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Question for Tech Support about Shadow Pip chance

AuthorMessage
Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
I tried to send this direct to support, but the website would not let me choose a category even though I clicked over and over on it, and clicked *really hard*. So this is a bug report for that issue as well as the following. I would love an answer of some kind for the KI guru team.

I just ran a test of shadow pip percentage. I played 1000 rounds in Velo City and kept track of my shadow pips. In the first 500 rounds I had gear that gave me no shadow pip bonus. I got 107 shadow pips for a base rate approx. 21% chance.

then I equipped gear that said it would give me a 17% shadow pip bonus chance and did 500 more rounds. The gear included two Shiny Hematite Jewels that are supposed to give 3% each increased shadow pip chance. In those rounds I received 160 shadow pips, or a Shadow pip 32% of the time. If the base rate is 20% I would expected to receive in the neighborhood of 185 shadow pips (with a 17% increase). Is my math wrong? Are the jewels not being factored into the calculation? I think 500 rounds is sufficient to draw conclusions from, or is that not correct?

I made a conscious effort to avoid rounds with two shadow pips that might prevent me from missing one that I would have otherwise got, in the 500 rounds there might have been a dozen with 2 shadow pips. So I am kind of at a loss.

If you would verify that the jewels are actually being factored in I would appreciate it, and if you can shed any light on this, that would be great. I can send a spreadsheet of the info I tracked if you like.

Level 130 Balance Wiz Valerian Duskrider using a Mac and wishing the sluggish splash screens would just GO AWAY!

thanks for many hours of fun.

After reviewing the code, we have found that Shadow Pip % given from gear & jewels is working as intended. Unfortunately, on turn 1, your base shadow pip rate is not 20% which is why you are seeing conflicting results in your math.

Arthur

Survivor
Dec 31, 2010
12
when does your shadow rate kick in? if not on round 1!

Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
Arthur Wethersfiel... on Jan 22, 2019 wrote:
After reviewing the code, we have found that Shadow Pip % given from gear & jewels is working as intended. Unfortunately, on turn 1, your base shadow pip rate is not 20% which is why you are seeing conflicting results in your math.

Arthur
Thank you for the substantive answer, Arthur. It is refreshing and helpful. It does lead to another question though...

I played 64 matches with a zero shadow pip bonus and 81 matches with a 17% bonus. In the first round of the 64 matches I got 6 shadow pips, which would seem to equate to a 10% first round base rate shadow pip bonus (very approximately since the number of tests is small).

In the second 81 matches I got a shadow pip in the first round 21 times, which works out to a 26% shadow pip chance, a difference of (very roughly) 17% from the presumed 10% first round base rate, so that checks out.

In the rest of the rounds of the first set (436 rounds) I got 101 shadow pips for a base rate of approximately 23%. (call it one pip per 4 rounds)

In the rest of the rounds of the second set (419 rounds) I received 139 shadow pips, this works out to a 33% shadow pip chance, or 1 pip per three rounds.

But if my pip chance was increased by 17%, in the second set, I would have expected to get a shadow pip about 40% of the time - 2 pips every 5 rounds or so. This seems like a bigger difference than can be attributed to a small sample size, but perhaps not.

Other than the first round, are there any variations in the shadow pip chance base rate calculation (excluding bonuses from gear)? Do the bonuses from gear also vary according to the round number at all?

Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
...I thought of one more question that I am curious about: Is the shadow pip chance calculation in PvP any different than it is in PvE?

Thanks again.

Turn 1 does come with a % chance to generate a shadow pip. Also, Shadow Pip generation in PvP and PvE is exactly the same.

Arthur