Media Specialist?

Hello Wynncrafters!
So today, I came up with a random idea of explaining what Specialist is, comparing Specialist to other weapons, and seeking if Specialist is (theoretically) useful. This guide will match to Pure users as well!
I hope this story will be somewhat interesting to read through. Before you say "oh not another long damage explaining shits", go ahead, read it. You will like it.

1. Specialist?

Specialist
Super Fast Attack Speed

✔ Class Req: Assassin/Ninja
✔ Lv. Min: 97

+26% XP Bonus
+20 Strength
+20 Dexterity
+20 Intelligence
+20 Defense
+20 Agility
+650% Earth Damage
+650% Thunder Damage
+650% Water Damage
+650% Fire Damage
+650% Air Damage

[0/2] Powder Slots
Rare Item

What is Specialist? Specialist is a level 97 Rare Dagger. (Note: These are the old maximum IDs before Corkus, it got buffed.)
Have you ever seen/used this item? Yes, this is a pretty unique item. (The tier is Rare, though.)
So.

"Oh wait, no damage? What the hell?"

Yes. No Base Damage. That's the reason this is unique.
Did you notice the Powder Slots?

This is an item that will be useful after you put powders on.

Adding Powders to the weapon will give your weapon extra Base Damage. You will need to utilize this on Specialist.


Let's say you have put on 2 of ✦ Thunder VI powders. It will increase your minimum ✦ Thunder base damage by 10, and your maximum ✦ Thunder base damage by 80. (I will ignore about Neutral conversion this time, it's pretty much complicated.)
So, this is what it will look like after you put on 2 of ✦ Thunder VI powders.

Specialist
Super Fast Attack Speed

✦ Thunder Damage: 10-80

✔ Class Req: Assassin/Ninja
✔ Lv. Min: 97

+26% XP Bonus
+20 Strength
+20 Dexterity
+20 Intelligence
+20 Defense
+20 Agility
+650% Earth Damage
+650% Thunder Damage
+650% Water Damage
+650% Fire Damage
+650% Air Damage

[2/2] Powder Slots [✦ ✦]
Rare Item

Yay, some Base Damage! Now let's test the damage. I assume we have a decent build for thunder. (70% Thunder Damage, 100 Dexterity)
I will use my own Damage Calculator from this thread. Trust me, it's pretty accurate.


761-6089 ✦ Thunder Damage. (Average: 3425)
847-6777 ✦ Thunder Damage with Dex. (Average: 3812)
Now, either you say this is good or bad, this depends on actual situation in-game, but not that bad damage, right?

2. So, is it good?

"So, is it worth using or not after all? I just want a good weapon."

I will be answering to that question. Earlier, I calculated the damage with the "best" Specialist, "decent" build for thunder, and 2 "Tier 6" Thunder powders.

"Is this pretty much the best damage a Specialist can do?"

The answer is Yes.

"Wait wait, I could have a lot better build than this example, and I could even use Strength to boost my damage!"

The answer is No. Why? I do not make sense? I do. The answer lies in the mechanic of damage calculation.
I recently have completed a big project: "How damage is calculated." I basically figured out every formula of damage in-game, and here is the thread.

Let me quote a basic damage formula.

Spell Damage
(Base Damage) x (ID Boost) x (Attack Speed Boost) x (Spell Multiplier)

The important part is how "ID Boost" is added. Some of you who already had read through my damage calculation thread might have noticed the problem of Specialist.
We have 650% Thunder Damage on Specialist. 70% Thunder Damage from the rest gear, and 100 Dexterity points (65.0% Thunder damage boost) from the Skill Points.

"Oh I know it! So the ID Boost will be: (1 + 6.5) x (1 + 0.7) x (1 + 0.65) = 21.0375. Nice, Specialist is indeed good! :D"

Sadly, no. It didn't go the way as we thought at first.
At the very first time, we thought the Specialist damage will be boosted by the Thunder damage on the weapon, 10-80 x (1 + 6.5) making it 75-600 Super Fast Thunder Damage. (Average: 338)
No. Don't mess up with that. Base Damage is Base Damage.
There's only one Boost factor that includes your "Thunder damage" and so on, the ID Boost. (That's what I call, deal with it)
To include many kinds of damage boosts from your weapons/armors/accessories, the only way was to "add" them together, not "multiply" them together. If we "multiply" them together, even though the each boost was small, it would be a big boost as a lot of damage boosts will be getting multiplied.

Spoiler: The list of damage boosts

Now look, this is the list of every damage boost that will be included in "ID Boost". We can now see the need of "adding" them, not "multiplying" them, right?

