Banestrike rank II vs rank I comparison

I finally got Banestrike rank II last night (slayer achievement). Per the AA window, I should have gone ffrom +2% base damage to +4% base damage modifier, so i ran some parses to see if there is a difference.

4.49 hour parse with Banestrike rank I

4.57 hours parse with Banestrike rank II

Observations:
> Going from Banestrike rank 1 to rank 2 increased Max hit (at least on my Crush weapons and Kicks) by ~0.9%. I did not test spells.
> Banestrike has no effect on Procs
> Banestrike has no effect on Min hit


Conclusion:
Saying that "This passive ability improves the base damage of your melee attacks and the power of your damaging and healing abilities by 4%" is misleading. Maybe saying it improves base damage by UP TO 4% is more realistic, and even that is being generous.

Anyone else have Banestrike parses to share? I am trying to figure out how much I need to prioritize getting Rank 3 and 4.

can't figure out how to paste screen shots. suffice it to say, i had 0% inc to min hit on crushes and kicks and ~0.9% inc to Max crushes and kicks.

Go outside and play. Its nice that banestrike is so inconsequantial it doesn't really matter

Banestrike is busy work to try and get folks to log in and kill. It just doesn't do very much. It could be more, but probably won't be. Now as far as bragging rights go...

I would be more ok with the small increase i'm seeing, if the description was more accurate. Not sure how the 2%, 4%, 7% and 10% are applied. To me, increase to base should affect min hits and also be amplified by crits and such.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/game-update-notes-march-15-2023.289389/

If you are not seeing a 2% increase in base power (which really should translate to a much greater actual increase since the base power should be multiplied by many factors), I'd say it is bugged.

This has been my assessment of Banestrike as applies to damage dealt as well.

I just moved on with my life and am happier for it.

ok. Here is summary of parses showing difference between Banestrike Rk I and II. You can see that min hits (crushes in this case), min kicks and all procs are unaffected by additional ranks of Banestrike. I did not test spells during these parses.

I'd love to show the actual parses, but this is best i can do without first learning how to host websites.

Banestrike Rk I
Total DPS 153695
Min Crush 2039
Max Crush 60962
Min Kick 302
Max Kick 559849
Min Proc 140
Max Proc 110807

Banestrike Rk II % boost
Total DPS 154800 0.72%
Min Crush 2039 0.00%
Max Crush 61509 0.90%
Min Kick 302 0.00%
Max Kick 564842 0.89%
Min Proc 140 0.00%
Max Proc 110807 0.00%

Conclusion? Banestrike benefits are broken.

No, the benefits aren't broken. The description is misleading, but in the same way nearly every other modifier description in all of EQ is misleading.

At a very simplistic level, melee hits have a "flat" damage portion (DB) and a variable damage portion (DI). In formula terms, the simple hit formula is DB + DI. Various AAs that say they add X damage (e.g., 1,000 damage) increase the DB portion, as does the damage bonus on your weapon and the damage from Heroic Strength (1 damage per 10 H-Str). The variable portion is derived from your weapon damage and various rolls. Most % modifiers modify the DI portion but do not modify the DB portion.

If you had no modifiers (from AA, etc.), Banestrike's 2% modifier (SPA 459) will make the formula DB + DI * 102%. However, every melee character is going to have passive Innate Prowess AAs (SPA 185) that provide a modifier that is additive with Banestrike. If you have 100% from Innate Prowess, you are now going from DB + DI * 200% to DB + DI * 202%. Even if DB was 0, that's still only a 1% increase in actual hit values. Further, many buff/activated melee modifiers (Mammoth's Force, War March, many discs/activated AAs) also use SPA 185 or SPA 459, which will also be additive with Banestrike/Innate Prowess. The end result of all of that is there is a 2% modifier being applied to your weapon damage, but there are a lot of other modifiers such that the increase in your hit value is meaningfully less than 2%.

The reason min hits don't change is that they're determined by your minimum hit damage modifier (SPA 186). This modifier sets a floor damage value for hits independently of your SPA 185/459 modifiers, and if your hit as normally calculated falls below that floor, you instead hit for the floor value. The net effect of this is that SPA 185/459 will have no effect on minimum hits unless your 185/459 modifiers are very high (pushing the normally calculated min hits above the floor) or your SPA 186 modifier is very low.

I'm not going to type out everything relating to spells, but suffice to say that the modifier for DDs/DoTs (SPA 528) is similar in that it does provide a 2% multiplier to your spell's base damage, but that multiplier is additive with some other modifiers producing less than a full 2% increase in spell damage. Further, there's a level 250 limit on the AA focus (very common), which prevents it from focusing procs (which are level 255 typically).

I preferred the X amount of damage we could trigger ourselves.

I was hoping they would take the design change and propell it from there. It removed a mindless click, and characters (especially melee) have SOO many abilities they need to constantly and mindlessly spam. Having multiple spam keys that you have to constantly press every second is not fun. There is no challenge to that. There is no skill to constantly mashing buttons (or having software do it for you to all your bots). 6 boxers aren't good players able to manage all their skills. They choose a set of classes that automate well and have software support to manage mindlessly spamming all their abilities.

Reducing spamming actually reduces the edge that 3rd party software gives people.

Thank you Sancus. Your breakdown was extremely useful. Much appreciated

Before they changed it to the current percent bonus there was no click necessary. It simply added banestrike damage to any damage you did every so many seconds.

The current description needs to be fixed and the entire banestrike needs to be examined, as it appears it does almost nothing. Considering the massive time sink to get these, one would hope it actually made a difference.

I think they were refering to the newer version over the original version I prefered.

huh? Original banestrike was a button you had to click. You could add it into a multibind or something, but it was an activated ability

There's nothing wrong with banestrike and it does way more than it used to. This is a silly discussion.

July 18, 2018 Game Update Notes:
- All - Banestrike has been changed to a passive ability that triggers off of melee attacks, ranged attacks, and direct-spell damage. The ability has been changed to not break root.

Exactly my point. It used to be an activatable ability, and now its not, which is very nice. More spammy buttons should be changed to passive.

It's a lot of work to get 4/4 banestrike. It'd be nice if all that effort added up to more than a few percent of damage. I get that it's better than it was but it used to also be pretty easy to max for any given mob type.