User:Malokai92/Guide Index/analyze

Splinter Weapon
Let's do the math on Splinter Weapon; at 16 Channeling Magic, it will trigger 5 times and hit 4 nearest adjacent foes to the foe hit. For using an AoE attack, we assume it triggers on each adjacent foe. That means each foe will get hit by all the triggers except the one hitting him, which is the same for all the foes; this is definitive for a group of 5 enemies, the damage is distributed among 6 or more enemies and some lost in groups of 4 or less. So the number of triggers hitting a specific foe is n-1, which is 4 at 16 Channeling Magic. Each trigger hits 4 foes, triggered 5 times; so Splinter Weapon hits a total of 20 times. That's a total of 1060 AoE damage.

Each foe will be hit 4 times in a group of 5, 4-2 times in a group of 6, etc. In the trivial case in a group of 5, each foe takes (53*4) 212 damage. In a group of 6, we assume the enemies are distributed in an arbitrary arc. Splinter Weapon will only trigger on 5 of the 6 enemies. The hits "radiate" outward from your initial target. The distribution of hits to the center 4 are always the same. There are 6 outcomes possible {C(6,5) = 6} assuming the radiating principle, where 4 are duplicates of the other two. This leads to two possible outcomes depending on which edge gets hit by Splinter Weapon. The 4 center foes get hit 4 times while the edges are hit twice. The way the damage is distributed depends on the position of the enemy hit beyond 6. We can assume the damage is distributed among the enemies depending on distance and equal chance at equal distance away. This was different when there was no limit to the number of adjacent foes hit in the past!

Splinter Weapon has a recharge of 5 seconds and takes 1 second to cast. This means it can be used every 6 seconds. This ignores the fact it can be precast for up to 20 seconds. That's 705/6=176.7 apparent damage per second. This is really only useful to comparison of other AoE skills such as Energy Surge. Assuming 11 Fast Casting and 16 Domination Magic, that's 99 damage per foe every 11 seconds (15/1.33=11.278 truncated). To reach the same dps, it has to hit ~13 foes [(99*n)/11=176.7; n=13.05]. This damage isn't distributed though, so it's guaranteed damage rather than apparent damage and isn't limited to adjacent range. Ineptitude and Wandering Eye will take less enemies to reach the same since they hit harder. In fact, Clumsiness has a really high dps assuming all enemies trigger attacks.

The reason this isn't comparable is the fact you can precast Splinter Weapon. We can pretty confidently assume that a small group, most or all foes will take 212 damage. Precasting essentially doubles the pulse damage. If precast and you can hit two AoE attacks (Use one AoE attack, then Whirlwind Attack), those enemies are going to get royally fucked. Then you could give a shit about dps. That's the true power of Splinter Weapon. You can literally spike down most groups within two casts when combined with other AoE skills. It's not even an elite skill and you don't even need to go out of your way to bring it since you're using another overpowered skill: Signet of Spirits.

Signet of Ghostly Might vs. Soul Twisting
You use SoGM to buff your spirits. You use Soul Twisting so you can spam the spirits constantly. Do you need Soul Twisting to manage energy properly if hero is using spirits on recharge? And how much more effective is it?

Since this is a pure comparison, we assume attributes aren't split, so Spawning Power is at 14, so Boon of Creation returns 6 energy. Let's make a table ignoring Soul Twisting for now. Boon of Creation costs 10 energy and assuming Enchanting mod, lasts 57*(1.2)=68 seconds rounded down; so it costs .147 energy per second. That will be added onto the drain with using BoC. Casters get 1.33 energy every second (4 energy every 3 seconds), so they have just enough energy to use spirits on recharge given some variation in a non-perfect world.

Since spirits recharge instantly with Soul Twisting, the cost will be based on when the spirit dies or needs to be resummoned. Let's assume Soul Twisting is being precast before a battle. We also assume Dissonance is being used first, otherwise you micro it on the hero because we care about the hero managing energy. The total cost is 50 (15+10+10+5+10+5) energy; a second cast of Soul Twisting and the spirits at the start of battle. We assume that the time between each group is around 30 seconds. Otherwise Soul Twisting won't be precast and our spirits won't be cast under its effects. That's 50 energy every 30 seconds or 1.67 energy per second; ignoring the precast and recasting of any spirits. That is quite manageable. Add in Boon of Creation and we save 30 energy while adding in it's cost; we get .67+.147=.814 energy per second.

