I agree with Kami. I think cactus as it is now (3% scaling to 6%) is a bit weak.
Andy gives the formula for armor piercing as f_adjusted = f + (1-f) * P
f = fraction of damage received by armored creep
P = armor penetration
Toward the end of a 500 wave game, but before the bonus round, armor reduces damage by ~70%, so f = 30% or 0.3.
f_adjusted = 0.3 + 0.7 * 0.06 = 0.342
So I guess one cactus is about a 14% damage increase.
14% damage is a pretty big deal, but I'd say it's still a bit too small for a couple reasons:
- During the early game, it's weak. At wave 50, it's a 1% damage increase to a level 33.
- During the mid game, it's weak. At wave 200, it's a 5% damage increase for a level 66.
- During the late game, it's weak compared to other options: knusperhexe and cape of specter.
To see if this item is good, let's look at late game, 80% of damage blocked by armor and a tower with 5 slots is going to use 5 cactus because it's so drunk on potions it doesn't need any extra normal stats. So without cactus, f = 0.2 or 20%.
f_adjusted = 0.2 + 0.8 * ( 5 * 0.06) = 0.44.
That's a 120% damage boost, which is awesome. Armor is still reducing damage by 56%, but a lot better than when it reduced damage by 80%. However, a single cape of specter can get the same result.
If someone wants a lot of damage, they aren't going to be penetrating armor, they're going to be reducing it with knusperhexe. Knusperhexe can remove all armor without too much investment. Then your damage increase is 5x even if you don't give the creeps negative armor.
It would be nice if the dried cactus could be a useful item to the average player in the middle of the game looking for a way to deal with the growing armor on the creeps.
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TL;DR
I guess my point is that the cactus isn't broken and it has room to be buffed. Maybe 5% + 0.005%/level.
@FuzzyEuk, nice writeup!
Funny thing is, I came to the exact same numbers you suggested (5% + 0.05% per level). It's gonna take effect after the season merge, and can already be tried in the current beta.
