Repeating Xbow attack speed - broken?

[AtomicMew]

Excuse me if this is common knowledge in arti circles, but according to a bit of testing on the training dummy, attack speed boosts don't seem to do anything at all. Is this wrong? WAI?

Here are some results I pulled with a stopwatch:

level 20: 16 BAB
No boosts: 26 volleys/42 s = .619
Abbot quiver: 26 volleys/42 s = .619
armor of speed boost: 25/40 s = .625
armor or speed + haste boost 30%: 13/20 s = .65

Keeping in mind 1-2 sec human error, these numbers are almost the same. Armor of speed + haste boost should be 22% + 35% = 57% faster according to the game log, but it seems at best 5% faster (if at all considering measurement error).


edit: here are some numbers for bow:

No boosts: 40 attacks/41 s = .976
Speed: 40 attacks/37 s = 1.08
speed + haste boost: 25/20 s = 1.25

The difference for bow is obvious and beyond the margin of error.

[Stillwaters]

good to know, might have to start some tests of my own, been away for 6 mths and had a feeling my repeater wasnt firing properly.

[voodoogroves]

Someone has some more extensive tests out there. However, some things to understand a bit when it comes to ranged weapons, and repeaters.


Unlike swinging a melee weapon, the ranged weapons have two distinct animations. One is a "load" and one is a "fire". Different feats, abilities, etc. affect different parts of the animation. Haste and attack speed boosts only affect the attack animation, and then only the part that is sped up by the animation. They do not affect (say) the reload animation.

Someone somewhere has a chart that shows the feats, etc. and how it affects repeater fire rates. I'll see if I can find the link.

[AtomicMew]

Perhaps you're thinking about this thread? http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=354448

Monkey archer concluded a 6% increase due to armor of speed. That's well within a margin of error of my tests. However, assuming a linear trend that's equivalent to a 9% (15% total) increase with haste boost, and I'm fairly certain I did not observe that during my testing.

Even if it did increase 9% and I just missed it, that indicates that haste boost is NOT worth using on an artificer as the activation time totally negates the attack speed benefit over 20s because it's so small, which is much different than melee and probably bow users (at least for manyshot).

[voodoogroves]

Perhaps you're thinking about this thread? http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=354448

That's one I recall, but I also remember seeing someone do some graphs. My google-fu is weak though, and I can't seem to dredge it up.

Monkey archer concluded a 6% increase due to armor of speed. That's well within a margin of error of my tests. However, assuming a linear trend that's equivalent to a 9% (15% total) increase with haste boost, and I'm fairly certain I did not observe that during my testing.

Even if it did increase 9% and I just missed it, that indicates that haste boost is NOT worth using on an artificer as the activation time totally negates the attack speed benefit over 20s because it's so small, which is much different than melee and probably bow users (at least for manyshot).

I'd be leary about any attack-speed-increasing abilities and their usefulness on a repeater. One of the big benefits to repeaters (and they see this early) is an already good rate of fire.