A High Explosive Skill write-up:
First off, information on how critical hits work:
https://mwomercs.com...-a-brief-guide/
TL,DR: When the armor is gone from your Mech, then your internals/components/structure are all open to incoming damage. These can be "critted." The chance to crit is based on a dice roll. The dice is rolled three times whenever damage is dealt to your internals.
1st Roll @ 25%
2nd Roll @ 14%
3rd Roll @ 3%
No Crit @ 58%
I'll use the AC/10 as an example because it's an easy damage number with which to work.
If you score a single crit, then you deal 10 points of bonus damage to your enemy's internals. For doubles, it's 10-10, and for triples, it's 10-10-10. The reason why I wrote them that way instead of "20" and "30" is because it behaves like three separate rolls.
Now, translate this to SRMs. SRMs deal damage per missile. Each missile has the same crit chances as that single AC/10 round. We'll use the SRM4 as our benchmark. A single launcher deals 8.6 damage, max. That means that each missile deals 2.15 damage.
Let's say that you get a triple crit with a single missile. That's 2.15 damage dealt initially, and then 2.15-2.15-2.15 from the crit rolls. The grand total damage dealt is then 8.6 damage from a single missile, with 6.45 being to a single internal component and the base 2.15 being dealt to the structure. If it destroys the component, then the damage stops being dealt, regardless of how much is leftover (i.e. - it does not transfer to another component).
Now, I said that the base 2.15 is dealt to the structure and the 6.45 is dealt to the component (HS, weapon, ammo, ECM, BAP, etc.). However, a small percentage of that 6.45 (I'm not sure of the exact number) is dealt to the structure health on top of the base 2.15. The formula would look like this:
Damage dealt to structure from a single SRM = 2.15 + (Total crit damage x Percentage)
If all 4 SRMs landed in the same Paper Doll Component, then the total damage dealt would be 8.6 + a percentage of whatever crits were dealt.
Now, let's look at the High Explosive Skill.
High Explosive has two nodes, each worth 7.5% for a total of 15% possible. If you read the tool tip, it states that the skill increases the damage dealt from a critical hit. Let's turn that back on our previous example.
Remember, we had a single SRM score a triple hit. That means that the total crit was 6.45 damage in the form of 2.15-2.15-2.15. If you unlock both of the High Explosive Skills, then that applies a 15% modifier to your triple crit roll. The formula looks like this:
Crit Damage Dealt = [(2.15*0.15)+2.15] + [(2.15*0.15)+2.15] + [(2.15*0.15)+2.15]
...And you never thought you would use match after High School, right?
Anyways, the total damage that could be dealt for a triple dice roll, using the formula above, is 7.42, rounded. Note that it's the same as if you simply took the 6.45 and added 15% to it.
This means that, for a single SRM missile with a triple crit, you gain and extra 0.97 points of damage. A single crit would yield 2.47 points of crit damage for a bonus amount of 0.32.
That sounds underwhelming for a skill that costs so many nodes. However, keep in mind that it's real power is in stack.
I have a Timber Wolf with 4x SRM4s. Remember that the chance to roll a single crit is 25% every time. That's one in 4 missiles. If I have 4x SRM4s, then that means a single alpha strike has 16 missiles. If I use Artemis and am close to my target, then most of those missiles will strike the same component. If my enemy already has all three torsos expose, then I'm virtually guaranteed crits. Simply put, out of 16 SRMs, at 25% for a single crit, then that means I am likely going to score 4, single crit rolls. Then there are the second crit rolls to consider. Since second crits have a 14% chance of rolling successfully, I am likely to score at least one, possibly two double crits.
Let's assume I score four single crits and one double crit with a 15% modifier from High Explosives. That means I have the following:
2.15, 2.15, 2.15, 2.15-2.15
The last numbers represent the double crit roll. The High Explosive modifier would change them to be
2.47, 2.47, 2.47, 2.47-2.47
If I sum them to see what the total possible damage dealt would be, then it comes to 12.35.
Compare this to the un-modified crits, and see that the un-modified damage would be 10.75.
That's a difference of 1.6 damage points.
Now, since the crit chance is 25% for every missile, your rolls could be fickle. You may have bad RNG and not score any crits. You may have good RNG and score 8 or 10 crits. For LRMs, considering the massed amounts that can be fired, the stacking damage from the High Explosive Skill can grow very quickly.
So, all that to say, High Explosive is a nice skill to gain a mild damage bonus for your missiles. The more missiles, the greater it stacks and the more potent it becomes. Keep in mind that most components have between 3 and 5 health, with some having additional health. Also bear in mind that a small percentage of your crit damage is transferred to the internal structure health, so High Explosive also bolsters the damage you do against the enemy's remaining hit points, in addition to his individual components.
Whether or not the amount of skill nodes needed to unlock both High Explosive Skills are worth the investment is entirely up to you. I personally don't recommend it unless you have at least four launchers.
Also, as one final thought, keep in mind that Hardened Casing in the Survival Tree can reduce the chance for incoming crits. Just by spending a few points on the right side of the tree, it's pretty easy to pick up about an 8% reduction. You'll have to take that into account when planning on whether to purchase High Explosive or not, since HE does not increase the crit chance; it only increases the damage crits deal.
Hope this helps!
...What do y'all think? Accurate? Mistakes?
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