I normally do this kind of stuff on the DiV forums, but hey, we have RDMs, so why not here? This is kind of my notepad for things that are going to be added into the RDM guide, and this is the kind of stuff that I waste my work days on. Today I'm working on
MAB vs. INT, more specifically, which choices between certain gear options will yield you the most bang for your magical buck.
Warning: There will be math.
Calculating Magic Damage
Using
this page as a resource, the math behind your nuking damage is calculated as such, in order:
- 1) D (Base Damage)
2) Multiple-Target Damage Reduction
3) Resists
4) Staff Bonus
5) Day/Weather Bonus
6) Magic Burst Bonus
7) MAB/MDB
8) Target Magic Damage Adjustment
Since this is just to figure out in general which gear will be best, we'll be using some constants. I will assume the following:
- Blizzard III is the spell being used
- An Ice Staff is equipped
- The spells are going fully unresisted
- There is no weather
- The day is neutral to Ice magic
- A Moldavite Earring is equipped
- The mob does not have any MDB bonus or racial magic defense/weakness to adjust for
Soooooo let's get down to business. I will be using my personal nuking setup for the purposes of the guide, then examining what effects changing certain pieces will have. The point is to figure out if we should be going for INT in certain slots, or MAB.
My Nuking Set- Ice Staff
Phantom Tathlum
Warlock's Chapeau+1
Elemental Torque
Elemental Earring
Moldavite Earring
Errant Houppelande
Duelist's Gloves
Hale Ring
Tamas Ring
Prism Cape
Penitent's Rope
Duelist's Tights
As /BLM I have a base INT of 64. All of this added up brings me to a total of 106 INT, and 33 MAB(24 from JTs, 5 from Moldavite Earring, and 4 from Duelist's Boots. If you don't have a Moldavite Earring, go get one. Now.)
Our Mob
For the purposes of this I'll be using a fictional mob, we'll call it the Calliburn(if you get the pun you're a big nerd, more power to you.) The Calliburn is level 82(VT to a 75 player). Like most XP mobs, he has a racial INT ranking of D, and we'll say that he's THF/THF for his job, giving him a job INT ranking of C, making him a nice, average mob. Race Rankings and Job Rankings can be found
here and
here, respectively. Using his level and rankings, we will find that the Calliburn has an INT score of 87(How to calculate stats is also found in the same thread as the Race Rankings).
The Calliburn
Sooo, that leaves me with 106 INT, and our mob with 87, making a dINT of 19. Let's calculate some damage!
Finding 'D': 'D', or base magic damage, is the first thing we need to find to figure out our total nuke damage. This next part is important:
| Quote: |
For dINT < 0: D = V + dINT (when dINT is a penalty, the tier mult. is always 1)
For dINT > 0, but less than some inflection point: D = V + (dINT * M)
For dINT > 0, but after some inflection point: D = V + (const + (dINT-const) * M / 2))
(above some critical value, adding INT becomes half as effective)
For dINT > 0, but after some cap: D = cap |
Notice that there is a point where adding more INT gives diminishing returns. I myself have no freakin clue what this point is, and I can't find it posted online(I need someone to do some PVP Testing with me!), but for this I'm going to assume that a RDM using our gear setup cannot reach this 'inflection point' against our VT mob. Our formula for D will be
Here V is the base value of the spell, which is 320 for Blizzard III, and M is the tier multiplier, which is 1.5 on single-target tier III spells. Sooo doing the math:
- D = 320 + (19 * 1.5) = 320 + 28.5 = 348
Staff Bonus: Using the conditions I set out at the beginning, we can skip a couple of steps, and take D straight into the Staff Bonus. Using a NQ Ice Staff, we will receive a 10% bonus:
- D = 348 * 1.10 = 382.8 = 382
Magic Attack Bonus: The next variable that we need to consider is our MAB. Using our gear setup, we have 33 MAB, or +33% damage:
- D = 382 * 1.33 = 508.06 = 508
Using our current setup, our current Blizzard III damage without resists, MDB, or a racial magic damage adjustment factor is 508. Now we can take a look at how changing some of our gearz will affect this.
