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<blockquote data-quote="Kurotowa" data-source="post: 9127388" data-attributes="member: 27957"><p>That's what drives me nuts. I was there for the 3e Character Optimization forum on the WotC boards, fully participating. I spent over a decade immersed in World of Warcraft raid optimization and combat simulations. I'm not opposed to big numbers and efficient character builds. But all that time drove home two very important points for me.</p><p></p><p>The first is that you need to get your numbers and builds <em>right</em> if you want them to mean anything. Garbage in, garbage out. Combat sims are only as accurate as the assumptions built into them. Get those wrong and they're worthless.</p><p></p><p>The second is that white room numbers against a single motionless and unresisting target are never reflective of actual play. In actual play it's never a 1v1 duel, and the terrain matters, and boss enemies have all sorts of special abilities that throw a monkey wrench in your optimal combat script, and you're often not entering the fight in fully rested condition, and sometimes the dice just hate you. White room target dummy numbers have their place, but it's a limited one and should not be taken as a universal high score board.</p><p></p><p>So when people throw around clearly inaccurate white room numbers as if they're an objective measure of overall class balance, it drives me nuts. Those aren't what those tools are for and you're not even using them right.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kurotowa, post: 9127388, member: 27957"] That's what drives me nuts. I was there for the 3e Character Optimization forum on the WotC boards, fully participating. I spent over a decade immersed in World of Warcraft raid optimization and combat simulations. I'm not opposed to big numbers and efficient character builds. But all that time drove home two very important points for me. The first is that you need to get your numbers and builds [I]right[/I] if you want them to mean anything. Garbage in, garbage out. Combat sims are only as accurate as the assumptions built into them. Get those wrong and they're worthless. The second is that white room numbers against a single motionless and unresisting target are never reflective of actual play. In actual play it's never a 1v1 duel, and the terrain matters, and boss enemies have all sorts of special abilities that throw a monkey wrench in your optimal combat script, and you're often not entering the fight in fully rested condition, and sometimes the dice just hate you. White room target dummy numbers have their place, but it's a limited one and should not be taken as a universal high score board. So when people throw around clearly inaccurate white room numbers as if they're an objective measure of overall class balance, it drives me nuts. Those aren't what those tools are for and you're not even using them right. [/QUOTE]
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