Quantifying the damage difference between Blasters and Corruptors?

Someone may have mentioned it, but don't forget that Damage Over Time impacts the estimate as well. For example, Electron Haze won't have applied all of its damage until about 4.6 seconds after the power has run its course.

Level 18 Water/Poison Corr.
All slots empty except for Water Burst - Corr ATO set 5 slotted (no proc)

Paper missions against even-cons, attack chain either Aqua Bolt, Hydro Blast, Water Burst or Tidal Forces Water Burst Hydro Blast Aqua Bolt.

• You drench Mook Muscle with your Water Burst for 12.64 points of Cold damage.
  You drench Mook Muscle with your Water Burst for 2.01 points of additional Cold damage.
• You drench Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 14.23 points of Cold damage.
  You blast Mook Muscle with your Hydro Blast for 8.36 points of Smashing damage and reduce their movement speed!
  You drench Mook Muscle with your Hydro Blast for 25.09 points of Cold damage.
• You have knocked Mook Muscle off their feet with your Water Burst!
  You blast Mook Muscle with your Hydro Blast for 6.92 points of Smashing damage and reduce their movement speed!
  You drench Mook Muscle with your Hydro Blast for 20.79 points of Cold damage.
• You drench Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 11.8 points of Cold damage.
  You blast Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 3.93 points of Smashing damage and reduce their defense!
• You drench Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 11.8 points of Cold damage.
  You blast Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 3.93 points of Smashing damage and reduce their defense!
• You drench Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 11.8 points of Cold damage.
  You blast Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 3.93 points of Smashing damage and reduce their defense!
• You drench Mook Muscle with your Aqua Bolt for 11.8 points of Cold damage.
  Your Aqua Bolt drenches Mook Muscle for 15.73 points of extra Cold damage!
• You blast Headman Rifleman with your Aqua Bolt for 4.36 points of Smashing damage and reduce their defense!
  You drench Headman Rifleman with your Aqua Bolt for 13.11 points of Cold damage.
  Your Aqua Bolt drenches Headman Rifleman for 17.48 points of extra Cold damage!
• You drench Headman Rifleman with your Hydro Blast for 23.11 points of Cold damage.
  Your Hydro Blast drenches Headman Rifleman for 30.81 points of extra Cold damage!
• You blast Scrounger Slugger with your Water Burst for 4.68 points of Smashing damage and reduce their defense!
  You drench Scrounger Slugger with your Water Burst for 14.05 points of Cold damage.
  Your Water Burst drenches Scrounger Slugger for 18.73 points of extra Cold damage!
  You drench Scrounger Slugger with your Water Burst for 4.68 points of additional Cold damage.
  You have knocked Scrounger Slugger off their feet with your Water Burst!
• You drench Headman Blaster with your Aqua Bolt for 13.11 points of Cold damage.
  Your Aqua Bolt drenches Headman Blaster for 17.48 points of extra Cold damage!
• You drench Headman Blaster with your Aqua Bolt for 13.11 points of Cold damage.
  Your Aqua Bolt drenches Headman Blaster for 17.48 points of extra Cold damage!
  You blast Headman Blaster with your Aqua Bolt for 4.36 points of Smashing damage and reduce their defense!
• You drench Scrounger Chopper with your Hydro Blast for 23.11 points of Cold damage.
  Your Hydro Blast drenches Scrounger Chopper for 30.81 points of extra Cold damage!
  You have knocked Scrounger Chopper off their feet with your Hydro Blast!

So although I did a similar calculation to the one presented at the top of the thread that gives a figure of merit of scourge of 30%, I've never actually said that was my best estimate for scourge because it doesn't factor in the effect of accelerating damage. In effect, the graph posted by GuyPerfect assumes you "live" at each percentage point for about the same amount of time, but scourge itself invalidates that assumption: as target health drops, corruptor damage increases, and the corruptor thus spends less and less time at lower and lower target health levels**. Basically, the curve shouldn't be weighted evenly, but rather almost as an inverse of its own value.

Thinking about this discretely, its obvious that what scourge does is reduce the average number of attacks it takes to defeat a target. Simplifying the situation a bit, I looked at the case where the corruptors attacks averaged some value as a percentage of the target's health. So for example if the corruptor's attacks averaged 10% of the target's health, it would take ten hits to defeat that target on average. Scourge would reduce that value statistically. I then wrote a problem to simply stochastically compute the percentage chance of a 10 hit kill being reduced to a 9 hit kill, an 8 hit kill, and so on. Since scourge doesn't kick in until health reaches 50%, and the best you can do is double your hits to 20% of the target's health, the best case scenario is scourge triggers every time its possible, and you end up with an eight hit kill (5 hits for 50% health, and then three hits for 60% health total, defeating the target).

Summarizing, I get this chart:

pct	average	norm	benefit
10	8.906	10	1.123
11	8.554	10	1.169
12	7.838	9	1.148
13	7.144	8	1.120
14	6.936	8	1.153
15	6.281	7	1.114
16	6.162	7	1.136
17	5.536	6	1.084
18	5.405	6	1.110
19	5.288	6	1.135
20	4.750	5	1.053
21	4.675	5	1.070
22	4.599	5	1.087
23	4.525	5	1.105
24	4.450	5	1.124
25	4.000	4	1.000
26	3.950	4	1.013
27	3.900	4	1.026
28	3.850	4	1.039
29	3.800	4	1.053
30	3.750	4	1.067
31	3.700	4	1.081
32	3.650	4	1.096
33	3.600	4	1.111
34	3.000	3	1.000
35	3.000	3	1.000
36	3.000	3	1.000
37	3.000	3	1.000
38	3.000	3	1.000
39	3.000	3	1.000
40	3.000	3	1.000

import random, math

trials = 1000000

for a in xrange(10,41,1):

    hit_ar = [0]*12

    for loop1 in xrange(0,trials):
        h = 100
        hits = 0
        while h > 0:

            # scourge percent
            spct = (50 - h) * 0.025
            if spct < 0:
                spct = 0

            sroll = random.random()
            if sroll <= spct:
                h = h - 2 * a
            else:
                h = h - a

            hits = hits + 1
            
        hit_ar[hits] = hit_ar[hits] + 1

    hc = 0.0
    for loopc in xrange(0,12):
        hc = hc + hit_ar[loopc] * loopc
    hav = hc / trials
        
    print a, hit_ar, round(hav,3), math.ceil(100.0/a), round(math.ceil(100.0/a)/hav,3)

Thank you for all responses, especially Starsman and Arcanaville. I sorta kinda understand what you all wrote. It's been 20 years since I've had to any serious math education after all.