Lore
04-14-2008, 12:21 PM
This is the culmination of the math frenzy in Shoutbox earlier. Big thanks to the guys who helped me out with the percentages; I am bad at math.
I got to thinking about aggro and specifically threat ceilings, so I thought I'd whip up a couple charts to help figure out how much DPS your threat per second is allowing. The thing about threat ceilings is each class has different threat modifiers, so there's no easy comparison; hence, the chart.
A few disclaimers, first.
1. These do not take aggro reduction abilities (such as Feign Death, Soulshatter, Feint, etc) into account. The numbers given are raw. This also means Shadow Priests are pretty inaccurate, since their AOE healing and mana return cause quite a bit of threat, which varies depending on a lot of different circumstances.
2. This also doesn't account for burst damage. Crit strings can easily cause someone to exceed their normal DPS for a moment or two, and if they're close to pulling aggro and threat does not increase to compensate, they will pull. This chart simply shows averages.
3. Modifiers are rounded to the nearest hundredth. This means there's a very slight margin of error. It's not big enough to worry about in any practical sense.
4. If you choose to include the range modifier (which you can leave out of the equation), the numbers returned will show at what point, all things being average, you will lose aggro. Due to #2, DPS'ers should never be doing that much DPS. Good DPS can exceed 100% of tank threat on most encounters as long as they're careful, but don't expect them to match the threat ceiling.
Alright, here's chart #1:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h126/devomorph/chart-tankvsdps.gif
This chart answers the question "How much DPS am I allowing my DPS'ers to do?" So, for example, if you average around 1200 TPS, you are allowing your Warlocks to do 1200 x 1.59 = 1908 DPS without passing you on the threat meter (as long as he has Salv). They will pull aggro at 1908 x 1.3 = ~2480 DPS. Anywhere between 1908 and 2480 they will be sitting above you on the threat meter, but not pull aggro.
(This also illustrates how skilled DPS'ers can pass the tank on threat meter without pulling aggro, and net a fair portion more DPS in the process)
Here's chart #2:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h126/devomorph/chart-dpsvstank.gif
This chart goes the opposite direction and answers "How much threat do I need to cause to keep aggro off my DPS?" So if you've got a Warlock capable of pushing out, lets say 2400 DPS, you would need to put out 2400 x 0.63 = 1512 TPS to keep him at #2 on the threat meter. You will lose aggro at 1512 ÷ 1.3 = 1163 TPS. As long as you're generating somewhere between 1163 and 1512 TPS, he will be above you on threat meter but you will hold aggro.
Keep in mind once again that this does NOT include threat reduction abilities, nor does it account for threat leads. If said Warlock gave you 10 seconds to build threat and then soulshattered the second he passed you, he would be able to do a significantly larger amount of damage before catching up with you.
I got to thinking about aggro and specifically threat ceilings, so I thought I'd whip up a couple charts to help figure out how much DPS your threat per second is allowing. The thing about threat ceilings is each class has different threat modifiers, so there's no easy comparison; hence, the chart.
A few disclaimers, first.
1. These do not take aggro reduction abilities (such as Feign Death, Soulshatter, Feint, etc) into account. The numbers given are raw. This also means Shadow Priests are pretty inaccurate, since their AOE healing and mana return cause quite a bit of threat, which varies depending on a lot of different circumstances.
2. This also doesn't account for burst damage. Crit strings can easily cause someone to exceed their normal DPS for a moment or two, and if they're close to pulling aggro and threat does not increase to compensate, they will pull. This chart simply shows averages.
3. Modifiers are rounded to the nearest hundredth. This means there's a very slight margin of error. It's not big enough to worry about in any practical sense.
4. If you choose to include the range modifier (which you can leave out of the equation), the numbers returned will show at what point, all things being average, you will lose aggro. Due to #2, DPS'ers should never be doing that much DPS. Good DPS can exceed 100% of tank threat on most encounters as long as they're careful, but don't expect them to match the threat ceiling.
Alright, here's chart #1:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h126/devomorph/chart-tankvsdps.gif
This chart answers the question "How much DPS am I allowing my DPS'ers to do?" So, for example, if you average around 1200 TPS, you are allowing your Warlocks to do 1200 x 1.59 = 1908 DPS without passing you on the threat meter (as long as he has Salv). They will pull aggro at 1908 x 1.3 = ~2480 DPS. Anywhere between 1908 and 2480 they will be sitting above you on the threat meter, but not pull aggro.
(This also illustrates how skilled DPS'ers can pass the tank on threat meter without pulling aggro, and net a fair portion more DPS in the process)
Here's chart #2:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h126/devomorph/chart-dpsvstank.gif
This chart goes the opposite direction and answers "How much threat do I need to cause to keep aggro off my DPS?" So if you've got a Warlock capable of pushing out, lets say 2400 DPS, you would need to put out 2400 x 0.63 = 1512 TPS to keep him at #2 on the threat meter. You will lose aggro at 1512 ÷ 1.3 = 1163 TPS. As long as you're generating somewhere between 1163 and 1512 TPS, he will be above you on threat meter but you will hold aggro.
Keep in mind once again that this does NOT include threat reduction abilities, nor does it account for threat leads. If said Warlock gave you 10 seconds to build threat and then soulshattered the second he passed you, he would be able to do a significantly larger amount of damage before catching up with you.