Slotting storm - Whither the achilles' heel -res proc

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Storm offers two distinctly different places in which to slot the achilles' heel -res proc. It can go in freezing rain and/or it can go in tornado. 

 

IIRC freezing rain is a pseudopet and its chances of activating achilles' heel are probably not very high on a "per mob" basis. Still, it should be checking once every 10 seconds for its duration of 30 seconds and it can check for possible activations across many mobs. Often two freezing rains can be active at a time, which doubles the "per mob" activation chances (albeit probably from a low base).

 

Tornado is a pet, but with a DOT attack that activates so frequently that its odds of triggering the -res proc are not high on a "per activation" basis. But, with many ticks taking place the number of activations will tend to be a bit more in line with average activations per minute, there will often be two tornados out at once, and it can hit multiple mobs at the same time. 

 

If you had to choose only one of these two places in which to put an achilles' heel -res proc, which one of these two choices would you pick? How many activations per minute, per mob would seem likely with two tornados out at once? Two freezing rains at once?  

 

Edit & PS: It seems that freezing rain is better than tornado because ultimately they would both check only once every 10 seconds for a proc activation. However, that still leaves the question about the average -res total applying to each mob that stays in range of freezing rain for each 10 second span. 

Edited April 7, 2022 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Carnifax]

Not sure I should reply here, since we already discussed in the Controller forums, but since I did what @Onlyasandwich suggested, on Beta I can give you some numbers. 

 

So to summarize the CombatParser cannot deal with parsing Achilles Heels directly, because the Log entry is a generic "You reduced the resistence" type message with no indication of which power did it. But @Onlyasandwich pointed out that the PPM for Lady Greys proc is the same as Achilles, and since both FR and Tornado are pseudopets the Lady G hits are logged and parsed under their "parent" power. So I hopped onto Beta, swapped in some Lady Greys and did some runs.

 

1st was a Hover Farm. So a very heavily populated Astroid Farm.

 

So they're actually quite close to each other; Freezing Rain has the slight edge. I will also say that either 41 or 35 Achilles Hits on such a vastly crowded map really isn't a great return on investment. 

 

2nd I did a +4x8 Council radio. 

 

 

Where tornado comes out on top by a few. So really it's pretty close with the edge to Tornado this time. 

 

We have one more data point here. Because I'm Plant/Storm and Fly Trap has both Achilles and TOLG slotted

 

So between all it comes out about even. 

 

One more data point for you. I also did a quick run on my Time/Sonic who has Slowed Response procced with all 3 DefDebuff or AccDefBuff procs. 

 

In terms of "procs per activation" Slowed Response is MUCH better for triggering procs compared to pseudopets. 

 

ProcsPer Activations (on x8 maps, cos Farming is an edge case)

Tornado : 1.21 = 21/19

Freezing Rain : 1.26 = 19/15

Slowed Response : 4.3 = ((24+19)/2) / 5 because we've two 3.5 procs in there so we can average them out.

 

Acid Arrow : 0.842 = (16/19) : This seems worse but Acid has a much shorter recharge than Slowed and I tend to spam it, treating it as a proccy AoE with some debuff. This was on a random log for my TA/Elec. 

 

TL:DR : It's about the same between Freezing Rain and Tornado but it's probably not really worthwhile on either. Not only does it not proc much but you don't have a lot of control on when it goes off. In Slowed Response I know it'll be the 5 seconds after Slowed and thus it's easy to follow up with something nasty to take advantage (a bit like the "Chance to Build up in Aim or Tactics" debate. 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Carnifax

[EnjoyTheJourney]

These results seem quite meaningful, even if a bit disappointing. 

 

Storm builds (like many others) are often starved for slots. And, knowing that the return is low for adding in a -res proc for freezing rain helps when weighing where to allocate slots. It also helps to know that damage procs or other IOs are likely to provide a better return per slot used in tornado than when a -res proc is slotted. 

 

Thank you for your work. 

Edited April 8, 2022 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Onlyasandwich]

1 hour ago, EnjoyTheJourney said:

return per slot used in tornado

I wonder how the soulbound build up proc measures up. I've used it on a few builds in tornado, but never delved into a deep comparison.

 

I would think it fares better, as one proc will buff all damage the nado does for the duration, and nado is constantly ticking so the buff window will be fully utilized.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Onlyasandwich

[EnjoyTheJourney]

11 hours ago, Onlyasandwich said:

I wonder how the soulbound build up proc measures up. I've used it on a few builds in tornado, but never delved into a deep comparison.

 

I would think it fares better, as one proc will buff all damage the nado does for the duration, and nado is constantly ticking so the buff window will be fully utilized.

If there is an average of 3 activations per minute, then the formula becomes ...

 

64% * 16.5 / 60^ =  0.64 * 0.275 = 17.6% damage boost, on average.  

 

^ 3 activations * 5.5 seconds = 16.5 seconds per 60 seconds of activation time, hence 16.5 / 60. 64% is the damage buff provided by the proc. 

 

The bigger question is whether it's best to find room for procs (other than FF +recharge, knockback to knockdown), or to maximize +recharge and endurance reduction. More time with multiple tornados out has a good payoff both for damage and for crowd control. Plus, endurance management is so challenging for storm characters that easing that helps quite a few things go better.