MIN-MAX BRAWLERS WITH BERNKASTEL Ange (Bernkastel) Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Crit Formula ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Crit vs Power................................................................................................................................ 4 Front Crit.................................................................................................................................. 5 Back Crit ................................................................................................................................... 5 Other forms of Crit scaling ...................................................................................................... 6 Brawler skills .................................................................................................................................... 6 Haymaker .................................................................................................................................... 0 Graph ....................................................................................................................................... 0 Jackhammer ................................................................................................................................ 1 Graphs ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Ground Pounder .......................................................................................................................... 3 Graphs ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Counterpunch .............................................................................................................................. 5 Equations ................................................................................................................................. 5 Punch Combos ................................................................................................................................. 5 Perfect Block .................................................................................................................................... 5 Counter Perfect Block.................................................................................................................. 5 Is it worth using Counter Perfect Block? ................................................................................. 5 Skill Perfect Block ........................................................................................................................ 6 Is it worth using skill Perfect Block? ........................................................................................ 6 Skill DPS Table.................................................................................................................................. 0 Skill Tier ........................................................................................................................................... 0 Growing Fury ................................................................................................................................... 0 CDR? ................................................................................................................................................ 0 CDR formula ................................................................................................................................ 0 Brawler CD frames ....................................................................................................................... 1 Calculating CDs ............................................................................................................................ 1 Step 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Step 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 2 Step 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Verdict ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Power vs Crit – Revisit ..................................................................................................................... 3 Front ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Interpretation .............................................................................................................................. 6 Hard Mode Graph – 185 Crit Resistance Boss ............................................................................. 6 Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Crystals and Consumables ............................................................................................................... 7 Crystals ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Carving vs Pounding ................................................................................................................ 7 Brawler specific ....................................................................................................................... 8 Forceful vs Pounding ............................................................................................................... 9 Front Crystals............................................................................................................................. 10 Back Crystals .............................................................................................................................. 10 Abusing Wrathful from behind.................................................................................................. 10 Score Run................................................................................................................................... 10 Front ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Back ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Consumables ............................................................................................................................. 10 Gear ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Weapon ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Chest .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Chest Roll – RHK CD or Jackhammer Damage ....................................................................... 11 Gloves ........................................................................................................................................ 13 Boots.......................................................................................................................................... 13 Jewelry ....................................................................................................................................... 13 Sets ........................................................................................................................................ 