Optimizing the lolNukes
Now that we have our normal damage in this setup, let's see how some changes would affect this...I will be leaving out the Morrigan set for the time being due to how effing difficult it is to get those pieces.
Zenith Mitts vs. Yigit Gages
Although I currently use my Duelist's Gloves for pretty much everything, I do plan on getting a pair of Yigit Gages to use for nuking and debuffs. The Yigit Gages offer INT/MND+5, and MAB +2. There are also the Zenith Mitts, which offer a straight MAB+5, as well as 50 HP>MP. You probably know how I feel about the Zenith set by now, but we'll give a look at them and see how they fare.
Yigit Gages: Adding one more INT than the Duelist's Gloves, these would bring our dINT to 20, in addition to the MAB +2, which brings our total MAB to +35. Let's run the #'s on this:
- D = V + (dINT * M)
D = 320 + (20 * 1.5)
D = 350
So we only gain 2 damage in our base damage, that's practically nothing, but let's see how the rest plays out:
- D = 350 * 1.1 = 385 (Staff Bonus)
D = 385 * 1.35 = 519.75 = 519
So without any other factors considered, the Yigit Gages would add 11 damage to each Blizzard III. While not a stellar improvement, they do also have 5 MND for debuffing and Evasion +4. Aside from your buff cycle, they are certainly and improvement over the Duelist's Gloves.
Zenith Mitts: Although offering no INT bonus, these do offer a higher MAB than any other options in the hands slot, the +5 MAB bringing us to +38 total. But is that enough to make them a better nuking piece?
- D = V + (dINT * M)
D = 320 + (15 * 1.5)
D = 342
So we lose 6 base damage from the lack of INT boost. Let's see if this is made up in MAB:
- D = 342 * 1.1 = 376.2 = 376 (Staff Bonus)
D = 376 * 1.38 = 518.88 = 518
So the Zenith Mitts do actually do slightly less damage than the Yigit Gages for Blizzard III. Although my original opinion about them was completely biased and prejudicial, it appears that I was right, the Z set continues to blow goats. Some notes do need to be made though:
- A Melon Pie+1 could make up the base INT difference between the Zenith Mitts and the Yigit Gages
- Wearing Yigit Gages while eating Marron Glace would yield the INT and about the same MP(5 more, actually), and cost a shitload less than eating Melon Pies+1 all of the time
- On a partially resisted spell, Zenith Mitts would out-damage the Yigit Gages, as the MAB bonus is calculated after the resists are, while the INT portion of the damage is calculated before resists
Winnar = Yigit Gages Duelist's Boots vs. Yigit Crackows Duelist's Boots: These were used as part of our original set, they offer +4 MAB and no INT bonus. Calculated above, the damage with these on would be:
Let's see if that can be improved...
Yigit Crackows: The Yigit Crackows offer +3 INT and MND, but only +2 MAB, making our total +31. Is the 3 INT enough to make up for the loss of MAB?
- D = V + (dINT * M)
D = 320 + (22 * 1.5)
D = 353
Those 3 INT points added a solid 5 to the base damage, let's see about that MAB though...
- D = 353 * 1.1 = 388.3 = 388 (Staff Bonus)
D = 388 * 1.31 = 508.28 = 508
So the Yigit Crackows actually come in even with the Duelist's boots, and the extra INT will also come in handy for Enfeebling. If you had to choose, the Yigit Crackows could definitely be your full-time footwear of choice.
