Azurite Ring better than we thought?

[Melkor]

If you go the low Physical Resist route the Healing Bonus +10 becomes more valuable. Of course it has the over cap RPD on it as well. On the negative side it has the DCI, low str and under cap SDI.

Does the Bonus healing mean more healed per bandage? Is it a worth it amount to balance out the negatives?

I am currently using it and trying to decide if it's worth switching it out for a BC.

[Johnny Warren]

I've looked at it long and hard for the exact reasons you've mentioned. Anything that takes RPD or SDI overmax should be given a second look.

I think that the fact it is only 5% more RPD makes it a more borderline case (unlike the JoW). I'll be honest I have skipped over the bonus healing many times, but you could be onto something. The DCI on it is unfortunate, but not a deal breaker. My instinct tells me a BC relayer is going to provide more damage overall, but I am now not so sure. It is not easy to test damage output tweaking a little thing like that. RPD itself is hard to test as mobs hit with different strength and frequency. Where's Paroxysmus when you need him....

I wouldn't judge anyone for wearing that ring. Certainly looks to be around the powerlevel of a BC, if not better.

[Lach]

If you go the low Physical Resist route the Healing Bonus +10 becomes more valuable. Of course it has the over cap RPD on it as well. On the negative side it has the DCI, low str and under cap SDI.

Does the Bonus healing mean more healed per bandage? Is it a worth it amount to balance out the negatives?

I am currently using it and trying to decide if it's worth switching it out for a BC.

You can borrow my bc ring to test if you want bro

[Melkor]

I did some calculations on uo stratics. I know their calculations can be quite different than ours, but it's easy access to some data. Their calculator maxes out at 204 Dex and 120 Anatomy. Below are the results for different healing skill levels. Maybe this gives us a rough idea about what to expect at 130 healing here.

100 Healing - You will heal 39-63 damage with each bandage
110 Healing - You will heal 41-66 damage with each bandage
120 Healing - You will heal 43-70 damage with each bandage

RPD is over cap by 5% while SDI is under cap by 5% I feel like these come pretty close to cancelling each other out

If you take the bonus healing out of it, I'd guess the BC is a slightly better choice. However if you are going the low physical resist route does the bonus healing tip the scales to the Azurite Ring?

Of course it depends on what you're fighting or you could have both and switch out rings from time to time. Personally I like to have "one suit to rule them all" and don't really want to get into switching out gear.

I'll do some further tests, but fair warning I don't have Paroxysmus level skills. I'm not sure I'll be able to detect a difference.

@Johnny Warren thanks for your thoughts. I was hoping you'd weigh in!

@Lach Thanks for the loan of the ring, much appreciated

[Melkor]

I played with both rings for quite awhile. I noticed that if I were to die, it was from an insta-kill, either ring was able to keep me alive for normal healing. So ultimately I went with a BC for the extra STR.

Thanks again for the loan of the ring Lach. Was fun testing

[Lach]

I played with both rings for quite awhile. I noticed that if I were to die, it was from an insta-kill, either ring was able to keep me alive for normal healing. So ultimately I went with a BC for the extra STR.

Thanks again for the loan of the ring Lach. Was fun testing

Anytime bro, if anyone is looking for a BC ring hit me up

[MagicUser]

I'm flattered to be brought up as a standard for testing things . I just saw this thread, I would have been wrapping up my final school projects at the time. I wish I could live up to the (possibly ironic) claims that I could make an obvious test for something like this.

Disclaimer
I make mistakes all the time, think carefully before spending a lot of eds based only on what I am saying. With that in mind, the rest of this post is probably irrelevant to new players besides curiosity.

Analysis
I see 4 attributes differences, between a relayered BC ring and the azurite ring, for analysis.

• +5 RPD
• -5 SDI
• -5 Strength
• +10 Healing

Everything else can be compensated for by other relayers (if we're talking about end game gear).

