Some interesting results for hunters - Gems and Enchant choices

[Kailand]

Hi, for my brother hunter's in the clan I have done some calculations into when +AGI > +AP based upon what your dps will be. Using the following formula's involving rap/crit/agi/dps (these can be found on the net, I'm too lazy to find a site to link):

14 RAP = 1 DPS

1 AGI = 1 RAP

40 AGI = 1% Crit

Now, say if you are choosing between a +16 AP gem or a +8 agi gem, and your DPS is X, the overall DPS change will be:

+8 AGI --> (8/14 + x)*(1 + 8/40*0.01) - x ~= (0.57 + x)*(1.002) - x = 0.57 + 0.002 * x

+16 AP --> 16/14 = +1.14 DPS

Since the average damage added by crit is dependent on you current DPS, the higher your DPS is, the more crit gives you, so, solving the equation formed by equating the 2 above equations yields:

1.14 = 0.57 + 0.002 * x --> x = 285.14.

In other words if your DPS is above 285.14 - Choose an AGI gem/enchant over AP gem/enchant, it will increase you DPS more overall.

Of course this point will be lowered if you have the Lightning reflexes talent in the survival tree or the Combat Experience talent in the MM tree.

--------------------- Added Calculations for Crit rating / AGI ---------------------------

Run and hide now!!!! Even more math!!!

After I did the above post I started to think - what about +crit?

So what about + crit? +22 Crit = 1% crit

Performing similar math as above, comparing the +8 crit vs. +8 agi:

+8 crit --> 8/22*0.01* x = 0.0036 * x

So equating the agi to the crit equations:

0.0036 * x = 0.57 + 0.002 * x --> x = 349.9

Which means that if your DPS is about 349.9, you go with the +8 crit gem as opposed to the +8 agi gem

But where does that put +AP vs + crit?

0.0036 * x = 1.14 --> x = 314.3

So overall DPS gain, go with +AP until 285.14, then +AGI until 349.9, then +CRIT for optimal gains. Again talents that make AGI scale will widen the gap for which agi is better.

-------- Yet another Edit, Added a way to determine if your new gear will improve your DPS over your current gear ------

Just to make this a little more complete, here is a way to calculate if your new gear is better than your current gear, only taking into account AP, AGI, and CRIT into your total DPS gain. Note that this does not include other essential stats such as MP5, int, stam, etc, as well as talents and procs.

Let dAP = (new gear's +AP ) - ( current gear's +AP )

Let dAGI = ( new gear's AGI ) - ( current gear's AGI )

Let dCRIT = ( new gear's +CRIT ) - ( current gear's +CRIT )

Let x be the current DPS with the current gear.

so the gain in crit% is: dC% = (dAGI/40 + dCRIT/22)*0.01

and the gain in RAP is: dRAP = dAGI + dAP

which yields an average DPS gain of: dDPS = (dRAP/14 + x)*(1+dC%) - x

If dDPS is negative, then your average DPS will be lower in your new gear, if your dDPS is positive, than your average DPS will increase with your new gear. I hope that others will find this useful.

*** edited to fix some signs (whoopsie) ***

Edited June 15, 2007 by Kailand

[Waldonnis]

This is great info, thanks for taking the time to do the math, Kailand! Definitely saved me many napkins for my ordinary napkin math

I really need to do some research one day to establish a similar set of formulae for spell damage vs. spell crit vs. spell penetration vs. spell hit...*head asplode just thinking about it*

Incidentally, from a marskman point of view, my general "working rule" has been that any real results from RAP gains from gems/enchants are marginal starting around 1.9k RAP. From my experiences, it seems that crit becomes far more valuable at that point, which appears to be supported handily by the math you've posted. Since agility helps with both, increasing both RAP and crit using agility gems/enchants ends up being superiour to straight crit boost gems or gear (barring exceptionally-high values), agility has been what I've seen garner the most "win" for the investment. I have since swapped out some of my RAP gems for lower values of agility for that reason and am enjoying some good results so far.

I'm sure even 1.9k RAP for marksman is too high of a baseline, but I haven't stripped off enough gear to do testing below that value as of yet to be sure. I hadn't considered a base dps value as a better baseline, but only because my spec and weapon have remained unchanged for awhile and I didn't have the knowledge of other specs to further round out the understanding. Again, excellent work on the math and thanks for helping me understand a bit more about how equivalence can be established between the specs mathematically when it comes to stuff like this

Edited June 14, 2007 by Waldonnis

[Kailand]

My calculations are only for any hunters base numbers, no talents have come into play. Plus these calculations are only valid for the 2:1:1 AP:AGI:CRIT ratios which are commonly found for gems and enchants. For example the +8 AP/+4 crit gem would be slightly worse then a +8 AGI gem for all specs all of the time, but might be better for a slot depending on the socket bonus.

The reason I started this was deciding whether the +70 AP weapon enchant was better than the +35 AGI weapon enchant.

With my build, the DPS points which AGI is better is:

+8 AGI --> (8*1.15*1.04/14 + x)*(1 + 8*1.15/40*0.01) - x

+16 AP --> 16*1.04/14

+8 crit --> 8/22*0.01* x

AGI::AP

16*1.04/14 = (8*1.15*1.04/14 + x)*(1 + 8*1.15/40*0.01) - x --> x = 218.94 DPS

AGI::CRIT

8/22*0.01* x = (8*1.15*1.04/14 + x)*(1 + 8*1.15/40*0.01) - x --> x = 512.59 DPS

so with my build AP was better until 218.94 DPS, then AGI is good until 512.59 DPS, then CRIT is better.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Kailand