Melee Attack Ruleset

Miss + Dodge + Parry + Block + Crit + Hit = 100%

For example, if I have 30% Crit, +0 Hit and my target has 5% Dodge, 5% Block, 5% Parry, then in ONE DICE roll,

00-04 Miss (5%)
05-09 Dodge (5%)
10-14 Parry (5%)
15-19 Block (5%)
20-49 Crit (30%)
50-99 Hit (50%)

so if the magical Blizzard dice rolled 35, it will be a crit, and so forth.

Now what happens in a Coldblood Evis? The Crit chance is increased to 100% but anyone who plays rogue for more than 2 hours knows CB Evis misses like fuck. So here is what happens,

00-04 Miss (5%)
05-09 Dodge (5%)
10-14 Parry (5%)
15-19 Block (5%)
20-99 Crit (80%)

So your Evis will Crit 80% of the time.

Wait, but isn't CB a 100% Crit? Yes, but here is the deal. There are precedences for each one of these attack/defense types. Crits only eats Hits. +Hit items only eats Misses. Nothing eats Dodge/Parry/Block (besides themselves and weapon skills).

Thus the precedence order is,

Miss > Dodge/Parry/Block > Crit > Hit

So what about Dodge/Parry/Block's precedence? Well, here is my speculation.

Dodge > Parry > Block

Dodge has precedence over block/parry because your target won't need to parry/block when he dodges soemthing.

Parry is higher than block because, well, everything parry and above is 100% damage mitigation.

Block is lower than all the 100% damage mitigation actions but better than taking a hit.

EDIT: creeps cannot parry or block (supposely) from behind after patch 1.3, so it is advantagous even for sword rogues to attack doggy style. I will try to transcript patch 1.3 notes when WoW is back up. (3/21/06)

Energy Regeneration Oddities

Well, if you ever played a rogue, you know your energy is rarely a multiple of 5. So here it is.

Sinister Strinket = 40 energy (45 before talents)
Backstab = 60 energy

Missed SS costs 7 energy.
Missed BS costs 11 energy.

These numbers are gathered from Kurinnaxx fight in AQ20. His sandblast reduces your hit chance by 20% (or some retarded amount like that), so I was able to keep on missing SS/BS and record at the energy penalty.

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Now for my speculation on Blizzard's implementation of Energy regen/penality.

If you look at the energy lost from missed strikes per energy cost,

SS: 7/40 = 17.5%
BS: 11/60 = 18.3%

it can be save to assume its either 17.5% or 18% energy penality for missed specials.

So,

SS miss -> 40 * 0.175 = 7.0 energy (rounded to 7)
BS miss -> 60 * 0.175 = 10.5 energy (rounded to 11)

SS miss -> 40 * 0.18 = 7.2 energy (rounded to 7)
BS miss -> 60 * 0.18 = 10.8 energy (rounded to 11)

This is part of the reason that energy is rarely at multiple of 5.

Also, from my experience, energy rarely drops to 0, but only to 1.

I am suspecting the energy regen isn't perfect at 20 per 2 seconds but probably a odd number like 19.7 per second thus contributing to sometimes 21 or 19 energy regen ticks.

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Some might question my "theorycraft", but what I have done here is no more than reverse-engineering to emulate/model Blizzard's internal calculation code, with some speculations and rounding errors.

A Preview of My Next Version of DPS Calculator. Dynamically Updated (some bug of course)

			Main Hand Enchant
	DPS Chart	<= OH Poison DPS	None	Deadly Poison V	Instant Poison VI	Dense Sharpening Stone	Elemental Sharpening Stone
	MH Poison DPS =>		-	25.4	16.2	6.6	5.2
OH	None	-	-	25.39	16.18	6.57	5.25
	Deadly Poison V	20.9	20.91	46.30	37.09	27.48	26.16
	Instant Poison VI	13.3	13.33	38.71	29.50	19.90	18.57
	Dense Sharpening Stone	2.1	2.05	27.44	18.23	8.63	7.30
	Elemental Sharpening Stone	5.2	5.25	30.64	21.43	11.82	10.50
Temporary Enchant DPS =		46.3

			Main Hand Enchant
	DPS Chart	<= OH Poison DPS	None	Superior Striking (+5 Damage)	Agility (+15 Agility)	Crusader	Lifestealing
	MH Poison DPS =>		-	4.1	3.3	4.0	3.4
OH	None	-	-	4.11	3.30	3.98	3.37
	Superior Striking (+5 Damage)	1.3	1.28	5.39	4.59	5.27	4.65
	Agility (+15 Agility)	3.3	3.30	7.41	6.61	7.29	6.67
	Crusader	3.3	3.25	7.36	6.56	7.24	6.62
	Lifestealing	2.5	2.46	6.57	5.76	6.44	5.83
Weapon Enchant DPS =		7.4

Now I learned Copy and Past from Excel into Blogspot will have formatting problems. :S

1.10 Darkmantle Set

Here is a link to the new 1.10 Darkmantle Set.

The set graphics looks great and the stats fits very well between Nightslayer and Shadowcraft. The 4 piece set bonus of +35 Energy proc sounds extremely promising. I am particularly interested in DM Boots due to the stealth bonus.

5/5 MoD gives 15 Stealth Skill Points.

