2013-05-06, 02:23 AM
My brother brought something to my attention today during his latest rant regarding his lackluster Hypers, namely Lightning Sphere. He contends that at the moment, with a damage cap, there is a threshold that Lightning Sphere becomes useful. My response was, "Wait, what? Lightning Sphere isn't useful all the time?"
I then remembered someone here said that due to the cap, LS is useful once it outperforms the capped Chain Lightning + Glacier Chain combo. Thinking about that, I guess it made sense so I agreed with him on that. Then after asking a few more questions, he guided me, very Socratically, to the conclusion that after Unlimited, LS will be inferior in nearly all realms against CL + GC.
I did some rudimentary math and I had to agree because over that 8 second period of time:
At Fastest(2) 2CL + GC: (8s / ((2 * 600ms) + 810ms)) * ((2*1400%) + 2380%) = 20617%
LS: (RoundDown(8s / 270ms)) * 700% + 1000% (Finsher) = 21300%
Edit: The first draft had me using only one CL, which I learned is impossible unless I round the CL + GC time to 1500ms; unrounded at 1410ms, that gave a value of 21447% over the 8 seconds. This resulted in my initial conclusion, but even though the revised value for 2CL + GC is lower than LS...
I didn't even do any of the fancy calculations adding in the 25% bonus Critical of CL, CL's 20% Hyper, GC's 40% DEF Ignore or DoT. Even more, brother informs me now that he's practiced a bit, on slow or immobile bosses, he can easily wedge Teleport Masteries not only between successive CL's but also CL -> GC and vice-versa, so there's even more damage unaccounted for.
Edit: I also didn't account for the 960ms startup on LS, I don't really know how I am supposed to apply that, if I shave it off the 8 seconds, then LS is even more "always worse" than 2CL + GC at 19200% over the 8 seconds. I also don't know if Booster affects that, so I just left it alone, no point in beating it even more.
Don't get me wrong, I've watched LS in action and it is pretty cool hitting all 8 parts of HT at once, 8 Arms of Zakum or netting those Witches in Dimensional Invade, but it's one of only three or four Hypers that might be (depending on the accuracy of my math) detrimental to DPS. Not to mention the hilarious rage (as a spectator) when you watch someone set everything up only to be Seduced, Stunned, need to move to get out of something's way or DR is cast.
I then remembered someone here said that due to the cap, LS is useful once it outperforms the capped Chain Lightning + Glacier Chain combo. Thinking about that, I guess it made sense so I agreed with him on that. Then after asking a few more questions, he guided me, very Socratically, to the conclusion that after Unlimited, LS will be inferior in nearly all realms against CL + GC.
I did some rudimentary math and I had to agree because over that 8 second period of time:
At Fastest(2) 2CL + GC: (8s / ((2 * 600ms) + 810ms)) * ((2*1400%) + 2380%) = 20617%
LS: (RoundDown(8s / 270ms)) * 700% + 1000% (Finsher) = 21300%
Edit: The first draft had me using only one CL, which I learned is impossible unless I round the CL + GC time to 1500ms; unrounded at 1410ms, that gave a value of 21447% over the 8 seconds. This resulted in my initial conclusion, but even though the revised value for 2CL + GC is lower than LS...
I didn't even do any of the fancy calculations adding in the 25% bonus Critical of CL, CL's 20% Hyper, GC's 40% DEF Ignore or DoT. Even more, brother informs me now that he's practiced a bit, on slow or immobile bosses, he can easily wedge Teleport Masteries not only between successive CL's but also CL -> GC and vice-versa, so there's even more damage unaccounted for.
Edit: I also didn't account for the 960ms startup on LS, I don't really know how I am supposed to apply that, if I shave it off the 8 seconds, then LS is even more "always worse" than 2CL + GC at 19200% over the 8 seconds. I also don't know if Booster affects that, so I just left it alone, no point in beating it even more.
Don't get me wrong, I've watched LS in action and it is pretty cool hitting all 8 parts of HT at once, 8 Arms of Zakum or netting those Witches in Dimensional Invade, but it's one of only three or four Hypers that might be (depending on the accuracy of my math) detrimental to DPS. Not to mention the hilarious rage (as a spectator) when you watch someone set everything up only to be Seduced, Stunned, need to move to get out of something's way or DR is cast.