build question: w/a or a/w

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?

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

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.

Quote: Originally Posted by blocparty

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.