The Power of (Improved) Expertise

[Balkoth]

I spoke briefly with Tara in-game about this but wanted to go over some of the math here. Expertise and Improved Expertise are problematic for two reasons:

1, they usually hit the mobs harder than the player

Let's look at a concrete example. Take my Weapon Master vs a group of four Thundering Elementals. I have 49 AB and 59 AC while the mobs have 48 AB and 41 AC. By default this gives us...

95%/95%/95%/70%/95% = 4.5 hits per round for me.

50%/25%/5%/5% = 0.85 hits per round for my target
60%/35%/10%/5% = 1.1 hits per round for the three flanking elementals.

3 * 1.1 + 0.85 = 4.15 hits per round for the mobs.

But what if I flip on Expertise (lose 5 AB, gain 5 AC)?

95%/95%/70%/45%/95% = 4 hits per round for me (I do 11% less damage).

25%/5%/5%/5% = 0.4 hits per round for my target
35%/10%/5%/5% = 0.55 hits per round for the three flanking elementals

3 * 0.55 + 0.4 = 2.05 hits per round for the mobs...which means they do just under 50% damage.

Obviously versus enemies where surviving is a significant concern being able to take 50% less damage (which also means any regeneration becomes twice as good) in exchange for dealing 11% less damage is insanely good.

But what if, say, my WM had 10 less AB?

95%/70%/45%/20%/95% = 3.25 hits per round without Expertise.

70%/45%/20%/5%/70% = 2.1 hits per round with Expertise. Dealing 35% less damage in exchange for taking 50% less damage is still effectively a 30% power gain (65% effectiveness for me and 50% effectiveness for them) even without factoring in how it makes regeneration twice as good.

2, this is especially valuable in a group. If I'm the front line melee in a group with a Cleric, Mage, and Rogue...me being able to take *twice* as much damage (actually more) is definitely worth me dealing 11% (or even 35%) less damage -- because my damage is only a small percent of the group's damage. Even if I deal 25% of the group's damage (as I make up 1/4 of it) then the group overall would only lose 9% damage if I personally lose 35% damage.

The basic problem is that content tuned with Improved Expertise in mind will clobber tanks without either feat while tanks with Improved Expertise will clobber content tuned without either feat in mind. Now, given that the server doesn't use custom haks and Expertise is required for Weapon Master, I'm not sure anything can be done about that (unless Weapon Master is just banned). But...Improved Expertise can be banned easily (with scripted enforcement) which helps lesser the gap between the average player and the best players while also saving people a feat to customize more.