MM Weapon?????

yoyoto

yoyoto

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2006

New York

[sW] Shadow Warriors!

W/

I'm curious whats the best possible prophecies MM weapon I could get my friend??? I have NO CLUE what MMs need sooo please help

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

I'd say 40% cast +1 attribute staff

ivan.alicard

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2007

Electric warfair

E/Me

the deathbringer for about 5-10k

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Oh no, not this again....

(Note: I know that you're Prophecies-only, but I might as well make things generally applicable if I'm going to take the time to post. You can buy non-Prophecies items from other players you know. And I'd be happy to craft factions stuff for you (or anyone else who doesn't have factions) at cost.)

Here's a rundown of the "good" options:Staff: +5e, 20/20, 20% +1 death magic.
Call this the "Classic MM Staff."
Build it from a prophecies collector bone staff, factions collector lotus staff, any inscribable staff, or buy a Ghail's staff. Wand: 20HRT, +5e^50 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic.
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades 3e (unconditional) for 5e^50. (Some people swear by this tradeoff; others complain that you lose the conditional 5e exactly when you need it most.)
Build the wand from any inscribable wand, or buy a Wayward Wand or Golden Boar Scepter; buy Bartok's Bone Cesta, or Armind's Focus, or build the focus from any inscribable focus. Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic.
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades 3e for 20HCT
Craft the wand in factions or build it from an any inscribable wand; buy Bartok's Bone Cesta, or Armind's Focus, or build the focus from any inscribable focus. Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20/20
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades 3e for 20HCT and trades the 20% +1 death magic for 20HRT.
Craft the wand in factions, or buy Avarr's Scepter, or Droknar's Death Scepter, or build it from an any inscribable wand; get a prophecies or factions collector focus or buy a Droknar's Death Focus. Staff: +5e, 20/20, 20% longer enchantments.
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades the 20% +1 death magic for 20% longer enchant. Only recommended if you're using Mystic Regeneration.
Build it from a prophecies collector bone staff, factions collector lotus staff, or any inscribable staff. Spear: +5e/20% longer enchant + Focus: 20/20.
As compared to the above staff, this setup gains 2e, but you lose your wand damage. Only recommended if you're using Mystic Regeneration.
Build the spear from any inscribable spear, or buy Spirit of the Forgotten; get a prophecies or factions collector focus or buy a Droknar's Death Focus. Staff: 20HCT, 20/20, 20% longer enchantments.
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades the 20% +1 death magic for 20% longer enchant and trades 5e for 20HCT. Only recommended if you're using Mystic Regeneration.
Build it from a prophecies collector bone staff, factions collector lotus staff, or any inscribable staff.
I think that's everything that's worth considering. Anyone see one I missed?
[Edit: Sure enough, I forgot one. Added it.]


Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
I'd say 40% cast +1 attribute staff No. [Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic] is going to get you 2e more than that staff and the other stats are the same.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ivan.alicard
the deathbringer for about 5-10k NO! There's an entire thread in the Question and Answer forum dedicated to the stupidity of bringing +30hp items on MM's, so I'm not going to rehash it again. Go look there to gain an understanding of why deathbringer is a bad item for MM's. At least you didn't suggest woe spreader...

Olim Chill

Olim Chill

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2007

USA

DMI

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20/20 That's my recommendation as well.

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
No. [Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic] is going to get you 2e more than that staff and the other stats are the same. Yes. You can't have both 20%cast and +1 attribute on a focus item.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
Yes. You can't have both 20%cast and +1 attribute on a focus item.
Sigh....

Greens:
Quote:
Originally Posted by wiki

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

Ooops.
I don't like focus + wand anyway, takes too much space in my invent!

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
[*]Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic.
Best option for a MM, IMHO, bar none.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
Yes. You can't have both 20%cast and +1 attribute on a focus item. Uh, yea you can. Bortak's Bone Cesta

Or on an inscribable focus: Focus Core of Aptitude + Master of My Domain.

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

It's ok i've corrected myself, I'll add a post again so that the next 50 persons won't jump on that. I did check wiki, just missed the +1 attrib inscription which wasn't with focus only inscriptions.

Still 40% cast/+1DM is the best option since there's only 3-4 usefull, long recharging DM skills, while there is way more long casting skills.

