When comparing Gambler’s Soul and Cold Silver Dice, it’s not immediately obvious which talisman is the best choice without knowing how the damage of the former scales or how much extra Energy from the latter improves damage output. Let’s elaborate on how each talisman operates. From this knowledge we can determine their ideal effectiveness.
The Gambler’s Soul and Cold Silver Dice have a chance to proc their effects with each critical hit. But, as with all such effects in Secret World Legends, they abide by two rules:
- An effect cannot trigger more than once per second.
- An effect only triggers from direct sources.
By “direct sources,” I mean the damage or healing that comes directly from an ability cast, not secondary damage that might be applied from an ability or be the result of meeting specific conditions when the ability was cast.
Since these talismans share Critical Hit Chance as their variable in triggering their effects, the comparable value of each will remain the same as long as they both share the same variable. It is then essential that we estimate how much damage per second we can expect each talisman to do for a given weapon. Let us use an example. The Chaos Magic Power ability Breakdown has a coefficient of about 3.43 Combat Power and the Basic ability Deconstruct has a coefficient of about 1.18. To determine the normal value of a single point of Energy, we’ll subtract the damage of Breakdown with that of Deconstruct and divide the difference by the cost of Energy:
(3.43 - 1.18) / 5 = 0.45
This is how much more damage a single point of Energy spent with Breakdown is dealing over Deconstruct. We’re making a couple of assumptions here:
- That whenever Energy is not being spent, damage with a Basic ability is being dealt.
- That Energy will always be spent and never over-caps.
Gambler’s Soul deals 0.25 Combat Power and Cold Silver Dice has a 30% chance to generate one point of Energy whenever you land a critical hit. Since the normal value of Energy is not affected by Critical Hit Chance and Gambler’s Soul and Cold Silver Dice both share the same variable—that of Critical Hit Chance—it matters not how much Critical Hit Chance one has: the relative results will be the same. Which talisman, then is superior for Chaos Magic? For the sake of our illustration, I’ll assume a Critical Hit Chance of 50%:
- Gambler’s Soul: 0.5 * 0.25 = 0.125
- Cold Silver Dice: 0.5 * 0.3 * 0.45 = 0.0675
In this example, Gambler’s Soul will always be, on average, at least 85.185% better than Cold Silver Dice, no matter how much Critical Hit Chance there is. In fact, one can use an inequation to calculate how much the normal value of Energy must be for Cold Silver Dice to be equal to Gambler’s Soul:
0.5 * 0.25 > 0.5 * 0.3 * x
x < 0.8333
Which is to say, the value of Energy must exceed 0.8333 for Cold Silver Dice to be greater than Gambler’s Soul. It’s worth noting that the average damage to be had from Cold Silver Dice, using this mathematical approach, is under the best conditions. Failing to spend Energy or generating more Energy than one can have reduces its potential and may require that a weapon’s Energy value be greater still than 0.8333 for Cold Silver Dice to perform equally well.
I created this Google spreadsheet as an overview for how these Luck talismans compare for every weapon with commonly used Power abilities and their passives. The Energy values in the equations for Cold Silver Dice take into account Legendary 20 Basic and Power signet modifiers. (For more information on how the Energy values were arrived at, consult Smyrill’s Spreadsheet.)
| Weapon/ability | Gambler’s Soul | Cold Silver Dice | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pistols w/ Dual Shot and Fatal Shot | 0.125 | 0.05796100001 | 115.66% |
| Blade w/ Swallow Cut | 0.125 | 0.07148537501 | 74.86% |
| Blade w/ Tsunami | 0.125 | 0.0759031875 | 64.68% |
| Shotgun w/ Point Blank Shot | 0.125 | 0.080048475 | 56.16% |
| AR w/ Burst Fire + Stability and Slow Burn | 0.125 | 0.2274348182 | -81.95% |
| Elementalism w/ Mjolnir + Passive | 0.125 | 0.0790056 | 58.22% |
| Chaos Magic | 0.125 | 0.05771541 | 116.58% |
| Fists w/ Maul | 0.125 | 0.12603072 | -0.82% |
| Hammer w/ Obliterate | 0.125 | 0.1543752525 | -23.50% |
| Blood w/ Flay | 0.125 | 0.0143349375 | 772.00% |
From these results, it is evident that only Fists, Hammer, and Assault Rifle have the potential to most benefit from Cold Silver Dice. All other weapons gain by far more damage per second with Gambler’s Soul.
Players who obsess over each incremental increase in their damage output may be tempted to agonize over which talisman to choose if they are intent on being most effective with multiple weapons. But everyone should be made aware that, no matter which talisman you decide upon, the effects inherent with these talismans will be about 1 - 2% of your overall damage, and the difference between one effect and another a fraction of that. The KSR-43 Assault Rifle and the Pneumatic Maul Hammer are the two exceptions in which the Cold Silver Dice would produce a significant advantage. Unless you aspire to use either of these two weapons at the exclusion of all others, you will benefit most from using Gambler’s Soul.