• Skill Points
  • Strength
  • Dexterity
  • Intelligence
  • Defense
  • Agility
• Spell Damage (%)
• Melee Damage (%)
• Elemental Damage
  • Earth Damage
  • Thunder Damage
  • Water Damage
  • Fire Damage
  • Air Damage
• Powder Specials
  • Rage
  • Kill Streak
  • Concentration
  • Duration
  • Dodge
  • Curse
  • Courage
  • Air Prison

So, what would the actual ID Boost of this example look like?
1 + 6.5 + 0.7 + 0.8 = 9
This is not even half of what we thought at first (21). The reason I said a bit of better build or more Strength won't boost damage a lot, was because, since we have 650% Thunder Damage on Specialist, the benefit of other damage boosts from your gear/skill points will be a lot ineffective, compared to other normal builds!



Oh, I prepared some comparison as well. Have fun :D

Spoiler: Damage Comparison

Specialist | 2 T6 Thunder | 650% Thunder, 100 Dex, 70% Thunder from gear


Specialist | 2 T4 Thunder | 650% Thunder, 100 Dex, 70% Thunder


Black | 3 T6 Thunder | 80 Dex, 80 Def, 60% Spell, 20% Thunder, 20% Fire


Black | 2 T6 Fire, 1 T6 Thunder | 80 Dex, 80 Def, 60% Spell, 20% Thunder, 20% Fire

Courage on


Black | 3 T4 Thunder | 80 Dex, 80 Def, 60% Spell, 20% Thunder, 20% Fire


Black | 2 T4 Fire, 1 T4 Thunder | 80 Dex, 80 Def, 60% Spell, 20% Thunder, 20% Fire

Courage on


C A T A C L Y S M | 3 T6 Thunder | 120 Dex, 80% Thunder


C A T A C L Y S M | 2 T6 Fire, 1 T6 Thunder | 120 Dex, 80% Thunder

Courage on

3. Summary: What's the good point of Specialist?
I've already talked a lot. Let me summarize the point I wanted to tell you.

• Specialist is good, especially when you fight a boss that you cannot beat with other weapons' elements.
  • First, search the weakness element of the boss, put the corresponding powder on Specialist, you will do so much damage, since attack speed is Super Fast. (Read my main damage thread for more mechanics about it)
• Specialist does not need a build for it. You can already inflict good amount of damage, once you get a good Specialist and high tier powders.
  • When you use Specialist, the ID is everything about it. As I told earlier, ID Boost of your gear will do almost nothing compared to Specialist's 650% Damage Boost.
  • To put it another way, any builds that are made for this kind of item, boosting its damage with surprising amount of damage % (Specialist / Pure), will be useless. So that means ↓
• Specialist is bad for end-game builds. It falls behind to any other decent weapons. Make sure to choose other good weapons (maybe Mythics) when you make your own build.

Specialist is a very unique item, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let's try use this unique item wisely, why not!

I guess that's all what I wanted to tell you for this time! I hope this has been somewhat good guide for those who didn't know these facts :D
Anyway, have a nice day!

 

We should totally have Armours that are like specialist. Where we need to powder the Armours to make it useful

 

So it's good for the players who brings many weapons like me... maybe?

wait I'm using melee build
fml

 

that's basically what I do everyday when I figure out the dmg thingy and having a convenient caculator
Thread Stealing Alert

________________________________

so let's face it
we should not build any dmg boost on specialist cuz of its high ID boost relative to the base dmg
it's better to make a tank build with it!!
or
specialist-mythic wait wot? @Tsukiyomi stop glitching
NVM CUHN DOESNT HAVE MYTHIC

 

shouldn't this be 1/2 powder slots? ^^

 

yea sorry, just fixed it xD

 

Wow, 1300% element damage buff, or 650% thunder damage buff with cataclysm, 11/10 underpowered

 

I don't think he meant that .-.
Maybe something like [0/2] slots and +500% Elemental Damage to every element?

 

A shorten version of this thread :

The Specialist is trash.

 

the specialist is k
I wouldn't choose it
but its k

 

NO
just NO
THIS IS ENOUGH

 

... wait someone uses powders on armor? ._.

 

hmmm i loved my air maxed specialist with my weathered for make 40k spin attack :((((((

 

challenge accepted

 

Has anyone ever noticed that Pure has pretty much the same concept as Specialist, making it every build using the weapon useless? .-.
To put it another way, Pure is good without any builds. If only it had good Spell % damage though.

 

What about specialist +Cancer? Seems like that could have promise

 

Yes, works. While Specialist can do like 3k? damage on average, you can deal 5k/3s poison.
You can already make up Cancer's negative spell/melee for only 100% worth of ID Boost. That's why I once said Cancer should have -1000% spell/melee Base ID instead.
Or maybe that's just how Cancer is designed, you can make up the negative spell/melee if you want in your build.

 

I don't think so, but you can check.

 

Those exist?

 

A tier 6 powder for a weapon with decent damage? No thanks cause damn thats expensive