Guild Wars 2: Damage Increase Part 1: Gear

The difference between exotic gear and ascended gear is often called out to be 10%. This got me curious. So let's check out the damage increase of all rarities. We'll start with physical or direct damage first as it's more commonly calculated.

How to Calculate the Difference

So to get a difference we need two numbers. Let's check out two full Berserker equipped of the same type and level but with different rarities. Rarities in Guild Wars 2 are categorized into

• Basic
• Fine
• Masterwork
• Rare
• Exotic
• Ascended
• Legendary

To do this we need to sum up all the items. There are 14 item slots available with some extra that replace others. For example, you can either have one weapon or two weapons if you switch weapons your previous ones don't count until you swap back. Same with underwater equip. Your underwater breather replaces your head item when underwater, while your underwater weapons replace your normal weapons.

Summing Up the Stats

So let's sum the stats up nice and cozy through the help of a table. We're starting off with the basic white gear with Berserker stats, level 80, of course. Unfortunately, some basic items don't have a level 80 type so we'll go with what we have/can get.

Item Name	Power	Precision	Ferocity
Berserker's Apprentice Band	36	26	26
Berserker's Apprentice Shoulders	27	19	19
Berserker's Apprentice Coat	81	58	58
Berserker's Apprentice Gloves	27	19	19
Berserker's Apprentice Pants	54	39	39
Berserker's Apprentice Shoes	27	19	19
Berserker's Axe	72	52	52
Berserker's Axe	72	52	52
Total	396	284	284

Power will stay the same but precision and ferocity are converted into their corresponding attributes. To convert precision to critical chance we need to divide it through 21 which means through our equip we get 284 / 21 = 13.52%. For the conversion from ferocity to critical damage, 15 ferocity equals 1% critical damage. Thus with 284 ferocity we get 284 / 15 = 18.93% critical damage. This means we get 396 power, 13.52% critical chance and 18.93% critical damage. Let's check what we get from the next rarity using another table, of course. There are accessories now but not with Berserker stats so let's still leave them out. Besides we didn't have them at basic so... yeah.

Item Name	Power	Precision	Ferocity
Berserker's Cabalist Hood	45	32	32
Berserker's Cabalist Shoulders	34	24	24
Berserker's Cabalist Coat	102	73	73
Berserker's Cabalist Gloves	34	24	24
Berserker's Cabalist Legs	68	48	48
Berserker's Cabalist Boots	34	24	24
Berserker's Iron Axe	91	65	65
Berserker's Iron Axe	91	65	65
Total	499	355	355

Our power increased by (499 / 396) - 1 = 26.01% and the secondary stats precision and ferocity increased by (355 / 284) - 1 = 25%. Anyways we gain 355 / 21 = 16.90% critical chance while our critical damage increases by 355 / 15 = 23.67% through the gear. We get 499 power as well.

Damage Calculation in Guild Wars 2

To calculate damage in Guild Wars 2 the following formula is used:

damage = (weaponStrength * power * skillCoEfficient) / targetArmor

Since we're comparing only the difference in stats skill co-efficient and the armor of our target will be constant. So we can ignore those factors:

damage = (weaponStrength * power * 1) / 1

For the weapon strength, we will assume the average. The other factors such as critical chance and critical damage can be multiplied with this value. So we get this formula now:

avgDamage = weapon Strength * power * (1 + critical chance * critical damage - 1)

avgDamage stands for average damage;

If you don't know how this formula came to check out my post about damage calculation in WildStar.

Last but not least we need to know the base values. With no equip how much stats do we start with?
We're only looking at the stats relevant to our calculation so that's critical chance and precision due to the relation, critical damage, and ferocity due to the relation and power. The power starts at 1000. Precision starts at 1000 too. However, 895 of this precision is subtracted. So we have 1000 - 895 = 105 left. This rest is then 105 / 21 = 5% critical chance. For ferocity, it starts at zero. This makes it easier for us. However critical damage starts with 150%.

Keeping this in mind our formula would look more like this

avgdmg = weaponStrengthAvg * power * (1 + ((prec / 21 / 100) + 0.05) * ((fero / 15 / 100) + 0.5))
dmg stands for damage; weaponStrengthAvg stands for the average weapon strength; prec stands for precision; fero stands for ferocity;

or

avgDmg = weaponStrengthAverage * power * (critical hit chance + 0.05) * (1.5 + critical damage)
avgDmg stands for average damage; weaponStrengthAverage stands for the average weapon strength;

Now before we start calculating we need to check the weapon strength. The Berserker's Axe has a weapon strength from 522 to 638. The average of that is (638 - 522) / 2 + 522 = 580. For our Berserker's Iron Axe it is 654 to 799. The average of this is (799 - 654) / 2 + 654 = 726.5.

First Comparison

All we have to do now is fill our formula.

Basic damage

580 * 1396 * (1 + ((284 / 21 / 100) + 0.05) * ((284 / 15 / 100) + 0.5)) = 913068.68

Fine damage
726.5 * 1499 * (1+ ((355 / 21 / 100) + 0.05) * ((355 / 15 / 100) + 0.5)) = 1264753.86

These numbers look big because this is the average damage you do to a small white bug. Those bugs as you may have seen them have no armor. With no armor, the damage is respectively high. If you want some better numbers you can divide these by 1967 to get your average damage on a player with ascended light armor and no toughness.

To know how much more damage we do we can simply divide the changed number through the previous one. We want to switch from basic to fine equipment so let's divide the newer 1264753.86 damage through the old one 913068.68. Doing this we get a factor of 1264753.86 / 913068.68 = 1.3852. This means we do 138.52% damage now. If we subtract one or 100% from this we get the actual increase which is 38.52% or 0.3852.

Actually, let's check out the damage against the previously described player.

913068.68 / 1967 = 464.19
1264753.86 / 1967 = 642.99

Not so much anymore.

Done for Now

You, I'd love to continue this but I can't spend more than two hours a day on gathering data, writing this post and doing the calculation. I want to do other things as well in my life. :P So I'll have to split this post. Though now that a lot is clarified, defined and done I can focus on the calculation. So I'll probably be able to do like 2 or 3 comparisons per post from now on. We have 4 more comparisons to do.