The Street Justice Attack Chain:

Street Justice is an interesting set. It has some decent DPA powers, and one amazing DPA power (CU), with an equally high recharge. Because of this, it benefits a lot from +recharge. It also can increase its DPS by means of -res, both from Rib Cracker and from the two -res procs, which can be slotted in Shin Breaker and Sweeping Cross. The combo system is unique, and makes it hard to define what will deal the best DPS, especially considering that the set's build up is an automatic tier 3 combo builder. The purpose of this thread is to pull together what we know about the set and figure out what the best chain is for several levels of recharge.

All of these chains are given in base DPS, as in damage before enhancements, procs, and -res. However, they will include combo additions once they start meaning something (IE, when one build's combo bonus will be different from another). Let's start with the powers. We will be using scrapper numbers, not counting criticals or combo procs (extra damage done from combo points):

Initial Strike- 52.55 damage, 1.056 activation time, 46.763 DPA, 4.37 Endurance, 3 second recharge time
Heavy Blow- 72.57, 1.32, 54.98, 6.03, 5
Sweeping Cross- 93.84, 1.848, 50.78, 8.53, 8
Rib Cracker- 82.58, 1.548, 50.13, 6.86, 6
Shin Breaker- 102.6, 1.548, 64.77, 11.86, 8
Crushing Uppercut- 198.9, 2.376, 83.71, 14.35, 25

So, from that we deduce that initial strike is the worst of the builder, shin breaker the best, and that crushing uppercut is by far the best DPA in the set, even before combo points, at the cost of recharge.

So let's look at a few preliminary chains at low levels of recharge, say 0-100%, or about what you could expect from enhancements alone. At 100% recharge, crushing uppercut will recharge in 12.5 seconds, so whatever chain we use will have to last 10.124 seconds not counting crushing uppercut.

First, let's try using all the builders.

RC>SB>HB>IS>CU>RC>SB>HB>IS>SC

That is a pretty long chain, but shouldn't require much recharge to run. In fact, the chain lasts 12.934 seconds outside of CU, so it will fit in our time frame. CU would require 93.26% recharge, which is capable with just enhancements or light IO slotting. Other powers would take:

IS> 0% (doesn't need any recharge)
HB>0%
SC>0%
RC>0%
SB>37.7%

So this could almost be run on SOs, minus Crushing Uppercut.

For a total of 913.34 damage in 15.312 seconds, or 59.65 DPS. This would work, but a better combo might be

HB>SB>RC>HB>CU>RC>HB>SB>RC>HB>SC>RC

This would remove initial strike, as it has the lowest DPA of the set. That would animate in 19.01 seconds, so it is a long chain, but it only needs 50.3% recharge in CU. However, it needs more recharge in HB and RC, respectively, at 58% and 62.3%. This gives 1118.54 damage, 58.84. A little bit less actually, but the main DPA attack is used less, and it could easily be done under SOs because the 3 attacks would just 2 recharge SOs (though an SO'd character would probably run out endurance quick, as the chain would go through 5.16 end/sec!)

It is time to try something faster, in the 100-200% range, or a decent IO build + enhancements. At 200%, CU would recharge in 8.33 seconds. Here is our first experiment:

RC>SB>HB>CU>RC>SB>HB>SC

This is a simple chain, and most builds can probably follow it. Total time for the chain is 13.2 seconds, and CU needs 131% recharge to run the chain. Other attacks need:

HB>0
RC>13.6%
SB>51.5%
SC>0%

So, it is easily doable. It deals 808 damage in 13.2 seconds, so 61.23 damage. Note, that these aren't counting combo points, which will be important when we start calculating chains that don't go to combo level 3. At the end, we will review all the chains and add in that combo back into these first three chains (those we aren't going to multiply by .95 for accuracy, or add criticals into the equation, or find -res averages). Let's move on, by subtracting one attack from the previous chain.

RC>SB>HB>CU>RC>SB>SC

We take out heavy blow, because even though it deals higher DPA than Rib Cracker the special effects of rib cracker do more for the chain, even though we aren't counting them. Because we are now dealing with combo points, we must multiply the base damage of CU by 1.25 (level 3 adds 25%) and SC by 1.12. That gives a time of 11.88, a damage of 796.66, and a DPS of 67.07. CU would take 163% recharge for this chain, and the other attacks would take:

RC>75%
SB>133%

Now, we start dealing with some higher recharges. Let's consider a case without sweeping cross, with over 200% recharge, which is possible on a select few IO builds with large enhancement slotting. First up:

RC>HB>SB>CU>HB>SB

This activates in 9.77 seconds, requires a recharge of 238% in CU, and 175% in SB, and deals 682 damage for a total of 69.77 DPS. Now, for we continue to thin down this chain:

SB>HB>RC>SB>CU

Total time- 8.448. Recharge required in crushing is 312%, and SB is actually worse at 336% recharge. At this level, you probably have spiritual, plus enhancements, plus around 200% global recharge. It would deal 72 DPS. Finally, let's calculate the mother of all chains-

SB-RC-HB-CU.

This takes 6.864 seconds to activate, and would deal 73.77 DPS if it was possible. Unfortunately, it isn't, as it requires 457% recharge in CU. However, if we go HB-SB-HB-RC-CU, we get a chain that takes 330% recharge to activate, but only deals 70.74 DPS. Maybe if we re-arrange it a bit.

