Physical Crit vs Attack Manastones

[Syntex]

As most people are probably aware we have 2 main types of Manastones available to increase our damage and those would be +Physical Crit or +Attack.

There are a few different tiers of these, but the ones that will matter the most will be these...

http://www.aionarmory.com/icons/l/352936.gifManastone: Attack +5
http://www.aionarmory.com/icons/l/352936.gifManastone: Physical Critical Hit +15

Now which ones or what combination of Manastones will yield the highest damage with our skills? Also another thing to consider is which classes might benefit from +Attack more then +Critical Hit?

From what I have read 10 critical rating is approximately ~1% critical strike chance while +Attack is still unknown where it factors into the damage equation and if multipliers like Devotion have an effect on it where as critical rating affects everything.

It also seems to be commonly accepted that there is a so-called soft cap on critical strike rating of 440 which any rating added after this cap will yield ~1% critical strike per 20 points of rating rather than 10 and in essence cutting the effectiveness of the Physical Crit Manastones in half. I see this soft-cap discussed on the Ranger forums on a few other sites but I am not sure how Gladiators/Templars/Chanters/Assassins/Clerics are affected by this but I would assume they have the same number for the soft cap for Physical Crit at least.

It seems that most Korean and Chinese players who have had level 40+ characters have started filling out their equipment with +Attack when they hit the soft cap for crit which seems like the best way to go but we won't know for sure since Aion's crit system is a bit absurd with its multiplier when you can crit for 400 on a wolf and turn around using the same skill a moment later and crit for 2500 damage which I have personally done.

I will be doing some tests when I get 50 as anything results beforehand would be skewed without having all of your passive skills, level 50 stats, and maybe level which might affect how the formula for deriving damage is determined and I am only 36 right now so it might be a while. In the meantime if anyone wants to expand on this or might have some additional information on the subject please post and let us know what info you might have.

-Syntex

[Trocian]

Aion's crit system is a bit absurd with its multiplier when you can crit for 400 on a wolf and turn around using the same skill a moment later and crit for 2500 damage which I have personally done.

This isn't due to some error in the multiplier, it's just certain skills that have huge damage ranges, even though it isn't specified in their tooltip. A top-end crit is borderline overpowered, while they're pretty unimpressive otherwise.

The ones I'm aware of are Shining Slash for the Templar, and Stunning Shot for Rangers.

[Meresgi]

If you're talking assassin, from what i've read you go for 440 then begin to fill out with attack manastones. In pvp we're all about blasting an enemy down to the ground fast or we have to jet away. Devotion from my tests has no effect on our skills really, and is for auto attack dmg mostly.

[Lebzile]

Pretty sure you're talking about Stunning Shot which is "random physical damage", yes it gives a range but it is still all random. Same goes for Templar's Shining Slash. The crit system is almost like 2.0/2.5 depending on weapon.

IIRC, Daggers, Swords, Maces = 2.0x in 1.5

2handers = 2.5x.

Pretty sure this was a change in the 1.5 patch because that was one reason Templars were so OP, they had a 2.5x crit multiplier on their sword, and when stacking crits on a fast weapon like that, would mean massive amounts of DPS.

[Abandon]

If you're talking assassin, from what i've read you go for 440 then begin to fill out with attack manastones. In pvp we're all about blasting an enemy down to the ground fast or we have to jet away. Devotion from my tests has no effect on our skills really, and is for auto attack dmg mostly.

I'd have to disagree with you. If you're in a group, stack this with killer's eye and expect your crit surprise attacks to land in 1400+ range, and by +, I mean my high is about 2200. You're not going to get that without devotion.

[Olo401]

This isn't due to some error in the multiplier, it's just certain skills that have huge damage ranges, even though it isn't specified in their tooltip. A top-end crit is borderline overpowered, while they're pretty unimpressive otherwise.

The ones I'm aware of are Shining Slash for the Templar, and Stunning Shot for Rangers.

I'd have to disagree with you. If you're in a group, stack this with killer's eye and expect your crit surprise attacks to land in 1400+ range, and by +, I mean my high is about 2200. You're not going to get that without devotion.

Gonna second this.. My normal crits on SA without KE or Devotion range between 900-1100, and with both it goes anywhere from 1100-1600 with an occasional monster hit, like the 2000+ crit I got yesterday at Lv28. So there's probably some effect from the attack boost that needs to be tested out. I think I'm gonna play around with these three skills this week and see what kind of numbers I can come up with.

[Abandon]

Olo, you'd be surprised how many Sins don't combo this stuff together. I love when I'm grinding with someone (usually a temp) and i get "wtf did you just do?"