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
Ooops.
I don't like focus + wand anyway, takes too much space in my invent! Wand and focus takes the same space as a staff. Really. and it's a better combo.

yoyoto

yoyoto

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2006

New York

[sW] Shadow Warriors!

W/

Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic.
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades 3e for 20HCT
Craft the wand in factions or build it from an any inscribable wand; buy Bartok's Bone Cesta, or Armind's Focus, or build the focus from any inscribable focus.

How do I get this now? I'm REALLY stupid Please understand

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

For an MM you ABSOLUTELY NEED a +1/20 DM.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by yoyoto
Wand: 20/20 + Focus: 20HCT, 20% +1 death magic.
As compared to the classic MM staff, this setup trades 3e for 20HCT
Craft the wand in factions or build it from an any inscribable wand; buy Bartok's Bone Cesta, or Armind's Focus, or build the focus from any inscribable focus.

How do I get this now? I'm REALLY stupid Please understand
Well.....

To get the wand, you can:Craft it at Leviathan Pits or Vasburg Armory, OR Ask someone on the forums nicely if they will craft you one if you give them the materials (40 bone, 6 plant fiber, 5k), OR Add a 20% "Aptitude Not Attitude" inscription and a 20% Wand Wrapping of Memory to any inscribable death magic wand.
To get the focus, you can:Buy Bortak's Bone Cesta from another player, OR Buy Armind's Focus from another player, OR Put a 20% Focus Core of Aptitude and a 20% "Master of My Domain" inscription on any inscribable death magic focus.

Shadowmere

Shadowmere

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

The Grim Squeakers [REAP]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moloch Vein
For an MM you ABSOLUTELY NEED a +1/20 DM. I second this, MM-ing will be about the only time you will get any noticable difference by using a +1/20 mod. Most other times you'll get a slightly stronger spell every so often, with MM-ing that's a higher lvl minion that'll stick with you longer and kick the enemies harder.

And also I'd go for 40% HCT over HSR unless you're bringing some minions with long down times (shambling horrors or fleshie). But that's just me

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadowmere
I second this, MM-ing will be about the only time you will get any noticable difference by using a +1/20 mod. Most other times you'll get a slightly stronger spell every so often, with MM-ing that's a higher lvl minion that'll stick with you longer and kick the enemies harder.
And also I'd go for 40% HCT over HSR unless you're bringing some minions with long down times (shambling horrors or fleshie). But that's just me You are wrong about the +1/20 mod. Check the bone fiend damage increase from lvl 18 to 19:
Bone_fiend

As you can see, the bone fiend gains 1-2 damage with the +1 level. With the base damage of 17-49 at lvl 18, you gain 4.5% damage. There is a 20% chance of the +1 skill activating, so you have a +0.9% damage increase by putting the +1/20 mod on. Compare that to, say, a 20% chance of casting 2 Death Nova's in time it would normally take you to cast 1, or getting more minions up. Heck, even if you just used the extra time given by 20% cast for wanding, you would add more damage through your wand then you would through minions. Don't believe the BS sellers of weapons like to spout out when you can calculate what actually happens for yourself.

Captain Miken

Captain Miken

Banned

Join Date: Jan 2008

40/40 set imo~


or a +5 / 20 / 40

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
You are wrong about the +1/20 mod. Check the bone fiend damage increase from lvl 18 to 19:
Bone_fiend


As you can see, the bone fiend gains 1-2 damage with the +1 level. With the base damage of 17-49 at lvl 18, you gain 4.5% damage.
Minions also gain 4.5% health (+20hp, basically a fortitude mod for the affected minion) and 5.5% armor. Plus an increased chance of Critical hits.

Quote: Originally Posted by The Meth There is a 20% chance of the +1 skill activating, so you have a +0.9% damage increase by putting the +1/20 mod on. You'll have at least 2 minions boosted at all times. Likely more than that, because monsters are going to go after the weaker level 18 minions first. Level 19 Minions accumulate somewhat.

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
Compare that to, say, a 20% chance of casting 2 Death Nova's in time it would normally take you to cast 1, or getting more minions up. Heck, even if you just used the extra time given by 20% cast for wanding, you would add more damage through your wand then you would through minions. This entire argument is a red herring. The +1 mod doesn't replace a HCT mod, in fact we are already recommending two HCT mods.

