Folka - 30% to avoid ALL attacks (?) Possibly Great combination: Folka + Divert (talent) + Yox Nauts (item, +3 to Break Talent bonus)

[ScopicAgent]

Hello fellow Banner Saga ethusiasts!
I'll try to be brief :)
At my current Marchant store i can buy the Yox Nauts item (+3 Break Talent ranks, +2 Armour, +2 Break / Level 8 / 16 renown) This made me think, who would benefeit from a +3 Break Talent bonus most. Could it be Folka ? After all thanks to Folka's Shield Mastery ability she diverses all Strength attacks to Armour! Thus If I place some points into Folka's Diverse Talent (one point gives 5%/two gives 10%/three give 15%) and then add the +3 Break Talent item bonus(+15%), DOES THAT mean that no matter how Folka gets attacked (break attack OR strength attack) she would have a 30% chance to fully avoid that attack!? Even if it was coming from a strength attack that got coverted to an armour attack? After all a converted strength attack is treated as armour damage! Could I be right here ?

[Aleonymous]

Divert Talent gives you a chance to completely avoid all damage from a BRK attack. Folka's passive ability ("absorb") transfers STR dmg to her ARM, until that is depleted.

http://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/Terminology#Divert

Now,

• If Folka's ARM is attacked, and Divert Talent procs (30% chance), then Folka will receive no damage at all. If it doesn't (70% chance), she will take normal ARM damage.
  
• If Folka's STR is attacked, then Divert doesn't come into play at all. Only her passive procs (100%) and transfers damage to her ARM, assuming she has some left!

To summarize: If all goes well, Folka only takes ARM damage in the beginning of a battle :)

[ScopicAgent]

Hey!
Yes I know I know :)
OK so as you said....
"If Folka's STR is attacked, then Divert doesn't come into play at all. Only her passive procs (100%) and TRANSFERS damage to her ARM, assuming she has some left!"

What I was hoping for is that....

If her STR is attacked, then that STR attack damage is transfered to her ARM and THEN it is detected (treated as) as "NORMAL" ARM damage and the 30% Divert Talent procs get activated ;-)
At the end of the day, as long as folka has some armour, a STR attack "becomes" an ARM break attack, thus perhaps the Divert Talent is not able to distiguish if:
A) the attack started/was orginated as a STR attack (and then tranfered to ARM)
OR
B) if it started as an ARM break attack.
At the end of the day its an ARM break attack thus the Divert talent could/might activate :)

What do you think ?That would be one cool Talent for Folka (and only for Folka). Sounds plausable to me.
NOTE: I wanted to try it but that would take some time hahah (i need to do some killing before I can promote Folka again)

Cheers!

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by ScopicAgent:

If her STR is attacked, then that STR attack damage is transfered to her ARM and THEN it is detected (treated as) as "NORMAL" ARM damage and the 30% Divert Talent procs get activated ;-)

Hmm, yes. I see. I am not sure how Talent work, but there's high chance that they're applied after the Passive Ability. However, the game uses two ways to reduce ARM (or STR): First there's the regular "attack ARM/STR" mechanic (which is of course subject to Talents etc) and secondly there's the brute force "reduce stat" mechanic (which probably bypasses Talents). Not sure what is the case for Folka's passive...

[Mercotroll]

Interesting. I think it will be hard to really prove if this really works, because, assuming you see the effect happen, how would you know if the enemy actually meant to attack STR and not ARM?

[Nafeij]

With dev tools you can turn off ai and control enemy units. You can google it, I think it's in the dev cheatsheet.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Nafeij:

With dev tools you can turn off ai and control enemy units. You can google it, I think it's in the dev cheatsheet.

In developer mode, enter the console command:

fsm state battle ai

[Mercotroll]

Oh, right. I'm no dev though, and I have no idea about those things... Well, let me know if it works! :D

[Nafeij]

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

the game uses two ways to reduce ARM (or STR): First there's the regular "attack ARM/STR" mechanic (which is of course subject to Talents etc) and secondly there's the brute force "reduce stat" mechanic (which probably bypasses Talents).

Done some testing, and I'm quite sure it's the latter. Attacking Folka's STR would not involve the Divert talent.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Nafeij:

Attacking Folka's STR would not involve the Divert talent.

Thanks for the update, Naf!

[Mercotroll]

Cool. Thanks!

[ScopicAgent]

A too bad :) would be sweet if it did :)

Thanks for soving the "mystery"!

[David]

Originally posted by Nafeij:

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

the game uses two ways to reduce ARM (or STR): First there's the regular "attack ARM/STR" mechanic (which is of course subject to Talents etc) and secondly there's the brute force "reduce stat" mechanic (which probably bypasses Talents).

Done some testing, and I'm quite sure it's the latter. Attacking Folka's STR would not involve the Divert talent.

What about Robust and Dodge? or does it skip talents entirely?

[Aleonymous]

If Folka's STR is attacked, Robust and Dodge should normally come into play, before her passive procs.