Guild Wars 2

The wiki page for “power” is not really helpful, so i was wondering if anyone could answer this, which have been tormenting my mind for days:

1- Power increases ALL non-condition damage, including crits, right? If so, how much “virtual” critical damage it offers in comparison to the critical damage stat?

2- I f the assumption on 1 is right, also assuming a fixed critical chance (50%, every odd hit crits) and all enemies being 80, then there should be a “sweet spot” to maximize dps and mathematically pick the stats….where is that?

3- if 1&2 are right, then what is the point of having the critical damage stat in the game at all? the only thing that comes to mind would be skill and traits the modify the crit ratio dinamically when under certain circumstances….But there are not alot of those ingame (if any, but i only played half the classes, so i reserve judgement)

I did some testing earlier on my ranger and i didnt understand what i just read 100% but if i understood right:

1.Power increases the base damage of your attack which the critical damage is tied to, meaning 100 base damage becomes 150 as a crit without no crit damage.

Lets imagine you got X amount of power so the skills base damage rose to 150, the crit would now be 225.

the ’’tests’’ i did (which were very small) showed me that by increasing my power by 100-200 it was like getting 10-20% more crit damage

Again, not sure did i understand your question right but theres what i know :P

2. No idea
3. No idea :P

Overall i dont see any reason not getting critical damage multiplier gear. (also all gear this far that has crit damage, also has the power stat with it) Sure 4k power means bigger attacks without AND with crits, but the crit damage mulltiplier is just extra crit damage there that you cant achieve by increasin power—>base damage—>crit damage.

I think the wiki has all the answers you need, you just have to be creative enough to find the right terms to search.

1. Power and weapon stats determine your base damage.
2. Expected damage uses base damage, critical chance, and critical damage modifier. As Elronor stated, even at 0 critical damage, any critical hit you get will cause 150% of your base attack damage. Unfortunately, at level 80, your base critical chance is something pretty sad like 4% according to the wiki, and you need 21 additional points in precision to raise it 1%
3. There are some professions that stack critical chance for not only the increased damage, but also the effects that you get from traits that only occur on critical hits or from sigils.

Yes, the wiki explains pretty wekk how crits work, but it says nothing on power, except it increases damage in a linear ( multiplicative) way…

So, for example, if you were unsure on which armor to pick, the 16% crit dmg on zerker suit equals to roughly (166/150-1) = 10% more damage on crits, or 5% more dps if your chance is 50%, right?

But, if you picked power instead, you would have a grand total of +314, which would increase the base dps ( 0 crit chance ) by the same percentage on a unarmored char with 6280 power (!) and by MUCH more on lower power, not even including its effect on crits.

And thats just weird, i don’t understand if my math is wrong (which might very well be, i’m awful at it) or if crit dmg really IS a secondary (and maybe pointless due to the small gain) stat to power, adding some extra juice on the side.

Also, i’m not discussing precision, as it’s a more easy to understand stat, and as said above is useful in too many trait/procs applications to be “mathed” down

I haven’t delved into this as much as I would like, but the quick-and-dirty numbers I ran suggested to me that power was the best way to maximize damage.

That said, you get to have a nice boost to 4 stats from traits and 3 from gear, if you want to specialize. Power/Precision/Critical damage can all be boosted without issue. I haven’t looked for a sweet spot on this, but given the limited choice in gear, berserker armor and maxing relevant trait lines is the practical “sweet spot.”

Lets assume my mathmatical English being influenced strongly from German (I’m sorry if the words I choose are incorrect) and as shortcuts
a = avarage damage
b = base damage (all non-condition damage)
1/2 as normal increase from base to critical damage (from 100% to 150%, that is equal to from 1 to 1.5 = an increase of 0.5)
p = probability of crit
x = amount of increase (addition) to b
y = amount of increase (addition) to 0.5

Please hold in mind that x is something in the range of 25 to 500, while y is in the range of up to 0.5.

