I think the the developers should take another look at the epic sword Sul’thraze the Lasher from Zul’Farrak. For the few that don’t know the idea behind obtaining this blade is you have to get two swords off two bosses in ZF then combine them. These swords have a very low drop rate so that combined with the other looking to obtain these swords makes the epic sword quite tough to obtain.
I think the devs should take a look at the epic sword and re-stat it to give it a higher top end damage and a lower speed. It doesn’t have to be anything insane just make the sword worth using.
52.1 DPS sword (with a ~150 direct dmg proc) is the best existing item at that level. Instant attacks are normalized so the speed is mostly irrelevant. Epic drops from the level 50 raid might be better if they’re slower, but it should hold its own against level 50 blues, which only have ~47 DPS.
The only existing item that really compares is Dark Iron Pulverizer, which 1) is probably even more difficult to craft at level 50 than Sul’thraze; 2) is a mace, which means no sword spec for Warriors; and 3) has a stun proc rather than a damage proc.
I was talking for damage + instant abilities like Mortal strike. This weapon would be fine for a SOR paladin or Bloodthirst 2H warrior but I feel like a weapon should feel impactful in terms of top end. Not looking for anything crazy again. just something impactful.
that is not entirely accurate. instant attack damage is only semi normalized
lets say you have two 30 dps 2h weapons one with a 2.0 speed and one with a 4.0 speed.
and you have 350 attack power every 14 attack power adds 1 dps to your weapon so that would be 25 dps added
so your “white” hits with the two weapons would be:
~110 for the 2.0 weapon (30 + 25) * 2.0
~220 for the 4.0 weapon (30 + 25) * 4.0
with the normalization for instant attacks still get the full damage from the weapon but the added damage from attack power is normalized for to 3.3 speed for 2h weapons
overpower at level 25 does “weapon damage + 5” so for the weapons above that would be:
147.5 for the 2.0 weapon (30 * 2.0) + (25 * 3.3) + 5
207.5 for the 4.0 weapon (30 * 4.0) + (25 * 3.3) + 5
so i would say yes weapon speed does still make quite a difference in that the 4.0 speed weapon does about 33% more damage than the 2.0 speed weapon.
(full disclosure:
Yes 2.0 and 4.0 2h weapons are at the extreme opposite ends of the weapon speed spectrum and are not terribly common.
The example attack power is based on what my level 25 warrior currently has rounded down to make the math easier.
The example weapon dps was based on the 31.1 dps of deadly strike of the hydra [available to a level 25 warrior] again rounded down to make the math neater.
Damage numbers given are before damage mitigation specifically before damage reduction through armor is calculated. )
In conclusion weapon speed does still matter quite a lot. Normalization for instant attacks was not intended to equalize damage output for fast and slow weapons, but to make the value of attack power consistent regardless of weapon speed.
This is exactly what I said. I used two real examples, rather than two hypothetical examples.
The difference between Sul’thraze at 2.6 (the fastest available level 50 weapon that’s actually in game) and Dark Iron Pulverizer at 3.7 (the slowest available level 50 weapon that’s actually in game) while using Mortal Strike is an average of 40 damage, before armor. More like 20-30 damage after armor.
The weapon DPS alone covers that difference, then the proc puts Sul’thraze ahead. Sword spec is even more points in favor of Sul’thraze for Warriors specifically.
Ugh, I was never a fan of going there more than once. Era is more about the quickest path to 60, and unless you got zombie farm groups (will admit I made a mage then to do exactly that), you really would prefer to find a comfier place to farm than that bright yellow place.
I suppose it depends on what you’re leveling! I leveled 2 warriors and a paladin with spam runs there. I also leveled a mage, though I did the solo mage zombie farms, so that was a little different.
Instance farming is good, unless you have people who have to go to town or take breaks every run. That just kills productivity and group morale.
Just saying "40 damage“ without context is not helpful. 40 out of 1000 is nothing, 40 out of 200 is 1/5th (20%) of the damage.
For mortal strike alone armor considerations are moot as this will modify mortal strike damage the same regardless of weapon speed… But if you want to look at the bigger picture… Slower weapons will have the advantage against armor vs an equal faster weapon. Because deep wounds ignores armor and is based on weapon damage.
We do not know this is true for this iteration of the game.
The rest of your post is just you trying to nitpick things that don’t actually matter. I’ll respond to this specifically, though.
Armor does matter. You can test it right now. Your Deep Wounds will tick for more when you crit with 5 sunders than it does when you crit without any sunders.
in fact i did test it right now. exactly the same result. 22 per tick for my warrior with smite’s hammer, and 303 attack power regardless of the number of sunders.
if you tested this yourself and got different values for sunder vs no sunder perhaps you neglected to account for a + damage proc like consumed by rage or the curse from the epic chest
more over it turns out you dont even need to test with sunder the normalized attack for smite’s hammer is 144.3 damage, deep wound does 60% weapon damage so that’s 86.58 damage. and that damage done is split into 4 ticks (1 every 3 seconds for 12 seconds) 86.58/4 = 21.645 i’m seeing 22 damage per tick so seems like no armor is being considered to me.