Guild Wars 2

Empowering Adrenaline vs Incendiary Powder

Empowering Adrenaline: 5% more damage while endurance is not full.

Incendiary Powder: Critical hits cause burning for 4 seconds (10 second recharge).

Which deals more damage?

Formula for burning:

(0.25 * Condition Damage) + (4 * Level) + 8 = Condition damage per tick

This build assumes 0 condition damage.

(4 * Level) + 8 damage per second = Condition damage per tick

328 damage = Condition damage per tick

1312 damage over 4 seconds

Single Target

So, if Empowering Adrenaline was to assist your build with the same amount of damage, it would have to add 1312 damage. How much damage do we need to deal for Empowering Adrenaline to add 1312 damage?

This would just be 1312 × 20 (Because that would be equal to 1/20th or 5% of the total damage dealt). This means you would need to deal 26,240 damage to the target while your endurance is not full for this trait to supply equal damage.

Multiple targets

If you hit multiple people, incendiary powder grants you the same damage. Empowering Adrenaline, however, multiplies its damage depending on how many people you hit:

If you hit 2 people you need to deal 13,120 damage to each person to be equally effective.

If you hit 3 people you need to deal 8,747 damage to each person to be equally effective.

If you hit 4 people you need to deal 6,560 damage to each person to be equally effective.

If you hit 5 people you need to deal 5248 damage to each person to be equally effective.

Keep in mind, this is how much damage you need to deal within 10 seconds before Incendiary powder would proc again. Can you deal 5248 damage in 10 seconds? I hope so.

Namely, it’s not an honest comparison to consider a build fully geared out for grenades to compare that damage to a build with 0 condition damage or duration. Not to mention the fact that getting the Grenadier trait is going to give you a +30% burn duration, giving you 5 ticks not 4. This means you would have to do 32,800 damage every 10 seconds (really 8 if you count the dodging) to keep up with Incendiary Powder even at a ridiculous 0 condition damage. Highly unlikely.

~Adamantium

With that in mind, let’s try full condition damage.

1,700 * .25 + 328 = 753 damage

3012 damage over 4 seconds.

This means you would need to deal:

60240 damage against 1 target every 10 seconds. (Impossible)

30120 damage against 2 targets every 10 seconds. (Highly Unlikely)

20080 damage against 3 targets every 10 seconds. (Unlikely)

15060 damage against 4 targets every 10 seconds. (Unlikely)

12048 damage against 5 targets every 10 seconds. (Unlikely)

In short, condition damage builds make this a no brainer.

Verdict

1) Incendiary Powder shines in condition damage builds that are single target. Good for Hot Join and Tournaments. If you have any condition damage in your build, it’s probably better to take this.
2) Empowering Adrenaline shines in power builds that are multi-target. Good for PvE and WvW.
3) It might be a good idea to buff this skill a little bit. Maybe bring it to 7-10%.

Keep in mind a couple of things that always seems to get left out in these comparisons.

Namely, it’s not an honest comparison to consider a build fully geared out for grenades to compare that damage to a build with 0 condition damage or duration. Not to mention the fact that getting the Grenadier trait is going to give you a +30% burn duration, giving you 5 ticks not 4. This means you would have to do 32,800 damage every 10 seconds (really 8 if you count the dodging) to keep up with Incendiary Powder even at a ridiculous 0 condition damage (I was under the impression most Grenadiers use Rampagers gear for the most damage… upping the burn damage considerably).

Comparing to a build with 1700 condition damage (and let’s assume the +30% duration) each proc of burning is doing 753, for a total of 3,765. This would require you to do over 75k damage every 8 seconds. Yikes!

Also, it’s misleading to assume every grenade is hitting the maximum number of targets. Even in WvW, there are lots of blocks, you’re blind, invulnerables, dodges, etc to make grenades miss. They are very easily telegraphed, I doubt anyone is hitting every grenade for 2-3 attacks in a row.

I don’t think Empowering Adrenaline is better in power builds because it requires you to not have full adrenaline. This means you are using up dps time dodging. You would have to dodge twice every 10 seconds to assure adrenaline is never full.

I don’t mean to tear anything apart here. It made me stop and think, and I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking. I don’t know that I could do 32,800 direct damage in 8 seconds. I also don’t build for power, so maybe those who do and are more used to the playstyle could. I would be very hesitant of wasting dodges in a build that could do this much damage, because it’s likely that build is also very squishy (I would definitely not waste dodges on a Zerker!).

Good points. I’ll add them to the original post.

Also, no need to feel bad about tearing it apart. Makes me closer to the truth with more peer review.