Reflection
Explained Items like the Glowing Cauldron are heavily based on the who-moves-first method. It uses the strength boost of whoever moves first (in 1-player the computer always moves first which is why the Cauldron always uses the computer's boost when calculating damage). Also, being able to block reflected icons at first glance seems to be a product of chance when it really isn't. The simplest way to put it is if you move (hit Go) first, you CAN block reflected icons. Again, in 1-player battling the computer ALWAYS moves first which is why you can't block icons that are reflected back at you and why they CAN block icons you reflect at them. What does this mean in 2-player battling? It means that if you try for a knockout blow by using a Thyoras Tear (which blocks all icon damage) + Attack Pea (24 earth icons) + berserk, you'd better be sure to move quickly since if your opponent moves first and uses one of the shovels that reflect earth you'll still take damage. It also means if you use a Glowing Cauldron on your opponent and if you hit Go first, they CANNOT block the damage. Calculating Damage with Reflection (Please read the Attack Multipliers page before going further) Damage calculation is a confusing aspect of reflection which is why some people have so much difficulty figuring out what percentage of an icon an item will reflect. The majority of items DO have a set percentage (a notable exception is the U-Bend of Great Justice which has a varying percentage between 80 and 100). Hopefully I'll be able to clear things up here. Let's start out with what appears to be a 'standard' reflection. Both parties using attack with no multiplier. Click Here For The Example Notice that Plumbeard did 3 earth and I used a Shovel Plus which reflects 50% of earth. He's at the 700 strength boost, so 3 icons * 15 dmg/icon = 45 damage. He took 23 points which is 45 * 50% (reflection of the shovel) = 22.5, rounded up to 23. One of the weirder things about reflection is the person using the reflecting weapon's attack stance has no bearing on the damage given to the opponent. Here I used Defend and he still only took 23 points while here I used berserk and the damage Plumbeard took was the same 23 points. It's the person's attack stance that uses the icon which is reflected that changes things up (and confuses people). In this screenshot, I again used cautious yet the damage he took jumped up to 51. Wait a second, he used berserk and berserk only multiplies by 150% while I used cautious so it should have been 45 (the base earth icon damage) * 150% (his berserk) = 67.5 and 67.5 * 50% (shovel's reflection) = 33.75 (rounded up to 34), so why did he take 51? The answer is that the damage he was doing with the earth icons WAS the 67.5 (3 icons * strength boost * attack multiplier) we had calculated, so we each started off taking 34 points of damage, but since he used berserk, it applies the berserk multiplier to him AGAIN from my reflected attack which made it 34 * 150% (his berserk AGAIN) = 51 damage to him. NOTE: The additional attack stance multiplier ONLY applies if the attacker moves (hits Go!) first. Since in 1-player, the computer ALWAYS moves first, their attack stance is always applied twice. In 2-player, it works out differently. Let's say YOU use a Shovel Plus and your OPPONENT uses an Attack Pea and berserks. If you move before they do (hit the Go! button), then you'll reflect 50% of their earth attack and they can't block it. If you move SECOND, they would take an additional 150% of the reflected damage BUT can potentially block it with earth defence. As shown in this screenshot where I used berserk also, and in this one where I used defend you can plainly see that MY attack stance had no bearing on the damage done to him. NEOPETS, characters,
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