Ok, well I now have the option to run either rune on rend (bracers and amulet ele damage can be swapped). I want to really review the pros and cons and get some feedback in regard to high end GR pushing.
If i am not mistaken, lacerate increases damage by ~23% (250%/1100%) consistently.
Assuming 2x attacks/sec with WW and Grandfather, it would take 46 bloodbath detonates on an elite to equal constant lacerate damage. This would be easily achieved over the course of spearing an elite across the GR i understand. HOWEVER, will the 23% extra area damage on top of 23% more consistent damage, AND 23% more damage against most RG outweigh bloodbath.
I am currently doing attempts on GR 139, and any input would be greatly appreciated.
GR 139 is pretty solidly up there. Keep in mind that Bloodbath is quite good in density, so if you are at the point that you have to start fishing for both high-density rifts AND bosses to progress, then you want Bloodbath.
Ok, is this maybe the correct way to think about it…?
Over the course of 10 seconds on an elite, lacerate would add an extra 230% total damage, which would be the equivalent of 5 total detonates or so ( 2x detonates = 100% Damage for 1 sec)
So, that’s not quite the way to think about it, since there’s still a constant total cap of Rends at 4 (2 from your own application, 2 from Bloodbath). If you had a whole bunch of enemies packed together, and killed 46 of them all at once, you’d still only get 2 instances of Bloodbath across the remaining enemies, which would double your damage for 1 second, before expiring. If, on the other hand, you killed two of those enemies every second, for 23 seconds, then you’d have 2x damage for 23 seconds. So it really depends not just on the number of procs, but their timing as well.
Also, regarding Area Damage: Bloodbath procs will deal AD as well. So, the best thing is just to compare the direct damage of Bloodbath vs Lacerate.
Lacerate, as you’ve noted, provides roughly 23% extra damage. While Bloodbath provides a conditional 100% extra damage. Figuring out what that means is a bit tricky on paper, so let’s look at a real-world example.
In this video, Seras’s recent 146 clear, let’s take a look at the first major fight, which takes place from 0:00 - 2:15.
From 0:00 - 1:14, he is gathering up enemies into a big pile using spear and stomp, and during this time the damage dealt is essentially 0. This would be the case whether he was using Lacerate or Bloodbath- so much of your damage comes from AD that during this “gathering phase”, during which many of these enemies are hit with Ambo-Rends for 20 - 40 seconds, there isn’t a single kill.
At 1:15, he starts hard-casting Rend, and the first kill appears at 1:17. From here, we can start watching his Rampage meter to see how often he is killing mobs.
At 1:21, he gets two more kills, followed by many more over the next few seconds, getting his Rampage meter to a full 25 stacks by 1:24.
From 1:24 - 1:40, you can see that the meter is easily ticking 2x / second or more.
From 1:40 - 1:44, there is a small intermission with no stacks.
And, from 1:44 - 2:15, the meter is again ticking very consistently.
At 2:15, he moves off to prepare the next pull.
So, the “damage dealing phase” of this fight takes place from 1:15 - 2:15, or 60 seconds. For 50 of those seconds (1:21 - 1:40 and 1:44 - 2:15), he is reliably getting 2 Bloodbath procs per second. So, that’s about 83% uptime on 100% extra damage, or a 1.83x multiplier compared to Lacerate’s 1.23x.
Because of the way this build operates- where you combine phases in which you do basically zero damage with phases in which you do enormous damage- Bloodbath is going to generally give you better returns than Lacerate, at least in a good map with good mobs.
As for the fight against the RG, you will indeed kill a single-target RG faster with Lacerate. But, it won’t be 23% faster, because of the effect of Stricken, which partially offsets that damage increase. And against the best bosses, with easy-to-kill adds, like Hamelin, Saxtris, and Binder, Bloodbath will at least match, and probably outperform Lacerate, since even just 1 Bloodbath proc per second is a +50% bonus, more than double what you get from Lacerate.
Anyway, I hope this helps you understand why so many people choose Bloodbath over Lacerate.
Ty so much, just the type of reply i was looking for. I was always generally in favor of bloodbath, but having the option to run either just made me want to be 100% sure.
it’s like i’m the only player left in D3 that understands how bloodbath works with AD making this comparison not even close. It’s like usain bolt vs shaq not close. Bloodbath is literally the only reason barbs arent dumpster tier.
Bloodbath only.
oh ok i guess Rage guy also understands so im not alone for once.