Its been quite a while since a discussion of weapon speed/spread has been at the top of forum and since that time we've had the change in spell crits. So my 2cp on the issue, hopefully to illuminate and foster discussion. Weapon Speed The primary reason weapon speed is important is that on average slower weapons are less affected by delay. Delay is the time a ready to hit weapon is waiting for spells, combat arts, stuns etc to finish so that the weapon can actually hit. Bards are more affected by delay than other scouts due to our hybrid status utilizing spells (long casts) and combat arts. Simplified Example using a .5 second delay: Delay a 2 second weapon with a .5 second delay and its potential damage is reduced by approximately 20% Delay a 4 second weapon with a .5 second delay and its potential damage is reduced by approximately 11% Delay a 5 second swing by a .5 second delay and its potential damage is reduced by approximately 9% The effect from fully hasting and dual wielding changes a 4 second weapon into a 2.4 second weapon and a 2 second weapon into a 1.2 second weapon and increases the delay penalty Delay a 2.4 second weapon with a .5 second delay and its potential damage is reduced by approximately 17% Delay a 1.2 second weapon with a .5 second delay and its potential damage is reduced by approximately 30% Thus the general rule: slower weapons > faster weapons Damage Spread Damage spread (the ratio of maximum over minimum hit) is important because of the critical hit formula for weapons. The formula for a Crit is the crit factor x the normal damage or the maximum damage of the weapon plus 1 whichever is greater. Weapons with larger damage spreads give bigger critical hits as follows: Average Critical Hit % CRIT FACTOR Spread 1.3 1.4 3 59% 64% 4 69% 73% 5 75% 80% 6 79% 84% Note how increasing the crit factor by 10 results in a relatively small change in the average critical hit. Note that our mythical has a 5.6 damage spread but will have a much lower average critical percentage due to the proc causing approximately half of our swings to be at maximum damage not only for the mythical but for the offhand weapon. Duubard
Looks right so far to me unless I missed something. Now with Weapon DR calculation! : Critical Damage and You ... A guide to critical damage. The only aspects I have seen changed since january 2008 is the introduction of the "crit bonus" item attribute and, in GU50, the combat art crit formula ONLY ON PVE servers were changed to utilize the max+1 as the minimum CA crit damage. However, I am not for sure on one item since I do not have any items equipped with the crit bonus attribute. Does the crit bonus attribute add directly to the default 1.3 crit multiplier?
Thats my understanding, that a 10 will change the bonus from 1.3 to 1.4. The reason for the example is our shadow line AA courtesy of Everquest Wiki Dextrous SonataRank (*/1) Bard 1 point Requires 10 points spent in Bard tree A song which buffs the group's ability to do additional critical damage(?) from spells, heals, combat arts and weapon attacks. TargetGroup (AE) Casting1 second Recast2 seconds DurationUntil Cancelled RangeUp to 50.0 meters Effects: Improves Melee Crit Bonus of group members (AE) by 10.0% Improves Range Crit Bonus of group members (AE) by 10.0% Improves the critical multiplier of spells, combat arts and abilities by 10% Duubard
Oh yeah!! I forgot about that Sonata buff. Bah, it's just one of those 30 or so buffs i click. LOL!! (yes, i'm exaggerating a bit here, hehe). Very good, Thank ya.
