Vital Combat (Rev. 7)

Vital Combat is a combat system introduced in Exalt Version 1.1.0.0 (Sep 2020). This system is intended to create more dynamic elements in gameplay while rewarding skillful play.

In-Combat and Out-of-Combat

Upon taking a certain amount of damage (called the Combat Trigger), players will be put into an in-combat (IC) state, visualized by a yellow border around their player’s HP bar (if they have it enabled) and the sword icon above their HP/MP bars in the UI lighting up. In this state, regeneration caused by VIT and WIS will only be at 50% effectiveness, and all HP/MP recovery from Pets will take 2 more seconds to trigger. If the player avoids taking damage above the Combat Trigger for a period of time, they will re-enter the out-of-combat (OOC) state, where pets and VIT/WIS function normally.

A player’s current statistics regarding Vital Combat can be found by moving the mouse over the sword icon above their HP/MP indicators.

Combat Trigger

The combat trigger is the minimum number of damage that must be taken to enter an IC state. This amount scales with player DEF, so higher defense players will have to take more damage before they can enter IC. However, the effect of DEF on the combat trigger is diminishing, meaning that it will gradually get less effective at increasing the combat trigger. This effectiveness is arranged into “brackets”.

The combat trigger starts at 1 damage and increases by 1 per DEF up to 15. From 16-30, DEF only contributes 0.75 per point; from 31-45, DEF only contributes 0.5 per point; beyond that DEF only contributes 0.25.

This is summarised in the following table:

 bracket     DEF contribution
 1  - 15      x 1.00
 16 - 30      x 0.75
 31 - 45      x 0.50
 46 -         x 0.25

A character’s current combat trigger can be seen by hovering over the sword icon above its EXP/Fame bar.

Examples: a Wizard with 12 defense, an Archer with 25 defense, a Rogue with 45 defense, and a Knight with 77 defense will have the following Trigger values:

Wizard with 12 DEF: Trigger = 12

Archer with 25 DEF: Trigger = 15 + (25-15) * 0.75 = 15 + 10 * 0.75 = 22.5; rounds down to 22

Rogue with 45 DEF: Trigger = 30 + (45-35) * 0.5 = 30 + 10 * 0.5 = 35

Knight with 77 DEF: Trigger = 45 + (77-65) * 0.25 = 45 + 12 * 0.25 = 48

Reducing In-Combat time

The amount of time that a player must avoid damage for in order to exit the in-combat state scales with the player’s Vitality. The maximum in-combat time of 7 seconds will be reduced by 5% of the player’s VIT value, i.e. by 1 second for every 25 VIT. The in-combat time can also be permanently reduced through the use of Exaltations, specifically the Armor Proficiency ones. It cannot be reduced below 1 second.

The formula for IC time is:

IC = 7 - 0.04(VIT) - [Exaltation IC Reduction]