RC-SB-RC-CU is impossible, at 378% recharge for RC and 426% for CU, and only deals 72.44 DPS. A SB-RC-SB-CU combo would be great (75 DPS) but requires 405% in SB. HB-RC-HB-CU is takes too little time, impossible. Etc.



My conclusion is this: the sets DPS depends on crushing uppercut. The quicker you can get CU, the higher your DPS will be. Ideally you won't use initial strike, and the rest of the attacks are very close in DPA. Of course, those numbers don't look very satisfying, but they ignore so much they are only valid against themselves. I promised I would calculate the DPS of the earlier chains with combo points, and here they are:

1) RC>SB>HB>IS>CU>RC>SB>HB>IS>SC - 64 DPS
2) HB>SB>RC>HB>CU>RC>HB>SB>RC>HB>SC>RC 62
3) RC>SB>HB>CU>RC>SB>HB>SC - 66.78
4) RC>SB>HB>CU>RC>SB>SC - 67.07
5)RC>HB>SB>CU>HB>SB - 69.77
6) SB>HB>RC>SB>CU - 72

So, the basic goal is to reduce/get rid of attacks, and use CU as much as possible. For those interested, the chain of Smite-SL-Smite-MG gives 68.4 DPS using this method (though of course dark melee also has a higher amount of constant +damage from soul drain, so that isn't really a valid comparison). Luckily, there isn't much difference between different levels of recharge for street justice, though it will keep benefiting you up to the cap with more recharge. As you can see the final working chain I did (6), actually deals higher DPS than the dark melee equivalent, and street justice has other tricks up its sleeve.

It can be more effective when you add the -res of the set in, and add -res procs. The formula for the -res proc uptime was given by Arcanaville, and it is 10/((Time of Chain/number of procs in the chain)*4+10), if I remember correctly. For instance, the uptime of a -res proc in the last chain would be 37.18%, giving an average -resistance of 7.44%. Rib cracker also deals 7.5% -res, so that build would actually be doing a total of 82.75 DPS, and 91 DPS after criticals. Ideally, you will want to use shin breaker as often as possible as well, because it is the second highest DPA attack and increases -res (rib cracker's -res doesn't stack).

Sweeping cross also can be slotted with a -res proc, but I've found it to be negligible in affect, especially since sweeping cross is usually a lower DPA option. However, it isn't much lower in DPA, and the use of CR can make it a valid tool in a single target attack chain.

Rib cracker and heavy blow are similar, and if you have both slotted well and have a low recharge build it might be wise to switch them so that the-res of rib cracker is always in affect but the higher DPA of heavy cross is used as often as possible.

These calculations should also be valid for tankers, albeit at lower levels of damage. However, brutes and stalkers may need to reconsider, especially brutes. Heavy blow should be exchanged with gloom, and I would use a chain that consisted of RB-SB-Gloom-RB or SB-RC-Gloom-RC, or Gloom-SB-Gloom-RC-SC, etc, because gloom is great for brutes. This would allow a full chain without using SC. If you are a /fire armor brute, you also get to add burn to the equation, which can replace SC in these chains. A sample chain would be RC-Gloom-SB-Burn-RC-Gloom-CU, which requires only a little recharge and should be fairly high damage. These stalkers might be applicable in most situations for stalkers, though it should be noted that stalkers are advised to use placate and combo 3 CU as often as possible, because the critical of CU is actually more damaging than Assassin's strike.



If anyone has anything to add, or wants to critique my math, feel free to join in. I'd also love to see what other people have come up with, especially for other ATs.

Very interesting analysis.

Thanks for the effort here, mang!

Some semi-random thoughts:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Combat It can be more effective when you add the -res of the set in, and add -res procs. The formula for the -res proc uptime was given by Arcanaville, and it is 10/((Time of Chain/number of procs in the chain)*4+10), if I remember correctly. For instance, the uptime of a -res proc in the last chain would be 37.18%, giving an average -resistance of 7.44%. Rib cracker also deals 7.5% -res, so that build would actually be doing a total of 82.75 DPS, and 91 DPS after criticals. Ideally, you will want to use shin breaker as often as possible as well, because it is the second highest DPA attack and increases -res (rib cracker's -res doesn't stack).

Just to clarify: Shin Breaker does not do -res natively, this is the proc's contribution you're mentioning?

And double-proccing isn't effective for Single Target DPS, but since SC and SS 'nest' so nicely, wouldn't it be effective on a high end build to proc SC anyway and get the benefits against small groups of hard targets? (I'm thinking 4 bosses, as you get 'left over' from two max spawns.)

I'm not sure how effective Stj is at such levels of crazy, though.... It's just so PRETTY.

Did you take into account bruising for Tankers?

I didn't consider the -res of bruising because I was calculating the base dps, before -resistance. After -res a tanker would have a damage scale of 1.3*.8, for 1.04, while scrappers would have 1.125*1.075=1.21 (and that is before criticals), so a tanker will deal approximately 86% of scrapper damage after -resistance.

For tankers, I recommend using initial strike instead of heavy blow, or using initial strike just enough to keep the -resistance going. I hope to show the different chains for other ATs as well soon.

I left out CU only because the majority of the chains were two step- Builders-CU-builders-SC, and I was trying to show the builders/other attacks a brute probably should use before CU. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

And switching SS powers for the Street Justice works because they are fairly analogous, and CU has the same recharge KO Blow. I haven't done the math yet, but it should be a good chain.

Bruising adds 20%. Tanker RC gets 10.5%, while other versions of RC get 7.5%.