The Basics
There are two very common misconceptions about stats - the first is that stats have little to not impact on skills, and the other is that they are far more important than skills.
Every Skill is listed under one of the 6 Stats in the 'practice' screen. The Stat a Skill is listed under is the Primary Stat for the Skill. The Stat and Skill work hand in hand, each of equal importance.
Two of the Stats have additional functionality beyond the Skills:
- Strength - Increases melee damage by 0.375% per point above 70
Health - Increases hit points at a rate dependent on your race.
The Math of Stats and Skills - Tiers
The number of points in a stat or skill are converted from the actual value to an 'effective' value, called 'tiers' (meaning stepped level). The word 'Tiers' is a holdover from the first version of the system, and easier to understand than 'Effective Skill' or 'Effective Stat'. However, the current system is often referred to as 'tierless', because the old hard tiers (described below) no longer matter. We will continue to use the word 'Tier'.
The formula for calculating the Tiers of any stat or skill is:
Tiers = (square root( (8 * value) + 1 ) - 1) / 2
A Tier can be fractional; for example, the base stat of 70 is 11.34 Tiers.
This formula has one specific result: every point in a stat is worth just a little less than the previous! Each pair of integral tiers is a little further apart than the previous pair.
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Points Tiers from Point Total Tiers
1 1 1
2 0.56 1.56
3 0.44 2
4 0.37 2.37
... and so on.
At the end of the curve, 210 points in a stat (20 tiers), that 210th point is only worth 0.05 tiers in total! Specialization comes at a price - you can be very well rounded, or you can specialize to the extreme at a cost. The first 55 points of a skill are 2/3s of it's total possible tiers! At 70, a stat is already over halfway to the maximum total tiers, even though the stat itself is only 1/3 of the maximum value it can be!
A simple visualization:
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10...
Something to remember: both stats and skills utilize this EXACT SAME formula and the resulting curve! The only difference is that the curve for stats continues further, for 5 more tiers (33% more than skills).
The Math of Stats and Skills - Skill Rolls
The Tiers of a Skill are added to the Tiers of its Primary Stat, and the resulting value is the Effective Skill Value. For example, if you have a Dodge of 40 (8.46) and Agility of 80 (12.16), the Effective SKill is 20.62.
Whenever a skillroll is made, a random number is generated using a bell-curve formula. This number ranges from -17 to 50, but will tend to fall around 16.5. The random number is subtracted from your Effective Skill. If the result is 0 or more, your use of the skill succeeds.
In many Skill Checks, there may be modifiers applied to the skill roll. In Contested Skill Checks, such as Combat (weapon skill vs opponent's dodge), or Stealth (Notice vs Stealth), one skill value may be subtracted from the roll, or two separate rolls may be compared to see which is greater.
Tiers - What they Were
For 4 years (March 2003 to April 2007, prior to this we used an entirely different stat/skill system), AvP's skill system was strictly integer-based. The Tiers were hard numbers - 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, etc. Higher level Tiers were 78, 91, 105, 120, and the highest was 210. In the old system, any points in a skill or stat between the hard tier levels were completely ignored! If you had 90 in a Skill, it was still effectively only worth 78 (12 tiers). The moment you got 91, it was worth more (13 tiers).
If someone throws around these numbers, ignore them! Tiers are no longer locked to these values. The only significance they have now is in being easy to remember integral values, and helping you to (roughly) calculate the fractional tier of any value.
Life Without Hard Tiers
Now that fractional values are utilized, and skill rolls are also generating fractional numbers, every point in a stat or skill counts. Balancing the stats and skills has always been important, but now it can be even more important! The cost of skills vs the high cost of stats at 6 SP, and the fact that a single stat may impact multiple skills under it, may sometimes make it worth investing a stat. The fact that a skill's tiers and stat's tiers follow the same curve means improving the skill first is often more rewarding.
It is up to you to determine what gets you the best value for your SP. Sometimes it doesnt matter much, if the skill already functions 'well enough' or your opponent doesn't have their skills up to counter. Other times, even half a tier worth of points can give you that edge.
Feel free to discuss or ask questions below.