JeyKama
Jul 30, 2012, 07:41 PM
Disclaimer: I'm not a serious theorycrafter - if my math/tables/graphs are horribly laughable, sorry! Google Docs' tables were not making my day.
[long-ass intro]
One huge thing that really frustrates me about this game is how number-oriented it is with affixing, yet no one really understands what the numbers do. Like elemental damage... common sense says that monsters weak to elemental damage should take more damage from their weakness, right? What the hell does Ability do? How come my 50% ice sword outdamages my 20% fire rare on an ice-weak enemy?
The big problem with figuring this out is that there is no combat log. Makes things casual-friendly for sure, and the game isn't hard yet by any means, but I know some of us like to go the extra mile on our gear (not me... I can't afford it anymore :<) I wanted to do some concrete testing that would answer MY questions, and and being kind of a scientific person, hopefully my method will convince you of my results.
[/intro]
Mats
RA40 - Using 4 3* Vitalauncher+10: 50% Thunder, 50% Ice, 21% Ice, Non-element, no R-ATK/Ability affixes
Mag - lv134 Corvus 89RATK/30ABI, has Buff J but didn't use for testing.
Switched between maxed Ability skill tree and generic RA tree, both with some degree of Standing Snipe (not used)
Used a mix of Shoot/Rappy/Mizer Soul armors to swap ABI/RATK in and out of
Test Subjects
lv38 Gilnatches in Area 1 of Free Field Mines. Other than their Thunder weakness, these guys have no weak spots or hard points that I know of, and so Weak Shot Advance should not come into play. They also heal themselves and must have some crazy regen besides, because they're quite hard to kill. I would rush the map until I found a set, and if no element Boost PSE effects happened, it was good to go.
Method
I used launcher basic attacks to record damage, firing at the ground at the mobs' feet. In order to counteract any Standing Snipe/JA buffs, I would jump to shoot, then land before attempting another shot. A range of 50-80 shots were recorded for most sets that looked interesting.
All of my work so far is here, don't go blind:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AlpssxWcrOxPdDZNWlAyNlpoRzN2b01oNGRPcWg2b Hc&output=html
What I attempted to test:
1) Comparison of max 50% elemental weakness damage vs. non-weakness vs. non-elemental (done)
[SPOILER-BOX]
The maximum damage of a 50% Thunder (Gilnatch's weakness) Vitalauncher+10 was only 3.5%-4.5% higher than an equivalent 50% Ice weapon. Earlier testing using a field that had Thunder Boost lv3 yielded similar results, so I'm not sure what Thunder Boost really does.
To some, 3.5%-4.5% may seem insignificant to create two costly 50% weapons, but remember I only used launcher basic attacks, so PAs and JAs magnified this effect.
Comparing the non-elemental Vitalauncher to the 50% Ice on a non-weakness target (eg the Gilnatches), the 50% Ice outperformed the non-elemental weapon by 22-27% (the ratio decreased slightly as R-ATK went up). The 21% Ice weapon outperformed the non-elemental as well on the two data points I had. Basically this means that non-elemental weapons are not that great outside of Item Lab fodder and status symbols.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
2) Damage comparison of moderate 20% elemental weakness damage vs. non-weakness vs. non-elemental (need to grind up a 21% thunder launcher to match the ice)
[SPOILER-BOX]
Unfortunately I did not get around to testing moderate% weapons, so unfortunately I only have 3 points that look fairly linear at a constant ABI/R-ATK.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
3) R-ATK vs. Damage Dealt comparison (done)
[SPOILER-BOX]
Ability held constant + R-ATK modified.
Damage dealt by basic launcher attacks appear to scale linearly with increasing R-ATK. Mob defense values likely subtract directly from your ATK rating, though examples of extremely high defense mobs don't seem practical to come by to know what happens when DEF > ATK.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
4) Ability vs. Min/Max & Average Damage Dealt comparisons (effectively done, but could use a few more numbers near the plateau)
[SPOILER-BOX]
R-ATK held constant & Ability level modified.
While I cannot say I took enough samples to determine 100% the minimum damage value for each set, the data points are convincingly linear until the 429ABI point where the chart plateaus. This leads me to believe that somewhere between 399-429ABI is a curve, but for the most part I can connect a straight line from 327 to 399.
