Which of these Etched Sigils is actually best?

This is somewhat a matter of how the various multipliers interact, but mostly just wistful thinking, I suppose. I’ve constructed a build around a Deathwish/Etched Sigil combo, using channeling to call down a constant rain of buffed-up Meteors. And today, after sooooo long, an Ancient Etched Sigil FINALLY dropped! Only… while its general stats are excellent, the Unique Affix is… less so.

Original

  • 357-407 Damage
  • 745 Intelligence
  • 651 Vitality
  • Critical Hit Chance Increase 9%
  • Increase Meteor Damage 15%
  • +14 Max Arcane Power
  • +148% Damage while channeling

New

  • 408-500 Damage
  • 975 Intelligence
  • 873 Vitality
  • Critical Hit Chance Increase 9.5%
  • Critical Hits grant 4 Arcane Power
  • +14 Max Arcane Power
  • +126% Damage while channeling

I’m sure you can see my problem. This new one is SO GOOD, and would be a SIGNIFICANT boost… EXCEPT for that last line. And thus, I find myself at an impasse - is the fancy-bordered Ancient version actually going to be better than the top-of-range ‘regular’ version I already have? Will the various additional stats really compensate for losing a whopping 22% off the all-important channeling-boost? Assuming, of course, that I can manage to roll Meteor Damage on it, which in itself will take some doing… :confounded:

At a glance I’d say the new ancient is superior. The difference in the legendary power from 148% to 126% is not that extreme (about 10% calculated difference) and the higher ancient stats including bonus damage and INT should more than make up that 10% decrease in the legendary effect. Plus the new one can be augmented for even more INT.

Ah yes… I hadn’t really considered the possibility of using the cube to enhance it further. The ‘10% calculated difference’ bit confuses me, though, but that’s why I’m here in the first place… the exact impact of the various values in the ultimate damage calculation can be quite arcane (no pun intended). However, it’s worth mentioning that according to the game, switching out the sigil would give me…

  • +6.2% Damage
  • +4.3% Toughness
  • +1.2% Recovery

…though how exactly it’s supposed to improve recovery is frankly beyond me. Point is, if the Unique Affix causes me to lose roughly 10% in the ultimate calculation, that still leaves me down 4% compared to before if that Damage-plus number is to be believed. Would Caldesann’s Despair really be able to compensate for that?

Oh, and I assume that I’d still need to aim for +Meteor Damage as close to 15% as I can manage if I want it to compare… meteors ARE my primary damage-dealers by a large margin, after all.

The non ancient affix is a 2.48x multiplier. The ancient one is a 2.26x multiplier. The difference between them is approximately 10%. Assuming you can roll 15% Meteor damage, I’d use the ancient and augment it unless you keep trying for a new one with a better affix to augment. The new one has better recovery due to the APoC and the higher Int and Vit.

Ah, right, misunderstood what you meant… well, I don’t have a sacrifice-ready gem on hand at the moment, so I suppose I’ll try to roll up that Meteor Damage and switch over for now… and then we’ll see if a better one drops before I get around to leveling a gem suitably high, thus invalidating all my work. :stuck_out_tongue: