I only know of the rule for damage calculation which limits it to PD + 4. Dunno about accuracy. Also, on horseback there is another penalty lowering damage to 80% without horsearchery.
The factor is (horse_archery * 0.019 + 0.8).
Goodness, after months of being misinformtation and testing and digging up of data, here comes paul with the precise equations. You have done horse archers a great favour.
That being said, comparing the 5 HA 3 Pd with nomad build (with one extra point for more ride or wpf) versus the 4 HA with 5 PD with strong bow at full speed shootout, we have. Assuming HA removes 10% of penalty per point as was in vanilla.
(20c*(1.42) + 7 p from bodkins or other arrows) * (1-(.2*.1*5(5 being HA))= 25.56 c + 6.3p.=Pathetic but with a smaller bonus from Wpf
I am going to assume Wpf small bonus does not apply to the bodkin bonus damage.
Assuming 8 WM and 172 prof, that gives us a bonus of 172/100*15%=25.8% for a final damage assuming point blank no movement of target riding sideways etc of
32.15 c+6.3p
If I recall correctly PD is not cumulative, bonus +7 from bodkins is not affected by PD, and I am assuming bonus +7 is affected by HA.
Versus the strongbow build, remembering, but ignoring the slight speed bonus from faster projectile.
(24c*(1.7)+7p) *(1-(.2*.1*6)=35.9c+6.16p
adding wpf assumed to be 172.
45.1622c+6.16p.
Strongbow lower HA build is superior, unless the extra HA point is making the nomad build hit more than 33% more times with superior accuracy, which is not even close to field experiences..
OK, SO MUCH FOR THE POWER OF HA.
For all those HA haters, each point of bloody HA only removes a 2% damage malus. Not sure how much accuracy is added (not much from my experience). So much for laser, heat seeking guided nuclear missiles of doom shot from horseback as all the chicken littles were claiming
. Compare with the whopping 14% damage bonus from PD.
Given the weakness of HA, why do we still have the 1 HA per 6 agility rule? It is completely worthless. I should think it is now safe to remove that rule, just like what it was done to riding. It is not like even full 10 HA will make them nuclear missiles, since each point only kills a 2% malus, and only if you are going at full speed at that.
I think we need to give some serious thoughts on having HA being for 6 agility.
Paul is on a roll here, pretty much the messiah in terms of information.
so I hope others can help out on these questions and check my back of envelope calculations.
1. Is the 7 pierce bonus from bodkin arrows affected by HA? By PD? By WPF bonus?
2. Can someone confirm that each point of HA removes 10% of the malus from shooting at top speed?
3. How is the accuracy malus from shooting at top speeds represented?
If what I am seeing is right, strength stack is the way to go for both melee and ALL ranged, HA skill is nearly worthless, strongbow is the bow of choice of both foot archers and horse archers. The last point bears special notice, since that means diversity of bows just went through the window, especially with what I think is going to happen to warbows and longbows next patch. If one of the stated design goals is to allow diversity of loadouts, this needs to be looked into. Having both HA and foot archers using the same bow seems off. Do something to make smaller bows worthwhile as well as top tier bows (war and long) else Strong bow looks like it will dominate all the other choices. Only advantage of long and war would be the ability to enjoy one more point of damage from PD.
* edit. Sniped by tears. You go do that. I am tired of digging for info and through misinformation.
** I realised I used 2% instead of 1.9 from Pauls figures, since I was using outdated native info. So HA is even WORSE than what I have here by a tiny bit.