Curse

Marverick · Jan 17, 2007, 08:55 PM // 20:55

So far I've been using vamp on all my scythes since with MR the -1 degen doesn't mean anything. Also the AoE of the scythe gives decent healing.
However Vow of Strength at 12 Earth Magic with a +15% scythe gives +62.15% damage. Against an caster or ranger perhaps, I'm wondering whether the 20% chance of 20% armor penetration might be better than 5 damage from every attack. If anyone has done the number crunching here that would be nice.

NinjaKai · Jan 17, 2007, 09:43 PM // 21:43

Personally i'd go for Monk secondary shove some points into smiting and use Judge's Insight which gives you constant 20% armor penetration. Even 5 points in smiting will allow you to maintain it for the duration of its recharge.

Ensign · Jan 17, 2007, 09:51 PM // 21:51

I think Sundering is better than Vampiric on a Scythe, raw.

Peace,
-CxE

pingu666 · Jan 17, 2007, 10:53 PM // 22:53

care to elaborate ensign?, does armour penitration combine with bonus damage from skills?

otherwise using your calc tools, vamp averages out about twice as good as sundering...

mind, vamp isnt so much ahead when you factor in your health loss when your not hitting for whatever reason

NinjaKai · Jan 17, 2007, 11:24 PM // 23:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by pingu666

care to elaborate ensign?, does armour penitration combine with bonus damage from skills?

otherwise using your calc tools, vamp averages out about twice as good as sundering...

mind, vamp isnt so much ahead when you factor in your health loss when your not hitting for whatever reason

The vampiric effect of losing health isn't a great issue. Anyone with a vampiric mod should know enough to have a secondary scythe to switch with.

Ensign · Jan 18, 2007, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by pingu666

otherwise using your calc tools, vamp averages out about twice as good as sundering...

Yeah if all you want is to min/max DPS by a little bit, then Vampiric is going to give you bigger numbers when you start taking averages. Thing is, people don't die to average damage. There's a strong correlation between targets dying, and physicals scoring criticals (either getting lucky or hitting someone in the back). Sundering, especially on scythes and axes (weapons that benefit greatly from critical hits) really pushes the 'people blow up from huge criticals' angle.

I could be grossly overstating their value, but there's something about popping a foe with a 155 Wearying Strike or Reaper's Sweep that makes you take notice. Hits like those make people die in ways that little +5s can't.

Peace,
-CxE

Solus_the_Deadly · Jan 18, 2007, 06:10 AM // 06:10

For Pure damage, vamprics the way to go.

Mr Jazzy · Jan 18, 2007, 06:14 AM // 06:14

I recommend vampiric, since the extra damage is guaranteed, whereas sundering is a gamble. If you want to deal damage consistently, choose sundering. If you live life in the fast lane (haha), choose sundering.

NinjaKai · Jan 18, 2007, 07:43 AM // 07:43

On a slightly different note. Might I suggest you customize this scythe. If your not intent on selling it in future. Then the extra 20% damage boosts your damage output to +82.16%. Now personally this is where sundering or Judge's Insight becomes more tempting.

Wacky · Jan 18, 2007, 07:59 AM // 07:59

Number crunching for AL60 target (accuracy not guaranteed)

Average hit with a scythe at 12 scythe mastery on AL 60 target

= (9+41)/2 * 1.15 [15^50] * 1.2 [customize] * 1.5 [vow of strength] = 51.75.

Crits:

= 41 * 1.414 * 1.15 * 1.2 *1.5 = 120.062 damage (ouch)

Sundering 20% when triggered = 2^(60*0.2/40) - 1 = 23.1144 % more damage

Multiply that by damage and by 20% to get:

Average of +2.39 damage per normal hit.

Crits:

148 damage 20% of the time -> +28 damage 20% of the time -> +5.6 damage.

So DPS-wise, I believe vamp wins unless you can crit all the time. But a 148 crit is scary.

Narfolik · Jan 18, 2007, 08:19 AM // 08:19

+5 vamp is not big enough beacose of scythe slow attack rate, sundering is playing on luck, try zealous...

NinjaKai · Jan 18, 2007, 08:38 AM // 08:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Narfolik

+5 vamp is not big enough beacose of scythe slow attack rate, sundering is playing on luck, try zealous...

Look at this with a bit of sense. Obviously if he has a build that uses VoW of Strength he's going to have an attack speed buff.

Cebe · Jan 18, 2007, 08:59 AM // 08:59

Vampiric ftw.

pingu666 · Jan 18, 2007, 02:15 PM // 14:15

btw i think the vamparic is fine for scythe, the 1.75 attack rate is better than a bow, which also gets +5 from vamparic.

vow is one ill haveto cap on my dervish, shes only level 5 tho :x best go play her abit :P

shes got paragon secondary, so go for the eyes spam ahoy

Narfolik · Jan 18, 2007, 07:16 PM // 19:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaKai

Look at this with a bit of sense. Obviously if he has a build that uses VoW of Strength he's going to have an attack speed buff.

i wasnt fully clear on that 1, life stealing 5 wont make you do much more dmg, nor will it heal you a lot, however zealous with improved attack speed will give you a lot of energy even with only 1 target, with that energy you can constantly use attack skills that do much more than +5 dmg, and use more spells that heal much more than 5,

anyway i dont like using vow of strength, i preffer having 3 attack skills

Marverick · Jan 18, 2007, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Hmm actually I capped this skill on my ranger and I'm planning on using it with my bow. Yes I do have it customized, so thats another +20 something percent. At 15 Marks criticals occur fairly often and I can crit the AL60 barrels on the Isle for 102 damage. Also, people like to wander around a lot in PvP making crits very easy to obtain........