13 Rolls ....................................................................................................................................... 14 Brooch ....................................................................................................................................... 14 Haymaker Crit Cap ......................................................................................................................... 15 Do Perfect Blocks even contribute much of your total DPS? ........................................................ 16 Crit diminished value – Perfect Block Reflects .............................................................................. 16 Etching ........................................................................................................................................... 17 Energetic III ................................................................................................................................ 17 Keen III ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Pumped III ................................................................................................................................. 17 Better Perfect Blocks with higher skill uptime? ........................................................................ 18 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 18 Final Gearing Logic (Growing Fury) ............................................................................................... 18 Docile bosses – negligible DPS bonus on reflects...................................................................... 18 Normal bosses – 25% bonus DPS on reflects ............................................................................ 19 Hyperactive bosses – 50% bonus DPS on reflects ..................................................................... 19 What does this all mean? .......................................................................................................... 19 Example ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Final Gearing Logic (No Growing Fury) .......................................................................................... 19 Front vs Back ................................................................................................................................. 19 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 20 Final DPS Rotation Logic ................................................................................................................ 21 Growing Fury ............................................................................................................................. 21 No Growing Fury........................................................................................................................ 21 How to tank ................................................................................................................................... 21 Aggro formula............................................................................................................................ 21 Glyphs ............................................................................................................................................ 22 Growing Fury Min-Max Standard .............................................................................................. 22 Growing Fury CD Glyph ............................................................................................................. 22 Low Growing Fury Uptime......................................................................................................... 23 End Notes ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Credits............................................................................................................................................ 23 Lateral – AV (reddit Iatii) ........................................................................................................... 23 Forsynthia – AV (reddit megatonfist) ........................................................................................ 23 Ketoth – MT ............................................................................................................................... 23 Texendis – TR (reddit Xiadais) ................................................................................................... 23 Introduction Despite being branded as an easy class, Brawler is indisputably the most complicated class to decipher mathematically. It is without a doubt that to perform at a decent level, Brawler does not require much thinking or planning at all. But is this the true potential of this class? Not even close. In this Brawler min-max guide I wish to go through all the Brawler mechanics and prove the optimal methodology to gear and play Brawlers. Borrowing the power of the one true pantheistic God – i.e. mathematics, I will show you what Brawlers are truly capable of. Like my warrior guides, this guide will assume deep general knowledge of this game. A beginner may find this guide confusing to read. Crit Formula This Brawler guide will use Ketoth’s updated Critical Strike equation. Crit damage will be assumed as 810% from the back and 680% from the front for the rest of this guide. The precise number for Crit damage is not very important in changing the breakpoint of gearing choice. Crit resistance is 155 for normal dungeons and 185 for hard mode. The Crit resistance used in this guide will be 160. Crit vs Power These graphs are cheat sheet graphs for every class. Keep in mind that like the graph I put in my warrior guide, these graphs are for rough guidance only, as they do not take account of Crit modified skills. For classes like Berserkers (which scale poorly with Crit) and Warriors (which scale well with Crit), these graphs can be misleading. Front Crit π₯+1 π¦ + 101 (0.35(π₯ + 1) + 800) ∗ 5.8 + 1 = π₯ π¦ + 100 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 Back Crit π₯+1 π¦ + 101 (0.45(π₯ + 1) + 560) ∗ 7.1 + 1 = π₯ π¦ + 100 ( ) ∗ 7.1 + 1 0.45π₯ + 560 Other forms of Crit scaling True double/triple Chance glyphs scale twice/thrice as hard. So if 1 power is worth 2 Crit for your normal skills, then true double Chance glyph will mean 1 power is only worth just over 1 Crit, as Crit is double the value for that skill. Note that the value of power is not relatively halved by a double Crit Chance glyph, because of diminishing returns, it’s just almost halved. Flat Crit Factor glyphs will simply give you that much base Crit. It therefore shifts the graph slightly, and Crit is slightly less valuable. Like I said, binomial makes you scale worse with Crit. The reason is because binomial scaling is diminishing, if