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Lance of Faith vs. Sacred Flame
tdwalker
Member Posts: 13 Arc User
I'm a newb, let's start there. Leveling first character, 22 right now.
Why Sacred Flame > Lance of Faith?
Is it just the heal? Do you sacrifice damage for the heal?
Why Sacred Flame > Lance of Faith?
Is it just the heal? Do you sacrifice damage for the heal?
Post edited by tdwalker on
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If you just want bigger numbers Lance of faith is alright. It's good for very short fights.
I want this class in NW.
- has high synergy with Astral Seal, your true healing At-Will.
- gives more Divinity than Lance of Faith, especially the third strike.
Lance of Faith:
- slightly higher damage per strike, especially the third strike.
- gives more AP than Sacred Flame.
Sacred Flame has a slightly faster casting animation so a higher overall dps. But Lance is better for burst damage. Thus, Lance tends to be used more often in PvP.
The above excludes additional bonuses from feats.
I want this class in NW.
Actually this is not correct. Both give about 1.25% AP for each of the first two hits, but on the third, Sacred Flame gives 2.5% while Lance of Faith only gives 2%.
So for a full cycle:
Lance of Faith: 4.5% AP
Sacred Flame: 5% AP
The reason your tests are showing faulty data may be because Lance of Faith's third hit must be cast after the second hit. I believe this has something to do with how holding down your mouse button will actually speed up Lance of Faith's third attack. With Sacred Flame it is possible to pause at most one second in-between attacks, and still manage to complete an attack chain. Lance of Faith is not as forgiving - Lance almost always resets if you try to pause or move before completing the chain.
Before (27.2% AP Gain)
Lance of Faith: 1.21815, 1.21815, 2.0303
Astral Seal: 2
Sacred Flame: 1.25, 1.25, 2
Brand of the Sun: 1.6242
Today (28.1% AP Gain)
Lance of Faith: 1.22945, 1.22945, 1.91896
Astral Seal: 2.0491
Sacred Flame: 1.2945, 1.2945, 1.4345
Brand of the Sun: 1.6392
From today's data, we can extrapolate the base AP gain for the abilities.
Lance of Faith: 0.96, 0.96, 1.5 = 3.42
Astral Seal: 1.6
Sacred Flame: 0.96, 0.96, 1.12 = 3.04
Brand of the Sun: 1.28
So no, my tests are not showing faulty data. It's the raw AP value from the game. Not the round-off percentage you get from the tooltip when you mouseover the AP meter.
Also, from repeated tests of 10 full 3-hit casts using a stopwatch (meaning a small error %).
Lance of Faith (3 hits): 2.7 seconds
Astral Seal: 1.17 seconds
Sacred Flame (3 hits): 2.45 seconds
Brand of the Sun: 0.98 seconds
Summing it up, the base AP gain per second is:
Lance of Faith (3 hits): 1.27
Astral Seal: 1.367
Sacred Flame (3 hits): 1.24
Brand of the Sun: 1.306
And there you have it. Astral Seal is the best At-Will to spam for AP gain. Lance of Faith is calculated in my tests as 2.4% faster than Sacred Flame, but my stopwatch tests probably have around a 5% margin of error. Latency may also cause a margin of error. So practically, Lance of Faith and Sacred Flame are equal in terms of AP again.
If you want to accurately test AP gain, use the following command to add the actual number to the top left of your screen listed as "Power" measured in 1000 units:
/GenAddWindow Playerstatus_Info
To remove the window:
/GenRemoveWindow Playerstatus_Info
As for the sequence of the hits, I tested by first doing a series of individual hits separated by pauses while I recorded the AP. After establishing the AP from individual hits was consistent, I did a series of 3 hit sequences without releasing the mouse, followed by pauses while I recorded the data. I subtracted twice the single-hit value, and assumed the slightly larger difference was the AP gain from the third hit.
Knowing this, why would you so easily dismiss that small AP advantage from Lance of Faith? Especially when you factor in the increased AP gain bonus from features like Holy Fervor. Even if takes 3 full castings for Lance of Faith to give me ~1-2 more AP than 3 full castings of Sacred Flame, then that's enough.
Reducing the overall gain to AP gain/second also skews the findings somewhat since generally clerics will not be standing still especially in the battles that matter. The way it works usually is that each time a window of opportunity arises, you try do a full Sacred Flame/Lance of Faith combo. The perhaps another. And then you have to cast your encounters/heal someone/move around again and wait for another window of opportunity. That .3 second advantage for casting a full Sacred Flame only becomes a major factor if we're standing still DPSing, as then it really starts to accumulate.
Spamming Astral Seal/Brand of the Sun repeatedly on the same target/s is impractical for obvious reasons.
I don't know how you got your data before this patch but Lance of Faith has always given me more AP than Sacred Flame.