daray
03-12-2007, 09:30 AM
So I was bored and decided to work out how the following 4 weapons compared from a raid perspective: <i>Grizzfazzle's Walking Stick, Dagger of the Arcane Rite, Wand of Crystalized Plasma, and Staff of Light</i>. Feel free to check over the maths as it is very late, and mistakes are bound to happen. Anyway, the following should provide an approximate comparison between the weapons, such that it is possible to rank their usefulness. <img src="http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i301/neleso/mageweapons.jpg" border="0"> Because of the way that stats work on a diminishing returns curve, I decided to omit them from the comparison, as there is no accurate way to factor in the real DPS increase that they provide. And because each item varies from 27 INT up to 36 INT, the difference of 9 INT at raid buffed levels will reflect in a very minimal difference. As such, this post focuses solely on the DPS benefit that each of the effects/procs on the items provide. Also, these comparisons are not based on parses using the different weapons, because that will never provide an accurate comparison between them. This is because there is no way to accurately replicate an encounter/raid with so many different variables factoring into them. <b><u>Assumptions</u></b> <u> </u> * These comparisons are based on a wizard under raid conditions *The wizard is constantly casting their optimal spell rotation *The comparisons are built around fighting an encounter consisting of one single target. *The wizard is speced down the AGI line and is grouped with a Troubador to give them 22% spell haste (most popular setup). As such, proc rates on the items have been increased to account for this. For the moment I am ignoring EoF spell haste enhancements to heat spells as wizards seem to be speced more widely with regards EoF lines. *The following numbers are worked out based around a wizard pulling exactly 2000 dps. This is should be easily achievable for many wizards (and is an easy number for me to work with). *Power is not an issue. *The stated damage procs on the items have been increased accordingly to take account of the standard wizard raid group containing troub + fury (with vim), and raid debuffs. I worked out the figure for this by comparing an extended EH zone parse's average spell hit figures against that stated by the spell descriptions in my knowledge book. This gave me an average 55% increase which I then applied in any calculations of any damage proc component of the item effects. It is impossible for this figure to be universally accurate for all wizards, but it shouldn't be too far out. So, the above being said, this is what I got (note that I won't include the workings with the intention of keeping this post as concise as possible, but feel free to confirm using the above assumptions): <span style="color: #ff0000"><b><u>Grizzfazzle's Walking Stick</u></b></span> <u> </u> Effect: 345-641 damage at a rate of 2.0 times a minute. Notes: Proc damage increased by 55% which gives an average of 764 and proc chance increased to 2.44 times per minute. <i><u>Approx Increase: </u></i> 1864 damage per minute 31 DPS 1.55% DPS increase (based off doing 2000 dps) <span style="color: #ff0000"> <b><u>Dagger of the Arcane Rite</u></b></span> Effect: 47 damage to every hostile spell. Notes: Calculations based on spell rotation consisting of an average 23 spells per minute (info from Legacystar as I don't own a dagger yet to test myself) - so 23 "Fiery Impact" procs per minute (might be a little on the generous side still). Damage increased by 55% to 73 per proc. <i><u>Approx Increase:</u></i> 1675 damage per minute 28 DPS 1.40% DPS increase <span style="color: #ff0000"><b><u>Wand of Crystalized Plasma</u></b></span> Effect: Increases the base damage of all spells by 8% for 12 seconds. Proc chance is 1.8 times per minute. Notes: Proc chance increased by 22% to 2.196. Based on this, buff is expected to be up for 26.352 seconds each minute (assuming no overlap). This provides an average 3.51% increase across the full minute. <i><u>Approx Increase:</u></i> 4212 damage per minute (based off doing 2000 dps) 70 DPS (based off doing 2000 dps) 3.51% DPS increase <i>(provided procs do not overlap)</i> <span style="color: #ff0000"><b><u>Staff of Light</u></b></span> Effect: Reduces casting time by 5% 329-612 damage at a rate of 1.4 times per minute Increases the damage done by spells by up to 100 Notes: Proc damage increased by 55% to an average of 729 damage with chance increased to 1.708 times per min. Casting speed enhancement calculated taking account of recovery times which do not get reduced. Increased damage of 100 to all spells calculated at being normalized at 2.5s casting time +0.5s recovery <i><u>Approx Increase:</u></i> Damage proc: 1245 damage per minute Casting speed enhancement: 4620 damage per minute (based off doing 2000 dps) Damage increase to all spells: 2000 damage per minute Total: 7865 damage per minute (based off doing 2000 dps) 131 DPS (based off doing 2000 dps) 6.55% DPS increase (based off doing 2000 dps) <b><u>Conclusions:</u></b> From this, we can see that the Staff of Light is clearly superior to all the other weapons, and by quite a substantial margin, especially when you factor in the huge stat advantage it has over all the other weapons - and so it should, being that it is a rare drop from only one avatar. What did surprise me is how poorly cheldrak's dagger compared, being just about equal in performance to that of the easily obtainable Grizzfazzle's Walking Stick. On the flip side, I am quite impressed with the wand from unrest. That thing provides awesome dps returns for the ease with which it can be acquired. However this forces the debate of risk vs. reward with regards the plasma wand and the dagger. <span style="color: #ff9900"><b>Staff of Light (+6.55% DPS) > Wand of Crystalized Plasma (+3.51% DPS) > Grizzfazzle's Walking Stick (+1.55% DPS) > Dagger of Arcane Rite (+1.40% DPS)</b></span> Disclaimer: With so many variables factoring into damage, it is impossible to be accurate with the calculations, so all calculations above are approximate. Feel free to look over the numbers for accuracy if you wish. The numerical comparisons above are just a means to try and <i>quantify the differences</i> between the 4 weapons. With that being said, I am going to get some sleep ...