you Crit on both dice rolls you just wasted extra luck. That’s why classes with high base Crit Chance or high binomial scaling should focus more on Power than other classes. With all of the above graphs and knowledge in mind, you should be able to estimate the breakpoint for your individual class. I will not elaborate further as this guide is focused on Brawlers only. Brawler skills Brawler skills are by far the most complicated out of all the classes. This isn’t because of how difficult it is to execute them together correctly, but because the incompetent Bluehole Studio gave them a bunch of counterintuitive features that are not apparent without extensive testing. All the base damage listed on the tooltips are all wrong, how the Crit glyphs work is wrong, how attack speed scales is wrong, etc., etc. Below is a table of how every Brawler skill works. Fields marked as “Special” will have a section dedicated later. This table ignores damage glyphs. Skill True Base Damage Punch I Punch II Punch III Punch IV RHK Ground Pounder Haymaker 298 481 592 3174 2037 6730 3647 – 6491 (Bloodlust) Piledriver 4596 Jackhammer 5184 Flip Kick 2674 Counterpun 3460 ch Counter I 667 Counter II 1400 Counter III 1502 Counter IV 3039 Counter V 2964 Rampage 17362 Divine 15596 Wrath Perfect Block Reflect Base Untested Untested Untested Untested 815 1583 Bloodlust Cast time 0 ASPD Cast time 0 ASPD RHK Cancel Scales with ASPD Crit Glyph Scaling Base Crit Chance DPS 0 ASPD DPS 0 ASPD RHK Cancel N N N N N N 0.555 0.555 0.713 1.823 0.951 3.606 2.417 Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N Special 0 0 0 0 0 0 537 867 830 1741 2142 1866 2784 1459 – 2597 3.210 1.347 Y Special 0 1136 – 2022 2707 – 4817 1051 866 1070 866 Y, up to 1.78x damage N N N N 2.140 1.530 2.26 2.021 0.991 1.100 0.753 0.911 Y N Y Y N Special N N 0 0 0 100% 2148 3388 1184 1712 4640 4713 3551 3798 267 560 601 1216 1186 356 Untested N N N N N N 1.189 1.981 1.902 1.030 3.300 3.633 - Y Y Y Y N N N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0 100% 1178 758 1598 2877 - 5261 4293 Haymaker Haymaker scales 3.5 times with Crit Factor. This means Haymaker does not follow the standard Crit scaling of other skills. The triple Crit Chance glyph on Haymaker has little value because at endgame values of Crit Factor, Haymaker will almost always Critically Strike. There will be two lines in the Haymaker graph because Haymaker has bloodlust, making it do more damage the lower the enemy % HP. Graph This is a graph of Haymaker’s scaling compared to other skills depending on your current Crit Factor. Because Haymaker has a hidden 3.5 times Crit Chance modifier, it scales harder than other skills with Crit Factor until it caps. As you can see, Haymaker scales harder than other skills by a large margin. Haymaker does not scale with Crit once it hits the Crit cap, therefore the effectiveness sharply drops off. In Hard Mode dungeons, the Crit cap will be higher than 250/185, hence it is safe to stack Crit beyond those values. More about Crit cap later. Jackhammer Jackhammer is not affected by attack speed, so it does not get stronger as you get more attack speed. Jackhammer scales the same way as other skills with Crit Factor and does not have a base Crit modifier. Jackhammer double Crit Chance glyph gives you Crit Resistance Penetration of 1.5. Graphs This is a graph of Jackhammer’s scaling compared to other skills depending on your current Crit Factor. Because Jackhammer has hidden BCSM, it scales harder than other skills with Crit Factor. π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 560 π¦= ∗ 5184 π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π₯ ( ) ∗ 7.1 + 1 0.45π₯ + 320 π¦= ∗ 5184 π₯ ( ) ∗ 7.1 + 1 0.45π₯ + 560 Back Crit graph drops off because diminishing returns is too high at that Crit range. Ground Pounder Ground Pounder scales the same way as other skills with Crit Factor and does not have a base Crit modifier. Ground Pounder triple Crit Chance glyph is a binomial triple Crit Chance glyph. Ground Pounder can be used as an animation cancel move like RHK. Graphs This is a graph of Ground Pounder’s scaling compared to other skills depending on your current Crit Factor. Because Ground Pounder has a binomial glyph, it does not scale very well with Crit Factor. 3 π₯ (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π¦= ∗ 6730 π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 3 π₯ (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 7.1 + 1 0.45π₯ + 560 π¦= ∗ 6730 π₯ ( ) ∗ 7.1 + 1 0.45π₯ + 560 Ground Pounder does not scale with Crit Factor very well the same way Berserkers do not. Counterpunch This skill has a 100% Chance to Crit, therefore it is one of those rare skills that paradoxically scale relatively better if your Crit is low. Counterpunch can be used as an animation cancel move like RHK. Equations π·ππ ππ’ππ‘ππππ = (πΆπππ‘ ππππππ) ((πΉππππ‘ ππππ‘ ππππππ − 1) ∗ (ππππππ π ππππ ππππ‘ πβππππ) + 1) Punch Combos Skill LR LLR LLLR LLLLR Base Damage 1698 2281 4407 7509 Cast time 0 ASPD 1.744 3.091 3.725 4.676 DPS 974 738 1183 1606 As you can see, basic attack combos are extremely weak for Brawlers. Perfect Block Perfect Block happens when you tap the counter key or use a skill with frontal block effect and an attack hits you within the first 0.5 seconds of that command. If you are hit multiple times within that 0.5 second timeframe, Perfect Block will trigger as many times as you get hit. There are two kinds of Perfect Block in this game for Brawlers. Counter Perfect Block Counter has a glyph that has a chance to increases all damage by 50% if you Perfect Block with it. Is it worth using Counter Perfect Block? In this section we will assume it is safe to not use Counter, hence the only reason to block is to do more damage. Using Counter will sacrifice DPS time to have a 30% Chance to buff the next 6 seconds of DPS time. DPS for 7 seconds can be modelled by: π·πππππ = 7 ∗ π·ππ DPS for 6 seconds + Counter can be modelled by: π·πππππ = 0.3 (6 ∗ π·ππ ∗ 1.5) + 0.7 ( 6 ∗ π·ππ) π·πππππ = 6.9 π·ππ If you use Counter to deliberately proc the glyph and do not animation cancel then you lose damage when you block for longer than 0.9 seconds. It is always a damage loss if you proc it again when your glyph buff is still active. For example if you just proc’d the glyph and you proc it immediately after the value of the second proc is close to zero. If you’re skilled and can read the boss pattern ahead of time, perfectly cancel your block every single time in 0.4 seconds, and never use Counter twice in 6 seconds, your DPS gain here is 7.8%. This means the majority of your skills have a higher DPS boost than Counter when used to Perfect Block, not to mention a precious animation cancel will be wasted here. π·ππ π΅πππ π‘ = 0.3(6 ∗ 1.5) + 0.7(6) − 1 = 0.078 6.4 What this means 1. Counter Perfect Block can reduce your cooldown burden, but is a DPS loss as long as another Perfect Block skill can be used instead. 