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Is Ioun Stone really that useful?
sternerr
Member Posts: 88 Arc User
So with all those crazy pricecuts of the recent I got myself an Ioun Stone for an alt and basically I'm having buyer's regrets. Of course it will make getting into dungeons easier on levelcap, but I just calculated what my lvl 30 phoera on my GF 13K GS main does. For the sake of simplicity let it be attacks vs single elite mob.
Say I use Frontline Surge, Bull Charge and Enforced Threat. Frontline Surge average damage is 3500 with cooldown of 16.5s, Bull Charge average damage is 4100 with cooldown of 10s and Enforced Threat average damage is 2300 with cooldown of 12s. I'll derive that to tabletop round of 12s, and that will give 12/16.5*3500 = 2545 damage per round for FS, 12/10*4100 = 4920 for BC, and ET gives the same 2300 damage. Plus after doing those encounter powers I can still do my 12 at-will attacks per round each dealing 1050 damage on average. Also every 4 rounds I can do a daily attack for 5000 damage giving me 1250 damage per round. So each round I deal raw damage of 23600.
Now my phoera does 1 aoe attack for 650 each round, 6 single target attacks for 350, and 12 aoe attacks for 90 damage. Therefore each round it deals 3830 damage which is 16% of my damage.
Also consider 3 important things. With non-augmentive companion I am able to consistently get combat advantage which gives me another 10% boost. Total bonus from companion is 26% now. Also note that my GF is specced for power to make module grind easier. When I was specced for tanking my damage was like 2/3 of what I have now. Also phoera itself can be stacked for crit. Therefore overall bonus damage from companion can exceed 30% easily in certain situations.
Now take Ioun Stone. It gives 450 GS from stone itself, 3*300 from items, 450 from 3 rank 6 enchantments on items and 450 from runestones, for a total 2250 GS bonus. If you put those 2250 into crit chance, it will give you 15% crit chance bonus according to this:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/3dqpvhuavj
And 15% crit chance with 75% crit severity will give you 15*0.75 = 11.75% boost to your overall damage output, which is comparable to 10% combat advantage that even white Spellsword can give you. ArP looks better on paper, but for non-bosses it caps on 12% as far as I know. I'd say only switch to Ioun Stone if you don't have any others at least green companions or when your companion is guaranteed to get killed, aka boss battles with lots of adds.
Say I use Frontline Surge, Bull Charge and Enforced Threat. Frontline Surge average damage is 3500 with cooldown of 16.5s, Bull Charge average damage is 4100 with cooldown of 10s and Enforced Threat average damage is 2300 with cooldown of 12s. I'll derive that to tabletop round of 12s, and that will give 12/16.5*3500 = 2545 damage per round for FS, 12/10*4100 = 4920 for BC, and ET gives the same 2300 damage. Plus after doing those encounter powers I can still do my 12 at-will attacks per round each dealing 1050 damage on average. Also every 4 rounds I can do a daily attack for 5000 damage giving me 1250 damage per round. So each round I deal raw damage of 23600.
Now my phoera does 1 aoe attack for 650 each round, 6 single target attacks for 350, and 12 aoe attacks for 90 damage. Therefore each round it deals 3830 damage which is 16% of my damage.
Also consider 3 important things. With non-augmentive companion I am able to consistently get combat advantage which gives me another 10% boost. Total bonus from companion is 26% now. Also note that my GF is specced for power to make module grind easier. When I was specced for tanking my damage was like 2/3 of what I have now. Also phoera itself can be stacked for crit. Therefore overall bonus damage from companion can exceed 30% easily in certain situations.
Now take Ioun Stone. It gives 450 GS from stone itself, 3*300 from items, 450 from 3 rank 6 enchantments on items and 450 from runestones, for a total 2250 GS bonus. If you put those 2250 into crit chance, it will give you 15% crit chance bonus according to this:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/3dqpvhuavj
And 15% crit chance with 75% crit severity will give you 15*0.75 = 11.75% boost to your overall damage output, which is comparable to 10% combat advantage that even white Spellsword can give you. ArP looks better on paper, but for non-bosses it caps on 12% as far as I know. I'd say only switch to Ioun Stone if you don't have any others at least green companions or when your companion is guaranteed to get killed, aka boss battles with lots of adds.
Post edited by sternerr on
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Long answer: Hell yes.
Figure at minimum on high end gear 3 level 7 enchants (555 stats) 3 level 7 Runes (555 stats), & 3 pieces of purple gear, heck of a stat bonus for a pet. Also the slow chance isn't too bad either for the passive.
