Vision (RW) Vs. Wake of Destruction

[abwhorent]

Memes aside, I thought I would do an in-depth analysis of the runeword

Vision

Vision
Boots
'GhalOlYhamArc'
Runeword Level: 120
10% of Total Energy Gained as Life
+1 to All Skills
+15 Spell Focus
+10% Bonus to Spell Focus
-(10 to 15)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
+(141 to 171)% Enhanced Defense
+10 to all Attributes
Maximum Life and Mana +(1 to 5)%
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
Physical Damage Reduced by (10 to 20)

as compared to the popular and historically used Tiered Unique

Wake of Destruction

Wake of Destruction
Greaves (4)
Defense: (90 - 102) to (135 - 152)
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 17
Item Level: 19
+(4 to 6)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(11 to 13)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(6 to 8)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(6 to 8)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(24 to 40)% Enhanced Defense
+(21 to 25) to Energy
Requirements -20%
Socketed (1)
Defense: (333 - 369) to (462 - 512)
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 33
Item Level: 36
+(7 to 9)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(15 to 17)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(10 to 12)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(10 to 12)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(58 to 75)% Enhanced Defense
+(26 to 30) to Energy
Requirements -25%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (854 - 930) to (1152 - 1254)
Required Level: 44
Required Strength: 158
Item Level: 59
+(10 to 12)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(19 to 21)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(14 to 16)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(14 to 16)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(92 to 109)% Enhanced Defense
+(31 to 35) to Energy
Requirements -30%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (1274 - 1378) to (1713 - 1853)
Required Level: 52
Required Strength: 272
Item Level: 85
+(13 to 15)% Bonus to Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
+(23 to 25)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(18 to 20)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(18 to 20)% to Poison Spell Damage
+(109 to 126)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Energy
Requirements -40%
Socketed (4)

.

For your reference, I used to exclusively champion Wakes over Vision, but after doing this analysis, I have realized there are places for both in the game, depending on your progression and distribution of stats gained from equipment.

You can mouse over them here to see their stat rolls, but I will also post pictures for side-by-side illustrative purposes.




While Wakes do look somewhat inferior in this light, please keep in mind that Wakes generally have the benefit of 3-4x as many levels for Mystic Orbs and 4 Sockets, unlike Vision. The in-depth analysis below will explain exactly what numbers those entail, as well as my assumptions.

► Show Spoiler

Vision's Orange Text Mod:
10% Energy as Life. Most Energy casters have around 2k - 3k Energy with full charms to get comfortable sustain and softcap on their Synergy multiplier. Some casters have flat and % Energy such that they get 4k. Anything more is just detracting about 1-2k worth of life from Vitality. Alternatively, you play Holy Shock and deal 0 damage but have 10k Energy.

Here is the corresponding chart to determine synergy bonuses, assuming capped Spell Focus.


Consequently, most casters will get anywhere from 200-400 flat Life from this mod.

Vision's %Max Life:
Typical casters (have good frames, trees, items) are Paladin, Sorceress, Druid, and Necromancer.
We can translate this into ~6000 - 7000 Flat Life at Level 140 (could be more at 150 and even more perfect gear), assuming near high end charms with trophies. Obviously, set-up will vary this massively. We are using this for standardized assumption purposes.
The incidence and values of %Life have been drastically nerfed across the board on every item.
Vision's 5% Max Life is a high outlier. Likely, it was allowed to be that way because the range is 1-5%, similar to how Natasha's Legacy has huge roll variance.
Therefore, the range is 60 - 400 Life on the 1-5% Max Life roll.

Spell Focus %:
Let’s also dive into % Spell Focus, which is a pretty nifty mod. Its value corresponds directly with your flat quantity of SF and that’s about it. Let’s say you have 10% Spell Focus: If you had 900 flat Spell Focus, you would have 90 Spell Focus from this modifier.

However, since the SF cap is 1000, you would already need a huge amount of flat to get the full benefit, but not too much SF, or it would be pointless (you would be overcapped, no benefit to this apart from swapping out sources of Spell Focus for other stats, like Life.)

