CTWN Level 125 persona group DPS comparision

[OldGuard]

CTWN Group Damage Analysis

Purpose of the Analysis

This document provides a detailed evaluation of different group compositions in the EverQuest instance "The Control Room." using only CTWN plugins. The goal is to determine the optimal group setup based on the following key performance indicators:

1. Average Time per Kill – Measures efficiency in clearing enemies.
2. Total Group DPS – Evaluates total damage output per second.
3. Critical Hit Percentage – Assesses the effectiveness of individual classes in landing critical hits.

By analyzing multiple group configurations and damage contributions, Iaim to identify the best-performing team structure with the available classes.


I have a six member team, each with 2 personas:

Char 1: Warrior/SK

Char 2: Enchanter/Bard

Char 3: Wizard/Cleric

Char 4: Wizard/Mage

Char 5: Roque/Beastlord

Char 6: Shaman/Ranger



All classes were level 125 with Tier 2 named armor (90% ToB) and weapons but no raid gear. They all have evolved neck, back and earring items, but not finger from ToB. All characters are max AA. I used CTWN plugins for everything with Burn On, but Glyph off.

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Evaluated Group Compositions

I analyzed multiple group setups, each consisting of a Tank, Healer, ADPS Support, and three DPS roles. The key classes evaluated include:

• Tank: Warrior (War) or Shadow Knight (SK)
• Healer: Cleric (Clr) or Shaman (Shm)
• ADPS Support: Bard or Enchanter (Enc)
• DPS: Various combinations of Wizard (Wiz), Magician (Mag), Beastlord (Bst), Rogue (Rog), and Ranger (Ran)

I ran the grind instance The Control Room for all collected data. Before starting each data set all characters were at max endurance, max mana. There was no stopping for recharge between instances, just continuous running.



Here’s the refined summary table without the group number column:

Rank	Tank	Healer	ADPS	DPS Classes	Total DPS (M)	Avg Time/Kill (sec)	Total Kills
1	SK	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Wiz, Rog	4.74	18.89	494
2	SK	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Mag, Rog	4.73	18.90	538
3	War	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Wiz, Rog	4.66	19.20	737
4	SK	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Wiz, Bst	4.60	19.43	288
5	SK	Shm	Enc	Wiz, Mag, Rog	3.90	22.95	514
6	SK	Clr	Bard	Wiz, Bst, Ran	3.89	22.98	531
7	SK	Clr	Bard	Mag, Rog, Ran	3.79	23.55	565
8	SK	Shm	Enc	Wiz, Wiz, Bst	3.62	24.02	575
9	SK	Shm	Enc	Wiz, Wiz, Rog	3.55	24.61	443

Here’s the updated table, now including the total kills for each group composition:

DPS Class	Avg DPS with Bard (M)	Total Kills (Bard)	Avg DPS with Enchanter (M)	Total Kills (Enchanter)	Difference (Bard - Enc) DPS
Wizard	1.45	1423	1.40	1532	+0.05
Magician	1.25	538	0.95	514	+0.30
Rogue	1.02	1515	0.86	957	+0.16
Beastlord	0.94	531	0.81	575	+0.13

Observations:

• Wizards perform slightly better with a Bard than an Enchanter (+0.05M DPS).
• Magicians benefit the most from a Bard (+0.30M DPS increase).
• Rogues and Beastlords also perform better with a Bard, but the difference is not as extreme as Magicians.

Summary of Findings

1) Best Group for Fastest Kills

• Group 3: SK, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Rog, Shm
  • Average Time/Kill: 18.89 sec (fastest recorded)
  • Total DPS: 4.74M (highest among all groups)
  • Bard provided superior group-wide damage buffs compared to Enchanter.
• Group 5: SK, Bard, Wiz, Mag, Rog, Shm
  • Average Time/Kill: 18.90 sec
  • DPS: 4.73M (nearly identical to Group 3)
  • Magician’s pet contributed high crit damage, making this setup very effective.

