I've played corsair for some time now and since I have some free time at the moment, I thought it was about time I wrote and analysed corsairs more deeply. Battleship Cannon Battleship cannon outputs 3208% damage per second (with SE and SI). Battleship cannon outputs 3055.2% damage per second (with SE only). Battleship cannon outputs 3040% damage per second (with SI only). Battleship cannon outputs 2895.2% damage per second (without SE or SI). TT30 on the other hand, TT30 outputs 2295% damage per second (with SE) TT30 outputs 1500% damage per second (without SE) These percentage are meaningless if we don’t compare ‘range’ between the classes. TT has a special formula: AVG = (LUK * 3.75) * Weapon Attack / 100 Whereas for corsairs, AVG = (2.772 * Primary Stat + Secondary Stat)* Weapon Attack / 100 The min requirements to wear weapons is quite different between corsairs and NLs but NLs have the advantage of wearing top/btm and these can usually get much more stats than overalls. Well, to simplify it, I’m just going to ignore these. DPS(95att), bfury(30att)= 125att Revolver(123att), AP bullet(22att) = 145att Assuming 1200 primary stat for both NL and corsairs, and 110 secondary stat for corsair. Assume 60 attack cgs. Also assume using apples. NL advantage in range against corsairs: 4500/3436.4 * 226/245 = 120.8% advantage EDIT: 4500/3436.4 * 285/305 = 122.4% advantage If it was stoppers: 4500/3436.4 * 186/205 = 118.8% advantage EDIT: 4500/3436.4 * 245/265 = 121.1% advantage But let’s just assume its apples. Adjusted range for comparison: 2295 * 120.8% = 2772.36% SE + SI: 3208/2772.36 = 115.7% Only SE: 3055.2/2772.36 = 110.2% Also notice that without SI + SE, battleship cannon is still outperforming TT30 by 4.4%! EDIT: Adjusted range for comparison: 2295 * 122.4% = 2809.08% SE + SI: 3208/2809.08 = 114.2% Only SE: 3055.2/2809.08= 108.8% Also notice that without SI + SE, battleship cannon is still outperforming TT30 by 3.1%! What about the hit range of battleship cannon? Battleship cannon is by far, the most amazing range skill if we ignore the fact we have to be on the ship to use it. There are no minimum range unlike other range attacks – you can use it to ‘melee’ mobs. The hit range is very good too, hitting as far as TT (if I’m not wrong). Battleship cannon must be broken right…? Well, the caveat is that corsairs have to be on the battleship to use it. The slow speed and the limited hp of the ship are the balancing factors for it. The slow speed is compounded by the fact that corsairs do not have the best avoid. It’s not as bad as before, however, thanks to battleship cannon being allowed to be used while jumping now (in order to allow corsairs to hit auf haven while floating). As for limited hp of battleship, expert corsairs try to deal with it by ‘dismounting’. This is a good technique to reduce damage to ship if the attack is infrequent. However, for bosses like HT or toad which can deal damage frequently, I would argue that it isn’t worth it. While dismounting, attacks cannot be done and DPS is lost. Over time, these can add up to significantly reduce damage output unintentionally. From some quick testing, dismounting took me 0.5seconds(15-17frames, 30fps) and remounting took around 0.6 seconds. (18-20frames, 30fps), so we can expect to lose at least 1 second worth of cannon for every dismount/remount. Rapid Fire A few significant updates to corsair was increasing rapid fire damage from 150% to 170% and then to 200% at update 50. This reduced the penalty for losing ship and should warrant a reconsideration on whether it's really that bad to be using rapid fire. Battleship cannon outputs 3055.2% damage per second (with SE) while Rapid fire outputs 2210% damage per second (with SE) Hurricane outputs 1934% damage per second I added hurricane here for comparison. On paper, rapid fire isn’t too bad after all and may even do better than hurricane! To do a proper comparison between them, we should look at range difference between BMs and Corsairs. Thanks to how damage range of guns and bow are calculated, guns gain an advantage of roughly 5% (a quick estimate by doing 3.6/3.4. Source: https://ayumilovemaple.