For estimation, let’s say that 10% SF is equivalent to ~90 SF (We’re assuming 900 Spell Focus for the % Spell Focus here).

Impact of Jewels:
You can socket up to 4 Jewels. Jewels will bring your level requirement up to 63 or 64 (We will assume 64). We’re going to ignore Relics, as you can put them in other slots and having them in Wakes squanders the low-level MO benefit. We are also ignoring gems.

We will not assume the best jewels, as crafting the best jewels is ass. We will ignore Oil of Luck on Jewels. However, we will assume median to low rolls on jewel requirements. Personally, I even wear jewels with 30 life (as I try to roll better ones), and we will assume 2% Spell Damage craft (Fuck off, 1% rolls). We ignore the other 2 mods on the jewel, even though they’re probably % or flat Attributes or Resistance.

Consequently, the impact of Jewels on Wakes is as follows:
+13 to Spell Focus (rolls 11 to 15) -> 52 to Spell Focus
2% Spell Damage (we will not assume 1-2% from affix, only the 1-2% craft) -> 8% Spell Damage
+30 to Life (rolls 31 - 50 on T1) -> 120 Life

Alternatively, if you use lotto'd

Storm Shard

Storm Shard
Jewel
Required Level: 20
Item Level: 20
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items
+(5 to 10) Spell Focus
+(1 to 2)% to Spell Damage

, probably a bit less %SD, no Life, but a lot of %Elemental Resistance that is useful in Lab.
Alternatively, if you use

Farsight Globe

Farsight Globe
Jewel
Required Level: 40
Item Level: 80
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items
-(2 to 3)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
-(2 to 3)% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
-(2 to 3)% to Enemy Cold Resistance
-(2 to 3)% to Enemy Poison Resistance

x4, you get pierce comparable to Vision.

Hyperexpensive Things We Will Ignore:
We will ignore

Zann Esu's Stone

Zann Esu's Stone
Jewel
Required Level: 100
Item Level: 115
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items
5% Cast Speed
+3% to Spell Damage
Maximum [Random Elemental] Resist +1%

Jewel, even though 4x of these could add 1% Elemental Resistance like Vision does (and bump the level req to 100, changing the MO space to 40 - 50 levels) as well as 12% Cast Speed and 12% Spell Damage. This is due to the cost; you may as well buy Vision if you're just going to socket these into your Wakes.

We will ignore

Lodestone

Lodestone
Mystic Orb

Right-Click to Apply
+5% to Spell Damage
Requirements +10%
+10 Required Level

, which could be up to (5x5) -> 25% Spell Damage (-req on Wakes make the wearing requirement more attainable, even with

Sigil of Absolution

Sigil of Absolution
Occult Effigy

Cube Reagent
Cube with Any Weapon/Armor to Add Bonus
-5 Required Level
Requirements +25%
(Max 2 Uses per Item)
Cannot be Used with Runewords

and then maybe

Auriel's Focus

Auriel's Focus
Mystic Orb

Right-Click to Apply
+2% Bonus to Spell Focus
+25% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Energy
Poison Length Reduced by 5%
+10 Required Level

). Again, due to the cost of 5x Lodestone, let alone Absolution then Auriel's Focus. If you're curious, this lands you at 726 Str requirement (454 Str Req * (1 - 0.4 [Wakes] + 0.5 [5x Lodestone] + 0.5 [2x Sigil of Absolution]))

We will ignore

Atomus

Atomus
Jewel
Required Level: 120
Item Level: 120
Can be Inserted into Socketed Items
+1 to All Skills
+20 to all Attributes
+1% to Experience Gained

. Similar argument to Zann Esu. Also, even higher level requirement than Zann Esu.

