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View Full Version : Analysis of the INT AA line


Mistmoore-Milaga
03-25-2006, 12:14 AM
After pouring myself a Rivervale Slammer (whisky, jum jum and halfling blood) last night I pored over the logs to see if I could find anything unusual.  For the record, I have 4 AA points in INT, 4 in my Legionnaire's Smite and 8 in my Legionnaire's Wrath to give me 100% chance of critical hits.  I also had capped my INT at 510 and fought solo, heroic and raid mobs.  As expected legionnaire's smite, baleful wrath, putrid coil, loathsome anger, unending agony, pestilent touch and pestilence all crit automatically.  But there are some interesting points:<b>Everlasting Hunger</b> - The unholy strike proc always crit for damage and heal when it procs off my attacks, but has normal chance to crit when proccing off others.<b>Twisted Aura</b> - The grim strike proc almost always crits and crit heals. At Master I this means about 800+ dmg and 400+ healing. Nice.<b>Nefarious Caress</b> - The cares feedback damage shield always crits.<b>Absorb Vitae</b> and <b>Tap Veins</b> - Both always crit and always crit heal.<b>Agony </b>- This is combat art so it does not auto-crit, but it also doesn't have a chance to proc either of our strikes. Despite the WIS debuff, which is even nicer for a battlemage, this one moved down the list for me. If this is a melee disease attack it should proc, if it's a disease spell it should crit. I think this one needs to be tweaked.<b>Death Circle</b> - The initial attack, which is a melee disease attack, does not auto-crit but can proc either of our strikes on one of the targets. The subsequent DoT crits.  I think this should be a combat art, not a spell.<b>Pariah's Brand</b> - The inital melee attack does not auto-crit but the subsequent DoT crits. The melee portion can not trigger grim strike but it can trigger unholy strike (or other procs placed on us). I am pretty sure that is a bug.<b>Fetid Smite</b> - This "spell" is a melee disease attack which does not auto-crit, and the built in grim strike also does not crit. Since it is technically a spell, neither of our procs trigger. Is this in the spell category to keep grim strike from proccing twice? This really should be under combat arts.<b>Insidious Promise</b> - The DoT from this taunt always crits.<b>Smash </b>and <b>Catastrophic Slam</b> - These melee attacks don't auto crit.<b>Heinous Blessing</b> - Always crit and crit heals when it is placed on me, but there is no auto crit when I place it on others.I also looked at how items performed:<b>Kettleleader's Katana</b> - Interesting.  The proc does slashing damage, but it's damage is affected by INT and auto-crits. That's right, we do more damage on our weapon procs if we have a higher INT.<b>Unholy Helm of the Deathknight</b> - The initial damage and DoT portions of this effect always crit. When I use it I do about 300 initially and 200 every 6 seconds for a minute. That works out to 2k damage. I like this helmet.<b>Mystical Orb of the Invoker</b> - Always crits. Can also trigger off our damage shield.<b>Bone-Clasped Girdle</b> and <b>Wand of Second Life</b> - I do not have these items so I cannot verify how the proc works, but I imagine they will behave just like the mystical orb.What did I learn?  Procs are the key. Weapon procs, buff procs, poison procs ... anything that has a chance to trigger more damage we will autocrit with.  Make sure your weapon has a proc.  I now use an imbued xegonite scepter instead of my blade of the bixies.  It does much more damage. Two handers are nice but I do more DPS with a one hander and a symbol because of Legionnaire's Smite.  Even if I only cast it once every 30 seconds, it adds another 26dps.  More than enough to make up for the lower damage output of a one handed weapon.I also learned that I need to get the Araneae Mauler from Terrorantula.  I have yet to find a one handed weapon that does more damage in the hands of an INT SK.I think I'm going to keep this INT line.  I wonder how well it works with the STR line.<div></div>

Xanoth
03-25-2006, 12:58 AM
<div><span><blockquote><hr>Milaga wrote:have yet to find a one handed weapon that does more damage in the hands of an INT SK.<div></div><hr></blockquote>would suggest godking wand.. doenst look as cool as the sword, but providing a set of eyes can be collect will probably be waht i'll go with for me SK.i'll definatly be picking up some of the int line, but not the crit heal or end ability, jsut enough to get damage crits maxed. spend the rest of my points raising int higher, or on maxing the buffs from the wis line.nice write up though, thanks for taking the time and sharing <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></span></div>

Phank
03-25-2006, 08:05 PM
<div></div><p>Same setup as O.P., 4/4/8 in INT.  The sword of the Vault Keeper procs for 750-850 every time (Divine Retribution.)  Pretty, pretty, pretty good!</p><p> </p>

Mistmoore-Milaga
03-26-2006, 08:51 AM
Another interesting note.  Items that proc on hostile spells such as the Mystical Orb of the Invoker I have seen proc on Mana Seive, Nefarious Sacrament (yup, our pet) and Siphon Might along with our damage spells. I have also seen it proc on my Droag Master Strike proc, although that is the only proc I have seen it appear.The way I understood it, the chance for a spell to proc on a hostile spell has to do with the casting time, although the procs I am seeing are occuring much more frequently than I would expect.  Around 5-8% for spells instead of the 3-4% I would expect.  Does anyone know what the formula is for determining proc chances for spells and combat arts?  My formula is clearly flawed.<div></div>

Broxus
04-04-2006, 06:57 PM
<div></div>I guess the question I have is how does our Critical heals effect us??  Which spells do they give critical heals to?  I read that all the Twisted Aura and Henious Blessing proc off of the spell criticals not the heal criticals.  Any ideas??

Mistmoore-Milaga
04-06-2006, 02:12 AM
<div></div>Considering all of our healing ability (at this time) is effected by our spell crits, healing crits have no effect on any of our Shadowknight abilities. Other posters have noted that it does effect the healing abilities of items like the Awakened Stormwind Battlemace or the healing proc on a chestpeice.EDIT: In other words, it's not really recommended unless you want to get to the Reflect ability. Although some people who chose this are quite happy with it.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Milaga on <span class="date_text">04-05-2006</span><span class="time_text">03:13 PM</span></p>

plantb
04-07-2006, 04:21 AM
<div><blockquote><hr>Milaga wrote:<div></div>Considering all of our healing ability (at this time) is effected by our spell crits, healing crits have no effect on any of our Shadowknight abilities. Other posters have noted that it does effect the healing abilities of items like the Awakened Stormwind Battlemace or the healing proc on a chestpeice.EDIT: In other words, it's not really recommended unless you want to get to the Reflect ability. Although some people who chose this are quite happy with it.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Milaga on <span class="date_text">04-05-2006</span><span class="time_text">03:13 PM</span></p><hr></blockquote>2.5AA points away from it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><div> </div><div>Cannot wait to test this</div><div> </div><div>Plant</div>