Physical builds (especially melee) have it hard enough without this aspect of the chance to hit equation. Currently you can be slightly under leveled, and it make a massive difference to your chance to hit an enemy. This seems excessive and undermines the character building process and attack rating affix.
I personally think they should remove (or severely diminish) the importance of the character level when calculating chance to hit, and instead focus on the dexterity, attack rating gear, and anything else that helps to buff the attack rating. This is a natural progression that still involves leveling, but doesn’t feel like it is forced upon you to be 2 levels higher by grinding out all the enemies along the way. I feel the player should be rewarded for focusing on a high attack rating/dexterity build
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Like or don’t like?
8 Likes
I support this.
Remove the player-monster level difference in chance to hit equation. And rather adjust monster defenses, so its much more clear.
I also suggest removing monsters block chance if they lack shield. Or at least add block chance calculation to overal hit chance shown in character screen info. To see TRUE chance to hit. With 20% block chance on monster, even having 20 000 attack rating will result in around 75% chance to hit.
1 Like
This cuts both ways… if an attack rating character goes to a lower level location they would miss (a lot?) more than now. And: for everyone going to a lower level area: you would be hit a lot more than currently 
Right now the biggest benefit (in my mind) for most classes leveling up is getting more survivability via the current formula. Running a level 90 character in 85 monster zones feels like a world of difference to me than a level 80 character: and I think the higher levels should feel stronger like that.
This is probably what makes most attack rating based characters feel so bad. Even with a 95% chance listed in the character sheet attacks still get blocked a lot while spells still have 100% chance to hit. 
I would prefer character level stays important. Maybe they could increase the experience gained in the midgame nightmare areas and early hell areas? 
Impatient people like to rush ahead at lower levels… this is really the main problem I see: low experience gain.
Also: experience gain bonuses for group play online ought to be increased significantly. I recently ran some nightmare baal runs solo because there are so few public games right now… and I gained almost as much experience as with a full 8 man party 
Without half the party leaching it actually went by a little faster.
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I understand what you mean, but I don’t necessarily agree. First of all, you can make a change only affect the player if you want to, second of all, why not have it be easier for monsters to hit you regardless of level? It should not be on some arbitrary number, it should be on your build. If attack rating is rebalanced without character level, and you find that the players are getting hit too much when going to lower level areas, then make defense matter more. If they ahve a lot of defense, make them even harder to hit in order to compensate for that.
My point is that it feels very clunky and frustrating when you are a level or two under the suggested level, which is most the time for experienced players, and you keep missing enemies, despite having poured 90% of your stat points into dex and focused on attack rating gear/skills.
I agree either with this or give all melee/physical builds ITD (ignore target defense).
When you look at chance to hit formula below, attack/defense rating calculation is weighted EQUALLY to attacker/defender level calculation.
What I would like to propose is give the attack/defense rating a higher assigned weight to signify a HIGHER importance when compared to attacker/defender levels. For example, assign weights as follows:
- 70% from attack/defense rating
- 30% from attacker/defender levels
Overall, this change would put more emphasis on your attack rating and less emphasis on your character level. Thoughts?
Chance To Hit Formula = 200% * {AR / (AR + DR)} * {Alvl / (Alvl + Dlvl)}
2 Likes
BUMP!
Blizzard please - I doubt anyone will complain about this change.
About lower level areas : I think players will not be hit so often if they have items with high defense. This would maybe push us to make 2nd stealth in Hell difficulty in elite armor instead of running with some act 1 normal coat - but to me it would be very cool change.
So 2 things need to change:
Chance To Hit Formula = 200% * {AR / (AR + DR)} * {Alvl / (Alvl + Dlvl)}
→ Chance To Hit Formula = 100% * {AR / (AR + DR)}
Chance To Hit Cap : 95%
→ Chance To Hit Cap : 99% or 100%