Now we can't account for spirits that are recast during battle or while not under the effects of Soul Twisting; we don't want this either. The costs will vary greatly depending on if the hero uses Dissonance while under Soul Twisting or not. We can be pretty confident that the hero can spam spirits all he wants with both Soul Twisting and Boon of Creation. There's a reason it's pretty safe to assume 30 seconds between group: if it takes less than 30 seconds, that means they're close enough that you can pull them to the already summoned spirits. However, most builds drop Dissonance because it doesn't last nearly as long and a long recharge with a rather obscure benefit of random interruption. The spiritwall effect works almost as effectively without it. One of the primary uses for Soul Twisting is so the Ritualist can use Dissonance effectively. Remove it and you lose one of the reasons to use Soul Twisting in the first place. That's ignoring the fact that the SoGM can manage energy fine using it and the primary purpose to train targets to death. As we already established Soul Twisting spaces out spirit summoning every 30 seconds for optimal usage, we have almost no reason to use it over SoGM when spirits recharge in 30 seconds with the exception of Anguish at 45 seconds.

So what are the advantages of using Soul Twisting? First of all, if we drop Dissonance, we have extra charges of Soul Twisting to use with a long duration. If a spirit goes down, it can be recast immediately at any time. This makes it very useful in areas where spirits get taken out quickly. Dissonance normally doesn't last very long and costs a fortune to use, Soul Twisting effectively makes the cost identical to all the other spirits. Players can choose to drop Shadowsong instead of Dissonance considering it's more effective unless you really want blind spam. The hero also doesn't rely on Boon of Creation to manage energy. If Boon of Creation is stripped, the hero will have a terrible time getting energy back up even with microing. You also have the defensive spirits available. You can bring a combination of Shelter and offensive spirits for more defensive play while still maintaining the spiritwall.

We talked about the pros and cons of Soul Twisting, what about Signet of Ghostly might? Why use Signet of Ghostly Might in the first place? The simplest reason is more damage. Spirits attack faster and hit harder. This fits in to the idea of using a spiritwall to kill stuff by training it to death. Spirits will kill shit very fast if they attack at once. They have a combined DPS higher than any sustainable output by a player. Functionally, the hero uses it whenever there's a spirit up and attacking an enemy; this is proper behavior but inconvenient for you. This is avoided in the first place since you're precasting the spirits to pull enemies to. You won't be precasting spirits before every pull or want to in most cases. Fortunately, the 15 second recharge is very forgiving and you won't lose much in the difference unless you want to optimize the damage. The energy with SoGM is fragile, you'll be fine until Boon of Creation is stripped or the hero forgets to cast it. Soul Twisting give you flexibility in this regard.

Necro Bomber vs. Rit Bomber
How do minions summoned by the Rit Bomber compare to minions by a normal MM?

We'll use Bone Minions as our case study. Minions gain health and armor as they level up. Their level is determined by points in Death Magic. We can find this on the table on Guildwiki. Spawning Power affects the minions' health, determined by the points in Spawning Power. First we need to find out how much health Bone Minions have. We'll find an equation for health based off various levels of Death Magic. Let's compare an MM using 19 Death Magic to a Ritualist using 16 Spawning power and 12 Death Magic. Then let's review why the Rit Bomber is used and why it was archived.

According to wiki, the Bone Minion gains roughly 20 health per level. I went out and tested minion health at 12 Death Magic and 16 Death Magic. I wait until the degen has reached 10 so the rate stays constant and start the timer after redbarring with a heal. I'll do two trials for 12 Death Magic to get accurate enough prediction. I got an average time of (14.231+14.347)=14.289 seconds. We'll make a table: If plot level vs. health and do a line of best fit, we get the a nice linear equation: 20.64x+79.42 with a cofficient of determination R^2=1. This agrees with the wiki's claim of 20 health per level because calculations are probably an overestimate. The predicted health for the minions is then calculated based on level 10 minions since they're most accurate. The equation will be 20.64(10)+79.42 = 20(10)+b, solving for b=85.82 (rounded to 85). Thus our equation for the predicted health is 20x+85. Spawning Power gives a 64% bonus in health at 16, so 285*1.64=467.4 (rounded to 467).

So the Ritualist Bomber minions have 82 more health in comparison. However, minions get 3 armor per level, so a Necro Bomber minions have 18 additional armor. If you're going to ask which is more advantageous, it's going to be the extra armor. Let's see some other advantages of Necromancer. The minions do more damage, but that isn't a big deal. You also get more damage from Death Nova and Putrid Bile. The Ritualist Bomber can't afford those. The deal breaker is perhaps the fact you're a Necromancer. You get free energy management and can spec into any attribute. The only thing the Rit Bomber has going for it is Explosive Growth. Unfortunately, this damage isn't armor-ignoring so it's rather insignificant. It can be impressive if use with Aura of the Lich. Overall, the Rit Bomber is extremely limited compared to the Necro Bomber and dedicates an entire build to meager damage from Explosive Growth and an addition 82 health. You also get a max of 8 minions rather than 11. Definitely not worth it.

