What Does Hiring a Different Plumber Get Me?

Question

After completing Super Mario Galaxy with Mario, you gain the option to play through it again as his brother, Luigi. I've noticed some slight differences between the 2 plumbers, and have been wondering lately if I've got the whole story. What I've noticed so far is:

• Luigi slides on his heels, as opposed to coming to an abrupt stop when the analog stick is released.
• When doing a spin attack underwater, some of Luigi's air is drained per each spin, where Mario's is not.
• Luigi gets 20 1-Ups from Princess Peach's letters, where Mario gets fewer.

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Are there any more variations in gameplay between the 2 brothers? I'm looking for a complete list of variances.

Answer

Alright, I've done some further digging, and these are the differences I've found:

--Uses Air when spinning underwater

--Has less traction, so he slides and skids

--Jumps farther and higher; runs faster

--(perhaps related to the above) knocked back slightly farther when hit, which equates to a longer post-hit stun

--The cosmic Luigi challenge runs take advantage of Luigi's physics, which may mean separate routes than cosmic Mario

--In addition to the above, some galaxies have slightly altered levels, such as the "Luigi meets Luigi" star in Toytime Galaxy, which changes from the 8-bit Mario planet to the backside, which features an 8-bit Luigi (with the change in colors coming from a change in the platform "pixels")

-- Mario gets 1-ups from Princess Peach's letters, but Luigi gets 20 1-ups instead (It still says "Dear Mario" Poor guy can't catch a break)

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What Does Hiring a Different Hero Get Me?

Question

(Question title and tags were inspired by another question)

I'm about to start my first game, and I noticed I can choose to play as Ratchet, Clank, Captain Qwark, or Dr. Nefarious.

Is this just a cosmetic choice, or are there actual gameplay differences depending on which character I choose?

Answer

Each hero has a unique weapon that only he can use:

• Ratchet: the doppelbanger same as the Decoy Glove from the first and second games throw out a dummy to distract the enemies

• Clank: zoni blaster slows down time

• Qwark: quantum deflector is an ultimate defense and great for rushing in to smash everything

• Nefarious: cloaker lets you become invisible

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What's the difference between Guardian Angel I, II, and III?

Question

Over at Duke Slava's heroic abilities, I couldn't help but notice that the firts 3 versions of the Guardian Angel ability are identical. What's the difference between them?

Is it the number of times I can cast them? I couldn't tell because I haven't had a single battle in which the meter reached full charge.

Answer

The varying ranks of Guardian Angel affect not how powerful the effect is, but who it can affect.

Rank 1 = Core Creatures only -- Praetorians, Vestels, and Marksmen.

Rank 2 = Core or Elite Creatures -- Imperial Griffons, Radiant Glory, Sun Crusader

Rank 3 - Core or Elite or Champion Creatures -- any Haven unit.

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Can you increase Deceive's Critical Damage (Shaco)?

Question

I am interested in playing Shaco but have a fundamental question.

Does the critical damage from Shaco's Deceive ability benefit from Infinity Edge or +Crit Damage Runes?

The reason I ask is his ability is phrased thusly:

Deceive - Shaco stealths himself instantly and teleports to target location. His next attack is guaranteed to critically strike. Shaco instantly stealths for 3.5 seconds, and teleports to target nearby location. If he attacks while stealthed, the attack is guaranteed to crit for 40/60/80/100/120% bonus physical damage.

It seems counter intuitive to have the damage be called both critical and bonus damage and increase as the ability is leveled up.

I pose the following scenario: Shaco with level 5 Deceive and Infinity Edge. We will assume he is doing a total of 100 damage to make the analysis easy. On attack after using Deceive will The attack deal 220 Damage (100 base + 120 from deceive) OR will the attack deal 270 damage (100 base + 120 from Deceive + 50 from Infinity Edge). If neither of the above scenarios are correct please enlighten me as I may be misunderstanding the interaction Infinity Edge has with base attacks compared to base attacks modified by abilities.

Edit: The following link may be helpful but they didn't really clarify as there may be a discrepancy between the European and US regions. Shaco, Deceive and Crit Damage Runes (EU)

Answer

This is straight from the LOL wiki:

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Shaco_the_Demon_Jester/Strategy

The bonus critical strike damage from Infinity Edge will apply on critical hits from Deceive, in addition to the bonus magic damage the ability gives.

So to answer your question: Yes Deceive benefits from Infinity Edge. It stands to reason that it will also benefit from Crit Dmg Runes. With that said, the following has been taken from League Craft forum posts: http://forum.leaguecraft.com/index.php?/topic/6388-shaco-deceive-crit-dmg-runes/

Not sure about the math or the mechanics behind it, but I just tested Deceive at level 1 on a Master Yi at level 1 in a practice game, once with a full page of Crit Damage runes and one with some other random page that wouldn't affect the damage. All other factors were kept the same both times. Results: Without Crit Damage runes: 64 from the front, 80 from the back With: 85 from the front, 100 from the back

Of course, that was in June 2010...

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What does mastery skill do?

