DK Attack Power coefficients

[Armstrong]

*** Note: as of July 2009 I very rarely play WoW and currently have no plans to run new tests as subsequent patches are released. ***


Attack Power coefficients

Last updated 4/18/09 (patch 3.1.0-9767)


Death Knight abilities that are not based on weapon damage generate a base amount of damage plus a percentage of the Death Knight's attack power. These abilities are generally considered "spells". They generate magic damage and are affected by spell resistance mechanics and spell hit / miss chance.

The Attack Power coefficient allows Attack Power to act like Spell Power. For example:

Death Coil (Rank 5) causes 443 base damage, plus 15% of attack power.

A Death Knight with 2000 AP will do 443 + (2000 × 0.15) = 743 damage with Death Coil.

Keep in mind that talents and effects which increase damage by a percentage also increase the AP contribution for the spells they affect by that percentage. As such, the coefficients listed below represent the very minimum players will see for each ability, and in most cases the contribution will be higher.

Anti-Magic Zone ____  2
Blood Boil _________  0.060 no diseases / 0.095 with diseases *
Blood Plague _______  0.055
Bloodworms _________  0.006 **
Corpse Explosion ___  0.105
Death and Decay ____  0.0475
Death Coil _________  0.15
Frost Fever ________  0.055
Howling Blast ______  0.2
Summon Gargoyle ____  0.333¯ (Gargoyle Strike) ***
Icy Touch __________  0.1
Unholy Blight ______  0.013

* See this post for details on Blood Boil damage in patch 3.1.


** Bloodworms' base damage at level 80 appears to be 50 average (2.0 attack speed) before armor mitigation, assuming the formula is D = base + C × AP where C is the AP coefficient. This was tested in patch 3.0.9. Let me know if you have data for 3.1 and I will add it.


*** Gargoyle Strike is the Gargoyle's only ability, which it spams continuously until it gets killed or the summon duration ends. The spell's base damage at level 80 appears to be 120, assuming the formula is D = base + C × AP where C is the AP coefficient.
Before the 3.0.8 nerf to Unholy, the base damage was 150 and the AP coefficient was 0.42.

[Satorri]

Thank you for this, I'm sure this will be a heavily asked question:

"Do I need spell damage gear, should I be picking up holy pally plate and getting spell power enchants?"

Spell power does not help DK abilities at all, in any way.

[Hirah]

Where is frost strike on that list? No love for the frost spec DKs?

Or any of the strikes for that matter? Do they not get affected like these other abilities?

[Aurelia]

Can we get this updated for 3.0.8?

[Satorri]

This is another data set I'd like to see refreshed by the folks who've done the metrics.

I suspect some of these may have changed, but it'd be nice to see the values tested using the same methods.


And, Hirah, strikes don't have AP coefficients, they get their AP buff through weapon damage (calculated with AP prior to application by %).

[Armstrong]

I just re-tested most spells and updated the list.

Two changes:

• Corpse Explosion:
  AP coefficient was 0.0475 -> is now 0.1050
  
  
• Gargoyle Strike:
  AP coefficient was 0.042 -> is now 0.333¯
  Base damage at level 80 was 150 -> is now 120

Please let me know if you come up with different numbers.

I have not had a chance to re-test Bloodworms, Howling Blast or Unholy Blight yet.

Edit: Unholy Blight tested, AP coefficient unchanged (0.013).

Edit: Bloodworms and Howling Blast tested, both remain unchanged.

[Armstrong]

Where is frost strike on that list? No love for the frost spec DKs?

Or any of the strikes for that matter? Do they not get affected like these other abilities?

Frost Strike and all other "strikes" are based on weapon damage and therefore do not have individual AP coefficients.

[Falku]

Ive seen some DK's with Spell Penetration on their gear, i know that spell power doesnt help at all but what about spell pen, seems that if the abilities you use are in fact spells that penetration would help. Would just like some confirmation on this before i give it some tests on my new DK. Thanks, this sight has been invaluable to me.

[jere]

I believe spell penetration only works on resists above the base values, which almost all bosses don't have (I am sure there are a couple of exceptions). So it would probably be pretty ineffectual in pve. In pvp, players do wear resists, so spell pen would work better there.

[Falku]

thanks for the reply, im gonna have a buddy of mine put some resist gear on and give it a go.

[Torn]

As of 3.1, Howling Blast has an AP coefficient of 0.2 instead of 0.1

[Armstrong]

All values have been re-tested and updated for 3.1 (except Bloodworms because it's a PITA but does anyone really care?).

Pestilence removed since it no longer deals damage.

[Krenian]

Huh. IT still is stronger than BB with diseases up. Interesting to know. Would mean any chance of a dual wield build relying solely on AP based attacks like magic attacks would have to use IT as their highest damage dealing ability.

With the IT sigil nerf as well as IT's damage being reduced, that pretty much kills off the idea I had. Thanks Armstrong, needed to see that.