MLBB Damage Formula

HOW EXACTLY DOES ARMOR, MAGIC RESISTANCE AND HP WORK IN THE GAME?

Thanks to Floofy, Wo. Nai and 0kills for running countless tests and deriving this formula

If high school mathematics had scarred you for life, don't worry, I'll explain the formula to you step by step. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you will have a much deeper understanding of:

- How Damage is calculated

- How Armor and MagRes affects Damage

- How Penetration and Reduction affect Armor and MagRes.

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STEP 1: DAMAGE and DEFENSE

Simplified Formula 1:

1) Assumptions

Layla - 200 PhyAtk

Tigreal - 0 Armor

Basic attack damage is derived directly from a hero's PhyAtk stat. This means that Layla should deal 200 PhyDmg.

When Tigreal has 0 Armor this is how much Dmg Layla deals to Tigreal.

That seems fairly normal, since Tigreal has no Armor at all.

Now, let's see what happens when Tigreal has 100 Armor

2) Assumptions

Layla - 200 PhyAtk

Tigreal - 100 Armor

When Tigreal's Armor increases from 0 to 100

Layla's Dmg decreases from 200 to 100

(200 - 100) ÷ 200 = 50%

So, it seems that the first 100 Armor is able to negate 50% of PhyDmg.

Now, let's see what happens when Tigreal has gains another 100 Armor, totaling to 200 Armor.

3) Assumptions

Layla - 200 PhyAtk

Tigreal - 200 Armor

When Tigreal's Armor increases from 100 to 200

Layla's Dmg decreases from 100 to 67

(100-67) ÷ 100 = 33%

So, it seems that the next 100 Armor only negates an additional 33% of PhyDmg.

Analysis

We realize that even though Tigreal gains 100 Armor at each stage, the Dmg negation gradually decreases. From this we know that Armor and MagRes devalues the more of it you get. In simpler terms, the beginning points of Armor negate a lot of Dmg, while the later points of Armor negate less and less Dmg.

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STEP 2: DEFENSE MODIFIER

If you've noticed, the original formula actually has a 0.84 modifier. This is because Armor and MagRes is actually with the 0.84 modifier before it is being used to calculate the Dmg negation.

Side Note:

The modifier is either 0.835 or 0.84, I am still unsure. The original tests by Floofy, Wo. Nai and 0kills ended up with 0.84, but I did some tests with larger numbers, and found 0.835 to be more accurate.

Simplified Formula 2:

This is just a slight modification from what we've already learned. In our previous assumption, Tigreal with 100 Armor actually negates 50% Dmg. Now let's see the actual value once we factor in the 0.84 modifier.

Assumptions

Layla - 200 PhyAtk

Tigreal - 100 Armor

So, instead of a 50% Dmg negation, the actual Dmg negation is:

(200 - 109) ÷ 200 = 45.5%

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STEP 3: FLAT PENETRATION

Now that we have figured out the relationship between Damage and Defense, it's time to factor in Penetration. There are two kinds of Penetration:

- Flat Penetration

- Percentage Penetration

We'll first talk about Flat Penetration.

Simplified Formula 3:

As you can see, Flat Penetration such as those from items like Arcane Boots and Glowing Wand, is pretty straight forward. You just subtract it directly from the MagRes before applying the 0.84 modifier, and later on calculating the Dmg negation. Let's set up some examples.

1) Assumptions

Eudora - 200 MagDmg 0 MagPen

Balmond - 100 MagRes

When Balmond has 100 MagRes, Eudora with 0 Penetration deals 70 MagDmg instead of 200 MagDmg.

Now let's see what happens when Eudora has 15 MagPen.

2) Assumptions

Eudora - 200 MagDmg 15 MagPen

Balmond - 100 MagRes

With just a bonus 15 MagPen from Eudora, her 70 Dmg skyrocketed to 117 Dmg. This is to show you how effective Penetration actually is. What Penetration does is that it reduces the enemy's MagRes (or Armor), and by doing so, they negate less Damage from your attacks. In other words, you deal a lot more Damage.