2) DPS Performance by Group

• Shadow Knight groups performed slightly better than Warrior groups in overall DPS.
• Bard-enhanced groups had the highest DPS compared to Enchanter groups.
• Wizards, Rogues, and Magicians provided the best DPS contributions.

3) Critical Hit Analysis

• Warrior had the highest Crit % at 64.12% but did not outperform SK in overall group DPS.
• Magicians had very high Crit % (~55%) and provided consistent damage.
• Rogues had a strong Crit % (~45-49%), making them a top-tier melee DPS choice.
• Bards had lower Crit %, but their buffs greatly improved team performance.

Key Comparisons

Warrior vs. Shadow Knight (Tank Analysis)

Metric	Best for SK	Best for Warrior
Avg Time/Kill	18.89 sec	19.20 sec
Total DPS	4.74M	4.66M
Crit %	45.3%	64.12%

• SK had a slight edge in total DPS and kill speed.
• Warriors had higher Crit %, but this did not translate into faster clears.

Rogue Performance in Bard vs. Enchanter Groups

• Rogues in Bard Groups: ~48.25% Crit
• Rogues in Enchanter Groups: ~47.5% Crit
• Bard slightly improved Rogues' Crit % while significantly boosting group DPS.

Final Recommendation: Best Group Composition

Optimal Group: SK, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Rog, Shm

• Fastest Kill Speed (18.89s per kill)
• Highest DPS (4.74M)
• Balanced Crit % and strong burst damage

Alternatively, for a more balanced Crit-focused team: Alternate Group: SK, Bard, Wiz, Mag, Rog, Shm

• Comparable DPS (4.73M)
• Magician provides higher crit potential

Conclusion

From the data, Bard groups outperformed Enchanter groups in nearly every category, and Shadow Knights slightly outperformed Warriors. For the best efficiency, SK, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Rog, Shm is the ideal composition, providing the fastest kill times and highest DPS.

If an alternative is needed, replacing one Wizard with a Magician adds better sustained damage and crit potential.

This analysis provides a data-driven approach to optimizing group composition for efficient encounters in EverQuest’s "The Control Room."

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My biggest surprises where how much better the team was with a Bard over an Enchanter. I knew this to be a general truth, but seeing it in action over and over was new to me. I have always looked to Enchanter first for crowd control, but I have now changed my mind.

The second biggest surprise is that the warrior did 98% of the SK’s DPS and Speed of kills. I expected closer to 85% given the SK advantages. They both used 2 hand weapons.

 

[Tim2051]

This is neat.

Would be cool to see the good synergy groups contrast against each other (melee synergies / casters )

 

[Marnan]

Nice. For me the winning group is

SK

Shm

Bard

Wiz, Mag, Rog

given how close this group is to the top group, the added utility of a mage with COTH seems worth the nominal loss of DPS. Interesting to see how close the warrior performed in terms of DPS to the SK. Great post, great information.

 

[ChatWithThisName]

Both runs with clr were also with ranger. I'm going to blame the ranger for the lack of DPS. Everyone knows clerics top the charts! :-)

 

[OLDBONE]

CTWN Group Damage Analysis

Purpose of the Analysis

This document provides a detailed evaluation of different group compositions in the EverQuest instance "The Control Room." using only CTWN plugins. The goal is to determine the optimal group setup based on the following key performance indicators:

1. Average Time per Kill – Measures efficiency in clearing enemies.
2. Total Group DPS – Evaluates total damage output per second.
3. Critical Hit Percentage – Assesses the effectiveness of individual classes in landing critical hits.

By analyzing multiple group configurations and damage contributions, Iaim to identify the best-performing team structure with the available classes.


I have a six member team, each with 2 personas:

Char 1: Warrior/SK

Char 2: Enchanter/Bard

Char 3: Wizard/Cleric

Char 4: Wizard/Mage

Char 5: Roque/Beastlord

Char 6: Shaman/Ranger



All classes were level 125 with Tier 2 named armor (90% ToB) and weapons but no raid gear. They all have evolved neck, back and earring items, but not finger from ToB. All characters are max AA. I used CTWN plugins for everything with Burn On, but Glyph off.

