Return of Reckoning

Stinksuit wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:23 pm

Sanctific wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 1:03 pm I'll add my 2 cents here as both Magus & Zeal player.

Itemization:
pre-bis magus (sov, annuli & such albeit no ring, still use sent)
Bis zeal

Guys above have already said about WB/solo/scs performance, which i agree with albeit not with the part where zeal does more aoe on the move (burst - yes, not the dps tho) but ill speak about raw DPS in a vacuum-clean environment of nuking those IC dummies.

Best median result on zeal: 1.1k ST dps, after multiple tries, experimenting with builds, doing some spreadsheet calculations & cheated a bit by uploading the said spreadsheet to a premium-subscription LLM to check if my theorycrafting has had any flaws (spoiler: appeared to be correct).

Spread of results on magus (total of ~20 dummy kills or so vs about a hundred dummy kills on zeal): 25-75% results were in 1.4k-1.7k ST dps range (the absolute best was 2k-ish but that was a super lucky dummy kill, nearly 80% crit rate). Downside - yeah, magus dps leans more to being backloaded, but very-very slightly (in comparison to zeal that is) and magus needs to be relatively stationary (zeal can be on a constant move apart from SOR usage).

My personal verdict (at the very least for myself): in terms of DPS alone magus would beat zeal, both in aoe & ST performance...albeit when it would come to the latter - magus would need to be in a "turret" mode.

P.S/Off-topic: Tried an RP on test realm with some weird, sub-optimal itemization due to the test server limitations in terms of available items (dont have an RP myself on live server): stable 1.35-1.45k (i.e. we may just round it to 1.4k median) frontloaded DPS with some extreme burst. Something isnt right there, especially when compared to zeal. However i really wouldnt want zeal to have that much of firepower, would be a cheat then (just as RPs are rn, fulmination in ST is deffo overperforming).

Its actually nice that you mentioned some dummy dps numbers! Zealots 1.1k dps seems accurate to me aswell (for st). Zealot kinda shines with its 1s/3s burst rather than its overall dps imo. I have managed to do 10k+ 3s burst and ~7k 1s burst with my zealot. The overall aoe dps for zl vs magus might lean towards magus, its really hard to say imo theyre both so close to each other (unless its pure keep funnel). I dont know much about magus but just basing my judgement on numbers I've seen when in group with Daewuurs magus. I like zealots aoe build because you can spec into echo and also have some ST pressure even in aoe spec so its quite nice.

I also forgot to add that zealot kinda needs to be really geared if you wish to do any competitive numbers..

Ultimately I do think Magus is better out of the 2 but (atleast before rdps patch) theyre so close that id choose just aesthetics.

Paxsanarion wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:44 pm

Stinksuit wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:23 pm

Sanctific wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 1:03 pm I'll add my 2 cents here as both Magus & Zeal player.

Itemization:
pre-bis magus (sov, annuli & such albeit no ring, still use sent)
Bis zeal

Guys above have already said about WB/solo/scs performance, which i agree with albeit not with the part where zeal does more aoe on the move (burst - yes, not the dps tho) but ill speak about raw DPS in a vacuum-clean environment of nuking those IC dummies.

Best median result on zeal: 1.1k ST dps, after multiple tries, experimenting with builds, doing some spreadsheet calculations & cheated a bit by uploading the said spreadsheet to a premium-subscription LLM to check if my theorycrafting has had any flaws (spoiler: appeared to be correct).

Spread of results on magus (total of ~20 dummy kills or so vs about a hundred dummy kills on zeal): 25-75% results were in 1.4k-1.7k ST dps range (the absolute best was 2k-ish but that was a super lucky dummy kill, nearly 80% crit rate). Downside - yeah, magus dps leans more to being backloaded, but very-very slightly (in comparison to zeal that is) and magus needs to be relatively stationary (zeal can be on a constant move apart from SOR usage).

My personal verdict (at the very least for myself): in terms of DPS alone magus would beat zeal, both in aoe & ST performance...albeit when it would come to the latter - magus would need to be in a "turret" mode.

P.S/Off-topic: Tried an RP on test realm with some weird, sub-optimal itemization due to the test server limitations in terms of available items (dont have an RP myself on live server): stable 1.35-1.45k (i.e. we may just round it to 1.4k median) frontloaded DPS with some extreme burst. Something isnt right there, especially when compared to zeal. However i really wouldnt want zeal to have that much of firepower, would be a cheat then (just as RPs are rn, fulmination in ST is deffo overperforming).

