Calculations for Critical Stat Diminishing

Returns
Schwarzschilda
February 2, 2018

1 Overview
The question addressed here is at what stat values points in the Critical stat
become suboptimal. The assumption made here is that the player is at max
level (70), fully geared in 248-rating gear, fully augmented with 236-rating
augments, running the proficient stim, has all four class buffs, and has all
Mastery giving datacrons.

2 Calculations
With the assumptions stated in section 1, the player will have a base of 6907
Mastery and 4426 Power. Weapon base damage values vary a bit based upon
whether the class is a dual-wielding class and if the offhand weapon is used in
some but not all attacks. To be representative, we will focus on single-handed
weapons because dual-wielding classes are theoretically slightly weaker to
compensate for having two attacks (yes, this it not exactly true because
of Bioware but it won’t change the result a whole lot). The single-bladed
Lightsaber has a mainhand damage of 1444-2165. Because we are concerned
with average performance, we will use the average damage of 1804.5. In
total, Mastery and Power give a combined 2513.7 bonus damage, for a base
damage of 4318.2. The base numbers are summarized in table 1.
Ultimately, whether Critical or Mastery stat is more valuable comes down
to which leads to a greater increase of DPS. Thus, we need a formula for DPS
in terms of stat values. The average attack will do damage as a function of
its base damage, the critical hit rate, and the critical multiplier,

1
 Table 1: Base Numbers

Parameter Value
Base Mastery 6880
Base Power 4426
Weapon Damage 1804.5
Bonus Damage 2513.7
Base Damage 4318.2

D = B[(1 − R) + R(1 + P )] (1)

where D is damage dealt, B is the base damage, R is the critical hit rate, and
P is the critical multiplier. 1 − R is the percentage of hits that are standard
hits, and R is the percentage of critical hits, which do 1 + P times the normal
amount of damage. We can condense this formula to

D = B(1 + RP ). (2)

Assuming power stays constant, C is a function of both Mastery and Critical,

while B is only a function of Mastery and P is only a function of Critical.
We now take the derivative of D with respect to M and C:

∂D ∂B ∂R
= (1 + RP ) + BP (3)
∂M ∂M
  ∂M
∂D dP ∂R
=B R +P . (4)
∂C dC ∂C

Using these equations, we can determine a point where the increase in D due
to Mastery becomes greater than the increase in D due to Critical.
Mastery adds a constant 0.2 damage per stat point, or

∂B
= 0.2. (5)
∂M

2
We also know that critical chance comes independently from Mastery and
Critical. The formulas for critical chance and critical multiplier are available
online. They are:

  M/max(level,20) !
0.01 5.5
RM = 0.2 ∗ 1− 1− (6)
0.2
  C/max(level,20) !
0.01 0.8
RC = 0.3 ∗ 1− 1− (7)
0.3
  C/max(level,20) !
0.01 0.8
PC = 0.3 ∗ 1− 1− (8)
0.3

where RM and RC are the critical rates due to Mastery and Critical, respec-
tively. Simplifying Bioware’s formulas for ease of computation, we get:

 M
 385
19
RM = 0.2 − 0.2 (9)
20
 C
 56
29
RC = 0.3 − 0.3 (10)
30
 C
 56
29
PC = 0.3 − 0.3 . (11)
30
Differentiating each of these equations,

M
    385
∂R 2 19 19
=− ∗ log (12)
∂M 3850 20 20
C
    56
∂R 3 29 29
=− ∗ log (13)
∂C 560 30 30
C
    56
dP 3 29 29
=− ∗ log (14)
dC 560 30 30
Because we are interested in the point where Critical becomes less valuable
than Mastery, we will use the base value of Mastery. So, we plug that value
into equation (12):

3
 ∂R
= 1.065 × 10−5 . (15)
∂M
We can now express the partial derivatives of D as functions of C. The point
where the partial derivative of D with respect to M at the base Mastery
value is greater than that with respect to C is the point where Critical stat
becomes less valuable than Mastery stat and it becomes more beneficial to
put additional stat into Mastery. First, we must note the base values of
critical hit chance and critical multiplier. These values are summarized in
table 2.

Table 2: Base Critical Hit Numbers

Parameter Value
Base Critical Hit Chance 0.05
Base Critical Hit Bonuses 0.05
Base Critical Hit Multiplier 0.50
Base Multiplier Bonuses 0.01

Substituting these values as well as the equations for R and P into (3) and
(4), the resulting equations are:

C  C !!
  56 !! 
∂D 29 29 56
= 0.2 1 + 0.2300 + 0.3 − 0.3 0.81 − 0.3 +
∂M 30 30
C
  56 !
29
4.473 × 10−2 0.3 − 0.3 (16)
30

 C !     56 C
!!
∂D 29 56 3 29 29
= 4318.2 0.2300 + 0.3 − 0.3 − ∗ log +
∂C 30 560 30 30
C C
  56 !     56 !
29 3 29 29
4318.2 0.81 − 0.3 − ∗ log (17)
30 560 30 30

4
Plotting these equations as a function of C, the resulting plot is shown in
figure 1. The point where the two curves cross turns out to be at 1795.8
points put into the Critical stat.

Figure 1: Increase in damage as a function of stat points committed to the

Critical stat

3 Conclusion
For most DPS classes, the results of this study suggests that the player should
commit 1796 points put into the Critical stat before beginning to add them
to Mastery. It is not fully correct to say that stat points should be put into
only Mastery at this point, as the change in damage per Critical stat point
increases as the base damage increases, thus moving the crossover point to a
higher number.