RedOwl wrote:This is exactly why DPS is less important than burst damage. And my burst damage is on the same level as lvled archers.
You keep saying this with out doing any math.
Your base minotaur archer does the same damage at start as a traditional minotaur archer (i.e., maxed from a 21 STR).
The difference is yours only improves (outside of weapons) with what little strength you get from athletics. Even if you went 33 points into athletics (the max STR bonus), that's all of 5 extra STR. That's 2.5 extra attack points. 33 Points into missile gets you roughly 8 extra attack points per attack, firing two arrows per shot. Each arrow is 6.5 extra attack points higher than yours (equal to 13 extra strength) and you're "bursting" for two of them. That single dedicated archer is doing
more damage than two of your skill-less archers, looking at burst alone. Damage over time is even more dramatic, given the 50% greater fire rate.
The difference is even more dramatic for a thrower. At 36 skill points, throwing has a strength bonus of +4, which is nearly the +5 you get from athletics. 7.5 extra attack points per throw compared to yours (equal to 15 STR), two throws per use, and 50% faster rate.
By endgame, a 21 STR, dedicated minotaur archer (ignoring perk selection) is doing 41 attack points with a crookhorn bow (10 (str) + 19 (weapon/ammo) + 12 (skill)), two arrows per use, 150% fire rate, double crit chance. Your jack of all trades archer, maxed athletics, is doing 33 attack points with a crookhorn (13 (str) + 19 (weapon/ammo)), single arrow, base attack rate. That's 80% of the attack point value per arrow, at half the arrows. Basically, 40% of the burst attack point value; 27% DPS. Now, I don't think that attack points convert directly to damage, but you can see that one dedicated archer is substantially better than two of yours, even looking just at burst. As per the above, the math for a thrower is even more dramatic.
To summarize again, your 4 jack-of-all trades have a ranged burst damage that is slightly worse than 2 dedicated ranged characters at midgame and will progressively get substantially worse past midgame. Their DPS is about 2/3rds of the dedicated throwers at midgame and maybe as low as 1/3 at endgame. That's looking at pure ranged damage and ignoring any melee contribution from dedicated melee tanks. That's also ignoring having to spread ammo and weapons around. In summary, you way overestimate the contribution of STR to damage and way undervalue skill points into attack skills.