DM Boots gives 8 Stealth Skill Points according to WoWGuru.
NE Racial gives 5 Stealth Skill Points.
Stealth Enchant gives Lesser Stealth (5 Stealth Skill Points).
So DM Boots + NE Racial + Stealth Enchant = 18 Stealth Points, better than MoD 5/5.

Haven't I argued that MoD is useless since last January?

None of the speed enchant bonuses stacks besides Camo thus valuing 5/5 Camo higher than 5/5 MoD simply due to the unavailability/un-stackability of speed improvement enchants/gears.

On a side note,

1. We got to C'Thun phase 2 on our third week of AQ40. 15 min corpse run + buffs between attempts fucking sucks.
   
2. Each BS miss consumes 11 energy while each SS miss consumes 7 energy.
3. My Excel spreadsheet calculator has progressed smoothly and should be ready *soon*.
   

I Slap Myself in the Fase. 1% Chance to Gain Extra Attack = 1.5% Hit

I retract my eariler statement that +2% Hit and +2% Chance for an Extra Attack have no material differences after some discussion with Pj. We have come to an agreement that 3% Hit = 2% Chance to Gain Extra Attacks. This is some logic flaw on my part. My apologies.

So 5/5 Sword Spec is effectively 6.5% Hit. HoJ is effectively 3% Hit + 20 AP.

My 03.03.06 post regarding my calculation assumptions still holds true, except flawed logic in interpreting the results.

On a side note, grats to my guild Eminence on Twin Emp kill. Gate opened 02/27/06. Twin Emperor down on 03/03/06. Good progress. Now where the fuck is me on the group shot. :S

My Excel Calculator v0.4.3 is well in progress. Now I just have to make the Data Table work so they display the correct value. > <

HoJ/Sword Spec Procs? Pfft. Get +Hit

First of all, I've shown a 0.5% increase in DPS from 2% hit to 2% for an extra attack. That's far from 50% improvement from the comment.

1. 2.4 MH and OH Speed Assumption I assumed 2.4 speed for both MH and OH. Most MH sword speed ranges from 2.6 to 2.9. There are only 4 epic sword that has speed less than 2.4: Blackguard(craftable), Ravencrest's Legacy(AQ Gate Quest), Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight(BWL), Warblade of the Hakkari(ZG). Most uses Brutality Blade(MC) for OH. 2.4 speed for both hands is a fairly reasonable assumption.
   
2. Sword Spec or HoJ procs are additive and will slightly decrease total number of MH attacks as they cancel out attack-in-motion. And although you gain more chance to proc extra MH attacks through HoJ/Sword Spec, but you also have less chance to miss on BOTH your MH and OH attacks for +2% Hit.
3. Aggression won't change the results. Extra 6% damage on SS does not have anything to do with extra MH attacks gained through +Hit or +Chance to attack.
4. Slice and Dice won't change the results either as it benefit both the same way. Neither will Blade Flurry skew the results.
   
5. Duel Wield spec will only reinforce my argument further. OH DPS weights 75% instead of 50% of the white DPS, thus the damage from MH extra procs will be reduced as a % of overall damage.

Extremely minor details I should say.

+2% Chance for an Extra Attack Has No Material Benefit Over +2% Hit

Known Facts:
HoJ procs off both special attacks and normal attacks.
HoJ can proc on another HoJ proc.
HoJ proc triggers an extra Main Hand attack.

Now assume a normal 5% hit 30% crit rogue (20% miss rate on normal attacks, 0% miss rate on special attacks) SS spamming over the course of 100 seconds using two 2.4 speed weapons. Further assume 250 non-crit white attacks and 318 non-crit SS for simplicity.

Default:
Total # of white attacks = (2*100/2.4)*(100%-20%) = 66.7
Damage from white attacks = 66.7 * (250+250*0.5) /2 * 1.3 = 16,258
Total # of SS = 25
Damage from SS = 25 * 318 * (0.7+0.3*2.3) =11,051
Total # of attacks = 91.7
Damage Total = 27,309

2% Hit:
Total # of white attacks = (2*100/2.4)*(100%-20%+2%) = 68.3
Damage from white attacks = 68.3 * (250+250*0.5)/2 * 1.3 = 16,648
Total # of SS = 25
Damage from SS = 25 * 318 * (0.7+0.3*2.3) =11,051
Total # of attacks = 93.3, or 1.74% more attacks than the original.
Damage Total = 27,699, or 1.43% improvement over the original.

2% Chance for an Extra Attack:
Total # of white attacks = (2*100/2.4)*(100%-20%) *1.02 + 25 * 0.02 = 68.5
Damage from white attacks = 16,258 + (68-66.7+25*0.02)*250*1.3 + = 16,843
Total # of SS = 25
Damage from SS = 25 * 318 * (0.7+0.3*2.3) =11,051
Total # of attacks = 93.5, or 1.96% more than the original, or 0.2% over +2% Hit.
Damage Total = 27,894, or 2.14% improvement over the original, or 0.7% over +2% Hit.

I have ignored proc on proc since those have very marginal benefit (2% for proc, 2.04% for proc on proc, 2.0408% for proc on proc on proc, etc).

Conclusion:

• Is +2% chance for an extra attack better than +2% hit? Yes.
• Is the difference significant? No, unless you consider 0.2%/0.7% more swings/damage material.
• For modeling purposes, it's easier to proximate +2% chance for an extra attack to +2%