DI 2.0/1.0 Skill Tree Discussions | Endgame Builds

Hmmm, truthfully, I don't want to always do 15% more damage...the game already feels too easy in some spots which is why I avoid damage buff discs. Having said that, if it is actually just 15% chance to do extra damage I'd be far more interested, especially if there is a visual cue for the critical hits.

You might want to adjust your settings to Extreme for testing then. This endgame discussion also encompasses PvP aspects in terms of endgame builds/skill trees/buffs. Not just trash NPCs that every Youtuber uses as Skill tree examples... On top of that, why would you ever forfeit DMG output? Logically, it makes no sense given the nature of Castle Defense/Survival Mode. That's almost counter intuitive, given the nature of 2.0 where the emphasis is more on combat mechanics and being rewarded for playing skillfully, not button mashing on Easy Mode.

Not saying you're not skillful, but I do realize the majority of gamers and casuals do struggle with survival mode, especially when they're cycling characters out realizing that their attacks no longer 1-shot NPCs. I've even helped a co-worker clear survival mode for them since they're not used to the increased DMG output by the NPCs, let alone the HP on the NPCs themselves.

Also, did you not read the previous posts? The power discs are MISLABELED with wrong terminology. Even by Disney Interactive themselves. They do not give 10-15% DMG buffs, they give CRITICAL HITS with 10-15% chances to proc.

So you're saying that the critical hit, (which proc 10% of the time) adds +22% damage to THAT hit or contributes +22% to total DPS? If it's the former it's quite underwhelming (how did you calculate it btw?).

When I get a chance I'll test Zurg's disc (and some others) to confirm what it procs, as well as check some of the specials.

Well, I had a brief period of time to do some testing of the offensive power discs that I own and found a few things of interest:

1. Discs that proc criticals on melee attacks only:

Ralph Power of Destruction
Zurg's Wrath
Hulk Gamma Rays

2. Discs that proc criticals on range attacks only:

CHROME Damage Increaser
Dr Doofinshmirtz Damaginator
Stark Arc Reactor

3. Discs that proc criticals on BOTH melee and range attacks:

Bolt's Super Strength
Chernabog's Power
Sandy Claws Surprise

I attempted to discover the rate of crits, but in my limited time my sample size was nowhere near big enough. I tried 2xHulk Gamma Rays and averaged a crit in just under every 6 hits (if we're assuming the crit rates are somewhere from 10-15% then this number should be every 7-8 hits). Begs the question, could the melee only discs actually be 15% rate?

The other new discovery I had was that, for the purposes of these crit hit power discs, each character's melee (Y button/triangle) and range (trigger) did not always correspond to the above categories 1 and 2 respectively. For example, the melee only power discs (eg Ralph's) proc on BOTH of Hulk's Y button and trigger attacks, while the range discs (CHROME damage) worked on neither. As such, for the purposes of critical hit discs, both of Hulks attacks count as melee (which makes sense given the animation). This is also true for Iron Fist. The suprise packet that also fits into this category was Thor. Both his hammer melee and his hammer throw crit with the melee discs and not with the ranged ones.

That's interesting on the melee/range based on animation. Common sense, but interesting to know it's not button correspondence.

The proc rate for calculations is what it is. The testing was done on Extreme mode in PvP. NPCs share the same type of health bars as playable characters, so it's safe to assume the damage calculation should be the same across all targets with hit-boxes and HP bars. So for DPS or DoT characters (damage over time), critical hit bonuses would have better parsing results, compared to someone that relies on burst damage (Maleficent for example). The more swings, the more chances for critical hits to register, which translate to having faster combos (low start-up/low recovery frames), the more likely they'll deal the most damage over a period of time, in addition to critical hit bonuses. Common sense, but it goes above an average gamer's head.

The critical hits were based on characters that did exactly 1 bar or 2 bars of health for their basic first hit combo. So Thor's 1st basic swing did about 2.25, but whenever it activated, it would go to 2.75 bars. Iron Man went from 1 bar to 1.25 on critical hits. Groot's normal swing is 2 bars and on critical, 2.44 ~ 2.50. So the value would be upon 1.22 or 1.25 (at most) for the multiplier.

This is how I was able to determine whether or not a 2nd upgrade to Specials were necessary or not. Often times, the 2nd upgrade won't kill the next higher tier frost giant, but once in a while, you do encounter a character that does, such as Captain America. Then you have guys like Thor where 1 upgrade to their Special is more than enough to deal with grunts, but their 2nd upgrade isn't enough to clear the next tier, which makes it less practical to upgrade since that's an additional 10 points devoted solely to take out the next tier mob, when Thor's normal melee/breaker combo is more than enough to deal with them. Or if you have a lame Skill Tree layout like Groot, it might even cost an extra 11 points since his Ultra/Super Upgrade is wedged between additional bars of Special upgrades.

Then there's Supers where you can straight up block the entirety of the attack (Maleficent) and the damage scales down based on the number of targets (Maleficent again...). Thor's Super can be blocked on the first hit, but the second hit will be unblockable. It won't deal as much damage though (2-3 bars as opposed to instant death). Captain Americas' Special is unblockable and so is Iron Man's.

Yeah my question about how you calculated was more about how did you arrive at the number 1.22. It just seemed very specific. Maybe it will turn out to be 1.25? You'd think that would be the round number they decided on...

Regardless though, 10% crit rate at 1.25x damage only translated to a 2.5% total increased damage output over time, and with 2 discs, 5% total output over time. For some DPS characters this is probably still the best option, though I wonder whether events/team-ups/defensive discs might compare favourably for more characters than we thought?

The passive traits are good on characters that literally spam specific attacks. Merida, Tinkerbell, Stitch all just spam the same attacks, often not using anything else.

Team-Up discs aren't reliable since you have no control which target they attack (unless it's one). I generally use Team-Ups for range attackers so they can pick off targets while the Team-up character aggros everything else. So they end up tanking for a bit since the enemy AI will attack/change targets to the last character that damaged it. Also note which type of Team ups use range attacks more than melee attacks. The difference is having a constant moving NPC target to a stationary one (Winter Soldier).

Event discs vary in terms of damage types. The Nick Fury one is among the worst ones since it does not point straight (randomly), even if you're in third-person mode. The event discs would be best to use on characters with poor crowd control/mobility. Anna and Rapunzel comes to mind with their only crowd control options being their ground pound. For Castle Defense type maps, Chernabog or the Infinity Gauntlet are great. Dungeon Crawlers, Maleficent and to some extent if you can get it to aim correctly, Nick Fury (air strike).

These power discs are only worth using if you have capped cool-down timers for power discs. Otherwise, it's a frustratingly long time, especially in Dungeon crawlers.

Polish, I did in fact read it...which should be apparent in my post as I was directly referring to the mislabeling, in fact, that's why I was commenting that I'd actually use the discs now knowing that they are based on 10-15% critical chance rather than straight up boost. (and I'm not sure the 'people refusing to read' comment was necessary in the following post as it was clearly aimed at me).

My reference was more to playset gameplay, where I have been playing on hard and don't think I realized there was a higher difficulty, is it only for survival/defense mode? Either way, I find it moderately challenging but never too hard, which is why I'd pass on DMG output....I don't want the game any easier....maybe I'm too skilled .

Having said all that, I see this thread seems to be focused more on Defense/Survival mode which I would then want all the damage output I can get because it requires me to stay alive and dispatch quickly.