Guild Wars 2

Hi all!

I am finetuning my latest build, and it has come down to making a choice between Armored Attack and Destruction of the Empowered.

What I am contemplating here is which of the two gives the better damage boost. I assume DotE will always give at least a 6% damage boost, as almost no build grants less then 2 boons at any given time.

Armored Attack in my build boosts power from 2720 to 2880, a difference of 160 power (roughly 6%).

So which is better, damage wise? My gut tells me it is DotE, as that can go way higher then the 6% boost on targets like elementalists, guardians and mesmers. But am I missing something here?

Assuming a target has at least 2,600 armour, DoTE would definitely be better mainly because you have such a large amount of power and that would boost your damage highly with percent damage modifiers. It probably is the same case in lower armoured targets.

If your target has at least 2 boons on them, your damage should already surpass Armored Attack.

Sounds like the obvious choice is the right one, then. Thanks!

6% more power is a 6% damage increase.

DoTE, to me, is not reliable. I prefer to know that i am almost constantly doing 10% more damage. You have no way of knowing wether or not an enemy will run boons or how many he or she will have/maintain if they run less than 2, you are not doing optimum damage. If they do run more than 2 boons, the factor for your damage is now dependant on how well and if they maintain said boons. AA providing the aditional 10% power over further increases your damage.

Right now there are a lot of boon maintaining classes in spvp and also in wvw. So you could assume that either a) everyone will run at least 2+boons or that b) no one will or will not maintain them. (Which is a silly notion).

This is just the way i view it, Im not saying i’m 100% right and to take my or anyones word as fact.

This being said, I agree with killahmayne.9518. but again these are just the reasons i choose to run Armored attack over DoTE.

It would also be beneficial to us to know what the purpose of your build is spvp/wvw or pve? My question is why would you not use both? But you have not provided us with a build or function so we cannot give you the best answer for your build. Just answers.

Consistent, reliable damage boost vs. variable, unreliable boost

The potential for DotE to give you a boost of more than 6% is likely during the course of a fight, but not something that can be relied upon. Not to mention that when an enemy suddenly loads up on boons, it’s generally a bad time to burst, as their defenses are probably up. In the case of a Guardian popping Save Yourselves, you’ll get a huge boost (7 boons!) but against a target with protection, regen, vigor, & retaliation. Not exactly the best time to unload.

My vote is for Armored Attack.

The way I see it many classes can easily maintain two boons at once. There is more a chance that a said class will have at least two boons maintained than not IMO. A lot of these classes have vigor on crit as well and swiftness.

And even if they only have 1 boon, a 2.5% difference in damage isn’t significant.

Assassin X.8573:

DoTE, to me, is not reliable. I prefer to know that i am almost constantly doing 10% more damage. You have no way of knowing wether or not an enemy will run boons or how many he or she will have/maintain if they run less than 2, you are not doing optimum damage. If they do run more than 2 boons, the factor for your damage is now dependant on how well and if they maintain said boons. AA providing the aditional 10% power over further increases your damage.

Right now there are a lot of boon maintaining classes in spvp and also in wvw. So you could assume that either a) everyone will run at least 2+boons or that b) no one will or will not maintain them. (Which is a silly notion).

This is just the way i view it, Im not saying i’m 100% right and to take my or anyones word as fact.

This being said, I agree with killahmayne.9518. but again these are just the reasons i choose to run Armored attack over DoTE.

It would also be beneficial to us to know what the purpose of your build is spvp/wvw or pve? My question is why would you not use both? But you have not provided us with a build or function so we cannot give you the best answer for your build. Just answers.

The build is for WvW, I always assume my signature clarifies that, apologies.

It’s 6/0/4/0/4, or in case of AA 6/0/5/0/3. I have been running DotE, as in WvW I rarely encounter anything with less then two boons. It is not even a 10% increase in power, just a 10% part of toughness to add to power. This comes down to 160 power, which, to my build, is ~6%.

Out of experience, the most common number of boons I find on my opponents;
-warriors usually have 3 from SoR alone, then the occasional vigor and regen
-guards can have anywhere between 2-9, but usually 4+
-engies have 2-3 usually, can go higher
-thieves always have might, often fury and swiftness, vigor, regen, but pretty much always 2+
-rangers have swiftness, long lasting stability, might, regen, 3+ mostly
-elementalists run with 4+
-necromancers 2+
-mesmers 3-4 easy

So that’s a 9% damage boost on average, which can go up to 12-15% regularly.

Also, the might stacking meta already somewhat ensures my opponents to always have one boon. They only need to get 1 other boon by chance for DotE to be on par with AA.

10% increase in power directly translates to 10% more damage.

Damage = Power * Weapon * Skill * Modifiers / Armor.

Assuming everything expect power stays same:

Damage = Power * Constant

So

Damage1 = Power1 * Constant
Damage2 = Power2 * Constant.

Damage increase = (Damage2 – Damage1) / Damage1

Fill in above values:

Damage increase = (Power2 * Constant – Power1 * Constant) / (Power1 * Constant)

Damage increase = Power2 / Power1 – 1

If Power2 is X% higher than Power1 then:

Power2 = Power1 + Power1 * X%.

Fill in above values:

Damage increase = (Power1 + Power1 * X%) / Power1 = 1 + X% – 1 = X%

So with X% more power you do X% more damage.

That seems pretty well founded. so a 6% increase in power means a 6% increase in damage then. That’s 2 boons.

http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/13791921-destruction-empowered/post/last#last

After learning the information found there, I swapped to DotE and will never look back. I noticed a very large boost to my damage.

Edit: Math wise, if AA is a 6% increase, then DotE is better as long as they have 2 boons or more (1.03*1.03=6.09%) and the difference in damage increases the more boons they have.