Guild Wars 2

Just a real quick question.

I am trying to go as offensive as I possibly can, do most rangers focus on Power or Precision? I assumed Power and have focused thusly, but this wouldn’t be the first time I’m wrong.

Thanks!

If you want to go as offensive as you possibly can, you should promise the Ranger community ‘significant changes’ to the class and then proceed to do anything but.

Haha, so I have read.

But call me stubborn

I would go Precision with, Stat’s from Power Items. Use your Precision Trait line try to have at least 50% critical chance.

I’ve been building my ranger to hit like a mac truck while keeping a good tank and its pretty easy to do.

Sol.4310:

I would go Precision with, Stat’s from Power Items. Use your Precision Trait line try to have at least 50% critical chance.

I’ve been building my ranger to hit like a mac truck while keeping a good tank and its pretty easy to do.

OP, if you want to hit like a truck just go full berserker’s gear. Be aware you will be easily killed by basically anything.

Bair.8240:

Sol.4310:

I would go Precision with, Stat’s from Power Items. Use your Precision Trait line try to have at least 50% critical chance.

I’ve been building my ranger to hit like a mac truck while keeping a good tank and its pretty easy to do.

OP, if you want to hit like a truck just go full berserker’s gear. Be aware you will be easily killed by basically anything.

Or just play a warrior.

With rage runes you can get your crit dmg up to 65. My crit chance is around 75 with fury because I like to make sure I crit when I need 2 (that would be zerker gear). Power is needed but so is precision if you want to do dmg.

Eurantien.4632:

With rage runes you can get your crit dmg up to 65. My crit chance is around 75 with fury because I like to make sure I crit when I need 2 (that would be zerker gear). Power is needed but so is precision if you want to do dmg.

How is your survivability with that build?

Sol.4310:

I would go Precision with, Stat’s from Power Items. Use your Precision Trait line try to have at least 50% critical chance.

I’ve been building my ranger to hit like a mac truck while keeping a good tank and its pretty easy to do.

Problem is it still hits like a Chevette compared to other classes

@Broscientist. Pretty high if I run with sig of stone and “protect me” but conditions can get you pretty easily if healing spring is on CD. It’s not really set up for survival though. In this case the best defense is a good offense.

Getting 100 Power will increase your damage a lot more than getting 100 Precision.

But if you have a lot of power already, adding 100 Power on top of it isn’t going to increase your damage as much as adding 100 in Precision.

I forget what the cut-off is, but I think there’s plenty of resources out there that has done the calculations. You can also do them yourself using equations supplied in the wiki.

Hope this makes sense.

Ursan.7846:

Getting 100 Power will increase your damage a lot more than getting 100 Precision.

But if you have a lot of power already, adding 100 Power on top of it isn’t going to increase your damage as much as adding 100 in Precision.

I forget what the cut-off is, but I think there’s plenty of resources out there that has done the calculations. You can also do them yourself using equations supplied in the wiki.

Hope this makes sense.

No, other classes scale better with power than rangers because we have pets taht do 50% of our dps. So power scales about 50% of what other people get.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

No, other classes scale better with power than rangers because we have pets taht do 50% of our dps. So power scales about 50% of what other people get.

I’m confused as why that matters when it comes to the discussion of Power vs Precision. 100 Power will still add more to your damage than 100 Precision will (ignoring on crit affects of course)

Damage = weapon_damage * power * skill_coefficient / armor
Crit damage multiplier = 1 + (0.5+crit_damage)*(crit_chance)
(for crit_damage and crit_chance, 0.01 = 1%)

Pow = intial power stat
Pre = initial precision stat
n = number of points you can add to power or precision

Damage increase from increasing power is easy to calculate.
Power damage increase = (Pow + n) / Pow

Damage increase from increasing precision is a bit more tricky.
At 916 precision you’re at 4% crit chance.
At level 80 you gain an extra 1% chance per 21 precision.
Crit damage multiplier = 1 + (.5+crit_damage) * (.04 + (Pre-916)/2100)

If you increase Pre by n, the overall damage increase is then

Crit damage increase = Crit damage multipler (Pre+n) / Crit damage multiplier (Pre)
= [ 1 + (.5+crit_damage) * (.04 + (Pre-916+n)/2100) ] / [ 1 + (.5+crit_damage) *(.04 + (Pre-916)/2100) ]

Wow is that a mouthful. For the increased damage from power to equal the increased damage from precision, these two have to be equal. Power damage increase = Crit damage increase

(Pow + n) / Pow = ( (.5+crit_damage) * (.04 + (Pre-916+n)/2100) + 1) / ( (.5+crit_damage) * (.04 + (Pre-916)/2100) + 1)

The bottom line
At this point I’ll skip the intermediate algebra. The above mess simplifies to:

crit_damage = [ 2100 / (Pow – 2100*crit_chance) ] – 0.5
crit_chance = 0.04 + (Pre-916)/2100

That’s the break-even point. Put your hero’s power and crit chance (or precision) score into the bolded formula. If your crit_damage% is higher than that number the formula gives, then 1 point into precision will benefit you more than 1 point in power in raw, non-sigil damage. If your crit_damage% is lower, then power is better. (I put crit_chance separately so you can just type in the figure from your hero sheet. 45% crit chance = 0.45)

Examples
Base level 80 (916 power, 916 precision)
crit_damage = 2.024
You need >202% critical damage before putting a point in precision is better than power.

My ranger (1600 power, 1800 precision)
crit_damage = 2.822
I’d need >282% critical damage before putting a point in precision is better than power. I stat her this way because I love my fire sigils.

