Problems with Arcano Crystal and Simcraft

[Dugalla]

So, everyone is always on about how op arcano crystal is. I personally couldnt see how a stat stick could possibly be so much better than other trinkets of much higher Ilvl so I did some playing around in Simcraft. I dont have one so I used a boomkin from my guild as a baseline. With his current setup using an 885 arcano this is what I got

1,164,502 DPS
Raid-Buffed Unbuffed Gear Amount
Strength 4728 4403 0
Agility 9357 9032 0
Stamina 77458 77458 46886
Intellect 57998 55767 45788 (21784)
Spirit 1 1 0
Health 4647480 4647480 0
Mana 704000 704000 0
Rage 100 100 0
Energy 100 100 0
Astral Power 130 130 0
Combo Points 5 5 0
Spell Power 57998 55767 0
Crit 24.94% 24.94% 7974
Haste 29.46% 29.46% 11048
Damage / Heal Versatility 6.65% 6.65% 3158
Attack Power 9357 9032 0
Mastery 75.46% 75.46% 10215
Armor 10800 2700 2700
Run Speed 8 0 0
Leech 2.18% 2.18% 502

Now, I deleted the arcano crystal and replaced it with a dummy placeholder with no stats, and manually added the stats from the Arcano to another piece of gear, in this case his wrists and now I get

1,113,195 DPS
Raid-Buffed Unbuffed Gear Amount
Strength 4728 4403 0
Agility 9357 9032 0
Stamina 77458 77458 46886
Intellect 55236 53112 45788 (21784)
Spirit 1 1 0
Health 4647480 4647480 0
Mana 704000 704000 0
Rage 100 100 0
Energy 100 100 0
Astral Power 130 130 0
Combo Points 5 5 0
Spell Power 55236 53112 0
Crit 24.94% 24.94% 7974
Haste 29.46% 29.46% 11048
Damage / Heal Versatility 6.65% 6.65% 3158
Attack Power 9357 9032 0
Mastery 75.46% 75.46% 10215
Armor 10800 2700 2700
Run Speed 8 0 0
Leech 2.18% 2.18% 502


Notice how he suddenly dropped several thousand int /SP and thus a large amount of DPS despite the fact that the amount on his gear didnt change. Somehow taking off a trinket that has no primary stats makes him lose Int?
This makes no sense and makes me think that Simcrafts sim of Arcano is somehow broken. Thoughts?

[Kluian05]

There's a 5% main stat bonus from wearing all the correct gear for your class. This was put into the game so leather users didn't wear cloth gear, etc. I'm not sure if that is some how being correlated into the SIM when you have an ignored trinket slot.

The int/spell power you listed is off by 5%.

[Polarthief]

I personally couldnt see how a stat stick could possibly be so much better than other trinkets of much higher Ilvl

A base Arcano gives 847 to all 4 your secondaries, which scale amazingly well with Int. Total secondary stats gained: 3,388

A 930 stat stick trinket gives a pitiful 1,321 to a single secondary stat and 2,729 to your primary stat, which scales much much weaker than secondaries. Total stats gained: 4,050

A difference in 70 item levels, SEVENTY ITEM LEVELS, gives a difference in stats on a STAT STICK of 662 stats, which may seem like a lot but it really isn't.


Now let's look at the stat weights of my character's gear:
Crit 28.64
Haste 27.41
Vers 26.24
Mastery 25.91
Int 18.89

As you can see, Int continues to scale very poorly when you're quite geared. My Crit's a bit high and Mastery a bit low due to my very low Crit and high Mastery values, but regardless, let's plug in both the trinkets.

930 Crit Trinket
Int (2,729) gives 51,550.81 DPS
Crit (1,321) gives 37,833.44 DPS
Total DPS gain: 89,384.25 DPS

860 Arcanocrystal
Crit (847) gives 24,258.08 DPS
Haste (847) gives 23,216.27 DPS
Vers (847) gives 22,225.28 DPS
Mastery (847) gives 21,945.77 DPS
Total DPS gain: 91,645.4 DPS

DPS difference: 2,261.15 DPS, in Arcanocrystal's favor

Now obviously the true DPS values will be different since stat weights change based on what you have on at that point in time but you get the idea. The above sim simply takes my gear's current stat weights and I just plugged the stats you get from trinkets into the stat weights and calculated that using a calculator, not sims.


TL;DR: Int simply scales like shit which is why Arcanocrystal is so much better despite giving 662 less stat points. It doesn't have most of the budget in our awful primary stat.

[david0925]

@Polarthief: he is trying to figure out why there is a huge int drop when he replaced the Arcano with a dummy trinket. And Kluian explained it perfectly

57998 int (with arcano)- 55236 int (without)= 2762 int

2762 int / 57998 int = 4.76%.

He most likely is removing the 5% int bonus from wearing appropriate gear in all slots. An easy way to test this is to just equip another trinket without int instead of having a dummy slot and see if the 2762 int is regained.

[Polarthief]

@Polarthief: he is trying to figure out why there is a huge int drop when he replaced the Arcano with a dummy trinket. And Kluian explained it perfectly

I get that, but they also said in the OP:

I personally couldnt see how a stat stick could possibly be so much better than other trinkets of much higher Ilvl

I just wanted to explain how-and-why it's better if there was a bug in the system regarding Int (which there isn't), just using raw math and not sims.

[Myztikrice]

'Other trinkets of much higher iLvl' also doesn't necessarily mean just stat sticks. You should analyze Arcanocrystal against high ilvl Thuribles and Terrors in AoE situations too.