Maniac Perk Deck and Damage Absorbtion Simplified

[CA$H THE GREAT]

Survival strategies for louds on higher difficulties converge into three main options:

• Armor (Anarchist, Armorer, Sociopath)
  
• Health (Grinder - active regen, Muscle - passive regen)
  
• Dodge (Rogue, Sicario)

There are a few other hybrid decks but that is essentially what it boils down to....

The Merits of Damage Absorbtion/Reduction

Terminology:
"Damage Absorbtion" (DA) reduces damage substractively
"Damage Reduction" (DR) reduces damage multiplicately (with percentages %)

For the longest time, I have been trying to come up with a 4th option - DA/DR:

• Maniac perk deck
  
• Frenzy Aced
  
• Underdog Aced

DA/DR is so valuable because it is the first line of defense. Often players get confused and think of it as armor, but it is really more than that. It is a reduction on all incoming damage you take, regardless of current health or armor levels. Because of its value, that is likely why Overkill™ has "over-balanced" and unfortunately, left it deficient.

The other reason I love DA/DR, it makes Berserker builds more viable it greatly increases your chances of survival at such low health numbers. This maximizes the use and benefit of the Berzerker buff.

Maniac Simplified

• At optimal play, Maniac grants 48 damage absorbtion for the player and 24 damage absorbtion for all teammates
  
• If more than one player is running Maniac, the game will apply the stronger shield to the team
  
• Shielding from multiple Maniac players does not stack so only one player (the one with the most aggressive playstyle) should run it
  
• Optimal Play:
  You must deal at least 240 total damage within every consecutive 4-second window (a 60 dps average). This should be easy for an aggressive playstyle with even sub-par weaponry.
  
• Rate of Damage Absorbtion Stacking:
  Doing the math, this works out to +19.2 DA every 4 secs under optimal play so the fastest you can reach the 48 DA maximum shielding is 3 cycles (12 seconds total).
  
• Incremental Decay of 60% of current Hysteria stacks + 40 stacks every 8-second window:
  So the worst case scenario, if no additional damage were done after your 600 Hysteria stack max, you would lose 400 stacks (-32 DA) 8 seconds later. That's 2/3 of your shield and one of the main reasons this deck is not viable at the highest difficulties. Decay does not appear to be constant, but incremental (only happening in burst every 8 seconds).

Main Problems with Maniac Deck Viability (beyond Overkill difficulty):

• Zero health or armor regen capabilities
  
• A flat 48 damage shield is not enough when regular cops on One Down difficulty are equipped with 225 damage DMR-kitted rifles (you would still get wrecked for 177 damage per hit under optimal conditions)
  
• The severe amount of shield decay (-32 DA after 8 seconds) with respect to the total amount of the shield (48 DA)

Final Thoughts

This is seriously my favorite perk deck conceptually. If they simply altered the decay math and made the shield stack as a % instead of a flat amount (making it scalable for higher difficulties), then it could seriously be viable. I would really love to have a damage-reduction playstyle when it comes to survival! My builds are very heavy into combat as I play aggressively, so a viable Maniac perk deck would be the perfect way I could support the team and while running the builds I love.

[Sterling]

Maniac is not damage reduction, though. Infiltrator is the DR deck. Maniac is DA, like forced friendship aced.

[CA$H THE GREAT]

The mechanic is exactly the same, you're getting caught up in semantics.

[Sterling]

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

The mechanic is exactly the same, you're getting caught up in semantics.

The mechanic is not the same. DR reduces incoming damage by a percentage, while DA reduces damage by an X number. DR and DA also stack differently. People already confuse them more than enough.

[Copy & Cat]

wanting them to give you % is pretty much infiltrator

[Sterling]

Originally posted by Doc Doc:

wanting them to give you % is pretty much infiltrator

Well, it would be nice to have a team infiltrator. Though I'm not sure how that'd stack with the other skills and decks. I'd imagine someone running crew chief with FF aced and someone running maniac rebalanced for DR would make an infiltrator virtually invincible.

[CA$H THE GREAT]

Originally posted by Sterling:

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

The mechanic is exactly the same, you're getting caught up in semantics.

The mechanic is not the same. DR reduces incoming damage by a percentage, while DA reduces damage by an X number. DR and DA also stack differently. People already confuse them more than enough.

