Ranger Trinket Comparison

This post breaks down the Ranger Prince trinkets (Swift or Robust Brand) and compares them directly with the trinket purchased with souls (Rune's Fingerstall).


TL;DR: Rune's Fingerstall for archers, debatable for assassins (either/or works really, but slightly more on average from Rune's Fingerstall)


Swift Brand or Robust Brand verse Rune's Fingerstall

First, lets look at the stats for each.

Swift Brand:
+10 agility
+10 stamina
+55 attack power

Robust Brand:
+10 agility
+10 stamina
+69 ranged attack power

Rune's Fingerstall:
+35 agility
10% chance of +32 agility for 15 seconds

Let's break those down into some common factors for direct comparison and make some assumptions on 10% chance.

Assume 1 attack every 2 seconds (between white hits and talents).  This means every 20 seconds, you will trigger the effect for the next 15 seconds.  Since things happen during boss fights and you don't always start with the 10% we'll round that 75% up-time down to 50%.

Swift Brand:
+65 melee attack power +1 melee attack power (talents)
+3 critical chance +0.3 critical chance (talents)

= +66 melee attack power
= +3.3 critical chance

Robust Brand:
+89 ranged attack power +2 ranged attack power (talents)
+3 critical chance +0.3 critical chance (talents)

= +91 ranged attack power
= +3.3 critical chance

Rune's Fingerstall:
+35 melee attack power (base) +3.5 melee attack power (talents)
+16 melee attack power (assumed) +1.6 melee attack power (talents)
+32 melee attack power (maximum) +3.2 melee attack power (talents)
+70 ranged attack power (base)
+32 ranged attack power (assumed)
+64 ranged attack power (maximum)
+10.5 critical chance (base) +1.05 critical chance (melee talents)
+4.8 critical chance (assumed) +0.48 critical chance (melee talents)
+9.6 critical chance (maximum) +0.96 critical chance (melee talents)

Minimum:
= +38.5 melee attack power
= +70 ranged attack power
= +11.55 melee critical chance
= +10.5 ranged critical chance

Average:
= +56.1 melee attack power
= +102 ranged attack power
= +16.83 melee critical chance
= +15.3 ranged critical chance

Maximum:
= +73.7 melee attack power
= +134 ranged attack power
= +22.11 melee critical chance
= +20.1 ranged critical chance

Now, we'll refer back to my general rule about power verse critical chance (http://oac.boards.net/thread/80/gear-comparisons).  Convert critical chance to a raw attack power.

Swift Brand:
72.6 attack power

Robust Brand:
97.6 attack power

Rune's Fingerstall for Melee:
Minimum: 61.6 attack power (-11 attack power)
Average: 89.76 attack power (+17.16 attack power)
Maximum: 117.92 attack power (+45.32 attack power)

Rune's Fingerstall for Ranged:
Minimum: 91 attack power (-6.6 attack power)
Average: 132.6 attack power (+35 attack power)
Maximum: 174.2 attack power (+76.6 attack power)

The important thing to remember is that this is an estimation based on a weighted value being assigned for critical chance verse straight attack power.  It is also using estimation to provide a rough average for stats with the buff from Rune's Fingerstall.  That trinket can be better or worse depending on the extra agility buff, although the average is what I would typically expect.

It's interesting to note that the raw attack power figures average exactly as we'd expect with the archer getting twice what the assassin gets (since assassin's get 1 attack power per agility and archers get 2).

This makes Rune's Fingerstall an obvious choice for an archer, but a closer comparison for assassins. This is because the Prince trinket (Swift Brand) is significantly stronger for assassins (55 melee attack power should reflect 110 ranged attack power for archers, not 69) and because of how the archer class utilizing agility compared to assassins.