Mokune wrote on May 16
th, 2017 at 1:48pm:
'Oly effing crap that's a lot of meta nit-picking. I can't think of any quests, chains or raids that last long enough to see any appreciable difference in time or game play or any difference at all between any of these things.
You can do vaccuum math on paper and get some numbers. I love math. I think it's awesome. I really do.
But...DDO is a not a white board of perfect balanced equations where quantified results can be qualified by real time in game observations.
Over the coarse of an EE Slaver's Chain (for instance) any benefit of any of those things you listed will be a wash.
C'mon, man. You have to know that this is the wrong approach. Even with things that are far easier to understand DDO is an exercise in stacking advantages on advantages in order to be OP.
A player who does not understand the math behind their build could very easily make a gimp toon, and that is a truth which I believe has been present since the game was launched. Instead of criticizing the peeps who have done the white board math you should be celebrating them. Their work can make you suck less. From the very simple "Is my weapon with a W critical profile and X threat range better than my weapon with a Y critical profile and Z threat range?" to the more complex questions this thread is covering.
Not that I'm saying that you suck, but a lack of knowledge about how things work is usually hand in hand with suckage. I win a lot of board games because I play to the victory conditions instead of playing to some imagined and non-existent goal. I have both designed games (not published, but fairly well received in my circle of gamers) and I have my name in the playtester credits of a few published and successful games. Mostly because I can contribute exactly the kind of analysis you are denigrating here. Math
isn't hard, it is illuminating.
One could only wish that there were more Turbine/SSG employees who enjoyed working the numbers and could have headed off their various and storied missteps across the years by illuminating the ignorant masses with the cold, sharp light of math.