Why You Shouldn't Use Fracture

[Kitru]

3% is significant in situations where you're trying to minmax a rotation.

I be curious how you could define *less than 3%* as a significant quantity in any way (remember, it's 2.3% when you factor in auto-attack diluting its contributions). Over time, it's not even that high of a percent thanks to increased TP burn and we're assuming a lot about Fracture being used perfectly and not impacting anything else in the process.

[Sapphidia]

I be curious how you could define *less than 3%* as a significant quantity in any way (remember, it's 2.3% when you factor in auto-attack diluting its contributions). Over time, it's not even that high of a percent thanks to increased TP burn and we're assuming a lot about Fracture being used perfectly and not impacting anything else in the process.

Oh it's not huge, but by significant I mean it's something you would do to crank the optimal state from your class. Why use High Quality buttons in a blanket as a dps food when you can use cheaper normal quality and the difference is minimal? Why Meld gear with maximum materia rather than just use cheap grade 2s? Players who care about their performance want to know how to max it out.

Fact is, hitting Fracture will never be a bad thing to hit when you care about damage, unless you clip a dot or it wont run its course. You can increase your dps on long fights by about two and a half percent by using Fracture. On fights where there's pauses or shorter fights where your tp doesnt bottom out (in this case, fights which are about 60 GCDs or less) Fracture will be a noticeable boost. A Fracture rotation has an average potency of 204.4 per global up to 60 GCDs (two and a half minutes). A non fracture rotation has 196.7 potency per GCD. Discounting auto attacks, that's about a 4% increase in damage. So the damage boost fluctuates between 2% and 4% depending on fight length.

It's not a huge optimisation, but it's an optimisation. You can't justify telling warriors not to use it, because it's always going to be a worthwhile button to hit if you know it'll tick the duration. Ask a warrior "do you want 6% more crit free of charge" and they'd all say yes. Using Fracture is a similar increase.

Players like to optimise their damage. Fracture in a rotation makes it optimal. It's up to the player if they feel 2-4% is significant.

The reason I'm being argumentative here is that your maths were incorrect. Fracture is NEVER A LOSS to use, regardless of how much you try to factor in TP loss. It's always more damage-per-TP than not using it. It's fine to recommend warriors to not use Fracture because "it only increases your total dps by 2-3% depending on fight length", but it's wrong to tell them it'll reduce their dps. It wont. Well, unless they use it at silly times so the dots dont tick properly.

[armandojc3]

Oh it's not huge, but by significant I mean it's something
The reason I'm being argumentative here is that your maths were incorrect. Fracture is NEVER A LOSS to use, regardless of how much you try to factor in TP loss. It's always more damage-per-TP than not using it. It's fine to recommend warriors to not use Fracture because "it only increases your total dps by 2-3% depending on fight length", but it's wrong to tell them it'll reduce their dps. It wont. Well, unless they use it at silly times so the dots dont tick properly.

pretty much the truth

[Kitru]

The reason I'm being argumentative here is that your maths were incorrect. Fracture is NEVER A LOSS to use, regardless of how much you try to factor in TP loss. It's always more damage-per-TP than not using it. It's fine to recommend warriors to not use Fracture because "it only increases your total dps by 2-3% depending on fight length", but it's wrong to tell them it'll reduce their dps. It wont. Well, unless they use it at silly times so the dots dont tick properly.

And I'll concede that point, but you're still inflating the contributions of Fracture. It provides less than 2.3% increased DPS in an optimal situation; over time, it provides so little in addition that it's effectively a wash.

[SwordCoheir]

(remember, it's 2.3% when you factor in auto-attack diluting its contributions)

If your gonna go that route you need to consider there are times you aren't doing AA/WS damage which work inversely to your argument. For example Titan jumps several times during a fight and thats roughly 10 seconds your not doing anything, same for Ifrit and Garuda who Jump/Warp the entire fight. If your gonna factor in the AA damage as a part of your argument you have to work the moments your not doing AA even if you have to develop the math for just that scenario.

[Sapphidia]

You're uninformed on DoTs, sadly, Sentinel. DoTs DO crit (heck Bards get a talent that procs on DOT crits), they DO snapshot, and the 3 second server tick merely means that in some situations you can get an -extra- tick, but you'll always get the 10 ticks for a 30 second fracture - if you apply it too early such that it doesnt tick on the 30 second point, you'll get the extra tick at the start. The only time the dot timer will affect the amount of ticks a dot gives is if the DoT length isnt a multiple of 3. But most are.

You can show that dots Snapshot because if you pop it with a cooldown up, right at the end of the cooldown, the DoT will continue to tick with the same strength it was applied, and indeed you wont be able to refresh the DoT until it's run out because your non-buffed DOT is viewed as inferior and wont overwrite it.

Skillspeed is the only thing that doesnt affect DoTs, and skillspeed is viewed as a poor stat anyway.

[Sentinel]

Ok, I just tested it, and yer right, they do snapshot, I guess I misunderstood the video. Though, they do refresh (to the lower strength) if I try to refresh it again midway.

Only time I can think of using this is when I pop berserk and unchained along with bloodbath for the extra damage/health returned. Or else, the lack of hate generation is a downer.

[Kitru]

the 3 second server tick merely means that in some situations you can get an -extra- tick, but you'll always get the 10 ticks for a 30 second fracture - if you apply it too early such that it doesnt tick on the 30 second point, you'll get the extra tick at the start.

That's really interesting. I had to go in and check it myself and it susses out: if you apply at just the right time, you'll get 11 ticks, which is really interesting. Rather than overestimating DoT damage by using duration/3 it's actually a slight underestimation.

[Sapphidia]

Yep, it's -incredibly- hard to time but take 30 second fracture, it does the 20 potency ticks every 3 seconds at 3, 6, 9 etc... with the last at 30.. but that's assuming you apply it at 00:00 on the clock. If you apply it a millisecond before you'll get an extra tick at 0 seconds and it could well still be up for the 10th tick at 30 seconds. You'll always get at least 10 ticks.

Of course, the occasional chance for Fracture to be a 320 potency attack isnt really worth factoring in, but at least you know it'll always be a guaranteed 300.

[Danko]

Yeah, DoTs do snapshot, can crit, taking into account various buffs like Internal Release, Blood for Blood, Raging Strikes, etc.

And small % increases are really where the game gets interesting for the min/maxers I guess. Small % differences between sidegrade gear choices and secondary stats: Melded Crafts vs DL, Algan Vs AF2, variances between rotations...The pushing of your performance wherever possible.

Sure, considered independently, they don't seem significant. But collectively, on an individual AND group level, they become significant.