Physical Damage with Bows & LA

This makes me wonder how people feel about lionseye + blackgleam.

I just tried to drop RT put on a friends lions and a 40% Blackgleam I had stashed, Gained roughly 600 dps on LA. However the rest of my gear isnt that great. Just because it was a huge gain now, doesnt mean that with better gear/more elemental gear, a tri elemental bow wouldnt have been stronger overall.

Anyone have some wisdom to share with me on this?

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I'm not going to make the whole calculation but I'd say 50% projectile>50% elemental>50% physical.

You have to do the calculation to be sure.

252 dps. 50% physical = +126 dps.
162 dps. 50% elemental = +81 dps.

Auras:

45 dps Hatred. 90% physical = +40.5
45 dps Hatred. 90% elemental = +40.5. Without the equivalent of Melee Physical Damage or Physical Damage Effectiveness, this is a wash. The same can be said for the Added Fire Damage support.

386.1 Anger and Wrath. 0% Physical = +0 dps
386.1 Anger and Wrath. 50% Elemental = +193.05 dps


So, yes Weapon Elemental Damage definitely skewers thing in favor of Elemental Damage%. What's the ratio?

2.17 to 1. With Inner Force, 2.63 to 1.


With a lot of mythical all perfect +elemental damage kind of gear, we'll say you can get another Anger and Wrath's worth of base damage. Times the support and base attack speed, 1042.47 dps. Half of that is 521.235 dps, so the ratio becomes 6.31 to 1. But this is rather extreme, compared to the more realistic 2.17 number above.

So I would say, for Lightning Arrow, 1% of Elemental Damage is worth the equivalent of 3% physical most of the time. If you have all three auras active and have a modest amount of +elemental damage on equipment.

Which means Catalyze is bad at 18 points spent just for it. Pretty decent at 12 and a good enough deal at 8. Generally silly when you still have cheaper Projectile Damage% and Accelerations adjacent though.

There is something seriously messed up with Physical Bows when it's a better deal to take the 5% projectile% in the middle and the Shadow's 5% elemental damage than 8% physical damage though. Damn man.

(But don't get me wrong. Those builds that go aaaaall the way along the rim taking nothing but strength nodes are indeed utter shite.)

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Icecreamcart wrote:

If you are using a high dmg physical bow and you have 80% physical dmg inc from Iron Grip/STR, then shoot LA... what are you? Physical? Elemental?

Physical. Maybe. There are three builds in the game:

Elemental: Increase base damage to an extreme amount. Multipliers are scarce: Weapon Elemental Damage support, and some scattered weapon elemental damage. Dual Strike automatically gets the 2x multiplier; for Bows and Wands you need to get the Projectile% or Wand Elemental% to pay for being ranged. Attack speed is the final notable multiplier.

Physical: Base damage is low, but multipliers are plentiful. Generally absolute crap if you're not using a +200% physical damage weapon.

Wizard: Like Daniel Radcliffe.


The hard distinction between elemental and physical is "is Physical Damage% garbage to me or not?" If you have the mandatory +200% weapon, probably not. Unless you're using Elemental Hit.

(Okay in retrospect Physical Damage% is poop for bows. 33% effectiveness if you have top damage, 11% effectiveness if you have a +0% increased physical damage bow.)