You have been warned.
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Over the past few days I have been looking at redux in a mathamatical sense (No, i do not have a life)
Most people know the basics about redux
the accepted equation (at least to my knowledge)
is: 100{1-[1/(R/350)]}
R = :
Primary Ranks (CM,Multi,Climb, etc) x 1.7
+
Secondary Ranks (Weapons) x .6
To explore redux a little more i charted some sample redux trainings (avg per lev) over a span of 100 levels.
I took a wide variety of training paths.
8/2, 10/2, 13/3, 13.5/3,14/2....,17/2..,19/10
The chart looks as follows:
here is the legend
As you can see, though the diferent training paths start at varying levels of redux (some even in the negatives), they all end up (by level 100) to be approx. the same .
Through this data i came to the conclusion that the only significant advantage of higher redux training is the level at which you start getting redux.
As the years go on, your redux training gets less and less important.
The diference between 8/2 Redux Training and 19/10 is only 10% at level 100.
Between 13/3 and 19/10 is 5%
and between 17/5 and 19/10 is only about 1%.
Taking account the training points neccessary to get 19/10 as apposse to only 13/3, it is obvious that getting the maximum redux possible is a foolish goal to any class.
Now i began looking at the general equation of redux.
1/(R/350)
I immediantly recognized this as a standard equation y = 1/x.
As you can see by the next chart, redux has the general form of the that equation.
(Inverted for clarity)
This graph illustrates the imppossibility of 100% redux. It also illustrates the immense effort need to get past 90% redux.
The graph goes up to 30,000 Redux Points.
To put this in perspective, you would have to train 1255 levels at 13/3 redux to accumulate 30,000 Redux Points. Which is approximately 98.8%
50,000, well over 2000 levels worth, is by comparison, 99.3%
So, 750 Levels worth of training 13/3 redux results in a net gain of a whole .5% ....
Yipeee!!
To find the slope of the redux equation, (the net gain in redux per R) i took the derivitive of Redux with Respect to R.
f'(Redux) = 1/(R/350)
f'(Redux) = 350/R
f'(Redux) = 350R^-1
f'(Redux) = -350R^-2
So, the Mtan (slope) of the equation is equal to negative 350 over R squared.
Again, due to the inverted nature of this graph we take out the negative.
We know that when R < 350, Redux is zero, so we will start with 350.
The slope at 350 is .0028
Which is to say for every 1 redux skill equal .0028% redux.
Now as we go up our slope decreases.
At 500 points it halves to .0014
At 1000 is is now .00035
I came to the conslusion that anything after about 2500 Skill (86%) is not worth the effort.
The change in redux is so insignificant as to be almost unchartable.
I would even go as far to say that it is not worth it to tain in redux past 1500 Skill, which is 76.67% Redux, which is 8/2 Redux over 100 levels...
Ok, now what does all this mean.
Well, it means that Redux is plagued by the same diminishing returns aspect of the weapon skills that got the squares in trouble in the first place.
It also means that 13/3 Redux training is not neccesarily better in the long run than 10/2 or 8/2.
This changes my perspective on alot of things concerning redux.
I now value mana share more than 2 more points of redux a level. I value mana share, first aid, and many other secondary skills and higher cost skills over Redux, now that i have this data in front of me.
So, what is better?
5% more damage reduction or
Full Share
Pelts from 100 Levels of good FA
100 Levels worth of Ambushing
??????
I have come to the conclusion that shooting for anything more than a 13/3 average is a waste of time.
Averaging 13/3 Redux is still viable for those interested in the Uber-Warrior, but not at the cost of the secondary skills.
Dont try to squeak a .5 more redux a lev after 13/3, go for the non-redux skills.
My plan for those still interested in maxing redux, start with a base 8/2 or 10/2 redux.
Decide the non-redux skills you want to include in your training.
Spend the rest on redux up to a max of 13/3, after that, spend your tp's elsewere.
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'lood reg
