[BETA] Hex: A Death Knight Analysis Tool

[mrboh]

Hex: A Death Knight Analysis Tool v0.3.1 BETA



Download link: http://www.ellipsoid.org/hex/setup.exe

Introduction
Hex is a tool designed to allow experimentation with the various Death Knight talents and abilities. Hex is now based around the parameters of a level 80 Death Knight. Parameters for spells at this level are now known; base stat values (health, strength, agility, stamina) are extrapolated from level 70 Warrior values. Buffs and debuffs are all level 70 values but this should not greatly impact the relative talent calculations, only the absolute DPS values themselves.

The tool allows you to see how individual abilities, as well as your overall DPS, vary based on talent choices and cast rotation used. Simply select your talents, equipment and buffs then switch to the Raid DPS tab to see DPS and statistics for that build. Use the Spell Inspector to see how base ability damage varies based on gear and target.

The tool also now allows you to analyse tanking rotations and view statistics regarding mitigation and avoidance for both physical and magical damage.

Installation
Click the link at the top of the post to download the installer. Hex requires the .NET Framework v3.5 and will automatically download and install this if you do not already have it.

Notes
Aside from the fact that many talents are not implemented yet, this is purely a BETA release so please bear in mind that things are still being tested and fixed. Hex will automatically check for program updates when it starts so once it is installed you can easily stay up-to-date with all the latest fixes.

Hex started out as a spreadsheet but the complexity of testing cast rotations meant that I turned it into a fully-fledged program instead. The disadvantage of not using a spreadsheet is that it is not immediately apparant how damage values are calculated so I would encourage people to double check calculations themselves if they are not sure.

I appreciate all comments and criticisms, especially from those who have access to the alpha to see how Hex compares to the game itself.

[Lascero]

Holy crap awesome sauce.

Anything you want the community doing besides testing?

[Kenzi]

OMG

lol, when I first saw the post title I was trying to figure WTF DK's had to do with the new Hex spell.

From the looks of it, this will rock! Once you get the bug fixed and the download link back up, I'll slap this on the blog. Should get mad downloads.

Also, I'm nosy...are you Andrew?

[mrboh]

OMG

lol, when I first saw the post title I was trying to figure WTF DK's had to do with the new Hex spell.

From the looks of it, this will rock! Once you get the bug fixed and the download link back up, I'll slap this on the blog. Should get mad downloads.

Also, I'm nosy...are you Andrew?

Hex is a Discworld reference, not a frog reference Unfortunately my connection is capped until tomorrow so uploading and downloading is painfully slow .. hopefully everything will be sorted out soon.

And yes, I'm Andrew, but the page hasn't been updated for a while also!

[Kenzi]

Hex is a Discworld reference, not a frog reference Unfortunately my connection is capped until tomorrow so uploading and downloading is painfully slow .. hopefully everything will be sorted out soon.

And yes, I'm Andrew, but the page hasn't been updated for a while also!

how big is the download? I would gladly host the bandwidth here if you want.

Old website or not, I am impressed with your work and credentials!

[mrboh]

how big is the download? I would gladly host the bandwidth here if you want.

Appreciate the offer, the download is only small (600 kb or so) but it's being a bit picky .. works fine locally but when I pack it up to distribute it, it seems to break. But every time I try a new version I have to re-upload it etc, more annoying than anything else.

[mrboh]

Okay I seem to have fixed the bug, although I'm not entirely sure how Updating original post now!

[Kenzi]

awesome work!

http://deathknight.info/2008/06/beta-hex-a-death-knight-analysis-tool-v010/

[Malo]

Absolutely amazing. Big big grats and thanks mrboh.

Need focused testing on any specific aspect/result?

[mrboh]

Absolutely amazing. Big big grats and thanks mrboh.

Need focused testing on any specific aspect/result?

Thanks mate. There's no specific area that needs testing, but for example if you see that an Obliterate crit is doing 2 damage or something silly like that then I'd like to know The idea is really to let people see how talents affect individual abilities and thus enable effective leveling builds to be designed. Using the 'Loop' mode it should also be possible to get a feel for which builds will generate the most DPS in the long-term (despite the obvious level limitations). I've tried to include most of the talents that will affect leveling speed but there's still quite a few missing.

[Ashur]

Wow, thanks for making this, it's pretty awsome

[DarthPower]

white damage from normal swing doesn't seem to show up. if i'm not mistaken plague strike is on next attack while blood is istant, just like death strike, obliterate and degeneration, so these whouldn't prevent white damage swings.

if it's true that blood strike has 5s cooldown while obliterate hasn't any, than it's higher dps just spamming the latter, but probably i rely on incomplete informations or maybe it's just gonna be fixed in some future build, as of now 3x obliterate 1x death coil and a 55 level mob is nearly dead, also considering 4-5 melee swings.

does hex take into account increased damage from corrupted vindication?

great work on this program btw

[futhark]

Can't wait to try this when I get home tonight!

[Vandamme]

Downloading now to give it a go, looks pretty exciting.

[mrboh]

white damage from normal swing doesn't seem to show up. if i'm not mistaken plague strike is on next attack while blood is istant, just like death strike, obliterate and degeneration, so these whouldn't prevent white damage swings.

Plague Strike, Blood Strike, Obliterate, etc are all instant attacks which, as far as I'm aware, do not reset the swing timer so you should still see white hits in the combat log while these attacks are going on - white hits show up as "Your main/off hand hits for x".

if it's true that blood strike has 5s cooldown while obliterate hasn't any, than it's higher dps just spamming the latter, but probably i rely on incomplete informations or maybe it's just gonna be fixed in some future build, as of now 3x obliterate 1x death coil and a 55 level mob is nearly dead, also considering 4-5 melee swings.

I'm not aware of a cooldown on Blood Strike. I would agree that Obliterate damage > Blood Strike damage in pretty much every situation, I guess what you have to take into account is that Obliterate requires two runes whereas Blood Strike requires one.

does hex take into account increased damage from corrupted vindication?

Do you mean Ebon Plaguebringer? If so, no, unfortunately I haven't got a lot of the deep Unholy talents going yet.

great work on this program btw

Cheers