Draft Tourette's Barbarian Guide: 1.00dr

[Occhidiangela]

I've never noticed that Taunt gives these wonderful penalties to the monster it affects, have they always been there?

Yes. However, the 4 X AR feature seemed to take care of any benefit that Taunt gave, particularly when it is used as a "one point wonder."

I just speculated what Taunt would be like with a few +skill adders, like 2x Echoing weapons for instance.  Lvl 29 gives -61% Enemy dmg and AR, effectively providing you with a 150% boost to your life and defense.

Consider the following 1.10 change:

Your AR = (dex - 7) * 5 + tohit bonus + tohit factor
monster AR = tohit bonus + 5 * dex + tohit base

I am not at present sure how the -Attack percentage works, but it may be similar to the -Damage forumlation:

See This Post On Warcry Stacking

If -Attack% effects only base, then depending upon the monster, the effective increase in defense could be a bit less than we might think, but if it is applied to the "whole AR" quantity, then yes, it would be a very nice aggregate improvement to your DR.

One could solve for "effective DR improvement per the %To Hit change using the

%ToHit = 100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)

EDIT:

By setting the alvl = dlvl, since you cant influence that by anything you do with skills or equimpent, I found that DR = (1-X) * AR (where X = the target % to hit expressed as a decimal, such as .05 for a 5% "to hit"). Cutting the enemy AR in half "effectively" reduces your DR requirement by a half for the same targeted 'to hit' percentage. That represents how often you can accept getting hit by a garden variety monster.

Where the actual %AR reduction takes place, as in the Base or the over all, could influence that, however, if 4 X AR is still applied after the initial calc, then reducing 4 X AR's AR term should scale.

If we go to the extreme, maybe get a few more +skill items and a few +skill charms, lets say that gives us slvl 36 Taunt. That would reduce the monsters damage and AR by 75%, basically quadrupling your life and defense! Now stack it with Battle Cry and what happens, enemy damage goes beyond -100%.

We seem to have found out that -Damage % is capped at 90%, and that Physical Resistance from Equipment -Damage %'s is capped at 50%, so you have to fill in the cracks with straight -Damage items.

The unFrenzied feature for Taunt is a great way to take the bonuses away from Frenzytaurs and is reason enough to love the skill. :)