Guide for understanding weapons?

Discussion in 'Tanks' started by IblisTheMage, May 8, 2019.

  1. IblisTheMage Augur

    After 19 years I am PLing my first tank, soon to be let loose on the world :).

    The question is: how do I learn about weapon ratios and damage bonus’ effect on dps?

    I am likely to end up with a 1H Slash + Shield for a long time, but with the Shamans Feralisata being used a lot in my group, and the 1H Blunt discipline available to SK, I wanted to understand how ratios and damage bonuses work.

    The highest ratio 1H Blunt I could find was Darkened Ebony Mace, from Old Seb.

    https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=146326 , ratio 8+

    I would assume it is very bad compared to GMM drop, say Spiked Leadership Sword

    https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=146326 , ratio 11+

    But what then with the 15% dam bonus from Feralisata, and the 90% min dam bonus from disc?

    I am assuming I will learn that 1H slash is better, but it would be great with a bit of understanding why this is.

    Is higher ratio always better?
  2. Tucoh Augur

    Generally yes.

    The truth is that there's no definitive guide on a lot of this stuff because the system is so complex and because it's situational.

    Tanks typically want slow weapons so that when we riposte we'll hit harder. That's why Wurmslayer is so great and why we twisted Ngreth's arm to get the delay on the warrior weapon https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=160561 / https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=161161 increased during beta. Still, riposte damage isn't that big of a deal. When I parsed it during normal operation (tanking groups of trash mobs) I had it at 9% of my DPS, and I stack heroic dex in my augs.

    Most proc rates are normalized well enough where I don't believe you get more procs by using slower or faster weapons.

    Melee DPS have to consider the damage impacts of augs (that add a set amount of damage, regardless of delay) and weapon-specific ADPS buffs (like feralisata) that I don't know enough to comment on.




    Right now my warrior is wielding a Secret Dawn Warsword + Darkened Journeyman's Walking Stick. If I was trying harder I'd probably swap my wurmslayer in for the times I don't have Brace for Impact, Pain Doesn't Hurt or Shining Bulwark up for whatever reason. I don't know at what point I'll replace my malo-stick. I might replace it while I run my 3x zerker squad, since I'll be casting much fewer spells.
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  3. Tucoh Augur

    Oh, and the best advice I can give is to parse stuff and post your results. It's the only way to figure this game out.
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  4. Daedly Augur

    Damage bonuses for melee, as I define them, are generally bonuses that "flat damage." Which is to say that it is not affected by the discs and added at the end. So, let's say I add a damage bonus of 100 to a weapon that I normally hit for 10,000 with and crit for 70,000. What I should see is that my new normal hit is 10,100 and my crit is 70,100.

    For minimum damage bonus, I believe it's another flat damage add, however it only makes it so that your lowest damage possible on your hit damage interval is a higher amount. So, let's say I add 100 minimum damage bonus and my lowest hit is 10,000 and highest hit say 30,000. With the 100 minimum damage bonus I would expect to see my lowest hit be 10,100 while my highest hit remains unchanged at 30,000.

    As a far as the shaman debuff, that increases the damage taken by 15% from blunt skills. So, if you wanted to figure out the ratio of a 1hb vs 1hs while that debuff is active, you could multiply the base damage with aug of the 1hb by 1.15 and then use that number to determine your ratio.

    Which I have yet to see a knight 1hb anytime recently. Maybe you could get more damage from a 2hb vs 2hs with the debuff, not sure. Something to think about however, is that the shaman debuff is NPC type restricted, it can be resisted and has fast refresh
    that will have you chain casting it which makes it hard to work I to a multibind. It also won't be skipped on a multibind if the npc is the wrong type.

    I could be wrong on some of this, if I am hopefully I will be corrected.
    Cazmac and IblisTheMage like this.
  5. Kurage_of_Luclin Augur

    The only way to know which weapon combination is to run extensive parses; for the period you expect to burn , with the ADPS you expect to see on raids. Run multiple parses swapping out weapons, augs, weapon types , proc types and ADPS. Max DPS is situational, so you have to learn what works in most cases for your class, and also learn what tweaks are needed per event. Example: in POF the Doom Guardian, resists Summers splash almost every time I cast it. Paying attention to resist messages might mean you swap out weapons with different procs or speed ratio or casting different spells.
    IblisTheMage likes this.