FrancisSmall
01-04-2019, 12:47 AM
Rollet Wilkins is my first second life ever, and I thought it would be fun to methodically investigate the game mechanics while I leveled her up. (Fun because I embrace being a geeky engineer/programmer with a high tolerance for statistics and no life.) Her fist life was as a pure ranger where I found that maxing out on AA elemental arrows was quite effective. Later I stumbled across Strimton's Acid Arrow build (see the original post (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/469213-quot-strimtom-s-acid-arrow-quot-maximum-bow-dps-f2p-new-player-friendly) for details) which was quite similar (but better) than what I had done, and I was interested in seeing how I could improve upon Rollet's previous build while investigating the game.
My intent is not only to verify how all those stats on your character sheet are calculated, but to figure out which stats/ability/skills/feats/whatever are useful and which aren't so that I could become a better player. At least, that's what I tell myself, because I know would be better off playing the game and reading the forums than playing with numbers and reading the programming manual. I just like playing with numbers too much. The investigation is aided by a custom ddo combat log analyzer. The analyzer first generates a copy of the combat log text and is based on (brazenly stolen from) the dclog program written by Florian Stinglmayr (https://github.com/n0la). Why the devs don't provide an option to write out the combat log to a text file is beyond me, and without Florian's code the analyzer wouldn't have been possible. With "easy" access to the combat log text I'm able to customize the program with an unholy alliance of baling wire, C#, and spit that would make any professional programmer cry. Sometimes I'm able to coerce this insane spaghetti monster of pattern matching code and number crunching to provide answers to my questions. Sometimes the answers even make sense. And if you even hesitate to consider if this analyzer might somehow give me an unfair advantage, well consider that I still really, really, really suck at reapers. (Playing and reading the forums is a much better path to learning the game. But the numbers. The numbers. They keep calling me...)
So, onto Korthos Island with Rollet and let's see where it takes us.
[Cue Julio Iglesias' "To All the Mobs I've Killed Before"]
As I said, Rollet is a 2nd life character that I reincarnated all the way down from 30, taking the epic primal and heroic ranger past life buffs. I bought a +7 tome of supreme ability (because somebody has to support the devs), but the Strimton AA build is just fine for F2P. The recommendation for a 2nd life player is to play on Hard with a hireling, but I soon switched to Elite without a hireling. The hireling just got it the way and made it too easy. Seriously, how can I get good numbers if the hireling is killing everything? Rollet is a human, and the two feats I took were:
Point Blank Shot - really good. An extra die within 15 meters (which is almost always) is great at low levels.
Precision - totally worthless, why did I take this? Precision gives you a 5% bonus to hit, rounded down, so you have to get to a +20 to hit before you get even a +1. Bypassing 25% fortification at best is worth 25% of your normal crit damage which is a very small part of your game. It is usually recommended, so what am I missing here? It might prove more useful at higher levels, but at low levels it seems to be a waste of a good feat.
She starts out level 1 equipped with an ember shortbow, pumping out all of 7 dps at the start of her new life. I will calculate a DPS at the start of every level so that we can keep track of how quickly she advances. The calculations are a bit excrucitating, but revealing. First we calculate the dpa (damage per attack), then adjust by attack speed and doubleshot. Initial shot speed (determined after shooting the guild ship's training dummy into strawfetti) is 3 shots in 5 seconds, or 0.6/s.
NOTE: Calculations are transcribed from a spreadsheet and rounded as appropriate, because do you really care if the dps is 6.7362, or is 7 good enough? I thought so. If 2 + 2 sometimes equals 5 later on, rounding is why.
Level 1: 7 dps (ember shortbow)
3.5 - shortbow (d6)
3.5 - +1[W] Point Blank Shot (within 15m)
+2 - ranger past life
= 9 base weapon dpa (damage/attack)
+1 for +10% crit (5% chance of crit, adds x2 damage to reach x3 crit multiplier)
= 10 weapon dpa
+1 fire (ember shortbow)
= 11 total dpa
x 0.6/s (shots per second)
x 1.03% (3% doubleshot from epic past life)
= 7 dps
Later calculations get more complicated - feel free to skip over them when your eyes glaze over.
Korthos Island was pretty much a cakewalk for her - she only died once when I blew an Int save and ran out of ammunition. All those arrows I bought? They were really crossbow bolts. (And that's why we always get Conjure Arrows ASAP.) Cannith Crystal was probably the hardest - but easy with Byron Meatshield (or whatever his name is).
I was able to verify the following:
There is a -4 to hit while moving.
I only get grazing hits when moving (because of the penalty)
Axeband/Spearbane from Cannith Crystal are ridiculously useful. (more on this in a later post)
Later I popped over to my guild airship for the buffs and verified that the 0.25[W] buff is rounded down, making it a pretty wimpy buff. Upgraded to a longbow.
