Alright everyone, SpellDamage 2.0 is very close now. I’m just finishing up the Priest calculator, should be done by the end of the weekend. After that, I just polish the site until my host has finished setting up ASP.NET 3.5.
So what’s coming? Here’s a quick review of whats new:
- Spell Database – Probably the single most important update. Now that I have an accurate database of the spells for each class, I can provide calculations to every level range. Yes, that’s right, you 29 twinks out there can now use SpellDamage too! I’ve even developed some back end tools to help me keep the spell data current (in case Blizzard changes things).
- Full Level Range Calculated – I know I mentioned it above, but it’s worth making it into it’s own bullet. The entire level range, 1-70, can now be calculated.
- US, EU, and Korea Support – Well, actually I’m not sure about the Korea support, but 2.0 fully supports the European WoW players! If you happen to know a Korean character/realm, test it out when 2.0 comes out, let me know how it works.
- Tabbed UI – The tabbed UI saves tons of screen real-estate, which frees the site up to better display the calculation results. It also helps a ton to keep everything clean and organized. It’s a billion times better than the current UI, and it’s AJAX’d so it’s nice and fast switching between tabs. To top it off, if the tabs are in the way, you can hide them!
- Top <class> – Each class has a Top <class> page that lets you show off! The data is filterable so you can see who’s truly top of their class. For example, the Top Mages page by default shows the mages who have the top mana, hp, spell damage, etc… with no filters. You can begin applying filters to it, such as level range, realm, battlegroup, etc… If you wanted to see only the 20-29 mages in the vindication battlegroup, you can!
- Article System - There’ll be an article system in 2.0, where I’ll write articles about class balance, theorycrafting, and anything else I feel like!
- LINQ - Actually, this is a feature of ASP.NET 3.5, but LINQ has allowed me to be extremely productive with the little free time I have. The auto-generated classes right from the SQL database top the cake!
- WoWArmory Data – I’m pulling a bit more armory data than before, and storing more of it as well. This supports the Top <class> pages.
- And more…
Hope you all enjoy SpellDamage 2.0 as much as I like developing it!
6 Comments
Great work! I found the site last night. It is a great asset for the WoW community. I have a level 70 mage on the Kael’thas server and find the stats very interesting and informative.
I would like to make a couple suggestions:
1.Cache the armory results. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be able to keep their system stable. I was having great difficulty last night. I would suggest that you use a basic 20-30 second timeout, and then inform the user that you have to use a cached version of their armory info (if available). The biggest drawback for your site is the dependence of the performance of the armory.
2. Equipment Compare (this is more of a version 3.0 request). I would love to be able to see the difference in my overall DPS if I swapped out some gear. For version 2.0 I would try to expand the inputs to include all stats (intellect, spirit, etc) so the user can manually make changes to their stats based on equipment changes.
3. I like the tally feature, but I think it needs to be a little more sophisticated. I would like to tell the program that I use Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, Scorch then Arcane Blast. The program should then be able to calculate the total time taken for the sequence, total damage, DPS, and DPM. I would be nice if trinkets and buffs can be included in the chain for instance: Scorch, Scorch, Scorch, Clearcast Buff, use Xi’ri’s Gift, AM. If including the trinket would be too tough then just +SpellDamage 150 in place of the trinket.
4. I love the idea of top and I am anxious to see it. I think it would be cool for a user to define a spell sequence and then choose a list of characters they would like to compare with. For example, if I chose the first sequence I denoted in #3, I would like search and select up to 5 other mages I can compare my stats with for that custom sequence.
5. Add a donate button! I believe this is one of the more valuable web sites available to casters and would have no problem donating to the cause.
Garrett, thank you for the awesome comment. I’ll try to run down the list you made:
1. The armory results actually are cached. I cache the entire XML document on a 20 minute sliding cache expiration timer. This means that the armory pull will be cached until nobody has used the data for 20 minutes. As soon as someone uses the data again, it starts the 20 minute timer over. So far, I haven’t had any issues with visitors complaining of their armory data not refreshing correctly, so I’ve kept the 20 minutes… but if I start getting a lot of complaints, I’ll lower the time.
2. I’m not sure I want to complicate the calculator with equipment, when the end-result (spell damage, crit rates) are all that really matter. The idea isn’t discarded, but I think your other suggestions will be higher on my to-do list.
3. It’s funny you mention that because that is nearly exactly what I’m working on for SpellDamage 2.5. I mean, seriously, nearly exactly. Great minds think alike eh?
4. I love your idea to compare your spell rotation to another mage. That is definitely on the to-do list. Thanks!
5. Hmm, never thought of that. I’ll add one someday!
Thanks again, let’s keep the ideas flowing. My windows messenger ID is zuuljin@hotmail.com if you want to hop on IM and bs about spelldamage, or WoW… whatever.
You should offer the ability to take Curse of Shadows into account for mage as well as Curse of Elements. Curse of Shadows affects Shadow and Arcane damage, so having it up as an Arcane mage makes a big difference.
@Zifnab,
Thanks for the info, will add it as soon as I can work it into the development schedule.
Hey Chad, thanks for the response!
#1 I have been visiting the Amory a lot lately and have experienced big delays when loading the page. My only concern was that if they are delayed then your visitors will be delayed. Anything you can do to minimize the bottleneck would be of value, and hearing that you cache results is awesome.
#3 I agree that managing equipment is quite a burden and will complicate the entire program. I would suggest including the crit rating as an input. This will allow the user to make manual calculations in gear. For example: my mage currently wears the Shawl of Shifting Probabilities and I was looking at the Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran that drops in Kara. If I wore the new cloak, my crit rating would decrease by 22 but my bonus damage would increase by 15. By manually subtracting 22 from crit rating and adding 15 to spell damage I can calculate the small benefit this new piece may offer.
This also brings me to a question; do you include the chance of crit in the AvgDmg and DPS calculation? My mage, Meister, via the armory has a 21.05% of crit. Is there a calculation that would be something like (AvgDmg * 0.7895) + (AvgCrit * 0.2105) = TotalAvg?
Again, I think this is an awesome tool and you are doing great job. I am really looking forward to 2.0 and beyond!
Hey Garrett,
1) Yup, caching is good and I’m always watching it to make sure it’s being used effectively. I’ll cache more as I get more features implemented. (I’m going to port SpellDamage to the ASP.NET MVC framework after the 2.0 release).
3) Crit rate is in the works, but probably won’t come out until after I port the site to the MVC framework. Right now the calculations don’t take crit into consideration, but it’s on the to-do list.
Thanks for the compliments. I’ll be having a lot more development time once 2.0 is released and I catch up on some rl tasks I’ve been meaning to do. Hopefully 2.5+ are released more quickly.