Impact of Mystic Orbs:
You have the following options on Armor (Boots), each costing up to 20 levels for max value:

+30 (6 x 5) Spell Focus
+10% (2 x 5) Spell Damage Type of Choice
+15% (3 x 5) Elemental Resistance
+30% (6 x 5) Hit Recovery
+25 (5 x 5) to Flat Attribute of Choice
+15% (3 x 5) Magic Find - 20 Levels (lol)
Defense MOs, but Greaves (4) have meh defense so ignore these

Assuming ~80 levels of MO space (ignoring Sigil): out of these, you will probably pick:
Spell Focus - helps with capping
Spell Damage - more damage
Hit Recovery OR Flat Attribute - If you have issues with getting your last frame. Otherwise attribute to optimize (usually Vitality)
Elemental Resistance OR Magic Find - Ele Res is for overcapping against T9+ Lab. MF is for general farming.

For Vision, you have 20 to 30 levels of MO space (ignoring Sigil). You get 1 of these.

Wakes - Final Numbers:
15% Spell Focus - treated as equivalent to 135 Spell Focus
25% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
20% to Fire Spell Damage
20% to Poison Spell Damage
+40 to Energy (Vision basically splits this into 4 stats lol)

Jewels:
12% Elemental Pierce
OR
52 to Spell Focus
8% Spell Damage
120 Life
(Can be mixed and matched)

MOs:
Spell Focus (135 + 52 + 30 = result of 217 Spell Focus)
Spell Damage (18% of your needed type + ~20% depending on if PMSD, Fire, or Poison)
Two other useful stats, as described in the MO section above

Potential to have Lodestone or Zann Esu Stone, but that’s overkill.

Vision - Final Numbers:
10% of Total Energy Gained as Life - as above, translates to 200-400 Life.
+1 Skills
15 Spell Focus (flat)
10% Spell Focus - treated as equivalent to 90 Spell Focus (flat) -> (90 + 15 = result of 115 Spell Focus)
15% Elemental Pierce
10 to All Attributes
5% Max Life & Mana - difficult to gauge, but only casters use Vision. Using the above assumptions (also, max roll), 300 - 350 Life.
Maximum Elemental Resist 1%
Physical Damage Reduced by 20 (Flat reduction)

MOs:
Either SF or SD, you can’t realistically get both. If investing into good Vision, you’d probably use Lodestone anyways.

Conclusions:

Vision wins in defenses (such as flat life and max res), assuming your overcapped Elemental Resistance for Lab is covered elsewhere. You don't really need the Max Res in Fauzt, but it will be nice in Lab and also in Scosglen. It is an item you will build in late-game as a caster as you try to optimize every piece of gear to be more defensive while still maintaining an offensive standard.

Wakes win in cost (being cheap) and damage output (offensive stats). You will probably use these as you start to roll Spell Focus onto Jewels, which will make the Bonus Spell Focus really kick in, and especially if you're playing a PMSD, Fire, or Poison caster. They're actually easier to wear than Rabbit's Foot (4), hilariously enough, due to the -40% Requirement. As you roll better jewels and level up, you will continue to use Wakes and fill them out with Mystic Orbs. They can also be defensive, with 4 sockets allowing for the use of lotteried Unique jewels.

See below for summarized reasons why, based on details/assumptions in the spoiler above.

Vision Direct Stat Comparison:

Has 1% max Ele Res: Wakes would need 3-4 Zann Esu to be comparable.

Basically the only source of pierce on any boots aside from 4 Farsights. (and

Spirit Walker

Spirit Walker
Heavy Boots (Sacred)
Defense: 696 to 737
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 550
Item Level: 120
+1% Physical Resist per 18% Mana Regeneration
+2 to All Skills
+(50 to 100) Spell Focus
(10 to 40)% Movement Speed
Jitan's Gate Cooldown Reduced by 1 seconds
+35% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
-15% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
Socketed (4)

the only other decent pair of caster boots in existence.)

Has some Spell Focus. Less than Wakes.

Doesn’t have any Spell Damage, unless you slap it on with your MOs. Can't get any via Jewels.

200 to 400 Life from orange text. At the lowest end, this is more than the highest end 4x Life jewels (literally 50 x 4), and we haven't even gotten into the 1 - 5% Max Life roll yet.