Level 2 (start): 12 dps (+1 longbow)
4.5 - longbow
+1 - +1 enchantment
+0.75 - 0.25[W] guild bonus. d8/4 rounded down = 0,0,0,1,1,1,1,2 which averages to 0.75.
4.5 - PBS
+2 - PL
+1 - STR mod (STR = 8 base + 2 guild + 2 tome = 12)
= 14 dpa
+ 1.4 (10% crit bonus)
+ 0.2 (+2 damage on crits guild bonus x 10%)
= 15 weapon dpa (remember what I told you about rounding?)
(no elemental damage and no longer using ember bow)
x 0.75/s (Rapid shot feat)
x 1.05% (doubleshot: 3% PL, 2% guild bonus)
= 12 dps
The level 2 Ranger class feat is Rapid Shot which increases attack speed from 3 shots/5 seconds to 3 shots/4 seconds. We're doing almost twice the damage compared to level 1. No one big reason, just a lot of little factors adding up.
You can actually get 1 tier of elemental arrow while still level 1 - I was just lazy and took Never-Die-Because-You-Forgot-To-Pick-Up-Arrows-At-The-Store (aka Conjure Arrows). By the end of level 2 you can get 2 levels of elemental arrows. Specializing in a single element (it doesn't have to be acid) maximizes damage. By the end of level 2 with acid arrows and 24 acid spellpower you can see where this character is going. Note that the boost from spellpower is rounded down. (Everything is rounded down - it's apparently a universal conspiracy against the players.) To account for this (because my anal engineering brain has to account for everything) I spent 5 hours creating a specialized spreadsheet that calculates the effect on every possible dieroll for the give spellpower adjusting for the probablity of each die roll. Just kidding. I deduct 0.5 from the calculated amount and call it good enough.
Level 2 (end): 25 dps (+1 longbow + 3d8 acid, 24 spellpower)
= 15 weapon dpa (as previously)
13.5 acid damage
x 1.24 (24 spellpower)
- 0.5 (rough accounting for rounding down)
= 16 elemental dpa
= 32 total dpa
x 0.75/s (Rapid shot feat)
x 1.05% (doubleshot)
= 25 dps
Rollet has doubled the amount of damage she does by the end of level 2 and this time there is a big reason: the 2 tiers of elemental arrows. She completed all the quests on Elite without a hireling - one key is to be sure to wear the correct set of bracers depending on if you're getting slashing or piercing damage.
The sun is shining on Korthos, all the villagers love me, and everyone is buying me free drinks. Why would I ever leave? The numbers. The numbers. They call me to The Harbor...
My intent is not only to verify how all those stats on your character sheet are calculated, but to figure out which stats/ability/skills/feats/whatever are useful and which aren't so that I could become a better player. At least, that's what I tell myself, because I know would be better off playing the game and reading the forums than playing with numbers and reading the programming manual. I just like playing with numbers too much. The investigation is aided by a custom ddo combat log analyzer. The analyzer first generates a copy of the combat log text and is based on (brazenly stolen from) the dclog program written by Florian Stinglmayr (https://github.com/n0la). Why the devs don't provide an option to write out the combat log to a text file is beyond me, and without Florian's code the analyzer wouldn't have been possible. With "easy" access to the combat log text I'm able to customize the program with an unholy alliance of baling wire, C#, and spit that would make any professional programmer cry. Sometimes I'm able to coerce this insane spaghetti monster of pattern matching code and number crunching to provide answers to my questions. Sometimes the answers even make sense. And if you even hesitate to consider if this analyzer might somehow give me an unfair advantage, well consider that I still really, really, really suck at reapers. (Playing and reading the forums is a much better path to learning the game. But the numbers. The numbers. They keep calling me...)
So, onto Korthos Island with Rollet and let's see where it takes us.
[Cue Julio Iglesias' "To All the Mobs I've Killed Before"]
As I said, Rollet is a 2nd life character that I reincarnated all the way down from 30, taking the epic primal and heroic ranger past life buffs. I bought a +7 tome of supreme ability (because somebody has to support the devs), but the Strimton AA build is just fine for F2P. The recommendation for a 2nd life player is to play on Hard with a hireling, but I soon switched to Elite without a hireling. The hireling just got it the way and made it too easy. Seriously, how can I get good numbers if the hireling is killing everything? Rollet is a human, and the two feats I took were:
Point Blank Shot - really good. An extra die within 15 meters (which is almost always) is great at low levels.
