Breakpoint Tables - Topic

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Nov 6 2008 02:43pm

Breakpoint Tables

- FBR, FCR, and FHR breakpoints

Table of Contents
- [1] Introduction
- [2] Faster Block Rate (FBR)
- [3] Faster Cast Rate (FCR)
- [4] Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)
- [5] Sources of FBR, FCR, and FHR

The reason for this guide is to collect FBR, FCR, and FHR breakpoints for all character classes and mercs in one place as well as the general formulae used to determine them.

[1] Introduction

When blocking an attack, casting a spell, or recovering from severe hits, the animation will play at a rate (measured in frames) determined by character class and the amount of Faster Block Rate (FBR),
Faster Cast Rate (FCR), or Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) on your character. In some cases, morphing into different forms (Werebear, Werewolf, Vampire) as well as wielding certain weapons may affect
the length of the animation.

FBR, FCR, and FHR allow you to speed up the animations (less frames required), provided you hit certain breakpoints. FBR, FCR, and FHR have an effect only when reaching one of the threshold values
(breakpoints). From there, the performance will stay the same until the next breakpoint is reached.

For instance, a sorceress using 150 % FCR is wasting at least 33 % FCR and at most 45 % FCR. Why ? Because the nearest FCR breakpoints are 117 %, 194 % (Lightning, Chain Lightning) and 105 %,
200 % (other spells). Remind yourself that character optimisation involves minimising the amount of excess FBR, FCR, and FHR.

Successive breakpoints decrease the required animation length by 1 frame (= 0.04 seconds) each. This might not seem like a huge deal, but since the animations involved typically require 5-20 frames,
even a 1-2 frame decrease will quite often make a world of difference.

Section [5] has a list of various sources of FBR, FCR, and FHR. It should serve as a quick reference.

[2] Faster Block Rate (FBR)

"A character goes into a block animation if the opponent succeeds in the hit check and the character succeeds in a blocking check. Mercenaries cannot block, not even an Act 3 mercenary
equipped with a shield. The speed of the block animation depends on both the character class and the amount of Faster Block Rate (FBR) the character has. Additionally, a paladin using
the Holy Shield skill gains +50 effective FBR and hence he blocks considerably faster than normally. Furthermore, FBR speeds up the assassin's Weapon Block. It has the same speed as
blocking with a shield, i.e. the normal FBR break points for the assassin apply to it. In some cases, also the weapon wielded affects the block speed." (- Tommi G)

A character can do nothing else during the blocking animation.

Effective Faster Block Rate (EFBR)
FBR is subject to a diminishing returns formula,

Code

(Effective Faster Block Rate)

EFBR = [FBR x 120 / (FBR + 120)] + Skill Bonus

where Skill Bonus = 50 (Holy Shield), Skill Bonus = 0 (otherwise)

[] indicates truncating fractions (rounding down)

Blocking Speed (Block Frames)
Blocking uses a standard Animation Speed of 256, with a few exceptions. The next table lists the values and the formula for the Block Frames,

Code

Amazon Assassin Barbarian Druid (human) Druid (wereforms) Necromancer Paladin Sorceress
Block Base 3 3 4 6 5 6 3 5

Default Amazon, 1H swinging *) Druid (Werebear)
Anim. Speed 256 88 200

*) One-handed swinging weapons (axes, clubs, maces, hammers, scepters, swords, throwing axes)

Block Frames = {256 x Block Base / [Anim. Speed x (50 + EFBR) / 100]} - 1

[] rounds down (truncates fractions), {} rounds up, and EFBR is the Effective Faster Block Rate

Block Base is *not* the Block Frames with 0 FBR, it is a term used in the Block Frames formula to give different breakpoints to some character classes. Lower Block Base ~ less frames ~ faster blocking.

Blocking Speed by Class
From the Block Base and Animation Speed values, it appears that

Amazon (other weapons), Assassin, and Paladin (without HS) block equally fast
Druid and Necromancer block equally fast when in human form
Druid (Werewolf) and Sorceress block equally fast

The formula for the Block Frames yields the following table of FBR breakpoints (minimum amounts of FBR needed for specific blocking speeds). Check some of the values using the formula if you want.

Code

Block Frames (25 frames = 1 second)
Character (weapon/skill/form) 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Amazon (1H swinging) 0 4 6 11 15 23 29 40 56 80 120 200 480
Amazon (other weapons) 0 13 32 86 600

Assassin (any) 0 13 32 86 600

Barbarian (any) 0 9 20 42 86 280

Druid (human) 0 6 13 20 32 52 86 174 600
Druid (Werebear) 0 5 10 16 27 40 65 109 223
Druid (Werewolf) 0 7 15 27 48 86 200

Necromancer (human) 0 6 13 20 32 52 86 174 600
Necromancer (Vampire) *) 0 2 6 10 16 24 34 48 72 117 208

Paladin (without HS) 0 13 32 86 600
Paladin (Holy Shield) 0 86

Sorceress (any) 0 7 15 27 48 86 200

*) Vampire FBR breakpoints provided by RTB @ Diabloii.net (now diii.net). A different Block Base and Animation Speed are obviously used
for this form (evidently not 6 and 256), but I have been unable to track down the values. RTB usually has his numbers right though.

