Dawnbreaker is broken with a Daedalus (Warning: maths and programming)

I'm a filthy Dawnbreaker spammer.

I'd noticed a particularly weird quirk with her that has been brought to the attention of this subreddit before – if Luminosity's crit is primed, but Daedalus procs, Luminosity's hit count does not reset. This is fine, if not for the fact that Luminosity's heal still works with the Daedalus proc. If that doesn't make sense, take a look at this: https://gfycat.com/briefhandyamericancrayfish

I would be shocked if this is intended behaviour, but as I said, it has been brought to the attention of this subreddit. Valve tends to fix most bugs brought up here, and it hasn't been so far.

This got me thinking. How much of an advantage does having a Daedalus actually give Dawnbreaker?

First, some facts.

• On average, Daedalus' critical strike increases DPS by 37.5%.
• Luminosity at level 4 with no talents increases DPS by 20%.
• Luminosity at level 4 with both talents increases DPS by 40%.
• On average, Daedalus has a 30% chance to crit.
• Luminosity at level 4 with no talents will crit 25% of the time.
• Luminosity at level 4 with the "-1 hit required" talent will crit 33.3…% of the time.

With these being the case, if you combine Daedalus and Luminosity, how does that affect Dawnbreaker's damage? Given that one crit is based off of attacks hit rather than chance, it throws off any calculations of stacking crit chance multiplicatively, ie the way we do it for every other crit stacking.

At first I tried to mathematically calculate it quickly stumped me, so I turned to writing a Python script.

The first script showed me that when Dawnbreaker has both Luminosity talents and a Daedalus, she will crit approximately 59% of the time.

So that's pretty nuts. You're critting more often than not. For context, if you buy two Daedaluses (Daedali?), you have a 51% chance to crit. That's barely more than a coinflip for 10,300 gold – and perhaps more importantly – two item slots.

But how does this affect DPS?

Before we go any further, take a look at the average DPS increases for chance-based critical strikes here. You can see it's usually around ~30%, with some standouts.

Let's also take a relatively ungenerous example of Dawnbreaker with no Luminosity talents. She's just got Level 4 Luminosity and a Daedalus. This means we have to take into account an 80% damage increase every 4 hits, along with a 30% chance of a 125% damage increase on every hit. We also take into account that the "every 4 hits" doesn't reset if the 30% procs.

According to my new Python script,, the average DPS multiplier is ~55%. That's more than a level 3 Coup de Grace. Hypothetically, Dawnbreaker could acquire the most powerful crit's DPS multiplier 11 levels early, at the cost of 5150 gold.

But it's not just that, is it? We also have to take into account that Luminosity has a healing component too. On average, 60% lifesteal on every fourth attack means 15% lifesteal. Not great, but not bad. The same as a Morbid Mask.

However, with the Daedalus bug causing lifesteal to happen on multiple hits in a row if it procs, the average lifesteal increases to ~19% (this is essentially healing off of every third hit instead of every fourth – a 33.3…% increase). That's just short of a Mask of Madness' lifesteal, an item double the price. This does not take into account that you can lifesteal off of multiple targets with Starbreaker, which means in reality it's even higher.

So let's just go to the logical extreme and see what happens with a Dawnbreaker at level 20, with both of her Luminosity talents acquired. By my calculations this equates to:

• a ~59% critical hit rate
• ~70% of the total crits healing Dawnbreaker for 60% lifesteal
• ~41% of the total hits healing Dawnbreaker for 60% lifesteal
• 25% lifesteal on average (equal to a passive Satanic)
• an average DPS increase of 72% (approximately the same as a Shapeshifted Lycan with the +32% crit chance talent at level 25)

With Dawnbreaker now in captain's mode, it's especially important that Valve is aware of the kind of monster they've created. If my maths is correct, I think this needs to be fixed.

If you see an error in my code, or spot any other miscalculations, please let me know.

TL;DR: If Dawnbreaker buys a Daedalus, she gets crits better than Coup de Grace, with a free Satanic on top.

EDIT: Just to be clear; when I say Daedalus is "broken", I do mean it is actually bugged. Whether or not it's "broken" as in "too strong" is up for debate.