[Olo401]

Olo, you'd be surprised how many Sins don't combo this stuff together. I love when I'm grinding with someone (usually a temp) and I get "wtf did you just do?"

Learning to stack effects.. One of the benefits of a Vana'diel education I suppose?

[Abandon]

Yup. Gonna try to stack devotion and KE with assassination too, see how that does.

[Tythera]

Pretty sure you're talking about Stunning Shot which is "random physical damage", yes it gives a range but it is still all random. Same goes for Templar's Shining Slash. The crit system is almost like 2.0/2.5 depending on weapon.

IIRC, Daggers, Swords, Maces = 2.0x in 1.5

2handers = 2.5x.

Pretty sure this was a change in the 1.5 patch because that was one reason Templars were so OP, they had a 2.5x crit multiplier on their sword, and when stacking crits on a fast weapon like that, would mean massive amounts of DPS.

They changed it from:

Pre-1.5

1h: 2.5
2h: 1.5

to

1.5

1h: 2.3
2h: 1.8

[Purrrfect]

There is a crit/atk thread on AS in the templar forum. They have come to the conclusion that attack+X adds X to your min/max damage numbers for regular auto attacks, making it much better early game. They haven't done any skill testing last I read. They also have some crit info there.

[Katlan]

If you're talking assassin, from what i've read you go for 440 then begin to fill out with attack manastones. In pvp we're all about blasting an enemy down to the ground fast or we have to jet away. Devotion from my tests has no effect on our skills really, and is for auto attack dmg mostly.

Assassin is around 340 crit & RNG is 440 crit. After you reach those figures, any more crit will see rather large diminishing returns and it's determined other manastones will give you better benefits. Also need to figure in your buffs / ect to your total crit. So if your at 340 crit but have a +100crit buff for 1 min (3 min CD), you need to determine if you want to just go for atk/hp or still push your crit higher

[Abandon]

due to the initial 100 crit we get from daggers and passives, sure. But some use swords, or I've even heard maces, so I'd still push towards 440.

[Syntex]

If you could find that thread and link it that would be helpful.

What I am interested in is if the softcap for crit is worth going to or is full on +attack something we are underestimating?

I as a Ranger have an attack that guarantees the next 2 hits crit, now more crit with this skill doesn't help me do more damage and +attack does. Now on the flip side of that when the skill is on cooldown will I be hurt by a dimished crit rate or will the +attack overcome the randomness of socketing crit and provide overall more damage?

This is something I am going to be testing when I hit 50 as I am always up for challenging the normal model or if it turns out that its right this will only reinforce it.

It's going to be a while either way as I am just hitting 38.

[Abandon]

I'd go to the crit cap first. My regular hits are almost double up in damage by my crits, so you'd only be hurting yourself.

[Syntex]

I'd go to the crit cap first. My regular hits are almost double up in damage by my crits, so you'd only be hurting yourself.

I agree but a full +attack build is something I would like to explore if to do nothing else but rule it out as inferior I would be fine with that.

We should give it a look though as there might be some hidden benefits to stacking +attack we don't know about.

[Abandon]

Well anyone who parties with a chanter knows it raises the range at which you do damage. But even so, crits are where you'll get your major output, as you're not autoattacking as much as you are spamming through your dps cycles. If my abilities aren't critting, i'm doing shit for damage. so while +attack is good, i'd like to make sure i'm critting as much as possible before I start socketing for +attack.

[Meresgi]

I'd have to disagree with you. If you're in a group, stack this with killer's eye and expect your crit surprise attacks to land in 1400+ range, and by +, I mean my high is about 2200. You're not going to get that without devotion.

I crit for around 2300 w/o it at times. From all that ive seen and discussed with other sins on boards and in game, popping devo before a sneak attack seemed to do little to nothing. I basically took it off my bars for the time being. I might try it out again later tonight though and see if anything is different. Especially since I auto attack now in groups whenever my swiftedge/sneak attack and such moves are on CD. I seem to auto attack harder then my beast combo hits for. Hurray sword/sword.

[Alishe]

I was doing 1259crits @lv17 using devotion, without it wasn't coming close, best with out was 711. Using sneak attack against Kralls.

[Trocian]

I was doing 1259crits @lv17 using devotion, without it wasn't coming close, best with out was 711. Using sneak attack against Kralls.

That's Killer's Eye, not Devotion.

I've found on SE alone, Devotion doesn't do squat/very little. It does however give quite the boost to your other attacks. Maybe it's just my imagination.