Precision - totally worthless, why did I take this? Precision gives you a 5% bonus to hit, rounded down, so you have to get to a +20 to hit before you get even a +1. Bypassing 25% fortification at best is worth 25% of your normal crit damage which is a very small part of your game. It is usually recommended, so what am I missing here? It might prove more useful at higher levels, but at low levels it seems to be a waste of a good feat.
She starts out level 1 equipped with an ember shortbow, pumping out all of 7 dps at the start of her new life. I will calculate a DPS at the start of every level so that we can keep track of how quickly she advances. The calculations are a bit excrucitating, but revealing. First we calculate the dpa (damage per attack), then adjust by attack speed and doubleshot. Initial shot speed (determined after shooting the guild ship's training dummy into strawfetti) is 3 shots in 5 seconds, or 0.6/s.
NOTE: Calculations are transcribed from a spreadsheet and rounded as appropriate, because do you really care if the dps is 6.7362, or is 7 good enough? I thought so. If 2 + 2 sometimes equals 5 later on, rounding is why.
Level 1: 7 dps (ember shortbow)
3.5 - shortbow (d6)
3.5 - +1[W] Point Blank Shot (within 15m)
+2 - ranger past life
= 9 base weapon dpa (damage/attack)
+1 for +10% crit (5% chance of crit, adds x2 damage to reach x3 crit multiplier)
= 10 weapon dpa
+1 fire (ember shortbow)
= 11 total dpa
x 0.6/s (shots per second)
x 1.03% (3% doubleshot from epic past life)
= 7 dps
Later calculations get more complicated - feel free to skip over them when your eyes glaze over.
Korthos Island was pretty much a cakewalk for her - she only died once when I blew an Int save and ran out of ammunition. All those arrows I bought? They were really crossbow bolts. (And that's why we always get Conjure Arrows ASAP.) Cannith Crystal was probably the hardest - but easy with Byron Meatshield (or whatever his name is).
I was able to verify the following:
There is a -4 to hit while moving.
I only get grazing hits when moving (because of the penalty)
Axeband/Spearbane from Cannith Crystal are ridiculously useful. (more on this in a later post)
Later I popped over to my guild airship for the buffs and verified that the 0.25[W] buff is rounded down, making it a pretty wimpy buff. Upgraded to a longbow.
Level 2 (start): 12 dps (+1 longbow)
4.5 - longbow
+1 - +1 enchantment
+0.75 - 0.25[W] guild bonus. d8/4 rounded down = 0,0,0,1,1,1,1,2 which averages to 0.75.
4.5 - PBS
+2 - PL
+1 - STR mod (STR = 8 base + 2 guild + 2 tome = 12)
= 14 dpa
+ 1.4 (10% crit bonus)
+ 0.2 (+2 damage on crits guild bonus x 10%)
= 15 weapon dpa (remember what I told you about rounding?)
(no elemental damage and no longer using ember bow)
x 0.75/s (Rapid shot feat)
x 1.05% (doubleshot: 3% PL, 2% guild bonus)
= 12 dps
The level 2 Ranger class feat is Rapid Shot which increases attack speed from 3 shots/5 seconds to 3 shots/4 seconds. We're doing almost twice the damage compared to level 1. No one big reason, just a lot of little factors adding up.
You can actually get 1 tier of elemental arrow while still level 1 - I was just lazy and took Never-Die-Because-You-Forgot-To-Pick-Up-Arrows-At-The-Store (aka Conjure Arrows). By the end of level 2 you can get 2 levels of elemental arrows. Specializing in a single element (it doesn't have to be acid) maximizes damage. By the end of level 2 with acid arrows and 24 acid spellpower you can see where this character is going. Note that the boost from spellpower is rounded down. (Everything is rounded down - it's apparently a universal conspiracy against the players.) To account for this (because my anal engineering brain has to account for everything) I spent 5 hours creating a specialized spreadsheet that calculates the effect on every possible dieroll for the give spellpower adjusting for the probablity of each die roll. Just kidding. I deduct 0.5 from the calculated amount and call it good enough.
Level 2 (end): 25 dps (+1 longbow + 3d8 acid, 24 spellpower)
= 15 weapon dpa (as previously)
13.5 acid damage
x 1.24 (24 spellpower)
- 0.5 (rough accounting for rounding down)
= 16 elemental dpa
= 32 total dpa
x 0.75/s (Rapid shot feat)
x 1.05% (doubleshot)
= 25 dps
Rollet has doubled the amount of damage she does by the end of level 2 and this time there is a big reason: the 2 tiers of elemental arrows. She completed all the quests on Elite without a hireling - one key is to be sure to wear the correct set of bracers depending on if you're getting slashing or piercing damage.
The sun is shining on Korthos, all the villagers love me, and everyone is buying me free drinks. Why would I ever leave? The numbers. The numbers. They call me to The Harbor...