Tracer Missile doing more damage than intended?

[Hurk]

Has anyone else noticed that tracer missile seems to either avoid armour reduction or does more damage than the tooltip says at least against mobs?

 

I am only lvl32 with this character but I have noticed that my tracer missile most of the time seems to hit within the damage range on the tooltip sometimes slightly lower and even slightly higher on odd occasions. All of my other abilities often hit lower than what the tooltip says presumably because of the armour on the mob I am attacking.

 

I noticed this after getting the skills such as Riddle and Tracer lock were I thought I would finally have other buttons to press. On paper with Riddle it looks like Unload should do roughly the same probably slightly lower DPS than tracer but it turns out much lower based on the actual values when hitting stuff. With Tracer Lock at 5 stacks my Rail Shot has about 100-200 damage more than my Tracer Missile but it only ever seems to do maybe 50-100 more than my tracer missile at the same time on the same mob. I also don't find much if any difference with my tracer missile damage when hitting a target with 5 heat signatures or 0.

 

I haven't really been properly testing this out this is just observation when leveling and only against mobs, I don't know if this is the same against players.

 

I thought maybe the ability is actually doing elemental/internal damage which isn't affected by normal armour reduction but I also sometimes hit for about 800 damage when my tooltip says 777 max. I thought that was maybe bonus damage but it seems tooltips auto update for that. Rocket Punch does less damage but has a similar difference between min and max and is kinetic damage but that never hits on the values stated on the tooltip, always less most likely due to the targets armour. So I feel that Tracer Missile is at least doing more damage than the tooltip states it should be and possibly avoiding armour to some extent but I am not sure on that.

 

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this especially at 50 were this stuff probably plays out a bit better.

[Yazule]

check your build, i bet there is a 30% damage increase in there somewhere

[JohnAntilles]

Merc's have a 35% base armor penetration, each subsequent hit of Tracer Missile adds 5% to that.

 

I have tested hitting something with High Velocity On vs High Velocity off, and there IS a damage difference, a noticeable one of about 200-400 points of damage.

 

So yes, Tracer Missile IS effected by armor. Please stop perpetuating this rumor.

[Undorett]

Mandalorian Iron Warheads add 6% to your hits, i don't believe this is added to the tool tip when you take the skill. I could be wrong on that. That is why you see it hit for more than the tool tip says every once in awhile. Edited February 22, 2012 by Undorett

[Hurk]

I only see 6% bonus from the "Mandalorian Iron Warheads" which could explain the hits over what the tooltip says if it doesn't apply that bonus to the tooltip. It still doesn't explain why Tracer Missile is even hitting those numbers when my Rail Shot and other abilities aren't.

 

Tracer Missile with the 6% would have a max hit of 823 for me at lvl32. The most I have seen is probably about 810 which I have done on some mobs with no heat signature stacks.

 

Rail Shot with 5 stacks of tracer lock max hit is about 932. The most I have seen is about 810 as well and that is usually with 5 heat signature on the target.

 

So there doesn't seem to be much of a reduction in Tracer Missile damage but there is for Rail Shot and other abilities.

[Cyineedsn]

Tracer missile counts as a tech attack and Rail Shot counts as a ranged attack.

 

If you look on your character info the stats between ranged and tech attacks are different, in particular the 90% accuracy base on ranged attacks vs 100% base on tech attacks. You also (if I remember correctly) generally have more bonus damage on tech attacks vs ranged attacks.

 

I don't know the exact math, but I think it's been discussed on other threads (mainly the tanking ones) that ranged attacks have their damage mitigated by armor/shields/etc alot more than tech attacks.

 

You can kind of tell the difference also by white numbers = ranged attacks, yellow numbers = tech attacks.

[Mrip]

Merc's have a 35% base armor penetration, each subsequent hit of Tracer Missile adds 5% to that.

 

I have tested hitting something with High Velocity On vs High Velocity off, and there IS a damage difference, a noticeable one of about 200-400 points of damage.

