Dexmage versus Intmage / Pure Int - A Factual Guide

[kamikazees]

Two PL mages were arguing one day. The first said, Dexmages are better; they have higher burst damage! The second said, Intmages are better; they have overall damage! They were still arguing when the Bandit Boy Bird came along and Blast Shotted them both.

I have been reading all the Dexmage / Intmage debates recently. I saw that there is not a lot of pure factual information about just what each mage can and cannot do "better" than the other. I decided to try and find out for myself.

First, my IGN is Sollertia. I am a lvl 55 pure Intmage, Enchanted Staff set user, which by my prior thinking was the "most powerful" build a Intmage can achieve. I decided to compare my current build with two of the most common Dexmage builds to see. I purchased a Raid Auto-Bow set for about 700k. I then borrowed a Custom Recurve Bow set (thanks to Nagatoxxxx, a very dangerous war bird!).

I took pictures of my current setup, including my level 6 Firestorm, Lightning, Drain Life and Heal spells. I them respec'd to Dexmage using the minimal dex for each build (137 for Raid Auto-Bow and 131 for Custom Recurve). Please note in all pictures I am wearing a Champion's Fine Crystal Ring, which added 2% Crit, 2 M/s and 4 Damage (which, in hindsight, I should have removed). In the Auto-Bow and Custom set pics, I was also wearing a +1 armor vanity crown (sorry, those were taken later). Here is the stat comparision for Enchanted, Raid Auto-Bow and Custom Recurve sets:

Here are the respective sets and their spell damages, including averages:

ENCHANTED

Firestorm - 379.5;
Lightning - 375.5;
Drain Life - 424.5; and
Heal - 199.

RAID AUTO-BOW

Firestorm - 316.5 (83.4% as effective as Enchanted);
Lightning - 318 (84.7% as effective as Enchanted);
Drain Life - 358.5 (84.5% as effective as Enchanted);
Heal - 155.5 (77.4% as effective as Enchanted).

CUSTOM RECURVE

Firestorm - 314
Lightning - 314.5
Drain Life - 356; and
Heal - 155.5.

CONCLUSIONS AND CALCULATIONS

Overall spell damage of the Auto-Bow and Custom Recurve sets are about 84% of the Enchanted Set. Heal is about 78%. It is interesting to note that the Auto-Bow set has slightly [I]higher[I] spell damage (except Heal) than the Custom Recurve set, even with the Custom set's higher int.

So what are the biggest changes? Hit %, Critical Hit %, Armor, H/s, M/s and the Custom Recurve DPS are the biggest changes. The Hit % on the Auto-Bow and Recurve sets makes it virtually impossible to be debuffed in pvp. The Critical % of these sets is also phenomenal, and goes to 100% with Blessing of Might active. The downsides are lower Armor, which is very noticeable (and translates to higher deaths), and lower H/s and M/s. The Custom set H/s bonus is comparable to Enchanted, though, and that set's DPS is unmatched by the other sets (but with lower overall damage). The M/s of any of the sets is manageable with some potion usage.

So what does this all mean in play? Let's do some math. An average Bandit Boy enemy is thought to have about 120 armor. If all three mages cast Firestorm on this enemy 100 times, and assuming they can keep up Blessing of Might for 2/3 of those casts (20 out of 30 seconds, or 66 out of 100 hits) and assuming all spells land, then 1/3 of the time (34 hits), the damage will be the average Firestorm damage, minus enemy armor (120), plus the normal critical % of those 34 hits doing double damage. Then 2/3 of the time (66 hits), the damage will be increased by 30 from BoM, with a +60% critical rate doing double damage. With that in mind, here are the damage comparisons for Firestorm:

ENCHANTED (379.5 damage, 11% normal crit)

[34(379.5-120) + .11(34*379.5)] + [66(409.5-120) + .71(66*409.5)]
8823 + 1419.33 + 19107 + 19189.17 = 48538.5

RAID AUTO-BOW (316.5 damage, 43% normal crit)

[34(316.5-120) + .43(34*316.5)] + [66(346.5-120) + (66*346.5)]
6681 + 4627.23 + 14949 + 22869 = 49126.23

CUSTOM RECURVE (314 Damage, 49% normal crit)

[34(314-120) + .49(34*314)] + [66(344-120) + (66*344)]
6596 + 5231.24 + 14784 + 22704 = 49315.24

It is almost the same, with the Auto-Bow and Custom sets doing just a hair more damage over the 100 hits. However, keep in mind these figures are for sustained damage on a target over time with 120 armor. If the fight does not last longer than 20 seconds (and thus, BoM does not run out), the last two figures are what counts. That means the Enchanted (38k damage) actually has an edge over Raid Auto-Bow (37.8k) and Custom Recurve (37.4k). That is because the effective Critical rate is capped at 100% and those sets only have 29% more Critical than Enchanted. Enchanted will also have the edge if enemy armor is higher than 120. Indeed, it is when BoM is not used, or is in cooldown, that the Auto-Bow and Custom Recurve out-damage the Enchanted with their insane critical.

The damage for Autoattack for each of the three is a bit different because weapon speed must be taken into account. Let's say all three Autoattack a Bandit Boy with 120 armor for 60 seconds with BoM active 40 of those seconds. Who does more damage? The Enchanted Staff does an average of 250 damage and attacks every 1.1 seconds, which is about 54 attacks. The Raid Auto-Bow does 228.5 damage and attacks every 1 second, or 60 attacks. The Custom Recurve does 229.5 damage and attacks every .9 seconds, or about 66 attacks. Let's find out:

ENCHANTED (250 damage, 11% normal crit)

[18(250-120) + .11(18*250)] + [36(280-120) + (36*280)]

2340 + 495 + 5760 + 10080 = 18675

RAID AUTO-BOW (228.5 damage, 43% normal crit)

[20(228.5-120) + .43(20*228.5)] + [40(258.5-120) + (40*258.5)]
2170 + 1965.1+ 5540 + 10340 = 20015.1

CUSTOM RECURVE (229.5 damage, 49% normal crit)

[22(229.5-120) + .49(22*229.5)] + [44(259.5-120) + (44*259.5)]
2409+ 2474.01 + 6138 + 11418 = 22439.01

The difference is a little larger, with Custom Recurve and Auto-Bow over Enchanted. They win out regardless of whether BoM is active because of the weapon speed and high Crit. This is on an enemy with 120 armor. Bosses have "more" armor. How much more, I don't know... probably enough to swing the difference back in favor of the Enchanted user? Maybe. What do you think? Please critique.

EDIT: Significant changes. Added Custom Recurve Stats and accurate (hopefully) math calculations.