2. Counter Perfect Block is a major DPS loss if you use Counter while the buff is active. 3. Counter Perfect Block should only be used in Growing Fury when the boss is doing a multi-hit move and Counter is the only way to not waste a Perfect Block opportunity. It must also be animation cancelled properly for this to be true, if not animation cancelled, it’s a damage loss. 4. Counter Perfect Block is valuable outside Growing Fury if it can be cancelled and another Perfect Block skill is not available. 5. Counter Perfect Block is useful if you’re trying to cheese a high score by resetting until you get an early proc. Verdict This glyph is only valuable against bosses that attack very fast and you would otherwise be unable to exploit each Perfect Block opportunity without using Counter. It is also useful outside Growing Fury because you will always run into situations where you need to block. Otherwise it is not a very strong glyph. Skill Perfect Block When used with Growing Fury, RHK glyph or certain skills by themselves, skills have frontal block effects. This will reflect a certain amount of damage as shown in the table above every time Perfect Block triggers. This damage is guaranteed to Critically Strike regardless of your Crit Factor. Is it worth using skill Perfect Block? From the table it is easy to immediately infer that the only two skills worth deliberately Perfect Blocking with are Haymaker > Ground Pounder. The other skills have almost no value to Perfect Block with or are too situational, hence is not worth delaying skill usage or altering DPS rotation priority. Skill DPS Table This table ignores damage glyphs on skills. Skill True Base Damage DPS 0 ASPD DPS 0 ASPD RHK Cancel RHK Ground Pounder Haymaker 2037 6730 2142 1866 2784 1136 – 2022 3647 – 6491 (Bloodlust) Piledriver 4596 Jackhammer 5184 Flip Kick 2674 Counterpun 3460 ch LR 1698 LLR 2281 LLLR 4407 LLLLR 7509 Rampage 17362 Divine 15596 Wrath Corrected DPS 250 Crit Front Single 2142 3293 Corrected DPS 250 Crit Back Single 2142 3230 Corrected DPS 250 Crit Front RHK Cancel 4912 Correct DPS 250 Crit Back RHK Cancel 4819 Corrected DPS 300 Crit Front RHK Cancel 4864 Correct DPS 300 Crit Back RHK Cancel 4655 2707 – 4817 2931-5217 2522-4517 6984-12428 6047-10760 6334-11272 5414-9634 2148 3388 1184 1712 4640 4713 3551 3798 2148 4166 1184 4437 2148 4738 1184 3795 4640 5796 3551 9843 4640 6591 3551 8482 4640 5818 3551 8864 4640 6582 3551 7591 974 738 1183 1606 - 5261 4293 974 738 1183 1606 - 974 738 1183 1606 - 5261 11125 5261 9587 5261 10018 5261 8580 Skill Tier Brawler skill tier is obvious because the vast majority of skills do almost no damage. Tier 1: Divine Wrath, Haymaker, Counterpunch Tier 2: RHK (with full animation cancel), Rampage, Jackhammer, Ground Pounder, Piledriver Tier 3: Flip Kick, RHK Tier Trash: Everything else Because this table ignores damage glyphs, Divine Wrath is actually weaker than Haymaker and Counterpunch. The average Haymaker does less damage than Counterpunch, but because of how bloodlust scales, a 50% HP boss takes more than the average Haymaker worth of base damage. RHK cast time can be as low as 0.3 seconds with correct animation cancelling. However if we account for damage glyphs, RHK is still weaker than every Tier 2 skill even with perfect cancel. Growing Fury Is Growing Fury worth using? Yes. I don’t think you need numbers to prove this. If you still think the answer is no, please delete your Brawler. Every section after this will have Growing Fury and non-Growing Fury covered, as it is now relevant given the implications of this skill. CDR? Skimming the stats, Brawler fits the bill for a class that likely scales well with CDR for multiple reasons: 1. Only a few high DPS skills. Fillers are very bad. 2. Growing Fury is easier to keep up with CDR. 3. High Power and Crit from Growing Fury, making those 2 stats scale relatively poorly for Brawlers. 4. Scales poorly on attack speed as Jackhammer does not scale on attack speed. CDR formula πΉππππ πΆπ· = πππππ πΆπ· ∗ (1 − πΊπππ πΆπ·π − πΊππ¦πβ πΆπ·π ) ∗ (1 − π΅π’ππ πΆπ·π − πππ π‘ππ’π πΆπ·π ) Brawler CD frames Skill Roundhouse Kick Ground Pounder Haymaker Piledriver Jackhammer Flip Kick Counterpunch RHK Cancel animation 0.450 2.417 1.347 0.991 1.100 0.753 0.911 CD start (sec) 0.000 0.482 1.347 0.036 0.324 0.561 0.165 Calculating CDs To calculate the space DPS skills occupy in a Brawler rotation, we need to list skills in order of priority. The first assumption I am going to make is that you will always be able to use Counterpunch after 3 seconds of it coming up. This is a sound assumption on every nonsandbag, and will underestimate Counterpunch damage slightly for most bosses. Step 1 Haymaker is your priority skill. Your current CD with Haymaker will be designated A. Haymaker cast time at 107 ASPD is 1.133 seconds. Since Haymaker has a 20% Chance to reset, on average I get to cast Haymaker: ∞ ∑(0.2π₯ ) = 1.25 π₯=0 This means on average per cooldown, you’ll spend 1.416 seconds in Haymaker. Because Haymaker only goes on cooldown at the very end, the total effective Haymaker cooldown is: πΈπππππ‘ππ£ππΆπ· = π΄ + 1.416 If I use another skill immediate and keep in mind not to cancel Haymaker, the probability I will have to wait for Haymaker is: 1.416 ( ) = ππππππππππ‘π¦ πΈπππππ‘ππ£ππΆπ· On average if I have to wait, I will wait for half a Haymaker animation during this time. So effective extra CD on my second strongest skill is: 1.416 ∗ ππππππππππ‘π¦ = π·ππππ¦πππππππππ΅ππ π‘πππππ 2 RHK is calculated by: (1 + 0.06 π π»πΎπΆπ·) ∗ π π»πΎ π΄πππππ‘πππ π π»πΎπΆπ· This is acceptable because you get approximately 0.6 RHK resets every 10 seconds. RHK will not exceed once every 3 seconds even if CD allows it because it is a DPS loss. Using this concept and assigning a progressive chain, the values can be mapped out as: Skill Percentage time spent 10% CDR Gear Haymaker 12.46% CPunch 7.8% Jackhammer 21.85% Ground 10.7% Pounder Piledriver 12.4% Flip Kick 5.6% RHK 9.5% Total 80.31% Percentage time spent 18% CDR Gear 13.5% 8.56% 22.2% 12.04% Percentage time spent 10% CDR GF 18% 10.4% 31.9% 16.17% Percentage time spent 18% CDR GF 13.5% 6.13% 10.45% 86.38% 18% 8.2% 13.2% 115.8% 19.38% 8.81% 14.65% 126% 19.4% 11.26% 34.44% 18.09% The values used were: Skill HM CP JH GP PD FK RHK Cast time | CD start 1.416 1.416 0.9 0.15 1.1 0.3 2.3 0.4 0.9 0.0 0.7 0.5 0.45 0 CD | Glyph 13 0% 15 25% 6 0% 35 20% 9 0% 15 0% 12 25% It is not important the values are exact, because the calculations here serve as damage proportion