TESTING RESULTS: Lethal Dose

[QisaBluevixen]

Overview

 

The tooltip for Lethal Dose says it "increases the critical hit chance of all periodic effects by 4%/8%/12%."

 

But what Sniper abilities are considered "periodic effects"? Candidates, both likely and unlikely, would be:

 

• Corrosive Dart
  
• Corrosive Grenade
  
• Interrogation Probe
  
• Orbital Strike
  
• Series of Shots
  
• Suppressive Fire
  
• Cull
  
• Cull bonus damage
  
• Explosive Probe fire on standard/weak mobs
  

To test these, I first respec'd my skill points. In the gear I had on and without my self-buff, my crit chance was:

 

• 23.85% for Ranged
  
• 23.00% for Tech
  

After I trained Lethality 3 and Gearhead 3, my crit chance went up to:

 

• 30.48% for Ranged
  
• 29.63% for Tech
  

 

All tests were performed on a mix of level 49/50 mobs, both normal and strong. I did not use my IA crit chance buff (or any other buffs) for any of these tests because I didn't want to accidentally let it expire during the tests, thereby skewing the results.

 

Interrogation Probe

 

I chose to test Interrogation Probe first because it was the biggest unknown for Lethal Dose. If Lethal Dose doesn't work, I would expect a ~30% crit rate. If it does work, the crit rate should go up to ~42%.

 

In all I observed 413 Interrogation Probe ticks. Of those, 134 critted. That's a 32.4% crit rate.

 

In order to visualize how long I would have to test to be reasonably certain of the statistical significance, I graphed the crit rate over the length of the test:

 

http://imgur.com/otyaA

 

You can see I started out pretty "lucky" on crits, but after about 250 ticks I settled in the 32-34% range.

 

It's interesting that I stayed a couple percentage points above 30%. That could just mean I was slightly luckier than I should have been, or it could be that Lethal Dose has a *multiplicative* effect on Interrogation Probe crit rate instead of an *additive* one. 30%*1.12 = 33.6%. If this is the case, it would be contrary to the way other buffs work in the game, so it would be reasonable to consider it bugged.

 

Verdict: No (or minimal) impact.

 

Corrosive Dart

 

If Lethal Dose doesn't work, I would expect a ~30% crit rate. If it does work, the crit rate should go up to ~42%.

 

In all I observed 228 Corrosive Dart ticks. Of those, 91 critted. That's a 39.9% crit rate.

 

Again, I graphed the crit rate over the length of the test:

 

http://imgur.com/KiaaA

 

I settled in the 40% range. I would have liked it to be a couple percentage points higher to feel good in saying we get the full, expected impact from this skill, but at least it's measurably better than the previous test.

 

Verdict: Appears to be working.

 

Corrosive Grenade

 

If Lethal Dose doesn't work, I would expect a ~30% crit rate. If it does work, the crit rate should go up to ~42%.

 

In all I observed 312 Corrosive Grenade ticks. Of those, 139 critted. That's a 44.6% crit rate.

 

Verdict: Appears to be working.

 

Orbital Strike

 

If Lethal Dose doesn't work, I would expect a ~30% crit rate. If it does work, the crit rate should go up to ~42%.

 

In all I observed 220 Orbital Strike ticks. Of those, 67 critted. That's a 30.5% crit rate.

 

Verdict: No impact.

Edited February 4, 2012 by QisaBluevixen

[Vermalech]

I thank you in a high regard for following through with these experiments. The information thus far could change peoples thoughts on how to spec.

 

*EDIT* Also, the test results are rather surprising thus far. Kinda sad that I have both of these points spent on my skill tree. Would love to hear about the AoEs though. Keep up the good work.

Edited February 3, 2012 by Vermalech

[JoyProtocol]

This may help you: In all games I've played so far, "periodic damage" implies a debuff on the target. If the attack places a debuff (ie. Interrogation Probe), then it becomes period damage. If it is simply cast over time (ie. SoS), then it's not period damage.

[vimm]

I wouldn't think that it applies to channeled abilities, just because they technically do damage over time. So does everything though.

[Ayestes]

Tooltips don't necessarily do what they say. Not to mention it can be interpreted differently by different people. It's likely an explicit list of what each Talent improves and the comment is a description someone just wrote about it.

 

This test is in short, awesome. We will learn what is actually improved by it. I've personally assumed they mean Internal (Poison) Damage instead of Periodic effect. We will have to see if that is right.

[QisaBluevixen]

Added Corrosive Dart test results.

 

Incidentally, during this test I was surprised to find Corrosive Dart proc'ing double ticks. I had specifically spec'd out of Corrosive Microbes to prevent double ticks during this test. So it appears that Corrosive Microbes has another bug - if you untrain it, it still works. At least this one works in my favor.

[Tibbel]

The only thing these tests are missing is a control test for IP and CD without Lethal Dose, just to confirm that the base crit rate is actually applying correctly to the DoTs.

 

Never know when perhaps the bug is with the Lethality skill or maybe the DoT itself... and not with the Lethal Dose skill.

[QisaBluevixen]

The only thing these tests are missing is a control test for IP and CD without Lethal Dose, just to confirm that the base crit rate is actually applying correctly to the DoTs.

 

Never know when perhaps the bug is with the Lethality skill or maybe the DoT itself... and not with the Lethal Dose skill.

 

I know, I know! But I'm still doing double ticks on Corrosive Dart and I'm completely untrained in Corrosive Microbes so I can't even assume I'm really untrained in skills I've untrained! GAH!

 

I'm all tested out for today though. Just adding Corrosive Grenade and Orbital Strike now.

Edited February 4, 2012 by QisaBluevixen

[mjAstro]

Great thread, nice work thus far.

[DarthBubba]

I don't play a sniper but thought I'd say nice post. Very informative.

[Pinworm]

You have a typo in Orbital Strike, you call it Corrosive Grenade later on. Just letting you know.

 

Good work. I think a more thorough investigation of Interogation Probe is due, though. It seems like you either got lucky or unlucky, so it'd be nice to figure out which (unless you hunch is correct and it is not additive - which would be weird, given that it is for the other DOTs)

[QisaBluevixen]

You have a typo in Orbital Strike, you call it Corrosive Grenade later on. Just letting you know.

 

Good work. I think a more thorough investigation of Interogation Probe is due, though. It seems like you either got lucky or unlucky, so it'd be nice to figure out which (unless you hunch is correct and it is not additive - which would be weird, given that it is for the other DOTs)

 

Fixed.

 

I think the test is statistically significant based on what Tibbel put in one of my other threads, so I'll leave further tests on this, specifically, to others.

[Tibbel]

I think the test is statistically significant based on what Tibbel put in one of my other threads, so I'll leave further tests on this, specifically, to others.

 

The statistics of the other tests don't necessarily apply to this one.

 

Unfortunately, I won't really have an opportunity to analyze these tests this weekend (there's some kind of sporting event going on...) but just from glancing at the data, it seems like it's probably significant.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Tibbel