Dagger Spam
What is the average damage output on daggers and how does using other skills affect it? We'll look at both the dagger spammer and Locust's Fury sin. The guru post tells us that the Locust's Fury sin will hit with more attacks during the same time period (cycle). We will use this on deciding how to test buffs. The typical Build:A/any Dagger Spammer will run 14 Dagger Mastery. Does running 16 Dagger Mastery provide a significant difference in damage? Then we can run through how Strength of Honor and Orders affect damage output. How are we going to test this? I choose to use the Master of Damage and run through the HM Imperial Sanctum mission.

Master of Damage
The damage to Master of Damage is in a controlled environment, so we'll be able to tell the difference between Dagger Mastery investment as well as any buffs. I attack him for the full 180 seconds for three trials each. My weapon is a pair of Zealous Daggers of Enchanting (15>50). I spam the dagger chain as efficiently as possible, we're fine as long as the results are consistent. The same is done for Locust's Fury, the only difference is maintaining Locust's Fury instead of spamming. I repeat this with Strength of Honor for both dagger spam and Locust's Fury. Since Orders will give similar results to Strength of Honor used by itself, we would rather see how it affects the damage output of the dagger spammer compared to the Locust's Fury sin. In theory, the Locust's Fury should benefit more from Order of Pain than dagger spammer per the above Guildguru thread. I use the Orders Dervish and disabled Dark Fury so the hero doesn't have to worry about energy. The derv is set on Away to avoid attacking the Master of Damage; the hero won't cast Orders out of aggro range.

As expected, higher Dagger Mastery contributes to higher damage output in every case. The dagger spammer has a significantly higher damage output than Locust's Fury. The difference between damage output of 14 Dagger Mastery and 16 Dagger Mastery is more significant for dagger spammer than Locust's Fury. This is because higher dagger mastery increases the bonus damage from attacks and has less of an impact on regular attacks. The difference in damage output is much smaller after buffs are applied. Without buffs, the difference in damage for 14 and 16 Dagger Mastery is 31 and 35 respectively. After buffs, the difference in damage is 19 and 20. Also notice that the difference in damage output of 14 and 16 Dagger Mastery decreases after buffs. This indicates that the damage output of Locust's Fury increases faster than the dagger spammer as you increase the bonus damage from melee. This makes sense since the theory says Locust's Fury hits with more attacks than Dagger Spammer in the same time period. The dagger spammer benefits more from higher Dagger Mastery than Locust's Fury and Locust's fury benefits more from bonus damage than dagger spammer.

For the Locust's Fury sin to win out on damage output, you would need to increase the bonus damage and/or decrease Dagger Mastery. Assuming 14 Dagger Mastery, how much bonus damage is required to win out against dagger spammer? The bonus damage from Order of Pain isn't constant, but Strength of Honor is since it's maintained. We can reasonably extrapolate based on Strength of Honor. The difference in damage output decreased from 31 to 21 for the +24 bonus damage. We have y = (-11/24)x + 31, where y is difference in damage output and x is bonus damage. When does this difference become 0? Solving for y gives x = 67.64. You would need ~68 bonus damage per attack before you have an advantage to dagger spammer. In this case, such amount of bonus damage is difficult to reach and implausible for general play. In theory, if we had a boss with an arbitrarily large amount of health, the Locust's Fury sin would need less bonus damage the longer the fight takes. In the actual game, dagger spammer wins out every time.

Imperial Sanctum
The reason for killing Shiro Tagachi in HM is because we know how much health he has (6800) and there is an in-game timer for completing the mission. We can find the dps by timing how long it takes to kill him. Monsters with higher level are harder to critical and take less damage due to level difference. I run 14 Dagger Mastery, running it again on 16 Dagger Mastery is redundant since we already did the Master of Damage. I take the same SoH (with a couple heals) and Orders then add in an ST Rit to spam Shelter; all heroes are set on Away. Shiro heals too fast It takes about 45 seconds from the start of the mission to actually attacking him. The total time taken to kill him will be the final time minus 40 seconds. I bring Wild Blow and Critical Defenses to stay alive. No flagging or preparation is done except Strength of Honor. Shiro heals and runs around a lot, mimicking what is likely to happen in normal battles. This gives a reliable test for damage output.

There is a discrepancy in the times because Locust's Fury does not kill Shiro fast enough before he activates Meditation of the Reaper. This also happens in normal PvE and the apparent DPS tells us how likely we are to kill something before it gets healed. The first time is substantially longer due to Shiro attacking Mhenlo and getting extra healing. Such is the randomness of PvE and shouldn't be treated as an outlier. Level difference only affects base damage, not bonus damage from attacks. For this case, the dagger spammer is at the advantage with the bonus damage from attack skills while Locust's Fury relies and bonus damage from SoH and OoP. This gives reason to favor dagger spammer when you want to spike enemies as it delivers higher damage in a smaller time frame.