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
Minions also gain 4.5% health (+20hp, basically a fortitude mod for the affected minion) and 5.5% armor. Plus an increased chance of Critical hits.
You'll have at least 2 minions boosted at all times. Likely more than that, because monsters are going to go after the weaker level 18 minions first. Level 19 Minions accumulate somewhat.
This entire argument is a red herring. The +1 mod doesn't replace a HCT mod, in fact we are already recommending two HCT mods. The mod acts only 20% of the time, all improvements have to be divided by 5 to get the average improvement.

Minions on average gain 20/5 = 4 health each, so they live the whole half second longer it takes for degen to beat that down?

Minions will on average gain 3/5 = .6 armor each, which equates to a whopping 1% damage reduction. Again, I am in awe of the increased power.

By the way, minion criticals don't increase damage done.

You may have 2 minions with +1 level at each time. You may have 1. You may get lucky and have all 10. But on average, the difference is not at all noticeable. If you know a little bit of statistics, you can prove that there is even an 11% chance that in any given army of 10 minions that 0 will get a level buff. The idea of lvl 19 minions 'accumulating' is pretty much ridiculous because again, the differences are minimal.

Spare me the agony of my stupidity for mixing up HCT and HSR, but the fact is whether you are losing HCT, HSR, or nearly any other mod (except health, since that is negated by the increased sacs), 20% chance of +1 attribute does not make up for it. +4 health per minion is meaningless, why not have a 20% chance of getting shambling horrors 2x as fast? As compared to using a weaker minion like bone horrors, thats basically as good as raising another minion. What about a 20% chance of fast botm recharge? Thats a 20% chance of doubled healing power, which is gonna beat the pants off a piddling 4 health per minion.

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
+4 health per minion is meaningless, why not have a 20% chance of getting shambling horrors 2x as fast? Because Shambling Horrors suck anyway?

Oh, and where did you get the idea that a minion critical hit does no more damage than an ordinary hit? You can't have tried using an N/P MM build if you believe that.

EmptySkull

EmptySkull

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

KaoS League

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
I'd say 40% cast +1 attribute staff That's what I run and recommend. Add a Bloodstained insignia and you're golden. With this combo you get fast minions with the very often insta-cast for a minion.

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

You just made me realise that I have a pair of bloostained boots in my storage I don't even use lol.

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moloch Vein
Because Shambling Horrors suck anyway?
Oh, and where did you get the idea that a minion critical hit does no more damage than an ordinary hit? You can't have tried using an N/P MM build if you believe that. Since when did shambling horrors suck? The only thing better then shambling horrors is bone fiends. Shambling horrors is golden when you are low on corpses and still need some blocking power. The only drawback is that it has a longer recharge, but you have bone fiends to spam anyway.

Yes, minions can critical but their critical's don't deal increased damage. The test for this is to use Go for they eye's + Find their Weakness. You will see that a minion can cause a critical (signified by deep wound) and still do low damage.
I have personally tested this and the info is somewhere on one of the wiki's, if I can be bothered to find it. And I do use N/P's (especially for olias when he MM's) but just not gfte!

Even if minions DID benefit from criticaling, the benefit is still most certainly negligable, because again, 1 level makes almost no difference to critical hit rate, and you only gain that level 20% of the time.

I'm not saying that +1/20 is an absolutely horrible weapon to run and you are a noob for even thinking about it (that is reserved for flesh golem users lol) but since we are talking about maximum efficiency here I have to state that +1/20 is nearly always worse then most of the other mods. Show me an instance in which +1/20 is actually performing better then the other mods, with the appropriate mathematical proof of it, and I will agree with you. Until then, mathematical proof beats your opinions.

Calista Blackblood

Calista Blackblood

Permanently Banned

Join Date: Oct 2007

Northern Ireland

Nowhere To Run Nowhere To [Hide]

N/

how did a thread asking a simple question turn into people throwing numbers at each other like accountants on their lunch hour?

@OP:if you can see around the text walls a lot of whats posted is solid advice.but try not to limit your weapon choice to props.theres a trading section here and guru auctions of course where you can pick up what are imho superb weapons like Ghial's Staff and The Nightbringer

if you only have prophecies check with sellers that they can meet you in LA or somewhere,most should be able to

*prepares for flames*

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
Yes, minions can critical but their critical's don't deal increased damage. Yes, they do. They just don't automatically achieve maximum damage plus critical boost. If you've used an N/P MM build with GfTE! you would've noticed that the damage spikes with the shout.

