After a few nights of attempts, we got Reliquary of Souls down. Hooray! Next up, Mother Shahraz and Illidari Council. And before that, we went and killed Archimonde (since we left him up the previous day due to the lack of decursers) and I picked up my Tier 6 helm. Yay! While the Forest Prowler's Helm is technically better, with the Bow-Stitched Leggings are taking the spot of Tier 6 pants, if I want to realistically get my 4-piece set bonus, I have to use the helm. And that's OK, it was an agility upgrade.
So let's move on to the meat and potatoes of today's post. The effectiveness of Armor Penetration. You see this popping up on a lot of gear, such as Season 3 items and a lot of the loot coming out of Zul'Aman. The bottom line is that Armor Penetration is an awesome stat. Let's look at why, and where the value should be placed.
The first thing we need to know is how Armor calculates damage reduction. The formula for calculating damage reduction is as follows:
For example, let's take my current armor, which is 7181. Putting that into the formula, it looks like this:
Now if we look at myself on the Armory, this number coincides with what Blizzard's tooltip is displaying, a damage reduction value of 40.48%.
Armor reduction is not a linear thing either. Take a look at this chart borrowed from WoWWiki to get a visual idea of what I mean:
There is a mathematical cap to the effectives of your Armor, usually a problem only high-end Druids have to concern themselves with. :)
OK, have we lost anyone? I hope not. Now we have a quick grasp of how Armor functions, we can start to talk about how Armor Penetration functions as well. Armor Penetration does exactly what it sounds like, it ignores your targets Armor, calculating the mob/person's damage reduction against your attacks as if they had a lower Armor level due to this stat.
Let's first take a look at the Armor value of many of the targets we would be dealing with.
So let's run some hypothetical scenarios real quick so we can get an idea of how this would apply to us in-game. From the research done is this thread, which is reflected above, we know that Attuman the Huntsman has 7500 Armor. So if we plug that into our formula, the damage reduction we get is this:
That number also correlates correctly with the information provided by Elitist Jerks. With 41.53% damage reduction, we are capable of doing 58.47% of our possible damage. That is calculated by figuring out that if we attacked a target with zero Armor, our damage would be at 100%, and then subtract the target's damage reduction. Given that, we can now see what our Armor Penetration will do for us. For instance, let's say you have 500 Armor Penetration. We can now safely say that Attuman only has 7000 Armor. So let's crunch that number:
So we now know that we are doing 60.131% of our total possible damage. This is a 2.84% damage increase for us when compared to 0 Armor Penetration. That was figured like this:
As you can see, we are just taking the percentage of the damage we can do after armor reduction with our Armor Penetration and dividing it by the pre-ArP damage. The actual number you will see is 1.028407~.
And not all Armor Penetration amounts are created equal either. Let's do a comparison between 500 Armor Penetration and 1000 Armor Penetration. With full armor, Attuman has 41.534% damage reduction, allowing us to do 58.47% of our total possible damage.
With 1000 ArP, Attuman now has a damage reduction of 38.1%, allowing us to do 61.9% of our total damage. This comes as a 5.86% increase in damage when compared to attacking with no Armor Penetration. So if we subtract the damage increase from the first 500 ArP (2.84%) and subtract that from our new number (5.86%).
So we now see the second 500 Armor Penetration netted us a 3.02% damage increase, while the first 500 only gave us 2.84.
While that gain my seem very slight, remember that you are not the only person with Armor-reducing effects. Sunder Armor, Faerie Fire, Curse of Recklessness all are debuffs that are going to reduce the targets armor. So let's say Attuman is now debuffed with these spells, including 5 stacks of Sunder Armor. With just those three abilities listed, Attuman is now down to 3490 Armor. This puts him at 24.8% damage reduction, already allowing us to achieve 75.2% of our total possible damage.
I found this calculator that calculates the DPS gain from Armor Penetration. The numbers it is producing seem accurate with all the math we have done thus far.
So hopefully no one's head has exploded yet and that this is making sense. You can see why the Daggers of Bad Mojo are so highly rated on the Hunter's desired weapon list, given that together you gain 240 Armor Penetration in conjunction with 162 Attack Power and 82 Agility (after enchanting them of course). :)
Another popular spreadsheet is this one, referencing damage reduction values against other players and their "class value."
Well, that's it for now. Hopefully I have all my research right. If you have any questions, comments, corrections, or concerns, leave them right here. Have a great weekend. Especially all of us who get a 3-day one. :D
Friday, May 23, 2008
Souls Down, Phat Loot Train, Armor Penetration
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Can't Stay Away From The Mojo
OK, this has to be a quick post today. We ran Zul'Aman last night, and I lost the roll on the Signet of Primal Wrath but did pick up my second Dagger of Bad Mojo. Yay!
My DPS last night during Black Temple was great, and the spec is really starting to show it's stuff. For instance, you can see Teron Gorefiend turned out like this:
Bloodboil turned out like this:
No complaints from me. Tomorrow I will have a more in-depth post about Armor Penetration and what not. Work is just kind of crazy, and all kinds of deadlines got pushed forward. Hooray.
Thoughts, comments, etc. Leave 'em here.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sunwell Trash, Shiny New Loot
Trivial stuff out of the way first.
Last night was a good night, as I picked up a pair of Quickstrider Mocassins and a pair of Bow-Stitched Leggings. How hawt is that? Since I broke my two-piece Tier 5 bonus, I have decided to use my Season 3 PvP helm. While this nets me a slight lose in AP, I make up for it by picking up some more Armor Penetration as well has putting me over the Survival hit cap.
