How good is Death Blow...really?

[gogoblender 3,071]

I mean..it looks and sounds good, right? Say you socket 30 % deathblow... if a monster falls to that level of HP on his healthpoints, you start doing double damage right?

 

Well, I have some questions. First off, are ALL the hits that come off you at that point all double damage...or do you just get a VERY high chance of doing double damage?

 

As well...don't we have to trade out some of our socketed damage to put the deathblow rings in? In my case, my 37 % is coming off of two rings. Two rings at level 60 to me means 2 x damage 22-22 rings that I can socket. That would seem to be an awful lot of base damage...and I'm not wondering if there are strategies to using Deathblow.

 

For killing monsters all the time...would having higher base damage all the time mean that I get to put out more damage all the way up tho the point where the monster is killed...rather than putting out lesser damage up to the point where the monster reaches my deathblow percentage and this is finished off in a couple of whacks?

 

I was thinking of having two weapons actually. One with DB and one with normal damage. I'd use the normal high base damage wep till I got to the point of the monster's DB that I knew in advance...then switch to the DB weapon to finish him off.

 

This would do very well against bosses, right? And has anyone crunched any numbers for DB optimum percentage? What's the highest percentage of DB we want for a toon that wouldn't compromise too much base damage?

 

Thanks!

 

gogo

[Little Sara 1]

Yes Deathblow seems to be more effective against bosses. A significant base damage increase would definitely be better. I don't tend to favor damage rings however.

 

My Seraphim has two one-handed swords doing 100-135 and 120-150 respectively. Ironically enough they are the same sword (class quest reward from Silver, and from Gold). I prefer "Damage: Physical +xx%", or the better "Damage: +xx%" bonuses.

 

Having a different set of weapons or other equipment for when a boss is under xx% HP could be in your favor. But needn't be used the rest of the time. Pretty useless against most non-boss monsters though.

Edited December 3, 2008 by Little Sara

[Putrescine 11]

It's all about balancing as in S1 gogo

 

 

Get a feel of how much DB you need (could do with or without a higher/lower value)

 

But personally, I feel that deathblow helps me alot with everything

[gogoblender 3,071]

Put, actually it was your two rings that powered my toon all the way to level sixty How much DB are you socketing now? And Sara, I'm actually having to balance chance to attack and damage on my rings now. I'm getting SO much damage from rings I'm buying in Niob with a higher levelled toon, that my killing speed has so improved. The extra damage is now buying me more sockets for chance to attack and the two death blow rings on a lucky pipe I found that has THREE sockets plus +22 Leech built in.

 

Zowie!

 

 

gogo

[Putrescine 11]

Atm I have 60.7% DB

and that is after diminishing into the stats

 

But it's not that intentional tho... It's just simply a lack of the rings and armor I need

 

Still lacking 3 +9 to all skills rings and an evade amulet + two set pieces (guess what... It's the only two set pieces I've been looking for and... "suprise drumroll" it's the only two I'm missing -.-')

 

 

But for a personal preference... I think I'll be keeping DB at around 42-44%

[Llama8 8]

Gogo, you could always look at deathblow % as a chance to do double damage, so in order to work out if swapping a rune/damage ring/etc out for deathblow, work out your increase in deathblow & use that to calculate the "bonus" damage you'd get:

 

so, if you go from 0% DB to 10% DB, you're getting (0.1 * 100% damage = +10% "bonus damage", on average over the life of the target)

 

If you're switching out <10% damage for this 10% DB, then it's worth it, if not...

 

'Course this assumes that you're getting a statistically large sample of hits on a monster. If you're killing the target in 1-2 hits, it won't be worth it, but you might want to keep some deathblow gear for bosses.

 

If you're getting ~50% Deathblow against a boss/dragon/etc, this means that over the life of the boss/dragon, you should get an average of +50% damage, which is probably worth it.

[gogoblender 3,071]

Number sound good. And I do have to say the DB does help. I guess I'm just going to always keep it at less than fifty percent. I'm pretty picky with damage rings, and I'm loathe to trade out even one of them because their damage is so high.

 

So far I'm using two weps now...one with huge DB on it and the other with best base damage. When taking out bosses, I wait till the boss approaches my DB percentage, change weapons....

 

WHACK

 

dead

 

 

gogo

[Epox 2]

I want the game 2 but ofcourse wify has to approvent first well, I guess I maybe see ya after christmas in this game

[gogoblender 3,071]

C'mon Epox...use some of that charm man. And do her an order of Chicken A La Eeeeeeeepox

sure to melt her heart and warm her tummy

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. my deathblow's now at 43, and that's where it's staying. I have a question regarding the Diminishing returns though... are you guys sayng it will take more and more rings socketed to get the final percentage that sigma shows me as actual Deathblow percentage?

[Putrescine 11]

Yes.

[Llama8 8]

My TG's got +111.5% of deathblow from equipment & that's being converted to 62% deathblow.

[Putrescine 11]

The ammount of Deathblow that would pay off is ofcourse also regulated by your ammount of:

 

1: Socket space

2: how many rings and amulets your class can equip

 

 

So as gogo mentioned earlier. I have to agree with him

 

No more than two Deathblow items is really needed. More than that should be as a lucky boni from other items you'd need anyways

 

 

(Just my opinion )

[gogoblender 3,071]

Yes

The amount of Deatblow you're getting from each socket slowly worsens. And sockets are invaluable. So far two has worked really well for me, and someone on the SIF just did some rough calcs... a little less then fifty percent seems to get good results. I'd probably see how much DeathBlow I could squeeze out of two sockets...no more.

 

 

 

gogo

[Putrescine 11]

But one thing that is more important than deathblow tho... Is +all skills RINGS

[gogoblender 3,071]

Really?

 

What level is your toon, and what's the highest level of + to all skills that you have on a single ring?

 

 

gogo

[Putrescine 11]

I'm level 119 atm and IIRC I have a +9 to all skills RING

 

 

the reason for Rings instead of amulets is that if you find someone with high enough blacksmithing... yeah Imagine getting +9 to all skills out of a bronze slot

[Llama8 8]

Yes, we like +all skills rings.

 

My shopper HE (in Niobium, level 14, Bargaining ~58 or so) has seen +3 all skills & +3-4 general skills.