Damage Efficiency
Posted: May 18th, 2015, 2:39 am
Experience leads to a change of scope. That's to say, the more fighting you do, the more your perception of the battle changes. PVP and PVE experts alike will tell you that their first match and their most recent does not compare. The quick answer that comes to mind here is muscle memory, or motor learning: "a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition." (Wikipedia) While this remains a passive consequence of practise, there exists an additional intuitive process' commonly referred to as habit. 5000 wins later I have this eerie feeling that the Fiendish Imp (S/S) is the most underrated battle pet in the game (and quite possibly the most damage effective). Now, everything can be countered and buffed, so for the purposes of this post we assume no critical strikes and no Super Effective or Less Effective abilities unless pertaining to an example.
Damage Efficiency relates to when and how an attack is used. The obvious example of this would be using a powerful ability right before an opponent uses 50% damage reduction. This may seem inefficient at first, but consider the possibility that the opponent's health is reduced and the blow will kill him nonetheless. Here, this can be considered efficient until I reveal that there is a pet in the back who is at full health. Questions arise... Are there any weak abilities you can use to kill the current pet through the 50% damage reduction so you can use the big ability on the second pet? Is the current pet mechanical or undead? etc... The point is ANY ATTACK can be efficient at any given time... INCLUDING "passing" (i.e.: skipping a turn when the opponent's dodge is up and your abilities have cool downs).
But wait, this post's title is "Damage Efficiency". What the hell does the Fiendish Imp (S/S) [Herein referred to as "IMP" cause typing (S/S) overtime sucks] have to do with damage efficiency? (The arguments assume the IMP is the faster of the pets in combat with 333 speed)
1) Immolation
-Round 1: Immolation Up - 700 damage taken
-Round 2: Swap out Imp - 300 damage taken
-Rounds 3-10: 300 damage done - 300 damage taken
-> How much damage have you taken? Most are inclined to say 3400. The actual answer is (700)+(300*9)-(300*8)-(54*10)-(70*10)= negative 240 damage taken. The key is to consider that the IMP in the background will not only fully heal, but will deal damage in addition to the active pet. This seems obvious enough, the key is to understand that the IMP has the capability to do this damage from the background without considering its other abilities. Hence, it can be Damage Efficiency to the point of making up for 1240 (Immolation DoT + Heal OR Round 1 + Round 2 - Total Damage Taken) damage points that are taken while setting up DoT and swapping. Basically, so long as a pet does not have more than 270 damage per round capability, the IMP could get the Trainer an early advantage of up to 700 damage points and 540 healing points.
2) Nether Gate
-The ability to swap out an enemy pet (and the speed to do it before most pets can get off an attack) grants the IMP the capability to controlling the start of a battle and deal with multiple enemies at will. That's to say, if at the start of a match an IMP faces an Undead while a Mechanical is in the background, the IMP can simply push out the Undead and attack the Mechanical at which point every Burn will hit harder since it is more effective against Mechanicals increasing Damage Efficiency per round. Clearly, the other trainer may immediately swap back to the Undead, which is why I normally recommend 100% uptime on Immolation meaning that you will deal 280 damage from the Nether Gate + (70*2) 140 damage from the Immolation = 420 damage and still have the IMP at 100%. At this point, even if you decide to swap, the enemy pet would have to do more than 420 damage to catch up, not to mention the 700 damage from the Immolation active in the back ground.
Another example has the IMP swapping to a pet that you can better counter with another of your pets. This can be calculated since the IMP ALWAYS swaps to the top pet on the enemy frame. This combination of abilities and the 5% Humanoid Heal give the IMP ideal traits for control and damage efficiency management.
3) A little bit of luck (Burn)
-Here is where we get silly. Consider two scenarios: (Note I am using Average IMP Burn damage = 280 while Average Enemy Pet damage = 300 to simplify the math and get the point across)
A) Two enemy pets at about 50% health and the IMP at about 10% health. The math is rough, so I will briefly explain how this is possible. The IMP opens with Immolation, Burn, Nether Gate (free heal from Humanoid Trait), Burn, Burn... The damage done depends on the RNG of Burn, but you get the picture. The IMP has been hit 5 times for an average of 300 damage (1359-1200=159 about 11.6%) and has done (70*2)+(280+280)=700 damage to the first pet and (70*3)+(280+280)=770 damage to the second pet.
