Best in Slot for SMN after 2.1?

[T0rin]

snip

What stats did you use to calculate the delta int to use in re-adjusting the weights?

You know, the more I think about it, the less value I think there is in using stat weights. Let's stop to think for a second... what does a stat weight really mean?

It is a _relative_ value of a single stat when increased above a baseline value.

What we know about the damage formula is pretty simple: the weight of INT, WD and CRT change with the baseline values. This basically means, that when you take a baseline, and create weights, those weights are only valid if all you do is change a single piece of gear that adjusts your baseline stats by 1 in total. After that, you need to calculate a new set of weights.

So, when you create a baseline that includes all stats in their 'final' (no further upgrades will be applied) form, all you're doing is finding out the current worth of each stat, were you to actually increase any of them by 1, which if this is your actual 'final' set of gear, you won't be. If you take those weights and multiple your current gear contributions by them, all you're doing is finding the value of that using current weights, if you were to apply it all over again, which is something you would never actually do.

Basically, since any weight is really just a value relative to the current baseline if you were to increase a stat by 1, there is no 'magic number' that you can apply to an entire set of gear to find out their worth.

Even if you were to take a baseline from your completely 'naked' state, the weights would not be reliable. Since the relative values of WD, INT and CRT are assuredly going to change as you equip gear, you can't use your pre-gear or post-gear weights to attribute 'value' to the gear set as a total. And since the 'value' of a single point of most stats is relative to your other stats, even a single specific item may be worth more or less to one person, than another. If two people have two different sets of gear, but lack an earring, for instance... one set of gear is DTR heavy and the other set of gear is CRT heavy, the benefit each person will receive from the same piece of gear will be different. If that earring were to be heavy on CRT, the actual contribution to damage will be higher for the DTR heavy gear set, but if the earring were to be heavy on DTR, the damage contribution would be higher for the CRT heavy gear set. Even in this simple example, we can see how there is no such thing as a stat weight that can be used to compare the value of gear, as the value of any piece will be different based on current stats.

I think that due to the variable nature of stat values given the damage formula, we can never really come up with an INT weight or 'stat score' that could be attributed to 1 piece of gear, much less a whole set of gear. At this point, I think the only real way to compare 2 sets of gear is their calculated crit modified damage values, or more accurately, a simmed rotation that uses those values.

And even a sim is only worth so much, because it basically represents doing DPS in a bubble, with no interruptions. And due to the nature of the value of spell speed, those sims might actually need to take into account a certain level of spell interruption (like a Ex Titan fight or whatever), mob availability, (Titan jumps) etc. Basically, no data we come up with will be perfect, but if we can sim out a semi-realistic situation, we can get a good picture of how well a set of gear stacks up against another.