Molten Strike DPS Calculator

Follow this link for the new Javascript-based Molten Strike DPS calculator. This is targeted at people who are comfortable using Path of Building and/or calculating DPS for normal builds.

Usage Notes

• Follow the link to run the calculator. It requires Javascript, and it has been testing with Firefox and Chrome on Windows.
• In Path of Building (Community Fork), setup your build, including the configuration tab. If you're making a build guide, only select buffs that are reliable in an isolated boss fight. Also be sure to pick shaper as the boss type.
• Update all the white textboxes and select or unselect all the checkboxes to match your build's setup.
• If you click on any text to the left of a textbox, the help section will be updated to include an extra explanation.

Version History

• 2021-11-20: general overhaul, simplification, and improvements
• 2020-06-18: lots of changes to support the rebalance in PoE 3.11.
• 2020-02-01: updated to account for all the nerfs in the last 1.5 years + the default PB radius is 10 since poe.ninja uses that.
• 2018-10-28: created a new Javascript version that's easier to use
• 2018-07-28: added usage notes (thanks xhul for the feedback!)
• 2017-07-15: fixed projectile spread distribution based based on info tracked down by reddit. Also added a graph for finding the optimal AoE modifier.
• 2017-05-29: original version

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MoldyDwarf wrote:

Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome.

Where do I get enemy size/hitbox from?

Did you verify some exemplary results in practice?

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Have done some empirical testing earlier this league. I think I got a ~40% hit chance (probably with conc and at least 50% inc AoE). This was with namelocking a stone lion statue which may have larger hitbox than other mobs.
I also attempted to get more DPS/hits by not namelocking. This ended as a "complete failure". Furthermore in practical gameplay I also notice that the namelocked target takes more damage than surrounding targets. The only way to increase the DPS which I found was to use the skill with obstacles around. Most notably in a corner. My testing was not extensive though. It is possible I missed sth important or that some of my results were false.

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Zrevnur wrote:

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MoldyDwarf wrote:

Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome.

Where do I get enemy size/hitbox from?

Did you verify some exemplary results in practice?

--

Have done some empirical testing earlier this league. I think I got a ~40% hit chance (probably with conc and at least 50% inc AoE). This was with namelocking a stone lion statue which may have larger hitbox than other mobs.
I also attempted to get more DPS/hits by not namelocking. This ended as a "complete failure". Furthermore in practical gameplay I also notice that the namelocked target takes more damage than surrounding targets. The only way to increase the DPS which I found was to use the skill with obstacles around. Most notably in a corner. My testing was not extensive though. It is possible I missed sth important or that some of my results were false.

Thanks for your feedback and data.

Over this league, I've recorded and analyzed a few hours of total video, but it's pretty hard to get clear answers even doing that. To be more systematic, I'd want to do some image processing tricks like image rectification, Hough transforms, and perhaps background subtraction, but I haven't felt motivated enough to go to that much trouble.

For the enemy hitboxes, I'm trusting what people have said on the long mechanics thread (1=worm, 2=most stuff, 3=bosses). Those numbers are small enough that I'd need a much more systematic data gathering approach. I recorded a bunch of videos of A4M voll, but even he moves around so much that it's hard to get precise information. That said, a radius of 3 with a ball radius of 9 (and thus 12 radius to hit with no aoe) was pretty close to what I estimated from watching the videos, looking for life drains on Voll and checking the distance to balls using the radius image from the wiki.

With a boss hitbox of 3, 50% increased AoE, and conc eff, as best I can tell the chance to hit is about 32%. I'd call that well within the margin of error of the 40% estimate you have. How did you test whether something hit it? Based on what I've seen, the size of the 3d model isn't a reliable way of telling how big a mob's hitbox is, though I'd be very interested in knowing if that's wrong.

The corner trick is interesting. I agree that should work since it's very well known that it works for other skills like KB. Should work well on Phoenix.

I've done about 90 Shaper runs this league, most with BLS+MS. The more reliably fast runs were when I stood about 1 tile away from him. I suspect the true optimum is to stand close enough to just barely connect with the melee hit. With +2 range from duelist, namelocking should put you 9+2=11 units away if he's centered. Ignoring the melee hit, the optimal distance should be 20.5 with conc eff, dying sun, and 2x wildfire. At 14 away (9+2 + 3 boss radius), the melee hit would still connect but there'd be more projectile DPS than at 11. Also, at least for berserker, it's good to stay close enough that Shaper can proc melee savage hits. If you have fewer balls (no dying sun and/or no wildfires) or if you're scaling melee damage in ways that don't scale projectile damage too, then that could certainly bias the results in favor of namelocking. In practice, Shaper and Uber Atziri are the only things with large enough life pools for this to matter, and not dying is more important than precise positioning with Uber.

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MoldyDwarf wrote:

For the enemy hitboxes, I'm trusting what people have said on the long mechanics thread (1=worm, 2=most stuff, 3=bosses).

Ok, thanks.

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MoldyDwarf wrote:

How did you test whether something hit it?

Very simple. I counted the number of attacks it takes to kill the target. Then "math it backwards" to get the number of proj hits. Have to add here that number of proj hits was just one of the things I tested. I didnt focus on it and didnt do enough runs with the same setup for reliable precise results.

I also vaguely remember some much older tests which indicated 2 ball hits per attack (with 6 balls) so that would be almost identical with your number. Dont remember the test details though.

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Zrevnur wrote:

...

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MoldyDwarf wrote:

How did you test whether something hit it?

Very simple. I counted the number of attacks it takes to kill the target. Then "math it backwards" to get the number of proj hits. Have to add here that number of proj hits was just one of the things I tested. I didnt focus on it and didnt do enough runs with the same setup for reliable precise results.

I also vaguely remember some much older tests which indicated 2 ball hits per attack (with 6 balls) so that would be almost identical with your number. Dont remember the test details though.

Okay, thanks for the extra info. If you do ever do any more precise testing, I'd love to see the results.

I would be interested in concentrated effect with no increased aoe modifiers.

I used to use: molten - fast attack - multi strike - gmp - lgoh - concentrated effect

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SuicideAll wrote:

I would be interested in concentrated effect with no increased aoe modifiers.

I used to use: molten - fast attack - multi strike - gmp - lgoh - concentrated effect

Should be easy enough to test in the calculator. If you don't have wildfire jewels or dying sun, set the increased AoE to 0. Leave the less AoE at -30%. Set the number of balls to 7 (3 built in + 4 from gmp).

If you're able to use wildfire jewels, you'll almost certainly want to use 2 of them instead of GMP. They do add a little AoE (slightly bad for single-target DPS), but they lack the 26% less modifier on GMP and you can replace GMP with a gem with an increased or more modifier.

The calculators have been updated based on recent rediscoveries made on reddit.

Conc effect linked with MS does nothing both in POB and in-game. Can't figure out why that is.

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twittypoopcraft wrote:

Conc effect linked with MS does nothing both in POB and in-game. Can't figure out why that is.

That is a good question. The in-game tooltip and the default in PoB is for the melee hit. You'll want to switch to "magma balls" in PoB to see the effect. Ignore the in-game tooltip. It's basically worthless since we get so much more damage from the projectiles than from the hit.