Its actually nice that you mentioned some dummy dps numbers! Zealots 1.1k dps seems accurate to me aswell (for st). Zealot kinda shines with its 1s/3s burst rather than its overall dps imo. I have managed to do 10k+ 3s burst and ~7k 1s burst with my zealot. The overall aoe dps for zl vs magus might lean towards magus, its really hard to say imo theyre both so close to each other (unless its pure keep funnel). I dont know much about magus but just basing my judgement on numbers I've seen when in group with Daewuurs magus. I like zealots aoe build because you can spec into echo and also have some ST pressure even in aoe spec so its quite nice.

I also forgot to add that zealot kinda needs to be really geared if you wish to do any competitive numbers..

Ultimately I do think Magus is better out of the 2 but (atleast before rdps patch) theyre so close that id choose just aesthetics.

Stink, do you have a AOE / ST build using Echo that you could recommend? I am healing Zealot for now but someday I wanna try some different build mixes. I find zealot abilities very interesting

Pax

Paxsanarion wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:44 pm

Stinksuit wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:23 pm

Sanctific wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 1:03 pm I'll add my 2 cents here as both Magus & Zeal player.

Itemization:
pre-bis magus (sov, annuli & such albeit no ring, still use sent)
Bis zeal

Guys above have already said about WB/solo/scs performance, which i agree with albeit not with the part where zeal does more aoe on the move (burst - yes, not the dps tho) but ill speak about raw DPS in a vacuum-clean environment of nuking those IC dummies.

Best median result on zeal: 1.1k ST dps, after multiple tries, experimenting with builds, doing some spreadsheet calculations & cheated a bit by uploading the said spreadsheet to a premium-subscription LLM to check if my theorycrafting has had any flaws (spoiler: appeared to be correct).

Spread of results on magus (total of ~20 dummy kills or so vs about a hundred dummy kills on zeal): 25-75% results were in 1.4k-1.7k ST dps range (the absolute best was 2k-ish but that was a super lucky dummy kill, nearly 80% crit rate). Downside - yeah, magus dps leans more to being backloaded, but very-very slightly (in comparison to zeal that is) and magus needs to be relatively stationary (zeal can be on a constant move apart from SOR usage).

My personal verdict (at the very least for myself): in terms of DPS alone magus would beat zeal, both in aoe & ST performance...albeit when it would come to the latter - magus would need to be in a "turret" mode.

P.S/Off-topic: Tried an RP on test realm with some weird, sub-optimal itemization due to the test server limitations in terms of available items (dont have an RP myself on live server): stable 1.35-1.45k (i.e. we may just round it to 1.4k median) frontloaded DPS with some extreme burst. Something isnt right there, especially when compared to zeal. However i really wouldnt want zeal to have that much of firepower, would be a cheat then (just as RPs are rn, fulmination in ST is deffo overperforming).

Its actually nice that you mentioned some dummy dps numbers! Zealots 1.1k dps seems accurate to me aswell (for st). Zealot kinda shines with its 1s/3s burst rather than its overall dps imo. I have managed to do 10k+ 3s burst and ~7k 1s burst with my zealot. The overall aoe dps for zl vs magus might lean towards magus, its really hard to say imo theyre both so close to each other (unless its pure keep funnel). I dont know much about magus but just basing my judgement on numbers I've seen when in group with Daewuurs magus. I like zealots aoe build because you can spec into echo and also have some ST pressure even in aoe spec so its quite nice.

I also forgot to add that zealot kinda needs to be really geared if you wish to do any competitive numbers..

Ultimately I do think Magus is better out of the 2 but (atleast before rdps patch) theyre so close that id choose just aesthetics.

Stink, do you have a AOE / ST build using Echo that you could recommend? I am healing Zealot for now but someday I wanna try some different build mixes. I find zealot abilities very interesting

Pax

M0rw47h wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 4:43 pm

Paxsanarion wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:44 pm

Stinksuit wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 3:23 pm


Its actually nice that you mentioned some dummy dps numbers! Zealots 1.1k dps seems accurate to me aswell (for st). Zealot kinda shines with its 1s/3s burst rather than its overall dps imo. I have managed to do 10k+ 3s burst and ~7k 1s burst with my zealot. The overall aoe dps for zl vs magus might lean towards magus, its really hard to say imo theyre both so close to each other (unless its pure keep funnel). I dont know much about magus but just basing my judgement on numbers I've seen when in group with Daewuurs magus. I like zealots aoe build because you can spec into echo and also have some ST pressure even in aoe spec so its quite nice.

I also forgot to add that zealot kinda needs to be really geared if you wish to do any competitive numbers..

Ultimately I do think Magus is better out of the 2 but (atleast before rdps patch) theyre so close that id choose just aesthetics.

Stink, do you have a AOE / ST build using Echo that you could recommend? I am healing Zealot for now but someday I wanna try some different build mixes. I find zealot abilities very interesting

Pax

His guide.

Nauht wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 2:50 am Do you want scoliosis or be in a wheelchair?