Boost Items

Back

Introduction

This article will explain how boosting items work in Adventure Quest Worlds. In particular, we will look into the interaction between the following boosts:

To find your current boosts, look for the following icons on your stat panel:

Alt text

I will be linking items as examples, but many of them have alternatives and variants. This article is meant to be an explanation, not a comprehensive list.

He will help us understand how damage boosts stack up.

Meet our friendly Frostval Barbarian

He will help us understand how damage boosts stack up.

Additive vs. Multiplicative

Basic Explanation (feel free to skip)

One thing that’s important to understand is that 100% is the same as the number 1. The percent sign is just an indication of “one hundredth”, the same “cent” as in a penny.

Eating 50% of an icecream is the same as eating half of it, (0.5), and doubling your salary means you earn 200% as much as you used to.

Similarly, there’s no difference between adding 20% to something, and multiplying it by 120%. Or 1.2.

Suppose you have Exalted Apotheosis boosting your damage by 51% and Polly Roger giving you a further 30% against the monster you’re fighting. You might think that you have an 81% damage boost, but that’s not the case.

By the time Polly’s 30% is applied, you’re not supposed to add the 30% of your original damage, but 30% of your damage after accounting for Apotheosis. This results in a slightly higher number.

To calculate multiplicative boost, you… multiply the total values together.

151%*130%=195%

In other words, you get a 95% boost, not an 81% one. Multiplicative boosts are more effective when going up.

In general:

Before we begin, let’s notice how our friendly Frostval Barbarian hits for 400 damage in one strike without boosts. He’s using Doom Ophidian Blade, which deals the same damage every time. As a Frost Barb, he also doesn’t crit.

Base Hit = 400

Before we begin, let’s notice how our friendly Frostval Barbarian hits for 400 damage in one strike without boosts.
He’s using Doom Ophidian Blade, which deals the same damage every time. As a Frost Barb, he also doesn’t crit.

XP/CP/Gold/REP

These four are fairly easy to explain because they don’t interact with the combat boosts. If you have an item boosting these, you will gain increased rewards from killing monsters and turning in quests.

You can also use a consumable boost to double your rewards. These stack multiplicatively with the item boost.

Sometimes, there’s a server-wide doubling of your rewards. These also stack multiplicatively.

Here’s a list of some, but not all of the important items to look at:

With an Awescended set piece, a CP or REP boost item, and a server-wide boost, the highest bonus you can achieve is 150%*200%*200 for a total multiplier or 600%, which is a 500% bonus compared to your base rate.

If you’re max level, XP boosts are irrelevant to you. CP and REP might be relevant based on what you’re doing, and Gold is generally always useful. If you do need XP, consider the Legion Beast helm or Dragon’s Guard over, or in addition to, Awescended.

Therefore the best-in-slot item is Awescended or other items with the same boosts.

Damage to All Items

Some weapons increase your damage. Here are the most important ones:

As we can see, our friend hits for 604 damage per strike. This is exactly what we’d expect by multiplying his base 400 hit by the 151% of Apotheosis.

Apotheosis = 604

As we can see, our friend hits for 604 damage per strike.
This is exactly what we’d expect by multiplying his base 400 hit by the 151% of Apotheosis.

Many of these have reskins and dual-wield alternatives. This is good because you can use different Enhancements on them.

Also worth mentioning that you don’t have to get this boost from weapons:

Same calculation as before, just with a lower number. AFDL with its 35% boost results in 540 total damage.

AFDL = 540

Same calculation as before, just with a lower number. AFDL with its 35% boost results in 540 total damage.

As mentioned earlier, boosts within the same category don’t stack, meaning if you’re using AFDL, then Burning Blade (of Abezeth) is useless to you. Apotheosis and NSoD, in turn, override your AFDL’s damage boost with a higher one.

Our friend is displaying the fact that same-type boosts don’t stack The higher value of Apotheosis simply overrides AFDL’s boost.

AFDL Apotheosis = 604

Our friend is displaying the fact that same-type boosts don’t stack
The higher value of Apotheosis simply overrides AFDL’s boost.

It’s worth mentioning, that this form of boost also increases your healing, not just your damage. However, self-damage (for example Necromancer’s) is also increased.

The best-in-slot item is Necrotic Sword of Doom and variants.

Damage to Races Items

There are 7 races in the game, 5 of which are relevant: Undead, Dragon, Human, Elemental, Chaos, Drakath, and Orc. Yes, Drakath is his own race. You can find out a monster’s race by enabling the option to see them and looking under their name.

