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Elemental: ZAP! spreadsheet
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Post by
Sihmm
Terrified by the prospect of life without SEIC and at risk of being crippled by boredom, I have produced my own elemental DPS spreadsheet thingy. It's glibly called ZAP!, it's made in Microsoft Office 2007, and there's a
fairly detailed user guide
on my blog.
Update:
I'm no longer updating
this post
, but the spreadsheet goes on. Check out the
thread on EJ
for all the latest or
my blog
for the normal stuff.
You can download it from one of these links:
Download ZAP!
Download ZAP! compatibility version
Only use the compatibility version if the normal one doesn't work for you.
What can it do?
The main page is meant to look pleasingly familiar to anyone used to SEIC, and does basically the same kind of stuff: it's essentially a
tool for comparing options
for gear, glyphs, talent choices, and so forth. There's also a sandbox rotation editor tool, which allows you to
experiment with different ways of doing elemental DPS
- maybe to evaluate DPS in a specific scenario or under the influence of a specific temporary effect, or to explore optimal normal spell use, or whatever you like really. It should be fairly flexible.
Because SEIC's development stopped sort of mid-build, ZAP! is probably a bit more accurate than SEIC for some things. However, because I'm not Binkenstein, the level of sophistication is probably lower. At any rate, I have aimed to make it easy to use and accessible while providing a range of useful little features that might be... useful.
What can't it do?
Normal formulation limitations apply. Hopefully you can circumvent some of them using the Sandbox. As a tool for evaluating gear and stuff, it's at least as useful as any other tool out there. ZAP! cannot think for you or make decisions for you, it can only suggest and calculate.
This looks a lot like SEIC, did you totally just knock it off?
This project is entirely my own work, based on my own understanding of the maths and mechanisms and the results of my own playtesting. However, most of my own understanding of these things comes from long-term readership of these forums and the elemental TTT when it was maintained by Binkenstein, as well as from SEIC itself. So no it's not a knock-off, but yes it owes a huge debt to people who aren't me. Plus, SEIC's UI was just a work of genius, so while I tried to improve on it slightly I did stick to the overall concept.
Other options
If you don't like ZAP!, or even if you do, you might want to check out one of these tools instead:
Rawr
elemental, presently maintained by Lord Helmchen
SEIC
by Binkenstein, continued by Caelwynar on
page 12
.
ESSE
by Irdx
gothic's sim
by gothic
Feedback
If you find mistakes or weird things, want to ask a question or just have something to say, please don't hesitate to let me know.
How do I use this?
...there's a guide on my blog, remember? It's really quite in-depth, you should
check it out
. There's a pretend-FAQ, too.
Post by
Modibybob
Very nice! I read your blog and noted the humorous pictures of the people with their heads down upon the mention of the word spreadsheet. I call it
an
a "modifiable offensive spell damage calculator". :D
But really, nice work on the spreadsheet thingy. I'll include a link to this in the elemental guide.
Post by
Gnub
I guess that's what happens when I'm too slow to finish my own blasted projects - ah well, I guess we'll probably end up cooperating or something :)
Remind me to hug your blog at some point.
Post by
Sihmm
Remind me to hug your blog at some point.
Just like Captain Kirk
.
(I was vaguely aware that you are working on a PHP elemental tool thing, but I wasn't clear on what it was for or what sort of timeframe you were aiming at. At any rate, ZAP! isn't meant to replace or succeed anything, it's just another option - and I figure the more options out there, the better.)
Post by
Gnub
Remind me to hug your blog at some point.
Just like Captain Kirk
.
Captain Kirk.... IN THE MOUNTAINS! (Sorry, Captain Obvious needed a saying too)
(I was vaguely aware that you are working on a PHP elemental tool thing, but I wasn't clear on what it was for or what sort of timeframe you were aiming at. At any rate, ZAP! isn't meant to replace or succeed anything, it's just another option - and I figure the more options out there, the better.)
Well, I started it .... around a year ago, and since then I've been working on it here and there, and came up with tons and tons of new ideas to polish it, add new features... and rewrite the whole thing, while keeping it simple, yet advanced (as the calculations of the actual DPS was some work), as I really wanted a way of getting precise statweighting-values based on the current setup.
.... *gets to work a bit more* :P
Post by
Sihmm
New version uploaded and ready for consumption.
Changes - Version
1.0.5
:
Heroism cast times are now properly capped at 1 second (whoops)
CL-after-LvB calculations fixed
Added Glyph of Elemental Mastery
Added DEP display for potions (which were already being calculated anyway)
Sandbox now has a haste calculator
Some things to note:
1. The new CL calculations have quite dramatically changed the value of CL. Unfortunately the new value fluctuates wildly depending on haste, because I chose
not
to normalise the rotation for haste fluctuations. What this means is that the value of CL-after-LvB increases to a peak when using it will theoretically tighten up/increase Lava Burst frequency, and then slump when using it decreases Lava Burst frequency (that is, when casting CL causes a small delay between the final LB and recasting LvB, which causes an extra LB to be inserted by the formulator and thus delays the use of Lava Burst).
