Thread: DPS relics

Since I made another 2nd ager with 4 majors this time, I'm grinding out new relics for it. My old one was geared more towards soloing/survival, this one will be max dps. There was a thread floating around where crit rating relics came out favorably but I can't find it anymore. So what would be the best relics to use?

crit/dev setting, agi/crit gem, attack duration rune, best crafted

That sound about right?

yesss

Yep, this is right, I did some of those calculations back then.

I use Physical Mastery Runes, because 1) lag can get bad in raids these days, and it's better to maximize each individual hit then try to make more hits in a lag environment; and 2) I now PvP quite a bit, and there you really need to maximize each hit.

Shouldn't the ability queue theoretically take care of lag or at least minimize its impact?

Originally Posted by Miretocot

I use Physical Mastery Runes, because 1) lag can get bad in raids these days, and it's better to maximize each individual hit then try to make more hits in a lag environment; and 2) I now PvP quite a bit, and there you really need to maximize each hit.

Now if there were runes with critical rating .

Originally Posted by Miretocot

I use Physical Mastery Runes, because 1) lag can get bad in raids these days, and it's better to maximize each individual hit then try to make more hits in a lag environment; and 2) I now PvP quite a bit, and there you really need to maximize each hit.

I won't speak to PvP but with a base phys mastery enough to put you in the +100% DMG range the Phys Mastery runes will add LESS than 1% to your net DPS while each -AD rune will add 2.6%. Those aren't huge numbers but the differential is very large so you'd have to be seeing some worse than noticeable lag for PhysMastery to be superior.

No offence but if you are lagging that bad in raids your probably more a liability then a help. IMO you can't lag severly and raid. I am a moors champ and I will stack crit any day in the moors over phys mastery. However I run a build in the moors that has 19% crit and 105% outgoing damage, 7600 morale and around 51% tac mits. I really love that type of set up of high crits high dmg and high mits.

Originally Posted by Wilantuk

No offence but if you are lagging that bad in raids your probably more a liability then a help. IMO you can't lag severly and raid. I am a moors champ and I will stack crit any day in the moors over phys mastery. However I run a build in the moors that has 19% crit and 105% outgoing damage, 7600 morale and around 51% tac mits. I really love that type of set up of high crits high dmg and high mits.

I am not talking about my lag but server-wide lag; in fact, I probably lag less than the rest of the raid except Draigoch and the last trash pull of Lightning T2 (both of which are easy enough to the extent where lag doesn't matter). Lag depends on the server, and we have had severe lag spikes in the middle of raids since update 6 in Laurelin that affects everyone in the raid. For instance, in the first try of our last Acid T2 attempt, everyone got 5-10 second lag spike. And you can imagine how much that sabotages the try when you are trying to do it the "zerg" way.

Originally Posted by Wilkens

I won't speak to PvP but with a base phys mastery enough to put you in the +100% DMG range the Phys Mastery runes will add LESS than 1% to your net DPS while each -AD rune will add 2.6%. Those aren't huge numbers but the differential is very large so you'd have to be seeing some worse than noticeable lag for PhysMastery to be superior.

As I posted above, I am talking about periodic lag spikes that last 5-10 seconds. Those will completely cancel out whatever advantage you get in attack duration. But if it gets fixed then maybe it's worth while.

Originally Posted by Miretocot

I am not talking about my lag but server-wide lag; in fact, I probably lag less than the rest of the raid except Draigoch and the last trash pull of Lightning T2 (both of which are easy enough to the extent where lag doesn't matter). Lag depends on the server, and we have had severe lag spikes in the middle of raids since update 6 in Laurelin that affects everyone in the raid. For instance, in the first try of our last Acid T2 attempt, everyone got 5-10 second lag spike. And you can imagine how much that sabotages the try when you are trying to do it the "zerg" way.

As I posted above, I am talking about periodic lag spikes that last 5-10 seconds. Those will completely cancel out whatever advantage you get in attack duration. But if it gets fixed then maybe it's worth while.

What sort of computer do you have (CPU, RAM, graphics) and what type of internet? I've noticed that these two things have a much higher impact on lag than anything to do with the server.

I see people in my raid groups complaining about lag all the time, from turtle all the way to orthancs, and I am getting little or none; however, this is with a very high-end cable connection and a fairly powerful (but far from top of the line) computer running 64-bit Win7 (the 64-bitness matters a lot more than most people suspect, because it means I have a full 4GB free for the game, nothing taken up by the OS or the on-board memory overlap from graphics cards and other such things).

Unless you're using fiber or cable, you are going to experience greater lag due simply to your internet connection (dsl, WiMAX, or godd forbid, satellite). Even lower-end cable (which I see a lot of in the US, we're talking 128, 256, 384kbit as compared to the 2, 3, and up to even 7Mbit we are used to up here in the great white north). I am told you can reduce this by doing some filtering on your incoming data (I don't know how that is done in lotro, but I've been told it works by numerous people). Also shut down anything that might be using up bandwidth, such as torrents, streaming audio/video, your little brother's X-Box, etc.