analysis only. If skills are perfectly in sync, any rotation with a total above 100% is infinitely repeatable, however they are not, so 100% will not allow you to infinitely repeat a rotation. A rotation with 120% has 12 seconds worth of animations every 10 seconds; everything from that point onwards should be infinitely repeatable with good CD management. The advantage of having high total % number is it allows you to prioritize higher priority moves. Step 2 Now we have the table, we can convert it into %DPS gain by taking the first 100% on the table for Growing Fury, subtract equal amount from the difference from low priority skills, and calculate the effective DPS gain of the second CDR roll. RHK will not be included in the first 100% because it’s a buffer skill. The actual usage of RHK will be approximated in a later section. The maths without Growing Fury is not meaningful, as without a second CDR roll it is unlikely you’ll be able to repeat the rotation indefinitely even with Rampage, making CDR invaluable outside Growing Fury. Skill GF DPS 10% CDR in arbitrary units Front Haymaker 1981 CPunch 1198 Jackhammer 2320 Ground 1022 Pounder Piledriver 1044 Flip Kick 196 Total 7761 GF DPS 18% CDR in arbitrary units Front 2135 1298 2504 1144 GF DPS 10% CDR in arbitrary units Back 1693 1026 2625 979 GF DPS 18% CDR in arbitrary units Back 1825 1111 2834 1095 975 0 8056 1044 196 7563 975 0 7840 Step 3 We have deduced that in Growing Fury, from the front CDR roll is worth approximately 3.8% damage and from the back it is worth approximately 3.7% damage. Enrage damage value is based on Enrage time and current % Modifiers. For most endgame players, it is worth: 0.065 ∗ πΈπππππππππππ This means for Enrage to beat CDR, you only need 58.5% uptime and 57% uptime from the front and back respectively. This is quite easy, so Enrage is the stronger roll. Verdict True Min-Maxers want Enrage Damage. This does not take account of extra Perfect Blocks you can get with CDR, however that is often negligible in the grand scheme, given you’re likely to get 1-2 extra Perfect Block over a fight. CDR is weakened when you block a lot. For non-Growing Fury fights, CDR is better. However you are unlikely to min-max your character for non-Growing Fury fights. In a normal Growing Fury fight, you’re looking at 1-2% difference in DPS between rolling CDR or Enrage. Therefore despite Enrage being slightly higher DPS in a competent party, the utility value of CDR, which cannot really be put into numbers, makes it acceptable to roll CDR. If you are not a player who can keep up Growing Fury for most of the fight or you want to sacrifice a bit of damage for utility and quality of life, you can roll CDR. Statistically speaking, if you can’t keep up Growing Fury, chances are your teammates aren’t very good either and the runs are longer. Longer runs and low Growing Fury uptime both make Enrage a weaker roll, so CDR would be a better option. Power vs Crit – Revisit Brawler Power vs Crit is by far the most complicated not because it is difficult mathematically, but because theoretical values don’t cover the whole story. The reason for this is because Perfect Block reflects always Crit, so on bosses that attack a lot, the value of Crit Factor is reduced. For example, if a theoretical boss hit 1 damage 1 million times a second, then the best build is just to go full power. This way you can deal the maximum damage with 1 single Perfect Block buffed Haymaker. It will always reflect a quarter of a million Haymakers worth of Critical damage back at the boss. If a boss is a true sandbag however, the value of Crit Factor will be exactly as described by the theoretical value. Using the values we deduced in CDR section it is now possible to draw a diagram of damage distribution. If it doesn’t add up to 100% it’s because of the rounding. This table ignores Perfect Block damage from reflects. Your real DPS distribution might look different because Perfect Blocks. Perfect Blocks increase some skills’ DPS more such as Haymaker, since you prioritize it for Perfect Blocks and also because it has very high reflect damage. Skills like Jackhammer would be lower because the Perfect Block reflect on Jackhammer is quite weak. Skill Haymaker CPunch Jackhammer Ground Pounder Piledriver Flip Kick RHK DPS Distribution Front – GF 24.0% 14.5% DPS Distribution Back – GF 21.0% 12.7% Scaling Total Zero after cap Zero 28.0% 12.4% 32.5% 12.1% BCSM Binomial 12.6% 2.4% 6.1% 12.9% 2.4% 6.2% Normal Normal Normal Approx 40%/35% of your damage does not scale Approx 40%/45% of your damage scales multiplied The remainder 20% scales normally Front Crit scaling after 100% Haymaker π₯+1 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 π¦ + 101 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 800 − 1 = 0.2 ( − 1) π₯ π¦ + 100 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π₯+1 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 560 + 0.28 ( − 1) π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 560 3 π₯+1 (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 800 + 0.125 ( 3 π₯ (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 −1 ) Crit scaling before 100% Haymaker π₯+1 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 π¦ + 101 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 800 − 1 = 0.2 ( − 1) π₯ π¦ + 100 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π₯+1 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 560 + 0.28 ( − 1) π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 560 3 π₯+1 (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 800 + 0.125 3 π₯ )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 (1 − (1 − ( 0.35π₯ + 800 ( π₯+1 3.5 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 1) + 800 + 0.24 ( − 1) π₯ 3.5 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 −1 ) Interpretation Ignoring Perfect Block reflects, you should stack as much Crit as possible until Haymaker hits 100% Crit Chance without the glyph. As the table does not account for Perfect Block reflects, which always Crit, the value of Crit is slightly overstated. Given an endgame Brawler has over 300 Power in Growing Fury, the Perfect Block numbers have no significance in shifting the Power vs Crit breakpoint. It all depends on Haymaker Crit. More detailed explanation will be offered in a later section. Hard Mode Graph – 185 Crit Resistance Boss Looks almost exactly the same? Yea, I’ve been saying the same thing for years. The deviation introduced by Crit Factor conversion difference is always negligible. This graph here just serves as proof that the numbers are valid for every boss Crit Resistance value. Analysis Due to the naturally high Crit Chance of Haymaker, the Haymaker Crit glyph is actually