block value) + (STR/30)]. 

Therefor, the warrior is favored here, because of the natural increased strength. 

Note : Block works also against spells.

Combat Attack Power

Attack Power 

- Attack power increases your base melee DPS by 1 for every 14 attack power. 

- Strength increases your melee attack power by 2, except for rogues and
Hunters. Rogues and Hunters gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, and 1 per
point of Agility (see table on page 3 for more detailed calculation).



Attack Power calculation (high) 

Quote:  
Warrior     CharacterLevel*3+Strength*2-20 
Paladin     CharacterLevel*3+Strength*2-20 
Rogue       CharacterLevel*2+Strength+Agility-20 
Hunter      CharacterLevel*2+Strength+Agility-20 
Shaman      CharacterLevel*2+Strength*2-20 
Druid       Strength*2-20 (Warrior formula for Bear Form, Rogue formula for Cat Form) 
Mage        Strength-10 
Priest      Strength-10 
Warlock     Strength-10 

Attack Power (Ranged) = (Level*2 + Agility*2)-20 

14 Attack Power = 1 Damage per Second

Combat Proccess

Proc is short for "process." This term is used to describe the act of random
effects going off. For example:

"When Silent Fang procs, it silences your target for 6 seconds." 
"Paladins spend fights praying for Seal of Command to proc." 

Procs per hit is simply the percent chance of a proc occurring each hit. This
can be an attack you launch or an attack launched on you. This may seem obvious,
but it's a good term to have in contrast to the less intuitive procs per minute.
Procs per hit benefit greatly from faster hits.

Procs per minute scales procs per hit according to weapon speed. Here's the
formula:

Procs per hit = (Weapon speed) / (60 / Procs per ninute) 

which is the same as: 

Procs per hit = Weapon speed * Procs per minute / 60 

This gives the percentage chance that the proc will go off each hit. An
understandable misconception is that procs per minute guarantees that exactly
some amount of procs will occur each minute of combat. As you can see, this is
not the case. The term is a little misleading.


Example: 

Seal of Command tests out at 5 Procs per minute. Let's say you have an Arcanite
Reaper which has a speed of 3.8 seconds.
3.8 * 5 / 60 = 31.66% chance to proc Command per hit. 

What about a Dimensional Blade which has a speed of 1.6 seconds? 
1.6 * 5 / 60 = 13.33% chance to proc Command per hit.

Dueling

Due to popular demand: 
Duels (high) 


Quote:  
At any time in your travels, you may opt to have a 1v1 duel with another player.
You do this by selecting and walking up to him, right click on his portrait and
choose the Duel option or by using the /duel command. A duel flag (gameobject
dropped) will then appear between him and you. If he accepts the duel, the
battle will commence in 5 seconds (with countdown shown on chat); he will turn
hostile and his name will change colour to red. During this time, all combat
rules specific to your server ruleset will apply, such as the spell limitations
of control type spells on the PvP server.

The duel does not end until one of two things occur. When one player's hp is
reduced to 1 or less, the result of the duel is announced to the zone you're in.
No deaths actually occur and the defeated player is simply set to 1 hp. The
loser also kneels before you. The duelling area is a large area of roughly 50
yards centered on the duel flag. If one player leaves the duelling zone for more
than 10 seconds, he is considered to have forfeited the duel. Alternative, a
player may also use /forfeit command. The results of this will also be announced
to other players in the same zone.

There is no penalty for winning or losing a duel except that both parties have
to spend some time after the battle to heal their hp and mana. However, due to
some game bugs, it is still possible to die in a duel such as in the case with
DoT spells

You can't duel in certain areas. 

You can't duel players you can attack normally. 

Skills will not increase from use while dueling or engaged in PvP. 

Dueling players can cast helpful spells on their allies (but not vice versa).

Healing

"Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 42." 

What does this mean? Counterintuitively, it doesn't mean casting a healing spell
grants a random bonus between 1 and 42 for that particular cast. Each healing
spell will get a particular, fixed benefit from this "up to 42." This benefit
can be calculated mainly from casting time.