---

​

Evaluated Group Compositions

I analyzed multiple group setups, each consisting of a Tank, Healer, ADPS Support, and three DPS roles. The key classes evaluated include:

• Tank: Warrior (War) or Shadow Knight (SK)
• Healer: Cleric (Clr) or Shaman (Shm)
• ADPS Support: Bard or Enchanter (Enc)
• DPS: Various combinations of Wizard (Wiz), Magician (Mag), Beastlord (Bst), Rogue (Rog), and Ranger (Ran)

I ran the grind instance The Control Room for all collected data. Before starting each data set all characters were at max endurance, max mana. There was no stopping for recharge between instances, just continuous running.



Here’s the refined summary table without the group number column:

Rank	Tank	Healer	ADPS	DPS Classes	Total DPS (M)	Avg Time/Kill (sec)	Total Kills
1	SK	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Wiz, Rog	4.74	18.89	494
2	SK	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Mag, Rog	4.73	18.90	538
3	War	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Wiz, Rog	4.66	19.20	737
4	SK	Shm	Bard	Wiz, Wiz, Bst	4.60	19.43	288
5	SK	Shm	Enc	Wiz, Mag, Rog	3.90	22.95	514
6	SK	Clr	Bard	Wiz, Bst, Ran	3.89	22.98	531
7	SK	Clr	Bard	Mag, Rog, Ran	3.79	23.55	565
8	SK	Shm	Enc	Wiz, Wiz, Bst	3.62	24.02	575
9	SK	Shm	Enc	Wiz, Wiz, Rog	3.55	24.61	443

Here’s the updated table, now including the total kills for each group composition:

DPS Class	Avg DPS with Bard (M)	Total Kills (Bard)	Avg DPS with Enchanter (M)	Total Kills (Enchanter)	Difference (Bard - Enc) DPS
Wizard	1.45	1423	1.40	1532	+0.05
Magician	1.25	538	0.95	514	+0.30
Rogue	1.02	1515	0.86	957	+0.16
Beastlord	0.94	531	0.81	575	+0.13

Observations:

• Wizards perform slightly better with a Bard than an Enchanter (+0.05M DPS).
• Magicians benefit the most from a Bard (+0.30M DPS increase).
• Rogues and Beastlords also perform better with a Bard, but the difference is not as extreme as Magicians.

Summary of Findings

1) Best Group for Fastest Kills

• Group 3: SK, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Rog, Shm
  • Average Time/Kill: 18.89 sec (fastest recorded)
  • Total DPS: 4.74M (highest among all groups)
  • Bard provided superior group-wide damage buffs compared to Enchanter.
• Group 5: SK, Bard, Wiz, Mag, Rog, Shm
  • Average Time/Kill: 18.90 sec
  • DPS: 4.73M (nearly identical to Group 3)
  • Magician’s pet contributed high crit damage, making this setup very effective.

2) DPS Performance by Group

• Shadow Knight groups performed slightly better than Warrior groups in overall DPS.
• Bard-enhanced groups had the highest DPS compared to Enchanter groups.
• Wizards, Rogues, and Magicians provided the best DPS contributions.

3) Critical Hit Analysis

• Warrior had the highest Crit % at 64.12% but did not outperform SK in overall group DPS.
• Magicians had very high Crit % (~55%) and provided consistent damage.
• Rogues had a strong Crit % (~45-49%), making them a top-tier melee DPS choice.
• Bards had lower Crit %, but their buffs greatly improved team performance.

Key Comparisons

Warrior vs. Shadow Knight (Tank Analysis)

Metric	Best for SK	Best for Warrior
Avg Time/Kill	18.89 sec	19.20 sec
Total DPS	4.74M	4.66M
Crit %	45.3%	64.12%

• SK had a slight edge in total DPS and kill speed.
• Warriors had higher Crit %, but this did not translate into faster clears.