Winnar = Yigit Crackows Duelist's Tights vs. Mahatma Slops vs. Shadow Trews (3-way Cage Match, Every Pants for Themselves!) Duelist's Tights: While these offer no INT or MAB bonuses, they do give Elemental Skill +10, or roughly +9 Magic Accuracy for nukes. While you do lose damage by wearing these over other pieces, you do have to remember that Elemental Magic is only a C+ skill for RDM, and you will need some help landing spells on VT+ mobs. I prefer to wear these, as no matter how much more damage you can do with other pants, you'll do less damage if you get resisted. This is only my personal preference however, there are 2 other options you can look at for increasing nuke damage...
Mahatma Slops: Notice that I don't have Jet Seraweels on this list. Why not? Well, if you're going to pay for Jet Seraweels to increase your nuking damage, you may as well get the Mahatma Slops instead. They're about the same price and offer 1 more INT and MND than the Jets. These of course give 8 INT. If my Assumed Magic Accuracy Formula is correct, these would not be completely devoid of Magic Accuracy, giving +4. Let's see how the extra INT would boost the damage:
- D = V + (dINT * M)
D = 320 + (27 * 1.5)
D = 360
A whole +12 to base damage, that's actually a pretty big boost...let's see how it ends up with the other factors:
- D = 360 * 1.1 = 396 (Staff Bonus)
D = 396 * 1.33 = 526.68 = 526
So +18 damage with no weather/day factors considered. That's a pretty substantial amount when other multipliers are added...there are some things that need to be kept in mind though:
- You may get more resists wearing Mahatma Slops than you do with Duelist's Tights
- It's possible that 27 dINT may be past the 'inflection point' where adding more INT only becomes half as effective. I don't think this is likely to be the case, but it is possible
- When nuking mobs that con Tough or lower, you'd be better served to wear the Mahatma Slops over the Duelist's Tights, as they are not likely to resist the spell if you skill is capped. For VT+ I still recommend going with the +10 skill
Shadow Trews: One of the new Einherjar Abjuration pieces, the Shadow Trews may prove to be a decent pair of nuking pants. While offering no INT boost, they do give MAB+4 and Magic Accuracy +4. Let's see how big of an effect that'd have:
- D = 382 * 1.37 = 523.34 = 523
So slightly less damage than the Mahatma Slops, and seemingly the same Magic Acc boost, with a smaller emnity down effect. These pants actually don't seem very hot at all compared to the Mahatma Slops in pretty much every facet. Some notes:
- If my Assumed Magic Accuracy Formula is wrong, and INT does not figure into Magic Acc, then the Shadow Trews would be preferrable over the Mahatma Slops
- As with the Zenith Mitts, the Trews would do more damage than the INT pieces on a resisted nuke
- If the INT bonus from the Mahatma Slops does put you past the 'inflection point', the Trews may in fact do more damage
Winnar = Comes down to preference, either Duelist's Tights for less resists, or Mahatma Slops for best damage Uggalepih Pendant
I get asked about my opinion on this piece kind of often, so I would like to touch on it. This neckpiece offers +8 MAB when your current MP is 50% or less of your maximum MP. Something important needs to be noted, though:
MP boosts from Food or from '# HP Converted to MP' gear is not taken into consideration for this!! Read also: Zenith Set still blows goats. My current setup, including 2 MP merits and a Staff Strap, is about 720 MP without food(I don't wear any 'HP Converted to MP' pieces). A Hume wearing my exact same setup would have about 795 MP, and a Tarutaru would have around 980 MP. So while the latent was active, you would have between 360 and 490 MP to work with. Blizzard III costs 120 MP, so barring any Conserve MP procs, you would have 3-4 nukes available with the latent active(if you were doing something such as ChainNuking). Let's see how much damage would be added:
- D = 382 * 1.41 = 538.62 = 538
So you would get a solid 30 damage per cast added, making 90-120 over the course of your 3-4 nukes. That's nothing to scoff at.
