Need advice from experienced theorycrafters!

Hi, thanks for taking your time to look at my thread. I'm about to do the bandit quest, and I still can't decide b/w 18% physical damage or 8% attack speed. My main aoe skill is Lightning Strike with resolute technique (no crit) and 20% shock, and I intend to use it as range attack since I'm playing in invasion and all. I know the dps difference between the 2 rewards is small, but damage is damage. My 6 link will be: Lightning Strike + LMP + Faster Attack + Multistrike + Physical Projectile Damage + WED. And my build has 347% increase physical damage for axe (bonus from strength included), and 10% attack speed with axe. I know people usually say that if you have lots of increase % damage, go attack speed. But I link my skill with both attack speed and multistrike. So in a PERFECT case scenario where I have a triple physical prefixes and attack speed suffix on my 2-handed-axe, which reward is better? And the VALL AXE is the best physical damage 2-haded-axe right? Please give me a clear explanation about your opinion . And thanks again for reading this :)
PS: I don't care about the mana cost of the skill since i run blood magic, and my survivability will be great since I have about 250% life as a range character with 7 endurance charges. My damage may seems high but consider it is a half lightning half physical skill, and each projectile only deals about 84% of the base damage and it will only get lower with multistrike and lmp.

Physical projectile damage? aint working bro

Why? Lightning Strike has a projectile tag, and it's an attack. So can you explain to me why Physical Projectile Attack Damage gem doesn't work with it?

Damage and speed bonuses on weapon are local and multiplicative, so irrelevant for your question about diminishing returns on increases.

Multistrike has a weapon speed multiplier so is also irrelevant, so are physical projectile damage, WED and damage penalty on LMP (try chain too if you get your hands on it).

What's relevant is 347% increased weapon damage plus increased damage on skill gems, versus 10% attack speed plus faster attacks gem.

So it's 347 + 57 + 66 + 40 versus 10 + 44

618% damage compared to 610% is a 2,9% dps increase

162% attack speed compared to 154% is a 5,1% dps boost

So taking attack speed would be a bit better.

...
And don't worry about physical projectile damage, it works just fine, probably even better than fine, you get the damage multiplier without attack speed penalty because you trigger projectiles using a melee attack and PPAD specifies 'less attack speed with projectiles'.
Tested and proven.

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raics wrote:

Damage and speed bonuses on weapon are local and multiplicative, so irrelevant for your question about diminishing returns on increases.

Multistrike has a weapon speed multiplier so is also irrelevant, so are physical projectile damage, WED and damage penalty on LMP (try chain too if you get your hands on it).

What's relevant is 347% increased weapon damage plus increased damage on skill gems, versus 10% attack speed plus faster attacks gem.

So it's 347 + 57 + 66 + 40 versus 10 + 44

618% damage compared to 610% is a 2,9% dps increase

162% attack speed compared to 154% is a 5,1% dps boost

So taking attack speed would be a bit better.

...
And don't worry about physical projectile damage, it works just fine, probably even better than fine, you get the damage multiplier without attack speed penalty because you trigger projectiles using a melee attack and PPAD specifies 'less attack speed with projectiles'.
Tested and proven.

Wow, thank you for your reply. Now I can finally get on with the bandit quest. Thank you so much!

I didn't do any math, but it seems that the 'more' modifier on the WED and PPAD supports was overlooked or not counted as separate multipliers. The downside when used with Lightning Strike though is each only works on half the damage because you do 50% physical and 50% Elemental damage.

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mark1030 wrote:

I didn't do any math, but it seems that the 'more' modifier on the WED and PPAD supports was overlooked or not counted as separate multipliers. The downside when used with Lightning Strike though is each only works on half the damage because you do 50% physical and 50% Elemental damage.

It's converted elemental damage, so physical damage bonuses like PPAD work on all damage, but if you had some that isn't converted, like the bonus from anger aura, it wouldn't be affected.

WED will affect only half of molten strike damage, true, but it would work on non-converted elemental too, so if you had wrath, anger or a lot of elemental damage on gear it would still be well-worth the slot.

But you're right, they weren't accounted for, like I said, multipliers do not alter effectiveness of increases, the result would be the same.