ActualBenefit = AdvertisedBenefit * (CastingTime / 3.5) 

Spells with a casting time of 3.5 seconds and above receive the full advertised
benefit. Spells with less casting time receive a ratio of advertised benefit.
Spells with less casting time than 1.5 seconds are still considered to be 1.5
second spells, e.g both 1.5 second spells and instant cast spells get 0.429
(which is 1.5/2.5) of the advertised benefit. DoT or HoT spells have their
benefit divided among ticks.

There are two other factors that can reduce the actual benefit: 

- Lower Ranks. The formula above only applies to the highest rank of the spell.
Having anything less than the highest rank reduces the actual benefit
drastically. Blusard does this so that players won't be tempted to spam low rank
spells whose effects might be doubled or tripled by the +Heal or +Damage
benefits.

- DoT or HoT effects after the initial spell's cast. Some spells have an initial
heal or damage followed by a DoT or HoT. That initial component does not receive
full benefit as some of it is moved to the HoT or Dot component.

Also note: 
- If you ever see an item which advertises "increases [...] spells and effects
by up to 1 to 42," then it still follows the above formula for the top limit.
However, each cast of the spell will give you a random benefit between 1 and
what would normally be the actual benefit based on casting time.

- The CastingTime value used to calculate ActualBenefit for a particular spell
does not change if a player has a Talent, buff, or debuff affecting cast time.

- Benefits are added to spells before critical hit modifications are made. So,
yes, these will raise your criticals.

P.S. Paladin's Divine Protection and Divine Shield are on the same cooldown
timer. This means you can use only one of these in 5 minutes, its cooldown
applying to both of them.

Looting

A player does not get XP, nor can he loot a mob aggroed by someone else if he is
not grouped in some way (party, raid etc) with the puller (XP is also not
rewarded if the mob is a number of levels below you... 5 I think)

[sidenote]: the above rules are also determinant for the warlock ability to pull
soulshard from mobs (he can only get a soulshard if he gets XP for that mob)

In case of looting a boss (elite) for a quest item, all the members of the group
can loot that specific quest item (once per kill, of course)

Group loot rules:

* Free for all. Everyone can loot. 

* Round robin. Everyone takes a turn. When it's your turn to loot, you'll see
sparklies above the mob. My favorite.

* Master loot. One person only can loot.

* Need before greed. Not well implemented, in my opinion. Based on what you can
use. So, casters can only be eligible for cloth. Warriors, for example, are
eligible for everything because they can wear cloth, leather, chain and mail.

* Threshold. This is a special setting, which is used in conjunction with all
the other ones. It basically forces people to roll on items according to the
threshold. So, if it's set to uncommon (for example), everyone will get a pop-up
box with the options to pass or roll on any blue item (uncommon quality). The
winner automatically gets the item added to their inventory.

UPDATE: It was mentioned in a pre-beta note that they MAY be increasing the
range of xp bearing mobs for higher level characters. I believe it will be 20%
of your level with a minimum of 5 levels. We will hopefully have this in the
next patch (beta 1, my note), but no promises.

Examples: 
Level 10 character would get experience from level 6+ mobs 
Level 50 character would get experience from level 40+ mobs

Spell Resist

When an offensive spell is cast, the target has two seperate chances to resist
the attack.

First, there is a roll based purely on the level difference between the caster
and the target. If the target is significantly higher level, the spell will
usually fail completely. If the target is significantly lower level, the spell
will very rarely fail. This first roll is why spell casting players have such a
hard time landing spells consistantly on all monsters a few levels higher. In
PvP combat, it is much less of a factor. A level 10 Mage can very often land
polymorph on a level 60 player.

Formula needed for the first roll. 

Second, there is a roll based on the level of the caster and the resistance stat
of the target. Notice that the level of the target is not a factor in this roll.

Average Resistance = (Target's Resistance / (Caster's Level * 5)) * .75 

Average resistance may be no higher than 75%. Of course, what it takes to reach
75% average resistance depends on the spellcaster's level. Against a level 1
spellcaster, it would take a resistance stat of 5. Level 20 would take 100
resistance. Level 50 would take 250 resistance. Level 60 would take 300
resistance. Level 63 would take 315 resistance.

