The two Sniper  like classes on Warhammer Online : Return of Reckoning.  During my gaming time on this game there was always the question which on is “better”. Although i believe there is no better in any class since they are all designed to do different things and not everything. Never the less i reached a point that i wanted to know if there are any significant differences between the classes. Here are some the results after a bit of testing. Most of the testing is on base, meaning, no gear, no renown, no builds or talents. On the result i will inticate what we testing how.


So the first thing we are going to look at is the statistics and differences. No gear, no renonw, no carrier points.

ENGINEER MAGUS
Strength 137 98
Ballistics 221 74
Inteligence 74 221
Toughness 172 147
Weapon Skill 108 123
Initiative 196 196
Willpower 123 172
Wounds 440 391

The Main stat for damge is the same at (221). Initiative for chance to recieve critial is the same (196). the main difference is that the engineer gets a slight woounds buff and the magus gets a wepon skill and will power buff in the stats. Thse small difference are not huge to cause a problem in the game but they are diferences. This results in the following:

ENGINEER MAGUS
Parry 4,1 4,7
Dodge 7,5 7,5
Disrupt 4,7 6,6

 

ENGINEER MAGUS
Damage bonus 44,2 44,2

Base Damage


Base damage, no gear, no renown, no weapons, no specializations. 10 auto attacks on target dammies. Target dummies have no armour, no ressistances.

ENGINEER MAGUS
DPS AVERAGE DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG
0,55 15,55 0,54 12,45
0,55 17,08 0,55 11,41
0,55 16,5 0,55 11,08
Average Average Average Average
0,55 16,38 0,55 11,65

No difference on DPS. Slght difference on the average damage, this happened due to a few critical hits more on the engineer. Both claases have the same change to do critical hit.

Base Damage + Weapons


Base damage, no gear, no renown, SC weapons, no specializations. 10 auto attacks on target dammies. Target dummies have no armour, no ressistances

Engineer Melee Engineer Ranged Magus Melee
DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG
0,45 85,21 1873 0,44 92,24 2111 0,3 87,37 2930
0,45 85,21 1873 0,43 89,3 2098 0,32 116,76 3606
0,45 84,65 1862 0,4 87,29 2192 0,32 107,4 3332
Average Average Average Average Average Average Average Average Average
0,45 85,02 1869,33 0,42 89,61 2133,67 0,31 103,84 3289,33

On auto attacks with the same level weapons we see that the magus has a clear advantage on damage. Magus use melee attacks and having a 2 Handed weapon in melee range they output more damage. The Engineer is using single wepon for melee and single for ranged. On the auto attack the magus does alot mroe in melee rang, however he does not have a ranged auto attack giving him a disadvantage on long range DPS. How important this extra damage is , i can not tell, but damage is damage. Small not that this damage is physical.

Gun Blast Vs Flickering Red Fire


A test with 10 shots on dummies between those two skills. Engineer skill is Physical damage and Magus is Elemental. Dumies have no resistanses, no armor, no other stats.

Engineer Spanner & Gun Engineer Gun Only Magus
DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG
0,61 277,74 9582 0,8 322,5 8045 0,42 171,3 4089
0,82 350,62 8579 0,6 241,45 8044 0,41 176,46 4258
0,7 302,59 8688 0,83 320,29 7751 0,32 134,1 4153
Average Average Average Average Average Average Average Average Average
0,71 310,32 8949,67 0,74 294,75 7946,67 0,38 160,62 4166,67

It is clear tha the engineer is outputing MASSIVE damage to the dummies with this skill compared to the Magus. Much higher DPS and much Higher over 100% more total damage. For this reason the next test was done with the same setup on the constructs that have both sov armour & armor potions and magical resitances to see how that translates to a more “real” in fight conditions.

Gun Blast Vs Flickering Red Fire (constructs)


Engineer Magus
DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG
0,85 73,32 1631 0,41 77,3 1900
0,86 60,83 1414 Dummy 0,44 75,03 1710 Dummy
0,83 64,29 1464 8949 0,46 87,42 1900 4166
Average Average Average Average Average Average
0,85 66,15 1503,00 DPS LOSS 495% 0,44 79,92 1836,67 DPS LOSS 127%

In a more “normal situataion where resistances and armor is involed, the engineer looses 495% of the damage he was doing on the dummies, while the magus only 127. Thsi gives the magus an advanage that he can hit armored and not armoured targets the same. The engineer is limited on “soft” target to get maximum damage. In other words dotn hit tanks or heavy armor targets.

Since these two classes also have an aoe specialisation i have a bried look a on of the skills to see how they do in that path same test as with Gun blast and Flickerign Red Fire.