My newbie warrior in the Mists (PvP upleveled to level 80, 2300 power, 916 precision)
crit_damage = .448
Putting points in precision will yield more average damage if crit damage > 44%.

Clearly the game mechanics have been designed to (1) favor power over precision since precision can benefit from proc on crit sigils, and (2) to discourage highly lop-sided builds with one attribute being much higher than the other.

@Saweth

Remember, Precision and Crit Damage are two different stats.

The cut off for power vs precision is around 100 Crit Damage (I believe). If you have more, 100 precision will help you more than 100 power.

However, this number is pretty hard to achieve unless you’re you’re fully Berserkers/Valkyrie. In which case it really constrains any additional precision/power items you can get, at which point this discussion is moot.

So in most cases (crit dmg lower than 100), 100 power > 100 precision.

It is actually quite complicated optimizing your stats. Not as simple as stacking power even though comparing one axis to another suggests so. Gear constraints actually muck things up. The math suggests you need over 3450 power before it’s worth putting a point into precision. At which point power drops to around 2145, precision goes up to 1131 from 192, and crit damage maxes out. But I have found that with even just 1669 power 75 precision can increase my damage more than 140 power. Not only that but I get more damage than if I had 2268 power with an equal distribution of stats. e.g. Power + Precision + crit%*10 = constant.

Optimization Algorithm setting an offensive point and power cap based on gear constraints.

D=0;
d=0;
for i=0:100
for j=0:100
for k=0:100
a = 36*i; %power
b = 36*j; %precision
c = 36*k; %crit
if a+b+c==3600
if c/11.26 > 92
D = D;
elseif a > 2684
D = D;
else
d = (1080*(916+a)) * (1.04 + (b/2100) * (0.5 + c/1000));
end
if d > D
D = d;
A = a;
B = b;
C = c/10;
end
end
end
end
end
A
B
C
D

The best you can probably do is the above algorithm setting your projected stat total
(Base power + power + precision(not base precision) + crit%*10) for the a+b+c and then setting the a,b,c with the for loops so that you array indexes match up then setting a projected max power for the elseif a > x condition. Functions of one dependant and 3 independant variables can do that. The crit damage cap is 92% in exotics.

I’ll give a shot at an analytical solution.

a = Power
b = Precision
c = crit%*10

a + b + c = x where x is the sum of stats

you set a to projected highest power

b + c = x – a

One independant on dependant variable.

dD/dr = dD/da[ a ] + dD/db[ b ] + dD/dc[ c ]

for optimal value dD/da = dD/db

1.04 + (b/2100) * (0.5 + c) = a/2100 * (0.5 + c)

you have set a maximum value for ‘a’ so

1.04 + (b/2100) * (0.5 + x – a – b) = a/2100 * (0.5 + x – a – b)

-b^2/2100 +b(0.5 + x)/2100 +(a^2-0.5a -a*x)/2100 +1.04 = 0

b^2 + b(0.5+x) + (a^2 – 0.5a – a*x + 2184) = 0

b = -(0.5+x)/2 +/- [(0.5+x)^2 – 4(a^2 – 0.5a – a*x + 2184)]^(1/2)/2

(this only works for x^2 + x + 0.25 > 4a^2 – 2a – 4ax + 8736

or x^2 + x + 0.25 – 4a^2 + 2a + 4ax > 8736

x^2 – 4a^2 + 4ax > 8736 for x>2000

x = -4a/2 +/- [(4a)^2 -4(-4a^2)]^(1/2)/2

(x + 4.8a)(x – 0.8a) > 8736

x =a + b + c; a + b + c > 0.8a

for x = 2000, a = 1500

7.36 * 10^6 > 8736

thus it works)

then

c = x – a – b

Numerical solution using analytical solution

D = 0;
d = 0;
x = #;
for i = 1:100
a = i*34;
b = -(0.5+x)/2 + [(0.5+x)^2 – 4(a^2 – 0.5a – a*x + 2184)]^(1/2)/2;
c = x – a – b;
d = (1080*(916+a)) * (1.04 + (b/2100) * (0.5 + c/1000));
if d > D
D = d;
A = a;
B = b;
C = c;
end
end
A
B
C
D

e.g. x = 4000
maximum power for i = 100 is a = 3400

a = 2686
b = 743.8
c = 57

This is wrong. Actual answer is

a = 2120
b = 1200
c = 68

which gives 1.8% more damage.

A more precise algorithm for optimizing damage for anyone who cares.

D=0;
d=0;
for i=0:1000
for j=0:1000
x = 3800 %maximum projected stats
a = 3.8*i; %power
b = 3.8*j; %precision
c = x – a – b; % crit damage
if c/11.26 > 92
D = D;
elseif a > 2500 %maximum projected power
D = D;
else
d = (1080*(916+a)) * (1.04 + (b/2100) * (0.5 + c/1000));
end
if d > D
D = d;
A = a;
B = b;
C = c/10;
end
end
end
end
A
B
C
D

This works better because it is more precise and doesn’t require integer values to satisfy a condition. The first algorithm I just threw together to get my first set of armor optimized. I wasn’t doing it for the sake of good science. I don’t have visual studio and haven’t taken a java or C course in years so can’t turn it into an application that accepts two inputs without reading a bunch of stuff.

Condition damage is relatively easy and can be combined with direct damage by defining a damage velocity. dD/dt. However bleeds compound so it would be second order differential equation.

d^2D/dt^2 + dD/dt = v

And you would probably have to fit a curve or define a generalized fitted curve much like the gamma function to the factorial for the second order term since the compounding is discreet and eventually you would simply stop caring and wear a full berserker set and do as much damage as possible while drinking scotch and eating blueberry waffles.