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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elric" data-source="post: 4707547" data-attributes="member: 1139">Whether a build has an expected damage value of infinity isn't actually particularly relevant.  The idea is that if one attack by you on average leads to >=1 additional attack, which has the same properties of generating additional attacks as the original attack, then your expected damage is infinite.  This is quite different from a build that always does an infinite amount of damage.  This is quite similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox" target="_blank">St. Petersburg paradox</a>.  The probability of doing 3000+ damage is driving the infinite expected damage calculation, but such large amounts of damage are never relevant.  So a probability distribution of the damage that you do is more relevant for these characters.  Two characters might both have infinite expected damage due to on average unending sequences of attacks, but if one character gets that because half of the time when he attacks he gets 2 extra attacks, and another character gets that because 1/20 of the time when he attacks, he gets 20 extra attacks, the first character is much, much stronger.  The second character is essentially an ordinary character who auto-kills 1/20 of the time; extremely powerful, but not so strong that only another "infinite" build could be its equal.  If the first build got 2 extra attacks 45% of the time it would no longer do infinite expected damage, but it would still be the stronger build.</blockquote>

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