Shambling Horrors are how to weaken your minion army by two levels simply because you believe that Bleeding has any significance in PvE whatsoever, apart from condition-trigger.

Oh, and by the way and all that... as for the full treatise about the Master/Domain thingie... I'm just sorting out the obvious errors in your postings first... let's get to that when you've understood those.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
about the +1/20 mod.
As Carinae pointed out, it gets you 20hp and 3AL (fiends) or 4AL (horrors) whenever it bumps up a minion. That alone is probably better than what you can get out of other mods. (See below.)

Quote:
As you can see, the bone fiend gains 1-2 damage with the +1 level. Yes. So? You seem to fail to appreciate that the minion is going to keep on doing that +1.5 damage over and over again. Let's say that your minion is going to see 2 minutes of combat time over its unlifetime. That +1.5 per hit is going to add up to 97 damage. Are any of the other mods you could put in place of 20% +1 death (see below) going to do 97 damage when they trigger?

Quote: By the way, minion criticals don't increase damage done. Yes they do. Minions don't get a max roll on their weapon like player characters, but they still get the +20Baseline, and that means more damage. I think if you sat down and looked at your data you would find that none of the criticals was less than the minimum non-critical times SqRt(2).

Quote: Since when did shambling horrors suck? Since the NF beta.
1. The recharge is horrifically bad.
2. They have a bad, bad, bad anti-synergy with the minion cap. They can do a nasty chain reaction thing that kills off perfectly healthy minions and screws up your soul reaping for the next 15 sec.
3. They turn into jagged horrors, and jagged horrors are just inferior to other horrors -- less armor, less hp, less damage, and the one promising thing they've got, the bleeding, turns out to be a wasted opportunity because of the stupid minion AI.

Finally, what mod are you going to use instead? 20% +1 Death is a staff suffix or a focus inscription, so it's only in competition with mods you could put in those same slots. Let's take a little survey of those mods to see why none of them really give you much benefit:

Staff Suffixes:Fortitude/Devotion/Endurance/Valor: For reasons I hope I don't have to explain, +hp is a penalty rather than a benefit on MM weapons. Defense: A solid, useful mod. But it's not like you're supposed to be taking hits, so you're probably better off with the added defense on the minions via 20% +1 Death. Shelter/Warding: Inferior to Defense. Enchanting: Useful pretty much only if you're using Mystic Regeneration. Most other MM-related enchantments (masochism, dark bond, infuse condition) already have such a low cost-per-duration that you'd gain very little by stretching them out; AotL should be cast on the recharge anyway, so the duration doesn't matter, and OoU is not an enchantment. Species-Slaying: Do I really need to explain why this is worthless on a caster weapon?
Focus Inscriptions:Various +AL Inscriptions: Some are decent; some are not; none is terribly useful since you're not supposed to be getting hit anyway. You're better off improving minion durability instead. Run for Your Life/Sheltered by Faith/Nothing to Fear/Luck of the Draw: Ditto the AL inscriptions. 20HRT(death) (Forget Me Not): A decent mod, if you have several key spells with longer recharges. Do you? Probably not.BotM recharges in 2sec, so you'd only be saving just 1 sec an extra 16% of the time -- hardly worth it. OoU lasts 5sec and recharges in 5sec, so there's no benefit there. Bone fiend and bone horror recharge in 5sec, and that's usually plenty fast to keep up with the rate of bodies becoming available. Vampiric horror takes 15 to recharge, so that would definitely benefit, though you could always just summon a fiend instead. Shambling horror would benefit hugely, but shambling horror sucks and you probably shouldn't be using it anyway (and you could always just summon a fiend instead). Saving 10 sec off the time before AotL's next heal would be pretty nice, so maybe it would be useful there. Heal Area, Mystic Regeneration, Masochism, and PvE-skills aren't death magic skills so they don't benefit at all (and don't really need a recharge boost in the first place). (I should also note that HRT on Jagged Bones would be very nice indeed, but Jagged Bones is a minion bomber skill, not a minion master skill.) In sum, you're likely to have one, maybe two, skills that would really benefit from more HRT. And, unless you're making some less-than-optimal (AotL) or very-less-than-optimal (shambling horror) skill choices, your biggest gain is going to be 7.5 sec off vampiric horrors 16% of the time. I think I'd rather have the 3/4 armor, 20hp, and extra damage from stronger minions.
10HRT(all) (Serenity Now): Inferior to 20HRT(death). 10% is just "meh."
As I hope you can see, it's certainly not the case that 20% +1 death is performing worse than the other competing mods. All but two of the other options for those spots aren't even worth considering at all. Of the two that are worth considering, enchanting only becomes worthwhile if you've got mystic regen on your bar, and a second 20HRT mod only becomes worthwhile if you've got an unusual number of important, long-recharge death skills on your bar. Under these special circumstances, these mods are worth considering, and that's why I put them on my list earlier (though, truth be told, I still wouldn't choose them over 20% +1 death); outside of those special circumstances, they aren't worth considering.