quite weak, and should only be used if you have spare points. π»ππ¦πππππ πππ¦πβ π£πππ’π = 6.8 5.8 ∗ (π»ππ¦ππππππΆπππ‘πΆβππππ) + 1 The value of Haymaker glyph is essentially zero for an endgame player because Haymaker has almost 100% Crit Chance regardless. This glyph should only be taken if there are absolutely no other glyphs that will boost your DPS. We will talk about Power vs Crit in detail later. Crystals and Consumables Crystals Carving vs Pounding Front π₯ 5.8 (( ) + 0.033) + 1 1.085 + πππ‘ππ%πππ 0.35π₯ + 800 = π₯ 1 + πππ‘ππ%πππ 5.8 (( )) + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 Back π₯ 7.1 (( ) + 0.033) + 1 1.085 + πππ‘ππ%πππ 0.45π₯ + 560 = π₯ 1 + πππ‘ππ%πππ 7.1 (( )) + 1 0.45π₯ + 560 Brawler specific Brawlers do not scale as hard with Carving crystal because of double Crit Chance glyph diminishing returns and Haymaker capping. Carving crystal is added to each roll of binomial Crit multiplier, but is only calculated once in true Crit multiplier. π₯ ( + 0.033) ∗ 5.8 + 1 1.085 + π¦ 0.35π₯ + 800 − 1 = 0.2 ( − 1) π₯ 1+π¦ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π₯ ( + 0.033) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 560 + 0.28 ( − 1) π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 560 3 π₯ (1 − (1 − ( + 0.033)) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 + 0.125 ( − 1) 3 π₯ (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 As you can see, Carving is actually trash tier for Brawlers. This is even ignoring Perfect Block reflects, which will always Crit anyway. Forceful vs Pounding π + 121 1.081 + πππ‘ππ%πππ = π + 100 1 + πππ‘ππ%πππ Forceful is bad in Growing Fury. Forceful is good outside Growing Fury. Front Crystals Red: Wrathful, Focused, Pounding x2 Blue: Hardy x4 Green: Keen x4 Back Crystals Red: Focused, Bitter, Savage, Pounding Blue: Hardy x4 Green: Keen x4 Abusing Wrathful from behind It is possible to abuse Wrathful from behind if you know what you’re doing. Wrathful can be used from behind to cause front Crits because Wrathful always works when back Crit doesn’t happen, this means a side Crit procs Wrathful. To abuse this trick you simply have to turn your camera sideways 90 degrees and use your skills when the boss has its back against you. Score Run You need to be under 50% HP to use these builds. These will give you the highest DPS possible, but you need to always be under 50% HP. Front Red: Wrathful, Focused, Furious, Slaying Back Red: Focused, Bitter, Savage, Slaying Consumables Compulsory 1. 2. 3. 4. Crit Power scroll Nostrum Greater Power Charm Greater Infused Charm Optional 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Greater Enduring Charm Canephora Potion Bravery Potion Noctenium Food Gear Weapon Top line: Enrage > CDR Bottom line: Enrage > Aggro Damage > CDR > Damage Chest The way TERA defense scales is: π·πππππ πππππ = π΅ππ π π·πππππ (1 – ππ’π ππ π¦ππ’π ππππππ ππππ’ππ‘πππ πππππ ) πππ’π ππππππ π Anyone with basic maths knowledge will immediately see that the scaling on % damage reduction lines are absurd. So stack those. Chest Roll – RHK CD or Jackhammer Damage πΆπ· ππ π π»πΎ = 12 ∗ (1 – 0.25 – πΊππππΆπ·π ) ∗ (1 – πΊπππ€ππππΉπ’ππ¦ – 0.15) RHK gives a DPS boost of 15% for every skill in the next 3 seconds. Two equations can therefore be written for total DPS boost from this uptime assuming you spam RHK every time it is up. These equations assume you spam RHK immediately every time it’s off CD and ignores Piledriver reset glyph. Growing Fury 3 )+1 6.6(0.6 − πΊππππΆπ·π ) π·ππ π΅πππ π‘ = ( )−1 3 (0.15 ∗ )+1 6.6(0.75 − πΊππππΆπ·π ) (0.15 ∗ No Growing Fury 3 )+1 10.2(0.6 − πΊππππΆπ·π ) π·ππ π΅πππ π‘ = ( )−1 3 (0.15 ∗ )+1 10.2(0.75 − πΊππππΆπ·π ) (0.15 ∗ Jackhammer 12% roll DPS boost π·ππ π΅πππ π‘ = (πππππππ‘πππ πππ‘ππ π·πππππ π½πππβπππππ) ∗ 0.096 For Jackhammer roll to beat RHK glyph value at 10% Gear CDR, you need to have more than 30% of your DPS as Jackhammer during Growing Fury, or 20% outside Growing Fury. The actual power of RHK is lower than the graphs suggest because Piledriver may reset RHK, it is also unrealistic to use RHK immediately every time it goes off CD. Given how close the numbers are even when we give RHK the theoretical advantage, Jackhammer comes out ahead in terms of DPS. Verdict Jackhammer roll gives you more damage assuming you don’t run into cooldown issues. The difference however is very negligible. RHK will provide greater utility outside Growing Fury, and reduce your cooldown burden. This roll largely comes down to personal preference. Gloves Roll Power, Crit Factor, and Attack Speed. Boots Who cares about boots? In all seriousness, Movement Speed, Endurance, MP regen. Jewelry Sets Which set to use will be discussed later. Rolls 1. Roll 4 Power + 4 Crit or 4 Power + 2 Power on rings. Precise Crit vs Power will be discussed later. 2. Roll 4 Power on necklace. 3. Earring rolls are irrelevant in PvE. Brooch True Min-Maxers will double brooch anyway. To double brooch, you put both brooches on different inventory loadouts, activate one brooch, and immediately switch to the other loadout before starting the boss encounter. Use the second brooch when the first runs out. Empowered Brooch: Roll 3 power + 6 Crit Quickcarve Brooch: Roll 4 Crit + 6 Crit Because 3 power is worth more than 4 Crit, it is better to pop Quickcarve first and equip Empower for the fight. If the fight is long however, it is recommended you do the reverse. The reason for that is because activating QC activate again is stronger than the difference between 3 power and 4 Crit. For those with a limited budget you’ll want to know which brooch gives the bigger bang for your buck. With Growing Fury activated and Energy Star, Brawlers should have approximately 105 ASPD. Quickcarve will give you 11 more. This is a total DPS gain of 10%. However 33% of your DPS (Jackhammer) does not scale with ASPD, therefore the true value is closer to 6.6%. The value of Empower vs Quickcarve can therefore be graphed based on your current Crit and Power. This graph ignores Haymaker scaling and assumes you already hit Haymaker cap, in other words, it’s biased to making Empower look better. π¦ + 140 −1 (π¦ + 100)(1.066) π₯ + 50 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 50) + 800 = 0.2 ( − 1) π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π₯ + 50 ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 50) + 560 + 0.28 ( − 1) π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 560 3 (1 − (1 − ( + 0.125 ( π₯ + 50 )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35(π₯ + 50) + 800 3 π₯ (1 − (1 − ( )) ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 −1 ) Given the ASPD already gives 6.6% total damage boost, it’s no surprise that Quickcarve brooch is the winner. Haymaker