The Ioun Stone does not change your GS. The stat boosts are impressive, and can make a significant contribution to your over-all power, but none of those bonuses translate into an increase gear score.
The value of the Stone is the ability to fill in holes in your stats, buff a stat that you are lacking, or to max out a stat that you consider worth stacking as high as you can. For my HR I use my Stone to increase my Recovery, Life Steal and Deflect. On my CW I went the Armor Pen route, with a smattering of +recovery to hit my 3000 mark.
One note: Do NOT put +HP items on the stone, HP on a Stone does not increase your HP, and the Stone does not need additional HP either.
Augment pets grant 3k+ stats. Non-augment pets die/aggro addl mobs/steal heals (both aoe, proc'd and targetted if they jump in the way). In return they offer minimal dmg/buffs/debuffs. They have been made desirable in mod 2 due to their passive buff they provide for being in an "active" slot (5 active slots, not active as in summoned) and while some ai changes have been made (some for the worst) they are still best used only for their passive buff.
this was recently changed in a patch and you do get HP from augment companions now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMsTDHM2Wwo
Obviously the recommended GS in enough to beat the dungeons, the problem is not having straight hands.
I use the stone when I am in dungeons with a team. It stops me having to worry about whether my pet is bringing unwanted attention to the group, and also from being distracted worrying about whether I should resummon to get the HP back to full.
When I am doing things like foundries, I use my non augment pets.. and I alternate them for variety. All of them are useful, even the white ones. Combat superiority is nice. I get that from my team in dungeons. Solo, I get it from my pets.
Roland Mac Sheonin GF | Tarron Direheart SW |
The real challenge in dungeons is the fact that all thrash mobs are huge meatshields, players get frustrated and leave after the single wipe at boss, so parties need to deal more damage and clear them faster. And damage gain from 2500 GS is not that big and damage that non-augmenting pets do is not that small as it seems.
Soloing, I will use a non-augment companion 99% of the time.
In Dungeons:
DC, CW and TR (stone)
DC - at boss fights I like to use Panther to knock anything down that may be rushing me.
GWF, HR, GF (optional)
GF - Kiting (Phoera-as the heat damage does super-aggro) w/ Enhanced Mark
GF - Sneaking not necessary areas (Panther, for 50% damage to prone) w/ Trample the Fallen - because he knocks stuff down constantly
HR - Depends on how CWs are doing with adds because I'm an aggro magnet (time to respec Combat is only fun in PVP)... I like using the Hawk and Sprite, otherwise stone
GWF - I will just usually cycle through.
That said, it's still my favorite companion for PVE because I don't have to worry about it getting killed, pulling mobs, getting stuck, etc.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Sort of true.
When you consider how expensive it is to get an artifact fully upgraded (8+ million AD) then the stone is actually a cost effective choice for less wealthy players. In fact a stone is a more cost effective and better targeted choice then getting level 61+ on a single artifact.
Good players can smash content no doubt about it.
That said while there isn't an enrage per say some fights do have things in them that make the last phases harder to get past. For an example look at the first boss of karru. When the boss gets low a big fire giant add spawns. This is where a lot of teams wipe in my experience. Having that little bit extra lets the people on the boss kill faster to help the add guys, it lets the add guys kill faster to stay alive, or helps them mitigate hits.
That said I think most of us would welcome a more dangerous main boss that has multiple attacks and an enrage timer.
Not sure where you get the notion that Deflection is for PvP only or that it's in any way a detriment. "Outright harmful in dungeons?" What? Besides, if that damage could be dodged 100% of the time, no one would bother with defense or HP, either. Even the most attentive player is going to eat a big hit every now and then.
As for the phoera example, you have to consider how long it takes that phoera to cycle through all of its abilities. Companions attack slowly and generally have long cooldowns on their best encounters and procs. Their damage is pretty insignificant.
Augment companions are definitely the most cost-effective way to optimize your character's stats. If you really enjoy having a summoned pet fight with you, there's nothing wrong with playing that way (as long as you remember to stash it when running dungeons :P). One reason I prefer augment pets, aside from the min/maxing aspect, is that I prefer to control mob positioning and overall combat flow myself, and it annoys me when mobs break away to target companions or when a companion pulls mobs that didn't need to be touched.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
They are much cheaper than artifacts though, and they grant nearly 3x as much stats as artifacts, and as long as you equip/slot them appropriately you're still gaining increases from those stats.
besides, what else are you going to do? it's not like you're going to use an active companion instead of an augment in a dungeon. So the choice is augment or nothing.