Why is it called "average resistance?" For spells that don't cause immediate
damage, you'll either totally take the hit or totally avoid the hit. The average
resistance is the chance you'll totally avoid the hit. Adding the word "average"
is a little redundant in this case.

However, when spells do cause immediate damage, it's not just a full hit or full
miss situation. Damage spells be resisted for 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of
their regular damage. Your average resistance can still be anywhere betweeen 0%
and 75%. If your average resistance is maxed out, then there's a really good
chance of 75% of the spell's damage to be resisted. There's also a fairly good
chance of 100% of the spell's damage being resisted. A slightly lower chance of
50% of its damage being resisted. Small chances of only 25% or even 0% of the
damage being resisted. It's a weighted average. Visualize it as a bell curve
around your average resistance.

Example: Average Resistance vs. Level 60 Spellcasters 


Code:   
Resistance Stat  Average Resistance  
  0                          0%  
 25                         6.25%  
 50                        12.5%  
 75                        18.75%  
100                        25%  
125                        31.25%  
150                        37.5%  
175                        43.75%  
200                        50%  
225                        56.25%  
250                        62.5%  
275                        68.75%  
300                        75% 

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/resistances.html

Rest Experience

Whenever you step into an inn or a major city, your level counter is replaced by
zzz's, your player portrait in the top left corner should flash yellow and you
will get the message "You feel rested". Basically, the longer you stay in the
'zzz' mode, the more rested you are. Your xp bar turns blue, and you should see
a little pointer on the xp bar. All fighting experience you acquire up until you
reach that pointer will be doubled. Quest XP doesn't count, so if you complete a
quest, the pointer will go up by the amount received from it, so you can still
get the double xp from fighting. You can log off while parked in an inn and that
pointer just keeps on moving, up to a max of 1.5 levels.

8 hours = 1 bubble rested 
1 level = 20 bubbles 
Max rested is 30 bubbles (1.5 level) = 10 days resting

Scripting

NPC, GameObject settings scriptable, triggered by events (like quest, attacking,
using, entering its range & more) (medium)

Quote:  
I assigned it a medium priority, since I think it's not that easy to implement,
and the game is relatively playable without it. As you probably know, there are
a lot more quests than the four types supported by wad's emu (kill, deliver,
speak to - which is more like action, since you can also "speak" to gameobjects
to trigger end of a quest - and explore). Those include

* speaking to a NPC to get a quest, after which the NPC changes its state from
friendly to enemy (faction maybe?) and starts attacking you, having to bring him
to like 25% of his health to end the quest (carefull, if the player dies or the
25% health is aquired, the npc should revert to its original state and return to
its location, and the quest should be completed, respectively player-dropped and
reaquired)

* spawning/deleting NPC/gameobject on event (quest finished/started, place
reached, if having a specific prerequisit - like quest, skill, reputation etc).
Example: for some quests, other NPCs teleport to your location after killing
someone to deliver your quest reward, for another a quest completion triggers
the spawning of food (GameObject probably) in a boat, also a giant (NPC) spawns
nearby and comes (waypoint/script) to the boat and starts eating, after
finishing eating (GO food deleted) goes (waypoint) to the first location and
dissapears (NPC deleted)

* NPC casting spell on event

* NPC waypoints, also triggerable by event or not (for escort quests etc.)

* NPC status changing (there are quests where a NPC is lost and shall follow you
- Human Pet maybe? -, your quest being to bring him to a specific location, that
will trigger the end of quest...)