RPDs benefit is completely dependent on the damage the enemy you're facing is doing. A 200 damage hit on yourself will result in 10 damage to them at +5% RPD. I am unsure if RPD ignores enemy armor. Note that this is when any enemy hits you. If 9 enemies hit you with physical damage at the same time (or more if there are archers), each hit will have have RPD applied to them.

SDIs benefit is applicable to every hit you make, but may vary based on enemy resistances. If you have 58% lightning (27), 58% fireball (15), 58% harm (20), Magic Arrow (7) (damage based on a dragon), then with -5% SDI the average hit is going to do 2 damage less.

Strengths benefit is applicable to every hit you make, but may vary based on enemy resistances. The formula for base damage %(strength) = .3*strength + 5*(strength > 100). Tactics, Anatomy, Lumberjacking (if weapon is an axe), strength, damage increase, exceptional weapon tag (if weapon has it), and weapon damage all affect the base damage calculation. -5 strength results in a 1.5% decrease in damage. Using a 20 damage weapon (yumi) will result in .3 less base damage. If that adds to a previous fraction you might get 1 damage, which would approximately double with enemy of one, consecrate weapon, and divine fury. At most the average hit will do 2 damage less.

Healing power would really only be helpful in bandage cost savings. The healing amount equation is anatomy/6 + healing/6 + 3 -> anatomy/6 + healing/3 + 10. At 130 Anatomy and 120 Healing you'd be healing 45-72 per bandage. At 130 Anatomy and 130 Healing you'd be healing 46-75 per bandage. I'm not sure that's really enough to even be considered an improvement with instant healing.

Summary

• +5 RPD will result in 5% damage per physical hit point of damage an enemy does. With my DCI and Physical resist capped, I don't get hit anywhere close to as often as I'm hitting mobs and the average mobs don't do that much physical damage. I have definitely killed balrons before they hit me.
• -5 SDI results in at most 2 damage less.
• -5 Strength results in at most 2 damage less.
• +10 Healing results in 1-2 more health healed per bandage.

To make the azurite ring worth it, you'd need to fight mobs that do an average of 4/.05=80 physical damage per mob per 1.25 seconds. With max physical resists and dci, there aren't many places where that is true. Perhaps event areas and perhaps Sgail would benefit more from the RPD on the ring. RPD has enough of an effect that I think with a low enough DCI and Physical Resistance a player may experience more damage in the average area with the Azurite Ring. Though I am worried that such a low DCI/RPD build would be hard/expensive to correct for high damage area.

This would be the testing point. What mobs or group of mobs are capable of doing 80 dmg/mob/1.25 seconds.

I do not feel like it is worth investigating in game. Though I suppose any investigation into this matter could also be viewed as an investigation into the low DCI, low Physical Resist, and high RPD damage play style, which has been theorized and used to some extent, but not thoroughly tested.

[edit]: Someone asked me a question in game which made question my strength math. Looked a little funny, but I was tired and my braces hurt. You'd need 16 and 2/3 strength for each base damage increase on a Yumi and DLS (+2 damage). I verified this by unequiping my 20 strength SoT.

I went to see how much of a damage difference enemy of one, consecrate weapon, and divine fury do. Extremely experimental results (hitting a drake) showed a 2x damage bonus, though I know enemy of one and consecrate weapon effect will vary on the enemy I feel like I've seen at least a 3x bonus.

[Peach]

Does Intel increase the dmg weapon spells do? If so, youd be losing 8 intel too on this

[MagicUser]

You're right Peach. Evaluating Intelligence, Inscription, Intelligence, and Spell Damage Increase all affect the spell damage multiplier. Int/10 is the multiplier equation. 8 Int would be 8/10%=.8%. A 5.8% spell buff on a 4x58% would be 69*.58*.058=2.32 damage. That'd bring the total to 4.32 damage (from strength, sdi, and int) or 86.4 damage per mob per 1.25 seconds.

Does Intel increase the dmg weapon spells do? If so, youd be losing 8 intel too on this