Hi,
Awhile ago, I posted about some tests I had done w.r.t. blades versus cd spec. These tests seemed to confirm the hypothesis that higher blades spec (above 50ish combined) didn't benefit CD style damage to a noticable degree. I
concluded that Wyrd specs seemed like a good choice, but some replies pointed out that the "whole point" of a high blades spec is to use the blades styles instead.
So now I have run some tests of the blades styles vs. cd styles. All of my tests have been done with a 6L7 ranger on pendragon, with 1 pathfinding spec always, and buffed only with CL str, con, and str/con. She has +15 CD and +16
Blades from items and ranks. All gear was in top condition, and testing consisted of hitting the dummy mob "Slash" outside of TNN. As with my previous tests, I do not include crits, procs, or offhand hits, and there is no damage
add to factor out.
To start off, I tested several Blades and CD styles with a probably unrealistic 50 Blades, 50 CD spec.
Raw Results. (50 Blades; 50 CD)
Auroric Blade 157.9
Brilliant Blade: 177.8
Dancing Blade: 158.1
Evenerating Blade: 85.3
Fire Blade: 115.6
Gale: 151.9
Glowing Blade: 135.2
Horizon Blade: 151.6
Hurricane: 117.8
Ice Storm: 135.3
Meteor Shower: 159.3
Prismatic Blade: 160.3
Revenging Blade: 137.7
Snow Shower: 136.7
Solar Flare: 147.2
Spectrum Blade: 147.0
Squall: 126.1
Supernova: 168.5
Taunting Blade: 132.0
Tempest: 160.8
Thunderstorm: 153.0
Tornado: 159.6
Twin Star: 158.1
Analysis.
My motivation for these tests was to help answer the question, "how high should I spec my Blades?"
I'll start with the anytime styles. A high-blades ranger would probably want to use the ASD chain once, then switch to taunting blade for sustained damage with good end usage. Squall is somewhat worse. There is probably no reason to ever use hurricane, solar flare, or envenerating blade. The ASD might be motivation to go at least 39 blades.
1. Squall (CD 6) *TAUNT*
126.1 Avg Dmg
- Defense Penalty
+ Low End Usage
2. Taunting Blade (Blades 6) *TAUNT*
132.0 Avg Dmg,
- Defense Penalty
+ Low End Usage
3. Enervating Blade (Blades 8) *DETAUNT*
85.3 Avg Dmg
+ Defense Bonus
4. Hurricane, Solar Flare Chain (CD 21,39) *NONE*, *NONE*
(117.8 + 147.2)/2 = 132.5 Avg Dmg
- High End Usage
5. Fire Blade, Spectrim Blade Chain (Blades 18, 39) *NONE*, *ASD*
(115.6 + 147.0)/2 = 131.3 Avg Dmg
- High End Usage
+ ASD
Next lets look at side chains. The 50-CD chain is a quite damaging, is three deep, and includes an ASD and a bleed. But even without going 50 CD, you could mix the chains, e.g., start with ice storm and tempest, then go to glowing
blade (which I can do before the stun wears off in practice) so you can get an ASD on the followup. I think this category is a wash: wyrd specs and high blades spec both have similar power.
1. Ice Storm, Tempest, Supernova (CD 18, 29, 50) *STUN*, *7PT BLEED*, *ASD*
(135.3 + 160.8 + 168.5)/3 = 154.9 Avg Dmg
+ 4s Stun
+ 7PT Bleed
+ ASD
2. Glowing Blade, Auroric Blade (Blades 10, 15) *SNARE*, *ASD*
(135.2 + 157.9)/2 = 146.5 Avg Dmg
+ Snare (broken by followup)
+ ASD
Next is rear chains. If something is running away, you probably just want to spam Snow Shower for the snare, but the followups in CD are more damaging. If I were going to use a followup in CD, I'd pick Gale for the bleed. After all,
if something is running I probably don't need a defense bonus. On the other hand, the blades chain is very damaging and does have a snare on the second style, but you'd have to go 50 blades to get it. If you do go 50 blades, it's
probably worth using for the big damage, but this alone isn't probably a very compelling reason to go all the way to 50 blades.
