Mage Observations

[Draal]

I wrote a program to determine the best skill distribution for max DPS for any given level or for a given # of skill points.

For Example:
Level 31, 147 skill point, 140 int

Arctic Shards: 14
Cold Mastery: 6
Spent: 144

DPS: 361.59
Min: 101.50
Max: 304.50
Avg: 253.75
Avg With Crit: 289.28

Fire Blast: 14
Fire Mastery: 6
Spent: 144

DPS: 399.00
Min: 112.00
Max: 336.00
Avg: 280.00
Avg With Crit: 319.20

Fire Ball: 10
Fire Mastery: 6
Spent: 144

DPS: 212.86
Min: 81.60
Max: 155.20
Avg: 159.20
Avg With Crit: 181.49

Lightning Blast: 14
Lightning Mastery: 6
Spent: 144

DPS: 348.08
Min: 91.00
Max: 273.00
Avg: 227.50
Avg With Crit: 278.46


Chain Lightning: 13
Lightning Mastery: 6
Spent: 143

DPS: 193.17
Min: 53.30
Max: 169.00
Avg: 137.80
Avg With Crit: 168.67


Which isn't particularly interesting and pretty much backs up what was said in http://www.soldak.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73. Fireball and Chain Lightning #'s are for a single target so they are actually better than that data makes them appear.

What is somewhat interesting is when I added in checking for using Arcane Focus. What I did for that was calculate the DPS over 122 seconds because of the 2 min reuse time and 2 second cast time, 10 seconds with the bonuses and 110 without them and an additional 2 seconds because of the cast time on Arcane Focus. The results... there is no situation where using Arcane Focus is of any benefit. None. The reason is the 2 second cast time on Arcane Focus, that additional 2 seconds of no DPS makes Arcane Focus useless in every situation. Even changing the reuse time to 1 min, the 2 second cast time was enough to make the slight increase in damage gained by using Arcane Focus actually decrease the overall DPS. Changing the Cast Time to 0 to simulate either casting it prior to entering battle or changing the actual spell makes Arcane Focus still only useful in very particular situations and even then the DPS increase is miniscule. For Example, if you had 135 skill points to spend (level 30 and you spent 5 skill points somewhere else) the difference in DPS with and without Arcane Focus is a whopping 1.3 DPS.

Morale of the story... don't bother ever using Arcane Focus. Also, you are better off using any spell except Lightning Blast as the are all higher DPS and have additional benefits.

P.S. I'm tired of being poisoned 90% of the game.

[(name here)]

re: PS

try poison resistant armor, or fight poison with poison and inflict it yourself. or do both.