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Jonathan7Luke's avatar
Jonathan7Luke
8 years ago

How Does Potency and Tenacity Work?

I have never really understood how potency and tenacity work, and since I am working on a raid team that needs potency (as well as some other characters that never seem to land their debuffs), I am finally trying to figure it out. I know that potency and tenacity are opposites and that they determine how likely certain things are to happen. What I do not know is what the stats do or do not affect and also how they are calculated. Is there a guide somewhere on this? If not, can anyone explain how it works? Thanks!

p.s. I have no clue which board this thread goes on, so I will let the mods move it to the right one.
  • gavinb88's avatar
    gavinb88
    8 years ago
    The game has negative effects, they are red in colour.

    A high potency heightens your chance of applying a negative effect TO an enemy.

    A high tenacity heightens your chance of resisting a negative effect FROM an enemy.


  • crzydroid's avatar
    crzydroid
    Retired Hero
    8 years ago
    Tenacity of Defender - Potency of Attacker = Chance to resist negative effect, with the caveat that this chance can never drop below 15%.

    For raids, it can sometimes be helpful to put a character in who can land Tenacity Down, which will reduce the enemy to the 15% base chance of resist even if you have 0 potency.
  • Jonathan7Luke's avatar
    Jonathan7Luke
    8 years ago
    "crzydroid;c-1289183" wrote:
    Tenacity of Defender - Potency of Attacker = Chance to resist negative effect, with the caveat that this chance can never drop below 15%.

    For raids, it can sometimes be helpful to put a character in who can land Tenacity Down, which will reduce the enemy to the 15% base chance of resist even if you have 0 potency.

    Cool, thanks! That is exactly what I was wondering about.

    I'm still unclear about one thing though: Do all debuffs rely on Potency? Like, if an ability says 80% chance to stun, does that mean there is exactly an 80% chance the enemy will get stunned, or there is an 80% chance to attempt to inflict stun and then an (tenacity - potency)% chance for the enemy to actually be stunned?
  • JacenRoe's avatar
    JacenRoe
    8 years ago
    "J7Luke;c-1289198" wrote:
    "crzydroid;c-1289183" wrote:
    Tenacity of Defender - Potency of Attacker = Chance to resist negative effect, with the caveat that this chance can never drop below 15%.

    For raids, it can sometimes be helpful to put a character in who can land Tenacity Down, which will reduce the enemy to the 15% base chance of resist even if you have 0 potency.

    Cool, thanks! That is exactly what I was wondering about.

    I'm still unclear about one thing though: Do all debuffs rely on Potency? Like, if an ability says 80% chance to stun, does that mean there is exactly an 80% chance the enemy will get stunned, or there is an 80% chance to attempt to inflict stun and then an (tenacity - potency)% chance for the enemy to actually be stunned?


    It's the later. 80% dice roll to even make the attempt. Then it does the potency/tenacity check to see what the next dice roll will be to see if the attempt sticks.
  • Jonathan7Luke's avatar
    Jonathan7Luke
    8 years ago
    "JacenRoe;c-1289204" wrote:
    "J7Luke;c-1289198" wrote:
    "crzydroid;c-1289183" wrote:
    Tenacity of Defender - Potency of Attacker = Chance to resist negative effect, with the caveat that this chance can never drop below 15%.

    For raids, it can sometimes be helpful to put a character in who can land Tenacity Down, which will reduce the enemy to the 15% base chance of resist even if you have 0 potency.

    Cool, thanks! That is exactly what I was wondering about.

    I'm still unclear about one thing though: Do all debuffs rely on Potency? Like, if an ability says 80% chance to stun, does that mean there is exactly an 80% chance the enemy will get stunned, or there is an 80% chance to attempt to inflict stun and then an (tenacity - potency)% chance for the enemy to actually be stunned?


    It's the later. 80% dice roll to even make the attempt. Then it does the potency/tenacity check to see what the next dice roll will be to see if the attempt sticks.

    That's a rip-off, lol. I suspected as much, but it is really nice to know for sure. Thanks for the quick answer! Are there any debuffs that skip the potency/tenacity check?
  • BrtStlnd's avatar
    BrtStlnd
    8 years ago
    Here’s the Readers Digest version: Potency usually helps to make sure debuffs and negative status effects stick and tenacity is not that useful unless it’s REALLY high.
  • gavinb88's avatar
    gavinb88
    8 years ago
    Tenacity down gives a base 15% resist chance. However tenacity up resists everything.
  • JacenRoe's avatar
    JacenRoe
    8 years ago
    "J7Luke;c-1289206" wrote:
    "JacenRoe;c-1289204" wrote:
    "J7Luke;c-1289198" wrote:
    "crzydroid;c-1289183" wrote:
    Tenacity of Defender - Potency of Attacker = Chance to resist negative effect, with the caveat that this chance can never drop below 15%.

    For raids, it can sometimes be helpful to put a character in who can land Tenacity Down, which will reduce the enemy to the 15% base chance of resist even if you have 0 potency.

    Cool, thanks! That is exactly what I was wondering about.

    I'm still unclear about one thing though: Do all debuffs rely on Potency? Like, if an ability says 80% chance to stun, does that mean there is exactly an 80% chance the enemy will get stunned, or there is an 80% chance to attempt to inflict stun and then an (tenacity - potency)% chance for the enemy to actually be stunned?


    It's the later. 80% dice roll to even make the attempt. Then it does the potency/tenacity check to see what the next dice roll will be to see if the attempt sticks.

    That's a rip-off, lol. I suspected as much, but it is really nice to know for sure. Thanks for the quick answer! Are there any debuffs that skip the potency/tenacity check?


    Yes. Tenacity down always sticks. It can't be resisted. There are characters who have other debuffs that can't be resisted, but it will always say so in the description of the ability.

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