Hello everyone. This thread fits somewhere inbetween bug reports and class guides, as it introduces 2 new discoveries regarding Shadower's single target DPS. I'd like to credit @nut for being the brain behind this as he came up with the new combo that I will demonstrate later, and @PinaColadaPirate for doing all the calculations and charts. TL ; DR: Assassinate + Boomerang Step is not the strongest single target combo (kinda). Sharp Eyes makes Assassinate significantly weaker, and should be avoided on most levels of gear. Assassinate is a weird skill that doesn't always behave as expected. A while ago, @nut showed me a combo that he believed was stronger than Assa + BStep. Spoiler: nut's initial videos (Golems were freshly spawned). The idea was that on paper, interrupting Assa by dashing and then clicking BStep should outdamage the regular combo. This is relevant for any boss that is on a flat surface (Von Leon, HT tail, Shao, Core Blaze, Samurai, Anego, Zakum, RG boss etc.). It did look correct judging by his video, but it was extremely short so we decided to try it on Samurai instead. Spoiler: Samurai tests (inconclusive) Those tests confirmed the dash combo did outdamage the regular combo, but further testing was needed to know exactly by how much. Assassinate -> Dash -> Boomerang Step combo: To compare this combo with the regular one accurately, we tested them both under perfect conditions (fully smoked, no interruptions), both on Samurai and LHC Golems (all Golems were freshly spawned). Using my Shadower, we tried it on 5 different levels of funding (or range) to get a graph that is as accurate as possible. (thanks @autismax for helping with mules) Spoiler: Apple Spoiler: Stopper Spoiler: Gizer Spoiler: No gloves no att pot Spoiler: No CGS no att pot The results showed that this new combo is most effective on low levels of funding, and on very high end gear (14k+ clean) it's almost identical to the regular combo. However, for the average Shadower this should still be a >3% damage increase, which is significant. (For comparison, Barrage + Demo vs Barrage + DS for buccs on 2 targets is a ~4% difference). Anyway, here are the final charts: 6007~10592 range: 3.68% better than normal combo. 7274~12824 range: 3.63% better than normal combo. 8717~15368 range: 3.11% better than normal combo. 9747~17186 range: 0.26% better than normal combo. 10925~19263 range: 0.35% better than normal combo. As you can see, there is a huge drop in effectiveness around the 16k range mark, which is roughly where Assassinate's dash starts hitting damage cap. So in conclusion, use it for: Low damage att pot content, such as Rose Garden boss, shao etc. Every boss mentioned at the start of thread if you are not funded, this will help compensate with efficiency. Repositioning in bosses such as Von Leon after getting knocked back. Just dash back in and click BStep once. Sharp Eyes effectiveness (or lack of): This section is shorter and simpler, I can sum it up to: Don't use SE on Shadower, it will make your Assassinate significantly weaker. SE does make Boomerang Step stronger, but not enough to compensate by the damage lost on Assassinate. Once your Assassinate starts hitting damage cap (~22k buffed range), Your overall damage with SE will be similar to no SE. While doing the tests for the dash combo, I got curious how SE will affect it, as it should make dash hit cap more often. In addition, it was known that SE makes Assassinate buggy in some ways. The damage on first party client does not match the damage from third party view - as mentioned by @nut here: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/fee...ges-and-balancing.205730/page-17#post-1381386 I tested both combos with SE, and to my surprise I found out that my new SE test is significantly longer than my old test. Spoiler: initial test (inconclusive) That's where I decided to do an updated Samurai test on apple with SE, and here is the result: Spoiler: updated test So on my apple range, SE was 95.6% speed of no SE. This made me curious, as it would mean i lost around 40 seconds on my Krexel 2nd eye test. So I decided to test it on VL pot (on a similar range, thanks @TofuMasterD for helping with matching the gear): Spoiler: SE vs no SE on VL pot The difference this time was 1 second in favor of SE (12:02 -> 12:03), which means that once Assassinate starts hitting cap often, SE effectiveness on Boomerang Step compensates for the damage lost on Assassinate, and it goes back to being identical, or even stronger. *This guide (especially the SE part) could use more testing to be more conclusive, but honestly it's very hard without proper tools. If test dummy was implemented this would be a lot more accurate and wouldn't take as many hours to test. Please fix
I hope TimK can award you a PhD degree in RMS for this research, which is filled with insightful discussion and comprehensive data. Anyway, pro guide
Damn, looks like a lot more effort to keep doing Dash though even if it's better damage. Thanks for the walk through and a great job!
I am surprised by this. went for a test. and here the result. Without SE. the damage is the same in both client point of view. With SE, the damage of assassinate from third party point of view is surprisingly always lower than those from shad point of view. ( I did 1o trials and compare the lines dmg) So, based on the quote below from @nut, which said the dmg calcuated by server is actually from the third party point of view, rather from shad's. Together with the test videos comparing se/ withou se on assassinate+ boomerstep that @Donn1e provide aboves, It looks like SE does lower the dmg output of assassinate? This is weird, cuz SE skill descrisption says dmg +40%. ?
Hi this is a little off-topic, There's a long-time Hero bug iirc where ACA doesn't properly scale with SE. The critc dmg with Hero should be the same with or without ACA on, it does not properly scale. So there are other instances where I heard SE does not properly work.
I rather turnoff my brain when i'm in smoke while holding the macro button and with this active play maybe I get 3% more dps but I also lose 3% brain capacity. cool to know about se tho.
I feel like Shadower performing worse with a buff like SE + doing different damage than what is shown to the player is a bug
