Why so much emphasis on back crit?

teoteodore · May 2017

I'm relatively new to the game (2-3 weeks), but realized early on that the difference in doing DPS in front of the boss or behind him is enormous --- maybe 50% enormous. Why is that? I know, I know, it's the way things work. But why? Why should your skills and rotations be so dependent on how quickly you can get behind the boss and how lucky you are that he doesn't move or turn. And now that most dungeons I've been in have been without tanks, with my DPS, I'm forever facing the boss. I even determine what classes to play based on how fast they can run ---- is that right?

Vinyltails · May 2017

Why? That's how the game is designed....it adds a skill difference so that low skilled players will have terrible dps cause they don't care about their back time and don't use proper back crit crystals while very highly skilled players will have near perfect back time regardless of the boss moving or turning (A good example is to watch 2nd boss of RMH speed kills and you can see it turns alot but the party gets near perfect backtime). I also believe you have a higher chance to crit naturally on hitting the back and Crits = damage and there are crystals that further increase your crits when you hit from the back (Savage, bitter, spiteful etc.)

So its partly down to luck if the boss turns (They usually never do unless its down to a attack/mechanic/Tank losing aggro) but then its also down to skill of how you deal with it. At lv65 (where the game actually matters) You'll always have a tank so as long as they have some braincells the boss shouldn't turn or move outside of specific attacks or mechanics.

Also you're only slightly partly right with how fast they run...every class has some way to get to the back of the boss as quickly as possible (Melees have backstab abilities...ranged classes have mobility skills that they can use to move through bosses)

Minimana · May 2017

Because thats how the game was designed and its a core part of the gameplay(tank in the front, dps in the back and healer depends on bosses, though this only a simplified explanation, in end game positioning is more complex than this), and its not about running fast its about learning the boss behavior and learning your class so you can efficiently dps them.

StevenAnthony · May 2017

teoteodore wrote: »

I'm relatively new to the game (2-3 weeks), but realized early on that the difference in doing DPS in front of the boss or behind him is enormous --- maybe 50% enormous. Why is that? I know, I know, it's the way things work. But why? Why should your skills and rotations be so dependent on how quickly you can get behind the boss and how lucky you are that he doesn't move or turn. And now that most dungeons I've been in have been without tanks, with my DPS, I'm forever facing the boss. I even determine what classes to play based on how fast they can run ---- is that right?

of course you are new, dps always be have dps from back boss, for max damage.......

sshades · May 2017

It's not even as bad in the early game. By end game, back crits hit for about 8 times as much as non-crits on most DPS classes and that doesn't even take into account that you are far more likely to crit from the back than the front.

If you manage to back crit ~50% of the time it means that all of your other damage essentially doesn't matter because of the difference in scale (you'd do nearly 90% of your DPS if you just twiddled your thumbs the rest of the time--though obviously crits don't work that way).

There is this term used in a lot of games called the metagame which usually refers to some overall strategy at end game that is significantly better than any other strategy to the point of being broken. It's not like tactics or strategies that apply to individual players, classes, or parties. It's usually something more like exploiting a really game-y or ridiculous mechanic in a way that boosts everyone by an absurd amount. For example (mechanics I've seen in other games that are sufficiently "meta"): (1) attack speed buffs that directly boost skill damage and stack in such a way that overall party DPS can be increased by 10s of times so that bosses can be burned down in seconds, (2) the ability to use many element buffs on a single element until that element deals absurd amounts of damage and single-element parties become THE way to play at end game, (3) exploiting the lack of an aggro range by pulling every mob on a map, hundreds of them, and wiping them all out with a relatively small number of AOE spells.

Back crit just happens to be this games game-y and kind of stupid mechanic to exploit. To be fair, if back crits were really only 50% better (or even 100% better), it would actually be a boost that makes sense. But this game sort of pushes it to levels of absurdity where the non back crits almost don't even matter to your overall DPS.

seraphinush · May 2017

It's just how things work our empirically as as well as realistically. people did some math and figured out that having a certain crystal set-up and dps'ing from the back maximizes damage, even though the bosses do turn like crazy. that's also a reason people emphasize on using a Pounding crystal over a Forceful crystal, as well as a Power cap you reach later.. though it does go into a lot more detail than i'm stating here o/