Fire Bomb vs Rend Winds


Engineer Magus
DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG DPS AVERAGE DMG TOTAL DMG
0,62 72,24 1160 1,43 65,04 1363
0,66 86,55 1305 1,65 67,04 1222
0,71 81,89 1160 1,67 76,91 1383
Average Average Average Average Average Average
0,66 80,23 1208,33 1,58 69,66 1322,67

These skills are both spell damage. The engineer is dealing more damage per shot but the magus get a massive difference in the DPS race. Rend winds attack 3 times per sec with less damage this leads to the incresed dps numbers. Depending on the situation both can be used very well.

Skill Difference


The magus some times feels like they can apply teh dots faster than the enginner. This is due to the animation of the characters and the two more facts. One is that the magus has an extra dot and second that the magus can cast 7 dots with 250 AP while the engineer can cast only 6 with the 250 AP availible.

ENGINEER MAGUS
SKILL AP CAST DMG TYPE SKILL AP CAST DMG TYPE
GUN BLAST 40 3 387 PHYSICAL RED FIRE 35 3 320 ELMENTAL
ACID BOMB 25 1 427 CORP GLEAN MAGIC 25 1 420 SPIRIT
FRAGMENTATION GRANADE 45 2 725 CORP PANDEMUNIUM 45 2 735 SPIRIT
HIP SHOT 35 1 216 PHYSICAL VIOLENT FIRE 35 1 241 ELEMENTAL
SIGNAL FLARE 40 1 1225 PHYSICAL WITHERRED SOUL 25 1 1240 ELEMENTAL
FLASHBANG GRANADE 35 2 291 PHYSICAL SURGE OF INSANITY 35 2 291 SPIRIT
STICKY BOMB 40 1 432 CORP SEED OF CHAOS 40 1 435 SPIRIT
AP NEEDED CAST TIME TOTAL DMG AP NEEDED CAST TIME TOTAL DMG
260 11 3703 240 11 3682
Spells 6 3276 Spells 7 3362

 

PETS


ENGINEER MAGUS
Pets Pets
55 AP Flame 55 AP Blue Horror
Steam Vent 74 Dmg / 1 Sec / 30 Feet / Corporeal 8sec Coruscating Energy 116 Dmg / 1 sec / 30 Feet / Elemental 8sec
Flamethrower 174 Dmg / Aoe / 40 Feet / Physical 5sec Warping Energy 165 Dmg / Aoe / 40 Feet / Spirit 5 sec
55 AP Bombardment 55 AP Flamer
Explosive Granade 173 Dmg / 20 Feet / Corporeal 8sec Flames of Change 232 Dmg / 20 Feet / Spirit 8sec
Shock Granade 206 / Single Target / Corporeal 4sec Flame of Tzeentch 168 Dmg / Singe Target / Spirit 6sec
55 AP Gun 55 AP Pink Horror
Machine Gun (588) 196 Dmg / 1 Sec / 3 Sec Duration 8sec Deamonic Consumption 5% Crit Reduction/ 196 Elemental DOT (10 sec) 10sec
Penetrating Round Physical 172 Dmg / 1 Shot / 612 Armor Debuff 10 sec Daemonic Fire Elemental Debuff / 216 Dmg Elemental 5sec

From the table above i believe that the pets of the magus are better in alot fo aspecs. The only advantage i see on the engineer part is the gun turret, which deals alot fo damage and has burst. However the -5% critical damage debuff of the magus,  i cant tell if its better or not that the burst damage of the engineer pet. Both seem very good to me. Over all i think that the magus pets win the comparisson.

Conclusions


ENGINEER MAGUS
Melle attack much lower damage Melle – slower attack speed more damage
Auto attack swith weapon never use both No ranged auto attack
2 procs main and off hand 1 proc since 1 weapon
495% loss in damage over armor 127% damage lost over armor
Lower DPS- Bigger Damage Higher DPS- Bursty
Lower Total Damage in most cases Higher Total damage in most cases
Physical Dots Spell Dots
7 Dots in 1 Action Point Rotation (260) – 6 casted 7 Dots in 1 Action Point Rotation (240) – 7 casted
More expensive skills Cheaper skills (AP)
1 less dot in ther skills than Magus 1 extra Dot in their skills than Engineer
Morale builds the same on atoattack Morale builds the same on atoattack
Slow heal- castable/inruptable/push back (1450 app) AOE/limited range insta heal – and reflect damage/uniteruptable/no push back (2200 app)
Heal effected by heal debuff and shaman heal damage Not effected by heal debuffs
Higher defence vs melle Even defecne agasint all
Easier builds Harder builds – Higher potential – More grind
Worse pets Better pets
Winning points 3 Winning points 12

Despite the general belief that the engineer is much stronger and better, i have to say that frm the results above it seems that the magus has a clear advantage in many areas. They have differnt styles and uses. Also we need to take in account that Destro dont have as many ranged as Order thus it can be argued that they need to be stronger to compensate for the difference. The same can be held true for Order melle like the lion. The balance in the game is very hard for many reasons. One must see the “big” picture to say if somethings needs changes. The game is balanced on top gear with Warband gameplay in mid. Everythign else comes second. I hope the above basic comparison to give you a new perspective into the game and the classes. 

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