Best in Slot for SMN after 2.1?

[Maelwys]

If I used an Astral Ring melded with SS, using these weights (refactored to use Astral stats, WD = 6.104333403, INT = 1, DTR = 0.282081229, CRT = 0.185618633, SS = 0.084943755) I value the Astral Ring w/ SS at 14.24856722 weighted INT.

If I meld an Astral Ring with 6 PIE instead, I get a value of 13.48407343 weighted INT, obviously even less than the Allagan Ring.

But one thing this does bring up is that for someone going for the Allagan Belt/Ring set, you could temporarily use a melded Astral Ring in lieu of the Allagan Ring, since it is _almost_ as good. I still have never seen the Allagan Ring drop, but I do have the belt, and I do have a melded Astral Ring, so I could start using this newer set sooner.

I think I can see where I'm getting slightly different numbers than yours - my Spreadsheet is using the Base stats for my character, along with +30 INT from allocated points, then adds in equipment stat buffs, and finally applies food and party buffs (party buffs being applied last, after food) and THEN factors the sum of all those into the stat formulas.

Base stats for my character are 241+30 INT, 341 Crit, 202 Det.
Food buffs (after equipment) are 10 Crit and 15 Det with HQ Buttons in a Blanket.
In-Party buffs are percentage based and vary slightly depending on gear, but the only one applicable to our purposes here is 3% extra INT which for this setup is 14.

For the equipment combination I posted above (Astral Ring), I'm getting a grand total of 505 INT, 516 Crit, 328 Det.
If I swap the Astral Ring for a Heros Ring (ignoring the accuracy loss for the moment) I get 509 INT, 520 Crit and 320 Det.

Plugging those values into the formulas...

First, for the Astral Ring setup:
Raw Damage = 71*0.2714745 + (505)*0.10060032 + (328-202)*0.241327 + 71*(505)*0.0036167 + 71*(328-202)*0.00108 - 1 = 238.8235116
Crit chance is (0.0697*516 -18.437) = 17.5282%
Crit adjusted Damage = 238.8235116*(1-0.175282) + 238.8235116*1.5*0.175282 = 259.754242980136

Second, for the Hero's Ring setup:
Raw Damage = 71*0.2714745 + (509)*0.10060032 + (320-202)*0.241327 + 71*(509)*0.0036167 + 71*(320-202)*0.00108 - 1 = 237.70899968
Crit chance is (0.0697*520 -18.437) = 17.807%
Crit adjusted Damage = 237.70899968*(1-0.17807) + 237.70899968*1.5*0.17807 = 258.873420466509

Result: an (utterly tiny!) increase in DPS for the Astral ring setup.
(It's certainly possible I've made a maths derp here, or at least a typo copying all the formulas from the spreadsheets... but just wanted to check!)