At lower TL, everything works. So this suggestion is laser focused at around peak trials for both DW and SW.
Currently Bleed dominates as THE DPS source. This relegates the direct damage route to irrelevance. One can check the warrior LB to try to find out.
Top DW bleed: TL 140, name Cereblon (mobile btw)
Top DW non bleed: TL 126, Name: Zercul (how's your forehead from repeatedly banging against an immovable object?)
That is a HUGE gap. I would argue at TL 126, everything works anyway, even SW tank style.
Clearly the Bladestorm axes were meant for DW direct damage. And clearly this weapon set has failed in terms of bringing acceptable DPS and other benefits to the table to make the direct damage build competitive with bleed.
Let's look at the set bonus: Whirlwind deals 100% more damage to the targeted enemy.
WW at level 10 does 900% weapon damage and damage increased by 25% when duel wielding. So basically when bossing, WW will do ~2250% weapon damage. But WW does not trigger alacrity. Devastate does 6000% per hit at hyper speed with the chance to double that to 12000% with full stack of flurry and 400% more CD. So it's a net dps lost when one uses WW at boss. Therefore this set bonus is effectively nullified.
The difficult part of making WW beneficial at boss is risk making it overwhelming while mobbing.
I suggest a new set bonus for the Bladestorm axes instead.
Set bonus: Fury of the Ancients: Targets damaged by WW becomes more vulnerable to damage by 50% for 15 secs, stackable 5 times. Damage debuff can't be stacked more than once per 5 sec. (this limitation ensures that each WW can only apply 1 debuff).
So WW becomes a damage debuff, making it progressively more powerful. This helps both the mob phase (since it's a set bonus so shockwave bleed finisher is much weaker without the blood swords' GW, so this won't be OP), and most importantly the boss phase. At max stack, each devastate will be doing 2.5x more damage than before. Potentially cutting the boss time to 1/2 of what it takes currently (it takes 5 WWs just to ramp up the max stack and keep mix in 1 WW per 15 secs to keep the stack going).
Now for SW (you knew that was coming eventually)
Blackguard set bonus: Mark of an Infidel: Target damaged by WW becomes more vulnerable to damage by 50% for 15 secs, stackable 5 times. Damage debuff can't be stacked more than once per 5 secs.
Limiting the bonus to just a single target (randomly chosen if WW damages multiple targets during its activation) ensures that this will have minimal impact during mob phase where tank style SW already excels (if extreme map shopping is ignored for the moment). After a minute of ramping up this damage debuff, SW boss damage skyrockets. Dramatically improving the funless boss phase for SW. And hopefully breath down the neck of DW bleed build while staying mobile friendly.
Trouble orion_134 Mirades Cereblon Jose Sarmento Red (Developer)
Currently Bleed dominates as THE DPS source. This relegates the direct damage route to irrelevance. One can check the warrior LB to try to find out.
Top DW bleed: TL 140, name Cereblon (mobile btw)
Top DW non bleed: TL 126, Name: Zercul (how's your forehead from repeatedly banging against an immovable object?)
That is a HUGE gap. I would argue at TL 126, everything works anyway, even SW tank style.
Clearly the Bladestorm axes were meant for DW direct damage. And clearly this weapon set has failed in terms of bringing acceptable DPS and other benefits to the table to make the direct damage build competitive with bleed.
Let's look at the set bonus: Whirlwind deals 100% more damage to the targeted enemy.
WW at level 10 does 900% weapon damage and damage increased by 25% when duel wielding. So basically when bossing, WW will do ~2250% weapon damage. But WW does not trigger alacrity. Devastate does 6000% per hit at hyper speed with the chance to double that to 12000% with full stack of flurry and 400% more CD. So it's a net dps lost when one uses WW at boss. Therefore this set bonus is effectively nullified.
The difficult part of making WW beneficial at boss is risk making it overwhelming while mobbing.
I suggest a new set bonus for the Bladestorm axes instead.
Set bonus: Fury of the Ancients: Targets damaged by WW becomes more vulnerable to damage by 50% for 15 secs, stackable 5 times. Damage debuff can't be stacked more than once per 5 sec. (this limitation ensures that each WW can only apply 1 debuff).
So WW becomes a damage debuff, making it progressively more powerful. This helps both the mob phase (since it's a set bonus so shockwave bleed finisher is much weaker without the blood swords' GW, so this won't be OP), and most importantly the boss phase. At max stack, each devastate will be doing 2.5x more damage than before. Potentially cutting the boss time to 1/2 of what it takes currently (it takes 5 WWs just to ramp up the max stack and keep mix in 1 WW per 15 secs to keep the stack going).
Now for SW (you knew that was coming eventually)
Blackguard set bonus: Mark of an Infidel: Target damaged by WW becomes more vulnerable to damage by 50% for 15 secs, stackable 5 times. Damage debuff can't be stacked more than once per 5 secs.
Limiting the bonus to just a single target (randomly chosen if WW damages multiple targets during its activation) ensures that this will have minimal impact during mob phase where tank style SW already excels (if extreme map shopping is ignored for the moment). After a minute of ramping up this damage debuff, SW boss damage skyrockets. Dramatically improving the funless boss phase for SW. And hopefully breath down the neck of DW bleed build while staying mobile friendly.
Trouble orion_134 Mirades Cereblon Jose Sarmento Red (Developer)
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