Whirlwind is a great mob skill (also mobile friendly, a rare feat). However with only 3 skill slots, it's very difficult to fit a skill that has zero utility at bossing (often half the game) into a competitive build. The most recent patch change to the Cleaver set weapon seems to be a backdoor way to boost the WW's appeal (increase basic attack dmg by a whopping 1200% after WW). So I tested it out. Turns out the weapon is a better fit with not the actual WW skill but the Warlord 4's short WW proc. Since you want the buff to proc and then start doing dmg with normal attacks ASAP instead of whacking away for an eternity (4 long long secs) with the weak single target dmg of WW. But isn't WL the proven superior DW bleed set already? So the set is also the choice for direct dmg? Hmmm where does that leave the Jugg set?
When bossing/single target, frenzy buffed by the Butchery buff will do 580% * 1200% * 1.25 (25% chance to strike twice) per hit = 8700% Oh btw proccing alacrity like no tomorrow.
In comparison, WW does 900% * 1.25 (25% DW bonus) = 1125%. So Frenzy is 7.7 times as powerful as WW per sec. Simply put if one wants to really take advantage of the Cleaver bonus, go WL and forget WW entirely with a low parry build.
WW single target damage needs to be adjusted to make it less of a massive DPS loss when bossing. Luckily there is a feature already in the game that helps with that. The Bladestorm Armaments set bonus: WW deals 100% more damage to the targeted enemy.
Please make this bonus an innate part of the WW skill itself.
Ability Level 10:
Deals 900% weapon damage
Deals 200% more damage to the targeted enemy.
Damage increased by 25% when dual wielding, targets hit deal 15% less damage per equipped weapon for 2 seconds.
Movement speed increased by 30%.
Enemies are pulled towards the Warrior.
With this one change, WW's power at mobbing isn't dramatically better (just 1 out of the entire pulled mob gets the extra 3x dmg), but now instead of doing 13% of a butchery buffed frenzy attack, you are now doing 39%. Still appreciably less but no longer a pittance. Cleaver axe will no longer be the private property of a WL. WL already gets the most out of the Vampiric Blades set. Let's spread the love a little.
Will this change make devastate obsolete? Not at all. Devastate hits at 6000% per hit and often at 12000% per hit (flurry fueled) with an additional 400% CD. WW at 1125% * 3 = 3375%. So WW hits will only be around 25% or less. Devastate will still reign supreme for single target damage. Basically this buffed WW will do LESS damage to the boss during its entire animation (4secs) than Devastate will do during its (1.2secs). So each skill will still have their separate uses and domains.
This brings back to the Bladestorm set bonus. If that's made part of the WW itself, what should the bonus be then.
First of all, non bleed damage model for DW is still far behind bleed. So Direct Damage weapon set like Bladestorm can stand to be massively buffed. The Cleaver change is a great start.
Here is what I think can make DD more competitive:
Successful Critical Hits have a chance to become an Overwhelming Critical
So what is an overwhelming critical? Think of it as a train of critical hits. If a hit rolls a critical, it doesn't stop here. It rolls the critical chance again and again until it finally fails. You count up the number of successful crits in a row and that number squared acts as a final multiplier so you get this truly gigantic critical hit.
Example:
base hit 30k, CD% 1500. Crit chance 50%. It rolls crit 3 times in a row. That's basically 12.5% chance of happening. Then the actual critical hit damage is base damage * CD% (1500) * 3^2 = 4.05M instead of the 450k.
When bossing/single target, frenzy buffed by the Butchery buff will do 580% * 1200% * 1.25 (25% chance to strike twice) per hit = 8700% Oh btw proccing alacrity like no tomorrow.
In comparison, WW does 900% * 1.25 (25% DW bonus) = 1125%. So Frenzy is 7.7 times as powerful as WW per sec. Simply put if one wants to really take advantage of the Cleaver bonus, go WL and forget WW entirely with a low parry build.
WW single target damage needs to be adjusted to make it less of a massive DPS loss when bossing. Luckily there is a feature already in the game that helps with that. The Bladestorm Armaments set bonus: WW deals 100% more damage to the targeted enemy.
Please make this bonus an innate part of the WW skill itself.
Ability Level 10:
Deals 900% weapon damage
Deals 200% more damage to the targeted enemy.
Damage increased by 25% when dual wielding, targets hit deal 15% less damage per equipped weapon for 2 seconds.
Movement speed increased by 30%.
Enemies are pulled towards the Warrior.
With this one change, WW's power at mobbing isn't dramatically better (just 1 out of the entire pulled mob gets the extra 3x dmg), but now instead of doing 13% of a butchery buffed frenzy attack, you are now doing 39%. Still appreciably less but no longer a pittance. Cleaver axe will no longer be the private property of a WL. WL already gets the most out of the Vampiric Blades set. Let's spread the love a little.
Will this change make devastate obsolete? Not at all. Devastate hits at 6000% per hit and often at 12000% per hit (flurry fueled) with an additional 400% CD. WW at 1125% * 3 = 3375%. So WW hits will only be around 25% or less. Devastate will still reign supreme for single target damage. Basically this buffed WW will do LESS damage to the boss during its entire animation (4secs) than Devastate will do during its (1.2secs). So each skill will still have their separate uses and domains.
This brings back to the Bladestorm set bonus. If that's made part of the WW itself, what should the bonus be then.
First of all, non bleed damage model for DW is still far behind bleed. So Direct Damage weapon set like Bladestorm can stand to be massively buffed. The Cleaver change is a great start.
Here is what I think can make DD more competitive:
Successful Critical Hits have a chance to become an Overwhelming Critical
So what is an overwhelming critical? Think of it as a train of critical hits. If a hit rolls a critical, it doesn't stop here. It rolls the critical chance again and again until it finally fails. You count up the number of successful crits in a row and that number squared acts as a final multiplier so you get this truly gigantic critical hit.
Example:
base hit 30k, CD% 1500. Crit chance 50%. It rolls crit 3 times in a row. That's basically 12.5% chance of happening. Then the actual critical hit damage is base damage * CD% (1500) * 3^2 = 4.05M instead of the 450k.