Questions about hits per second

[Citizen055]

Can someone explain the significance of haste for a frostbeam mage? Does it affect the dps of frostbeam or only basic attacks? If it’s only basic attacks, why is it considered so important, only for the LoH boost? And/or triggering effects like the mantle, alacrity, incinerate enchantment etc?

Another question - why does a BH with the same haste as a mage have significantly more hits per second? (see attached pics)

Thanks for any theory or insights!

[LodWig]

I guess it's not a dual-wielding mage? There is a 30% bonus for dual-wielding...
Also, maybe they are not with the same hero level? And not the same number of Archer companions? And Synergy level?

[Citizen055]

GMC set, igneus and glacies. I never tried until now to remove one pistol from the BH, but that drops the hits/sec to equal the mage... but isn’t a staff/tome considered dual wielding? Or is my game somehow bugged?

[LodWig]

No, staff+tome is not dual-wielding.

[Citizen055]

That explains the difference then, bu CAN a mage dual wield? I just tried to equip two swords and it won’t let me. Otherwise the comparison is both BH and mage with no companions, both level 70 and both same haste value (as shown in attached screenshots). The mage actually has one synergy level higher than the BH and they are both on the same account so have the same champion level.

[Asad Butt]

Congratulations, you've started asking the right questions. Now try this out: your displayed hits per second rate is not what you get during the game. At 4.4, you're probaby getting abt 4 h/s. If you increase your haste so you have 4.7, or 4.9 even, you'll still get 4 h/s. But if you go above 5, you'll start getting 5. The max number of hits you can get actually depends on the frame rate of your device. You should test this for yourself in the Training Grounds level. Get a floating stopwatch app, use your basic attack for exactly one minute, then click details to see how many hits you got, divide it by 60 and you will get your actual h/s rate. Adjust haste to see what your most efficient point is, so you're not wasting haste points and not getting anything in return.

[Citizen055]

That. Is. Incredibly. Helpful.

Thank you!

[Skyla]

If I'm not mistaken Frostbeam is affected by haste anyway seeing that it's not a spell that counts as ONE attack the whole time you're casting it. It actually ticks off as if you were hitting multiple times. You can see it specifically when using Vial of Wind because it activates multiple times during a Frostbeam cast. So I would think the more haste means more "ticks" per Frostbeam cast.

[Citizen055]

If that’s the case than haste is super important for the build. Can anyone else confirm this?

Edit: I tested myself in the test area and haste does seem to have a big effect on frostbeam damage, and therefore also the thermal shock damage that follows. So haste is critical for this build also. Thanks for prompting me to test, I don’t know why I always forget that I can test it myself. ?

[Icedin]

Also, Haste give slight amounts of effective CDR too, since more hits gives more Alacrity procs. So 1% extra AS might translate to 1.3% extra overall DPS.