Damage over Time

'''2011 Note: The information used in the following calculations is over 6 years old, and--while some of it may still paint a semi-accurate partial picture of the differences between specific weapon skills--the majority of it is obsolete. Many significant changes have been made to nearly every weapon skill in the game since the original post, and as a result the data inputs have changed radically. Rates of fire have changed. Damage ranges have been raised on max damage weapons, and in some cases have also changed for other weapon tiers. Damage bonuses from Strength and Coordination have been verified by numerous sources as having been altered several times, sometimes counter-intuitively or irregularly from one skill to the next, to attempt to further balance skills with skill point and XP investments. Not enough (if any) empirical data exists to compile a completely new and accurate table using present-day values. The formula for overall damage over time, however, remains *basically* the same. The following information remains mostly for the sake of posterity, and because it was--at the time--the most approachable and understandable overall comparison available to the player base.

If you are serious about comparing two or more skill's overall DoT with any degree of accuracy, you should absolutely do it yourself, from scratch, after both thoroughly researching the skills in question and testing with a very high level character(s).

The following information was originally posted by Erudine on the VN boards.

Since I haven't seen this done yet, I decided to take the new maxes of melee and missile weapons and stick em in the DOT formula. Results first, then info on how to compute. This assumes max damage weapon for the type considered, tinkered optimallym and an AR or Resistance Rending imbue.

Damage over time:

We list some of the sub-types of weapons, including naginatas (slashing spears), spiked clubs (piercing maces) and hammers (blunt axes). For Missile Weapons, we use a (P) after the name to indicate using Deadly AP or FC ammunition.

Notice that Sword is still the big winner. So the next interesting thing is the damage each other weapon does as a percent of Sword's damage:

This is some new info. Mace and Axe used to beat Bow and be very close to Sword. This is not true at the high levels anymore. Sword has moved way out in front of everything except Bow with best Ammo. Most 400 weapons don't match a 370 sword. Atlatl damage is very respectable now. Staff and Dagger both slipped a couple of percentage points farther away from everything else. UA and Spear are still very similar.

Details of the calculation:

I used Sol Chen's formula:

DoT = (max dmg)*((1-crit chance)*(2-variance)/2 + (crit chance)*(crit multiplier))*(coord/str mod)*(bow mod)*(rate-of-fire)

max dmg = weapon max+blooddrinker+UA mod

Ua mod = skill/20, considering only true skill, not any Heartseeker or weapon mods

crit chance=0.10 for most weapons, (Base Skill - 100)/600 for CS melee, (Base Skill - 60)/600 for CS missile

crit multiplier=2 for most weapons (some old-school quest weapons had higher), (Base Skill - 40)/60 for melee weapons, (Base Skill)/60 for missile weapons

coord/str mod = 1+(Stat-55)*.008 UA, Bow, Xbow, TW and 1+(Stat-55)*.011 for other weapons. Bow, Xbow and Dagger use Coordination, Thrown Weapons and all other melee weapons use Strength.

Bow mod = (100+bow/xbow/alatl mod)/100

I used these values for the new weapons:

I assumed all weapons were AR/RR imbues, and then had 9 appropriate tinkers added. A good tinkering calculator is here: http://pwp.netcabo.pt/sergioloff/WepTinker.html

Weapon Maxes can be found here: http://www.emerald-order.com/plugins/loottracker_db_weapons.php.

I welcome questions and comments. PM me or say hello if you play on Frostfell.

Sneaky Percy / Erudine the Second