At 429 and 459 ABI, the damage ranged stayed the same at 96% variance, which leads me to believe that to be the 'maximum' proportion for the minimum damage.
Note, I am not convinced at what determines this plateau point, so ymmv with your ability level.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
5) What determines the Ability plateau (theoretical)
[SPOILER-BOX]
There is one theory going around that Ability must exceed the ATK stat of your weapon in order to get max stability. This does not seem to be true:
I took a 2* Alba-blaster (199 R-ATK ungrinded) to the Gilnatches. With 327 Ability, I got a crit of 241 (using Diffuse Shell) and then a low of 218 right after, already a disparity of 90%. (similar to 399 ABI with a 3*) I didn't do extensive testing, but tacking on another 30-60 ABI brought the disparity ratio to 96%.
It doesn't appear to directly be the equip requirement either, as an Alba-blaster requires 326 Ability and I had already surpassed that at the 90% disparity mark, however f an Albablaster plateaus at 327-357, and a Vitalauncher(req 393) at 399-429, it does seem possible that the equip requirement is where the "curve" to plateau slowly begins?
If nothing else, this seems to prove that the Ability plateau req is different for each weapon. My Tig Ridol has hit the 96% at 399 Ability already (where my Vitas were still at 90%) on Gilnatches - which seems to support the theory that rare weapons have a hidden Ability booster.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
Some things to think about when deciding ATK vs. Ability:
As I mentioned before, I am using R-ATK vs. a very specific mob using specific weapons. However, Ability and R-ATK both appear to scale linearly (though Ability appears to cap out at its 'plateau'). Since both are linear, there does not seem to be a "sweet spot" as a reason to level both simultaneously.
In fact, it requires 4.4 Ability to increase my average basic attack by 1 damage, and 4.2 R-ATK do to the same, so in my case R-ATK is superior on average.RA does not rely on consistant damage however, so really it appears to be fairly close in value - and everyone hates that low-end Sneak Shot on a Weak Bullet.
When comparing moderate% rares to 50% 1-5* weapons though by looking solely at ATK, remember that the % appears to be a scalable damage increase. It's up in the air though, if the rare weapon's hidden Ability boost increases the average damage enough to make up for it.
[long-ass intro]
One huge thing that really frustrates me about this game is how number-oriented it is with affixing, yet no one really understands what the numbers do. Like elemental damage... common sense says that monsters weak to elemental damage should take more damage from their weakness, right? What the hell does Ability do? How come my 50% ice sword outdamages my 20% fire rare on an ice-weak enemy?
The big problem with figuring this out is that there is no combat log. Makes things casual-friendly for sure, and the game isn't hard yet by any means, but I know some of us like to go the extra mile on our gear (not me... I can't afford it anymore :<) I wanted to do some concrete testing that would answer MY questions, and and being kind of a scientific person, hopefully my method will convince you of my results.
[/intro]
Mats
RA40 - Using 4 3* Vitalauncher+10: 50% Thunder, 50% Ice, 21% Ice, Non-element, no R-ATK/Ability affixes
Mag - lv134 Corvus 89RATK/30ABI, has Buff J but didn't use for testing.
Switched between maxed Ability skill tree and generic RA tree, both with some degree of Standing Snipe (not used)
Used a mix of Shoot/Rappy/Mizer Soul armors to swap ABI/RATK in and out of
Test Subjects
lv38 Gilnatches in Area 1 of Free Field Mines. Other than their Thunder weakness, these guys have no weak spots or hard points that I know of, and so Weak Shot Advance should not come into play. They also heal themselves and must have some crazy regen besides, because they're quite hard to kill. I would rush the map until I found a set, and if no element Boost PSE effects happened, it was good to go.
Method
I used launcher basic attacks to record damage, firing at the ground at the mobs' feet. In order to counteract any Standing Snipe/JA buffs, I would jump to shoot, then land before attempting another shot. A range of 50-80 shots were recorded for most sets that looked interesting.