The table presents breakpoints up to 600 % FBR, although reaching even 200 % is impossible, given the available items with FBR.

Maximum Reachable FBR ?
Items that possess the FBR modifier,

Shield (magic, rare, set, unique)
Guardian Angel (30 % FBR)
Shael Rune (20 % FBR, Shields)

To be certain, the highest possible is 155 % (paladin wearing GA + Griswold's Honor) and 140 % otherwise (GA + Jeweler's Monarch of Deflecting). None of us would probably ever push it that far.
Having around (30-60)% FBR will grant you a fairly decent blocking speed in most cases without sacrificing other modifiers (FCR, FHR, IAS etc.) that are important to your build.

[3] Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

"There is a universal spell timer (it affects all timered spells). Timered spells are described as having a "casting delay." One example is Blizzard, with a casting delay of 1.8 seconds.
That means that once you cast a Blizzard, you will not be able to cast any other timered spells for the next 1.8 seconds (42 frames). However, you can cast non-timered spells during
this period. There has been some confusion about the timer because you will notice that even non-timered spells will briefly turn red on your left or right mouse button skill spots
(notating them as unusable) when casting spells. Non-timered spells will only remain red for the initial casting animation, which is determined by how much Faster Cast Rate gear you have.
They will not remain red for the the full casting delay." (- KS @ the Amazon Basin)

In short, the Faster Cast Rate determines how rapidly a character can make use of non-timered spells. Minor nit above ... 1.8 seconds = 45 frames (not 42).

Effective Faster Cast Rate (EFCR)
FCR is subject to essentially the same diminishing returns formula as FBR,

Code

(Effective Faster Cast Rate)

EFCR = [FCR x 120 / (FCR + 120)]

Since EFCR is capped at 75, there is no point in exceeding 200 % FCR

Casting Speed (Casting Frames)
Again, the standard Animation Speed is 256. And just as with Blocking, some classes have different base speeds (Cast Base).

Code

Amazon Assassin Barbarian Druid (human) Druid (wereforms) Necromancer Paladin Sorceress Iron Wolf
Cast Base 20 17 14 15 15 16 16 14 18

Default Druid (human) Druid (Werebear) Druid (Werewolf)
Anim. Speed 256 208 228 229

Casting Frames = {256 x Cast Base / [Anim. Speed x (100 + EFCR) / 100]} - 1

[] rounds down (truncates fractions), {} rounds up, and EFCR is the Effective Faster Cast Rate

Cast Base equals the Casting Frames + 1 with 0 FCR at the default Animation Speed (256). However, there is an important exception for the sorceress spells, Lightning and Chain Lightning.

Separate Breakpoints for Lightning/Chain Lightning
These spells use what is known as a sequence animation, instead of the usual spell cast animation. Myrdinn's topic @ the Amazon Basin has the technical details (check the Acknowledgments at the end)
if such information interests you. Formally, this means that Lightning and Chain Lightning use the Casting Frames with 0 FCR as the Cast Base. Hence, the formula for the Casting Frames does not have
the final term (-1) for Light/CL.

Code

(Lightning/Chain Lightning)

Casting Frames = {256 x Cast Base / [256 x (100 + EFCR) / 100]}

where Cast Base = 19

From each of the formulae for the Casting Frames we produce the following table of FCR breakpoints.

Code

Casting Frames (25 frames = 1 second)
Character (skill/form) 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7

Amazon (any) 0 7 14 22 32 48 68 99 152

Assassin (any) 0 8 16 27 42 65 102 174

Barbarian (any) 0 9 20 37 63 105 200

Druid (human) 0 4 10 19 30 46 68 99 163
Druid (Werebear) 0 7 15 26 40 63 99 163
Druid (Werewolf) 0 6 14 26 40 60 95 157

Necromancer (human) 0 9 18 30 48 75 125
Necromancer (Vampire) *) 0 6 11 18 24 35 48 65 86 120 180

Paladin (any) 0 9 18 30 48 75 125

Sorceress (Light/CL) 0 7 15 23 35 52 78 117 194
Sorceress (other spells) 0 9 20 37 63 105 200

Iron Wolf Act III mercenary 0 8 15 26 39 58 86 138

*) Vampire FCR breakpoints provided by RTB @ Diabloii.net (now diii.net). If we use Cast Base = 24 and Anim. Speed = 256 in the formula,
the 19-frame and 14-frame breaks are 26 (not 24) and 125 (not 120). Either RTB made a few errors or the Cast Base and Anim. Speed values
are different from 24 and 256. I will let both options stand, at least until someone (if any) can safely rule out one of them.