B) One enemy pet at 10% and the IMP at 10%. Basically, the IMP starts with Immolation and proceeds with Burn while the other pet counters. Remember since no Nether Gate was used, the IMP does (280+70)=350 less damage since he does not "skip" a turn by swapping out the enemy pet. We assume they burn each other down over five rounds where the IMP takes (300*5)=1200 damage and does (280*4)+(70*5)=1470 damage and that the enemy pet has a little more health than the IMP which has a below average health pool.
You could argue that B is a better scenario since you could finish off the enemy pet and Nether Gate the incumbent only to swap IMP and have him heal in the back ground. However, option A provides a useful strategic advantage. I propose that by having two enemy pets at about 50% and an IMP that will heal in the background at 10% you have increased your damage efficiency more than in the former scenario. This becomes the case when you swap in a fresh pet at 100% health. Regardless of the initial hit taken by the pet you bring in, assuming that damage is on par with enemy pet (hopefully you have a pet to swap in that is either more effective or more resilient), you can deliver a killing blow before the enemy responds giving you the capability to increase your damage by forcing the swap to a pet which you can counter. That's too say either you swap in a faster pet and deliver the killing blow meaning he skips that turn since his pet dies before he attacks OR swap in a class that is more effective and either kills the enemy pet or forces the swap once again *stealing a round*. The idea here is that while IMP heals in the background, you have two full health pets going up against a full health pet and 2 50% health pets. If either of the full health pets in your team counter the 50% pets on the opposite team (whether through Class or Breed-Speed being the most Important for the purposes of this argument) then you have an immediate advantage and again, your IMP is healing and damaging in the background further widening the gap.
Conclusion
-The point is that some hits count more and the IMP allows you to better control the battle while providing versatile long term damage and healing unknown to any other pet. No pet I have found can heal and damage for nine rounds while being able to force swaps. Now, to get away from the IMP for a second, it is important to take home the idea of Damage Efficiency as making your hits count more than his. That's to say if you just landed a 700 damage hit and are about to get hit by a 2 round 700 damage hit with the option to swap to a pet who will only be hit for 462, you should swap even though it may be counterintuitive to "give up" a round.
I must now confess that the actual title of this forum should have been "Damage Efficiency & the Fiendish Imp"...
Damage Efficiency relates to when and how an attack is used. The obvious example of this would be using a powerful ability right before an opponent uses 50% damage reduction. This may seem inefficient at first, but consider the possibility that the opponent's health is reduced and the blow will kill him nonetheless. Here, this can be considered efficient until I reveal that there is a pet in the back who is at full health. Questions arise... Are there any weak abilities you can use to kill the current pet through the 50% damage reduction so you can use the big ability on the second pet? Is the current pet mechanical or undead? etc... The point is ANY ATTACK can be efficient at any given time... INCLUDING "passing" (i.e.: skipping a turn when the opponent's dodge is up and your abilities have cool downs).
But wait, this post's title is "Damage Efficiency". What the hell does the Fiendish Imp (S/S) [Herein referred to as "IMP" cause typing (S/S) overtime sucks] have to do with damage efficiency? (The arguments assume the IMP is the faster of the pets in combat with 333 speed)
1) Immolation
-Round 1: Immolation Up - 700 damage taken
-Round 2: Swap out Imp - 300 damage taken
-Rounds 3-10: 300 damage done - 300 damage taken
-> How much damage have you taken? Most are inclined to say 3400. The actual answer is (700)+(300*9)-(300*8)-(54*10)-(70*10)= negative 240 damage taken. The key is to consider that the IMP in the background will not only fully heal, but will deal damage in addition to the active pet. This seems obvious enough, the key is to understand that the IMP has the capability to do this damage from the background without considering its other abilities. Hence, it can be Damage Efficiency to the point of making up for 1240 (Immolation DoT + Heal OR Round 1 + Round 2 - Total Damage Taken) damage points that are taken while setting up DoT and swapping. Basically, so long as a pet does not have more than 270 damage per round capability, the IMP could get the Trainer an early advantage of up to 700 damage points and 540 healing points.
