Is there math out there for stats?

[Ninster]

To illustrate what I'm getting at, I'm trying to figure out what value certain cooldowns have, both defensive and offensive. So let's say we theoretical abilities that boost stats by 20%.

What's better?

20% increase in skill speed/spell speed or attack speed?
20% increase in damage dealt or attack power or main offensive stat (STR, DEX, INT)?
20% decrease in physical/magical damage taken or 20% increase in defense/magic defense?
20% increase in healing or 20% in healing received?

Furthermore, what is the exact effect of stacking cooldowns (talking less theoretical now, of course)? Rampart and Sentinel, for example (20% + 40%? Or 20% then a 40% decrease from THAT?). Convalescence from Paladin and Divine Seal from White Mage? Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes?

[StrejdaTom]

Sir, please state your question more clearly, so it can be answered.
Thanks.

EDIT:
Oh nvm, you have edited it (at first I was able to see only the first sentence of your thread).

Healing is better for healer, healing done is better for tank and dps.
20% increase in dps should be completely the same as 20% increase in mainstat, atleast theoretically and if we aren't talking about healers.
Skill speed and spell speed affect your cooldowns and skill casting time, attackspeed in my opinion affects only skill casting time, so skillspeed/spellspeed should be better.
Again, damage taken and defence increase should be on par.

People, correct me if I am wrong.

[Sevyrr]

Skill speed and spell speed affect your cooldowns and skill casting time, attackspeed in my opinion affects only skill casting time, so skillspeed/spellspeed should be better.

From my understanding of weaponskills and the effects of the Arrow buff via Astrologians, attack-speed effects the skill cooldown time, and not the skill cast time.
Experience of the Arrow as a Caster eludes me, so I can't say how it effects cast-times.
Skill- and spell-speed, however, effect both casting and cooldown times, although in a less direct manner: similar to how "accuracy" and "chance to hit" work, skill-and spell-speed are converted to a hidden, relative-to-level, "attack-speed" statistic, that determines the effects.
As such, a buff to attack-speed is a direct buff to that effect, and a buff to skill-/spell-speed buffs the relative gain. (IE:- Attack-speed buff has greater effect than Skill-/Spell-speed buff).

[Sevyrr]

^ For this statistic pairing, however, it is important to keep in mind the changes in 3.0 to skill- and spell-speed, especially pertaining to how they effect damage over time skills. An attack-speed buff would -not- cause an increase in the damage of these skills, whereas a skill-/spell-speed buff would.

That's quite an essay... I'll leave it at that!

[Ksenia]

Back just after I got Whm to cap (50 at the time) I put all attributes in Spell speed, got it to as high as could without forbidden melds and I didn't find it made enough of a difference to justify the build. I had a Piety build as well and while it was visible, it really didn't count as creative. Sure, I could cast maybe one more Holy before I was out of MP but it wasn't nearly as strong as the cleric stance and didn't really make me unique. Over time, I still find primary attribute (Wisdom for Whm) to be the place to put most of the stat buffs. Pug/ Monk is the only other one I messed with and it's the same there only Str being the asset.

[Donjo]

To illustrate what I'm getting at, I'm trying to figure out what value certain cooldowns have, both defensive and offensive. So let's say we theoretical abilities that boost stats by 20%.

What's better?

20% increase in skill speed/spell speed or attack speed?
20% increase in damage dealt or attack power or main offensive stat (STR, DEX, INT)?
20% decrease in physical/magical damage taken or 20% increase in defense/magic defense?
20% increase in healing or 20% in healing received?

Furthermore, what is the exact effect of stacking cooldowns (talking less theoretical now, of course)? Rampart and Sentinel, for example (20% + 40%? Or 20% then a 40% decrease from THAT?). Convalescence from Paladin and Divine Seal from White Mage? Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes?

- An increase in Attack Speed has a much larger effect on attack frequency than an equal increase in the Skill/Spell Speed stats.
- Increasing damage dealt should be a greater increase than the main stat increase, as there are more numbers determining damage than just the main stat.
- Decreasing damage taken is a greater effect than an equal increase in the Defense stat. Rampart reduces more damage than Foresight.
- In terms of benefit, increasing a healer's healing dealt is equivalent to giving the entire party an increase in healing received. This is in comparison to a healing received buff which is only applied to a single player in most cases.

Buffs in this game tend to be multiplicative.

Defensive Cooldowns: It is your second guess. Rampart decreases by 20% and then Sentinel decreases the already reduced damage by 40%. So it's a decrease of 52%, not 60%.

Healing Recieved/Dealt: You lose no benefit in stacking them. If Pally has 20% heals recieved and White Mage has 20% healing dealt than Pally will get a 20% bonus on the White Mage's adjusted heal for a total of a 44% increase.

Offensive Buffs: Same deal as Healing. They're best when used together.

[Ninster]

Thanks so much, guys and gals! I'm a bit of a math nut so this kind of thing has been burning in my mind for awhile.