Quote (Smit @ Fri, May 30 2008, 02:28am)
Sorry but the bit about you saying Luck, health or Thorns being superior to Armour made me piss myself laughing, Armour dye is the ONLY option for a Mm unless ofc you need the attributes a black knight gives. Every Mm I have seen and inspected has armour on items or armour value increase, but then, going by the rest of what you say, you are unique and must have an aura round you to protect you but if you dont have armour, fancy some PvP sometime? Rofl
Overall I found it a good guide and very informative, very useful for first timers and gives an idea as to what items to aim for. Of course you dont have to use twin Hu's, some people prefer the ignite from Lee's or phase/shock from Nikola's, thats down to personal preference.
Another thing you should aim for when buying or farming items is Hp bonus %, EVERY char needs this and it's even been known for people to sacrifice Mav's, TPJ and Sue's for something with Armour and Hp bonus.
I didn't read all your guide but what I did read seemed nice but did you mention Duellists Duellos has a hidden 3% crit chance?
Overall nice guide, hope you have other chars and have considered writing guides for those too? I sure dont have the patience
Ignite is not nearly as effective as raw damage, since the formula to ignite someone looks like this: Modifier = Ignite attack strength / (Ignite attack strength Ignite Defense). Ignite defense is of course the targets ignite defense, and the modifier value you get should be multiplied by 100 to get a % chance vs same level mobs, to ignite them. Knowing a monsters ignite defense value is impossible unless you violate the EULA and break down the code into readable format, but I guess sometimes we'll see a list. What you can tell from this formula is that 100, 200 or 300 ignite attack makes little difference vs what you could assume is normal monsters. As for, say moloch, who can after thorough testing be assumed to have an ignite defense of around 200.000, (as well as a damage reduction from ignite, also, moloch is 5 lvls higher, this is if we can assume the diminishing returns is the same as with armor value's effectiveness. If there's a buffer similar to that of armor, his ignite defense is a *LOT* higher, buffer will be explained in the next version of this guide), lets have a look at some numbers.
Against a monster with 500 ignite defense.
100 attack strength = ~17%
200 attack strength = ~28%
300 attack strength = ~37,5%
400 attack strength = ~44%
500 attack strength = ~50%
600 attack strength = ~54%
700 attack strength = ~58%
800 attack strength = ~61%
900 attack strength = ~64%
1000 attack strength = ~66%
1500 attack strength = ~75%
Against a monster with 5.000 ignite defense.
100 attack strength = ~2%
200 attack strength = ~4%
300 attack strength = ~6%
400 attack strength = ~7,5%
500 attack strength = ~9%
600 attack strength = ~10,5%
700 attack strength = ~12%
800 attack strength = ~13,5%
900 attack strength = ~15%
1000 attack strength = ~16,5%
1500 attack strength = ~23%
The value calculated by this formula is the ignite attack chance modifier value. If we assume the base value is 100, multiplied by this (would work like other formulas in that case, like evasion, so thats a rather safe assumption), and there are no other modifiers. I know there are other modifiers tho, such as a damage normalisation, helping slower attacks to ignite more often with the same ignite strength, etc. We assume this is the standard damage weapon though. As you can see, the effect of getting more ignite attack strength rapidly diminishes against targets with low defense against ignite, and I think we can safely assume most monsters don't have a defense against ignite counted in 10's of thousands. If we look at boss monsters, and other targets with very high defense against ignite, the increase in efficiency is a lot more linear, and ignite suddenly looks a lot more appealing. For pure trash killing, however, ignite will always be vastly inferior to raw damage, since ignite needs time to work its wonders. Time is not something you want to spend more then neccesary on killing regular mobs. A comparison with lee's, ignite modded and critmodded.
Base crit chance 25%, 900% critical damage.
Target has 5.000 hitpoints.
Lee 1 modded for ~1250 ignite, we assume it's always igniting our target.
Lee 2 modded with 9% extra critchance, 270% extra crit dmg.
Ignite causes the target to take 5% (250) damage each second.
Lee 1:
Average damage: 17
Average critical damage: 170
Average hit: 55,25
DPS: 552,5+250 ignite = 802,5
Lee 2:
Average damage: 17
Average critical damage: 216
Average hit: 84,6
DPS: 846
Well, as you see, the dps with a lee's modded for ignite will be worse. Also, this ofcourse assumes that target will always be ignited, that is not how it works. Even if targets are ignited 75% of the time, that means a huge plunge in dps, compared to the max potential dps. If a target isn't ignited before it dies, it means your fancy mods did nothing this time. Modding for critical hits and damage offers a lot higher consistency in damage. Ignite is only effective vs high hp mobs, and even then it's going to be far more efficient to mod your weapon vs caste. In the following example, moloch has 100.000 health, but takes only 2,5% ignite damage per tick. You'll have roughly 0,5% chance to ignite him with 1250 ignite attack strength, placing an ignite every 20 seconds, lasting for 5 seconds. It's active 25% of the time.
Ignite damage, 2500 per tick = ignite dps 625
The demon modded lee has 3x100% multiplier fuels, 3x200% critdmg vs demons relics
Ignite lee:
DPS = 552,5+625 ignite = 1177,5
Demon lee:
average critical damage: 272
DPS = 2720
Not to mention, with multishot the DPS of the demon modded lee will be tripled, the ignite will not have its effect tripled. It's fairly safe to say its easier and cheaper to mod against caste, lower will feed of mods, lower cost, etc. Don't go for fancy burn, kill the guy instead. Hus offer a very good base for doing that, so when not caste-modding, hu's are far superior, as I will show in detail in the next version. Basically, it's dualwielding lee's.
Also, yes, I'm going to explain just why hp% is so good in the next version, it's all about feed costs. However, this guide is not meant to build a tank MM, but to gain maximum dps, for an intense character where no mistakes are allowed, but if you play your cards right you will deal insane ammounts of damage at a safe distance. Also, I'd never sacrafice mav for hp%, ever. The reason is evasion, that offers a chance to completely avoid incoming damage. Evasion mechanics will be fully explained in the next version of the guide, I feel it's in place since this is a hunter only stat. Personally I'm lucky enough to have a mav with both AA and 14% hp increase. Next step is AA and +1 mm skills ^^
And yes, duellos have a hidden 3% crit, there are other hidden stats in the game to, like maverick giving 7% movement speed bonus, balbis ring draining your power, and probably many more. Just be observant, check your stat screen when you equip a new piece of gear, and you might find out something valuable
Also, no, I mainly play marksmen, I do have an engineer to though
Not planning on writing any other guides
This post was edited by Blodulf on May 30 2008 03:14am