Okay so multiplying by a decimal less than 1 and subtracting by an integer both mathematically *reduce*. We can call them different things but the end result is the same....A game mechanic that reduces incoming damage. I fail to see your point.

[Sterling]

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

Originally posted by Sterling:

The mechanic is not the same. DR reduces incoming damage by a percentage, while DA reduces damage by an X number. DR and DA also stack differently. People already confuse them more than enough.

Okay so multiplying by a decimal less than 1 and subtracting by an integer both mathematically *reduce*.
We can call them different things but the end result is the same....

Both result in numbers. That's their only similarity. DA is a low difficulty cheese, while DR scales a lot better with damage.

40 damage - 40 DA = 0 damage
40 damage * (50/100) DR = 20 damage

500 damage - 40 DA = 460 damage
500 damage * (50/100) DR = 250 damage

The result is totally not the same. Maniac is DA. It's in the deck's description. Calling it DR just confuses people who either don't know or are in doubt about what those two are.

[Milk]

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

The mechanic is exactly the same, you're getting caught up in semantics.

No it's not.

DA is additive. DR is multiplicative.

With DR, unless it's 100%, you will always take damage.

With DA, if the damage is less than your DA, you will not take damage.

It's actually a big difference.

[Sep]

Somebody is confused between damage absorb and damage reduction.

Let me simplify it for you.

Damage absorb - The lesser damage the enemy deal, the better it work.

Damage reduction - The more damage the enemy deal, the better it work.

[CA$H THE GREAT]

Again you are caught up in semantics. You take result to mean the actual numerical values. I take it as the concept. At the end of the day, a player does not care if the damage was reduced via multiplication or subtraction. Only that they are playing optimally and that shielding is keeping them alive. I could care less what the game calls them because they have the SAME effect (the player takes less damage). Feel free to make your own guide, I'm not stopping you.

[Sterling]

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

Again you are caught up in semantics. You take result to mean the actual numerical values. I take it as the concept. At the end of the day, a player does not care if the damage was reduced via multiplication or subtraction. Only that they are playing optimally and that shielding is keeping them alive. I could care less what the game calls them because they have the SAME effect. Feel free to make your own guide, I'm not stopping you.

Dude, you don't need to get so defensive because of a simple mistake. It's not like I'm trying to nail you on a cross or anything. This is what I get for being nice to people.

[Milk]

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

Again you are caught up in semantics.

No, they are conceptually very different. It matters a ton.

You know those quickscoperz? The ones that do 240 damage on DW? You can be walking around with crew chief frenzerker and essentially cut that damage in half.

You can't do that with maniac.

On the other side, you can't stand in the middle of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and take 0 damage from all da gensec cops with Crew Chief. You can take a lot of punishment, sure, but it's gonna eat you up eventually.

They work completely differently in terms of playstyle.

[CA$H THE GREAT]

Well I don't see why it warrants so many replies...? Is the rest of it sound? I will gladly correct more major errors, but it's getting late here.

[CA$H THE GREAT]

Originally posted by Ittle Dew Comic Generator:

You know those quickscoperz? The ones that do 240 damage on DW? You can be walking around with crew chief frenzerker and essentially cut that damage in half.

You can't do that with maniac.

On the other side, you can't stand in the middle of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and take 0 damage from all da gensec cops with Crew Chief. You can take a lot of punishment, sure, but it's gonna eat you up eventually.

They work completely differently in terms of playstyle.

Dude, trust me, I know....I've spent a stupid amount of hours trying to get this build to work even on Mayhem and it has been like pulling teeth all the way. That 48 damage absorb gets crushed.

[Sterling]

Originally posted by CA$H ME OUT$IDE:

Originally posted by Ittle Dew Comic Generator:

You know those quickscoperz? The ones that do 240 damage on DW? You can be walking around with crew chief frenzerker and essentially cut that damage in half.

You can't do that with maniac.

On the other side, you can't stand in the middle of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and take 0 damage from all da gensec cops with Crew Chief. You can take a lot of punishment, sure, but it's gonna eat you up eventually.

They work completely differently in terms of playstyle.

Dude, trust me, I know....I've spent a stupid amount of hours trying to get this build to work even on Mayhem and it has been like pulling teeth all the way. That 48 damage absorb gets crushed.

Try frenzy infiltrator with forced friendship aced.