1. Snow Shower, Gale (CD 8, 10) *SNARE*, *5PT BLEED*
(136.7 + 151.9)/2 = 144.3 Avg Dmg
+ Snare (broken by followup)
+ 5PT Bleed
2. Snow Shower, Thunderstorm (CD 8, 15) *SNARE*, *DETAUNT*
(136.7 + 153.0)/2 = 144.8 Avg Dmg
+ Snare (broken by followup)
+ Defense Bonus
3. Revenging Blade, Brilliant Blade (Blades 34, 50) *NONE*, *SNARE*
(137.7 + 177.8)/2 = 157.8 Avg Dmg
+ Snare (on 2nd style)
Finally, I tested some counter-evades. These took awhile to harvest, and if you want to repeat the test, be sure to detaunt for the defense bonus. The damage on each chain is similar, but the blades chain has that nice stun in the
opening which could let you switch to a side chain, etc. The bleed comes earlier in the blades chain, but the 44 style is rather unremarkable other than extending a single evade to three high-damage rounds.
1. Tornado, Meteor Shower, Twin Star (CD 25,34,44) *SNARE*, *NONE*, *9PT BLEED*
(159.6 + 159.3 + 158.1)/3 = 159.0 Avg Dmg
+ Snare (broken by followups)
+ 9pt bleed (on full chain)
2. Horizon, Dancing, Prismatic Blade (Blades 21,29,44) *STUN*, *8PT BLEED*, *NONE*
(151.6 + 158.1 + 160.3)/3 = 156.6 Avg Dmg
+ 4s Stun
+ 8pt bleed (on 2nd style)
My Conclusions.
As far as the high end of each line is concerned:
50 Blades brilliant blade is very damaging but probably not necessary
44 Blades prismatic blade is good but not particularly useful
39 Blades spectrum blade has that nice ASD in the anytime chain
34 Blades revenging blade is probably only useful with 50 blades
29 Blades dancing blade is a good followup for the Blades evade chain
50 CD supernova is good but unnecessary with the blades side-ASD
44 CD twin star is good but not particularly useful
39 CD solar flare is useless and shouldn't even be on your hotbar
34 CD meteor shower is good if you are going to use the CD evade chain
29 CD tempest is pretty damaging and you probably want it
In short, I don't see any particularly compelling styles above 39 blades or 29 CD. So, that leaves me with three thoughts for specs. I thought it would be interesting to see how much the damage dropped by losing the spec points. I respecced to 39 Blades, 29 CD and redid the tests on the potentially useful styles.
Raw Results. (39 Blades; 29 CD)
Blades Styles
Auroric Blade: 141.9 (-10.1%)
Dancing Blade: 156.4 (- 1.1%)
Fire Blade: 115.0 (- 0.5%)
Glowing Blade: 129.4 (- 4.9%)
Horizon Blade: 145.6 (- 4.0%)
Revenging Blade: 137.0 (- 0.5%)
Spectrum Blade: 135.8 (- 7.6%)
Taunting Blade: 122.3 (- 7.3%)
Average: (- 4.5%)
CD Styles
Gale: 136.5 (-10.1%)
Ice Storm: 125.3 (- 7.4%)
Snow Shower: 125.0 (- 8.5%)
Squall: 111.4 (-11.7%)
Tempest: 133.6 (-16.9%)
Average: (-10.92%)
So, on average, 39 Blades only did about 4.5% less mainhand damage than 50 Blades, while 29 CD did about 11% less mainhand damage than 50 CD. I think this is enough to convince me not to go past 39 blades, since future levels are
so expensive and the styles are probably not very necessary.
11% off CD styles might not be as bad as it sounds, too -- the only ones you would use are Snow Shower, Ice Storm, and Tempest (Revenging blade replaces gale as a followup for snow shower.) I should perhaps test out 35-40 CD to see
how much of the difference is made up, but I am too lazy for that right now.
Maybe you have other thoughts.
Thanks.
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Adroria Motherhen (Ranger; Hib/Gareth) Lawa EpicBattleDruid (Druid; Hib/Gareth) <Angry Zergin Noobsters>
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