Tesla Ball vs. Shockwave

The below post inspired me to finally try out Tesla Ball on the sparring targets:

Unless I'm doing something wrong, you have to give up 1 of the iconic powers to get TB, VB, and electrocute. I think conventional wisdom says crit chance over crit damage.

I found the TB rotation was able to hit over 30k every once in a while and average over 27k. I'm not a clipping expert, but the best I could do with shockwave was to get around 29k as a high and average around 24k. I haven't tried TB in a real raid, but the additional 10-15% in damage seems encouraging. With practice I might be able to push the average closer to 30k.

Has anyone else tried out TB vs. SW in a real raid to compare the results? I guess my only concern is losing the iconic 10% crit damage. Thanks.

Give me time, and I'll look over the effects of crits for you. I'm at work, but I'm curious myself. So I'll try to get back to you ASAP

Edit:, I don't know anything about electricity, so can you tell me your rotation so I have an idea of what to compare? Also, if you want a quick answer, test the two rotations so you can see what your dps is over time.

I just removed Circuit Breaker in favor of Tesla Ball, and have seen my numbers go up quite noticeably.
I haven't saved the reulta on parser but I can try to do that later tonight.

On a side note you are correct you only get 1 iconic, but I went for the 10% and not the 3%.
My DPS toon is 128 with only 137 but I can try to record this if you want .

Some electric abbreviations:
EG - electrogenisis
AL - arc lightning
EL - electrocute
VB - volatic bolt
W - wired
TB - Tesla Ball

SF - handblaster solar flame (don't get WM in HB, you do 25% more damage without it)
c/ - clip

For the Shockwave rotation:
EG->AL->EL->VB c/W->SF c/SW->SF c/SW->SF c/SW->SF c/SW->VB->EG->AL->EL->VB c/W

After the 2nd cast of EG, you don't need to use it any more so you go to.
SF c/SW->SF c/SW->SF c/SW-> SF c/SW->VB->EL->VB c/W->repeat

The video in my OP shows the TB rotation.

He sets up to max dot with 2 EG casts, then goes to this rotation:
SF c/EL->VB->SF c/TB->SF c/AL->SF c/VB->SF c/TB->SF c/ALc/W->repeat

You shouldn't see any of the Solar Flame animation if you clip it correctly, but you will see the damage in your combat log. You can try it a few times to make sure you are getting the damage but no animation. I'm on the PS4, so I keep my clipping powers on the left button. On PC test you guys can probably clip easier with a button push.

Thank you for being willing to take a look. I with they would open PC test to PS legendary members. I actually have time before the next episode to try stuff since I got to 131 on Sunday with no replays.

I did some quick analysis and you are correct in your assessment that if you had to pick between the two, choose Weapons Expert over Tactical Genius. It's a small difference, but Weapons Expert wins out in the end.

Now, the loss of Tactical Genius results in a 2.5% reduction in damage over time (assuming the same rotation is used). So if the Tesla Ball rotation nets you a greater improvement than 2.5% over the Shockwave rotation, then you should go for it.

Note, I am assuming in my analysis that you have all of your crits from skill points and dps affinity bonuses from gear.

I also picked the 10% when I tried it yesterday. I'm going to run the rotation again (I'm brand new with TB), then respec to crit chance to see if the numbers change. I'm not sure if I can upload parser data from the PS4. Does anyone know how?

No need to record, but I'm glad to hear others see the same improved results. It is depressing to see Ice and Fire do 50%+ more damage in BS, but I know Electric doesn't have a mid-range like them. I also know it's a waste of time to request mid-range options for electric because devs are only looking at range and melee right now. Maybe with TB and some more effient clipping I can get to 30% less damage than the mid-range powers .

Yes, all my crits from SP and all socket affinities are in place. It looks like TB is netting 10-15% increase, but that was with the crit damage iconic. I'm going to switch to crit chance when I get home and try it again to compare the numbers. Thanks.

To be clear, TB doing 15% more damage than SW is not the same as a 15% improvement for the rotation. To compare rotations, make sure both are spec'd the same (so remove the same iconic crit innate from the SW loadout, even though you could fit it in). Then test your rotation with your combat parser up. Monitor the DPS, and make sure you get many samples so the variance in crit occurrences level out over time. From this, you can assess the improvement of the TB over SW

Good point, my observation is 10-15% improvement in overall max dps and average dps for the entire rotation, not just the powers. I will devote more time to get a better average, plus space some testing sessions out. Also to compare the crit chance and crit damage iconics. Thank you for the feedback.

Sounds like a net gain. Great job in recognizing not to limit yourself in taking the iconics. If you can do more damage with a better rotation, take it.

On a side note, I didn't realize what the buff Wired gave. It seems to be a +10% crit chance for weapons and abilities and a +15% might boost. Is this correct? If so, I did not consider the effects of the added crit chance. I'll recalculate the numbers and get back to you, but I suspect you will want Tactical Genius instead of Weapons Expert. When it comes to maximizing damage with crits, you want balance between chance and magnitude. Since you buff your chance, you want to increase your magnitude (thus Tactical Genius). Again, I'll get back to you, but I think you did the right call going TB over SW

Yes, you are correct about Wired. +10% crit chance, +15% might. I'll go ahead and try out both tonight, but it will be good to have the mathematical answer too. Thanks.

One last question, are you using the AM? And if so, does your AM give you the +5% crit chance and +25% crit damage? Sorry, again I know nothing about electricity power set

Yes on AM. I am not aware of any +5 or +25 for electric AM. Just usual max damage hand mod.

The calculations didn't change much. Not having one of the iconic innates is about 2.5% reduction in damage. However, since you are using Wired in your loadout, it's better to have Tactical Genius as your one iconic.

Eburst / Egen / Vbott / Electrocute / Wired / Tesla
2h hold triangle then volt spam keeping Ecute / Wired / Tesla
16175 41.5℅
13122 33.3%
15887 39.1%
17070 39.1%
14104 37.6%

Same just using Ecute / Wired always up plus Vbolt 2h clip
13846 35.2℅
14385 37.9%
14167 35.5%

Ecute / Wired / Sw 2h clip rotating SW & VB
14958 37.5%
11883 40.7%
11997 40.5%
14038 44.9%

All were done with only 128 Cr Tactical Genius / 138 SP /9455 Might / 3387 Prec.
Alpha mods only to get affinity bonus.

Hope that helps

Delta brings an interesting idea with his testing that you might want to consider in yours. Instead of using solar flare, why not use a hard throw, such as Dual Wield? It clips in half a second and offers similar weapon dps while allowing you to do your might attacks sooner and more often?

Or, could you use Weapon mastery's DW/ES? It's clip time is about the same as Solar Flare, and although you have lower clipped weapon dps, you would be boosting your AM attacks as you would be guaranteeing a crit that is boosted. Also, I believe WM offers +20% crit magnitude to weapon attacks, so that could help your weapon dps too.

Just some thoughts, but when it comes to testing I'd be curious to see you compare solar flare with DW hard throw and DW/ES

Hey, you figured out the "Within the Eye of the Storm" (I call it this) maneuver. Nice.

The real challenge with Electricity is not sustaining damage on a boss but how to kill adds quickly. Doing the halls in BP was rough because using E-gen alone, you won't always have it off CD.

This is not a new thing at all. I've used this exact same loadout even before AF2 came out.

This is probably the best loadout that Elec has

Thank you for the number. Are they your summary at the end of testing with the crits? I'll post my numbers next week when I have time.