GameAmp: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

Forum >> Main >> General Discussion >> Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

User

Message

Wyloc

Posts: 0
Joined: 03/07/2008
Credibility: 0 pts

Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

I have played several ranged characters, and just started up a Brute. I wondered, does the ability to hit a target at range, while rooted, or that is fleeing you, make melee characters inherently less powerful? And, melee characters also suffer from unavoidable damage from exploding doors, while ranged characters can destroy them without risk.

So, I did a quick bit of research, and thought I would share it with you. Please keep in mind, this is just a rough study, and multiple trials with multiple damage sets would be needed to nail it down. But it did give some interesting info...

The Process:
I made 2 new characters, each of which began in the tutorial zone. Each character ran directly to the outdoor area. I did not slot any enhancements, nor did I activate any secondary powers. I only used the primary attack ability as often as possible, against the nearest target. I did not stop to rest or heal.
My two characters were an Energy Brute, and an Energy Corrupter.
I compared the damage done in 5 minutes of non-stop attacking.

The Results:

Brute Total Damage 687.46
Brute # of attacks 109
Brute # of misses 14
Brute hit rate 87%

Corrupter Total Damage 512.05
Corrupter # of attacks 56
Corrupter # of misses 15
Corrupter hit rate 73%

Conclusion:
It appears that the Brute is the easy winner when it comes to damage. The Brute's attacks were significantly faster, and had a lower percentage of misses. However, both characters missed roughly the same number of times in the 5 minute span.
It is worth noting that while playing the Corrupter I was never once below 95% of my max health. With the Brute I actually died once (I did not count the time spent running back to the combat area after death in the 5 minutes). The Brute was consistently low on health during the test.

Overall, I would say this little test clearly demonstrated that the overall advantage of being able to hit a target at range, rather than spending time running between targets is not an issue. And the Brute's advantage of being able to deal significantly more damage is offset by the fact that it took much more damage itself (even to the point of dying once).

I may run additional tests with other damage types to see if this trend continues.

04/28/08 21:15

BishopDon

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 10
Joined: 04/19/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

interesting concept you have here....

did you take into consideration about the recharge rate of the ATs you chose? Cause I know Energy Corrs takes a bit to get it back up and Energy Brutes don't have that big of an issue cycling through the attacks...they both run End heavy, but for some different reasons.

maybe on the next run you'll keep the recharge rates a little closer together.

04/28/08 21:46

Splitbarb

Posts: 0
Joined: 06/25/2007
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

Well, you're only testing level one guys. At level 50, with all powers fully slotted for both archetypes, I'm sure that the brute would deal more damage. With the appropriate shields, they would probably take less damage too.
Even though melee types might be less strong in the early levels, as they advance they become stronger than ranged types.

Toons on Freedom:
Splitbarb--50 Scrapper
Steamroller--50 Brute
Dezmo--36 Defender
Doctor Umbrage--32 Blaster
Electronium--28 Blaster
Soulgiver--21 Scrapper
Neolix--20 Warshade
Azalon--20 Arachnos Widow

And a couple lowbies

04/28/08 22:21

BishopDon

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 10
Joined: 04/19/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

hmmm, another thing to consider with Brutes...they have Fury that builds up and helps to increase the damage output.

04/28/08 23:04

Epsilon Unit

Posts: 3
Joined: 08/22/2007
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

Although a comparison between ranged and melee toons is hard to do becuase of the many differing things individual powersets do, but the easiest to analyze is the two front loaded sets from the brute and corruptor ATs, Energy Melee and Fire Blast

Energy Melee Unenhanced (Excluding Taunt)
Barrage: 28.4
Energy Punch: 41.7
Bone Smasher:68.4
Build Up: Special + 80% damage
Whirling Hands:41.7
Total Focus:148.5
Stun:10.4
Energy Transfer:190.2

Fire Blast Unenhanced
Flares:38
Fire Blast:61
Fire Ball:52.6
Rain of Fire:125.3(1.76 * 75)
Fire Breath:73.8
Aim: Special, +42.5 Acc/Damage
Blaze:126
Blazing Bolt:145
Inferno:231
Note: The Number for Rain of Fire is only true if the target remains within the powers radius for its duriation

While the comparison still has to many variables, such as resistance, defence ect, the maximum Single Target damage that could be generated by the powersets individually in a 5 or less second span is 342.4 in 4.37 seconds for fire blast delivered from range, 481.7 in 4.4 seconds, this is exluding the fact that Corruptors could use secondarys to debuff and possibly raise their damage and the Fury factor of brutes, while Energy melee tends to have disorient and quick animation, Fire blast has the most AoE and in potential PvE situations will and would cause more damage then an energy melee brute can cause in the same time, although taking into consideration that a corruptor does not have to get very close to their targets to attack it means that they start there attack chains probebly 2 or 3 seconds before a brute does.

My conclusion is that brutes give up range for complete mez protection, Immediate damage and the ability to raise their damage potential with Fury , while corruptors have the most potential damage aswell as being a team oriented toon, having debuffs and a wider range of mezs avaliable to them as well as being able to strike before reaching the mob

Triumph Man Come Join The party:
Epsilon Assassin, lvl 50 spines/regen
Winters-Fury, lvl 50 Ice/Kinetics
EpsiIon Assassin, lvl 43 EM/Ninjutsu
Sigil Incarnate, lvl 21 Fire/Psi Dom

Total Purple Drops: 9 and counting

Some people think outside the Box, most think Inside the box, i think inside an outside of a triangle, remember that as you try invain to comprehend my insanity

There is a method to my madness!!!

04/28/08 23:38

Wyloc

Posts: 0
Joined: 03/07/2008
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

I did take into consideration the inherent effects (Brute's Fury and Corrupter's (whatever it is called)) It was interesting to see the massive increase in damage the brute did over time. While his fury bar was maxed, I was hitting around 9 pts of damage per hit, and only around 3 with no fury. The obvious downside is that in normal practice a brute wont be able to keep the bar as full as I was able to do by ignoring damage.

I chose energy for both AT's as it was the simplest comparison. Fire would require the addition of all the damage over time effects, etc. And, I figured that Brute Energy vs Corrupter Energy would be a natural comparison as they are basically the same type of effect. As opposed to, say, dual blades vs ice.

What really prompted me to do the math, was the question of run time. "Will a Brute deal less damage due to the fact that he has to run into contact with each target?" I think this shows that he still does significantly more damage. At least in this odd circumstance where I simply ran and ran and hit and hit without any pause at all between groups.

If I get really bored, I will probably do a full comparison like this between every AT and attack set. Just for fun.

It is true that as levels increase the 'play style' changes greatly between the ATs. This test wasnt to compare damage between fully slotted level 50s. Rather to show one variable, running to a target vs standing and shooting at range.

:)

04/29/08 13:12

Epsilon Unit

Posts: 3
Joined: 08/22/2007
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: Research results on damage: Ranged vs Melee

My numbers do include the addition of all the DoT ticks from fire, but i found energy and fire easier to compare becuase they both do the most damage out of all the sets

04/29/08 18:22

Don't Forget! - Rate users posts to reward or demerit their posts with Credibility!