Myths and Misinformation

Perfect World isn't so perfect. Much like the real world, there are myths and misinformation that are spread unwittingly from one person to another like a virus. This page is the cure.

Crit Arrow

 * GM Quote on using crit arrows: "This 'trick' doesn't actually work, so no, you won't get banned for it." - Surtur

There are some arrows that have a 1% crit bonus. Some people have assumed that this was actually a character buff, because it used to affect what your stats would show, rather than appearing to be a property of the arrow when fired, and thus they equipped "crit arrows" in order to increase their critical hit rate. However, this does not work.

The "crit arrow" has been tested numerous times, and when a large objective sample has been used, the difference between having one equipped or not has never been statistically significant.

If this trick did work, you would be utilizing an unauthorized exploit to get an advantage in the game, which is bannable under the Terms of Service agreement you made when signing up to play the game.

It should be noted that, since the Genesis expansion, having a crit arrow equipped no longer affects your crit% stat.

In short: Equipping a "crit arrow" will only actually increase your crit rate when firing the arrows.

Drop Rate Myths

 * On how to get more mold drops: "my best way is to....kill the boss....hundreds of times..." - MagicHamsta (of Lost City)


 * "Drop nerfing is determined by the highest level character to engage the monster in combat." - Sihndra (administrator)

Some people believe that picking up mob drops in instanced dungeons will harm your drop rate. Stranger still, some believe that using Pumpkin Head pills and the like will improve your drop rate. There are numerous other similar beliefs on weird things you can do or not do that will affect your drop rate, none of which are true.

The only thing that is known to affect drop rates is your level or the level of people in your party. If you are no more than two levels higher than the mob that you are fighting, then you will get the normal drop rate.

This is the source of another myth: having a low level in your party will boost your drop rate. This is also false. The drop rate will never improve over the baseline, so if your party is fighting mobs that are their level or higher, then adding a low level will not increase the drop rate. The level is determined by the highest level member of the squad that is in range of the mob that is killed, regardless of whether the highest level member attacks or not.

In short: If you aren't picking up drops then you're needlessly throwing money away. The best way to improve your drop rate is for you or your party to be no more than two levels higher than the mobs that you're fighting (no green-named mobs).

For more information see: Perfect World Database - How drop rate is calculated

The Perfect World Database site also lists the drop rates for most items from most mobs, and is reasonably (but not completely) accurate. Be sure that "/pwi/" is in the URL path when using that site to get the PWI information (click the American flag if it is missing from the URL path).

Random Drop Distribution

 * "If everyone got an equal share of the loot every time, that would actually be evidence that it wasn't random." - Solandri (of Heaven's Tear)

Some people believe that the "Random" drop distribution in squads isn't random. There are various and conflicting myths regarding who supposedly tends to get a better drop rate in squads, but inevitably the person claiming this believes their character is the one getting shafted.

The truth is, there is no statistical evidence that the distribution rate is anything other than random. Keep in mind that if you are in a full squad of six people, that you should only get around 16.666...% of drops on average if the distribution rate is random. When 5 out of 6 times other people are getting the drops instead of you, it's easy to feel slighted, however that is what a random distribution will look like in a six person squad.

It should also be noted that you will tend to remember times where you got few or no drops, and forget times when you got a completely average number of drops. This bias in recall may also make you believe that you are getting a worse drop ratio than you really are.

Also, random distribution really does mean a random distribution, not an even distribution. Someone could randomly get all drops, the same way you could randomly flip heads ten times in a row. It's unlikely, but certainly not impossible. Still, in the long run, it should all average out.

However, a word of warning, if you are in a party with a "Free" drop distribution, then whomever picks up the drops is the one who gets them. Be sure to pay attention when accepting a squad invite whether the squad is in "Free" or "Random" distribution mode. Once you have accepted the invite there is no way to tell what mode you are in.

In short: Random drop distribution really is random, even when it doesn't feel that way.

