Speed Mechanics Explained + Updated SpeedCalc

Median XL: Ultimative - Speed Calculator in java

Hi all
So I've updated the java tool for ultimative, after a few years of this tool being outdated - since many people have been asking for help regarding this issue - and I also decided to make a guide because I see a lot of people that don't use this tool properly, either because they forget to fill some important information such as WSM, or because some parts of the tool aren't too obvious if you don't understand the mechanisms in depth.

Download: http://mxl.vn.cz/ultimative/SpeedCalc.rar  (Requires Java Runtime Environment)
Tool created by terryys and adapted to Ultimative by MarcoNecroX

Detailed Guide / Usage  (I recommend to read it all!)

ACRONYMS

► FPA: Frames Per Attack
► IAS: Increased Attack Speed
► FCR: Faster Cast Rate
► FBR: Faster Block Rate
► FHR: Faster Hit Recovery
► FRW: Faster Run/Walk
► WSM: Weapon Speed Modifier
► A1/A2: Attack 1/2 animation
► SC: Spell Cast animation

CONCEPTS

► "Effective" speeds: the difference between 'Skill ###' and 'Item ###'
Some speed stats granted by items, like IAS, suffer from a penalty, meaning they actually give a lesser amount of 'Effective IAS' than shown. This isn't something you should worry about, because this tool allows you to input your Item IAS and Skill IAS separatedly. Skill IAS stands for Effective IAS (it is actually wrong to call it Skill IAS). Most (not all, see below) skills grant you effective speeds, meaning that it doesn't suffer from penalties, and thus, have more value than regular item speed. Note that "Skill FCR" doesn't exist.

► WSM: Weapon Speed Modifier - the reason why most people fail to calculate breakpoints.
Most weapons in the game have an innate speed modifier, called WSM. What, exactly, is WSM? WSM is inverted Effective IAS. For example, Warp Blades have -60 WSM, this means, they come with an innate 60% effective attack speed. Many people put speed tables into guides or responses, but they are not accurate if the WSM of the weapon type isn't taken into account. Note that WSM does not affect casting rate, so you shouldn't worry about that. You can check WSM values in the documentation under the tab Items>Base Items (column is called Att Spd). You should always set the WSM on the speedcalc!

► Weapon Types
Some weapon types aren't fully clear, so I'll detail them here:
● 1H swing vs 1H thrust: thrust is for throwable weapons. Javelins, throwing knifes/axes/spears, potions, etc. Swing are the rest.
● Staff & Other 2H Weapon: the other 2H weapons are two-handed maces, spears, scythes, axes. But not swords.
● Slash: this is used for barbarian's dual-weild. It includes 1H swing & 2H swords.
Note that when dual weilding, a new concept arises, called "Right/Left" hand. Your right hand is the one on the left of your inventory.

► Breakpoints
A frame is an image. The game displays 25 images per second. Thus, a frame can also be used as a time unit (1/25th of a second, in Diablo II).
Each animation takes a certain amount of frames until it finishes. Less frames = faster animation. The FPA (Frames Per Attack) are natural
numbers. You cannot have an animation take 10,5 FPA to perform. This is the reason why the concept of breakpoints exists: there are certain points
where an amount of a certain speed increase will improve your FPA, however, different values inside two breakpoints will have no difference.
Example: an Amazon with a bow needs 8% IAS to have 11 FPA, and 22% IAS to have 10 FPA. This means, there is no difference between having
8% IAS or having 20% IAS, because you didn't cross any breakpoint. So, this is why this tool exists, you shouldn't blindly invest into boosting
your speed without taking into account all the breakpoints that exist.

THE SPEEDCALC AND ITS OPTIONS

Whether a skill uses A1, A2 or SC (see below) animations is SKILL-specific!

► ATTACK 1 (A1)
This is one of the most important animations in the game. It's when you perform an attack. Most skills that deal weapon damage use this animation, while most spells like fireballs or summoning minions use the SC (Spell Cast) animation. However, as mentioned before, this is strictly skill-specific. For example, skills like ATMG sentry deal purely weapon damage, however they use the SC animation, and thus, you would need FCR and not IAS to boost it.

► ATTACK 2 (A2)
This is a secondary A1 animation. Again, whether a skill uses the A2 animation instead of A1, depends on the specific skill used. Skills can vary between A1 and A2 animations. This usually isn't very important because in most cases, A1 and A2 animations have the same breakpoints. But in some cases, like Treewarden, the A2 animation is slower. The A1 animation requires 120% IAS to hit the highest FPA, but the A2 animation requires 125%IAS, so you should aim for 125% IAS.

► SPELL CAST (SC)
This is the animation used for most spells, and summoning minions. It is affected by FCR instead of IAS. SC mode, unlike A1/A2 modes is unaffected by WSM. Additionally, "Skill FCR" doesn't exist, all skills grant you item %FCR, so don't use the "Skill FCR" option (no idea why terryys added it). Also, a last note, FCR is capped at 200%. Note that some animations, like Deathlord, do not have a SC animation, so when you do stuff like summon or use Bend the Shadows, A1 animation is used instead!