2) Nether Gate
-The ability to swap out an enemy pet (and the speed to do it before most pets can get off an attack) grants the IMP the capability to controlling the start of a battle and deal with multiple enemies at will. That's to say, if at the start of a match an IMP faces an Undead while a Mechanical is in the background, the IMP can simply push out the Undead and attack the Mechanical at which point every Burn will hit harder since it is more effective against Mechanicals increasing Damage Efficiency per round. Clearly, the other trainer may immediately swap back to the Undead, which is why I normally recommend 100% uptime on Immolation meaning that you will deal 280 damage from the Nether Gate + (70*2) 140 damage from the Immolation = 420 damage and still have the IMP at 100%. At this point, even if you decide to swap, the enemy pet would have to do more than 420 damage to catch up, not to mention the 700 damage from the Immolation active in the back ground.
Another example has the IMP swapping to a pet that you can better counter with another of your pets. This can be calculated since the IMP ALWAYS swaps to the top pet on the enemy frame. This combination of abilities and the 5% Humanoid Heal give the IMP ideal traits for control and damage efficiency management.
3) A little bit of luck (Burn)
-Here is where we get silly. Consider two scenarios: (Note I am using Average IMP Burn damage = 280 while Average Enemy Pet damage = 300 to simplify the math and get the point across)
A) Two enemy pets at about 50% health and the IMP at about 10% health. The math is rough, so I will briefly explain how this is possible. The IMP opens with Immolation, Burn, Nether Gate (free heal from Humanoid Trait), Burn, Burn... The damage done depends on the RNG of Burn, but you get the picture. The IMP has been hit 5 times for an average of 300 damage (1359-1200=159 about 11.6%) and has done (70*2)+(280+280)=700 damage to the first pet and (70*3)+(280+280)=770 damage to the second pet.
B) One enemy pet at 10% and the IMP at 10%. Basically, the IMP starts with Immolation and proceeds with Burn while the other pet counters. Remember since no Nether Gate was used, the IMP does (280+70)=350 less damage since he does not "skip" a turn by swapping out the enemy pet. We assume they burn each other down over five rounds where the IMP takes (300*5)=1200 damage and does (280*4)+(70*5)=1470 damage and that the enemy pet has a little more health than the IMP which has a below average health pool.
You could argue that B is a better scenario since you could finish off the enemy pet and Nether Gate the incumbent only to swap IMP and have him heal in the back ground. However, option A provides a useful strategic advantage. I propose that by having two enemy pets at about 50% and an IMP that will heal in the background at 10% you have increased your damage efficiency more than in the former scenario. This becomes the case when you swap in a fresh pet at 100% health. Regardless of the initial hit taken by the pet you bring in, assuming that damage is on par with enemy pet (hopefully you have a pet to swap in that is either more effective or more resilient), you can deliver a killing blow before the enemy responds giving you the capability to increase your damage by forcing the swap to a pet which you can counter. That's too say either you swap in a faster pet and deliver the killing blow meaning he skips that turn since his pet dies before he attacks OR swap in a class that is more effective and either kills the enemy pet or forces the swap once again *stealing a round*. The idea here is that while IMP heals in the background, you have two full health pets going up against a full health pet and 2 50% health pets. If either of the full health pets in your team counter the 50% pets on the opposite team (whether through Class or Breed-Speed being the most Important for the purposes of this argument) then you have an immediate advantage and again, your IMP is healing and damaging in the background further widening the gap.
Conclusion
-The point is that some hits count more and the IMP allows you to better control the battle while providing versatile long term damage and healing unknown to any other pet. No pet I have found can heal and damage for nine rounds while being able to force swaps. Now, to get away from the IMP for a second, it is important to take home the idea of Damage Efficiency as making your hits count more than his. That's to say if you just landed a 700 damage hit and are about to get hit by a 2 round 700 damage hit with the option to swap to a pet who will only be hit for 462, you should swap even though it may be counterintuitive to "give up" a round.
I must now confess that the actual title of this forum should have been "Damage Efficiency & the Fiendish Imp"...