moving on:
Example Cold Spell Dmg Comparison: Churel vs Abyss
(using suchbalance's skill calc)
*note: churel has a ND of 3. abyss has no ND.
[spoil=churel]Assuming:
+20 all skills
+40 (2 rings)
+6 (boots)
= slvl 66 churel
the calc shows avg dmg of 750 per ghost. over a duration of 4s, it releases up to 10 ghosts. i'm going to be generous and round up, so let's say that's 3 ghosts/s. i've been told that a fraction of ghosts tend to miss, but i'll be generous again, and assume 100% accuracy.
3 ghosts/s * 750dmg/ghst = 2250dmg/s (per cast)
assuming 4 frame cast, that's 6 casts/s. assuming 4s duration:
6cast/s * 4s = 24 stacked casts
24 casts * 2250dmg/s/cast =
54000dmg/s[/spoil]
[spoil=Abyss]assuming
+20 all skills
+30 pts invest
= lvl 50 abyss
at slvl 50, calc shows avg 1646 dmg/hit. ingame desc says it has 25hits/s, so:
1646 dmg/hit * 25hits/s = 41150dmg/s (per cast)
already, we can begin to see that with just a single cast of abyss, it almost matches the dps of 24 stacked churels. so it's already obvious that churel is much weaker in comparison. but let's continue.
again, 4 frame cast. 6 casts/s. abyss has a duration of 3s.
6casts/s * 3s = 18 stacked casts
18casts * 41150dmg/s/cast =
740700dmg/s[/spoil]
[spoil=final analysis]740700/54000 = ~14
there is a whopping 14 times dps difference w/o any other factors taken into account. note that churel, unlike flamestrike, is a true single target spell. this means that if there is even one extra enemy, it's dmg will be divided between those enemies.
for instance:
2 enemies: 54000dmg/s / 2enemies = 27000dmg/s (per enemy)
10 enemies: 54000dmg/s / 10 enemies = 5400dmg/s (per enemy)
.....etc, etc.
this should make it abundantly clear that churel is vastly underpowered.
edit:Actually, i forgot to take into account churel's ND.
assuming 3ghosts/s/cast and 24 stacked casts
3ghosts/s/cast * 24casts = 72ghosts/s
72ghosts/s / 25frames/s = ~2-3ghosts/frame
This is clearly passing NHD. even though u will see 2-3 ghosts hit per frame only 1 ghost will actually do any dmg to a particular enemy every 3 frames. this drastically reduces dmg potential. real dps is likely to be several times less than 54k.[/spoil]
@blackhole: i'm sorry, but with such a huge gap in dmg, i don't think i can really call this spell viable w/o lying.
special note for food: this dmg distribution does not happen with aoe spells like flamestrike. it will deal the same amt of dmg to all enemies within it's aoe. note also, that nowhere in my calculations did i have to resort to yds, even tho now i actually am comparing a single target to an aoe. dmg/yds is a useless metric--it doesn't tell me the info i want to know.
again, with dmg/yd, i don't get any idea how much
dmg i am doing
to an enemy or
how fast. besides which dmg dealt to a space is not dmg dealt at all. dmg is only dealt to enemies.