The basic formula is
a = b + (1/2 * b * p) = b + (b * p/2) = b * (1 + p/2)

Now, b is increased by x to result in the avarage damage a*:
a* = (b + x) * (1 + p/2)
a* = b + x + ((b + x) * p/2)
a* = b + x + (b * p/2) + (x * p/2)
a* = b + (b * p/2) + x + (x * p/2)
a* = b * (1 + p/2) + x * (1 + p/2)
If p shall be 50% or numerical 0.5, p/2 is 0.25, resulting in
a* = b * (1 + 0.25) + x * (1 + 0.25)
a* = 1.25b + 1.25x
Thus, compared with the first formula, we get an increase of x * (1 + p/2) or, with p = 50%, 1.25 * x.

Alternatively, 0.5 is increased by y to result in the avarage damage a°:
a° = b * (1 + p/2 + y)
a° = b + (b * p/2) + (b * y)
a° = b * (1 + p/2) + (b * y)
If p shall be 50% or numerical 0.5, p/2 is 0.25, resulting in
a° = b * (1 + 0.25) + (b * y)
a° = 1.25b + (b * y)
Thus, compared with the first formula, we get an increase of b * y.

Now what’s better, (1.25 * x) or (b * y)?
You remember that x is up to 500 and y is up to 0.5? You have a different “range” of x and y. Also you have a different “range” between 1.25 and the base damage. Base damage is around 2000 (900 from the power attribute, 1000 from the weapon damage, and 100 from round-off error).
If x is as much higher than y as the base damage is higher than 1.25, than the alternatives are equal. Or in an equation:
x/y = base damage / 1.25 under the assumption of a crit chance of 50%.
Otherwise, you have to calculate:
x/y = base damage / (1 + (crit chance / 2))

Let’s have a look to the Runes now.
Superior Runes of Balthazar give 25, 50 and 90 points bonus to the damage (because power is converted to damage 1:1). The increase of average crit damage is therefore
(1.25 * x) = 1.25 * 25 = 31
(1.25 * x) = 1.25 * 50 = 62
(1.25 * x) = 1.25 * 90 = 112

Edit: I forgot one thing – not only the critical damage is increased in this case, but also the normal damage. Thus, one has to add half of the points (because if 50% of the hits are crtical, the other 50% are normal). The increase of total damage therefore is 31 + 12 = 43, 62 + 25 = 77 and 112 + 45 = 157. /Edit

Superior Runes of Rage give 2%, 3% and 5% of critical damage. The increase of average crit damage is then
(b * y) = 2000 * 0.02 = 40
(b * y) = 2000 * 0.03 = 60
(b * y) = 2000 * 0.05 = 100 .

Thus, if you only have 1 rune slot free, take Rage, from 3 slots on Balthazar.
Edit: With the overall damage taken into account, Balthazar is the better choice. /Edit

Now have a look to the trait lines. You can invest points in a primary attribute in a ratio from 1 : 10 . Or you can invest the same points in critical damage in a ratio of 1 : 1% or, numerical, 1 : 0.01 .
In this case of 1 point spent and under the assumption of a critical chance of 50% you’ll get
(1.25 * x) = 1.25 * 10 = 12.5 and
(b * y) = 2000 * 0.01 = 20 .
Even with the highest critical chance possible (leading to 1.5 * x = 15) you’ll never get the bonus from increased power that equals the possible bonus from increased critical damage.

Very interesting analysis, even thou i’ll probably have to re read the whole thing a couple times to fully understand it ( me&math are not best buddies ).

Also, i took a look at the equip possibilities, and seems like crit is only better on jewels, where you can either get 25/15/15 or 25/ 3% crit/ 15, or 20/2%/14 like ruby orb

Fantastic explanation by Talyjta! (Also choice of words are perfect!)

Thanks for all the maths, explains a lot in a few simple equations!