Executioner's Strike vs. Penetrating Blow (PvE)

I still flip-flop back and forth on this one, but I'm starting to lean a little bit (see conclusion below).
Executioner's does exactly twice the extra damage as Penetrating, but Penetrating has 20% armor piercing and a lower adredaline cost. Hmmm, lets look at this most closely (we'll use 12 axe mastery)


At 12 axe, Executioner's does 36 extra damage at a cost of 8 adrenaline.
At 12 axe, Penetrating does 18 extra damage and has 20% armor piercing at a cost of 5 adrenaline.

Another thing to consider is this: For strength Warriors, using an axe attack skill with a higher frequency of use makes better use of their extra armor piercing, because it gets used more often that way.
So a better example of strength warriors would be this (we'll use 10 strength to make it easy):

At 12 axe and 10 strength, Executioner's does 36 extra damage and has 10% armor piercing at a cost of 8 adrenaline.
At 12 axe and 10 stength, Penetrating does 18 extra damage and has 30% armor piercing at a cost of 5 adrenaline.

After 16 strikes of adrenaline, Executioner's does 72 extra damage and pierces 10% armor two times.
After 16 strikes of adrenaline, Penetrating does 54 extra damage and pierces 30% armor three times.

^^^ You guys see where I'm going with this.
For strength Warriors fighting high AL monsters, Penetrating would appear to be better than Executioner's.

Feel free to discuss.

Penetrating Blow penetration doesn't stack with strength penetration, neither it does stack with Judge's Insight. If your team uses JI for example, you might screw 10% penetration just for using that skill.
Plus, Executioner's is only really needed for spikes - as it always goes after Eviscerate... Executioner's is always ready then.

This is why it sucks, end of discussion.
The only way you can use well this skill is to use it on ranger/warrior who don't have strenght attribute.

Except it is good for very high armor level opponents, such as warrior bosses and high (24+) level mobs.

Unless you are using Judge's Insight. Then it is worse than Executioner's Strike, the extra 20% of their armor removed from your normal 8-12% from a normal warrior is sometimes worth the "lower" plus damage number.

Also, it isn't like they have the same amount of adrenaline...

You can use Penetrating Blow twice as often as Executioner's Strike, that is two attacks of 20% armor penetration with an additional 18 damage added in rather than one attack of 8-12% armor penetration with 34 damage.

The only way Executioner's Strike is better DoT is if you have Judge's Insight up for the attack, otherwise using two Penetrating Blows is more damaging.

Not really, if you did read my message - Executioner's Strike is used in Spike combos. You don't need 2 strikes, you need only 1 strike.
That is also the reason why Eviscerate is used over Cleave in PvP.

As for PvE, you can use any skills there... it doesn't really matter. It's not like mob gonna spike or lock the target.
Arguing what's best for PvE is just lame because it's already too easy with just a bit of logical build.

"Penetrating Blow penetration doesn't stack with strength penetration"

Really? I guess I always assumed that it did.
Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

And what about sundering weapon mods, does that penetration stack with strength or Penetrating Blow?

Just about nothing stacks in this game, runes or skills. And you dont use Executioners strike last you use EVISCERATE last, everybody knows that, I thought. Its a perfect killing blow. So, since nothing stacks, whats the break down for penetrating blow, if you have a sundering weapon, and 10 strength... how does it all work?

Easiest way to settle this is to just find a high level boss who's hard / impossible to kill solo (monk Griffon boss, maybe?) and run off x attacks with Penetrating, see what the actual damage is from each attack, then run off x attacks Executioner's and record the damage values there too. Because of the axe's low minimum damage (6... sheesh), I've seen Penetrating Attack often do less damage than a normal attack. 6 damage from axe + 18 from Penetrating Attack + 20% AP, vs say 28 damage from axe + 10% AP from 10 strength. I was bringing it on my Ice Imps runs, but after multiple times of seeing 20 damage from PA followed with 25 from the next, non-skill attack, I realized it was worthless. In all my experiences using an axe, I've never seen PA do substantially more damage than a plain ol' swing of the axe on a consistent basis. You gotta stop putting too much value into quoting the statistics from a skill's description, as compared to real-world results.

Ok the armor penetration from strength does stack with penetrating blow because it is effective for ALL attacks. I did test this and did more damage with penetrating blow with 10 strength then with 0 strength. I even used judges insight and again did more damage then without it. Also in spikes you will always use eviscerate FIRST to cause the deep wound so you can finish with the next attack. Sundering mods are worthless, you do 2-3 extra damage 10% of the time. You should use a vampiric haft so you will do 3 extra damage every time and you get health back.

Yeah, but alot of PvE builds, especially axe, are solo builds where you will only take maybe one actual single target attack.

The extra armor penetration from Penetrating attack and the rate at which I can spam it is why I take it, to take down any survivors and also to take down bosses alot faster than with normal attacks. Also the monk bosses aren't hard because of their armor, they are hard because of their heals.

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