
Originally Posted by
Sleigh
I don't think Critical Hit Rate should be the focus of BiS for BLM. If my testing results are correct, DET >> CHR =/> SS
I tested Determination vs Critical Hit Rate in a mixture of iLVL70 + iLVL90 gear for BLM by attacking training dummies 3,500 times per test. The two tests I did had the same equipment except for the pants: a non-materia melded Vanya Breeches of Casting vs Darklight Breeches of Casting, the only thing different being +18 DET on the Vanya against +27 CHR on the Darklight. Using Blizzard II for the attacks against 3 training dummies, which is a burst attack and where 90% of a BLM's DPS comes from, I came up with the following:
Vanya Leggings
305 DPS
240 average non-critical damage
12.69% critical chance
Darklight Leggings
303 DPS
238 average non-critical damage
14.36% critical chance
As you can see, the +27 CHR definitely manifested, but criticals are so weak in this game, even something like +2 average damage to a 100 Potency attack will give more DPS, and that was +18 DET vs +27 CHR. It takes an average of 2% actual critical hit rate to increase your base DPS by 1% (1.5X damage on criticals), which is just not a strong increase compared to Determination (though both are minor increases). Even in top level gear, CHR shouldn't surpass DET, the gap is just too large. See, the thing about criticals is, it actually gets worse compared to Determination since it only multiplies your base DPS. If you add 2% CHR and increase your base DPS by 1%, you're not actually multiplying your current DPS by 1.01. You're just multiplying your original damage, independent of criticals, by 1.01.
We'll need a lot more base DPS before Critical Hit Rate can topple Determination, from the looks of things.