Multiple Damage vs 1-Shot Damage Discussion

Hi everyone! Recently I had a small discussion about doing one big damage or multiple smaller damages in Wartune so I am making this article to discuss all the pros and cons and recommend which is the best in which case.

Where did it start from?

The discussion started from Cuties where Shenna’s Avenger’s first skill does 2 x 155% damage (when fully upgraded). Whereas most other Cuties have a 240% single damage attack as their first skill. But there are many other cases in Wartune where there are big damage skills (e.g. Thor attacks, Mage Thunderer, etc) and multiple attack skills which usually do much less damage but you get to hit 2 or more times.

The initial player reaction (in most cases that I have seen) is that multiple attacks are better, but are they?

Where one big damage has advantage:

I am going to use a simple example to illustrate a situation where one big damage is a lot better than multiple smaller ones.

In this simple “experiment” we have Murjok, a simple goblin, with 100 points of Armor. Murjok is being shot at by Elauthin (an elf) who has 2 types of bows or skills with a basic Attack of 100. One with 2 x 150% damage and a second one with 1 x 300% damage.

• If Elauthin shoots with his multiple attack he will do 100 x 150% = 150 damage (two times), but Murjok’s armor will remove 100 damage each time, so Elauthin will do (150 – 100) + (150 – 100)  = 50 + 50 = 100 damage.
• Now, if Elauthin shoots with his 300% skill then he will do 300 damage, less 100 from Murjok’s armor and we get: 300 – 100 = 200 damage.
• Even at 250% he will do more damage than the multiple attack: 250 – 100 = 150 damage.

So we see that one time damage is resulting in more damage than multiple attacks even if the multiple attack percentages add up to more than the single attack damage percentage!

Note: the advantage reduces the lower the armor / damage reduction is on the enemy.

Buffs/Debuffs

What happens if you have a buff on yourself or your party giving a damage boost or a debuff on the enemy increasing his damage received?

Well in this case all the numbers are amplified:

• Big damage becomes even bigger
• Small damage is only a little bit improved.

So from that angle also the one time damage is better!

What about Crit?

Crit is more interesting because here there is a different result depending on the situation. Why do I say that?

• Angle 1) Doing 2 attacks vs 1 gives you 2 times higher chance to Crit. This is true! BUT the Crit damage will be a lot less because each of the multiple attacks is weaker. So a weaker damage increased by Crit % falls in the 2nd point above “Small damage is only a little bit improved.”
• Angle 2) Doing 1 big attack which by luck triggers Crit will result in huge damage! Everyone is happy! 🙂 BUT:
• Angle 3) If that 1 big attack does not Crit then your damage is horrible!

So how do we use that knowledge to make a decision? EASY! 😛

• Short battles: If you are going to do a battle which is going to be very short (think few rounds of World Boss) then you know you will only get a few attack rounds. This means that if you do not get a Crit on your big skill attacks your damage output will be horrible! So, conclusion: for short battles it is better to use multiple attacks to produce a more predictable damage output.
• Longer battles: In battles which go on for many turns you will have many opportunities to use your skills and here it is more important that you make your strategic decisions correctly. You still have a risk that your big damage skill does not Crit but it is a lot less important as you will have many opportunities.

So multiple attacks give a more predictable damage outcome in each battle close to your average damage, whereas single big attack skills are less predictable but if they Crit the damage is significantly higher.

“AOE” advantage of multiple attacks

Sometimes the multi-attack skills have the ability to hit more than one enemy. This can be an advantage when you fight any battles where there is more than one enemy.

In these situations the single big attack skill might be totally wasted over-killing a mob.

That said I would not give this “advantage” a big significance because we have a number of skills in Wartune and we can use them strategically.

Where is the CUT-OFF point?

So how do we decide? At which point does the single big attack do more damage?

Here is a graph and table showing an example of various situations:

On this chart we can see that:

• The 1 x 300% is always better.
• The 1 x 250% becomes better when “Armor” is more than 50 in our theoretical example.
• The 1 x 200% becomes better when “Armor” is more than 100 in our theoretical example.

Table:

Conclusion

Based on my analysis/discussion single big attack skills generate more damage output most of the time. The only exception to this are the cases of short battles and bad luck for Crit not triggering. So if any Wartune player wants to have a more predictable damage output in each battle then multiple smaller attacks are better, otherwise, the single attacks win!

Do you agree/disagree? Please share your thoughts in the comments below so that the discussion can help all Wartune players who are reading this.