Atonement and WS Gorgets Revisited

[Xanthe]

It has been held for a while now that Light/Flame/Aqua Gorgets don't have any apparent effect on Atonement damage, and a search hasn't shown any contrary or new information thus far. Being the curious person I am I did some testing of my own after receiving the weapon skill last week. I ran sets of trials using both Light Gorget and empty neck slots once enmity was capped. Target mobs were Decrepit Gnoles in Jugner Forest [S].

Once I was able to do a consistent 720 damage (soft cap at 100% TP) I did a series of Atonements between 100%-110% TP with both no neck piece and with Light Gorget equipped. The range is given due to random shield blocks or Joyeuse procs. As expected, with no neck piece equipped I would do between 720-730ish damage per WS. Now the interesting part: with Light Gorget I was doing a steady 750 damage every time. Even with exactly 100% I would do 750 damage. Damage never exceeded 750 however. So it would appear gorgets do have some affect on Atonement. The question is in what way.

The first reaction would be that the gorgets lower the TP% needed to exceed the soft cap on Atonement damage, but that can't be the case since that would be indicative of a TP Bonus and not the known fTP bonus of gorgets. What we do know is that it boosted damage at 100% TP and capped enmity by 30 points. It was then that I decided to see what happens when enmity hadn't been capped yet.

I do not have a table of values to show my work as I was gone the majority of the weekend after my initial testing, but this is what I found. I would engage my target with 0% TP with Flash > Sentinel > Rampart > Shield Bash > Reprisal > Cure IV for 374 > Flash, and melee up to 100% TP. Due to the randomness of melee hits and damage taken I can't be precise, but at this point without a neckpiece my Atonements would do damage in the low to mid 500s. Repeating the same process on a fresh target using a Light Gorget my damage would be in the high 500s to low/mid 600s. After a while the pattern seemed to be a roughly 10% increase in damage.

So to sum up so far:

• Atonement damage is based on TE + VE. (known)
• Atonement has a hard cap of 750 damage or 375 for both CE and VE. (known)
• Atonement has a soft cap of 720 damage at 100% TP or 360 for both CE and VE. (known)
• WS Gorgets have some observable effect on Atonement damage up to the hard cap.
• Damage increase appears to be roughly 10%.

That final point leads me to believe that Atonement has a fTP modifier just like any other WS with a standard value of 1.0, only it is multiplied against TE (or against CE and VE independantly, testing would be required to differentiate) instead of wDMG (D + fSTR + WSC). This would be in keeping with the known nature of WS gorgets and what I have observed. One strength of this finding would be for initial Atonements where enmity has not yet been capped.

What is the practicality of this information? Since Atonement is running double duty as damage and a hate tool, wouldn't a Ritter Gorget be more effective than adding a meager 30 damage at 100%? Running the numbers through Kaeko's formulas for enmity generation for damage dealt indicates otherwise. According to the results, given any base damage and base enmity level you will generate more enmity with the 0.1 boost to fTP than with the +3 boost to enmity.

Here are a few test cases using capped TE and a level 85 target.

Spoiler: show

Capped +Enmity Case:
CE = 720 * (80/58) * 1.5 = 1489
VE = 720 * (240/58) * 1.5 = 4468
TE = 5957

CE = 750 * (80/58) * 1.47 = 1519
VE = 750 * (240/58) * 1.47 = 4561
TE = 6068

Mid +Enmity Case:
CE = 720 * (80/58) * 1.37 = 1360
VE = 720 * (240/58) * 1.37 = 4081
TE = 5441

CE = 750 * (80/58) * 1.34 = 1385
VE = 750 * (240/58) * 1.34 = 4158
TE = 5543

Base +Enmity Case:
CE = 720 * (80/58) * 1.03 = 1022
VE = 720 * (240/58) * 1.03 = 3068
TE = 4090

CE = 750 * (80/58) * 1.00 = 1034
VE = 750 * (240/58) * 1.00 = 3103
TE = 4137

Naturally as your TP brings you closer to the hard cap Ritter Gorget will become more effective, but when spamming Atonement at 100% TP you will generate slightly more enmity using a WS gorget for 750 damage than a Ritter Gorget for 720 damage. While it is a small enmity and damage increase, the cumulative effects over time may be worthwhile, and the damage boost to initial Atonements would be appreciable. Anyone who can also test to verify these findings would be encouraged to do so. At the very least I hope this was an interesting read.

[Raen Ryong]

That's very interesting... I remember when Atonement first came out I messed around with Flame Gorget a bit and found it had no effect at all on the damage (which should work since the SC element is Fusion/Reverberation, so Flame/Light/Aqua?).

Not doubting your testing at all and it seems a lot more controlled than mine, very good information to bear in mind!

[Nameless]

Very interesting. It seems like I need to carry the gorget around for pld now.... >< inventory space -1....

[Arthars]

i been using my light gorget since i got atonement..............

you mean you guys dont?!

i didnt know about damage boost, or not tbh, i just swap it in because its a habit lol

[Agito]

I don't bother with flame/light gorget for atonement even though i have both. Although i would never tank something that isn't a HNM so basically my enmity is capped or close to capped the entire fight. The only way it would be usefull is for the initial weapon skill (if it did give it a boost in dmg) which is useless because you wouldn't be using atonement on stuff that dies in under a minute.

[Neosutra]

I don't bother with flame/light gorget for atonement even though i have both. Although i would never tank something that isn't a HNM so basically my enmity is capped or close to capped the entire fight. The only way it would be usefull is for the initial weapon skill (if it did give it a boost in dmg) which is useless because you wouldn't be using atonement on stuff that dies in under a minute.

Your enmity isnt capped that fast.

[Deemos]

Woa, good to know - actually i was just switchin in max enmity for the ws, i guess i'll put flame in there. Thx for the info.

[TummieGaruda]

How about trying two different tests:

See if you can get around 648-650 atonements without gorget, then equip with gorget and see if you hit the 720 softcap.

Another test would be to sub /RDM, take a partner get 100% TP on a mob prior to testing. Then on a new mob, have the other person perform the first action to gain hate, then sleep the mob and dispel the mob, which would give a total of 640 VE and CE. VE decays at 60 per second, so waiting roughly 11 seconds after casting both spells should give 0 VE and 640 CE. Run in and do atonement with no Enmity Gear or Gorget and note it's damage.

From what I've read about CE to damage on atonement, it is roughly 23/256 dmg per CE, which comes close to what Studio Golbi has (1 dmg per 12 CE). This would result in around 53 Damage in Atonement. Next, repeat the process on another mob. This time, use Light Gorget. If Light Gorget increases enmity by a %, we will be able to see it... say if it were 10%, you'd see Atonement doing 58 damage.

You can refer to this post which shows the same thing
http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/63084...testing-6.html

The only difference is that the person doing this test forgot to include the 200 CE you get from the initial pull which creates 48 DMG from atonement after VE decays to 0 from dispel and the +4 Enmity.

Also, If it is a two fold attack, does it calculate the WS as VE dmg first hit, CE dmg second hit, or the other way around? I can't seem to figure out the VE equation but im guessing right now 37/256.

[Madvillain]

My buddy figured this out awhile ago by using a Martial Anelace. He was able to cap Atonement dmg much earlier on small-man stuff. Obviously Joyeuse is going to be better over time, so good find on the gorgets.