Carbineer Archive

The Actual Firing Speed calculation is:
[(100 - Player Mod) / 100] * Weapon Speed * Special Delay = Actual Speed

This equation works for all fighting professions. The Player Mod is from your Skill Sheet with bonuses up to +25 for attachments. A pure Master Carbineer get +60 and then you can add Master Marksman for +65 for a maximum of +85/+90 without any Bounty Hunter skills. The Weapon Speed comes directly from the examine window of each weapon. The Special Delay is typically found in each profession's forum.

For example, lets take an average Laser Carbine at 2.4 speed with
45-280 damage using BurstShot1 in the beginning stages of Carbineer, +35 Carbine Speed:

A) [(100 - 35) / 100] * 2.4 * 2.0 = 3.12 sec Actual Speed.

Now lets move up to Master Carbineer using CrippleShot with the same weapon:

B) [(100 - 60) / 100] * 2.4 * 2.5 = 2.40 sec Actual Speed.

Now throw in +20 attachments and we begin to see large improvements:

C) [(100 - 80) / 100] * 2.4 * 2.5 = 1.20 sec Actual Speed.


The progression to faster firing speed is not linear. This of course rewards the Master levels more but at the same time makes leveling more difficult. Also NOTE as of this writing all professions CAN NOT fire faster than once per second with any weapon using any special.

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It is also important to discuss DPS, Damage Per Second:

The calculation is:
{[(Min Damage + Max Damage) / 2] * Special Damage Modifier} / Actual Firing Speed = DPS

The Min Damage and Max Damage are listed in the Examine window for each weapon with the the Weapon Speed number. The Special Damage Modifier should be listed with the Special Delay on each profession's forum. NOTE: careful attention must be paid to where the "Mysterious 1.5X" multiplier is added. As Carbineers we include the 1.5X into the Special Damage Modifier as Nova got the figures from ACTUAL in-game testing. Some other professions base the specials off the standard attack which is 1.5 * Weapon Damage.

Lets continue the above examples to calculate DPS.

A) {[(45 + 280) / 2] * 6.0} / 3.12 = 312.5 DPS

B) {[(45 + 280) / 2] * 7.5} / 2.40 = 507.8 DPS

C) {[(45 + 280) / 2] * 7.5} / 1.20 = 1015.6 DPS

As you can see, the Speed greatly affects the amount of damage you can expect to do on any given creature/person. Please remember there are other factors to the actual damage done; damage type of weapon, armor piercing of weapon, armor rating of target, resist % of target, to hit %, and your accuracy.

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Comparison of Damage Slices vs. Speed Slices:

Lets continue on with the Laser Carbine above, that I listed with about a 30% speed slice. Now the actual data on this weapon will vary from server to server but for this math comparison it doesn't matter. It also does not matter if the Special Damage Modifier is used as it would just multiply each number by the same modifier. The same goes for Actual Firing Speed (until the 1.0 Speed Cap is reached, but more on that
later).

Unsliced Laser Carbine with 3.5 speed and 45 - 280 damage, which is
[(45 + 280) / 2] / 3.5 = 46.4 DPS

1) 30% speed slice makes it 2.45 speed and 45 - 280 damage, which is
66.3 DPS

2) 30% damage slice makes it 3.5 speed and 58.5 - 364 damage, which is
60.4 DPS

From the data above, when the % of the slice is the same, Speed is a higher DPS than Damage. Powerups can also change what slice you want, but for the most part people don't keep their weapons powerup'd 100% of the time.It is important to NOTE that when a player hits the 1.0 Speed Cap a speed slice will NOT improve the overall DPS.

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Lets get into the 1.0 Speed Cap in more detail.

As of this writing all professions CAN NOT fire faster than once per second with any weapon using any special. For a Carbineer we don't have to worry about the speed cap until near or beyond Master. Lets look at capping our slowest specials (i.e. those with a special delay of 2.5).

The calculation to find what weapon speed you hit the cap for is:
Actual Speed / [(100 - Player Mod) / 100] / Special Delay = Weapon Speed

Substitute special delay of 2.5 and actual speed for 1.0:
40 / (100 - Player Mod) = Weapon Speed to Cap CrippleShot/ScatterShot2/BurstShot2/WildShot2

For example:

I) Mid-level Carbineer with +40 Carbine Speed will need a 0.67 Weapon Speed to Cap

II) Master Carbineer with +60 Carbine Speed will need a 1.00 Weapon Speed to Cap

III) Master Carbineer and Master Marksman with +65 Carbine Speed will need a 1.14 Weapon Speed to Cap

IV) Master Carbineer and +10 Attachments with total +70 Carbine Speed will need a 1.33 Weapon Speed to Cap

V) Master Carbineer and +20 Attachments with total +80 Carbine Speed will need a 2.00 Weapon Speed to Cap

VI) Master Carbineer and Master Marksman and +25 Attachments with a total of +90 Carbine Speed will need a 4.00 Weapon Speed to Cap

Most Carbines are easy to find under 4.00 Weapon Speed, so at +90 Carbine Speed it becomes easy to fire EVERY Special once every second. You can also add in +Carbine Speed from Bounty Hunter for a +115 Carbine Speed without any Attachments, but as you can see above, going above +90 Carbine Speed has little effect.

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Summary

Each character has different skill modifiers and weapons so there is no single answer to "what is the best carbine?" But this information can be easily figured while at a vendor sorting through stats on available carbines. It is important to remember that a speed-sliced weapon will out-damage an identical carbine sliced for damage until you hit the 1.0 speed cap. At that point and only at that point a damage slice is better.