Could anyone advise me on the ideal APS that I want to have on for my Spectral Blade skill? I’m fairly new to Diablo and so am not at all familiar with its more esoteric mechanics. I’ve been told that there is an ideal breakpoint for this skill’s attacks, and that stacking 2+ APS might actually be wasteful on it.
At the moment I use the Time Warp rune on a DMO set, along with Gogok, to reach around 1.922 speed for the attack – just before the so-called 13 frame breakpoint. However, if I switch it to Stretch Time, I can break 2.0 APS (and I do notice faster animation speeds with this); though, as I’ve said, someone told me that having as much attack speed as possible is not actually ideal, so I’m confused.
Could anyone explain to me how these frame breakpoints work, and how they are tied to my attack speed stat?
Testing and investigation of the formula
Spectral Blade + Shame AS BP formula provided by Dolynick on Dec 15, 2015:
However, the formula on d3planner reads:
These produce charts that are 1FPA off from one another. After spot testing at 1.65 AS (1.4 AS weapon + 7% weapon affix + 10% paragon AS), I believe the formula from d3planner that rounds up is more accurate.
I timed spectral blade in town at this APS and took a look at the frame by frame - video @ 60 fps.
My slow motion video distinctly shows a cadence of 16 frames per spectral blade attack, continuous for at least 10 attacks. You can tell when the attack animation starts from the motion of the character model, forward and upward with the hands, coming down into resting position as it nears the end of the animation.
Note that the display of the blades themselves will sometimes be out of sync with this character animation. My quick test showed blade spell animations of 14, 15, 16, and 18 frames, despite the character animation being flat and even.
Disclaimer
Testing here is performed at one breakpoint only, so take it with a grain. Perhaps in the future I’ll test again, and confirm more breakpoints.
Formula
Fragment + Shame:
Shame Only:
Based on this quick test, this is likely the correct formula.
AS increases from Fragment and Shame (1.5*1.5=2.25) are applied in a 1/APS fashion.
56.25 appears to be the base FPA for Spectral Blade.
The result has to be rounded, because it must be an integer (representing modified FPA).
Dividing 60, the total number of frames per second, by the FPA gives the attack speed of spectral blade with all modifiers included (SB APS).
SB Fragment + Shame || SB Shame Only AS BP ChartEdit Log
(1/25/2020): Added column for AS @ 1.5, reordered columns and edited title for table. Also added alternate formula in formula section for using Shame without Fragment (can also be thought of as used Fragment without shame, either way, it’s for SB APS @ 1.5x).
If you have any questions I will try and answer them.
I thoroughly appreciate it! This is an astounding level of research, for sure.
As I understand your research; taking the total amount of frames there can be in a second – 60, as the game runs – divided by the frames from start to finish of a single SB attack. Base frames for the attack being 56.25, so a base speed SB without Shame would be one SB attack per cast and per sec, I assume – and this is then modified by APS at the rate of 2.25 x each point of APS because of Shame and FoD. Correct me if I’m wrong. With this we can get the speed with which we can launch SBs per second per cast, then, and provided it lands on a rounded result higher than the previous one, I’ll be able to get at least an extra attack per second, per cast of SB, is that it?
So, in-fact, enhancing my attack-speed beyond 13 frames and 4.6 SB.APS is indeed desirable, since it’s only when I break 2.0834 APS that I’ll truly gain an extra attack per cast of SB. Again, correct me if I’m wrong.
Therefore the diligent path is to try and get myself to land on the rounded number of the chart which I can most reasonably acheive?
I think you are mostly correct in your understanding, excepting the below:
Your character doesn’t need to be at a whole number for SB APS. It’s perfectly fine that this value be a decimal/float. What’s more important is noting the change in SB APS or FPA from your previous breakpoint (where you were previously).
Sometimes just one affix on gear can boost you 2 BPs. Usually that’s a situation you want to place the extra attack speed over some other affix, but even increasing one BP can be worthwhile as well, just depends on the situation. Pain Enhancer adds even more complexity to the decision.
With the exception that SB APS @ 2.25 doesn’t have to be a rounded number, correct. You will want to hit the FPA breakpoint at which you can most reasonably achieve.
You will have to calculate how much damage tradeoff each item, gem, or affix incurs when you swap it out for AS vs. some other, and compare each configuration to the possible gains from achieving (or losing) a breakpoint.
d3planner from riv d3planner.com is one of the best tools for this purpose, I’d recommend trying that first before going to other options.