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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ulorian - Agent of Chaos" data-source="post: 4330856" data-attributes="member: 16668">Like most people, I'd noticed that the Careful Attack Ranger at-will seems underpowered when compared to another Ranger at-will, Twin Strike; but how underpowered is it really? Is it Twin Strike that's too powerful?I've written a Java application to compare powers under a customisable range of scenarios: differing weapon damage dice, differing weapon crit ranges, the hit chance for a given use of the power, the ability modifier applicable for that power, and other damage bonuses (coming soon: bonus critical damage and multiple weapon damage dice e.g. falchion = 2d4). The application compares the powers (in this case, by expected damage, but it's flexible) then pumps out text reports detailing the results.I've attached both the text files containing the analysis and the source for the Java code itself, in case anyone is interested in tinkering with it (I used JDK 1.6.0_06, no other libraries). One of the text files contains the raw data: the expected damage for each of the evaluated powers: Basic Attack, Careful Attack/Sure Strike, Twin Strike, Reaping Strike, and variations on several of those (I evaluated Careful Attack at +4, Twin Strike at -2 per attack, and Twin Strike at -4 per attack), under each possible scenario (i.e. a scenario is a combination of weapon damage die, crit range, hit chance, ability mod, and other bonus damage). The other text file contains more focused comparisons of two powers in head-to-head matchups, including more detailed analysis on how the powers fared under differing scenarios (e.g. how were head-to-head 'wins' distributed in low to hit chance situations versus high? What about when the ability mod was a minor factor in the total bonus damage versus a major factor?). Both text files are in the attached stats.zip.So, to no one's surprise I'm sure, Twin Strike is better than Careful Attack (and Sure Strike, since they're exactly the same power) in all scenarios. Although I expected Careful Attack to compare poorly to a Basic Attack, I was surprised by how poorly: it's virtually always to your advantage to use a Basic Attack over Careful Attack/Sure Strike! The way that Careful Attack was frequently modified in the months leading up to release (apparently, it granted +4 at one point, and added Dex to damage before that) leads me to believe that they neglected to consult their on-site mathematician on the final iteration of this power.The other question I had was whether Twin Strike was too powerful. To determine that, I compared it to the Fighter's Reaping Strike, another at-will power that does nothing more than deal raw damage. I would expect Twin Strike to deal more damage than Reaping Strike, since it is a Striker power and Reaping Strike is a Defender power. I compared Twin Strike, Twin Strike at -2 to each attack, and Twin Strike at -4 to each attack. RAW Twin Strike seems to deal way too much damage; the -2 to hit version is more palatable to me.Having both Careful Attack and Twin Strike is fairly pointless to me, since effect-wise they're the same power: both are intended to do more damage than a Basic Attack. Boosting Careful Attack/Sure Strike to +4 doesn't seem to improve it drastically enough versus Basic Attack. See this post <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=4330861#post4330861" target="_blank">Careful Attack/Sure Strike Houserules</a> for my houseruled replacements for Careful Attack/Sure Strike.Edit: Updated the files to reflect a bug fix for a Reaping Strike algorithm error.</blockquote>

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