Hastrer · May 2017

Think with me:
- This is a ACTION rpg, not a "point/click" and stay still like rock rpg.
- Bosses attack on front of them like 80% of time, so naturally only the tank will be on front.
- The most efficient damage mitigation on Tera, is not your Armor value like many MMO, damage mitigation on tera means you NOT getting hit by using your i-frame or Dodge skills. What is the better way to not get hit? Not staying on front of the boss, stay on back = less atacks to worry.
- Having only one person on front and 3 on back make your Healer life much easier, because healers HAVE TO AIM to be able to heal you, it's not like other mmo that you just click on the name of that person and no matter what they will be healead. So, if always have 1 person on Front and 3 on back, your healer don't have to seek and chase people around the boss if they need heal.
- If everyone stay at back, your tank can easily see what kinda attack the boss will use, making easier to tank, and if he lost the aggro, tank don't need to chase the BOSS AND the dps around the map.

You probably will not understand anything of these playing with only DPS, as dps, going to the back it's not only about to make you deal more damage, game have a whole system that depends on that. Even without back crits, game would have the same battle system.

TWMagimay · May 2017

And the real life logic behind it: let's say you and your friend have to fight a bear. What do you think is more efficient? Both of standing in front of the bear and start stabbing and throwing punches or your friend distracts the bear while you sneak up from behind and stab it? Which one do you think will do more damage to the bear and give you a better chance of killing it?

aeee98 · May 2017

The truth is, while levelling, backcrits matter only as much as the boss being able to stay still. If you have a tank, this is very easy. If you don't, it is best to switch aggro front-and-back so that you keep the backcrit more consistent and boss doesn't run around.

In endgame, you can't do any dungeon without filling up the trinity (tank, support and dps), for tanks it makes the most sense to stay in the front to tank the boss. If you are a dps, you won't make sense attacking from the front even if it does many back hits because more often than not basic attacks hit the front. In case you haven't realise, some hits can be oneshots.

Tera is the only game where you can't just expect your gear to carry you, but to use both your common sense and mechanical knowledge to beat dungeons. The backcrit feature just amplifies the reward for successfully attacking from the back, even though it is a significant part of dps.

LYC14 · May 2017

Because of crystals like:

- +1.26 crit dmg when attacking from behind
- +1.44 crit power when attacking from behind

And weapon rolls like:
- Increase dmg by 6.9% when attacking from behind

Semetal · May 2017

The problem you are talking about isn't a problem to begin with, as it is one of the main aspects that divide good dps' from bad ones and make up a huge portion of how a dps plays in this game. Getting behind the boss and having as much backtime as possible is something that you have to figure out over time or you will not improve as a dps.
And regarding runs without tank: That is not the intended setup to begin with. Sure you can run without a tank and you can still get a lot of backtime when you deal with it correctly, but having a tank will always be faster (and saver).
Also: every class can stay behind the boss properly. Some are better at it when you don't have a tank but again: no optimal setup to begin with.

Muggsly · May 2017

TWMagimay wrote: »

And the real life logic behind it: let's say you and your friend have to fight a bear. What do you think is more efficient? Both of standing in front of the bear and start stabbing and throwing punches or your friend distracts the bear while you sneak up from behind and stab it? Which one do you think will do more damage to the bear and give you a better chance of killing it?

This painted a hilarious picture in my mind of my friend and I encountering a bear after a night out drinking. That being said due to anatomy it's actually easier to kill the bear from the front especially if it rears up.

A better anology would be perhaps your friend has a wooden table and is able to stave off the bears attacks while you would take more damage if you also stood in the front so being in the back will allow you maybe not do more damage but do it more safely.

sshades · May 2017

To be clear here, if you're under the impression that Tera is the only action game out there and that in every other game gear is the only thing that matters, that argument just doesn't make sense anymore. In newish MMORPGs, games with some sort of action mechanic are actually extremely common, and Tera hasn't really even had the best action engine for most of the time that it has existed (though their *execution* of their action engine is pretty top notch). It probably had the best action engine when it first released, but there is a lot of competition now.

This is also not the only game that has mechanics that benefit attacking from the back. That has been around quite literally for decades now. In some games it might only be a safety thing where most boss damage hits the front. However, even regular RPGs like Baldur's Gate had backstabs decades ago where certain class received damage boosts by fighting from behind.

The issue isn't really that these mechanics exists. The amount of the boost that they provide is just kind of absurd.

Why so much emphasis on back crit?

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