[1.05.5+] Templar DPS - Unholy & Combo

[Kourose]

1. UNHOLY DAMAGE SOURCES

AoC rule for magical damage is :

Bonus Spell Damage = Wisdom x 0.6 + Magic from Gear

Where Bonus Spell Damage is what is listed on character sheet (stats panels) while it appears as +Magic or +Magic(Type) on gear. Templars dealing Unholy damage benefit from +Magic and +Magic(Unholy).

Wisdom contributes to Bonus Spell Damage as follows:

Bonus Spell Damage = Wisdom x 0.6 + Magic from Gear

Several feats give an increase of Base damage, which then becomes Feated base damage for the corresponding power. This boost is always a %-gain to base damage, ranging for Templars from +5% (Covenants through Talisman Mastery) to +400% (Dark Hand, Touch of Death).

Highest sustained Unholy damage source is Pact of Malacodor, while the lowest is Curse of Gwahlur. As the latter is mostly an aggro tool and healing support I should mention the second lowest one which is Sadistic Soul. But more of that later.

Here are all(*) our Unholy Damage sources and associated numbers. Those were obtained through testing and correlated with Tooltip data (when available) and "Ask Kalanthes" old database (few things to learn there). They are summed up below in a highly synthesized format. Please let me know if some more explanations are needed, but then it is mostly number crunching here.

(*) Warped Dread is giving a damage shield which might be Unholy, I have yet to check this one.

Abbreviations

Base   = Base value of Damage or Proc chance. Damage range is given together with () average value.
Feated = Fully feated Damage or Proc chance. Single value is average damage.
Coeff  = Scaling coefficient with +Magic (Unholy) bonus.
PPM    = Proc Per Minute
Reload = Cool down time
CPM    = Cast/Activation Per Minute
Max    = Maximum proc per minute, hard cap for reactive procs
AoE    = Area of effect. () max number of targets, in addition to main target for targeted powers.
Ticks  = Number of damage ticks for a DoT of () duration

1.1 Direct Damage Covenants

                   DAMAGE           GEAR          PROC
            Base     Feated +TM     AoE   Coeff  Base Feated Imp   Max
CoA      108-162(135)  192  199           0.250  7PPM +1PPM +3PPM 11PPM
AoD(1)    13-26 (20)
AoD(2)    21-43 (32)
AoD(3)    34-69 (52)
AoD(4)    50-104(77)
CoPest    87-130(109)       114    4m(12) 0.250   15%             15PPM

+TM = Talisman mastery
Imp = Improved Soul Covenants
CoA = Covenant of Arms
AoD = Approach of Death 75/65/55/45%
CoPest = Covenant of Pestilence

1.2 Active Abilities and Spells

                 DAMAGE                 GEAR               PROC
         Base     Feated        AoE     Coeff  Ticks  Reload   Max
DHand      70      350          ?m(2)*  0.100   1       30s    2CPM
RChaos     79      395          4m(4)   0.020   2(8.5s) 60s    1CPM
SSoul  231-282(257)             4m(12) ~0.2     1       30s    2CPM
TDeath     51      255                  0.120   1       **     2CPM+
PMala   31-39(35)   53          4m(2)*  0.050           (5s) ~54PPM
SHex(0)    ?      119-131(125)  ?m(2)*  0.050   1       10s    6CPM
SHex(1)    ?       250
SHex(2)    ?       375
SHex(3)    ?       500

* = With appropriate feat
** = 4 ranks of Soul for our Feast (SFoF) combo can be chained, each with 60s reload.
CPM+ = Only SFoF IV and III, up to 4CPM possible.
DHand = Dark Hand
RChaos = Reaping Chaos
SSoul = Sadistic Soul - Requires Sadism (10). More data needed for accurate Coefficient.
TDeath = Touch of Death
PMala = Pact of Malacodor. 54 PPM assumed as the average number of Hits performed in 1 minute firing as much combos as possible on a willing target.
SHex(n) = Shadow Hex, n stacks of "Hexed" debuff on target

1.3 Miscellaneous Damaging Procs

                  DAMAGE          GEAR                   PROC
         Base        Feated  AoE  Coeff  Ticks      Base Feated  Max
BTouch  116-141(129)  167         0.185    1        4PPM
BSoul    23-28 (26)    51  6m(12) 0.070    4(7s)    4PPM       4x4PPM
AoDF     43-52 (48)    48         0.100    1        6PPM +6PPM  12PPM
Corr     15-39 (27)    34         0.040    4(3.5s)  5PPM       4x5PPM
ZoG        34                     0.010   11(10.5s)           11x4PPM+
CoG(3)     17                     0.010                         30PPM*

