Monday 6 April 2009

Weapon Skill for da Warboss?

+++ Caution! Dis 'as Thinky Stuff +++
(07/04 updates in red)

So with the European PTS now up and the ability to copy Lokax over I decided to check out the possible secondary stat changes and how that would affect me. A weapon that Black Orcs have access to, the Badmoon Bigchoppa has always intrigued me with its proc and raw strength bonus. Now with the secondary changes looming overhead in 1.2.x it the weapon skill bonus on it suddenly makes it a lot more appealing.

So I did what any good Orc would do. I went out and bashed stuff till I found out what was bestest!

Here's what I found with no tactics used and hitting 96 times on level 38 spiders in Kadrin Valley.

Without any weapons equipped here are my stats (was in my rvr gear)
Strength: 557
Weapon Skill: 299

Numbers from live are in red

Bigchoppa of the Darkscale - with 2x +15 strength talismans in it
Auto attack hit: 254 / 253
Critical hit: 372 / From 34 crits: 354-402 (375.79 average)

Badmoon Bigchoppa - NO Talismans in it (because I forgot)
Auto attack hit: 274 / 273
Critical hit: 427 / From 34 crits: 382-434 (407.38 average)
+ 5% proc

Earthkeepa's Cutta & Blocka o' da Doombull - Wounds talismans (only other weapon I had)
Auto attack hit: 150
Critical hit: 220
+ lots of blocks

Using the Badmoon Bigchoppa and opening with a rank 32 Follow 'me Lead (+96 WS) upped my damage to the following:
Auto attack hit: 284
Critical hit: 486
+ 5% proc

Update:
Was on live this morning to note my strength and weapon skill as I forgot to do that. Also ran the first two tests again in a live environment. One thing I must point out though is that the Darkscale Bigchoppa is 3.0 speed whereas the Badmoon is 3.5, however I did not have any talismans slotted into the Badmoon. I'm no theoryhammerer (see wot I did dere?) but by stacking some Weapon Skill in place of strength certainly seems to help a lot (even on live) on the PTS.

Now imagine putting a black orc in a melee group and using No Choppin' Me as well as 'Ave Another One simply because you'll be spamming it and I think this might work out quite well for us...