 

So yes, Tracer Missile IS effected by armor. Please stop perpetuating this rumor.

 

I'm pretty sure this is not true. I read at sithwarrior.com that it had been determined that the 2 abilities do not in fact stack, which explains why a lot of people are confused by the numbers they see.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Mrip

[Hurk]

Tracer missile counts as a tech attack and Rail Shot counts as a ranged attack.

 

If you look on your character info the stats between ranged and tech attacks are different, in particular the 90% accuracy base on ranged attacks vs 100% base on tech attacks. You also (if I remember correctly) generally have more bonus damage on tech attacks vs ranged attacks.

 

I don't know the exact math, but I think it's been discussed on other threads (mainly the tanking ones) that ranged attacks have their damage mitigated by armor/shields/etc alot more than tech attacks.

 

You can kind of tell the difference also by white numbers = ranged attacks, yellow numbers = tech attacks.

 

The Damage bonus whether it be ranged or tech is still applied to the tooltip. It is possible it could be wrong were it is applying the lower ranged bonus to tracer missile instead of tech bonus for the tooltip but the actual damage increase is coming from the tech bonus.

 

However, Missile Blast is classed as a tech ability as well and should benefit from the 6% but it seems to have more of its damage mitigated for me than Tracer Missile.

[Mrip]

I think the main reason we don't have a combat log is because attacks and abilities don't actually do what the descriptions say.

[Yazule]

I think the main reason we don't have a combat log is because attacks and abilities don't actually do what the descriptions say.

 

there was a combat log in beta, they took it out because it was causing major server lag and was not accurate to begin with...

 

it is coming back someday

[Evangelice]

1st off you guys are comparing apples and oranges trying to compare rail shot and tracer missile in same catergory. TS is kinetic dmg vs rail shot which is based of weapon dmg. HVC gives +35% armor pen. +5%more every time Heat sigs are stacked thats another 25% more armor pen your adding which is a substantial amount which can be 200-400 points of dmg which was stated near the top of the thread.

 

 

Also any accuracy over 100 adds to decreasing defenses such as armor,defense, shield, absorbtion, and etc. There is also the fact that the tooltips of skills do not factor in the bonus dmg you recieve from passive skills such as mandolorian iron warheads. hopefully this will be fixed in upcoming patches. Reason i know this is because when you put a point in improved cylinders it decreases the heat cost of rail shot by 9 which from 25 which is it's original cost down to 16 even though it doesnt state so in the tooltip same for tracer missile's heat cost being reduced

[Hurk]

1st off you guys are comparing apples and oranges trying to compare rail shot and tracer missile in same catergory. TS is kinetic dmg vs rail shot which is based of weapon dmg. HVC gives +35% armor pen. +5%more every time Heat sigs are stacked thats another 25% more armor pen your adding which is a substantial amount which can be 200-400 points of dmg which was stated near the top of the thread.

 

 

Also any accuracy over 100 adds to decreasing defenses such as armor,defense, shield, absorbtion, and etc. There is also the fact that the tooltips of skills do not factor in the bonus dmg you recieve from passive skills such as mandolorian iron warheads. hopefully this will be fixed in upcoming patches. Reason i know this is because when you put a point in improved cylinders it decreases the heat cost of rail shot by 9 which from 25 which is it's original cost down to 16 even though it doesnt state so in the tooltip same for tracer missile's heat cost being reduced

 

I mentioned other abilities as well that seem to suffer greater damage reduction than Tracer Missile, ones that are said to do kinetic damage and are also tech abilities. I would assume abilities that say they do weapon damage would be either kinetic or energy so they are reduced by armour as well.

 

This is also with no accuracy.

[Elysion]

It doesn't matter what kind of armor penetration stuff is going on, that would never cause it to do more than its base, unmitigated, damage (listed in the tooltip) Edited February 23, 2012 by Elysion

[Micos]

cant say anything about grav shot, but tracer missile is affected by armor. Its obvious when you do some pvp, it will hit for a lot less on tank classes and get a bit higher as heat signatures pile up.