Heavy vs. Arcane damage comparison

Solandri - Heavens Tear

While I wait for PWI support to get back to me about a SNAFU I ran into with the messenger of the sages (next to last paragraph), I decided to update my damage calcs. There was some debate over how much damage a heavy fox build can do, which made me curious since up to this point I've only made comparisons to myself, not to a more typical arcane build.

Weapon: Requiem Blade +5, 2 flawless sapphires
Skills: All Sage, including Melee and Wood Mastery (I'm only missing two of the 99 Sage books)
Buffs: None

Melee mode, best p.atk rings and str gear
Regular p.atk/melee damage: 3794-4730, 4262 avg
Interval: -0.15 (1.54 atk/sec)
Channel: 0%
Regular attack average DPS: 6557

DPS of other attacks, normalized so 6557 is 1.00
0.93 - Fox Wallop
0.83 - Befuddling Mist (small AOE)
1.00 - Stunning Blow (but it costs a spark)
0.62 - Leech
1.43, 1.20 sustained - Single Spark (14.3 sec cycle)
1.65, 1.17 sustained - Double Spark (28.6 sec cycle)
2.08, 1.27 sustained -Sage Spark (42.9 sec cycle)
(Sustained is the average of regular attacks + sparked attacks in the time it takes to build up the chi for the spark. It includes the invulnerability period, which I timed and figured out doesn't count toward the spark duration, but doesn't let you attack either. And it includes 50 chi from Master Li's at a cost of 1 sec of no attacks.)

Caster mode, best m.atk rings and mag gear
magic attack: 4652-5319, 4986 avg
weapon attack: 1091-1255, 1173 avg (weapon + refine + shards + rings)
Channel: 12%

DPS of attacks, normalized so 6557 is 1.00
0.67 - Venomous
0.97 - Ironwood
0.89 - Blazing
1.27 - Frost (but costs a spark)
0.73 - Noxious (AOE)
0.90 - Lucky
0.62 - Parasitic (Missing book so level 10, AOE, 2 sparks)

0.77 - DPS of Ironwood + Lucky + 4xVenomous cycle (13.5 sec cycle time > 12 sec Lucky cooldown)
0.96 - DPS of Ironwood + Lucky + 4xVenomous cycle, single sparked
1.16 - DPS of Ironwood + Lucky + 4xVenomous cycle, double sparked
1.66 - DPS of Ironwood + Lucky + 4xVenomous cycle, sage sparked

Hypothetical pure arcane build
I put my build in pwcalc and the m.atk came within 10, which i considered accurate enough. I reduced my str and dex to the minimum, set vit at 51 (0.5 per level), and put the rest in mag. This raised my mag from 309 to 410. m.atk went to 6064-6934, 6499 avg. For the time being, I left my channeling at 12% (since I didn't swap any equipment).

DPS of attacks, normalized so 6557 is 1.00
0.81 - Venomous
1.10 - Ironwood
1.02 - Blazing
1.40 - Frost (but costs a spark)
0.82 - Noxious (AOE)
1.03 - Lucky
0.70 - Parasitic (Missing book so level 10, AOE, 2 sparks)

0.89 - DPS of Ironwood + Lucky + 4xVenomous cycle (13.5 sec cycle time > Lucky cooldown)
1.00 - DPS of Ironwood + Lucky + 4xVenomous cycle, 29% channel (12 sec cycle time = Lucky cooldown)

So comparing unsparked melee damage to unsparked spell damage, my heavy's melee DPS is the same as an equivalent vit/mag build (4 mag per level) with 29% channeling. Not too shabby IMHO considering how much flexibility I've gained. My true spell DPS is about 86% that of the vit/mag build.

There are a few factors I haven't accounted for:

• Melee can miss. Brael said in his tests the hit% numbers the client shows were wrong, and I haven't tested it myself. So I can't account for hit rate.
• Melee gets a substantially bigger DPS boost from sparks (even though Sage spark favors magic). So these two would tend to cancel out.
• My sword has sapphire shards. If I switched it to garnets, my melee DPS would go up about 5%. The vit/mag build would then need 35% channel to match the melee DPS.
• Sparks. The effect of melee sparks is pretty easy to to calculate. But I don't have any numbers for how much chi the different spells generate.

I also need to verify the spell damage numbers. The melee damage I've noted in-game falls within the ranges I've calculated. I haven't done this yet for spells.

Mayfly - Dreamweaver

Venomous gives 10 chi, ironwood costs 35, blazing gives 20, as does noxious. Frost costs a spark, lucky I'd have to switch alts to test (the one I'm on at the moment is only 43, and lucky's a 49 skill), and parasitic costs 2 sparks. Bramble gives 5. Heal pet gives 8.

King_Solomon - Heavens Tear

The chance to hit % shown on mobs refers to base accuracy+equips without fox form. With accuracy bonuses on gear and/or ambers on magic weapon the final accuracy is ~90%, nearly as good as blademasters with fist build without misty rings.

Havilah - Sanctuary

King_Solomon - Heavens Tear wrote: »

The chance to hit % shown on mobs refers to base accuracy+equips without fox form. With accuracy bonuses on gear and/or ambers on magic weapon the final accuracy is ~90%, nearly as good as blademasters with fist build without misty rings.

Whenever I got fox to melee an increased magic defense mob, I have to press C to show my character screen and it then update my chance to hit in fox, until I press C again when I'm back in caster mode.

Mayfly - Dreamweaver

Finally got around to checking lucky: +15 chi.

Hhlolz - Harshlands

Please stop explaining physical attacks, it makes you look so dumb..

Mystic-Night - Heavens Tear

Ironwood takes 25 chi :P

Mayfly - Dreamweaver

Oops, you're right. I think I was going by memory rather than checking the skill list.