A Bunch of Questions

[Fractal]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I'd like to get a better handle on the mechanics of the game. For that reason I have a few questions.

How does attack power differ from the strength stat? Is attack power a catch all that boosts damage/chance to hit/critical chance? Does strength boost damage output in a different way to attack power? As an example str = dmg*(1+str/100) while attack power = +1 to min/max damage of the weapon.

Same as above but for armour vs defence power vs agility stat.

Does every skill that benefits from the chi stat learning wise also receive a boost from the chi stat in a fight? Example. Sunder armour rank 5 at 60 chi = 5 armour removed while sunder armour rank 5 at 90 chi = 8 armour removed. Can it boost passives as well? Example. Devastating power rank 5 at 60 chi = 5% more crit damage while Devastating power rank 5 at 90 chi = 8% more crit damage.

Is Presence the only factor in deciding if a gladiator is going to be killed? Or can some other things like health difference between gladiators and amount of crits inflicted/wounds inflicted/weapon type/weapon skill influence the result?

So far the only thing I've seen that increases crit chance is the Called Shot passive. Is there anything else? Does slotting in luck into the achievements boosts increase it?

Can I get an idea of when active skills start to really pay off rank wise? Something like Ranks 1-3 (Net zero to damage output/rarely activates), Ranks 4-5 (Visible damage and activation increase) Ranks 6-10 (Payday, Huge increases to damage and activation)

Are additional stat gains linear? e.g. 1 str is always worth X more damage.

Do activity level and blood lust scale linearly or does each new written description represent a gap? e.g Linear moving from 8-9 slightly more activity and damage, slightly less accuracy. e.g gaps moving from 8-9 large increase in activity and damage, much less accuracy.

Lastly what would you name your top three active and passive skills?

[Sotc]

Hiya, welcome to Pit of War!
I'll try and answer a few of your questions:
-attack power is needed to overcome the defense stat if your attack power is too low, you are more likely to see fumbles/misses/stumbles
-strength increases your raw damage depending on weapon type, armor decreases damage taken
-skills requiring chi will increase in effectiveness as you boost your chi stat (this relation also holds for the other attributes as well)
-presence is one of the factors, bloodlust is said to affect it as well, there is even a kill rank/kill protection stat (but the availability of that stat is rather limited at the moment)
-stacking the chi attribute increases everything related to crits
-skill effectiveness scales exponentially; generally it is better to have your skills at rank 10
-I do not know if gains for the damage stats are linear; however for the hp related stats 1 stam = 6 hp 1 size = 8 hp 1 str = 1.58 hp
-I do not know if activity and blood lust scale linearly; however a change of 1-2 activity can result in +/- 1 attack per round which is significant. People usually use trial and error to adjust their activity to get their desired # of attacks/round (keeping bloodlust the same) then afterwards modify their bloodlust to control their endurance consumption. Keep in mind that for a given activity level, changing weapon speeds will result in a different number of attacks (ex. black market with random weapons).
-skill selection would vary widely depending on the type of glad you are aiming to build: defensive/offensive/hybrid. What sort of glad do you want? We can give you some ideas on good skills to achieve that build.

[Fractal]

All of this is super helpful! So now I have a few clarification questions.

If I have my attack power > than the enemies defence power, or in other words the majority of my attacks are good ones. Do I want to feed the rest of my points into strength/agility(based on weapon) for damage? Is the idea that you want the minimum amount of attack power to get by or did I miss something?

I've never heard of the kill rank/kill protection stat. Is it exclusive to high level gear and even then really rare?

If I was tuning attacks per round for the arena. Is the amount I get always the same regardless of the enemies stats? Could I say tune that in tavern quests?

Is the amount of blood lust I choose after getting the amount of attacks per round I want purely an endurance based decision or is there a sweet spot for endurance to damage?

As for build I nabbed a gladiator with 83 66 60 63 69 65 87. Basically a Tai Chi master! I saw that rage had tons of chi related things so he's a rage glad and uses 1h axes/maces as of the current. Short term I was thinking of grabbing ranks in Devastating Power and Sunder Armour but past that I'm not sure.

[Dainoji]

If I have my attack power > than the enemies defence power, or in other words the majority of my attacks are good ones. Do I want to feed the rest of my points into strength/agility(based on weapon) for damage? Is the idea that you want the minimum amount of attack power to get by or did I miss something?

Not sure anyone really knows the answer to that, but if your enemy is stacking a lot of defense you'll need to overcome it somehow and the way to do that is likely stacking attack power or having a lot of str/agi.

I've never heard of the kill rank/kill protection stat. Is it exclusive to high level gear and even then really rare?

Only on top gear.

If I was tuning attacks per round for the arena. Is the amount I get always the same regardless of the enemies stats? Could I say tune that in tavern quests?

Your activity level, fighting style and weapon are the strongest factors for your number of attacks.

Is the amount of blood lust I choose after getting the amount of attacks per round I want purely an endurance based decision or is there a sweet spot for endurance to damage?

There is a sweet spot for each gladiator given their stats, equipment and build, much of the fun is finding it.

[Fractal]

Thanks for the help

I've been reading that some weapons are agility based and others are strength based. However with the agility based weapons do they still get some benefits from strength as a general damage stat?

Perhaps someone could elaborate on how the rank style buffs work. I spent a skull to look at the gear equip screen of one of the blood gods tier guys and it read "Kill rank : 25/100." Seems like a really really high maximum value there :S

[Alba Kebab]

Thanks for the help

I've been reading that some weapons are agility based and others are strength based. However with the agility based weapons do they still get some benefits from strength as a general damage stat?

Yes.

Perhaps someone could elaborate on how the rank style buffs work. I spent a skull to look at the gear equip screen of one of the blood gods tier guys and it read "Kill rank : 25/100." Seems like a really really high maximum value there :S

Many of us are still working out those rank bonuses, although the kill rank seems rather straightforward, just an increased rate on your chance to kill.

[Prinny]

Perhaps someone could elaborate on how the rank style buffs work. I spent a skull to look at the gear equip screen of one of the blood gods tier guys and it read "Kill rank : 25/100." Seems like a really really high maximum value there :S

Zeroeleven from Imperial Guards probably has the most ranks on it's gear at the moment in case you were interested in checking one out again idd suggest scouting that one out.
No one really knows how it works and if they do no1 has told the others yet which I can totally understand, Personally I am ignoring the rank abilities on the gear and am just looking at the stats the gear has to offer me.