4PPM+ = Only Leech Life (LL) VI and V, full time upkeep might be possible if Zone can spawn before end of LL buff.
CoG(3) = Curse of Gwahlur (3)
30PPM* = Single target DoT Damage of Curse of Gwahlur (3).
BTouch = Blighted Touch
BSoul = Blighted Soul
AoDF = Aura of Dread Fury
Corr = Corruption
ZoG = Zone of Gluttony. Have to find my notes back not too sure about 37 base damage.
__________________

[Kourose]

2. COMBO

A combo is comprised of a Starter and a Finisher with possibly extra preparation hits in between. There are Combo without Starter but no Combo without Finisher, as a Finisher is what defines a Combo in the first place.

Combo = Preparation + Finisher
Preparation = Starter (1st Hit) + extra Preparation Hits
Finisher = X Hits starting from last Hit of preparation sequence

Ex: Hit#1(Starter) + Hit#2 + Hit#3(Finisher)

Finisher has actually a single animation of fixed duration, hence the Finisher "cast bar". Finisher Duration is larger than single Hit animation but faster than X times the animation of 1 Hit for a X-Hits Finisher.

AoC rule for physical damage is :

Damage = DPS x Time

Applied to Combo damage it translates to:

Combo Damage = [DPS Starter x tStarter] + [DPS  x tHit x #Hit] + [DPS Finisher x tFinisher]

DPS = Weapon DPS + Combat Rating Bonus

DPS Starter = DPS + DPS(S) Combo bonus DPS to Starter
tStarter = Duration (animation length) of Starter Hit

tHit = Preparation Hit Duration
#Hit = Number of extra preparation Hits

DPS Finisher = DPS + DPS(F) = Combo bonus DPS to Finisher
tFinisher = Finisher Duration

Strictly speaking Hit duration depends on Animation Length and therefore on Hit Direction (Mid, UR etc). The Hit Duration can be measured for all directions through parsing with base DPS as input, but to be honest I did none of this. Perhaps I will, but in the meantime I just checked that sustained white Hit DPS is accurate which allows the somewhat crude approximation tHit ~ tStarter ~ 1s. Then it follows naturally that some girls are bigger than others and so on.

Finisher Duration is the key parameter allowing to calculate Finisher Damage, all other data being given in tooltip. I did measured tFinisher for our most common combo. Everything is summarized in following table:


Compiled data for Templar most common Combo

           PREPARATION                 FINISHER                           COST
         +DPS(S) Hits(P) Shield(F) Hits(F) +DPS(F) Duration(F) MBurn   Stam  CD  Duration(Full)
BfA V      27      3        UR       4      238       2.7s             484   4s   ~5.7s
BfA IV     22      2        UR       3      195       2.4s             376   4s   ~4.4s

LL VI      20      2       Mid       4      178       2.9s             539  15s   ~4.9s
LL V       22      2       Mid       4      196       2.8s             561  15s   ~4.8s

UB III     18      1        UR       3       90       2.8s             491  20s   ~3.8s
UB II      16      1        UR       2       80       2.3s             420  20s   ~3.3s

MB IV      24      2       Mid       4      142       2.6s      648    689  30s   ~4.6s
MB III     21      2       Mid       3      125       2.3s      602    613  30s   ~4.3s
MB II      12      1       Mid       2       68       1.8s      502    398  30s   ~2.8s

SFoF IV    27      2        UL       3      236       2.0s             663  60s   ~4.0s
SFoF III   22      1        UL       2      195       1.6s             467  60s   ~2.6s

MW                 0        LR       1       51       1.6s             242  40s    1.6s
MS                 0       Mid       1       51       1.6s             263  55s    1.6s
DP                 0        LL       4       95       3.0s             487  60s    3.0s

Shield(F) = Finisher hit direction on Shields
Hits(F) = Number of hits in Finisher, mainly useful for Absorb shields and such.
Duration(F) = tFinisher = Finisher Duration
MBurn = Maximum Mana burn through Mystical Bane combo with Incinerate Ether feated.
Stam = Stamina cost of Combo
CD = Cooldown time of Combo (NO Dread Lord)
Duration(Full) = Estimated full duration of Combo = Preparation + Finisher