Mana considerations aside, CL can potentially be up to ~100 DPS gain if used after LvB, or it can be a ~20 DPS decrease because the formulator doesn't yet allow for waiting for Lava Burst's cooldown instead of casting another LB. This is something I plan to fix in a later build, though purely to stabilize the formulator - deliberately waiting for Lava Burst's cooldown in a real encounter is almost never a good idea because the "gap" value at which it's a DPS gain is too small for humans to react to (<0.2 seconds).
Note these results are consistent with SEIC,
though my formulation differs in that it accounts for the recasting of Flame Shock when working out a rotation whereas SEIC tends to cast Lightning Bolts right up until Lava Burst has cooled down. This means SEIC will show lower CL-after-LvB DPS than ZAP!, unless you manually adjust the rotation calculator to remove the "extra" LB.
Disregard that paragraph, the results are basically the same as SEIC's except in the freak circumstance I happened to test for.
What all of this implies is that the decision to use CL in your rotation is even more complicated than I've previously maintained, and as others have pointed out it's of most value if it "tightens up" a rotation by increasing the frequency of LvB casts.
2. Normally, Glyph of Elemental Mastery is, as expected, of miniscule DPS value. With 2t10 the value jumps considerably but is still far below the normal four glyphs. It won't be worth using over other glyphs even with 2t10.
I chose to implement EM usage as a real (fractional) value, so the value of the glyph doesn't change with fight length. That is, a 2 minute 45 second fight duration won't suddenly make Glyph of EM a lot more worthwhile.
Post by
Sihmm
The latest version based on the Patch 3.3 PTR is now available for download:
ZAP! 1.1.0 for patch 3.3 (PTR)
ZAP! 1.1.0 for patch 3.3 (PTR) - compatibility version
Changes - Version
1.1.0
:
Implemented patch 3.3 changes:
Elemental Mastery now grants haste instead of crit
4t9 now only increases LvB damage by 10%, down from 20%
Revised fight segmenting model to make it simpler to include new EM
You can now choose whether or not to use CL during Heroism and EM
“Rotation Delay” setting changed. It now allows the user to add a period of no-casting in between each LvB cast. LBs will be sacrificed first, then CLs.
CastDelay now properly accounted for during Heroism
Statistics:
Mana usage more accurate
Heroism and EM properly accounted for when figuring out totals
Judgement of Wisdom and the Reign of the Unliving trinkets now use variable PPM based on the user’s stats and options
“Advanced Settings” now contain the options to factor in miss chance and partial resists (which doesn’t affect EP, but it was a frequently requested feature)
Sandbox’s haste calculator looks better and has more options
Haste from relics is included in the buff display until I can figure out a better way to make it obvious (people tend to forget about relic haste when playing around with numbers)
Various other minor cosmetic changes.
The default download link will continue to point to the previous release until patch 3.3 goes live.
As much as I try to check my work before releasing it, there were a lot of changes this time around which increases the likelihood that I'll have missed something. If you notice anything that seems to be awry, please do let me know.
Known issues:
For fight lengths shorter than the cooldown of Elemental Mastery, the full 15 seconds of the effect will not be accounted for. This is because EM is included as a 15/cooldown fraction of the total fight duration to smooth out its effect. However, the DEP values for potions - if set to be used during EM -
do
force the full 15 second duration for the effect no matter how long the fight.
Post by
Sihmm
Slight change to the way the new 4t9 effect is applied thanks to input from Agash and Tufy.
ZAP! 1.1.1 for patch 3.3 (PTR)
ZAP! 1.1.1 for patch 3.3 (PTR) - compatibility version
The change means very slightly less DPS is lost (~15) from the change from the existing set bonus.
Post by
Sihmm
New version uploaded! This one features all (?) of the new patch 3.3 trinkets that I could find on the armory.
Changes - Version
1.1.2
:
Added new patch 3.3 trinkets
Added Fire Nova to the Sandbox (presently single target only)
Intellect buffs now affect the MP5 from Unrelenting Storm
Added Arcane Empowerment to the 3% damage buff tooltip
As we don't know the internal CD of Phylactery of the Nameless Lich yet, it uses the standard "trinket proc" setting which the user can define at the bottom of the trinket list. (Which itself is a cheap way to avoid modelling proc chances and internal CDs - not that it'd be difficult to model, but I wanted the user to have more control over trinket weighting.)
The next major step for the spreadsheet is to model Fire Totems and AoE, which will initially be on a separate tab to the normal single target damage stuff. This will likely not appear for several weeks yet.
Post by
83344
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Sihmm
EDIT: Not sure where you keep the most up-to-date version, is off the page you have at the top?
The link in the first post always points to the most up-to-date version, even though I had forgotten to change the version number above it!
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