Question

I recently started playing WoW again after a few years, I'm not a big player (usually get over it after a couple of weeks, highest character is lvl60) but I noticed that all the skills and such have changed around (for the better I've found so far - kinda like it now).

I noticed at level 80 or so you can get a skill called Mastery with a extremely vague companion description saying something along the lines of "Allows you to benefit from the mastery rating".

Does anyone have a more clear explanation of what this does? Is it secretly awesome?

Answer

Mastery is a skill that was introduced in Cataclysm to provide some class specialization uniqueness: the reason it's so vague is because what it enhances is entirely dependent on what your spec is.

However, you can find out what mastery is currently doing for you in your current spec by hovering over the mastery rating in your character information panel, which you can access by pressing the C key (by default). That should tell you in broad terms how it's helping you.

You can also check out Wowpedia's Mastery chart for more detail.

But for convenience's sake here's what each of the tooltips say:

Death Knight

• Blood (Blood Shield): Each time you heal yourself with Death Strike while in Blood Presence, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Each point of Mastery increases the shield by an additional 6.25%.

• Frost (Frozen Heart): Increases all Frost damage done by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases Frost damage by an additional 2.0%.

• Unholy (Dreadblade): Increases all Shadow damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases Shadow damage by an additional 2.5%.

Druid

• Balance (Total Eclipse): Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases the bonus by an additional 2.0%.

• Feral, bear form (Savage Defender): Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32%. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb by an additional 4%.

• Feral, cat form (Razor Claws): Increases the damage done by your bleed abilities by 25.04%. Each point of Mastery increases bleed damage by an additional 3.1%.

• Restoration (Harmony): Your direct healing is increased by an additional 10% and casting your direct healing spells grants you an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 sec. Each point of Mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery (Master of Beasts): Increases the damage done by your pets by 13.36%. Each point of Mastery increases pet damage by an additional 1.67%.

• Marksmanship (Wild Quiver): Grants a 16.8% chance for your ranged attacks to also instantly fire an additional ranged shot. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 2.1%.

• Survival (Essence of the Viper): Increases all magical damage you deal by 8%. Each point of Mastery increases magical damage by an additional 1.0%.

Mage

• Arcane (Mana Adept): Increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%.

• Fire (Flashburn): Increases the damage done by all your periodic fire damage effects by 22.4%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional 2.8%.

• Frost (Frostburn): All your spells deal 5% increased damage against Frozen targets. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

Paladin

• Holy (Illuminated Healing): Your direct healing spells also place an absorb shield on your target for 12% of the amount healed lasting 15 sec. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb amount by an additional 1.50%.

• Protection (Divine Bulwark): Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 18%. Each point of Mastery increases block chance by an additional 2.25%.

• Retribution (Hand of Light): Your Templar's Verdict, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm deal 16.8% additional damage as Holy damage. Each point of Mastery increases the damage by an additional 2.1%.

Priest

• Discipline (Shield Discipline): Increases the potency of all your damage absorption spells by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases the potency of absorbs by an additional 2.5%.

• Holy (Echo of Light): Your direct healing spells heal for an additional 10% over 6 sec. Each point of Mastery provides an additional 1.25% healing over 6 sec.

• Shadow (Shadow Orb Power): Increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs by 11.6%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 1.45%.

Rogue

• Assassination (Potent Poisons): Increases the damage done by your poisons by 28%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 3.5%.

• Combat (Main Gauche): Your main-hand attacks have a 16% chance to grant you an attack that deals damage equal to 100% of a main-hand attack. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 2.00%.

• Subtlety (Executioner): Increases the damage done by your finishing moves, and the effectiveness of your Slice and Dice, by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

Shaman

• Elemental (Elemental Overload): Grants a 16% chance for Elemental Overload to occur. Elemental Overload causes a Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst spell you cast to trigger a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes 75% of normal damage and no threat. Each point of Mastery increases the chance of Elemental Overload by an additional 2%.

• Enhancement (Enhanced Elements): Increases all Fire, Frost, and Nature damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

• Restoration (Deep Healing): Increases the potency of your healing spells by up to 24%, based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases healing by up to an additional 3.0%.

Warlock

• Affliction (Potent Afflictions): Increases all periodic shadow damage you deal by 13.04%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic shadow damage by an additional 1.63%.

• Demonology (Master Demonologist): Increases the damage done by your demon servants and damage you deal while transformed into a demon by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.0%.

• Destruction (Fiery Apocalypse): Increases all fire damage you deal by 10.8%. Each point of Mastery increases fire damage by an additional 1.35%.

Warrior

• Arms (Strikes of Opportunity): Grants a 17.6% chance for your melee attacks to instantly trigger an additional melee attack for 100% normal damage. Each point of Mastery increases this chance by 2.2%.

• Fury (Unshackled Fury): Increases the benefit of abilities that cause or require you to be enraged by 11.2%. Each point of Mastery increases enrage effects by an additional 5.60%.

• Protection (Critical Block): Increases your chance to block by 12% and your chance to critically block by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance by an additional 1.5% and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5%.

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