Critical Damage Bonus and Mind Wrack

[WhoIsThis]

Need to test myself - but if true, that radically changes things:

1. Operatives are significantly more powerful than previously thought in terms of sustained damage to targets.

2. Against bosses, operatives are a necessity, because of 1 (previously essential for amplify pain). Any idea how long the mind wreck effect lasts? I think if it lasts for the full 6 seconds, this means that the operative's effective damage is significantly higher. Currently crit is not that high, and this is a bit of a limiting factor here.

3. As the level cap grows, it is probable new equipment will add more crit, which means that this will be more powerful than ever before.

In PL, the dex and pure int enchantresses were the glass cannons. In SL, the operative has usurped it's place, barring a major rebalance. Considering that this game has only recently been released, a major rebalance is probable, especially if more engineers cry out for a buff. Historical note: In PL, the enchantress was once considered the weakest class in PL, because of it's poor survivability and at the time, inferior damage output.


Finally, at 100% more damage, it is seriously worth considering maxing out mind wrack, perhaps even taking points from sympathetic anguish.

[kamikazees]

Any idea how long the mind wreck effect lasts? I think if it lasts for the full 6 seconds, this means that the operative's effective damage is significantly higher. Currently crit is not that high, and this is a bit of a limiting factor here.

Mind Wrack is an activated attack skill, so it does not have any lasting effect. It just recharges in 6 seconds. My op only has a 7% crit unbuffed, which is why it was difficult to get crit data.

It does more base damage than Sympathetic Anguish (about 20% from what I can tell), and recharges 4 seconds faster. Sympathetic Anguish is only better if either the DOT triggers, or it jumps to another mob. Assuming it only does that 1/2 the time (which is my unverified guess), I think Mind Wrack will still do more damage.

[WhoIsThis]

Mind Wrack is an activated attack skill, so it does not have any lasting effect. It just recharges in 6 seconds. My op only has a 7% crit unbuffed, which is why it was difficult to get crit data.

That does make mind wrack a bit less valuable, but still a very powerful attack. I think than sympathetic is less valuable than I initially thought - compare:

Neural Shock:
Lv 6: 10 energy, 7 sec. cool-down, 12m range, 12-26 damage, -20 hit chance and -4 critical chance to target for 5 sec.
Average damage: 19

Sympathetic is only useful as you said if it jumps and this is only partially good because it has a 50% jump chance.



Okay, let's do some rough calculations in average DPS (rounded to the second decimal):
Mind Wrack:
Damage / Time + Crit = 20 / 6 = 3.33
Add to this your crit % x 2 (since mind wrack adds 100% to the crit; every other spell adds 33% more so multiplying 2.33 doesn't make sense) x 3.33

Neural Shock:
19 / 7 = 2.71

Sympathetic
(17.5 + 0.5 (lets assume that you are correct) x 0.8 x 17.5 + 0.25 (if the jump probability is 50%, then the probability of a second jump should be one quarter) x 0.64 (0.8 squared) x 17.5)/10 = 2.73


Mind wrack on the other hand, is now well worth maxing.


Now complicating things is the opponents armor. Mind wrack is the undisputed champion. I suspect that because of the way armor works, neural shock with it's higher damage per hit will come out on top in both single target and net damage over sympathetic.



Edit:
One more thing, with all outlaw's equipment, you can get 19 crit.