Elemental Sharding for Magic Weapons

 * "elemental damage is added just to melee attacks.. wow.. >>" - Paramedic (of Dreamweaver)

Some people believe that using elemental attack shards on their magic weapons will give them bonuses on their magic attacks that use that element. This is false. Using elemental shards on magic weapons is pointless, because they only affect your melee attacks, not your magical attacks. (And I'm including bow weapon attacks here as "melee" attacks, since it's a lot of typing to say "melee and ranged weapon non-skill attacks" every time.)

The elemental shards are the Alabaster, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, and Topaz shards, which add metal, wood, water, fire, and earth melee damage, respectively, to weapons, or resistance to those elements on any other gear. A Shabby Alabaster Shard provides +6 Metal Attack, for example, while a Shabby Sapphire Shard only provides +3 Magic Attack, so some assume that "+6 is better than +3." However, since that bonus only affects melee attacks, you are actually doing less damage with the Alabaster Shards, since you probably aren't doing melee attacks with a magic weapon.

This also goes for the wizard buff Frostblade, which adds water damage to only your melee attacks. (Yeah, it's kind of a silly buff for a wizard, since they can't really take advantage of it themselves.)

It is similarly pointless to add Amber shards to magic weapons, since they add accuracy, and magic attacks already have perfect accuracy. Built-in accuracy bonuses on magic weapons are also pointless. (Unless you need to take out Elemental Immune creatures and have no other physical damage attacks than using melee, but that is very rarely the case.)

The only exception to this are characters that actually do use magic weapons for melee attack, such as some venomancers in fox form. However, you would have to be doing more melee attacks than magic attacks for it to be worth elemental sharding a weapon, even in this case.

In short: When sharding a magic weapon, only use sapphires (or the other rarer gems for channeling bonuses and the like) if you want to increase its magic attack damage. Elemental shards on weapons only affect the damage of melee and ranged weapon attacks, not magic attacks.

Refining Odds Myths

 * On refining misinformation: "There are people who swear by certain techniques, certainly, but if you look at any human endeavor that involves gambling the actual facts of probability are going to end up buried beneath piles of superstitions. It's just human nature." - WarrenWolfy (of Sanctuary)

Some believe that refining gear at certain locations, times of day, or after performing certain rituals will improve the odds of successfully refining gear. This appears to be false in all cases.

This myth is worsened by the fact that the NPC Duke Blacke spreads rumors about certain places giving you better refining odds for certain levels. However, some testing of these rumors have shown no improvement over the normal odds.

The only things that are known to affect your odds of refining are:
 * 1) The level of the refine.
 * 2) The items consumed when refining: Dragon Orbs, Tienkang Stones, Tisha Stones, and Chienkun Stones.

Dragon Orbs will give you a 100% success rate, provided that the refine level is not above the level of the orb that you are using. The other refining rates have been obtained by a large number of tests by players.

In short: Your odds of successfully refining gear is only affected by the items you use to refine your gear and the level of refinement.

Reduced EXP/SP After Reducing Max HP

 * "Holy Cr** Just when my faith in reading forums wears thin BAM..I learn something!
 * I have an 83 archer and I never noticed this before." - Seamuss (of Heaven's Tear)

It's commonly believed that the Experience Points/Spirit Points (EXP/SP) you would get from a mob cannot be changed, however this is not true. If you cause a mob to lose HP by reducing the mob's maximum HP, then the EXP/SP you get will also be reduced. The most common way to reduce a mob's maximum HP is by using the archer skill Sharpened Tooth Arrow (STA), but there are other ways, such as Blood Vow (archer skill), Sage Soul Degeneration (venomancer skill), Sage Rib Strike (assassin skill), Acidic Ripple of Poison (genie skill), and Ice Blast (genie skill).

The reduced EXP/SP only happens if the max HP is reduced enough so that the mob loses HP that way. If the mob was already down to, for example, 80% of its max HP, and then you reduce it's max HP by 10%, there would be no loss of EXP/SP.

Basically, the EXP a mob gives depends on the amount of HP that was taken away from the mob by damage dealing skills and attacks, except that HP taken away by using a maximum-HP-lowering skill (such as STA) doesn't count. The percent of EXP reduction is roughly equivalent to the percent that the max HP was dropped by (so a 5% max HP reduction that takes away 5% HP would mean about 5% less EXP; SP given will be roughly 20.5% of the EXP given).