Golden Fang Strike vs. "Quick" Attacks
We use the Build:A/any Dagger Spammer bar for this. There are three optional slots with one for the elite skill. That leaves two slots for whatever we want. The question is whether inflicting Deep Wound with Golden Fang Strike is more effective than bringing a quick activation attack to spam damage faster. Let's look at Exhausting Assault and Jungle Strike. We will have Strength of Honor at 14 Smiting Prayers and then check Order of Pain (at 14 Blood Magic) makes a substantial difference.

Equation
During the cooldown of Jagged Strike->Fox Fangs->Death Blossom, you get two autoattacks (Cooldown starts when Fox Fangs hits because Death Blossom has a shorter recharge). The assumption is we can deliver two quick activations attacks in the same time period as Golden Fang Strike. Therefore, given enough bonus damage you should win out against Golden Fang Strike since it only counts as one hit and Deep Wound. We can create a simple equation for comparing these: Chain: n(bonus*base)+(attack)+(effect) = total

Comparison
List the total damage of the chain, the time it takes to complete the chain, and the energy cost. Let x represent base damage as it isn't a fixed value and y represent the duration of a normal attack. One normal attack takes 0.8911 seconds with 33% IAS.

Note that to use Jagged Strike at the end of your chain, the Duration + .5 y + 1 < Cooldown to use Fox Fangs on recharge. This is only true if the duration of the chain < 2 - .5y or 1.55445 seconds. Otherwise you will be waiting a marginal amount of time between when Fox Fangs is recharged and when you can use it.

Also note that Golden Fang Strike and Jungle Strike will shorten the chain, as the cooldown depends on the recharge of Death Blossom instead of Fox Fangs. As Golden Fang Strike only needs to be used once, it only serves to shorten the cycle. Keep in mind that this is not true if you kill and/or switch targets. Jungle Strike will only be used once every 4 (2s+2s+3s+3s) cycles because of it's long recharge. We will assume no enemy in the game will be alive after 4 cycles and you have switched to another target. Golden Fang Strike is available almost every cycle. This means Golden Fang Strike has an overwhelming advantage in killing enemies continuously.

Analysis
For bonus damage to win out against the Golden Fang Strike, we equate the damage from the Golden Fang Strike chain to an arbitrary chain where y is the bonus damage. n(y+x) + bonus = 2(24+x) + 100 Assuming no bonus damage (Chains without bonus damage) ny + nx = 178 + 2x y = ( 178 + 2x - nx) / n Assume x is in the range of damage ( 17 > average damage > 7 ) For n = 2, y = 89 For n = 3, y = 54-57 For n = 4, y = 36-41

For the case of Jungle Strike ny + nx = 154 + 2x y = ( 154 + 2x - nx) / n Assume x is in the range of damage ( 17 > average damage > 7 ) For n = 2, y = 77 For n = 3, y = 46-49 For n = 4, y = 30-35 With Strength of Honor, our bonus damage is 24. This does not fall into the range of any of our chains. With Order of Pain, our bonus damage falls within a chain of 4 attacks for both cases. Our only chain is JS+EA+JS. Even with 16 Smiting Prayers and 16 Blood Magic, 43 bonus damage does not fall within any other chain ranges. We can see that it requires quite a significant boost in bonus damage to win out against Golden Fang Strike. The chains also require 5 additional energy and end up more costly.

Quick activation attacks offer no distinct advantage over normal attacks since it's not possible to get in more than 3-4 attacks within the same timeframe it takes to hit with Golden Fang Strike. You would really have to boost bonus damage to justify expending 5 more energy to increase your damage. This can be done with your second optional slot with Ebon Battle Standard of Honor and similar. Golden Fang Strike can be used every cycle. Exhausting Assault and Jungle Strike can only be used once every 4 cycles. In terms of continuous damage, Golden Fang Strike wins out. The only way to feasibly beat out Golden Fang Strike would be to Echo Fox Fangs to shorten the cooldown and spend 5 more energy getting in a second Jagged Strike. Keep in mind this means it's optimal to start out with the standard chain and follow up with a Golden Fang Strike chain. If the enemy will die within the first chain, it's optimal to open with a Golden Fang Strike chain.

The second optional slot will only impact the results if it provides bonus damage to attacks. You may also argue that Brawling Headbutt is better than Golden Fang Strike because it takes the same time to use and can be charged for almost every cycle. You would then have to argue that the KD is much more advantageous than the minor loss in damage. The other option that would be exceptionally viable is Wild Strike, as it equivocates Golden Fang Strike in a couple cycles. Note that with the HM update, the full 100 damage is almost guaranteed, mollifying concerns about enemies dieing too fast for full benefit from Deep Wound.