I see this topic pop up from time to time in cabal chat, so I wanted to lay out my opinion based on the value returned for your hard earned BB or BM spent on upgrades. If I wasn't so lazy I would build a calculator for this.
The main focus of this is maximizing Combat Power (CP)/Healing Power (HP) and modifiers/mitigators (Glyphs) for the least BB/BM possible. DPS and Pure Heals (non-leeching) follow the same equations for calculating CP and HP, so I grouped them. Tank Gear is different, so I left that for a separate topic.
Good Links:
EndGame Guides - Stats for Weapons, Talismans, and Glyphs for ql 10 - 10.5 purple gear.
TSW Notes - About the CP/HP calculation
Seekrit Info - Great purple glyph calculator
1. Upgrade Head and its Glyph to 10.4 (160 BB/520 BM)
2. Upgrade Weapons to 10.2, and Weapon Glyphs to 10.4 (240 BB/1040 BM)
3. Upgrade Uppers and their Glyphs to 10.4 (480 BB/1560 BM)
4. Upgrade Weapons to 10.4 (160 BB/520 BM)
5. Upgrade Lowers and their Glyphs to 10.4 (480 BB/1560 BM)
When upgrading Uppers/Lowers, pick one talisman and max that one before moving on to next. Stat increases get higher as you upgrade to higher ql (i.e., AR increase for head is 37 (10.0 -> 10.1), 40 (10.1 -> 10.2), 46 (10.2 -> 10.3), and 53 (10.3 -> 10.4)).
If you have all ql 10 purple gear, then you are on the bad side of a diminishing returns (DR) curve for CP/HP. Increasing the ql of talismans will give you a much higher attack rating (AR) or heal rating (HR), but smaller increases in CP/HP. This is good for PUG marketability, but not so great for actual DPS/HPS.
Weapon Power (WP) does not have DR in terms of increasing CP. Upgrading is 4 times as expensive as upgrading talismans or glyphs, though. Individual weapon upgrade toolkits cost twice that of talismans or glyphs; and each weapon's WP is only used when that weapon is being used, so you have to upgrade both weapons to gain the same CP increase across all attacks/heals.
Upgrading glyphs can have a greater affect on actual dps/heals than CP/HP. For DPS this means increasing damage modifiers as well as minimizing damage reducers. For heals this means increasing the quantity and quality of critical heals.
There are 2 factors to look at for upgrades, your base (CP/HP) and modifiers (Glyphs).
I. Base Damage/Healing/Health
There is a linear relationship between Combat Power (CP)/Healing Power (HP) and the damage or healing you do. For example, if you have 200 CP you will do twice as much damage than if you have 100 CP, ignoring modifiers like pen, crit, or damage mitigation.
CP and HP follow the same formula:
Code: Select all
(375-600/(exp( X /1400)+1))*(1+ WP /375)
Where X is your Attack or Heal Rating and WP is your Weapon Power.For example, lets assume you have got a full set of ql 10 purple talismans and weapons. You should have a CP of around 647. If you choose to upgrade your weapon, it will cost you 40 BB and some pax, increasing your CP to around 658. If you choose to upgrade your Head piece twice, it will cost you 40 BB and some pax, and increase your CP to about 653. In terms of damage or healing being done, it makes more sense to upgrade the weapon.
Where it gets tricky is deciding to upgrade your 2nd weapon. Unfortunately, you only calculate CP for the weapon being used at the moment. So the cost of upgrading your second weapon does not add any CP, it only brings your CP up to what it is with the primary weapon. In fact, the cost of upgrading both weapons to 10.1 is the same as upgrading your head talisman to 10.4, which will increase your CP to about 661. Also keep in mind...its your secondary weapon, you should not be using it as much, so actual benefit is much lower.
To further muddy the waters, by the time you have earned the BB for your full ql 10 purple gear, you have more than likely picked up a couple 10.2 weapons. These do make great placeholders for custom weapons, and can delay the cost of upgrading your weapons to 10.2. None of these drop weapons are upgradeable, but some can be glyphed. Unfortunately, venetian (PVP) weapons have no equivalent drops.
