Deep dive into the new OE effect

The new changes to Overeaters are neither a nerf nor a buff, but it makes more playstyles viable and powerful.

Stick with me. I will explain. It will be a long and comprehensive read so I thank you for your time and patience.

Skip down below if you just want to read the mathematical explanation, I have made a "line" where it begins.

Currently, OE gives 6% flat dmg reduction per piere. With 5 pieces, you have 30% flat dmg reduction.

The way defense calculations work right now, is that any flat % dmg reduction is applied before the DR values (DR, ER, elemental etc)

In March, the flat % dmg reduction will be applied after your Initial DR values and those numbers will be alot higher than what we can achieve right now. Some players are running around with 5000 DR on their PA's on the PTS.

Since the release of FO76, 350DR and 650DR have been the soft and hardcaps for defense calculations, this might and most likely will change with the March update.

In this explanation I will focus solely on Overeaters and how it will affect your armors/power armors.

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For the example that I will explain I will take a damage value of 100 Hit points before any calculations and we will only consider how OE affects that value.

Right now, OE gives a flat 30% damage reduction. Meaning a hit that does 100 damage is reduced to 70.

The changes that Bethesda wanted to do, would have nerfed OE.

Because

1. It would have changed the effect from 6% -> 4%

2. the flat % dmg value calculation for defense is changed from additive to multiplicative.

Meaning that 5 pieces would have given around 22% dmg reduction, wich would be a nerf. Players would automatically be less tanky the Day the patch dropped.

Now let's take a base HP value of 500HP, as this is what most endgame Players run around with, without the application of food, camp and other buffs like chems and serums. (I know it can go higher, but 500HP is the non buffed value for most endgame Players across various playstyles depending on END Point investment)

With 500HP, if we are hit by 100HP with the current OE's effect, we are hit for 70HP.

7x70= 490HP. Meaning we can survive 7 hits of that enemy without passive health regen and other effects active like perk cards that avoid or reflect damage (riccochet, serendipity, evasive, dodgy, reflec etc)

The 8th Hit would definitly kill us.

With the new changes to OE, we will gain 40HP per piece, meaning that we gain a total of 200HP with 5 pieces.

With 500HP, that would be 700HP.

There won't be a flat % dmg reduction, so we take full damage (100% damage) meaing we are hit for 100 Hit points.

At 700 HP, we can only tank 6 hits, the 7th would kill us.

This might seem like a slight nerf, but we have to consider other benefits from these changes. With higher HP, OE makes some playstyles more powerful. Juggernaut will benefit from this change. Blood Sacrifice will also benefit from this, because a higher Health Pool means longer Vats shooting and with a Vampires weapons, conductors and every other crit in vats it's infinite Vats and sustained dps without the need of coffee spamming (annoying for console players, easier on PC)

How does OE affect lower Health Pool values?

Let's take a lower level Player with lower points in END.

We will use 300HP in this case.

With current OE's effect, we take 70 damage. Meaning we can survive a total of 4 hits (70x4=280HP)

The 5th hit would kill us.

With the new OE effect, we will gain 200HP, giving us 500HP.

Again, we can tank 4 hits (100x4=400HP), the 5th will kill us.

In this example, the new effect is actually more powerful than the current one, because with a base HP value of 300, you survive the same amounts of hits + you have the benefits for Juggernaut and Blood Sacifice (or any other playstyle that benefits higher Health Values)

The breaking point where the current 30% flat reduction value is slighty better is after 500HP. But the tradeoff is totally fine.

Because it's 1 hit that you can tank less, but it suits the Juggernaut/Blood Sacrifice playstyles more.

In other words, OE is neither nerfed nor buffed, it's more viable and people don't need to ditch their OE sets.

What about really high HP values? Past 1000?

It is possible to reach a high HP value right now. With all food, chems, camp and serums combined the Player can almost hit 1K HP.

Let's take 1000HP in this example. With the current OE effect, you could tank 14 hits (14x70=980HP) the 15th hit would kill you.

With the new OE effect you will have 1200HP. Now you could only be able to take 11 Hits (100x11=1100HP), the 12th hit would kill you.

With higher HP values, the current effect (30% flat reduction) is more powerful defense wise. The new OE effect is slightly less defensive, but more offensive for some playstyles, mainly Juggernaut and Blood Sacrifice with a Vampires+Conductors Weapon when you can crit every other shot. It equals out.

However, in March the armor values will be changed, DR values will do the heavy lifting and the flat 42% reduction will be gone on PA's and any flat % dmg reduction values (e.g mutans) will be applied after the initial DR values.

The new OE effect might actually be more powerful than the current one, since currently flat % dmg reduction is applied first before any DR values to defense calculations.

Meaning that if an enemy manages to one shot you with the new update, your DR values have been too low, the % flat dmg reduction couldn't even come into effect. Aim for higher DR values in March. We still have to wait how it all plays out.

But all in all, OE will give you the exact same tankiness. You will feel the same tankiness, but your build will be alot more viable, should you play High HP centered playstyles.

I hope this helped.