Lancer Knightz (Guild)/Sword Combos Per Minute

This page is part of the Lancer Knightz data collection project. These particular data were collected between late 2011 and early 2013. Data from swords marked ^B were collected by Bopp; all other data were collected by Donkeyhaute. Thanks to Squamph for some preliminary data. The data suggest that each level of attack speed increase (ASI) increases comboing speed by roughly 3.6%. The data also let us estimate damage per second (DPS) of swords.

Procedure

The tester goes to a safe area, such as Moorcroft Manor. He (or she) notes the total amount of ASI in effect on the sword. He executes combos for a minute straight against thin air, turning as necessary to avoid obstacles. At the end of the minute, he rounds the number of combos to the nearest multiple of 0.5. He repeats the test until it seems to settle on a single answer. He records all of the test results in the hidden wiki markup in the table below, or mails them to Donkeyhaute.

Data

The table displays the combos per minute at all levels of ASI from -2 (Medium penalty) to +6 (Maximum!). In many cases, more than one measurement has been made. Only the average of the measurements is displayed. All of the measurements can be viewed in the hidden wiki markup for the table. Because combos per minute are rounded to the nearest whole number, and because comboing speed may vary from player to player, these numbers should be viewed as approximate.

Analysis

The image at right shows the effect of ASI on combos per minute (CPM). Each sword's CPM data are plotted as a sequence of points. Each point represents one level of ASI paired with the next level of ASI. For example, Leviathan Blade's data (29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39) plot at the points (29, 30), (30, 31), (31, 32), etc. The best-fit line of the form y = m x has slope m = 1.03563. Thus each level of ASI increases CPM by roughly 3.6%.

Gran Faust combos no faster than Divine Avenger, and our data on charges per minute show that Gran Faust charges much more slowly than Divine Avenger. However, Gran Faust's item information displays a longer speed bar than Divine Avenger. So our data confirm that those speed bars are incorrect.

Similarly, Wild Hunting Blade combos a bit more slowly than Dread Venom Striker. The same trend is apparent in our data on charges per minute. By the way, DVS appears to reach a speed cap, although this may be an artifact of our imperfectly precise testing process.

It is important to keep in mind that combos per minute are just one way of measuring the speed of a sword. Almost-combos, in which the last stroke of the combo is omitted, are often preferable to full combos. Some swords complete their combos quickly, but then suffer large "cool down" periods before they can begin the next combo.

Damage per Second

We can combine our combos-per-minute data with damage data from the wiki, to compute the damage per second (DPS) that results for comboing as fast as possible. In detail, we take the ASI+6 data from the table above. For swords with no data (e.g., Voltedge), we use the available data from similar swords (Glacius). We total the damage for all of the strokes in the sword's combo. Then we compute

damage per second = damage per combo * combos per minute * minutes per second,

where minutes per second is obviously 1/60. It is worth noting that, because combos per minute are precise to within a few percent only, so is DPS precise to within a few percent only. For example, the difference between 628 DPS and 607 DPS may not be significant.

Here is the DPS for swords at depth 28 with damage+0 (from other sources; these figures include the family-specific damage bonuses on Cold Iron Vanquisher and Wild Hunting Blade). Warmaster Rocket Hammer's damage is given as a range, depending on whether the second stroke hits once or thrice.

Similarly, here is the DPS for swords at depth 24 with damage+6, based on our own damage data at depth 24.