Crit Cap It is important to work out the Haymaker Crit Cap because it decides how you gear. Hard Mode bosses have Crit Resistance of 185 and Normal Mode 155. The Crit Cap for Haymaker is therefore: Normal Mode: 247 total Crit Factor (front), 178 (back) Hard Mode: 294 total Crit Factor (front), 213 (back) Not every boss shares the same Crit Resistance, and it is still possible to not Crit in certain contexts. However, with these breakpoints, not critting should be a very rare occurrence. If you’re hitting the highest Crit Cap of 294, 2 Crit becomes weaker than 1 Power at that range. Crit Factor 294 should therefore be considered the Absolute Crit Cap for Brawlers. Remember that there are still exceptions to this rule. For example, Nightmare Darkan in SCHM is known to be have more Crit Resistance than usual Hard Mode bosses. FINM and new dungeon bosses appear to have varying Crit Resistance. The Absolute Crit Cap should therefore be taken as a guideline that applies to most bosses, not a definite conclusion for every boss. Do Perfect Blocks even contribute much of your total DPS? Not really, no. Given Perfect Block is a guaranteed Crit, it is approximately 2 to 3 times stronger than what the base value in the table at the start suggest after correcting for this scaling. However, this means one Perfect Block skill will realistically give you about 50% worth of damage back. An approximate guideline for how much % extra damage Perfect Block reflect will do can be estimated by how fast the boss attacks. Let x be average time in seconds between two Perfect Blocks. π΅πππ’π π·πππππ = π₯ + 0.5 −1 π₯ Regardless of how well you play, Perfect Block doesn’t double your damage like some people believe. At most it would realistically increase your damage by an extra 50% on average against very hyperactive bosses. Only in very lucky score runs in obsolete dungeons will you get higher damage boosts than that. This means a very lazy Brawler who knows their rotation but does not bother timing or predicting Perfect Block will only lose a bit of damage. The faster the boss attacks the more likely you will fluke a Perfect Block, so not watching your Perfect Block timing doesn’t significantly affect your DPS regardless of how hyperactive the boss is. Of course if you’re min-maxing your DPS, every little bit matters. Crit diminished value – Perfect Block Reflects The value of Crit is diminished by Perfect Block reflects, because they always Crit. The DPS boost can go from negligible on bosses that rarely attack (e.g. Desolarus) to more than 50% on hyperactive bosses (e.g. Nightmare Perimos). This means the value of Crit can fluctuate from very high to almost nothing. Here is a table of the approximate ranges at 325 Power: Crit Perfect Block bonus DPS 0% 1.0912 (0.7051) 0.9825 (0.6365) 0.8914 (0.5785) 0.8139 (0.5287) 0.7473 (0.4857) 200 225 250 275 300 Perfect Block bonus DPS 25% 0.8730 (0.5641) 0.7890 (0.5092) 0.7131 (0.4628) 0.6511 (0.4230) 0.5978 (0.3886) Perfect Block bonus DPS 50% 0.7275 (0.4701) 0.6550 (0.4243) 0.5943 (0.3857) 0.5426 (0.3525) 0.4982 (0.3238) Number denotes how much Power is equal to one Crit Factor before Haymaker Crit Cap. Number in brackets denotes conversion rate if Haymaker had hit Crit Cap. This table is important for gearing choices covered later. Etching Energetic III The attack speed component is worth 2.4% per etching, the CDR component offsets the DPS loss from faster skill usage. 105 + 3.6 π·ππ π΅πππ π‘ = ( − 1) ∗ 0.7 = 2.4% 105 DPS of Energetic III sharply drops off with ping, which can be modelled by the equation: 90 + ππππ 105 π πππ π·ππ ππππ π‘ = ( − 1) ∗ 0.7 90 108.6 + ππππ At 50 ping, it’s worth 2.26%. At 100 ping, it’s worth 2.14%. At 200 ping, 1.93%. At 300 ping, 1.76%. Keen III The value of 18 Crit Factor can be worked out by reading the Power vs Crit Graph and Table. DPS Boost before Haymaker Cap = more than 3.8% on rocks DPS Boost before Haymaker Cap = more than 2.5% on Hyperactive bosses DPS Boost after Haymaker Cap = less than 2.4% on rocks DPS Boost after Haymaker Cap = less than 1.6% on Hyperactive bosses Pumped III At 325 Power, Pumped III gives: 100 + 335 π·ππ π΅πππ π‘ = ( ) – 1 = 2.35% 100 + 325 Better Perfect Blocks with higher skill uptime? A common misconception is that Energetics give you CDR, therefore more skills, therefore higher uptime on your core moves to Perfect Block with, hence even more damage. This is incorrect. If I told you to shoot a target and get 20 points, or get two identical shots at 10 points each, which would you pick? A statistician will tell you there’s no difference as the expected value is equal for both. A high score casino gambler will tell you he wants the single 20 point shot, as this gives him the best odds to hit the highest jackpot. The above analogy is against a special boss that gives you a Perfect Block reflect exactly every time you shoot a target. Do real bosses behave like this? No. The amount of Perfect Blocks you have in a single boss encounter is limited. If you use your skills faster the boss won’t attack faster to match your new pace and give you Perfect Blocks on every single one of those skills. For example, if you have 50% CDR vs Double Damage, the Perfect Block reflect will be assumed to be equal if the boss always attacks you when you use skills. In a real fight, the latter is better because you can use the second Perfect Block opportunity to get Perfect Block on another skill. For example, if a boss attacks twice in 8 seconds and you’re not in Growing Fury, instead of blocking both hits with Haymaker, which 50% CDR will allow you to do, you will block the first hit with Haymaker, and the second with Ground Pounder. The Haymaker Perfect Block is already Double Damage (i.e. worth two blocks), and the Ground Pounder Perfect Block here is absolutely free. You don’t have to be a mathematician to understand that because Perfect Block opportunities are limited in any boss fight of equal length, faster skill spamming for equal damage is a bad thing. Conclusion With Mystic and Growing Fury you should hit Haymaker Crit Cap without Etchings. Keen is therefore unnecessary unless you don’t ever plan to run with a Mystic. Energetic however makes Growing Fury much easier to keep up, therefore is an option for utility. You need under 15~ ping for Energetics to outperform Pumped in raw damage output at 325 Power on sandbag. With Perfect Block taken into account, Energetics becomes weaker. Verdict: Keen III (before Haymaker Crit Cap) > Pumped III > Energetic III > Keen III (after Crit Cap) Final Gearing Logic (Growing Fury) Haymaker Crit Cap is defined as 100% Crit Chance with Haymaker on this specific boss. Docile bosses – negligible DPS bonus on reflects Before Haymaker Crit Cap: 