I opted to just stick Glinting Noble Topaz and a Delicate Living Ruby in the boots for now, until the gem vendor hits. Which may be never. Our server is barely gaining a percent every few days. I did get a Rigid Lionseye and a Delicate Crimson Spinel into the leggings, along with a second Delicate Living Ruby.
Then, depending on on any other gear changes, I will decide if I am able to drop the +hit gem in my boots in favor of raw agility. This will be determined by what my hit ratings is. I may end up replacing with a Glinting Pyrestone if I get a second Dagger of Bad Mojo, since I will then have to make up 30 hit rating from switching out my polearm. With those daggers I believe I will have around 480 Armor Penetration, barring out a Signet of Primal Wrath.
We are getting there. :D
Last night I was pretty happy with my DPS in Mount Hyjal. Azgalor, I have found, is a prefect fight to test my DPS in actual application. You can view the WWS right here. While some people aren't impressed by 1314 DPS, as Survival with a bow that's too fast, I find it to be quite respectable. Interestingly enough, Steady Shot on that fight made up almost exactly 40% of my DPS. Considering that my rotation has 2 out of every 5 shots as a Steady Shot, it seems right on par.
My wife hit level 68 last night. Yay! 2 more levels and we can start the whole Karazhan thing again. :) And it looks like we have enough people in the guild who have a strong enough desire to start our own ZA bear runs.
So . . . Sunwell trash farming. Here is the video:
What you are seeing is the third pull in the instance. The first pull is a giant robot which requires your raid to burn the crap out of it and heal a whole lot. The second pull is just like the one in the video. And the third, as demonstrated, is a series of sheeps and crowd control, single target DPS, and then sheeping the final target and having the entire raid run out so the ENTIRE pull resets, zoning back in and doing it again.
Mindless. It can be pretty boring. But you can get tons of incredible stuff.
On that note, I have a lot to get done at work today. Questions, comments, etc. Leave 'em here. I almost always respond!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday Maintenance Ramblings
So after my post yesterday I want to thank everyone who left comments or sent e-mails. There is no question in my mind that you guys are out there reading and enjoying the blog. And as long as people are doing just that, that's reason enough to keep writing. I also know that you are a quiet bunch so that I shouldn't be concerned about the small comment count. So no worries there.
So let's talk about stuff today, shall we? First things first, trivial stuff but fun to talk about none the less. We ran an almost full guild Magtheridon last night. We do this truthfully so we can get the gem bag. We fill it up with tons of guildies, fill in the last slots with whoever wants to come, we have random rolls for every piece of loot and by statistical probability our guild will win the gem bag. But besides the gem bag, I won Magtheridon's Head. This turned into a Ring of the Recalcitrant which should hold me over till I can finagle a Signet of Primal Wrath out of Kraz's Package.
Lately we have made an absolute killing selling Super Mana Potions and Elixirs of Major Agility. The market has been really dry so the prices have sky-rocketed. The Mana Potions were selling for 17g and up just a few days ago but have settled around13g a stack. It's been a great time to have all that Felweed and Dreaming Glory stockpiled for a rainy day.
"I always keep something pinned inside my vest for such a rainy day occasion."
"It's a good thing. It was clouding up pretty quick."
Random movie quote. Bonus points to whoever gets the quote. :)
So it's the start of the raid week which means I am Survival again. I respec Beast Mastery on the weekends after we finish raiding for a couple reasons. One, people don't want Survival Hunters when they are trying to push for a 3 or 4 timed ZA. The bonus from Expose Weakness just isn't justified in such a small group, especially if you are caster heavy for minimal downtime, usually involving a Mage, Warlock, Shadow Priest, etc. So the personal DPS gain is well-worth it.
In addition, the last few times we have done Arena I have had better luck as BM. In 3v3 with Vinculum and Xcebin I was getting eaten alive by Rogues and Warriors. Sure, Scatter Shot was nice but it wasn't getting the job done. And while the Beast Within may only last 18 seconds, in our 3s games, at the point it was already determined. We have either killed someone or they have killed one of us. Especially when I would blow Bestial Wrath and they would change targets and I would get to unload a BM shot rotation. It didn't always work, but it worked "enough." Our rating went up, and since Vinculum and Xcebin both got their personal ratings to 1850 in 2v2, I am more than happy to help get them enough points to buy S3 weapons before the season ends.
So let's look at the Survival spec I opted for this week, which is quickly becoming by favorite for PvE. 7/20/34. You can view it here.
Improved Aspect of the Hawk is an amazing talent, as you can see it's prevalence in many builds and not being limited to just Beast Mastery. Depending on your attack speed you can drop down to a 1:1 rotation for the duration of the buff, or continue running a 1.5:1 rotation, with just a smaller window to squeeze in the Arcane Shot. Regardless, it is a DPS increase. Combine that with Focus Fire and you have a straight 2% damage increase not counting the bonus from the Kill Command critical strike chance.
The Marksmanship tree is the standard 20 points down to Mortal Shots, no new tricks here. I did change the Survival tree slightly from my other builds, as I opted for Improved Feign Death. With my crit chance, I was finding myself threat capped very early on in fights and a resisted Feign Death would ruin my day. And despite my concerns about Entrapment in a raid setting, I never find myself every using a trap that might cause this to proc outside of dropping in during Mount Hyjal trash far away from everyone so the mobs initially run to me so the tanks can grab targets.
But I must end this post now, as I have recently learned there are a few unexpected deadlines at work today that I must accomplish. Thanks again for everything you guys wrote. It was reassuring. I frapsed a short video that illustrates the latest craze in Sunwell Plateau trash farming that I will upload tonight. Thoughts, comments, questions, leave 'em here!
