Guild Wars 2

So a few of my Mesmer buddies and I were build storming, and a few of them said they prefered Precise Wrack over Compounding Power because it increases their spike damage. I have also seen a few posts in forums saying its better. I didn’t think the damage would be all that significant, so I broke it down and did some math and figured someone else might be interested.

This is only comparing the Damage of the mind wrack by itself, not anything else.

Precise Wrack adds 10% critical chance.
Compounding Power adds 3% damage per illusion, so Mind Wrack with 3 shatters and IP adds 9% to you and 1 clone, 6% to second clone, and 3% to last clone.

Using base Numbers because Power will scale both evenly, only Critical Damage will change the ratios.

+50% Crit Damage | Precise Wrack | Compounding Power | Ratio
Shatter 1 clone —-———536 —-———— 502——————— 0.067
Shatter 2 clones———— 623——————595———————-0.047
Shatter 3 clones————-721——————700———————-0.030

+75% Crit Damage | Precise Wrack | Compounding Power | Ratio
Shatter 1 clone————-549———————502——————— 0.092
Shatter 2 clones —-—— 637——————-595———————-0.071
Shatter 3 clones —-—— 738——————-700 —-—————- 0.053

+100% Crit Damage | Precise Wrack | Compounding Power | Ratio
Shatter 1 clone —-——- 561———————502 —-—————0.116
Shatter 2 clones———— 652———————595——————-0.095
Shatter 3 clones————-754——————-700 —-—————0.077

So as you can see the damage is slightly higher with Precise Wrack then it is with Compounding Power.

If you want to see how much Damage that actually adds up to, take your Power and Multiply it to the ratio for your Crit Damage % and the result is the increase in damage.

2000 power * 0.116 (best ratio in sample) = 232 Damage.

Not a whole lot of bang for your buck. 232 damage increase for Precise Wrack. Especially when the ratio shrinks as the clones increase because Compounding Power increases its effectiveness as it goes. 3 clones only provide 154 damage increase at same Critical Damage.

Now take into account you have a shatter build, so you always have 2-3 illusions up except right after shatters. Mind Wrack is only usable every 10 seconds when you could be doing +9% damage with every other skill (except phantasms) all the time which should result in more sustained damage. Choice has to be Compounding Power.

TLDR
Either take both traits, or take Compounding Power because math said so. (with the exception of someone who only uses Mind Wrack and no other skill in between…)

So, the effectiveness of precise wrack does depend on your crit damage and your overall play style. If you tend to use wrack more exclusively as opposed to sustaining with other hits, then it might be better. Also depending on your specific damage path you use, if you blurred frenzy before wrack, then compounding power will give you a boost. If the other way around, not so much.

Ultimately, this depends heavily on your play style, and additionally a bit on your crit damage.

Pyroatheist.9031:

So, the effectiveness of precise wrack does depend on your crit damage and your overall play style. If you tend to use wrack more exclusively as opposed to sustaining with other hits, then it might be better. Also depending on your specific damage path you use, if you blurred frenzy before wrack, then compounding power will give you a boost. If the other way around, not so much.

Ultimately, this depends heavily on your play style, and additionally a bit on your crit damage.

Yes, if you are lazy, and don’t do absolutely anything but Mind Wrack, the Precise Wrack is always better. But, who doesn’t do anything else, even if its just auto attacking.

If your auto attack is doing 9% more damage than the base auto attack, then your ratio increase will always be 0.09 regardless of base damage or power. So any attack, at say 2000 Power will see an increase of 180 Damage. Pretty Close to the 230 Damage we had from Mind Wrack at same Power in the best case. But how many attacks can you get in between shattering every 10 seconds? 2-3 auto attacks? You just gained more damage with Compounding Power. And this was with 100% crit damage bonus with 1 clone. Most of the other times, 1 auto attack is all you need to increase damage.

Lastly, in PvP and WvW, its highly unlikely your using mind wrack every 10 seconds on CD unless you don’t know what your doing. You have to time your bursts, wait for their CD and defense to drop. So every attack you do in between the mind wrack is adding up more damage than the one burst damage increase Precise Wrack provides.