Shield Strike

When I wrote the entry "Strategy for Tough Levels", my guild mate Andypearce pointed out that Shield Strike can improve the efficiency of the Wither + defense setup.

Shield Strike is a level 700 skill and was not generally available until relatively recently. It is under the Offense tree, cost 20 stamina to buff and has a duration of 45 mins. Its description is :

0.1% per point chance that your defense stat is reduced to zero and your damage is doubled.

So, at level 175, it gives a 17.5% chance of activation.
While we are at it, a level 175 Deathwish has 5.25% chance of activation.
Wither at 350 has a 70% chance of activation.
Critical strike also has a reported chance of 3% activation if max'ed. If you have statistics to show otherwise, please let me know.

All the above skills enhances the 2-hit defensive setups. When any one of those activates, it will turn the 2-hit situation into a 1-hit. Some players mentioned Spectral Knight. I beg to differ on the usefulness of that buff. If the creature is easy, then you can 1-hit without the need of armor reduction. If you can't 1-hit and need to use a defensive setup, chances are that you won't be able to 1-hit even if Spectral Knight is activated.

Now, do NOT add all those percentages.
So the chance that none of them activate is (30% wither, 82.5% shield strike, 94.75% deathwish, 97% critical strike), multiply those, and that will be about 22.75%. That gives a 77.25% chance of 1-strike, and the efficiency is about 1.23.

Note that below assumes 16x doubler, and the Wither setup includes the use of Shield strike and Deathwish.

Efficiency	Setup
1	1-hit
1.06	CA-25
1.13	CA-50
1.19	CA-75
1.23	Wither 350 + Defense
1.25	CA-100
1.25	Back-level (1-hit)
1.3	Wither 350 + CA25 + Defense
1.31	CA-125
1.33	Back-level (CA-25)
1.35	Wither 350 + Imp
1.38	CA-150
1.39	Wither 350 + CA50 + Defense
1.41	Back-level (CA-50)
1.44	CA-175
1.46	Wither 350 + CA75 + Defense
1.48	Back-level (CA-75)
1.56	Back-level (CA-100)
1.64	Back-level (CA-125)
1.72	Back-level (CA-150)
1.8	Back-level (CA-175)
2	2-hit

FI 800 vs FI 1000

Potion of Greater Discovery gives a Find Item buff of level 800. It is relatively cheap. At the time of writing this blog, the lowest is going for 44,000 gold buy-now price.
Potion of Supreme Luck gives the same buff, but level 1000. Its can be found in the Special section of Auction House. The items are bounded and you cannot resell them. The minimum bid is 24,000 gold but bidding often go above 200,000 gold or even more during events.

But what is the Find Item buff? The description says :

+0.1% per point increase of creatures current drop rate.

So the FI 800 potion gives 80% increase of creatures current drop rate.
The FI 1000 potion gives 100% increase of creatures current drop rate.

Let's say the drop rate is X, then FI 800 will increase it to 1.8 X, while FI 1000 will increase it to 2.0 X. Therefore, the FI 800 drop rate is only 10% less than FI 1000 and not 20% like some thought it to be.

In scavenging, that 10% can still matter a lot. If you are spending 2 mil, that 10% amounts to 200k, and you should break even if you have to pay 200k more (ie, 244k) for the FI 1000. And if you are hard core and spend 10 mil, your break-even will be 1 mil for the FI 1000 potion.