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/maplestory-formula-compilation/) Then consider that BMs can get up to a 145 shiner bow, red/diamond arrows (+4), skill mastery (+10) = 159att. Compared to a Corsair, which has a 123 revolver, 22 ap bullet = 145att. Assuming every attack adds approximately 50 range, that’s a 700 range increase to bowmasters. But corsairs gain ~5% more range from the formula? Well, with a stopper or apple, that 5% could be worth around 600 – 700 range increase to corsairs. So this basically means corsairs and bowmasters should have approximately the same max range after buffs. However, bowmasters have a superior mastery of 90% compared to 60% of corsairs, and this means the average range of bowmasters will be higher than corsairs. Going by the range formula: 0.95/0.8 -100% = 18.75% higher. EDIT: Then consider that BMs can get up to a 145 shiner bow, red/diamond arrows (+4), skill mastery (+10) = 159att. Compared to a Corsair, which has a 123 revolver, 22 ap bullet = 145att. On stopper: avg BM range: (0.905* 3.4 * 1200dex + 115str) * (159att+60att) / 100 avg Corsair range: (0.77 * 3.6 * 1200dex + 110str) * (145att+60att) /100 Ratio = bm/sair = 1.1836 On apple: avg BM range: (0.905* 3.4 * 1200dex + 115str) * (159att+100att) / 100 avg Corsair range: (0.77 * 3.6 * 1200dex + 110str) * (145att+100att) /100 Ratio = bm/sair = 1.1713 118.36% x 1934 = 2289% for hurricane Hmm, so hurricane is about 3.6% better than rapid fire. Damage-wise rather comparable to a BM. And that means the damage shouldn’t be totally atrocious right? From my experience, my biggest gripe about rapid fire is how far you can hit with it. The distance is really small. The monster can neither be too close (because you will end up melee-ing it) nor too far and the severely handicaps this skill. Rapid fire is especially a problem at shaolin or targa. When the shaolin master pierces his spear outwards, its hitbox widens and rapid fire would be disrupted. The same happens when targa rushes forward. Other possible scenarios when this poses an issue is in HT, because the small hit range means that you would have to reposition frequently. All in all, rapid fire should be considered a lite version of hurricane. The real challenge with it is how to position well with it. Should we dismount? Before writing this guide, I was of the opinion that it was not worth it if just for the sake of dismounting. I would try to combine the dismounting with repositioning to make the downtime less penalizing. This applies less since we can reposition while jump shooting cannon now though. Okay, so back to the analysis. Since we lose at least 1 second worth of battleship cannon per dismount/remount, we lose 3055.2% of damage (assuming we only have SE as that should be the norm?). If we do this once every min, damage per minute is, 59 * 3055.2% = 180,257% Let’s assume that if we don’t dismount, we take 10,000 damage. Which means we can take damage 20 times, since max ship hp at level 200 is 200,000. Which means, compared to a corsair that does not dismount, damage per min, (1200 * 3055.2% * α + 90 * 2210% * β) * 60 / 1290 = 179,774% where α is the % at which cannon shoots uninterrupted and β is % at which rf shoots uninterrupted. To simplify things in this calculation, we treat α, β = 1. This means if the run is >20minutes long, you shouldn’t dismount to dodge, but dismount if it is slightly longer than that (needs to be close to a multiple of 20). Okay, obviously that was an extreme example. Most bosses would attack more frequently than that. How about a boss that attacks every 10 seconds? If we dodge them all, total damage per minute is, 54 * 3055.2% = 164,981% If we dodge none of them, total damage per minute is, 3mins 20seconds to break ship. (200 * 3055.2% + 90 * 2210%) * 60 / 290 = 167,574% Not dismounting is better here ! Okay, let’s try to find the point at which dismounting is favourable. Let x be the number of seconds between attacks from a boss Let d be the damage taken per attack (60 - 60/x) * 3055.2% * α = (200,000/d * x * 3055.2% * α + 90 * 2210% * β) * 60 / (200,000/d * x + 90) Solving for x, x=90/(90-A-B) where A = 200,000/d where B = (198900 * β) / (3055.2 * α) if we let α, β = 1, x=90/(24.898-A) Plotting x against d, we get a very nice looking graph. When d = 10,000, x = 18.375 So if the damage is 10,000, it is only worth to dismount if it hit us at frequencies > 18.375s If damage is 9,000, it is only worth to dismount if it hit us at frequencies > 33.635s If damage is 15,000, it is only worth to dismount if frequency > 7.782s If damage is less than 8033, it is never worth it to dismount. Interestingly, this means that it might