I was looking at this thread by Gleir on the mechanics of how much Dexterity, attack speed bonuses affects number of actions in a round.
https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/1udgoo1/observations_about_the_mechanics_of_updated_turn/
I tried to comment there after doing my own research to find whatever useful breakpoints I could, but comments doesn't accept table formatting. So I had to create a new post instead instead.
Unfortunately, I am returning to the game after a long period and may not have a convenient late-game save to test with, so I used a fresh save and thus didn't have access to high levels of Dex. Still, the results I got were a quite interesting.
| Ini modifiers |
Battleaxe(s) |
Greatsword (slow) |
Dagger/club (fast) |
| 10 dex |
5, 5, 5, 5 |
5, 5, 5, 5 |
4, 4, 4, 4 |
| 10 dex, Swift aim |
4, 4, 4, 4 |
4, 4, 4, 4 |
3, 3, 3, 3 |
| 10 dex, Swift aim, Two weapon style |
2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
|
2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
| 17 dex |
4, 5, 4, 5 |
|
3, 4, 4, 3 |
| 17 dex & two weapon style |
3, 2, 3, 2, 3 |
|
2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
| 17 dex,padded & two weapon style |
4, 5, 5, 4 |
|
3, 4, 3, 4 |
| 20 dex |
5, 4, 4, 4 |
|
|
| 20 dex, leather armour, two weapon style |
5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
|
4, 4, 4, 4 |
| 20 dex, leather armour, two weapon style talent, Swift Aim ranger ability |
3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3 |
|
3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2 |
| 20 dex, robes |
5, 5, 5, 5 |
|
|
| 20 dex, robes, two weapon style |
4, 4, 4,4 |
|
|
| 20 dex, robes, two weapon style, swift aim |
2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
|
|
(5, 5, 5, 5 means I got my turn back in 5 Initiative four times in a row)
Breakpoints:
- "10 Dex, Swift aim" which has +20% attack speed reduced 5 Initiative weapons to 4 Initiative, which is a 20% reduction as expected. It also reduces the dagger/club's attack from 4 Init to 3 Init which is a 25% reduction. I suppose that means daggers have an inherent +20% attack speed bonus.
- 10 Dex, Swift aim (+20% attack speed), Two weapon style (+20% attack speed) reduced 5 Init weapons to 2 Init, which is a 60% speed increase. I can't explain this.
- 20 Dex (+30% action speed) and robes (-15% Initiative) seems to counter each other. Perhaps +% action speed from Dexterity is about equal to half as much -% Initiative from armor? Does that mean that +% action speed values are also equal to half value of +% attack speed?
- For my low level testing, I couldn't get any lower than 2 Initiative.
More testing required
According to the OP's data, 27 Dexterity (+51%) is enough to push Initiative down by 1 (20%), so my numbers are about there. I'd like to test higher values from Dexterity to test my theory with heavier armors. and compare it to Swift Aim or Two Weapon fighting style.
- 24 Dex (+42% action speed), does it counter Padded Armour (-20% Initiative)? Is it equal in value to Swift Aim (+20% attack speed)?
- 37 Dex (+81% action speed), does it counter Breastplate armor (-40% Initiative)? Is it equal in value to both Swift Aim (+20% attack speed) and Two Weapon Fighting Style (+20% attack speed) combined?
Update:
After a LOT of testing, I think I can recommend some Dexterity benchmarks:
To hit 5s intervals with armors, these are the Dex scores you need assuming no other bonuses to speed and using an average speed weapon.
- Dex 18, Robes (-0.15): TBM recovery = 5.01
- Dex 21, Padded (-0.2): TBM recovery = 5.01
- Dex 24, Hide (-0.25): TBM recovery = 5.02
- Dex 27, Leather (-0.3): TBM recovery = 5.04
However, more reasonably, while wearing armor one should normally expect to go only once per round, i.e. once every six seconds. If you're using Dex to negate the effects of armor and have no other speed bonuses, then these are some of the recommended Dex breakpoints:
- Dex 8, Robes (-0.15): TBM recovery = 5.99
- Dex 10, Padded (-0.2): TBM recovery = 6
- Dex 12, Hide (-0.25): TBM recovery = 6.01
- Dex 14, Leather (-0.3): TBM recovery = 6.04
- Dex 16, Scale (-0.35): TBM recovery = 6.06
- Dex 18, Breastplate (-0.4): TBM recovery = 6.1
- Dex 21, Mail (-0.45: TBM recovery = 6.05
Ah, that's why Durance (Dex 9) wears Robes and Aloth (Dex 15) wears Leather by default.
Another Update:
How much benefit does Dexterity actually give in turn-based mode?
Thanks to the formula of Recovery = (2 * (base attack time)/(1 + (Dex - 10) / 33.3) + 1)/1.2, we can calculate it out.
| Dex |
TBM Recovery time |
TBM Recovery reduction |
TBM Recovery reduction per Dex point |
TBM Speed increase per Dex |
| 3 |
117.7% |
-17.7% |
|
|
| 4 |
114.7% |
-14.7% |
3.1% |
2.3% |
| 5 |
111.8% |
-11.8% |
2.9% |
2.2% |
| 6 |
109.1% |
-9.1% |
2.7% |
2.2% |
| 7 |
106.6% |
-6.6% |
2.5% |
2.2% |
| 8 |
104.3% |
-4.3% |
2.3% |
2.1% |
| 9 |
102.1% |
-2.1% |
2.2% |
2.1% |
| 10 |
100.0% |
0.0% |
2.1% |
2.0% |
| 11 |
98.1% |
1.9% |
1.9% |
2.0% |
| 12 |
96.2% |
3.8% |
1.8% |
1.9% |
| 13 |
94.5% |
5.5% |
1.7% |
1.9% |
| 14 |
92.9% |
7.1% |
1.6% |
1.9% |
| 15 |
91.3% |
8.7% |
1.6% |
1.8% |
| 16 |
89.8% |
10.2% |
1.5% |
1.8% |
| 17 |
88.4% |
11.6% |
1.4% |
1.8% |
| 18 |
87.1% |
12.9% |
1.3% |
1.7% |
| 19 |
85.8% |
14.2% |
1.3% |
1.7% |
| 20 |
84.6% |
15.4% |
1.2% |
1.7% |