[Gregorah]

I am proposing an experiment to gauge exactly how strong the Warrior ability "Provoke" is.
This experiment

can, however, be applied to any ability or magic. Damage causing or not.
The ultimate goal of this experiment

is to be able to create a model that would create a precise measurement of a character's enmity at any particular

moment.
The experiment functions based on 3 assumptions
1) Provoke does not have a randomized component in

its potency.
2) Cure causes a linear amount of hate (curing 200 damage pulls the same amount of hate no matter

the number of spells cast, in the short run).
3) Hate from abilities decays.

These assumptions, however,

are tested in this experiment.

Outline of the possible outcomes of this experiment:
Hate "Expires" after

a certain amount of time. This means that abilities do not decay, but after a certain amount of time do not affect

monster's enmity towards a player.
Player Enmity decays based on a constant percentage over time. This is to

say that after a certain amount of time, a player's enmity will decrease by a certain percentage of its current

value.
Player Enmity decays by a constant amount over time. This would mean that no matter the number of

abilities a player uses, they will experience a constant decay of hate over time.
Player Enmity decays by a

constant amount per ability used. This would mean that for each ability used, the player would lose an amount of

hate.
Player Enmity does not decay.

There may be other possible outcomes, but those are the most likely

and simplest calculations.

Setup:
In order to ensure a properly conducted experiment, certain

precautions must be met:

Each stat of all the participants must be recorded. Preferably no equipment should

be worn by any participants, especially +enmity or +% cure potency.
The measurement of hate must be unaffected

by damage dealt by the monster. Therefore the monster should not deal any damage. Since it is known that Utsusemi

shadows lose hate when a monster strikes them, only monsters that do no damage, either by missing completely or by

hitting for 0 damage (preferably bound monsters would be used).
Considering these restrictions, the experiment

must be conducted in Ronfaure, Sartabartua, or Gustaberg.

In order to get as precise measurements as

possible, PC games should be used, and their clocks synchronized with the international standard. This can be done

by right clicking on the Clock in the right side of the Start menu on Windows machines.

The Provoker would

have a macro that would read as such:
/clock
/ja "Provoke"
/clock
/echo Provoke used.

Each

healer would have a macro set up as such:
/clock
/ma "Cure X"
/clock
/echo Cure X

used.

there would be preferably 5 participants in this experiment, a Provoker, 3 White mages (Preferably

the same level, though they can vary the spell levels to assist with data collection) and a Binder. The binder is

not used to measure hate, but more to keep the monster from attacking the provoker.

Procedure:

The

provoker would consume approximately 3 Venom potions. this would reduce their HP by 900. Additional reductions can

be used by equipping and unequipping things that reduce maximum HP values.
The binder would pick a target. For

consistency, monsters of the same level and type are preferred. The would then Bind the target.
the provoker

would then provoke the target.
Each healer would use a different cure spell, and attempt to use it at a time

that would take hate, either Cure I, II, III or IV. Cure V should not be used.
once each of the participants

have done their roles, they would record the time at which they used their ability (both /clock times), and record

who held hate at that moment.
They would repeat this procedure for as long as they felt would be a rigorous

experiment.

Analysis:
In the analysis of this data, very obvious trends would appear depending on how

hate decayed.
If, for instance, hate does not decay, or expires after an amount of time, then no matter how

long a particular healer waits, any ability will either take hate after a certain amount of time or never take

hate. It would be possible to measure the minimum time required to take hate in this instance.
If hate decays

by a certain percentage, then the data would look like a steadily decaying curve.
if enmity would decay by a

constant amount, then (obviously) in a plot of cure potency v. time (with coloration for taking hate) it would

appear to be a linear relationship.

Testing of additive decay would be simple: use Provoke then Sentinel,

or other ability. If the slope of potency decay is steeper, then it would be additive decay, otherwise

constant.

Other stuffs:
Reason why I am posting this here;
I am stuck with certain race, and I am

level 72 PLD as of this writing. This does not help with calculations for level and job for variations in cure

potency.
Want to help but unsure what to do with the raw data?
Send the raw data, preferably in an organized

or semiorganized format in an Excel document. Text documents would be serviceable, or welcome for an explaination

on levels/variations in the experiment. My email address for Spam/other relatively high-traffic emails is

Gregb05@hotmail.com

If you need clarification, I will try to follow this post.

[Pergatory]

I'm

interested to find the results as well. I may try to set up an experiment this weekend.

A few noteworthy

things in the interest of a usable dataset:

/clock - This does NOT go off the server clock. It goes off

your local clock. So this is not an accurate way to measure time unless all the players involved have synchronized

their clocks. A good way to ensure this is done is to have all participants use the PC version of the game, and

synchronize their clocks to the same time server shortly before the test is conducted.

/assist - This is a

nifty way to determine who has hate. Possibly should be done by the binder? If you "/assist" the mob it will

target whoever has hate currently. If you want to log this using a macro, it would look like this:
/assist


/wait 1
/echo hates .

[Gregorah]

huh.

didn't know that /clock spat out your local computer's time.
As far as determining hate, that's usually not

a problem, as the mob usually faces the player, even if it's bound.

It's just occurred to me if you use

Worms, you wouldn't even need a binder. They don't even move.

[Taermus]

Note that

"Provoke" is Ice based. And SE loves throwing wierd crap involving the elements at it's players.