* Hate table change on event (not sure if this is the function, but there is a
quest where a bomb exploding on a train wagon causes almost all the kobolds in
the area to run there... might as well be waypoint triggering, I don't know)

* Guards action triggering (if an "enemy" - faction or maybe reputation based -
npc or player enters his area of awareness, trigger basic hate - 1, as for
pulling - for him, causing the guard to attack/assist)

* NPC morphing (model changing) 

Of course, more examples can be given, and I'm sure I haven't covered them all

Skills

Some of you know, some (wowemu folks) don't. Weapon skill is capped level based:
this means the maximum skill you can reach depends on your level - more
precisely 5 * level. The closer you are to your capped skill the slower the
skill will go up. The level of the mob doesn't effect skill gain and it doesn't
matter if you hit or miss. Intelligence speeds up skill gains, also gain is
based on weapon swings (it's faster to rase skill with fast weapons). Generally
it will take about 1 swing per skill gain when your skill is less than half of
your weapon skill cap. After a while it will slow down and take multiple swings
per skill point and the last 5 points will probably take as long to raise as all
those before it with the last point taking a very long time compared to those
before it.

You can judge how often and how hard you will hit a mob by comparing its level
to your current weapon skill level divided by 5. If your skill is 4 levels or
lower than the mobs level then you are going to miss a lot, get crits rarely and
do less damage when you do hit.

P.S. Side-note, since were talking about capping, for some professions skills
need to be capped in order to be able to purchase the next level (e.g:
leatherworking), but some don't need that (skinning).

Spells

There is a lower bound on all heals, making the target unable to receive a heal
with a spell level greater than their level + 10.

Similar rule applies for buffs. The target cannot receive a buff with a spell
level greater than their level + 10.

XP System

XP & tagging system (medium) 

Quote:  


A player does not get XP, nor can he loot a mob aggroed by someone else if he is
not grouped in some way (party, raid etc) with the puller (XP is also not
rewarded if the mob is a number of levels below you... 5 I think)

[sidenote]: the above rules are also determinant for the warlock ability to pull
soulshard from mobs (he can only get a soulshard if he gets XP for that mob)



UPDATE: It was mentioned in a pre-beta note that they MAY be increasing the
range of xp bearing mobs for higher level characters. I believe it will be 20%
of your level with a minimum of 5 levels. We will hopefully have this in the
next patch (beta 1, my note), but no promises.

Examples: 
Level 10 character would get experience from level 6+ mobs 
Level 50 character would get experience from level 40+ mobs 


XP for level-up - chart 
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=362

Mob tagging/Mob XP rewarding (continued) 

Quote:  
Already stated this, but let's review and detail it a little: 

A player does not get XP, nor can he loot a mob aggroed by someone else if he is
not grouped in some way (party, raid etc) with the puller (XP is also not
rewarded if the mob is a number of levels below you... 20% of your level with a
minimum of 5 levels) ALSO, he doesn't get a kill count for quests, if he is not
in the mob's hate (or aggro/threat) list (this also apply for Honorable Kills in
PVP!), even if his group/raid killed the mob (he does still get money or loot
rights, if it's the case... for XP, I'll have to check, there is a group bonus
and different ratios according to party members' levels).

[sidenote]: the above rules are also determinant for the warlock ability to pull
soulshard from mobs (he can only get a soulshard if he gets XP for that mob)


Mob XP reloaded
Quote:  

XP=(MOB_LEVEL*5+45)*(1+0.05*(MOB_LEVEL-PLAYER_LEVEL)) 

Mob Colors (when pressing the V key in-game) - (the following info is not precise) 
5 levels and above -- Red (XP decreases (or caps?) as difference increases) 
Between +4 and +3 levels -- Orange (XP using above formula) 
Between +2 and -2 levels -- Yellow (XP using above formula) 
Between -3 and 80% of your level -- Green (XP using above formula) 
Below 80% of your level (minimum 5 levels below, you know the story) -- Grey (no XP!!!) 

Also (I've probably already said this) XP awarded depends on the damage you do
to the mob (this means that if a higher level player "helps" you by allowing you
to tag the mob and killing it afterwards, you get only low/no XP. Of course, if
the helper is not grouped with you, he still gets no XP)

[TheSpidey]

And as always you can get the most updated formulas at WoWWiki

[Daskin]

DOCUMENT THIS SON



credits: dfighter

[Sounddead]

@Daskin: Do you actually want to know, or are you just making fun of him? lol

[Pedregon]

i ish noob!

i don't like arcemu spammed all over when the core starts up =P