Rogue Performance in Bard vs. Enchanter Groups

• Rogues in Bard Groups: ~48.25% Crit
• Rogues in Enchanter Groups: ~47.5% Crit
• Bard slightly improved Rogues' Crit % while significantly boosting group DPS.

Final Recommendation: Best Group Composition

Optimal Group: SK, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Rog, Shm

• Fastest Kill Speed (18.89s per kill)
• Highest DPS (4.74M)
• Balanced Crit % and strong burst damage

Alternatively, for a more balanced Crit-focused team: Alternate Group: SK, Bard, Wiz, Mag, Rog, Shm

• Comparable DPS (4.73M)
• Magician provides higher crit potential

Conclusion

From the data, Bard groups outperformed Enchanter groups in nearly every category, and Shadow Knights slightly outperformed Warriors. For the best efficiency, SK, Bard, Wiz, Wiz, Rog, Shm is the ideal composition, providing the fastest kill times and highest DPS.

If an alternative is needed, replacing one Wizard with a Magician adds better sustained damage and crit potential.

This analysis provides a data-driven approach to optimizing group composition for efficient encounters in EverQuest’s "The Control Room."

---

​

My biggest surprises where how much better the team was with a Bard over an Enchanter. I knew this to be a general truth, but seeing it in action over and over was new to me. I have always looked to Enchanter first for crowd control, but I have now changed my mind.

The second biggest surprise is that the warrior did 98% of the SK’s DPS and Speed of kills. I expected closer to 85% given the SK advantages. They both used 2 hand weapons.

This should be stickied somewhere forever, thanks CWTN

 

[Sic]

This should be stickied somewhere forever, thanks CWTN

While it is useful for what it shows. It is a very limited data set, with limited group makeups, while missing a lot of important data (type 5s,b 7s, proc augs, type 3s, etc. in a specific zone against specific mob types.

 

[OldGuard]

Sic is correct. There are both missing data elements and implicit biases in my data. I did not list every item that each character uses, I thought it would be tedious and mostly not interesting to readers. The purpose of my data analysis was not to determine which of the CWTN (finally got it right!) plugins was best, but rather given the composition of my 6x2 team, what was the best DPS and who was most efficient. While there is a very strong correlation between those two data points, they are not quite identical. I felt the data results were interesting enough to share as others might either get something new from it or help me in figuring out what I had missed.

My team started with a warrior I’ve played since 2001. When I came back after a long break I found my level 65 warrior incapable of doing molo with a cleric to try and catch up. Also, in that time my guild had disappeared and LFG had become the sad joke it still is. So, I started building a small team I could alt-tab and macro. My limit was 3 characters so I went War/Enc/Mage. That allowed me to do some content, but not Missions. I had to buy seats for those. Named was out of the question for my little team.

During LS I found Redguides. I had known about it and watch PL Teams warp all over the place, but I wasn’t interested in “cheating the game”, I just wanted to experience all each expansion had to offer. I filled out my team with a Shaman, Rog and Wiz to replace mercs. Later, I used personas to create buff characters like Cleric and Ranger. I also made a BST to compare to Rog.

After 25 years of wondering about the advantages of SK, I decided to make a persona for my main WAR. That is what lead me to compare various groups. I wanted to see what an SK did for a group versus a WAR, but that expanded to many permutations after I saw what a Bard really brought to the table over an Enchanter.

So that is my list of biases and desired outcomes: of my 12 toons on 6 chars, what team was most efficient and – sadly – how badly did my beloved War rank behind my hated SK. I was happy to learn that he was only a few % behind and I don’t have to park him for his evil twin. I also confirmed for myself that I was very wrong about Bards, a little wrong about Mages, and well, completely right about Rangers.

 

[ChatWithThisName]

and well, completely right about Rangers.

Was your assumption about rangers that they kept the cleric employed?

 

[InvisigothMT]

Having mained a Bard since early 2000 and endured all the ups and downs of the class I am not surprised to see that Bards are #1 for ADPS and all the other factors that may come in to play won't change that. ADPS wise it seems to me that Enchanters and Shaman are the real competitors for the next ADPS slot but I don't have the characters to test that with.