Theorycrafting- Trade-offs For More Penetration

MudcrabAttack · April 2022

Now that the game has been hybridized, I thought it might be worth another look to compare all the options to passively obtain more penetration in a PVE setting.

Ideally you would want 18200 penetration in dungeons / trials

I have been bringing stamina builds along into magic -based groups for years, and it still seems to be the case that my groups run major/minor breach and infused crusher, for a total of 11,000 penetration. The other 7k is usually up to me to figure out. So here are the numbers I crunched earlier for damage trade offs to obtain more penetration, they represent the amount of penetration gained divided by the percentage loss of damage from the optional buff that was sacrificed, larger numbers are better.

I’m ignoring the regeneration and ability cost reduction for now, just comparing damage values based on stats I typically see in trials:

65% - Crit Percentage
215%- Crit Damage
35000- Stamina
6500- Weapon Damage

2100- Force of Nature Slotted CP (from PTS update 34, with 7 status effects) / Another Slotted CP that adds 3% damage
907- Light Armor / Medium Armor
821- Maul /Greatsword
818- Item set (1-4) penetration bonus/ weapon damage bonus
753- Item set (1-4) penetration bonus/ crit rating bonus
691- Sharpened / Precise
676- Mace / Dagger
649- Lover / Thief mundus
642- 1pc Valkyn Skoria or Kragh / 1 pc Slimecraw
261- Cute Elf / Mean Elf

The values would shift down or up depending on an individual build, but more often than not I reach the conclusion that in update 33 you can basically cast aside medium armor for light if you don’t have resource management problems, hybrid builds often don’t. It may change with update 34

axi · April 2022

You've forgot about 700 pen from CP. This +major+minor debuffs + crusher infused gives overall almost 12k pen. Go with the lover and 1-2 light pieces and You are good.

MudcrabAttack · April 2022

I added “Force of Nature” from the 1st PTS patch notes to the list. My trials group usually has a really high uptime of about 6 or 7 status effects. The Warden character I’m using has a really high uptime of 4-5 status effects, so at 900 penetration/ status effect this CP seems pretty strong. They usually overshoot the target this early in the pts cycle so I imagine it might drop a bit

I like the direction they took, adding more value to medium armor when they deflated backstabber and fighting finesse a little

axi wrote: »

You've forgot about 700 pen from CP. This +major+minor debuffs + crusher infused gives overall almost 12k pen. Go with the lover and 1-2 light pieces and You are good.

I didn’t add piercing CP to the list since you don’t really give up another buff to get it, unless you’re strapped for CP and have to choose between stars. But as far as my build goes, it’s too much to give up the thief mundus

BXR_Lonestar · April 2022

This is why Crimson Oath is considered a "meta" tanking set. My tank that wears Crimson Oath is bringing about 12-13K penetration, if not a little more, for the group, so my teammates only need around 5-6 k pen at most to reach the pen cap. They can easily reach that with 2 light armor pieces, CP pen, and a sharpened frontbar weapon.

axi · April 2022

MudcrabAttack wrote: »

I added “Force of Nature” from the 1st PTS patch notes to the list. My trials group usually has a really high uptime of about 6 or 7 status effects. The Warden character I’m using has a really high uptime of 4-5 status effects, so at 900 penetration/ status effect this CP seems pretty strong. They usually overshoot the target this early in the pts cycle so I imagine it might drop a bit

I like the direction they took, adding more value to medium armor when they deflated backstabber and fighting finesse a little

axi wrote: »

You've forgot about 700 pen from CP. This +major+minor debuffs + crusher infused gives overall almost 12k pen. Go with the lover and 1-2 light pieces and You are good.

I didn’t add piercing CP to the list since you don’t really give up another buff to get it, unless you’re strapped for CP and have to choose between stars. But as far as my build goes, it’s too much to give up the thief mundus

Penetration is the strongest offensive scaling component of the dmg formula and until You are more then 5k away from penetration cap lover easily beats thief in raw DPS comparision especially now when crit dmg was capped. Assuming around 500 pen in PvE equals to 1% of dmg lover with divines gives You around 9% dmg so You basically have 9% dmg vs 10% crit chance, choice is pretty simple here.

FeedbackOnly · April 2022

Tremscale change in high isle too. Could add this on list. Hmm there's torugs and crismon oath too

Are you sure your warden actually does 5 status effects? Are you using crushing shock or something?

Hescrow · April 2022

Balorgh + Heartland conqueror + stuhn

Maul 2h sharpened

I think the cap is reached just with this. Craft weight, jeweley and mundus up to you for fulfill lacks of other stats.