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STEP 4: PERCENTAGE PENETRATION

Now that we know how Flat Penetration works, let's include Percentage Penetration such as those from Devil Tears and Malefic Roar.

Simplified Formula 4:

Woah, things are getting a little complicated very quickly!

Don't worry, let me explain to you what this actually means. From the formula, we can see that MagRes is multiplied by (1 - %Pen) first, before FlatPen is deducted.

Let's see what happens when she has 40% PercPen instead of 15 FlatPen.

1) Assumptions

Eudora - 200 Dmg 0 FlatPen 40% PercPen

Balmond - 100 MagRes

PercPen is a little trickier. In this example, you can see that the 40% MagPen is more effective than the 15 MagPen, but that is because Balmond has High MagRes, meaning that the 40% MagPen is much more effective.

Let me show you the situational differences between FlatPen and PercPen.

As you can see, if enemy has low MagRes, getting FlatPen is much better. However, if enemy has High MagRes, PercPen is much more effective.

Now what happens when you get both FlatPen and PercPen on the same hero?

- Does the PercPen take effect first, then the FlatPen later?

- Does the FlatPen take effect first, then the PercPen later?

Continuing from the previous example, we now let Eudora have both FlatPen and PercPen.

1) Assumptions

Eudora - 200 MagDmg 15 FlatPen 40% PercPen

Balmond - 100 MagRes

So from the formula, we can see that PercPen actually takes effect first, which is good, because the 40% MagPen takes effect on the 100 MagRes. If 15 FlatPen takes effect first, then the 40% MagPen will only take effect on the remaining 85 MagRes. In other words, getting FlatPen and PercPen together is not disadvantageous in anyway.

Phew, I'm sure that must be a lot to take in. Just one more step to fully understanding the formula, and that is Flat Reduction, or FlatRed for short. Bare with me, you can do it!

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STEP 5: FLAT REDUCTION

So we've learned the relationship between Damage, Defense and Penetration. Now there's only one more thing left, and that is Reduction. Since MLBB only has Flat Reduction (Flat Red) at the moment, so we won't get into Percentage Reduction.

Simplified Formula 5 (The Complete Formula):

Okay, the final step!

So before I get into the calculations, let me explain the differences between Penetration and Reduction.

Penetration reduces enemy Defense only for you.

Reduction reduces enemy Defense for your entire team.

What this means is that:

If enemy has 100 MagRes, and you have 15 MagPen, you will be dealing Dmg to the enemy as if the enemy only has 85 MagRes, but your team will still deal Dmg as if the enemy has 100 MagRes.

If enemy has 100 MagRes, and you have 25 FlatRed, you will be dealing Dmg to the enemy as if the enemy only has 75 MagRes, but your team will also deal Dmg as if the enemy only has 75 MagRes.

That said, Reduction has a minor disadvantage when paired with PercPen. Time for an example. Th last example! Wew!

1) Assumptions

Eudora - 200 MagDmg 15 FlatPen 40% PercPen 25 FlatRed

Balmond - 100 MagRes

So let's go over this step by step. As you can see from the formula, the FlatRed takes effect first. Which means, that your team will be dealing Dmg as if the enemy only has 75 MagRes. This is the advantage of FlatRed.

The minor disadvantage is that the 40% MagPen will only take effect on the 75 remaining MagRes, and not the full 100 MagRes.

After FlatRed and PercPen has been calculated, FlatPen is calculated the last.

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Okay, that should be it!

I hope you learned something from this post!

If you forgot everything, at least remember these key points:

- Armor and MagRes devalues the more of it you get

- Reduction reduces Defense for your whole team

- Penetration reduces Defense only for you

- Flat Reduction is calculated first, followed by Percentage Penetration, and finally Flat Penetration

See you in the next post!