[Kourose]

3. Scaling with Gear

4. DPS Analysis

I recycled some numbers for 1.05.5+ Templar's Unholy DPS, no mitigation (raw damage), average values:

Unholy DPS

                DAMAGE                              DPS  +Magic
          Base Feated  Coeff     PPM     +102  +138  +200  +300  +500  +900
PMala       35   53    0.050     54*     52.3  53.9  56.7  61.2  70.2  88.2
SHex(3)         500    0.050      6      50.5  50.7  51.0  51.5  52.5  54.5
SBlade            "       "       5      42.1  42.2  42.5  42.9  43.8  45.4
CoA        135  199    0.250     11(8)   39.9  42.8  45.7  50.2  59.4  77.7
CoPest     109         0.250     15      33.6  35.9  39.8  46.0  58.5  83.5
ZoG              34    0.010      4      25.7  26.0  26.4  27.1  28.6  31.5
BSoul       26   51    0.070      4      15.5  16.2  17.3  19.2  22.9  30.4
Corr        27   34    0.040      5      12.7  13.2  14.0  15.3  18.0  23.3
BTouch     129  167    0.185      4      12.4  12.8  13.6  14.8  17.3  22.2
RChaos      79  395    0.020      1      13.2  13.3  13.3  13.4  13.5  13.8
DHand       70  350    0.100      2      12.0  12.1  12.3  12.7  13.3  14.7
SSoul      257        ~0.2        2       9.2   9.5   9.9  10.6  11.9  14.6
CoGwa(3)         17    0.010     30**     9.0   9.2   9.5  10.0  11.0  13.0
TDeath      51  255    0.120      2+      8.9   9.1   9.3   9.7  10.5  12.1
AoDF        48   48    0.100     6(12)    5.8   6.2   6.8   7.8   9.8  13.8

ALL (-CoPest)                             311   319   330   349   385   457

+Magic
102 = Neither +Magic nor +Wisdom on Gear
138 = Neither +Magic nor +Wisdom on Gear, Talisman with Talisman Mastery feated
200 = Easy to get while gearing for +Combat Rating or other bonus
300 = Typical +Magic Gear hybridized with some +Combat Rating or other bonus
500 = Close to max value for full +Magic Gear in Heavy Armor
900 = Close to max value for full +Magic Gear in Light / Cloth Armor

Same kind of table for Combos is on the way. But I think I should take Crits into account as this might favor Magical DPS through Unholy Empowerment, while BfA line gets Desacrated Blood.

Update - Bonus DPS from Combo

In order to estimate the DPS gained through the use of Combo, I took the data in table for 'most common Combo' above and then calculated the effective bonus DPS from full combo time (Preparation + Finisher) and full combo +DPS (Starter and Finisher).

Note that there is a ~10% accuracy on Preparation hits duration. This mainly comes from a kind of buffer time introduced in between White Hits and I am not too sure at the moment if this buffer is kept for Preparation Hits. At the moment Preparation Hit duration is taken as 1s for all Hits (hence the aforementioned ~10% error).

Effective +DPS gained through Combo

             #HITS             +DPS           Damage    +DPS
           P  F   tF  tFull    S   F   Burn     F       Full
BfA V      3  4  2.7s  5.7s    27  238         643       117
BfA IV     2  3  2.4s  4.4s    22  195         468       111

LL VI      2  4  2.9s  4.9s    20  178         516       109
LL V       2  4  2.8s  4.8s    22  196         549       119

UB III     1  3  2.8s  3.8s    18   90         252        71
UB II      1  2  2.3s  3.3s    16   80         184        61

MB IV      2  4  2.6s  4.6s    24  142 (324)   369(693)   85(156)
MB III     2  3  2.3s  4.3s    21  125 (301)   288(589)   72(142)
MB II      1  2  1.8s  2.8s    12   68 (257)   122(373)   48(138)

SFoF IV    2  3  2.0s  4.0s    27  236         472       125
SFoF III   1  2  1.6s  2.6s    22  195         312       128

MW         0  1  1.6s  1.6s         51          82        51
MS         0  1  1.6s  1.6s         51          82        51
DP         0  4  3.0s  3.0s         95         285        95