A sorceress firing at < 117 % FCR should see a minor gap between successive beams of Light/CL, whereas with >= 117 % FCR, she appears to be firing continuously (connected beams).

[4] Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

"Faster hit recovery (FHR) comes into play when a target (monster or player) is struck by a successful attack that causes any type of damage greater than 1/12 of the target's maximum life.
When this happens, the target (in this instance, your character) goes into a "hit stun" animation. When your character is stunned, it can't make any other kind of movement during the recovery
phase. You can be stunned repeatedly while stunned. This is known as "stun lock" and it is potentially lethal, especially in PvP. Please note that in some cases the equipped weapon influences
the hit recovery rate. " (- from the Diablo 2 Wiki)

Effective Faster Hit Recovery (EFHR)
FHR is subject to the same diminishing returns formula as FCR,

Code

(Effective Faster Hit Recovery)

EFHR = [FHR x 120 / (FHR + 120)]

[] indicates truncating fractions (rounding down)

Recovery Speed (Hit Recovery Frames)
Just as with Blocking and Casting, some classes have different values of the base parameter (Get Hit Base).

Code

Amazon Assassin Barbarian Druid (human) Druid (Werebear/Werewolf) Necromancer Paladin Sorceress
Get Hit Base 6 5 5 7 5 / 4 7 5 8

Rogue Town Guard Iron Wolf Barbarian
Get Hit Base 6 8 9 5

Default Druid (human), 1H swinging *) Druid (Werebear) Paladin, 2H **)
Anim. Speed 256 248 184 192

*) One-handed swinging weapons (axes, clubs, maces, hammers, scepters, swords, throwing axes)
**) Two-handed weapons, except swords

Hit Recovery Frames = {256 x Get Hit Base / [Anim. Speed x (50 + EFHR) / 100]} - 1

[] rounds down (truncates fractions), {} rounds up, and EFHR is the Effective Faster Hit Recovery

Using the formula for the Hit Recovery Frames, we get the following FHR breakpoints.

Code

Hit Recovery Frames (25 frames = 1 second)
Character (weapon/skill/form) 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Amazon (any) 0 6 13 20 32 52 86 174 600

Assassin (any) 0 7 15 27 48 86 200

Barbarian (any) 0 7 15 27 48 86 200

Druid (human, 1H swinging) 0 3 7 13 19 29 42 63 99 174 456
Druid (human, other weapons) 0 5 10 16 26 39 56 86 152 377
Druid (Werebear) 0 5 10 16 24 37 54 86 152 360
Druid (Werewolf) 0 9 20 42 86 280

Necromancer (human) 0 5 10 16 26 39 56 86 152 377
Necromancer (Vampire) *) 0 2 6 10 16 24 34 48 72 117 208

Paladin (2H) 0 3 7 13 20 32 48 75 129 280
Paladin (other weapons) 0 7 15 27 48 86 200

Sorceress (any) 0 5 9 14 20 30 42 60 86 142 280

Rogue Act I mercenary 0 6 13 20 32 52 86 174 600
Town Guard Act II mercenary 0 5 9 14 20 30 42 60 86 142 280
Iron Wolf Act III mercenary 0 5 8 13 18 24 32 46 63 86 133 232 600
Barbarian Act V mercenary 0 7 15 27 48 86 200

*) Vampire FHR breakpoints provided by RTB @ Diabloii.net (now diii.net). The Vampire form lacks a Blocking Animation; instead the
Hit Recovery Animation is used when blocking - which is why the FBR and FHR breakpoints are equal (see the FBR breakpoints in [2]).

The table presents breakpoints up to 600 % FHR, although reaching 600 % FHR is impossible, given the available items with FHR.

Maximum Reachable FHR ?
Someone is probably going to ask this question anyway, so I'll just answer it here. Max 594 % FHR,

(+70 %) Crown of Ages (Corona, 'ShaelShael')
(+20 %) Nokozan Relic (Amulet)
(+55 %) Spirit ('TalThulOrtAmn')
(104 %) "Jeweler's ... of Stability" (magic Body Armor, 'ShaelShaelShaelShael')
(+55 %) Spirit ('TalThulOrtAmn')
(+30 %) Bloodfist (Heavy Gloves)
(+30 %) Bladebuckle (Plated Belt)
(+30 %) Shadow Dancer (Myrmidon Greaves)

(200 %) "... Small Charm of Balance" (40 x 5 % FHR)

Of course, this should not be construed as encouraging you to aim anywhere near 594 % FHR