If your video card is struggling to keep up with the graphics, you're going to experience lag, either from engine overload or insufficient video RAM. You can go into the Options>Troubleshooting panel and set a frame rate (60 is good, 30 on a low end machine) and change the engine speed to Medium or even lower. Also you can try going into Advanced Graphics and shutting off all Shadows and Post-Processing, reducing your draw distance, turning down atmospheric detail (not too low or you won't see poison clouds, etc.) and shortening draw distance. Also texture quality reductions can help with low video memory.

If you're using a 32-bit OS, prefferably a Windows variant (as much as I prefer Linux, gaming on it is an exercise in geek ePeen and for DirectX based games you will never run as fast or as well as in Windows), do everything you can to free up available memory. Disabling services, using a solid colour background, shutting off unnecessary &&&& like Windows 7's gadget bar, IM clients, etc. will give you more of that precious free memory to work with. And make sure you have the full 4GB of physical RAM your OS supports.

Originally Posted by Wilantuk

No offence but if you are lagging that bad in raids your probably more a liability then a help. IMO you can't lag severly and raid. I am a moors champ and I will stack crit any day in the moors over phys mastery. However I run a build in the moors that has 19% crit and 105% outgoing damage, 7600 morale and around 51% tac mits. I really love that type of set up of high crits high dmg and high mits.

I have a very similar build. Slightly higher morale and dps, somewhat lower mits. But all the differences are in 1-5% range

Originally Posted by Odaroff

What sort of computer do you have (CPU, RAM, graphics) and what type of internet? I've noticed that these two things have a much higher impact on lag than anything to do with the server.

I see people in my raid groups complaining about lag all the time, from turtle all the way to orthancs, and I am getting little or none; however, this is with a very high-end cable connection and a fairly powerful (but far from top of the line) computer running 64-bit Win7 (the 64-bitness matters a lot more than most people suspect, because it means I have a full 4GB free for the game, nothing taken up by the OS or the on-board memory overlap from graphics cards and other such things).

Unless you're using fiber or cable, you are going to experience greater lag due simply to your internet connection (dsl, WiMAX, or godd forbid, satellite). Even lower-end cable (which I see a lot of in the US, we're talking 128, 256, 384kbit as compared to the 2, 3, and up to even 7Mbit we are used to up here in the great white north). I am told you can reduce this by doing some filtering on your incoming data (I don't know how that is done in lotro, but I've been told it works by numerous people). Also shut down anything that might be using up bandwidth, such as torrents, streaming audio/video, your little brother's X-Box, etc.

If your video card is struggling to keep up with the graphics, you're going to experience lag, either from engine overload or insufficient video RAM. You can go into the Options>Troubleshooting panel and set a frame rate (60 is good, 30 on a low end machine) and change the engine speed to Medium or even lower. Also you can try going into Advanced Graphics and shutting off all Shadows and Post-Processing, reducing your draw distance, turning down atmospheric detail (not too low or you won't see poison clouds, etc.) and shortening draw distance. Also texture quality reductions can help with low video memory.

If you're using a 32-bit OS, prefferably a Windows variant (as much as I prefer Linux, gaming on it is an exercise in geek ePeen and for DirectX based games you will never run as fast or as well as in Windows), do everything you can to free up available memory. Disabling services, using a solid colour background, shutting off unnecessary &&&& like Windows 7's gadget bar, IM clients, etc. will give you more of that precious free memory to work with. And make sure you have the full 4GB of physical RAM your OS supports.

For the umpteenth time: The lag is not my end but server-wide. My computer is fairly new, and I have cable connection. Moreover, I do not experience the slight lags others with older computers or slower connections experience seemingly all the time. Instead, I am talking about the 5-10 second lag spikes that everyone in the raid experiences on isolated occasions. So unless you think literally all 12 of us are using 80s Apple and connecting via phone, there is something seriously wrong with the servers if, say, we are jumping on the Acid wing in Orthanc and literally every 12 of us die while jumping.

I am not sure how your server is, but the type of issues I am describing are the issues described here by others:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...ports-Requests

Originally Posted by Miretocot

As I posted above, I am talking about periodic lag spikes that last 5-10 seconds. Those will completely cancel out whatever advantage you get in attack duration. But if it gets fixed then maybe it's worth while.

Except it doesn't work that way with the server-side lag. I thought you were talking about skill lag/graphics lag which WOULD affect -AD a bit but the server side lag spikes affect both PhysMastery and -AD equally which means -AD is STILL going to be superior.

The easiest way to point this out is to remember that since DPS is measuring an over-time output and -AD WILL, (period, I'm not bringing out the math agian but I can) generate more than the Phys Mastery ones. Server side lag means that there is a TOTAL interruption of all actions for a period of time...this means that your effective DPS in either setup disregards the time period...it drops in to a black hole. Lets try it graphically where X is the start of combat, Y is the end of combat and each tick (-) represents 1 second while L represents one second of lag:

Combat without Lag:

X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Y


Combat with server side lag:

X - - - - -L L L L - - - - - - - L L L L L - - - - - - - - Y


Note that you are only able to do damage in the spaces where the (-) are at so BOTH situations involve the same amount of combat space REGARDLESS of whether you use PhysMastery or -AD runes...the difference is that the -AD runes can (and will) still drop one of those tics off the length of the run (so your total DPS is higher). If your only going concern is server side lag spikes then -AD runes are still the best DPS relic available.