Weapons Expert was buffed to 20%.

Okay, so looking at a random Stamden parse we see...

Single Target damage makes up 58.1% of the total damage
Direct damage makes up 57.5% of the damage
DoT damage is worth 42.1% of it
AoE damage is worth 41.8%
Light Attacks constitute 9.4%

Taking this into account then the nodes would mean:
Single Target 6% is worth 3.486%
Direct damage 6% is worth 3.45%
DoT damage 6% is worth 2.526%
AoE damage 6% is worth 2.508%
Light Attacks 15% (old value) is worth 1.41%
Light attacks 20% (new value) is worth 1.88%

Note the nodes used in the parse were Exploiter, Wrathful Strikes, Man at Arms and Biting Aura so the data is fairly rough in terms of true comparisons. I put the raw data below because there's no way I am 100% correct on the labels applicable to each item and so people need something to nitpick (or, as it could be, a major shift on what each node affects that changes everything):

Silver shards 10% single, direct
Light Attack 6.5% single, direct
Relequen 6.3% set bonus single, dot
Nirn 5.9% set bonus aoe, dot
Deep Fissure 5.8% direct, aoe
Kjalnar 5.5% set bonus single, direct
Bear 4.3% single, direct
Deep Fissure 4.2% direct, aoe
Bleed 4.2% single, dot
Bear AoE 3.8% direct, aoe
Bear 3.8% single, direct
Caltrops 3.8% aoe, dot
Cloak 3.7% aoe, dot
Stampede 3.7% aoe, dot
Infection 3.6% single, dot
Carve 2.8% aoe, dot
Light Attack 2.8% single, direct
Cliff Racer 2.5% single, direct
Burning 2.3% single, dot
Poison 2.2% single, dot
Shadow Silk 2.2% aoe, dot
Shadow Silk 2.0% aoe, direct
Stampede 1.6% (direct) aoe, direct
Barbed Trap 1.4% single, dot
Nirn 1.3% (direct) set bonus direct aoe
Carve 1.0% (direct) direct, aoe
Barbed Trap 0.8% (direct) single, direct
Poison weapon 0.7% single, direct
Fiery WEapon 0.6% single, direct
Sundered 0.6% single, direct
Overcharged 0.3% single, direct

BMedussa8 wrote: »

Hello dmnqwk and thanks for all of that information I appreciate the input. I think I disclosed earlier that I"m a bit of a noob, haven't parsed much. I guess there you can really see where Deadly Aim would be much more a fit for that Stamden. If I'm reading correctly, I see no heavy attack damage...does that mean that on that Stamden parse that no heavy attack weaving was done - only light attacks? (again, I'm a noob so be gentle)

These parse stats appear once you have finished on a dummy, right? So maybe I should just play around a little with that on my builds and with the slottables to see for myself....but I'm thinking that if I'm not relying solely on light and heavy attacks that the Deadly Aim would probably calculate to more damage (than Weapons Expert). Although in a battle application unlike a parse dummy, you're attacking multiple targets and mobs until you get down to the boss and even then there are multiple adds in waves that would change the damage output. So is a parse dummy really the litmus test?

I guess I should have predicated this that I'm asking from a PVE and not a PVP standpoint....for Overland, World Bosses and Dungeons....solo and small group.

Parses are essentially people trying to do as much damage as they can to an inanimate object with every buff in the game, no requirement to move or perform mechanics and a bar filled with extra dots compared to a normal setup. Because of this, parses are always going to be slightly different to how you'll operate in 'the real world' but give you a generally idea of how well you can perform.

Having said that, it's unlikely you're going to change those percentages significantly just because you're in a different kind of fight (like you wouldn't do 20% light attacks just because the fight has a lot of target switching) and so they're a good indication of which nodes to consider.

Based off the data if you are making a normal build (normal builds use light attacks right before every skill use) you'll never want to consider the weapons expert node ever because it's simply not going to perform anywhere near the others.
If you make a heavy attack build, then against a node worth 50% of your damage (making the node worth 3%) you'll need to hit 15% or higher of total damage being heavy attacks. If you're up against a node worth only 40% (making it 2%) then you start to need only a 10% light attack for it to get worthwhile.

Don't forget that while we're mentioning these % nodes you have to consider also:
Fighting Finesse is 8% crit damage
Wrathful Strikes is 205 weapon damage
Exploiter is 10% damage vs Off-balance foes (off-balance has a max uptime of 7/22 seconds meaning maximum of 3.18%)
Force of Nature (660 pen per status debuff on them)

So it can be quite difficult, only to then realise that the difference between most of these nodes is like 1% total damage and meaningless against ensuring your rotation is smooth hehe.

haelgaan wrote: »

dmnqwk wrote: »

Taking this into account then the nodes would mean:
Single Target 6% is worth 3.486%
Direct damage 6% is worth 3.45%
DoT damage 6% is worth 2.526%
AoE damage 6% is worth 2.508%

Note the nodes used in the parse were Exploiter, Wrathful Strikes, Man at Arms and Biting Aura

i love digging in to the data like this. question - given that single target damage in this parse is higher than aoe, wouldn't you be able to up it slightly if you flipped from Biting Aura to Deadly Aim?

It's not my parse.
I didn't wanna log into the game and retrieve my own parse, where I run Wrathful Strikes, Fighting Finesse, Man at Arms and Deadly Aim it's just a parse I stole from youtube (I would credit them if I didn't think the TOS prevented it) because my computer is old and slow and it would've taken 5-10 minutes longer.

But yes, I think you would haha. (unless, as I said in the disclaimer bit, there's some incongruities in my assigned tags as to how the damage totals are calculated, like if haemo's dot didn't actually get buffed by the dot damage node for some reason)