User:Krschkr/Master of Damage

A look at how useful the Master of Damage is.

On the testing area
The master of damage can be found on the Isle of the Nameless, outside of the Great Temple of Balthazar. This allows a party size of 8 people. For testing PvP builds a PvP version can be entered by talking to the Master of the Isle within the great temple, but I'm only going to discuss PvE concerns. A lot of the test usefulness is determined by the stats and additional characteristics of the master of damage:
 * Only damage against the master of damage himself is counted. Hitting targets next to him will not have any effect for the damage report.
 * Health degeneration and health drain are, other than usual, counted and called damage.
 * Deep wounds do not count as damage.
 * Armor level 60. In hard mode PvE most foes have a higher armor rating, reducing all armor dependent damage they receive (see also: armor effect tables.
 * 590 health points.
 * The master of damage's health is reset whenever he'd normally die. This prevents certain skills like [[Putrid Bile] from triggering and does not grant energy gain from soul reaping.
 * Nonetheless relevant for skills like [[Unsuspecting Strike] and [[Brutal Strike].
 * 30 energy points. Relevant for builds which fiddle with skills such as [[Mind Wrack], [[Energy Burn] and [[Aneurysm].
 * There are two practice dummies standing next to the master of damage.
 * One of them is within the distance adjacent to foe and one within adjacent. That's relevant for scythe users as they'll only be able to hit one of the dummies. Check this short demonstration video.
 * They have 60 armor and 480 health points.
 * They can be killed and will be automatically resurrected 30 seconds later.
 * The master of damage is entirely passive.

Shortcomings of Master of Damage tests

 * Only single target damage is measured, but in PvE building teams around AoE damage has proven considerably more effective in general.
 * This doesn't allow a judgment about the tactical options of a build, i.e. whether it can distract or tank foes.
 * Neither offensive nor defensive shutdown have any impact.
 * Cross-build dependencies are not weighed, i.e. providing non-damaging hexes and conditions for [[Discord].
 * Armor dependent damage is, due to armor level 60, unreduced, and thus higher than to be expected in normal PvE encounters. Foes gain armor boosts due to their profession, species (e.g. higher fire armor rating of fire elementals) and level.
 * All targets are entirely passive.
 * They don't kite from melees.
 * They don't scatter from AoE effects like [[Fire Storm] and [[Dark Aura].
 * They use no skills which could be punished with abilities such as [[Scourge Healing], [[Visions of Regret], [[Strip Enchantment] or [[Shatter Hex].
 * They don't attack which could be punishes with abilities such as [[Clumsiness] or [[Insidious Parasite].
 * There are no counters at all which are often encountered in normal scenarios, such as interruption of spells or stances like [[Whirling Defense].
 * As the master of damage can't die builds with a long buildup phase are encouraged.
 * In regular PvE it's best to have short buildup phases and start with a burst right away.
 * It also lacks phases inbetween fights, which are especially relevant for builds which summon additional allies.
 * The terrain does not give the player advantages or disadvantages, like height advantage for bow users or a wall which could block projectiles.

What these tests are good for anyway

 * AI: You can make some observations on how heroes use certain skills and may test the energy management of henchman builds by recreating their builds with heroes. A damage build which is good in the hands of a player is not necessarily good when used by the AI.
 * You can find out an "ideal" DPS of simple builds.
 * Depending on its AoE damage's qualities you may be able to say that the damage dealt in your test can be multiplied by the expected amount of hit foes to guess the damage output in a regular combat scenario.
 * You may roughly compare builds which have similar damage dealing strategies and damage types, i.e. two familiar air magic builds or an air magic build and a spell based channeling magic build.
 * By comparing the dealt damage and then taking a look at which additional qualities a build has which the master of damage does not take account of some conclusions may be made aswell.
 * For example, both of the following assassin hero builds have the same DPS of 72. The star burst hero, though, is more suspectible to armor ratings and enchantment removal while also lacking the utility of condition removal and resurrection. The way of the assassin hero is therefore in general to be preferred over the star burst hero, which only has the advantage of having a larger AoE radius with a single skill (while dealing less armor ignoring AoE damage to adjacent targets).


 * In the next section of the page there will be some more examples taking a look at player builds.


 * You can see damage compression abilities, especially spikes (damage dealt in one second). These are especially useful to overcome AI healers: A spike may speed up fights more than an overall considerably larger DPS value by taking away the time for healers to react.