1 - 5% Max Life & Mana. Hard to quantify. %Mana is good for sustain and directly translates to damage for HCP and Mana Sorc. If we use the same factors from the Details and Assumptions section above, the roll variance results in 60 - 400 Life.

+1 sk. Utility depends on build, it’s pretty negligible but it is a bonus.

Flat reduction equivalent to a set of MOs on 1 accessory. Hard to quantify, but it’s there.

Practical points of Vision:
The annoying part about Vision is that the roll variance is massive. You can live with 10% pierce instead of 15%, but 1% Life just hits differently.

You go from 350 Life to 60 Life if 5% vs 1%. The orange text mod gives it much needed consistency, totaling to 260 Life at absolute minimum and 750 Life at approximate maximum. As said, even at its worst, Vision is defensively better than Wakes (which only offer Jewels for defenses).

Rolling more Visions = more Yham. That's a lot of expense every time you want to try and roll the 260 - 750 Life lottery. Yhams are also used in other Runewords and to unlock Samael weaponry, on top of being very rare, hence the cost.

Vision is nice if your build needs “exactly” the amount of stats that Vision gives, but you can’t opt out of any one of them so if you’re overcapped with Vision, that stat does nothing for you. Hope you can adjust that on gear elsewhere.

Slight annoyance, but getting more RW bases (30-40% MS, 1% PR) is annoying after 2.0. But with Yham rarity, this is a non-factor. You’ll get bases in the meantime.

Wakes Direct Stat Comparison:

Has a minimum 1.5x the Spell Focus of Vision. More with socketables.

Can get Pierce like Vision with a couple of Farsights, but you have the option to get other stats if you’re already capped. With Vision, you're stuck with that res and need to adjust elsewhere.

Has more Spell Damage natively than Vision, and can get more with Jewels. If you use PMSD/Fire/Poison, this is nicely relevant. Even if you don't, Jewels give that SD where Vision cannot.

Has up to 4x the MO space as Vision. Therefore, gives flexibility to FHR, Ele Res, MF, SD, and more SF.

Has some Life via jewels. Not as much as Vision even at Vision’s worst.

Practical points of Wakes:
Wakes are cheap, and especially cheap with the setup I described (4 mediocre crafted jewels, we’re trying to keep the AC costs low).

They give more Spell Focus and Spell Damage than Vision does. If your build lacks those things but is abundant in Pierce (or doesn’t need it, as PMSD casters don’t) and isn’t too broken up about +1 Skill, it’s better offensively.

They have flexibility with FHR, Ele Res for lab, and even MF via MOs. They carried before Vision even existed. You could probably use 4x Lotto Storm Shard for Lab in sockets.

They have flexibility with sockets. As mentioned, can use Lotto Storm Shard, Farsight Globes, or just regular rare jewels. You can craft 4% SD and 50 Life if you’re already capped on SF, for example, and drop SF as a necessary mod entirely. Again, we’re ignoring the random resists/% and flat attributes that jewels tend to have.

Hope you guys found this informative and helpful for making decisions about what to put on your feet.

[Istaryu]

Runewords do not receive the stats of their socketed runes

Uh, yes, they do, but its already included in the item stats.

[abwhorent]

Runewords do not receive the stats of their socketed runes

Uh, yes, they do, but its already included in the item stats.

Edited, thanks.

[Bljadzon]

Thanks for the effort, good thread.

[Scalewinged]

First of all Wakes is just a TU (makable at anytime in matter of 3 min) while Vision is ench runeword using pretty rare Yham ruine and also Ghal. So the only somehow valuable benefit i'm seeing is 15 (if you lucky enough) pierces which can be very annoying to get on TU (craft 4 perf farsights pls?).

[abwhorent]

First of all Wakes is just a TU (makable at anytime in matter of 3 min) while Vision is ench runeword using pretty rare Yham ruine and also Ghal. So the only somehow valuable benefit i'm seeing is 15 (if you lucky enough) pierces which can be very annoying to get on TU (craft 4 perf farsights pls?).