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Seems I can stick to being lazy after all. Thanks Chthon.

Oh and by the way...

+1/20 Death will:

Heal for 5HP more, every 1 in 5 casts of Blood of the Master.
Increase duration by 2 seconds and heal by 12HP, every 1 in 5 casts of Aura of the Lich.
Increase the armor ignoring damage by 1, every 1 in 5 casts of Order of Undeath.
Increase the duration by 2 seconds and the degeneration by -1, every 1 in 5 casts of Well of Suffering.

There are further examples...

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

Shambling is nice for discord builds. Just wanted to point that out.

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

As for the minion criticals, very well I will assume yourself to be correct if you have proven that to be true through testing. Now lets look at what 1 lvl will actually help: lets assume the difference for 1 level to be about inline with raising the attribute for weapons (since actual testing is nigh impossible, this will have to do). The minion will gain about 1.5% chance to critical, multiplied by the 20% chance to get the minion. In the end, the average damage granted through critical hits is: (.015 * .2 * (17+49)/2 * 2^(1/2)) = .14 damage increase. That's about a .4% damage increase. So I think we can say the critical rate from increasing minion levels is unnoticeable.

In any case, let me make my arguement a bit simpler:

When is casting a single spell with +1 attribute better then casting the same spell twice. HSR mods and master of my domain mods have the same 20% chance, so we can discard much of the unneeded calculations. Necro's ALWAYS have available energy, so the is no downside to casting a single spell more often like other classes.

Also, why does everyone think +enchanting is only useful for mystic healing? Do I really need to remind people that Death Nova is an enchantment?

And I disagree with your thoughts on shambling horrors, let me explain my ideal MM minion-army: 7 fiends, 3 shambling horrors. Why? fiends deal the best damage damage, the shambling horrors will provide the most effective bodyblocking, because upon death they are recreated. lvl 16 minion are not much weaker then lvl 18 (considering you have a lvl 18 AND a lvl 16 minion taking the fire, you stand nothing to lose anyway). Also, a jagged minion actually does MORE dps a bone horror. Jagged minions do approximately 9 dps + 6 dps from bleeding, while bone horrors do 11 dps, so shambling horrors are also the second best damage minions you can have. The 25 recharge is also perfectly fine for keeping a few shambling horrors up.

In any case, I feel this is rather pointless discussion. Having even a crappy MM in your group makes PvE dead easy, and its not even my opinion that a +1/20 mod labels you a retard or anything. But in the end the greatest effect is not achieved with +1/20. It may be the most glamorous (yay I have lvl 19 minions!!!!), but it is not the best. But in the end, the difference between mods will never make a difference in pve.

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
Also, why does everyone think +enchanting is only useful for mystic healing? Do I really need to remind people that Death Nova is an enchantment?
Death Nova lasts for 30 seconds.
Quote:
In any case, I feel this is rather pointless discussion. I agree, you're grasping at straws.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
When is casting a single spell with +1 attribute better then casting the same spell twice.
When it's a minion spell. You're capped at 10, so casting another minion when you've already got a healthy army is totally wasteful; but getting a higher level minion is beneficial.

Quote:
Also, why does everyone think +enchanting is only useful for mystic healing? Because it is.
Quote: Do I really need to remind people that Death Nova is an enchantment? 1. Minion bomber skill, not minion master.
2. Lasts for 30 sec -- way longer than you need anyway.

Quote:
lvl 16 minion are not much weaker then lvl 18 Yes, it is.

