I am trying to find out what is the best farmable archer thrall on the Isle of Siptah.
Based on my understanding of the Siptah thrall environment the best sets of thralls we have semi on-demand access to are the Accursed (Dalinsia, BT Varet, Jerik, etc. ) and Surge thralls. I am aware that there may be some thralls with higher multipliers that can come via purges on Siptah, however who is spawnable and where is data that I cannot find (I’ve seen the map with purge type squares drawn on it) and I would imagine is difficult to gather. So, for the sake of practical argument, I used Accursed and Surge thralls for my testing.
I believe Accursed Fighters have a MDM (Melee Damage Multiplier) of 2.21 and a RDM (Ranged Damage Multiplier) of 2.2 *. The Accursed Archers (Marcos and Ulric) have a MDM of 1.6 and a RDM of 2.52.
Surge thralls come in two forms as far as I can tell: Low HP - Higher MDM/RDM, High HP - Lower MDM/RDM. For example, North East Surges spawn the Aquilonian Army; The Black Dragon Archer has a MDM of 1.2 and a RDM of 1.89 with an HP of 3720 (ID: Army_of_Aquilonia_Archer_4). The Black Dragon Master Archer has a MDM OF 1.275 and a RDM of 1.584 with an HP of 6200 ( Army_of_Aquilonia_Archer_4_Purge)**. This format holds true for all different Surge factions with regard to the MDM and RDMs, only starting HP and starting attribute stats will vary.
The most recent formula to calculate thrall damage I can find is :
(MDM/RDM * % Bonus Melee/Ranged) + (MDM/RDM * Weapon Damage) + Armor Penetration = Damage Output
Now that I have set some groundwork, I will share some of my personal testing. I am on console and am the therefore limited in how I can test certain things.
Testing level 0 Archers (same weapons/arrows) in a pit against various enemies bared results consistent with the data above. Thralls with higher RDM would kill things with less hits than those with lower. Thralls with the same RDM but higher accuracy would kill targets with slightly less hits than those with less or no Accuracy. HOWEVER, Fighter thralls with high RDM we’re competing in hits to kill with Archer thralls of equal or less RDM. If the formula above is true, this would make sense to me though, given how weighted MDM/RDM is.
I know it was the once the case that Fighter thralls would have a penalty when used as archers ( or Archers had a bonus to archery damage) and vice versa***.
The data and my testing are leading me to a few conclusions. Either the Archer/Fighter bonuses to their respective damage type either no longer exists OR high RDM Fighter thralls are overcoming this value. If RDM is the only major contributing factor to archer damage, the Accursed Fighters are some of the best archer thralls with semi on-demand access. Accursed Archers would still out perform them with a RDM of 2.52. Named purge thralls (with higher RDM 2.2-2.52) would out perform them but are not readily accessible. The best named Archer thralls spawning on the map (pirates) have RDMs of 1.89 or lower and low HP (so are worse than Surge thralls). It could be the case that Archer thralls gain more %Bonus Ranged per ACC than Fighter thralls, but early testing doesn’t indicate this AND the value would have to be massive to overcome the weight of MDM/RDM in the above formula. Fighter thralls also benefit from a higher MDM if forced into melee.
Maybe I am misinterpreting the data or have failed in my testing methodology. What am I missing?
.*based on the wiki data and wak4863 video (Best Fighter Thralls Isle of Siptah)
** based on wiki data and what I can see in game. I have not been able to get my hands on a Low HP - High RDM thrall yet. Have gotten many High HP - Low RDM
*** based on FireSpark81 video (Do Fighters Make Better Archers)