be worth dismounting at toad? Now, if only I had a toad video and can calculate the average number of attacks happening per minute… Well, the general rule should be to just ignore dismounting for most bosses. It is only worth dismounting if the boss attacks infrequently (or if the high damage attack is infrequent since a boss can have multiple attacks) The above calculations were under the assumption that we had SE only. What if we have both SE and SI? x=90/(28-A) where A = 200,000/d So if the damage is 10,000, it is only worth to dismount if it hit us at frequencies > 11.25s If damage is 9,000, it is only worth to dismount if it hit us at frequencies > 15.577s If damage is 8,000, it is only worth to dismount if it hit us at frequencies > 30s If damage is 15,000, it is only worth to dismount if frequency > 6.136s If damage is less than 7143, it is never worth it to dismount. It’s more probable that we should dismount if we have both SE and SI. I’m still kinda sitting on the fence with HT, but if it’s 11.25 second, I think it should be fine to dismount if you can identify the 1/1s. The rest aren’t worth to dismount. (I should also add that all these were done with the assumption of being level 200. Protecting the ship is probably more important when ship starting hp is less) Octopus? Is using octopus beneficial to dps? Damage for octopus MAX = (DEX * 2.5 + STR) * Attack Rate / 100 MIN = (DEX * 2.5 * 0.7 + STR) * Attack Rate / 100 Ignores defense AVG = (DEX * 4.25 + STR * 2) * 2.5 The octopus can hit 26 times in its lifetime, so, Total damage = (DEX * 4.25 + STR * 2) * 2.5 * 26 = (DEX * 4.25 + STR * 2) * 65 Assuming 1200 dex and 110 str, Total damage = 345,800 It takes 0.917s to cast octopus, so octopus has a dps of 377,099. DPS of cannon with SE and SI is 3208%, thus, in order to best octopus, Average range >= 11755. This is about equivalent to 14694 max range. So if you max range is not 14,694, octopus does theoretically more damage than cannon. So for most people, it might be worth to use octopus even on ship. Though I would advise against it since there’s usually some input lag between switching skills. (Maybe that’s why snipe sucks ) Octopus limitations are that you might not get the full 26 hits in the lifetime of octopus. If the boss uses weapon cancel, then you would lose some of that damage. Also, you need to remain near the boss, else the octopus stops attacking too. Some considerations should be made before blindly using this I guess. Aerial Strike Pretty useful to clear mobs. Takes 2.16s to use(with SI) or 2.34s to use. With SE, the damage output on a single enemy is 1221%. Therefore, dps = 565.28% (SI, SE) or 521.79% (SE). In order to do more damage than rapid fire, you need to hit 4 targets and since the range of air strike isn’t really as amazing as mage ultimates, I wouldn’t advise using this as a dps. It’s just useful for clearing mobs when off ship. Battleship torpedo Dps (single) = 1329% (SE, SI) or 1226% (SE) Dps (secondary targets, single) = 1121% (SE, SI) or 1035% (SE) Torpedo does more damage overall if it hits >3 targets. Also, could be used if you somehow had to kb mobs that move only if hit by high damage (RG, auf haven), though it may still be inconsistent (need >9615 min range or 16025 max range to guarantee 100% kb). Gaviota Gaviota amazes me. It seems to have 0 cast time so its basically just free damage. But the damage is so little it may not be worth the effort. It does on average 11,980 given the same assumptions as we had in octopus. Since we can use this once every 5seconds, if we kept using it, we get a free 2,396 dps. Cool, but pretty annoying toggling between this and cannon for just 2,396 dps. Bullseye/Homing Beacon The reason why corsairs damage rock. Well, other than the 20% increased damage, we have homing beacon which makes corsairs sharpshooters. Useful at HT, RG (to avoid hitting IGs), shao (avoid hitting clones), zak. Other skills worth mentioning Ice splitter – hey, you can freeze shaolin clones with this. Blank shot – you can stun shaolin clones with this too also comes in useful when dealing with mavericks End ramble Corsairs are actually a pretty cool class. They have a hurricane-lite, mageult-lite, flashjump-lite, can freeze/stun/burn, can summon mobs, and have their own gimmicks like homing beacon, ship mechanics. The only thing that corsairs lack is a support buff, but that’s probably too much to ask for.
