08-17-2006, 11:43 AM
It occurred to me recently that the mechanics of melee DPS on level 63 opponents (all bosses) may not be well understood by everyone. Wowwiki actually has a very good article on it, which I will try to paraphrase:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Weapon_Skill
What this means is that against a boss, all of your white hits (basic auto-attack) are subject to a 40% glancing blow chance, and a glancing blow is a 30% reduction in damage with no +skill to the weapon you're wielding. Doing that math that comes out to a 12% damage reduction on white damage overall. Having even +5 weapon skill makes that a 6% reduction... a 7% increase in damage.
The second part talks about your crit cap, and this is a primarily a factor for rogues and fury warriors. Rogues especially have a good chance of hitting that cap.
What this all boils down to is that the best damage upgrades you can get are often going to be weapon skill boosts. Take the aged core leather gloves from MC for instance... you're not likely to find a better upgrade as a dagger rogue until C'thun. Fury warriors may want to look into the edgemaster's handguards... no stats, but the flat damage increase is pretty significant.
Any more details are pretty much covered in the article, and a list of weapon skill increasing items are at the bottom. If you have questions about it (the tables are a bit confusing if you dont know where the numbers come from), feel free to ask.
An understanding and focus on this will help us put out more damage and ultimately make all of our lives much easier when raiding in the near future.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Weapon_Skill
What this means is that against a boss, all of your white hits (basic auto-attack) are subject to a 40% glancing blow chance, and a glancing blow is a 30% reduction in damage with no +skill to the weapon you're wielding. Doing that math that comes out to a 12% damage reduction on white damage overall. Having even +5 weapon skill makes that a 6% reduction... a 7% increase in damage.
The second part talks about your crit cap, and this is a primarily a factor for rogues and fury warriors. Rogues especially have a good chance of hitting that cap.
What this all boils down to is that the best damage upgrades you can get are often going to be weapon skill boosts. Take the aged core leather gloves from MC for instance... you're not likely to find a better upgrade as a dagger rogue until C'thun. Fury warriors may want to look into the edgemaster's handguards... no stats, but the flat damage increase is pretty significant.
Any more details are pretty much covered in the article, and a list of weapon skill increasing items are at the bottom. If you have questions about it (the tables are a bit confusing if you dont know where the numbers come from), feel free to ask.
An understanding and focus on this will help us put out more damage and ultimately make all of our lives much easier when raiding in the near future.
Kosath Whitehorn
"The Tribe is my weapon. I am their shield."
"The Tribe is my weapon. I am their shield."