However...you would be giving up the Elemental Torque for this, so you would be losing about 6 Magic Accuracy in order to wear the U Pendant. This lack of accuracy applies to all of your nukes, including the ones that are over 51% MP, while the U Pendant only applies to the last 3-4 nukes you can get off before you are out of MP. This needs to be taken into consideration when deciding which of these you want to wear. Of course you could stack some MP gear to have a larger pool to work with while the latent is active,
buuuuut...you do need to keep in mind that:
- 'HP Converted to MP' gear will not work for this purpose, and the bulk of high level MP+ gear is of this nature
- Adding MP into slots means losing INT. You could gain 240 max MP(enough for one more Blizzard III while latent is up), but this could easily cost you 15+ INT. If the INT loss is enough to bring your dINT down to or below 0, you just screwed your nuking damage all to hell regardless of how much MAB+ you have
Results/Conclusions/Notes
As you can see, it's hard to say whether MAB is better than INT for nuking damage. Alot of it depends on the slot, and how much the differences are. The 3 INT of the Yigit Crackows does offset the extra 2 MAB of the Duelist's Boots, while the 5 INT of the Yigit Gages outperforms the 3 greater MAB of the Zenith Mitts. From what I can tell so far on paper, the optimal nuking damage setup for RDM(not counting batshit insane Morrigan pieces, or the crazy expensive Mahatma Houppelande) would be:
- Ice Staff(Aquilo's Staff if you can!)
Staff Strap
Phantom Tathlum
Warlock's Chapeau+1
Elemental Torque
Elemental Earring(Magnetic Earring would be nice too)
Moldavite Earring
Errant Houppelande
Yigit Gages
Hale Ring(Omega Ring if possible)
Tamas Ring
Prism Cape
Penitent's Rope
Duelist's Tights
Yigit Crackows
I do intend to test dINT in PvP as soon as I can so that I can make sure my math is all correct, as well as to see if I can discover what the 'inflection point' is where INT starts giving diminished returns, this may have some effect on the outcome of my results, and I may have to fix them at some point.
MAB vs. INT Notes It should be noted that at lower levels of dINT, Magic Attack Bonus will have more of an effect. When running the #'s using Thunder III and a Thunder Staff, the results showed the Zenith Mitts being even if not barely better than the Yigit Gages, due to the lower dINT resulting from not wearing an Ice Staff. However, under my Assumed Magic Accuracy Formula, the Yigit Gages would still be a stronger piece, as the INT bonus they offer will also have a slight effect on Magic Accuracy, even if the Zenith Mitts gave the exact same damage.
So basically I'm saying that if you're fighting a level 90 mob, load up on MAB and nuke away, right? No, doofus! If you are fighting the likes of Kirin & Company in Sky, Ultima & Omega, or other high level baddies, you should be focusing on what RDMs do best: Enfeebling the mob and Enhancing your teamates! A RDM's Elemental Magic Skill is just too low to count on nukes not getting resisted against very high-level mosters. If you are nuking, it will likely be a level 80-85 mob, which should have INT rankings similar to that of our Calliburn. In this case you will have a reasonabe dINT, so you should focus on landing the spells without resists and finding the right balance of INT and MAB, which I believe can be found in the set I listed above.
Why Use Blizzard III/Ice Staff?
This is explained in the nuking section of my guide already, but there is a specific reason why I chose Blizzard III and the Ice Staff to be used when considering what is best for RDM nuking.
Blizzard III should be your go-to nuking spell as RDM! The Ice Staff gives INT+4 and Elemental Magic Skill +10, both of which are large enough boosts that they should not be overlooked. You should also have
at least 2 Ice Accuracy merits in your Group 1 merits, while having any Thunder Accuracy merits at all is much more optional. Although Thunder III is your strongest nuke, Blizzard III will be much more accurate, and will have greater damage/mp spent, which is what RDM nuking is all about. I can't stress enough that if you are going to ChainNuke, you need to use your Ice Staff and Blizzard III for it. Edit: The obvious exceptions being on Firesday or Lightningsday.
Personally as a taru, I don't intend to ever serious melee a mob in exp. But of course I play the role for support or soloing rather than as melee or jack of all trades jobs.
Linear Mode
