Forum:Prficinecy, skills and mods - Or how % based increases lie to you

There are a ton of skills/mods in borderlands that promise you things like "+100% Damage!". When you see it, you're thinking, "Wow, that doubles my damage output!" - Wrong. Or "+100% Fire rate": "Doubles my Damage output" - Wrong again.

The thing is that all the percentage based increases stack: If you have a skill with +100% damage, and then equip a mod with another +100% damage, then the final result is +200%, which is different from "doubling your damage output twice". I know what you are thinking "But this never happens" - Wrong. Case in point: proficiency. Most players will have lvl 50 proficiency with their 2-3 main weapons by the time they reach lvl 50, and most of these give a combination of "+100% damage, fire-rate". With bonus already acquired, any subsequent +100% stat will only give you an actual 50% bonus.

So why am I bitching about this? For starters, because I like knowing what is going on, and I hate mods lying to me. For example, a 660 Commando mod will give you a monster +80% Shotgun Firerate, and +40% Damage! Crazy right? Not that much, since by proficiency 50, your shotguns already have +100% Damage, and +100% fire rate. The gain from the mod is still good, don't get me wrong, but nowhere as absurdly good as first let on. Another example is Mordecai's Focus: +50% Accuracy, and +50% Sniper Stability. Quite good huh? Well, at level 50, most weapons already have +150% accuracy from proficiency, and snipers get +200% stability. Doesn't sound so good anymore, does it? The only advantage it really gives is to sniper rifles, which don't get bonuses to accuracy.

"How can I use this information to chose my mods better". You are a heavy gunner, and you can't choose between the mod with +50% fire rate, and the mod with +35% damage. I thought "increased fire rate gives +50% DPS, whereas increased damage gives +35% DPS". In reality, the +35% damage will only give approximately +15% damage to all your weapons (because of proficiencies), whereas the increased fire rate will give the full +50% DPS, except shotguns and snipers, who will only get +25%.

I don't know if that was very clear, but I hope I was somewhat comprehensive.


 * NOTE: DOES NOT APPLY TO WEAPON BASE DAMAGE!!!***

Happypal 10:03, January 26, 2011 (UTC)