Enyeto

-Group ward: On average mine collectively wards for around 8690.
-Broken down by 6 players this is 1448 points of prevention per player. (Same as if the REH proc'd on each player)
-Only it does not work like this. On some ae's a couple players will take little damage while other players take a much more substansive attack. (Resists are usually all above 9k for whatever needs to be mitigated, and any more or less won't impact it as far as 10's of %'s in hp loss.)
-Ignore critical mitigation with this question because even without that factor, this has always happened throughout the game.

My question is how are the priorities of protection decided? Who gets what protection and how much of it before it is passed along to the next player and so on?

The only thing that I could think of was ae hits for 38k to the group collectively and my group ward prevented 8k of the damage leaving 30k to be split between the rest of the group. (30/6 = 5k per player in damage) Some players in the group will have more hp than others and the % loss will reflect that. 5k damage on an hp pool of 10k will reveal 50% hp left; whereas 5k on a 15k hp pool will reveal 66%hp left. *Only it doesn't work this way either.

Anyone have any ideas or sources of info to help me with this?

Sadari

I can't help you with understand how the group ward is handled, but I do want to point out that even if it's split evenly you can see some huge damage ranges from an AoE. Making up some numbers to illustrate the point:
- AE hits for 10k heat with 2.0 crit
- Player crit mit varies from 1.3 to 1.7. Calculate crit damage: 13k to 17k.
- Apply heat mitigation. Again, values vary; it's not unusal for a group to have a 5k-15k range. Even if the group is prepped for heat, you'll see a 10k-15k range. Assume the damage goes down roughly around 50% to 6k-9k per person.
- Now apply your ward at 2k (rounded up to make math work) per person. Damage ranges from 4k-7k.
- A mage might have 10k hitpoints. If they have low critmit/heat mit, they get hit with 7k or 70% damage.
- A tank might have 20k hitpoints. If they have high critmit/heat mit, they get hit with 4k or 20%. They may also have other healing/mitigation to reduce the 20% hit to 10% or less.

So in a well-geared group with slight differences in critmit/heat mit, the mage got hit for 80% and the tank got hit for 20%.

Caveat: I'm not sure the calculation order is correct. If it changes, it still won't change the conclusion -- moderate changes in equipment can produce large damage ranges from an AE.

Sadari
80 Illusionist
80 Inquisitor

Enyeto

Your post makes sense, and its what I had also considered when questioning the topic. And to re-introduce the question, who gets the ward absorbtion first? The tank with more, leaving a reason for the mage to take even more damage than necessary with a ward active, or does the mage take the first absorbtion leaving the tank to mitigate the majority of its damage.

I know you stated that you cannot explain how its 'handled' and I don't think anyone will be able to unless it is really something as simple as a RNG choosing who gets the first absorbtion.

Just kinda wanna throw it out there and see if someone knew. =(

Thank you for your response.

gahnand

This is a good question for a dev, although I think the information is somewhat trivial. You knowing how this effect is going to take place is not going to make a huge difference in how you apply your heals because the varying factor is probably very rarely every going to be more than 500 hitpoints. Generally, I've found that if you have a tank in your group, the tank is probably going to soak up most of the group ward UNLESS you have a single target ward stacked IN FRONT of the group ward. After that, it doesn't really matter. I think we all know that the group ward is the weakest heal utility that we have (save Lunar Attendant) (and before anybody says something stupid, just because I think it's weak does NOT mean I don't cast it; I cast it all the time). It's bonus protection that I cast when convenient (other heals down or group is at 100% and single target ward and torpor are down), but I certainly don't rely on it to save my group from AE attacks.

Some food for thought though:
In addition to c/m and resists, the damage to each player is probably varied depending on where the player is standing if the AE is positional and/or variable by distance from the mob.

profe

People are protected in the order in which they were invited to the raid, regardless of when they joined your group specifically. When AOE damage is processed, it hits one person at a time from said order. Wards are then processed in the order in which they were cast (FIFO, but remember by reapplying a non-stackable single ward you remove the existing single ward from the order and append the new one to the end) on that person.

It might be in your best interest to disband a group and reconstruct it for the purpose of protecting one player more than the rest (like a tank...). Certainly never let a pet class be the player getting processed first in your group.

gahnand

Source?

profe

Me. Your logs. Take your pick.

gahnand

If you figured that out from your logs, then my hat is off to you.

profe

Way back when, Zrakanx and I took the time to experiment with every leading theory to confirm exactly how it works.

Actually, the ordering of your group can have a profound impact on the effectiveness of your group ward and the survivability of your allies.

Enyeto

I will definitely look into this. Not that I am doubting you, but just to see the order of the group being hit and then apply the idea.

Thank you. By the way, how did you figure it out? That's not something that would just pop out at someone unless they are just really a far outside the box type thinker.