Revista PowerPlay

This week in our quest to find optimal player builds we look at the optimum ratio for bundle attributes.  As always, the guide has some interesting information so like normal its where we will start.

The guide provides 2 sets of 3 examples of bundle attributes comparing 2 of the 3 to the remaining one in the set.  It is important to remember that these are actual values of attributes and not ratios and therefore the ratios may not hold at all ranges of attributes.  

Before we look at the examples in the guide however, it is also important to note that the guide says nothing about which set of examples is better than the other and it also says nothing about how much better examples in each set are compared to each other.  Therefore there is the possibility that some are only slightly better while others are much better.

Example 1

120 - 30 - 50 > 180 - 25 - 25 (total 200>230)

120 - 30 - 50 > 70 - 90 - 90 (total 200>250)

This example shows both that having a very high primary compared to secondaries is a bad use of skill points and that having secondaries higher than the primary is a bad use of skill points.  Not overly revolutionary there. 

Given that 120 - 50 - 50 > 120 - 30 - 50 while still being less than the total of 180 - 25 - 25 then it can be said that a ratio of 1 : 0.4 : 0.4 > 1 : 0.14 : 0.14.

Also given that 70 - 90 - 90 > 70 - 65 - 65 while still being equal to the total of 120 - 30 -50 then it can be said that a ratio of 1 : 0.25 : 0.4 > 1 : 0.93 : 0.93. 

Example 2

100 - 80 - 50 > 130 - 80 - 30 (total 230>240)

100 - 80 - 50 > 80 - 80 - 80 (total 230>240)

This example shows that having high primary compared to 2nd secondary with equal 1st secondary is a bad use of extra skill points and that lowering your primary and increasing the 2nd secondary up to equal with the primary is a bad use of extra skill points. Note this does not mean that 100:80:50 > 100:100:100.

It can also be said that from an 80 - 80 - 30 base it is better to add 20 - 0 - 20 than 0 - 0 - 50 or 50 - 0 - 0.  Thus at some point between 30 and 80 adding strength to the 2nd secondary is worse than adding to the primary attribute.  (Thanks to jorgenius for this point)    

Conclusions

From these two examples it can be seen that a ratio somewhere between 0.3 and 0.8 of the primary for the secondary attributes is likely to be the optimum ratio with a primary attribute in the vicinity of 100.  While this holds true for these examples in the guide, it does not necessarily hold true at all skill levels as the functions may not be linear. 

Additionally, everyone thus far has assumed that the optimum builds are based off the ratio of the primary to secondaries, however it is entirely possible that the optimum builds are based off the level of difference between the primary and secondaries attributes.  For example 100 - 80 is a 20 difference and assuming this is optimum then at 120 the secondary should be 100 not 96 as at a 0.8 ratio.  

It is also possible that either the two secondary attributes are treated equally or that they are not.  If they are, then equal attribute levels will provide the best outcome however, this is also not confirmed.  I actually have a suspicion that this may not be the case and that the secondary attribute levels are dependent on more than just the same base level for every condition (more on this soon).

I hope this gives people something to think about and as always if you have comments, ideas or whole articles you want included just let me know.