► BLOCK ANIMATION (BL)
Obviously, the animation when you block. This animation requires a shield. This works similarly to calculating SC speeds, however, skill FBR does exist, it's granted by skills such as Rapture. Note that most monster animations do not have a BL animation, so blocking uses the FHR animation instead. I am 95% certain that, due to this reason, %FBR does nothing if you're using a morph with no blocking animation, and thus you should get FHR instead. Also, note by terryys, deathlord has a FBR table, but he doesn't use his FBR animation, so make sure to use FHR instead.

► HIT RECOVERY / GET HIT (GH)
This is the animation played when you get hit and need to take a break to recover (you get locked). Notice that animations work exactly for monsters like they do for players - to get a monster on a GH animation, you need to succesfully deal 1/12 of their total health in damage. FHR also has it's effective FHR mechanism, just like the block animation. Also, whether a skill can put a player into GH animation is also, skill-specific.

► OTHER ANIMATIONS (KK, S1, S2, S3, S4, SQ, NU, WL, RN, DD, DT, KB)
● SQ: these are sequencial animations. Used by skills like Batstrike, BloodHatred, Angel of Death, SMG, etc.
● Rollback: these are skills that work like Massacre or Ravage (Zeal in cLoD) they are one of the many SQ variants.
~ Reference Only: ~
● Neutral (NU): the animation while standing still, this only plays a visual role.
● Kick (KK): used only for breaking barrels.
● Special (S1-S4): these are special animations. Like smite from clod. Or bites from wolf. Or a resurrection animation. Most of them are unused too.
● Walk (WL): walking, is affected by %FRW which is also called velocity.
● Run (RN): same as walking mode, except your defense is set to 0 while running. Most monsters (and for that reason, morphs) don't have a running animation.
● Dead (DD): dead body (always 1 frame).
● Death (DT): animation when dying.
● Knockback (KB): same as GH animation.

terryys wrote:● The rollback skills in MXL (ravage, massacre) are all 50% rollback and use A1 animation.
● I've assumed all skills (S1, S2 etc) use IAS for speed increase, and only A1, A2 and KK are available for rollback skills. The rollback frames are available as tool tip. There are n+1 numbers for n attacks, the last number represents frames needed to return to the "neutral state" after the last hit. Note that funny things can happen if the speed is too fast (low rollback% or in wereform etc.), like 0 frame attack. Maybe I should cap the length of each attack to 1?
● Barbarian offhand normal attack uses S3, and Assassin offhand normal attack uses S4.

NEVER ASKED QUESTIONS (N.A.Q.)

► HOW DO I KNOW IF I'M USING A1, A2 OR SC?
It is actually as easy as eating pizza. You perform an attack and see what your character is doing.
● If while attacking, you perform 2 hits that look differently, you're automatically swapping between A1 and A2
● To know if you're using A1/A2 or SC animation: you can test your A1/A2 looks by using normal attack, and SC by casting a town portal.

► SOME MORPHS LIKE DEATHLORD ONLY HAVE ONE WEAPON TYPE - FIST, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
It means that all weapons have the same attacking animation (HTH - Hand To Hand), and thus, the same breakpoints for all weapons. This applies to most morphs, due to their weapon not being visible.

► SO, ALL SKILLS GIVE EFFECTIVE SPEED INCREASES?
Yes, except Immortal & Wild and Free. And as previously mentioned, skill FCR doesn't exist!

► DOES PLUGY SHOW MY ITEM + EFFECTIVE IAS COMBINED?
No. PlugY will show only item speeds.

► I SEE A WEREWOLF MORPH, HOW DO I GET IT?
It doesn't exist yet, but it will in the next patch. I have added it so I don't need to update this tool after release.

► ANYTHING ELSE?
Yes. When coding my own speedcalc tool, I have noticed a few differences in the results compared to terryys' ones. I think there might be some missing rounding in his code, leading to about half of the required %speed values to be +2 higher than in reality. It shouldn't really matter since my values are lower, so if you use the values from the tool, you would the same fpa as the one displayed there. I will contact him and see if he has something to say, maybe my code has a flaw as well.



Peace off

Damn u marco. I wanted to keep new info for self! lol

Cookie tomorrow gave 1 already

Fuckin damn, MNX. Solid work! You don't mess around, boy.

Cookied for will. Great update

Nom nom nom

Sick! Finally people will be able to see Tiefling and other morph breakpoints!

This is downright epic.

I would give you a cookie, but I don't want to mess up the 500!

Wait what, why do you have the mail icon under marco's avatar while I don't?

Quirinus wrote:I would give you a cookie, but I don't want to mess up the 500! 

Oops! 

@aspirine:
Offtopic nub! xD
At least comment on the fucking amazing badass sick godly speed calculator update.

It's obviously because I'm an admin?

@Inertia: well I guess the cat is out of the bag now, I'm giving him another one.

hmmm. I can no longer get by the tokens.txt error. used to work somehow...prob my OS?

JRE is fine