Oleg
Mutated
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2006
- Posts
- 19,406
- Location
- Leeds, UK
- Avatar Name
- Oleg Oleg McMullery
I’ve been meaning to post this since Mayhem when I did some investigation, but keep forgetting, until now. Skip to the end of the post if you want to know how to do the test and don’t care about how I proved it works.
I’ve discussed elsewhere (see here and here) how to use critical hit reductions to find out a mob’s maximum damage, but for harder mobs this only gives an estimate, so I wanted to find a better way of doing this using buff items, and specifically the Athenic rings.
I did some testing on Mayhem Araneatrox Solo 3. This was a useful choice because Hijacker had previously done a min/max test to determine that the maximum damage is 115. I measured the additional damage crit reductions with and without an Adjusted Athenic Ring.
With the ring, I got a reduction of 21.3 damage. Without the ring I got a reduction of 12.1. There was a small difference in my Evader level between the two tests (60.5460 then 60.5517) but that difference is not enough to have a significant impact on the test.
The difference in reduction is 21.3 – 12.1 = 9.2. 9.2 is exactly 8% of 115, and 8% is the amount of reduction provided by the ring. This tells us a number of things:
1. It corroborates Hijacker’s finding that the max damage for this mob is 115.
2. It demonstrates that the crit reduction from the ring is taken directly from the maximum damage, regardless of Evader level. I.e the ring does not also increase the base Evader level used to calculate the non-ring part of the reduction. This is significant because it means that testing with and without an Athenic ring gives us an easy way to calculate the maximum damage.
3. It proves my theory that L numbers are truncated. In this case the real L number from which the (non-ring) reduction is calculated must be approximately 28.8 (115*0.05*60.5460*28.8 = 12.09 reduction) and is certainly not less than 28.5, or I’d have had a (non-ring) reduction of 12.2 or more.
The Important Bit
So, here’s how to use an Athenic ring to test a mob’s damage. I’ll use the Adjusted Athenic for my numbers, but for other rings or buff providers (e.g. pets) just change the 8% for the reduction on your item.
1. When you receive an additional damage critical hit, while wearing your ring, record the amount of the reduction. We’ll call this X.
2. Take the ring off, and keep going until you get an another additional damage critical hit. Again, record the amount of reduction. We’ll call this Y.
3. Make sure your Evader/Dodger hasn’t changed significantly between steps 1 & 2. As long as there isn’t a very long gap between the two, or you’ve chipped in or taken a relevant mission reward, you should be fine.
4. Also make sure you don’t have any other crit reduction buffs from pills etc, or have the same buffs on both steps.
5. Calculate the difference Z = X – Y.
6. Calculate Z/8% (or substitute 8% for the reduction amount on your item) to determine the mob’s maximum damage.
7. Post the result here or in the appropriate page in the Creatures forum and I’ll add the data to the table.
Job done!
----
EDIT: Further notes to add
Please take care when testing a mob that has two different types of attack, e.g. a ranged and a close attack (affected by Dodger and Evader respectively), or an area of effect attack as well as an individual one. You must compare like-for-like attacks.
I’ve discussed elsewhere (see here and here) how to use critical hit reductions to find out a mob’s maximum damage, but for harder mobs this only gives an estimate, so I wanted to find a better way of doing this using buff items, and specifically the Athenic rings.
I did some testing on Mayhem Araneatrox Solo 3. This was a useful choice because Hijacker had previously done a min/max test to determine that the maximum damage is 115. I measured the additional damage crit reductions with and without an Adjusted Athenic Ring.
With the ring, I got a reduction of 21.3 damage. Without the ring I got a reduction of 12.1. There was a small difference in my Evader level between the two tests (60.5460 then 60.5517) but that difference is not enough to have a significant impact on the test.
The difference in reduction is 21.3 – 12.1 = 9.2. 9.2 is exactly 8% of 115, and 8% is the amount of reduction provided by the ring. This tells us a number of things:
1. It corroborates Hijacker’s finding that the max damage for this mob is 115.
2. It demonstrates that the crit reduction from the ring is taken directly from the maximum damage, regardless of Evader level. I.e the ring does not also increase the base Evader level used to calculate the non-ring part of the reduction. This is significant because it means that testing with and without an Athenic ring gives us an easy way to calculate the maximum damage.
3. It proves my theory that L numbers are truncated. In this case the real L number from which the (non-ring) reduction is calculated must be approximately 28.8 (115*0.05*60.5460*28.8 = 12.09 reduction) and is certainly not less than 28.5, or I’d have had a (non-ring) reduction of 12.2 or more.
The Important Bit
So, here’s how to use an Athenic ring to test a mob’s damage. I’ll use the Adjusted Athenic for my numbers, but for other rings or buff providers (e.g. pets) just change the 8% for the reduction on your item.
1. When you receive an additional damage critical hit, while wearing your ring, record the amount of the reduction. We’ll call this X.
2. Take the ring off, and keep going until you get an another additional damage critical hit. Again, record the amount of reduction. We’ll call this Y.
3. Make sure your Evader/Dodger hasn’t changed significantly between steps 1 & 2. As long as there isn’t a very long gap between the two, or you’ve chipped in or taken a relevant mission reward, you should be fine.
4. Also make sure you don’t have any other crit reduction buffs from pills etc, or have the same buffs on both steps.
5. Calculate the difference Z = X – Y.
6. Calculate Z/8% (or substitute 8% for the reduction amount on your item) to determine the mob’s maximum damage.
7. Post the result here or in the appropriate page in the Creatures forum and I’ll add the data to the table.
Job done!
----
EDIT: Further notes to add
Please take care when testing a mob that has two different types of attack, e.g. a ranged and a close attack (affected by Dodger and Evader respectively), or an area of effect attack as well as an individual one. You must compare like-for-like attacks.
Last edited:
