Questions about various potions

[TKzip]

Most of the potions in this game are very self-explanatory...not much room for interpretation. But there are a few that I have questions about. First, is a specific elemental protection potion any better than simply using an Armor Flask? The armor potion provides +30% armor. So is this just as effective for example, as using an Electro Damage Flask (-30% electro damage) when battling the electro worm? They also both have the same mana cost, and duration of 2 minutes. If the end result is the same, it seems to make more sense to just keep armor flasks on hand instead of having to stock your backpack with element-specific potions for certain enemies.

The other potion I've never been clear on is the Magic Damage Protection Flask. What qualifies as "magic damage" (which the wiki description refers to as "spell damage")? Aren't lightning, ice, light, dark, etc. all forms of "magic" or "spell" damage? If so, it seems redundant to have resistance flasks for a single type (ex: Light Damage Protection) when I can use a general purpose damage protection potion to get the same effect. I'm probably misinterpeting something... I wish the descriptions (or the info on the official wiki site) were more specific. Thanks in advance for the helpful insights of this very friendly community!

EDIT: I just realized that the magic damage protection flask only reduces spell damage by 20% as opposed to the element-specific potions, which reduce dmg by 30%, but the question of "what is spell damage" still remains.

[コミクデケンタレンド]

perhaps the armor is diferent from the magic resistance. armor increases resistance to physical attacks and magic resistance to specific magic damage. That is what i think, with no certainty.

[ritt5220]

I also have wondered about this subject. This is my thoughts on Armor Flask. Armor is to protect and/or aid weapon in damage done.

Earth Damage
-Earth Damage is derived from Verdant Emerald. Earth Damage is strong against Electro Damage and weak against Fire Damage
Electro Damage
-Electro Damage is derived from Electro Quartz. Electro Damage is strong against Water Damage and weak against Earth Damage
Fire Damage
-Fire Damage is derived from Flame Ruby. Fire Damage is strong against Earth Damage and weak against Water Damage
Water Damage
-Water Damage is derived from Sea Sapphire. Water Damage is strong against Fire Damage and weak against Electro Damage
Dark Damage
-Dark Damage is derived from Moon Opal. Dark Damage is strong against Light Damage and vulnerable to Light Damage
Light Damage
-Light Damage is derived from Sun Diamond. Light Damage is strong against Dark Damage and vulnerable to Dark Damage

If the armor used is fire resistance and you take the Armor Flask it increases armor strength and with its fire resistances, good for Dragon Queen. If same fire resistance armor is used at Evil Electro Worm, Armor Flask increases armor strength but the extra boost needed to protect player against heavy electro attack is not available. If armor used is all-in for Critical or Multi Strike, again increasing strength with Armor Flask does not give it enough boost to protect from a heavy specialized attack like the Evil Electro Worm. So Armor should match enemy attack for Armor Flask to be effective.

Will add more on other potions later.

[TKzip]

Originally posted by ritt5220:

I also have wondered about this subject. This is my thoughts on Armor Flask. Armor is to protect and/or aid weapon in damage done.
- snip -

This statement puzzled me for just a moment (why would armor aid in damage?). But as I thought about it, there's sound logic behind it, based on the elemental effects attached to armor. Thanks for the insight!

[ritt5220]

I am not an expert at this but talking about this subject will bring other inputs/experience and a better understanding. I like Ranger and Warrior the best and have played Mage but just can’t get excited about that class. Other than Hard Mode Boss fights I do not carry Damage Protection Flasks. Could this be something more relatable to the Mage Class?

I want to talk about when the game allows access to Magic Damage Protection Flask. It can be crafter at Alchemy Table I. Magic Damage Protection Flask is available to craft as soon as player has Fire Spirits and Wheat. Fire Spirits drop from enemy at 1-05. Wheat can be found/farmed at 1-01 and on. The Magic Damage Protection Flask (ready to use) is dropped from treasure chest at 1-05, 1-06, 1-08, Worm Pit, and many of the 2-XX islands. Most enemies in 1-02 thru 1-10 give melee and fire damage. Are fire balls from enemy Magic? Hollow Knight of the Frost will cut player with sword but also sends out a wisp of Frost (water damage?). Is that Magic? As Ranger/Warrior I do not have any problems defeating these enemies without the use of a protection flask.

I just finished testing some of the Protection Flasks using level 23 Ranger (10 hearts) and level 30 Warrior (13 hearts). Test was done at 3-15 Great Frontier a level 30 island so should have been harder on Ranger at Lv 23. All enemies use Dark (Magic) except for Fallen Solders with the Sword. I let enemies attack me to see how much damage would be taken by my player. Then I took a Magic Damage Protection Flask. Not much if any change in damage taken. Then took Curse Damage Protection Flask and again did not experience much of a difference. PK has been out for a couple of years. Early development may have used the Protection Flask more. But I have only been playing 10 moths so not sure about the earlier versions. Magic Damage Protection Flask may have been intended for the Worlds End, Hollow King fight and maybe as a lower lever player it may still be needed.

Thanks for letting me ramble, will talk more about Curse Damage Protection later.

[TKzip]

I appreciate your time in relaying info based on your play experience, and for testing effects of flasks. I was thinking of doing the same thing. Perhaps I still will, but test on a different sampling of enemies. I've only been playing for 2 months or so, but in that time, it's almost the only game I've played, and I haven't missed a day since first launching it. I guess you could say I'm hooked. :-)

[ritt5220]

Like TKzip I had also looked for information on what Magic and Curse Damage Protection Flask were good for and not finding a clear answer. By putting thought to text, it has helped me to come to what could be an answer. Will do more testing but here is what I think.