All of my work so far is here, don't go blind:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AlpssxWcrOxPdDZNWlAyNlpoRzN2b01oNGRPcWg2b Hc&output=html
What I attempted to test:
1) Comparison of max 50% elemental weakness damage vs. non-weakness vs. non-elemental (done)
[SPOILER-BOX]
The maximum damage of a 50% Thunder (Gilnatch's weakness) Vitalauncher+10 was only 3.5%-4.5% higher than an equivalent 50% Ice weapon. Earlier testing using a field that had Thunder Boost lv3 yielded similar results, so I'm not sure what Thunder Boost really does.
To some, 3.5%-4.5% may seem insignificant to create two costly 50% weapons, but remember I only used launcher basic attacks, so PAs and JAs magnified this effect.
Comparing the non-elemental Vitalauncher to the 50% Ice on a non-weakness target (eg the Gilnatches), the 50% Ice outperformed the non-elemental weapon by 22-27% (the ratio decreased slightly as R-ATK went up). The 21% Ice weapon outperformed the non-elemental as well on the two data points I had. Basically this means that non-elemental weapons are not that great outside of Item Lab fodder and status symbols.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
2) Damage comparison of moderate 20% elemental weakness damage vs. non-weakness vs. non-elemental (need to grind up a 21% thunder launcher to match the ice)
[SPOILER-BOX]
Unfortunately I did not get around to testing moderate% weapons, so unfortunately I only have 3 points that look fairly linear at a constant ABI/R-ATK.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
3) R-ATK vs. Damage Dealt comparison (done)
[SPOILER-BOX]
Ability held constant + R-ATK modified.
Damage dealt by basic launcher attacks appear to scale linearly with increasing R-ATK. Mob defense values likely subtract directly from your ATK rating, though examples of extremely high defense mobs don't seem practical to come by to know what happens when DEF > ATK.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
4) Ability vs. Min/Max & Average Damage Dealt comparisons (effectively done, but could use a few more numbers near the plateau)
[SPOILER-BOX]
R-ATK held constant & Ability level modified.
While I cannot say I took enough samples to determine 100% the minimum damage value for each set, the data points are convincingly linear until the 429ABI point where the chart plateaus. This leads me to believe that somewhere between 399-429ABI is a curve, but for the most part I can connect a straight line from 327 to 399.
At 429 and 459 ABI, the damage ranged stayed the same at 96% variance, which leads me to believe that to be the 'maximum' proportion for the minimum damage.
Note, I am not convinced at what determines this plateau point, so ymmv with your ability level.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
5) What determines the Ability plateau (theoretical)
[SPOILER-BOX]
There is one theory going around that Ability must exceed the ATK stat of your weapon in order to get max stability. This does not seem to be true:
I took a 2* Alba-blaster (199 R-ATK ungrinded) to the Gilnatches. With 327 Ability, I got a crit of 241 (using Diffuse Shell) and then a low of 218 right after, already a disparity of 90%. (similar to 399 ABI with a 3*) I didn't do extensive testing, but tacking on another 30-60 ABI brought the disparity ratio to 96%.
It doesn't appear to directly be the equip requirement either, as an Alba-blaster requires 326 Ability and I had already surpassed that at the 90% disparity mark, however f an Albablaster plateaus at 327-357, and a Vitalauncher(req 393) at 399-429, it does seem possible that the equip requirement is where the "curve" to plateau slowly begins?
If nothing else, this seems to prove that the Ability plateau req is different for each weapon. My Tig Ridol has hit the 96% at 399 Ability already (where my Vitas were still at 90%) on Gilnatches - which seems to support the theory that rare weapons have a hidden Ability booster.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
Some things to think about when deciding ATK vs. Ability:
As I mentioned before, I am using R-ATK vs. a very specific mob using specific weapons. However, Ability and R-ATK both appear to scale linearly (though Ability appears to cap out at its 'plateau'). Since both are linear, there does not seem to be a "sweet spot" as a reason to level both simultaneously.
In fact, it requires 4.4 Ability to increase my average basic attack by 1 damage, and 4.2 R-ATK do to the same, so in my case R-ATK is superior on average.RA does not rely on consistant damage however, so really it appears to be fairly close in value - and everyone hates that low-end Sneak Shot on a Weak Bullet.
When comparing moderate% rares to 50% 1-5* weapons though by looking solely at ATK, remember that the % appears to be a scalable damage increase. It's up in the air though, if the rare weapon's hidden Ability boost increases the average damage enough to make up for it.