General

Kms 1.2.191 - What it means to us

To clear up some things. (Note: this is not a notice about the patch.. this has already been implemented in KMS ages ago)

[header]List of changes[/header]

- Stunning Strikes (3rd): +20% damage on stunned monsters
- Aerial Barrage (3rd): "after used, you will now be in the air" - Max
- Ishtar's Ring (4th): 110% > 150% and range has been increased
- Defense Break (4th): [Rebuilt skill]Ignore 25% DEF and [b]25% elemental resistances[/b]
- Advanced Final Attack (4th): 1st arrow - 105% > 120%, 2nd arrow 70% > 80%
- [New] Advanced Stunning Strikes (4th): Target - 8 enemies Damage - dealing 150%x4 with 80% chance to stun for 6 seconds. +20% damage on stunned monsters (Max level: 1)

Hypers:

- Add range and Linked Reinforce(the one that gives damage bonus to SS) removed.
- [New] Ishtar's Ring - Ignore Guard (Hyper): Ignore DEF: 20%.
- [New] Ishtar's Ring - Boss Killer (Hyper): Boss +20%.

[url=http://orangemushroom.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/kms-ver-1-2-191-soul-weapons-and-mercedes-phantom-balancing/]...or with colour[/url]

Other things to note:

- With the unlimited patch in KMS, PDR is no longer additive and it is currently multiplicative.

[Header]Abbreviations:[/header]
[b]RoI[/b] - Ishtar's Ring, [b]SR[/b] - Spikes Royale, [b]DB[/b] - Defense Break, [b]WoE[/b] - Wrath of Enreal, [b]AFA[/b] - Advanced Final Attack

[header]ZOMG Defense Break Nerf!@#$%[/header]

Thank god the discussion regarding this has been settled but let's make it more clear with [url=http://i.imgur.com/EfhLfmd.jpg]graphs[/url] (..'cos they look cool and it makes me look smart).

[b]1. Pre - ALL[/b] - Everything before KMS 1.2.191 i.e. no changes to DB
[b]2. ALL[/b] - Everything after KMS 1.2.191 i.e. Changes to DB, SR, SR-Hyper, RoI-Hyper
[b]3. DB+0.4SR[/b] - KMS 1.2.191 with DB and SR+Hyper SR only
[b]4. DB+0.2SR+RoI[/b] - KMS 1.2.191 with DB, SR, and RoI-Hyper
[b]5. Pre - DB[/b] - Pre-KMS 1.2.191 DB only
[b]6. Post - DB[/b] - KMS 1.2.191 DB only

Notice how 1 and 2 are exactly the same/on top of each other? Well they [url=http://www.basilmarket.com/bye.php?u=docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An5-TcCPsuLqdEtwQUNyckJTOUE2cDhKdlY5T3JOaEE#gid=47] actually are mathematically identical[/url] (no matter how many extra PDR sources you have).

Please note however RoI's hyper does not affect other skills such as AFA and WoE* which you probably would be using on bosses other than RoI. (* Perhaps not after this patch but I'll discuss this later)

So in actual fact you may be losing <9%damage on roughly 40% of your DPS(RoI accounts for roughly 60% of your total DPS after this patch - more on this later).

3. The 9% I was talking above comes from here. Without any external sources you're losing about 9% not using the RoI-hyper.
4. Due to our limited Hyper SP, I've also looked at the scenario of not having the SR-hyper and getting the RoI-hyper instead. Slightly less than 3. [b]If you are to choose between SR and RoI, go for SR[/b]
5. Let's see what DB itself does
6. and... what the new DB does. 15% cut without any external sources.. ouch! <This is what most people thought initially. It is indeed a big difference if you look at it by itself but if we take everything into account the changes are honestly ...[i]insignificant[/i](if we take into account that we get/may be able to ignore 25% of your target's physical resistance< This is MASSIVE on bosses such as Hilla, Empress and Root Abyss bosses).

[b]Ergo: Hardly a nerf. [/b]They restructured it to be fair? for other classes who do not have 100% but gave us some extra gems that makes this non-Mastery Book requiring skill something to be happy about(note: Buccs have the same skill).

Something to note however on bosses with 300% PDR the new DB will not allow you to hit it without an extra line or two of ignore DEF, while pre-KMS1.2.191 you would be able to hit it occasionally.

[b]Your Bossing Hyper Skill Reinforcement Build[/b]

1. Defensive - 2 on RoI(Boss+PDR), 1 on SR(+20% ignore def) and 2 on Water Shield (Status resist+10%damage reduction).

2. More Damage - All 3 on RoI, 1 on SR(+20% def ignore) and 1 on Water Shield (Choose between the above two. Personally I feel that status resist would help us more than damage reduction).

Note: Training build will be centred around reinforcing your mobbing capacity. i.e. 2 on SR(def ignore+leap tornado) and choose between having 2 on RoI or 2 on water Shield.

[header]RoI+AFA vs WoE (DPS Analysis)[/header]
[quote=ryuushinou]
[b]RoI[/b]
Delay:0.12s
Damage%:409.73 = RoI x (our%damagebuffs** + Hyper+boss)
AFA%:217.00 = 0.7 x AFA x our%damage buffs**
%/s:5,020.73 <ignores the 0.3s delay to initiate and end RoI

[b]WoE[/b]
Delay:0.75s
Damage%:4,650.00 = WoE%
AFA%:217.00 = 0.7 x AFA x our%damage buffs**
%/s:6,489.33 <excludes +20% bossing

**55% or (1+0.55)[/quote]

Now the above is just comparing 1 fire and completely ignoring the fact that there is a delay to start RoI and end it.

Now look at [url=http://i.imgur.com/GEvLsM5.png]this[/url] and [url=http://i.imgur.com/8376Sg5.png]this[/url] or play with [url=http://www.basilmarket.com/bye.php?u=docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An5-TcCPsuLqdEtwQUNyckJTOUE2cDhKdlY5T3JOaEE&usp=sharing#gid=45]the chart[/url] and fiddle with the pulldown menu beside "WoE".

Not so significant difference but you can see a drop in DPS just by executing WoE.

Things to note:I have arranged to execute SR every 8s (which is relatively easier to time rather than keeping an eye on when SR comes down) when WoE is being used.

[b]Ergo:WoE is not a significant DPS factor anymore.[/b] However it doesn't mean it's useless. For bosses with a tall hit box such as Zakum, Horntail, Ranmaru and Vellum you can use SR followed by WoE instead of using SS to utilise that falling time. It should also be noted that the reason for the loss of DPS is due to the interruption of RoI, which means if you initiate with WoE then you will reduce the interruption and add onto your DPS(such as after a stun/seduce etc).

[Header]Stunning Strikes v0.5 - half a step back[/header]
Due to the removal of the hyper reinforcement Stunning Strikes, we now only have 150% damage (120x1.25) from the 3rd job skill. Now we get an [i]advanced[/i] skill in 4th job so we would expect it to AT LEAST cover the loss from the Hyper reinforcement right? Apparently not. Only 1 SP to max it but we only get an additional 4 targets.

I guess they really didn't feel the need to raise our mobbing capacity and considers our horizontal movement account for the lack in damage%.

[b][Update] I reworked some of the damage calculation and have found that SS is your skill of choice for standard mobbing.[/b]

[Header]Be happy we got one[/header]
Defense break:+1
RoI+AFA:+2
Adv.SS:-0.5

Overall, we received a modest buff and there should be nothing to whine about (the loss on Stunning Strikes isn't so significant).

(I think I've covered everything)