Drain, Aspir, and Aspir II after the update.

Previous posts have shown that increasing dark magic skill beyond 300 did not increase Drain potency prior to the September 8, 2010 version update, but the version update details state that "maximum values have been increased for certain enhancing magic, dark magic, and blue magic spells whose potency is commensurate with casting skill." The following summarizes the results of checking the potency of Drain, Aspir, and Aspir II without any equipment or other factors that "enhance" any of these spells other than equipment with dark magic skill bonuses.

Raw data is available upon request or I may just post them in the comments below after a week if there is no feedback.

Drain

The distribution of Drain potency (unresisted Drain values) was checked at both 303 dark magic skill (my current dark magic skill level without any equipment) and 340 dark magic skill (with this equipment) on Zvahl Fortalices in Castle Zvahl Baileys (S). The following dot plots show an obvious increase in the maximum value of Drain. Although I was unable to check the distribution of Drain at 300 dark magic skill, it seems that the change in the maximum Drain was done merely by removing the "cap" on increasing it with dark magic skill beyond the 300 level, holding all other potency-increasing factors (maximum-increasing factors) fixed. (In this case, what was fixed was that there were no other factors "present" to affect my results.)



Previously, I gave a formula for the maximum Drain as a function of dark magic skill (without any other potency-affecting factors) as (skill) + 20. The following summary of the minimum and maximum suggests that this formula does not apply beyond 300 skill.

                        ·--------·---------·--------·------------·
                        |    n   |   Min   |   Max  |   Median   |
·-----------------------·--------·---------·--------·------------·
|   Drain (303 skill)   |   60   |   170   |   321  |    247.5   |
|   Drain (340)         |   60   |   173   |   345  |    248.5   |
·-----------------------·--------·---------·--------·------------·

For now, the maximum observed Drain without any other maximum-increasing factors present (or, for shorthand, "naked") is 345.

I do not have access to Drain II so I cannot check it at this time.

Aspir and Aspir II

I actually checked the distributions of Aspir and Aspir II (not omitting resisted values) before that for Drain, and I collected data at both 300 and 302 dark magic skill (on two separate occasions), thinking I had done so only at 300 without realizing later I had skilled up beyond 300. I was lazy and pooled the data, but it is straightforward to see that, similarly to the Drain maximum, the increase in the Aspir (and Aspir II) maximum was done merely by removing the "cap" on increasing it with dark magic skill beyond the 300 level. I checked at 339 dark magic skill with this equipment set. All data collection was done on Stone Eaters in North Gustaberg (S).



I had no idea what the distribution of Aspir II was like compared to Aspir before the update. The previous image shows that, at least after the September 2010 update, the variability of Aspir II (controlling for resist level) is higher than that of Aspir (no reason to assume anything about this beforehand) even though the maximum Aspir II is higher (as expected) as shown in the above image and following summary statistics table:

                            ·--------·---------·--------·------------·
                            |    n   |   Min   |   Max  |   Median   |
·---------------------------·--------·---------·--------·------------·
|   Aspir (300/302 skill)   |   50   |    60   |   120  |     85.0   |
|   Aspir (339)             |   50   |    50   |   135  |     95.5   |
|   Aspir II (300/302)      |   50   |    83   |   180  |    130.5   |
|   Aspir II (339)          |   50   |    56   |   202  |    152.0   |
·---------------------------·--------·---------·--------·------------·

Previously, I gave a formula for the maximum Aspir as a function of dark magic skill (without any other potency-affecting factors) as (skill/3) + 20 (decimals truncated where necessary). The above data shows that this formula does not really apply above 300 dark magic skill. I make no attempt to suggest a formula for the maximum of Aspir II at this time.

The maximum "naked" Aspir observed is 135, and the maximum observed Aspir II is 202.

Summary

Announced in the September 2010 version update, the increase in the maximum Drain, Aspir, and Aspir II values seems to be the result of allowing their potency to increase by increasing dark magic skill beyond 300, holding all other maximum-increasing factors fixed. Before the update, the Drain and Aspir maximum did not increase beyond 300 dark magic skill.

The variability of Aspir II values (controlling for resist level) is higher than that for Aspir values.

I observed a maximum "naked" Drain of 345 (340 dark magic skill), a maximum "naked" Aspir of 135 (339 skill) and maximum "naked" Aspir II of 202 (339 skill). The actual maxima are likely higher and are likely to be attained only by increasing dark magic skill further (well above 340).