II. Modifiers (Glyphs)
CP affects your base damage, but a lot can happen on the way to the target losing health. Modifiers affect how much damage is actually done to the target in question. There are 4 damage reducers and 2 damage increasers that are based on stats (as opposed to abilities and debuffs).
The dice rolls that happen each time you attack are:
1. Calculate base damage
2. If target evades, damage reduced 100%.
3. If attack hits:
3.1 If attack Glances, damage reduced 60% <--Not considered Hit for passive procs
3.2 If attack is Critical Hit, damage increased by Critical Damage (based on Crit Power)
4.1 If attack is blocked, damage reduced 30%
4.2 If attack is Penetrating, damage increased ~40%
5. Damage reduced by Physical/Magic Protection <--Protection reduced by Penetrating hits
Step 1 was mostly covered above. Each attack is a modifier on your base damage (i.e. Red Mist is 3.5 * Base Damage).
Hit Rating (Hit) will reduce the chance of a target evading (2) or attack glancing (3.1). This makes Hit the single best stat for minimizing damage reduction. This mean that high Hit will increase your damage by at least 60% per attack by reducing glances. It is important to note that evaded and glanced attacks do not count as hits for any abilities, signets, or buffs that rely on them. If you can bring your hit up to 450, your attack should almost never be evaded. If you bring your hit up to 700, you should have almost no glances outside of glance tanks (PVP) and the Hell Dimension (PVE).
Critical Rating (CR) increases the chances that a non-glancing attack will be critical. The distinction is important in that CR does not reduce your chance of having an attack glance. CR also affects your chance to land a critical heal. With a CR of 0, you have a 5% chance of landing a critical hit/heal. With a CR of 400 (Ignoring abilities, passives, and buffs) you have a 13.5% of landing a critical hit/heal. CR also reduces your chance of being critically hit.
Critical Power Rating will determine your Critical Power, which will determine how much extra damage/healing you do when you land a critical hit/heal. A Critical Power Rating of 7 will provide a ~25% increase in damage/healing for critical hits/heals. A Critical Power Rating of 400 will provide a ~51.5% increase in damage/healing for critical hits/heals.
A note about CR vs Critical Power Rating. Given the abundance of buffs, passives, and actives that increase CR or Critical chance, there is a bias towards investing more into Critical Power Rating to increase overall DPS/HPS.
Penetration Rating (Pen) will reduce the chance of your attack being blocked (4.1) and increase the chance of performing a penetrating hit. As opposed to CR, Pen actually reduces the chance of getting a damage reducer. Penetrating hits add 40% to your damage and will bypass some of the physical/magical protection (5). For increasing damage, penetrating hits will avoid a 30% reduction and provide a 40% gain for a 70% increase. Because Pen is countered by Block, it is difficult to estimate your chance to avoid a block or perform a penetrating hit. In general, 700 pen should prevent all blocks and perform penetrating hits around 25% of the time in dungeons. Penetration has no effect on healing.
A note on CR vs Pen. CR is more generally applicable, in that it affects dps, healing, and survivability. Pen is pure DPS, both as increasing damage and minimizing damage reduction. Both have a DR curve tho, so there is room for both in your endgame glyphs.
Bottom Line on Glyphs. Starting with ql 10 purple glyphs, split between Hit and Pen, you should have about 685 Pen and 618 Hit. This puts you on the better side of the DR curve for these stats. If you are vested in Hit, CR, and Critical Power Rating, then your are on an even better part of the DR curve. This means that you get better overall returns for DPS/HPS by increasing glyphs than by increasing AR/WP.
Because the stat increases for upgrading glyphs are fairly generous, you can easily end up on the bad side of the DR curve. By upgrading glyphs from Head (+Weapons) to Lowers, you will likely end up having to re-glyph the lowers to increase stats that will give you a better damage/healing increase than increasing your primary stats.
This is a forum, so please post differing opinions/strategies/comments below.
-Aesop
a.k.a., DreamsDotter