Half holding out hope that the tooltip and dummy output values I’m seeing are from some unique bug, but if not…
Why is a Colossus Arms’ 20-Rage Execute now doing (in itself) only 78% the (direct) damage of a (similarly 20-Rage) Slam?
Yes, I get that Execute triggers Executioner’s Precision, amounting to an extra 80% of a Slam each time, brings its total up to 236% Slam damage for 40 [36] Rage (or, brings Execute 130% [36] to 162% [18] the efficiency of Slam), but…
…why the hell is the bonus it applies towards a different skill doing as much as the slight majority of Rage’s worth of a skill’s direct damage… on an ‘execute’ skill actually named “Execute”, of all things?
Shouldn’t the “Execute”, you know, be what actually kills things in itself, at least as much as the least kill-y filler available to the class, rather than somehow even less?
While Execute has always been the crit-health filler rather than the capitalizing skill itself, it’s gone so far in that direction that it seems more Festering Strike than anything approaching a killing blow. Without Executioner’s Precision (not saying that anyone would ever skip that talent, but thematically this is still important), is Execute even worth using without overflowing Rage? By itself, it’s only 86% as Rage-efficient as Slam…
For a long time now I’d have preferred that MS buff Execute without relying on the awkwardness of Fatality rather than the inverse via Executioner’s Precision, but it’s largely been whatever. But now? This just feels so thematically backward. Execute seems now to be a DoA-until-talented Mortal Sunder.
If Execute is to have so little Rage efficiency in itself (again, not relevant in terms of total output, but still very relevant thematically), you’d think Rage would be increased and Execute at least given double-duty as a consistently available overflow option for whenever we want it regardless of enemy HP with EP applying only on Sudden Death and under 35|20% enemy health. (In which case, drop the Rage refunding except from %overkill and just increase its damage dealt by 11% to maintain the same efficiency.)
/rant
Inb4:
Yes, taking the obligatory EP means one also takes SB for an extra, in effect ~5.5% Execute damage via the added crit chance and bonus. That’s still not enough to bring Execute to more than 92% the Rage efficiency of Slam in itself, though. Which, again, just feels pretty… off… to me.