Alt text Alt text

There are weapons that give a 75% boost to specific races:

Also worth mentioning that the highest damage boost is offered for a race with only a handful of monsters in the game:

There are also armors that offer a 50% boost to their respective races. This is lower than the 75% of weapons, but they don’t take up your weapon slot, meaning you can combine them with NSoD:

Frostval Barbarian is kind and helpful, but he does prefer simpler numbers. Adding 50% to 400 is a simple operation he doesn’t mind calculating.

Fire Champion = 600

Frostval Barbarian is kind and helpful, but he does prefer simpler numbers.
Adding 50% to 400 is a simple operation he doesn’t mind calculating.

Finally, there are items that give only a 30% boost, but they give it to all races instead of just one:

He has found a friend! Polly Roger increases his base damage by 30% against all monsters that have a race.

Polly = 520

He has found a friend!
Polly Roger increases his base damage by 30% against all monsters that have a race.

Each ratial boost is treated as its own category. Boosts against the same race can’t stack, but they can coexist with boosts to other races.

One more case of the higher boost overriding the lower one. Polly Roger’s 30% is ignored in favor of applying the Fire Champion’s 50%.

Fire Champion + Polly = 600

One more case of the higher boost overriding the lower one.
Polly Roger’s 30% is ignored in favor of applying the Fire Champion’s 50%.

A not obvious edge case. Though Drakath’s armor overrides Polly’s Chaos boost, Our feathery friend’s boost against dragons still applies.

Chaos Armor + Polly = 520

A not obvious edge case.
Though Drakath’s armor overrides Polly’s Chaos boost, Our feathery friend’s boost against dragons still applies.

All Out

All Out, also known as “Damage Boost” acts in the same way as NSoD does, but comes from different sources.

It appears in the stat panel as a secondary stat.

Alt text

Notable, class-independent sources of an All Out boost are:

As usual, we add the 75% boost from the Potent Honor Potion to our base 400 damage. 400*175%=700.

Potent Honor = 700

As usual, we add the 75% boost from the Potent Honor Potion to our base 400 damage.
400*175%=700.

Ideal Setup

First of all, let’s make a calculation. Is it better to use an All-boost Weapon and a Racial Armor, or a Racial Armor and an All-boost weapon?

Assuming the player is fighting Dragons, DragonBlade of Nulgath and ArchFiend DoomLoord give a total damage of 175% * 135% = 236%

A weapon with a 75% boost, and an armor with 35%. That should be 236% of 400, which is 945.

Chaos Greatsword = 945

A weapon with a 75% boost, and an armor with 35%.
That should be 236% of 400, which is 945.

The alternative, NSoD and Fire Champion’s Armor results in 151% * 150% = 226%

The calculations match the observations! Fire Champion’s 50% and Apotheosis’ 51% multiply together to 226% total damage.

Fire Champion + Apotheosis = 906

The calculations match the observations!
Fire Champion’s 50% and Apotheosis’ 51% multiply together to 226% total damage.

As we can see, using the weapon associated with the given race results in marginally more damage.

However, having NSoD active deals significantly more damage to all races other than dragons, including monsters without a race. It also results in higher healing.

When accounting for the time to switch between items, and the difficulty of acquiring each item, NSoD and Polly Roger is a very common combination that does well in all situations. NSoD and Exalted Apotheosis have plenty of variants for different Enhancements, and Polly Roger, being a pet, doesn’t need to be enhanced at all.

From a setup like this, we can optionally switch to an racial armor to increase our boost from 30% to 50%.

Alternatively, we can replace the NSoD with a racial weapon if we only care about damage and we don’t mind the inconvenience. In this case, it’s good to have an AFDL or equivalent equipped so that we retain a solid All-boost.

151%*150%*175% = 3.96 The math checks out. That’s a lot of damage!

Combined

151%*150%*175% = 3.96
The math checks out. That’s a lot of damage!

For both of these, we want to have an Awescended set item or equivalent for the constantly on reward boost.

Finally, we want to make sure we have enough combinations of such items that we can use a variety of enhancements according to our class and situation.

Radiant Goddess

I left the best for last. As it turns out, Radiant Goddess of War combines the Awescended boost to rewards with a 50% boost against all 5 races in one armor-slot item that doesn’t need enhancements.

You might not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like

Alt text