I'm debating if Warchief or Protector is the better totem. Is there a break point at which one is better than the other for DPS? Or is "more damage" just strait up better in every case?
Warchief hits animation is more "badass" lol.
Protector gives more tooltip dps since 20% aps is better than 18% more melee dmg. Also, with higher APS besides attacking faster you will move faster as well, so my pick would go to Protector
Which one is actually better? The Varunastra or the Soul Taker version?
I believe that Varunastra gives more teoretical dps, but you need to respec like 50+ points from ST version. But you are attacking slower and move slower.
About Warchief/Protector, is just up to each one decision. Final DPS are almost the same, just a little bit higher with Ancestral Protector.
About version of the build, I strongly recommend now the main version, based on BoR and Soul Taker. Is the one I'm using on Essence league and is fully updated and tested. Varunastra version is because I use this build based on Varunastra on Perandus league (at that time I create this post). So after that sword came back with Div Cards some people want to use it and I decided to put that version again as an alternative.
Both alternatives (Varunastra and 6L + Aegis) are mostly related to the fact that a lot of people ask about that and I decided to put them in the main guide than answering particularly to each one.
With Varunastra version you will get a little bit more DPS but price is higher and mana issues will come again plus having to choose between HoA/AA.
Less Duration support gem doesn't work with SS. Just reduce the delay of explosions, which is useless, but doesn't give any DPS improvement. And I run RRRR because of AFD.
Sorry, but you are very wrong. On both statements. Check again. LS gives BOTH dps and "faster skill use" by reducing explosions which (in my opinion) can come closer to cleave's clear speed. It's pretty noticable how faster T16 bosses hp are draining.
Here, take a look, there's 18% more damage. It's awesome gem for SS and to prevent you from suffering from ele reflect maps. But in any case, i personally don't like SS as i said, i prefer cleave all the way, but some people will probably use it so this is for them :)
Yea, Lion's Roar is great, but i don't like it's knockback at all, it just makes my life boring. You need to tactically place your char before using it if you don't want to find yourself catching up the boss before the flask duration expires.
PS. Gratz on 21/20 Cleave :)
About Lion's Roar, I agree with you, I don't use it for that reason. I just said that comparing DPS, your Cleave buffed DPS was including Lion's Roar and my Static Strike DPS doesn't include that 35% more damage boost because I don't use that flask.
Now Less Duration. Let's try to figure this out.
All DPS I will put here are with auras up and no additional buff:
(1) BoR with 3L: Static Strike (q20/l19) + Weapon Elemental Damage (q20/l19) + Multistrike (q20/l20) = 56.903 DPS
(2) BoR with 4L (w/ LS): Static Strike (q20/l19) + Weapon Elemental Damage (q20/l19) + Multistrike (q20/l20) + Less Duration (q15/l19) = 67.775 DPS
(3) BoR with 4L (w/ AFD): Static Strike (q20/l19) + Weapon Elemental Damage (q20/l19) + Multistrike (q20/l20) + Added Fire Damage (q20/l20) = 75.624 DPS
From (1) to (2) is clear that the more damage from LS is applied to SS, but comparing with (3), final DPS are about +10% higher with Added Fire Damage. That's why I consider no DPS improvement.
About distribution between physical and elemental damage:
With LS (2), I got 18% physical and 82% elemental. With AFD (3), I got 14% physical and 86% elemental. So this could probably help against ele resist bosses.
About the "duration" modifier itself, amount of explosions are tied to APS, 1 hit then 1 explosion. So, a decrease in duration doesn't increase the amount of explosions. But what it does is decrease the delay between hit and explosion from 0.75s to 0.36s. So when you hit, the explosion will occur 0.39s faster.
Looking at this figures, I found more rewarding the +10% final DPS increase against the 0.39s faster explosions. But this should be included as an alternative, and I will on next update.
I hope not making any mistake here, but well, thanks to people questions and answers this build got improved over the time and changed so much. Thanks a lot!
About Lion's Roar, I agree with you, I don't use it for that reason. I just said that comparing DPS, your Cleave buffed DPS was including Lion's Roar and my Static Strike DPS doesn't include that 35% more damage boost because I don't use that flask.
Now Less Duration. Let's try to figure this out.
All DPS I will put here are with auras up and no additional buff:
(1) BoR with 3L: Static Strike (q20/l19) + Weapon Elemental Damage (q20/l19) + Multistrike (q20/l20) = 56.903 DPS
(2) BoR with 4L (w/ LS): Static Strike (q20/l19) + Weapon Elemental Damage (q20/l19) + Multistrike (q20/l20) + Less Duration (q15/l19) = 67.775 DPS
(3) BoR with 4L (w/ AFD): Static Strike (q20/l19) + Weapon Elemental Damage (q20/l19) + Multistrike (q20/l20) + Added Fire Damage (q20/l20) = 75.624 DPS
From (1) to (2) is clear that the more damage from LS is applied to SS, but comparing with (3), final DPS are about +10% higher with Added Fire Damage. That's why I consider no DPS improvement.
About distribution between physical and elemental damage:
With LS (2), I got 18% physical and 82% elemental. With AFD (3), I got 14% physical and 86% elemental. So this could probably help against ele resist bosses.
About the "duration" modifier itself, amount of explosions are tied to APS, 1 hit then 1 explosion. So, a decrease in duration doesn't increase the amount of explosions. But what it does is decrease the delay between hit and explosion from 0.75s to 0.36s. So when you hit, the explosion will occur 0.39s faster.
Looking at this figures, I found more rewarding the +10% final DPS increase against the 0.39s faster explosions. But this should be included as an alternative, and I will on next update.
I hope not making any mistake here, but well, thanks to people questions and answers this build got improved over the time and changed so much. Thanks a lot!
Well, LD was just some alternative, i personally like it. Still, Physical To Lightning gives by far the highest dps. And colors are the same as BoR setup, so it still seems like the best way to go if someone is not lazy enough to do this:
Cleave + MS + IAOE + AFD for map clear
then for the boss
SS + MS + PTL + WED (i made a mistake in one of my previous posts, i said SS + MS + PTL + AFD)
