build question: w/a or a/w

-Six-

-Six-

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2006

Colorado

If I wanted a sword/axe/hammer warrior, would I generate more damage with W/A (strength + strength rune + wep rune) or A/W (critical strikes + crit rune)?

So if a warrior had 15 CS and used critical eye, s/he would have something like ~20% chance to crit. Statistically speaking, on average you'd crit once in 5 attacks that hit. Would that produce a higher dot than having a constant ~10 AP?

Am I reasoning this out right?

Katari

Katari

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Upstate

Me/

The AP from strength is not what makes warriors deal more damage, it's the ability to get 16 weapon mastery.

blocparty

blocparty

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

W/

theres more to it than dealing damage... warriors can handle damage a lot better than assassins because of the difference in al.

Looking solely at damage is very myopic and in some cases my warrior can spike better and have a better dps than assassins.

-Six-

-Six-

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2006

Colorado

Quote:
Originally Posted by blocparty
Looking solely at damage is very myopic and in some cases my warrior can spike better and have a better dps than assassins. I wasn't comparing (dagger) assassin to sword warrior. Was asking about sword warrior vs. sword assassin. (etc)

Yes, AL is a tradeoff... No sense in W secondary if damage is approximately the same or worse than W primary.

Eej

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Remember, a critical is basically a hit that does max damage (Swords have tight damage ranges, so this doesn't really do much) and hits as though you have +4 to your sword skill. Basically when you crit as an A/W you hit as though you had 16 Swords. If you crit as a W/A you hit as though you were at 20, plus your Sword Mastery would make the damage bonus from skills like Dragon Slash/Final Thrust/Whatever much higher than the A/W.

Axes are slightly better for this because their damgae range is wider, theoretically Hammers are even better. However, you pop Frenzy as an A/W with a Hammer and you are going to die, fast. Plus, you need to stick on your target for a considerable amount of time to build up Adrenaline for your spike, whereas Assassins are clearly a "get in, do combo spike, get out" style of play.