Nice write-up! Just a nit pick on the math here - bfury is 30 att, but you forgot to add attack gear into the comparison, which should make the NL range advantage a bit bigger.
Thanks....just thanks man, i love this kind of threads to be studied and taking in serious count...the fact that u added rng factors in to ir makes it really interesting !
What if you can summon the octopus during dismount/remount without delay? I tested this many times but it's nearly impossible to time it perfectly with consistency.
I didn't read the whole thing but I noticed you didn't consider the weapon multiplier. I understand there's a value to multiply for each weapon. Not sure what and if it is any significance.
Then it should compensate for no damage during the process. Makes it worth dodging almost all attacks, I think.
What do you think of Sairs commonly saying that the only thing this class needs is an avoid buff? Also +1 on post
I heard people say SI actually gives sairs more than 5% more DPS (maybe 10%?), I saw some sairs shoot and it seems quite a bit faster with SI. Can you check how many shots you can take with and without SI?
Extra avoid only adds annoyance to sairs who dismount in bosses like HT. That feeling when you dismount perfectly in time but see a miss... the chances of avoid are so slim that we have to dismount anyway for every projectile attack.
Sairs aren't good at avoid but there's no way we are getting an avoid buff. That would be way too broken. Just get a shad friend to smoke I just tested this again. I'm seeing exactly 18frames with SI+booster and and 19 frames with just booster while recording at 30fps.
BM's hurricane gets a huge benefit from double crit skills. With SE, how big is the gap between rapid fire and hurricane (both with SE)?
Oh so it's really 5%, I guess it means that I won't have to bring SI to bosses since the difference isn't big enough to be worth bringing a mule. On one hand it's pretty good cause you don't need to be reliant on buffs but on the other hands it means sair is weaker than I thought By the way you are wrong about the BM calculation cause min range is always 0.9*mastery so when comparing them it's basically 1+0.81 (0.9X0.9)/ 1+0.54 (0.6X0.9) which is 1.1753 Also there is the STR factor which is not affected by mastery, only your main stat is affected by mastery
mm, yeah, I was just making a quick estimate. Str is 'small' when considering dex * multiplier (3.4/3.6), but fair enough, might as well update with everything in. EDIT: the difference between hurricane and rapid fire is narrower after refining the calculations
This gave me the inspiration to test a new method. With the recent update which allowed skills with CD to be added to skill macros, Corsairs can now add Octopus and battleship in the same macro. By adding Gaviota - Octopus - Battleship, the octopus can be summoned without delay during the mounting animation. The same goes for dismounting HOWEVER, there is 1 big problem. While the octopus is on CD, pressing this macro hotkey won't activate the battleship, so I need to use a different key for just the battleship toggle. I thought the skill macro would automatically cast the 2nd or next skill in the list if the previous one is still on CD but this doesn't seem to be the case. It simply doesn't press the next one until the previous one's CD is off. @Matt Could you possibly check if skill macro can skip to the next skill in the list if the previous one is still on CD? This would be a great QOL improvement for the little Corsair player base.
Octopi can be cast during u onboard, could try ship>octo>gaviota. If gaviota happen before octo it might not place the octo cuz sometimes I moved after gaviota cast. Theoretically it's 0sec cast animation but it still possible to break the combo aft gaviota.
I tried it but the delay is too long after mount/dismount to summon the octopus. The purpose of this macro is to cut down the delay to maximize the DPS.
Battle Ship's slow speed is actually helpful in HT when seduced. Saved my ass not once. The only single fair improvement I would like for Corsairs is some sort of Stance on battleship.
