As a part of the Chaos Magic weapon specialty, Controlled Chaos, the player has a 33% chance to generate Extradimensional Doppelgangers once one has accumulated eight Paradoxes. Conducting extensive tests on the test dummies in Agartha has shown this to be true. And yet, further testing done in practice shows Doppelgangers are not being generated at the rate that I either calculate them to be or what repeated parsing has shown it to be—and I don’t know why. Regardless of the reason, it significantly reduces the outgoing damage capabilities of Chaos Magic, since it is from Doppelgangers that such a player must rely upon to deal the majority of one’s damage.
The simplest way to demonstrate that there is a problem is by comparing two series of long parses, one that I had done on an Agarthan Dummy and another on the Bunica Paduruii boss fought in Deep Agartha. First, here is the build I used in both tests:
Actives
-
Entropy
-
Tumultuous Whisper
-
Pandemonium
-
Breakdown
-
Deconstruct
-
Savagery
Passives
-
Dissolution
-
Blessing of Octed
-
Body Double
-
Butterfly Effect
-
Resonance Cascade
Weapons
-
Warped Visage of Havoc Mk II
-
Bladed Gauntlets of Havoc Mk III
Gadget
- Effigy O35 Turret
Waist Talisman
- Tumultuous Sash
The build is designed to deal optimal single-target Chaos Magic DPS by maximizing my time spent using a Chaos Focus in order to generate as many Doppelganger procs as possible. Tumultuous Whisper, three of my passives, and Tumultuous Sash all work to generate Paradoxes much faster than the base rate, and my Chaos Focus, Warped Visage, generates one additional Doppelganger every time I had reached eight Paradoxes. I begin combat by activating Entropy, Tumultuous Whisper (which triggers Dissolution immediately), Savagery, and Pandemonium, and then proceed to expend my remaining Energy on Breakdown until Dissolution expires, making sure that my Energy never reaches or exceeds 15 before my Elite and Special abilities are off cooldown again to repeat the rotation.
And now, for my test results:
Bunica Padurii Results
-
Time: 1,616 seconds
-
Cacophony Hits: 125
-
Dissipation Hits: 640
-
Dissonance Hits: 112
-
Total Doppelganger Procs: 125 + (640 / 5) + 112 = 365
-
Doppelganger Procs Per Minute: 60 / (1616 / 365) = 13.552
Note: Because Cacophony deals damage in a range around its target, and Bunica Padurii periodically spawns forest spirits, I had to remove 20 hits from my log to arrive at the precise number of Cacophony procs.
Agarthan Dummy Results
-
Time: 1,526 seconds
-
Cacophony Hits: 187
-
Dissipation Hits: 860
-
Dissonance Hits: 178
-
Total Doppelganger Procs: 187 + (860 / 5) + 178 = 537
-
Doppelganger Procs Per Minute: 60 / (1526 / 537) = 21.114
The stats are clear: Doppelgangers procced an average of 35.82% fewer times per minute in the Bunica Padurii parses than in the Agarthan Dummy parses. I witnessed this same phenomenon countless times fighting Hel in Deep Agartha during the Winter event, as well as fighting Regional bosses with 9 – 12 other players–and I suspect this is true also in Elite dungeons and raids.
It doesn’t make much sense for high or inconsistent latency to be a factor. In the Bunica Padurii parses, Deconstruct hit every 1.5 seconds, Breakdown every 5.15 seconds, and Pandemonium every 20.46 seconds; whereas, for the Agarthan Dummy parses, Deconstruct hit every 1.46 seconds, Breakdown every 5.04 seconds, and Pandemonium every 20.35 seconds. Using the average hit rates of the Agarthan Dummy parses as a baseline, I might have gotten an extra 30 Deconstruct casts, an extra 8 Breakdowns, and no extra Pandemonium with the same millisecond delay in the Bunica Padurii parses, or, put another way, one extra cast every 40.16 seconds, which in no way explains 35.82% fewer Doppelganger procs.
I don’t know what could be the cause, or if there are perhaps multiple causes. But it cannot be denied that Doppelgangers aren’t operating in the same way when I am alone parsing against a test dummy and when engaging an enemy with a group of other people. Is it a difficulty in properly generating hits divisible by eight in large-scale fights? Or might Doppelgangers have trouble finding room to spawn in areas crowded with a large boss and many players? Or could Doppelgangers fail to render as a means to reduce latency, thereby never dealing the damage they are supposed to? I wish I could tell you, but I haven’t a clue.