Poe Skill Tree & Varunastra

Basically what weapon or weapon type has the highest amount of increase damage % on the skill tree?? swords, axes, etc... I dont trust myself with the math and im not a pro at skill trees. also what has the highest attack speed increase %.
Thanks For any help. and sorry if this is a nuisance.

Different weapons have different passives. Generally speaking:

- Axes and maces are pure damage (Marauder area)
- Swords are damage and accuracy (Marauder, Duelist and Ranger area)
- Claws are damage and leech (Shadow area)
- Daggers are damage and crit (Shadow area)

Personally, I'd go for the Shadow area (surprise surprise, Shadow is OP). You have some nice claw and dagger clusters packed close together, along with the other crit nodes, Acro, power charge, and even some dual wield/shield clusters. Looks like everything a melee could ever want except for armor, but we have bismuth flasks now so who cares.

Thanks man ill remember this for future builds. :)

Well, swords have the most passives and most bonuses all around, most damage, most attack speed, about as much crit chance as claws and are right behind daggers in crit multi. However, sword passives are also spread out the most.

Claws and daggers are very localized, you find them only in shadow area plus deadly dilettante cluster at duelist, that's a good thing. They have the least damage on tree and about as much attack speed as axes, daggers have the most crit chance and multi, claws have as much crit chance as swords but for some reason have very little crit multi to pick.

Axes and maces have a similar amount of damage on tree, between swords and daggers, but are more localized than swords, axes also have a good amount of attack speed to pick but maces have very little, making up for it in stun passives.

I'd say you can hardly refuse to grab deadly dilletante.
If going crit shadow, you can wander down there and grab fatal blade as well. Such a nice area.

wow guys thanks for all the help!! :)

I know you said you're not one with the maths, but it's actually pretty easy to figure out how efficient nodes are. You just add up the %increased damage you get from a cluster, and then divide it by the number of points it takes you to get that cluster INCLUDING travel nodes. Same for attack speed, life, crit etc.

Example: Say you're traveling between Duelist and Ranger along that middle path, from Vitality Void to Thick Skin. You're a Varunastra build, so you want to pick up Deadly Dilettante. Let's say you're not going crit so you pick up the 4 damage/attack speed nodes, and take the dex node to get there. For 5 points, you get
(12+12+12+24+24+24=) 108% increased phys damage, or 21.6% per node, and
(4+4+4+4+4+4=) 24% attack speed, or 4.8% per node. Deadly Dilettante cluster gives crazy value for Varunastra builds, and basically every Varu build takes that cluster.
Example 2: Say your build comes down from Golem's Blood to take Iron Reflexes, and you're thinking about taking Hatchet Master, using the dex node to get there. That's
(6+6+16=) 28% inc damage, 7% per node, and
(8+2+2=) 12% attack speed, or 3% per node. Hatchet Master gives really subpar damage/attack speed per node, and very few axe builds take it.
Usually you want to look for 16%-ish damage per node on average (including the notable and travel points), or 4% attack speed. Attack speed is about 2-3x as valuable as damage per %inc because there's less of it and it comes in smaller increments, so it experiences fewer diminishing returns.

With varunastra you want damage nodes which provide bonuses to several weapon types at once. They stack. Examples: Deadly Dilettante, By The Blade, Blunt Instrument.

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Bars wrote:

With varunastra you want damage nodes which provide bonuses to several weapon types at once. They stack. Examples: Deadly Dilettante, By The Blade, Blunt Instrument.

Not Blunt Instrument, as Varunastra doesn't count as a Staff. The other two clusters are must-haves though.

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ThatsSoGoodman wrote:

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Bars wrote:

With varunastra you want damage nodes which provide bonuses to several weapon types at once. They stack. Examples: Deadly Dilettante, By The Blade, Blunt Instrument.

Not Blunt Instrument, as Varunastra doesn't count as a Staff. The other two clusters are must-haves though.

Doesn't it? Apologies.