#HITS = Number of Hits
+DPS = Bonus DPS, defined as Damage / Time (s)
S = Starter, first Hit of Preparation sequence
P = Preparation, including Starter
F = Finisher
tF = Finisher duration
tFull = Full Combo duration, Preparation + Finisher
Burn = Unholy damage from Mana Burn of Mystical Bane Combo
Damage (F) = Finisher Bonus Damage, taken as tF x Finisher +DPS
+DPS (Full) = Full Combo Bonus damage / Full Combo duration

A few trivial facts from this table:
- While being the most readily available, Blood For Aid V (BfA V) Combo is not the most effective except when Stamina usage becomes an issue. BfA V would need for example a higher Starter bonus damage to compensate for the long preparation time.
- Mystical Bane Combo line is the most effective DPS machine on mana-using targets.
- Leech Life V is a very good Combo.

Now, what exactly is this effective Bonus DPS from Combo ?

One can write damage as:

Damage = White Damage + Bonus Combo Damage

This simply states that in 1.05 Weapon DPS and bonus DPS from Combat Rating are simply added to the bonus damage from Combo. Using Combo is equivalent to maintaining a bonus DPS on top of White DPS, the more Combo are crammed in the longer this bonus can be sustained. Thus one wants to minimize the time when one is not loading up or performing a Combo Finisher (at least for Templars for whom all Combo have rather low bonus Starter Damage so no fancy Starter wholilop here).

Let us suppose you have a White DPS of say 300 (Frenzy, CoA, about 4500 Combat Rating, about 100 Weapon DPS). Looking at the table, one can expect to sustain a 120ish bonus DPS from Combo. So overall this gives a 420ish DPS or a ~29% increase with respect to White DPS.

The more you gear up with higher Weapon DPS and Combat Rating, the less this relative Combo contribution becomes. Only way to increase it is to feat for '+X% Damage or Healing' to a Combo, or through Desacrated Blood feat (+Crit chance) for the particular case of BfA line.

[Kourose]

This is taken from the "old forums" (before it goes to /dev/null)
Thanks to -Tul- aka Tull, former Advocate of Dark Templars dated december 2009.

[ArcaneScientius]

This is taken from the "old forums" (before it goes to /dev/null)
Thanks to -Tul- aka Tull, former Advocate of Dark Templars dated december 2009.

Tx to Kourose and Tul.

Much dark blessings on DTs.

[Areana]

Sorry, for necroing but I think this deserves a sticky anyway.

I just found an copying error in the first post of this thread. In the original version the two code boxes in the first post are different.

This is the original text:

1. UNHOLY DAMAGE SOURCES

AoC rule for magical damage is :

Damage = Base + Coefficient x Bonus Spell Damage

Where Bonus Spell Damage is what is listed on character sheet (stats panels) while it appears as +Magic or +Magic(Type) on gear. Templars dealing Unholy damage benefit from +Magic and +Magic(Unholy).

Wisdom contributes to Bonus Spell Damage as follows:

Bonus Spell Damage = Wisdom x 0.6 + Magic from Gear

[Sidar]

+++ sticky

[xiulo88]

I've read this post again and I think Im starting to understand something^^ but I thought Incinerate Ether gives to MB unholy damage and Im not capable to see where this damage is in the tables. I wanted to know if the the MB was afected for the Bonus Spell Damage.

[Sidar]

I've read this post again and I think Im starting to understand something^^ but I thought Incinerate Ether gives to MB unholy damage and Im not capable to see where this damage is in the tables. I wanted to know if the the MB was afected for the Bonus Spell Damage.

The mana burn component will scale with bonus spell damage but the damage will always be 50% of the base burn. As far as I tested it.

In the parser the Unholy damage will be merged with your combo damage, but you can look for the number on your combat window it will look something like this:

Your mystical bane hurts random mob with 200 slashing damage
Random procs
Your mystical bane hurts random mob with 200 slashing damage
more random procs
Your mystical bane hurts random mob with 200 slashing damage
Even more random procs
Your mystical bane hurts random mob with 400 unholy damage

[xiulo88]

Ok thanks Sidar. I tested some times and I think the bonus spell damage doesnt increase the unholy damage of MB. I tested without VoM and with around 200 of bonus the MB dealt 359 unholy damge on a hyena nad with 999 of bonus the MB dealt also 359 unholy damage.