Critical Mêlée
- Everquest2
- By Sixes
- 25 January 2008
I have been trying to work out which is better, a weapon with a
wide range between minimum and maximum damage or one with a narrower
range. The main difference appears to be when a critical hit (a “crit”)
occurs.
It seems that a crit occurring on a combat ability (CA) is
a straight 30% bonus; if you would have hit for 1,000, you will hit for
1,300 so the weapon range is irrelevant. The interesting time is
when you crit on autoattack. Now, the damage dealt is the greater
of a 30% bonus or the max damage plus 1.
I have illustrated this with the tables and graph below. I have selected
two T8 legendary monk items, the Deklium Battering Cudgel and the Star
of Morning’s Glory. If you look at the 50% marker on the chart,
you will see that they have a similar average hit. The tables tell us that
the average hit is 174 for the Cudgel and 160 for the Star.
Now look, though, at the dashed lines. Here you can see that the
Cudgel (the dashed red line) is way above the Star (the dashed blue
line). Why? Because it can never fall below the max hit and the Cudgel’s
max hit is way better.
[To see these tables, please visit the
<a href="”>original guide
on MMORPG Info.]
Deklium Battering Cudgel
Stats. | |
Max Damage: | 70 |
Min Damage: | 278 |
Average Hit: | 174 |
Damage Ratio: | 3.97:1 |
EQ2 Rating: | 87.0 |
Range of Damage Done |
Damage without Crit |
Base Crit Damage |
Actual Crit Damage |
%age Increase with Crit |
0% | 70 | 91 | 279 | 298.6% |
10% | 91 | 118 | 279 | 206.6% |
20% | 112 | 146 | 279 | 149.1% |
30% | 132 | 172 | 279 | 111.4% |
40% | 153 | 199 | 279 | 82.4% |
50% | 174 | 226 | 279 | 60.3% |
60% | 195 | 254 | 279 | 43.1% |
70% | 216 | 281 | 281 | 30.1% |
80% | 236 | 307 | 307 | 30.1% |
90% | 257 | 334 | 334 | 30.0% |
100% | 278 | 361 | 361 | 29.9% |
Average Hit (Assuming normal curve) |
174 | 226 | 294 | 69.0% |
Star of Morning’s Glory
Stats. | |
Max Damage: | 112 |
Min Damage: | 208 |
Average Hit: | 160 |
Damage Ratio: | 1.86:1 |
EQ2 Rating: | 79.9 |
Range of Damage Done |
Damage without Crit |
Base Crit Damage |
Actual Crit Damage |
%age Increase with Crit |
0% | 112 | 146 | 209 | 90.0% |
10% | 122 | 159 | 209 | 70.0% |
20% | 131 | 170 | 209 | 60.0% |
30% | 141 | 183 | 209 | 50.0% |
40% | 150 | 195 | 209 | 40.0% |
50% | 160 | 208 | 209 | 30.0% |
60% | 170 | 221 | 221 | 30.0% |
70% | 179 | 233 | 233 | 30.0% |
80% | 189 | 246 | 246 | 30.0% |
90% | 198 | 257 | 257 | 30.0% |
100% | 208 | 270 | 270 | 30.0% |
Average Hit (Assuming normal curve) |
160 | 208 | 226 | 69.0% |
Looking at the tables, we see that the average bonus for the
Cudgel is 69.0% whereas the average bonus for the Star is 41.3%. So, in
simple terms, it’s the max damage that counts for crits. The higher the max
damage, the higher the effective bonus gained on a critical hit.
I hope you found this useful. I shall be writing more about the maths underlying EQ2 shortly so please subscribe to the feed
to be sure not to miss it.
January 25, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Could you go into more detail on how you gathered this data?
January 25, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I didn’t gather the data personally, I used the information posted on EQ2flames.
January 25, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Blocked at work 😛 will check it out when I get home. Thanks!
January 25, 2008 at 4:13 pm
The reason, btw, I am interested is because my inquisitor has a 100% crit rate on autoattacks, so this seems like it would be a better way of checking the worth of a weapon instead of going to Sol’s Eye and killing dozens of giants to get an idea.
People tend to favor slower weapons to increase the crit chance per swing. But when you have 100% crits, weapon speed might become a much larger issue.
January 25, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The crit chance per swing is not increased with a faster or slower weapon.
Consider the following:
January 25, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I should have clarified: with 100% crits on autoattacks, it just becomes a modifier to base damage. I was really talking about the increased chance to *proc* per swing for slower weapons. My fault for confusing the terms. Many absolutely vital combat effects, such as knockback, interrupts and stuns that clerics can deliver depend on increasing the chance they fire per swing. Far few heals need to be cast if the inquisitor is firing off those procs at a good pace. The power of my class here is nearly entirely dependent on choosing the correct weapon.
I have a gut feeling that slow weapons with high max damage and wide range will turn out to be best. But I am also concerned with the mace+shield combo, since often shields have passive healing bonuses or healing procs that are vital to an inquisitor’s other role in a group — healing…
May 5, 2009 at 10:17 pm
You should also consider that spells and CA’s interrupt autotattacks if they fire when the autoattack would normally occur. Therefore, a longer delay weapon is often more useful simply becaue you can get off more spells or CA’s between each autoattack without causing it to pause. With a shorter delay weapon you’ll be seeing your autoattacks interrupted more frequently and you will therefore lower your autoattack damage.