1.5 Crit > 1 Power: Up to Crit Cap 2 Crit > 1 Power: Up to Crit Cap After Haymaker Crit Cap: 1.5 Crit > 1 Power: Up to 215 Crit Factor 2 Crit > 1 Power: Up to 294 Crit Factor Normal bosses – 25% bonus DPS on reflects Before Haymaker Crit Cap: 1.5 Crit > 1 Power: Up to 270 Crit Factor 2 Crit > 1 Power: Up to Crit Cap After Haymaker Crit Cap: 1.5 Crit > 1 Power: Never 2 Crit > 1 Power: Up to 225 Crit Factor Hyperactive bosses – 50% bonus DPS on reflects Before Haymaker Crit Cap: 1.5 Crit > 1 Power: Up to 220 Crit Factor 2 Crit > 1 Power: Up to Crit Cap After Haymaker Crit Cap: 1.5 Crit > 1 Power: Never 2 Crit > 1 Power: Never What does this all mean? 1.5 Crit vs 1 Power denotes the value of Crit+Power Jewelry mix vs Crit+Crit Jewelry mix, as that is the only gearing dilemma with 1.5:1 ratio. If your Crit Factor exceeds the number listed next to “1.5 Crit > 1 Power” under the relevant context, then you should use Crit+Power mix Jewelry rather than Crit+Crit mix, vice versa. If your Crit Factor exceeds the number listed next to “2 Crit > 1 Power” under the relevant context, then all Crit Factor gear are bad and you should substitute them all with Power, vice versa. Example I have 255 Crit Factor fully buffed fighting a normal Hard Mode boss with Haymaker Crit Cap of 294. Because I have not yet hit the Haymaker Crit Cap, 1.5 Crit > 1 Power until 270 Crit Factor, and 2 Crit > 1 Power until Crit Cap. I should therefore use full Crit Jewelry and any more Crit I can get until I reach 294 Crit Factor. Note: the moment my Crit Factor exceeds 270 without Crit Jewelry, I should no longer use it. Final Gearing Logic (No Growing Fury) Follow logic for docile bosses since you won’t get many Perfect Block reflects outside Growing Fury. Front vs Back Because the majority of Brawler Crit glyphs have no/smaller benefit from behind, and that it is much harder to get Perfect Block from behind, the value of attacking from behind is actually much lower than most classes. I will show you the DPS margins and create a guideline as to whether it is appropriate to attack from behind for various boss encounters. We had already figured out above in the CDR section that front damage is 7761 arbitrary units while back damage is 7563 arbitrary units. This means ignoring the bonus Critical damage and Critical Chance from behind, front damage has an advantage of 2.6% for a Brawler. This advantage is also understated as it does not take account of Perfect Block, which is much more frequent from the front. The DPS difference can therefore be calculated as: π₯ ( ) ∗ 5.8 + 1 0.35π₯ + 800 π¦= ∗ 1.026 π₯ ( ) ∗ 7.1 + 1 0.45π₯ + 560 Conclusion As you can see, at functional endgame values, Brawlers do about 30% more damage from the back assuming no Perfect Block differences. If the difference in Perfect Block is greater than 30% total damage then attacking from the front is better for a Brawler. This means as a DPS Brawler, you want to DPS from the front if you can get more than one Perfect Block with your skills approximately every 1.5 seconds or less on average when compared to the back. So every 15 seconds you need to be able to Perfect Block more than 10 skills extra from the front compared to the back. Of course bosses don’t actually attack uniformly, and not every animation can be Perfect Blocked properly. These numbers here are proof of concepts only and approximations. Brawlers also have trouble repositioning themselves behind bosses that turn a lot, especially in battles where you need to save your iframe, so that gives an advantage to attacking from the front. Final DPS Rotation Logic Growing Fury 1. Use RHK as often as possible but not more than once every 3 seconds and make sure you use it to cancel another animation. 2. Ignoring RHK, rotation priority is Haymaker > Counterpunch > Jackhammer > Ground Pounder > Piledriver > Flip Kick. 3. Flip Kick should never be used without RHK, Counterpunch, or Ground Pounder to cancel it. 4. Only Perfect Block with Counter if you cannot Perfect Block with a skill. No Growing Fury 1. Use RHK as often as possible but not more than once every 3 seconds and make sure you use it to cancel another animation. 2. Ignoring RHK, rotation priority is Haymaker > Counterpunch > Jackhammer > Ground Pounder > Piledriver > Flip Kick > Divine Wrath > Rampage. 3. Flip Kick should never be used without RHK, Counter, Counterpunch, or Ground Pounder to cancel it. 4. If you run out of Tier 1 to Tier 3 skills but your rage bar is not full, use Mounting Rage -> Divine Wrath. 5. If Divine Wrath is down, replace with Rampage. 6. Only Perfect Block with Counter if you cannot Perfect Block with a skill. 7. If your Counter Perfect Block damage proc is already up, any additional use of Counter is a DPS loss. If you have no skills to Perfect Block with, face-tank the hit if appropriate. 8. If you’re mid Haymaker animation and a boss is about to attack you with something you can face-tank, don’t cancel Haymaker with Counter, just face-tank it. How to tank In order of priority: 1. Don’t die 2. Hold aggro 3. Do maximum damage Tanking in this patch is no different to DPSing, except you do it from the front. Aggro formula π΄ππππ = (π·πππππ + πππππ πβππππ‘ πππ) ∗ ((1 + πΈππ’ππππππ‘ π΅πππ’π ) ∗ (1 + πΊππ¦πβπ ) ∗ (1 + π΄ππππ ππ‘ππππ) 2 ∗ (1 + πΆππ¦π π‘ππ π΅πππ’π )) π‘ π΄ππππ ππ£ππ π‘πππ = π΄ππππ ∗ 0.72.5 πππ‘ππ π΄ππππ = ∑ (π΄ππππ ππ£ππ π‘πππ) And these formulas don’t matter, because even a potato can hold aggro after the tank changes. Glyphs Remember to use common sense. For example, if the boss is a sandbag that doesn’t attack, then you probably don’t want Counterpunch glyphs or Powerlink Counter. Growing Fury Min-Max Standard http://www.essentialmana.com/glyph-calc/#br65:b1:c1346:d14:h13:l16:n145:p135:s0 Growing Fury CD Glyph http://www.essentialmana.com/glyph-calc/#br65:b1:c1346:d14:h13:l16:n145:p15:s01 Low Growing Fury Uptime http://www.essentialmana.com/glyph-calc/#br65:b1:c1346:d124:h13:l16:n145:p15:s1 End Notes Hopefully this guide was able to teach you a thing or two you didn’t know about Brawlers. Even if you did know everything, you can sleep well at night knowing that your playstyle is the mathematically perfect playstyle. As with all my guides, feel free to PM me on Ange (Tempest Reach) or Bernkastel (TAR mule now ο). Credits Lateral – AV (reddit Iatii) Credits for extensive testing for base values of all Brawler skills. Forsynthia – AV (reddit megatonfist) Credits for animation data for all Brawler skills. Ketoth – MT Credits for Crit formulas. https://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/player-vs-environment/topics/A-new-way-to-seeCrit-Factor Texendis – TR (reddit Xiadais) Credits for proof-reading and bringing up technical concerns to address.