It should be noted that these skills are most effective when being used to reduce a mob's HP by lowering its max HP, however the downside to doing so will be a slightly reduced amount of EXP/SP.

In short: If you reduce a mob's HP by lowering its max HP, then there will be a drop in the EXP/SP roughly equivalent to the percentage the max HP was reduced by. If its HP is not changed by lowering the max HP, then EXP/SP will not be affected either.

Weapon Damage Reductions and Increases
Many people think that -50% weapon damage means that your entire damage is halved. The -50% is only the weapon damage multiplier, which is also affected by strength/dexterity/magic.

For example, a barbarian has 450 strength which equals to +3 damage multiplier or +300% weapon damage. The initial damage multiplier is 1, so add 3 and the multiplier is +4. The barb changes to level 3 True Form and has -50% weapon multiplier reduction. But this does not change +4 to +2, it changes +4 to +3.5. So True Form isn't that bad!

In short: Weapon damage +s and -s affects weapon multiplier, not final damage.

For more information see: Damage

Meaning of the Term "FB"

 * "The history of the term is not just the literal translation but the cultural reception and, in this case, misconception." - Mauntille (of Heaven's Tear)

Some people believe that the term "FuBen" (or "FB") is the Chinese word for "Iron Tablet", the quest item received in the Malaysian version of Perfect World for the Call to Duty quests. Similarly, some believe that it is short for "First Battle" after the name of the Winged Elf FB19 quest. Over the years, other post hoc explanations for the term have popped up including "Fierce Battle", "Final Boss", and the like. 

Also, some players confuse FB and BH, where FB refers to the instance, ie FB69 and BH69. The BH refers to the "Bounty Hunter" quest, ie BH69 which would be in FB69. The exception to this is BH89 and BH100 which indicates a Bounty Hunter (BH) quest in one of 2 or more different FB dungeon locations. An example would be BH89 Eden and BH89 Brimstone Pit which are both not actually FB89 but FB Eden and FB Brimstone Pit, but sometimes players call them FB89 anyway.

Truth be told, the original Chinese (副本, for which the Pinyin transcription actually is "fuben") translates closest to "duplicate object", "copy of", or "instance". Most Dungeons in the game have special mechanics under which they operate, which are different to the world map. In order for a "tabber" (the one with the quest tablets) to activate the quest, they must have lead of the squad. Following with dungeon mechanics, if you have lead of the squad in an instance, it is your instance. Your instance is commonly referred to as your FB.

Adding more fuel to the "Iron Tablet" myth is the fact that only the dungeons associated with Call to Duty quests are referred to as "FB"s. However, this is merely because these dungeons are designed for a specific level. Dungeons like Twilight Temple spread across a range of levels and are used for more than just a quest at level x.

In short: "FB" is short for "FuBen", which is the Pinyin transcription of "副本", which means "instance" in this context.

Stacking Defense Has Diminishing Returns, Unlike HP
A common misconception is that as defense goes up, additional defense gets less effective. This belief comes from players noticing that "reduce physical damage by XX%" stat on the character information window increases by smaller and smaller amounts with each additional defense increase (like from sharding garnet shards in armor). While this part is true the increase of the reduction percentage doesn't say much about the effectiveness of the defense. Consider that a 99% reduction is twice as effective as a 98% reduction despite the difference being "only 1%". By comparison, a 51% reduction is not noticeably different than a 50% reduction even though the difference in percent reduction is also 1%. This effect counters the perceived diminishing return from the character information window to give a constant increase in effectiveness.

For example, if increasing your defense from 0 to 5000 allows you to go from surviving 1 hit to 2 hits, then at 10,000 defense you can survive 3 hits. At 15,000 defense you will survive 4 hits and at 20,000 defense 5 hits. Every 5,000 pdef in this case lets you survive one additional hit. This constant increase of effectiveness is very similar to the benefit you receive from increasing your HP. The only difference is that having 0 HP means that you can't take any damage at all while at 0 defense you still have your HP to rely on. This is a consequence of the way Damage is calculated.