Quote:
Also, a jagged minion actually does MORE dps a bone horror. One, yes; several, no. They have a bad tendency of all hitting the same already-bleeding target, so that's 1 jagged horror doing better damage than the average horror, and the rest doing less. Once you get about 3 of them, your total damage is less than 3 regular horrors.

Quote:
In any case, I feel this is rather pointless discussion. I agree with Moloch.

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
Since the NF beta.
1. The recharge is horrifically bad.
2. They have a bad, bad, bad anti-synergy with the minion cap. They can do a nasty chain reaction thing that kills off perfectly healthy minions and screws up your soul reaping for the next 15 sec.
3. They turn into jagged horrors, and jagged horrors are just inferior to other horrors -- less armor, less hp, less damage, and the one promising thing they've got, the bleeding, turns out to be a wasted opportunity because of the stupid minion AI.
Point #2 is by FAR the worst part about Shamblings and even that wouldn't be an issue without the SR Timer (grrr) breaking everything about an MM build. Shamblings (and Jagged Bones) do BAD THINGS to your SR returns.

However, in their defense, they DO allow you to stand an army up fast, and that does redeem them somewhat since you'll be in 'startup mode' almost constantly in HM.

Vamps are probably (almost certainly) a better choice with the SR Timer in place.

-----

Wiki is wrong. The damage range on level 19 Fiends is 18-52. Not a big difference, but my numbers are right.



If it follows the weapon mastery pattern, then level 19s have a 1.4% higher chance to Crit per hit. Spread that over the lifetime of the minion and it adds up. Get a few 19s running around and it becomes substantial.

And level 19s DO accumulate, it's not at all uncommon to have 3-5 of them in a batch. Level 18s have less armor and less health, which means they naturally die sooner, but it also means monsters go after the 18s first. Finally, the Minion Cap preferentially kills 18s over 19s on average, because it kills the minion with the lowest health when it triggers. This is an 18 more often than not.

Testing with 10 level 19 minions in the testing grounds shows that 19s DO get 1-3 higher DPS per minion. The STUPID BARRELS prevent me from giving exact numbers.

Just FYI: Assuming that minions get the sqrt(2) bonus on Crits, then it looks as though the non-crit damage range for 19s is 18-37, and for 18s it's 17-34. When they Crit, they just get the sqrt(2) multiplier bonus.

Trvth Jvstice

Trvth Jvstice

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2006

HALE

W/

How did you do that "You are averaging 109 damage per second in the last 5 seconds." thing?

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

You mean how did I get it reported? or how did I get 109 dps?

Trvth Jvstice

Trvth Jvstice

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2006

HALE

W/

How did you gt it reported?

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Master_of_Damage

Battle Iles testing grounds.

mtm

mtm

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Portugal & Greece

W/

Carinae & Chthon - thank you so much for fantastic, well informed posts that keep away from flaming (well, we're all tempted sometimes ...)

DDL

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
And level 19s DO accumulate. This is the key point, really: any kind of assumption that

"something that happens 20% of the time"

is exactly the same as

"something 1/5th as good happening all the time"

breaks when applied to anything that is subject to extended external pressures, like minions.

All of The Meth's maths would apply perfectly if level 18 and level 19 minions died at exactly the same rate, but they don't. If we were to take a control environment, casting a fresh minions from an endless supply of corpses*, the mechanics would kill low health minions first, which would tend to be the level 18s, since they're starting from a lower health standpoint. So you'd naturally get an accumulation of level 19s through guildwars' own version of "natural selection" (though 'natural' seems a strange term to apply to zombies).

Now add in the fact that enemy AI goes for weaker, lower armour, lower health minions, and you have even more negative pressure on the poor wee level 18s.

So it doesn't matter that you're adding them in at only a 20% rate: if they're being cleared at a lower rate than the level 18s, they'll build up.


*incidentally, this would be awesome.

Shadowmere

Shadowmere

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

The Grim Squeakers [REAP]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by DDL
All of The Meth's maths would apply perfectly if level 18 and level 19 minions died at exactly the same rate, but they don't. If we were to take a control environment, casting a fresh minions from an endless supply of corpses*


*incidentally, this would be awesome. Correct me if I'm wrong but, I believe the villager corpses near the necromancer trainers in Churrhir Fields are infinitely exploitable.

The only downside to this is there's very few targets for minions in the area. It would still be great to test minion "natural selection" however.

chris1234565

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2007

London, UK

W/

id say the woe speader since its cheap and effective