I feel like you're missing the point of the analysis. "It's just a TU" is the wrong mindset to adopt towards Wakes when every caster who has played pre-2.0 would know that it was basically Wake or Spirit Walker. In fact, my point about low cost is very relevant here. Very few casters ended up with Spirit Walker because it's stupidly expensive where Wake is inexpensive. What did they wear before Vision? Wakes or Rabbit's Foot. Crafts were simply not an option because craft affixes are bad for casters, meaning that the only real benefit would be from the shrine affixes. There were seasons where you could use lots of UMOs on Honorific boots, but that went on and off as UMOs/honorifics received balance passes (UMOs would cost extra levels on Honos / limit of 5 UMOs). Also during that period, Spell Focus on Armor did not exist, so honorific boots were not an option (they're still a worse option than Wakes right now). So throughout MXL Sigma history, it was mostly Wake or Spirit Walker. Rabbit's Foot gets honorable mention for MF, have seen some Fauzt farmers using it.

Fact of the matter is that Wakes, as per the numbers given in the post, can functionally give 200+ SF and 40+% spell damage of your type (20 from jewels + MOs, if the damage types already on Wakes don't help you but more if they do help). This is not something a double Eerie craft will match, since the affix pool on boots is not supportive to casters. It will also give some life and energy on the side, as well as lots of MO space for flexibility. I think it's important to see that Vision lacks those things: it isn't a no-brainer upgrade to Wakes, it's something to consider for high labs and Sam, where defenses are very important.

Furthermore, you mention pierce in your post. While I do say that you can use 4x Farsight in my post, I don't think that pierce on Vision is its key selling point: its the defenses. When it comes to pierce, was it impossible to cap pierce before Vision's 10-15% pierce mod came onto boots? Was it mandatory to use 4x Farsight in your boot sockets before?

No. People were capping pierce off 2x ring (rares, Witchcraft, etc), amulet (Tesseract, Black Dwarf, Gallowlaugh, rares), weapon/'shield (or staff) - too many to list, and their passives/charms. Belt and gloves can both craft pierce, but you can get options like Dementia as well. Helm also depends on class and build, but Indigo was an offensive/defensive staple. They didn't need pierce on boots, but it helped. Wakes made up for the spell focus and spell damage they could be lacking elsewhere. Wakes really do have high offense, especially with the potential for Lodestone and other MOs compared to every other boot option.

[Inno86]

I am not reading the analysis. But I confirm Wake of Destruction is super good. I use it all the times. Cheap and effective. Not the best defensive option maybe, but for damage it's the best option for casters
Also, if you spend some crystals can get max life lottery bonus, a lot of MO space and low strength req. (lodestone). Finally, you can socket perfect gems for resistances, or get the jewel to lower the enemy res and you still have all MO space in the world. Now there are also corrupted crystals (yet to go scosglen this ss sigh!) but unfortunately it's TU so cannot roll again and again for super good corruption bonus..

So overall, before patch I think maybe Wake can be better, now I strongly doubt due to corruption bonus

[Anonymous:]

[void]

Thumbs up for interesting item discussion thread, these are awesome!

[abwhorent]

I am not reading the analysis. But I confirm Wake of Destruction is super good. I use it all the times. Cheap and effective. Not the best defensive option maybe, but for damage it's the best option for casters
Also, if you spend some crystals can get max life lottery bonus, a lot of MO space and low strength req. (lodestone). Finally, you can socket perfect gems for resistances, or get the jewel to lower the enemy res and you still have all MO space in the world. Now there are also corrupted crystals (yet to go scosglen this ss sigh!) but unfortunately it's TU so cannot roll again and again for super good corruption bonus..

So overall, before patch I think maybe Wake can be better, now I strongly doubt due to corruption bonus

Yeah, but the sucky part about RWs is that you can't Corrupt them either since they're not "Magic or higher". That's why I completely ignored Corruption in the OP. So I guess Spirit Walker was the real winner after all.