- Magic Damage Protection Flask - best benefits during the 3 regular boss fights
- Cursed Damage Protection - best benefits during Special Event “Tomb of C’Thiris”
- Electro Damage Protection Flask- best benefits during “Ancient Evil Electro Worm”
- Water Damage Protection Flask - best benefits during “Arctic Dragon Countess”
- Light Damage Protection Flask - best benefits during “King of Light”

First look at the protection factor of the flask.
a. Magic Damage Protection Flask (DPF),
Reduces spell damage taken by 20% for 2 minutes.
In some test I have done, most island enemy single attacks take 2-3 players hearts. If you take 20% of 3 hearts you are only reducing Spell damage by one half (1/2) of a heart and if player has 8-10 hearts you are better off carrying healing potions as you can take 3-4 hits before the RED danger outline surrounds the screen to indicate you are very low on life. In regular boss fights the loss of hearts are higher per hit so say you lose 5 of your 10 hearts to a boss attack. One more hit and you’re out. If player can reduce loss of 5 hearts by 20% that is only a loss of 4 hearts so 2 hits would give you time to take a healing potion. Some may say that they would just take healing potion and not worry about protection flask, remember that there is a cooldown period before you can take another healing potion so two hits could finish you before player could take another healing potion. I have not tested this theory on the regular boss fight but will soon. As I stated in an earlier post above game gives you access to Magic DPF very early in the game so this may be why.

b. Cursed Damage Protection Flask (DPF), reduces cursed damage taken by 30% for 2 minutes. To the best of my knowledge mummies deal cursed damage along with other enemies at the Tomb of C’Thiris. I just did a test during special event “Invasion of the Mummies” on island 2-06. Let mummies attack me without using the Cursed Damage Protection Flask. Lost about 2-3 heart per attack. Took Cursed DPF and even thought protection give a reduction in cursed damage by 30% I did not see significate improvement when taking damage. Based on what was said in para (a) it holds true about percentages, a low loss factor only leads to a very low gain. Now show up at the Tomb of C’Thiris and when the curse meter is full and curse attacks I have lost 6-8 hearts. If I have taken the Cursed Damage Protection Flask before the attack I could save 2.5 hearts so would have only lost 4-6 hearts during curse attack. This is good for the low lever player with only 6-8 hearts. The thing I do not understand about Cursed DPF is you have to do special event Mysterious Portal. The only place to find ingredients Ghul Berries and Eerie Ink Cap mushrooms to craft Flask is by using Red Portal stones to open portal to Morteheim Guildhall. If you are a new player you will see the event available but when you find you don’t have any red portal stones you can’t open portal. When I started playing PC ver I was up to North Point 2-07 before I had enough Red portal stoned to open Mysterious Portal. From my records the Cursed DPF does not drop from enemy or island treasure chests, only way to get it is craft it.

The last three, Electro, Water, and Light Damage Protection Flask are self-explanatory.
In normal island enemy fights the loss of hearts will not show a significate advantage by using protection flask, but in Hard Boss Fight player will see more benefit.

[TKzip]

Thanks for all your investigative efforts, ritt! I was planning to get around to that but I've been busy rebuilding my home (procrastination sometimes pays off...rarely, actually. ) It makes sense that Magic Damage Protection would be effective against the regular bosses, since there's no single protection for their types of attacks (ex: there's no "Dark Damage Protection", so I would conclude that "Magic Damage Protection" is basically the same thing, but can apply to multiple types of enemies' attacks).

[5 AM]

Shouldn’t it also depend on what armor you’re wearing? If you already have 20% electro resist from armor alone, would the electro resist potion increase it by +30%, so around 50%, or by 30% of 20%, so around 26%?

Same with the armor potion, does it add 30% of total armor, or reduce damage by 30%?

[ritt5220]

Alexanderermce, the Magic/Cursed/Electro/Water/Light Damage Protection Flask (DPF) reduce damage taken, indicating that this is the loss of player hearts in the game.
Say Lv 30 Ranger is wearing the “King’s Archer Cap”. It has armor strength of 158. The cap also provides player with Electro Damage Protection of 5%. I look at it this way (and I could be incorrect) the armor strength (158 in the cap) is to protect player in general from any type of attack. But if it is hard-hitting specialized attack like from Electro worm the caps 5% electro damage reduction is like the player carrying an electro damage shield. If player takes Electro DPF giving 30% Electro Damage Protection for 2 minutes player will have a total of 35% protection. So, if Electro Worm attack takes 6 hearts with armor strength alone, if you add the shield of 5% from cap along with 30% from Electro DPF, 6 heart loss reduced by 35% = loss of 4 hearts.

Be careful in using the entire electro protection suit of armor in Hard Boss Worm as armor can also give a boost to players weapon with multi strike, additional strike, etc. Without a balance of protection and weapon boost armor you will not be able to kill the worm tails before they disappear under the platform. I have read the only reason in using the entire electro protection suit of armor was to use that player as the decoy so big worm will attack him/her while other players take out the tails.

Armor Flask will increase armor strength by 30% for 2 minutes which in turn could be classifies as damage reduction, but because it is a general armor strength increase and not a specialized shield I would not think it reduces enemy damage taken by 30%. Armor Flask has benefits if armor used is all-in for Critical or Multi Strike and low in protection strength and no shields like electro, fire, etc., being used in general island enemy fights by say low level Warrior that has to take on 2-4 enemies at a time where one enemy is cutting with sword, another is zapping player with electro, ect.