Hi guys,
the attack speed equation is as follows (I am 99% certain that it is correct ;-)):
Character sheet attack speed = (IBV+WSM100)(1+AS/100)
IBV = Internal base value (100 for 1hand melee; 92 for 2hand and single gun; 87 for dual wield gun)
WSM=Weapon speed modifier (the negative value found on the weapon)
AS=Attack speed % (any attack speed% values given by equip and devotion)
i.e. for dual wield havoc and 67% from equip and devotions it will look like this:
Character sheet attack speed=(87±0.07100)(1+67/100)=133,6%
in order to reach the 200% cap for dual wield havoc you would need 150% attack speed from gear and devotions.
For dual wield 200% means 2 attacks per second while for single wield it is 1 attack per second.
I attached two graphs which illustrate how attack speed% and crit damage% affect DPS for auto attacks at various OA values.
I just assumed a weapon damage of 1000 here.
For an auto attacking dual wield havoc gunslinger 1% attack speed equals 5,5% crit damage at 2600 OA.
For an auto attacking 2hand hitter 1% attack speed equals ~3,6% crit damage at 2600 OA.
More observations: OA is pretty much worthless if you don’t have high crit damage as OA hardly scales with attack speed. OA around 2400 is enough if the enemy has ~1400DA. This will give 30% crit chance. Crit damage % and OA should be only considered if attack speed% is maxed.
Hence for DPS in grim dawn it is pretty much like this:
- max resist reduction
- max attack speed
- max flat damage aka weapon damage
Not sure if 100% resist reduction actually doubles the damage dealt. If that the case the scaling is equal to attack speed scaling. What I mean is that a net 100% resist reduction (i.e. for lightning: 30% elemental storm + 30% arcane bomb + 40% thermite mine) will result in the same dps as a 100% character sheet attack speed increase! However in reality as procs and dots scale better with resist reduction it is the clear winner!
And as always skills with emphasis on weapon damage (like cadence) scale better with 2handers while those with high extra damage (like firestrike) scale better with fast weapons and dualwield. Savagery is only good as it has the 10% attack speed to keep up with cadence.
Take home message: Focus on crit damage is mainly useful in two occasions. 1. You use a 2-Hander and can’t get more attack speed with reasonable effort. 2. you dual wield and are already at 200% AND you dual wield a heavy hitting weapon like stormheart (~8000 weapon damage in high end gear). In all other cases it is probably better to accumulate more flat damage if resist reduction is already maxed.
If you want to have the graphs for other weapons just let me know. I haven’t tested everything but I believe that both the attack speed and crit damage calculations are correct.
Attachment: GD DPS 1.JPG
Attachment: GD DPS 2.JPG