On paper and in my limited testing using ACT, lightning works best between bosses, bilethorn works best single target. Then again switching is kind of a pain. And bilethorn wasn't DRAMATICALLY outperforming Vorpal on single target, only by a handful of % points (5-10% or so in my tests).
I still don't think they're going to allow those enchants to perform the way the do now. Their words was to allow these as cheaper alternatives, not exceed Vorpal or Dread enchants on various classes.
It may take another year for them to revisit, as I recall many over-performing items taking forever to get nerfed. They just nerfed Shadow Demons a few weeks ago. Introduced in mod 8. Don't have the spare cash to go through a bunch of high priced enchants just now, but watched a CW doing insane damage in FBI switching between T Lightning and T Bilethorn.
On paper and in my limited testing using ACT, lightning works best between bosses, bilethorn works best single target. Then again switching is kind of a pain. And bilethorn wasn't DRAMATICALLY outperforming Vorpal on single target, only by a handful of % points (5-10% or so in my tests).
its so true, Lightning better is clearing mobs Bilethorn is better in long single target (boss fight) bad for mobs as they die too fast before it effects kicks in
I still don't think they're going to allow those enchants to perform the way the do now. Their words was to allow these as cheaper alternatives, not exceed Vorpal or Dread enchants on various classes.
It may take another year for them to revisit, as I recall many over-performing items taking forever to get nerfed. They just nerfed Shadow Demons a few weeks ago. Introduced in mod 8. Don't have the spare cash to go through a bunch of high priced enchants just now, but watched a CW doing insane damage in FBI switching between T Lightning and T Bilethorn.
It wil remain Vorpal for me, for now.
I doubt there be anymore changes too, its not overpowering but slightly better bout 10% difference in performance in certain area IF something like that were to be fixed vorpal was fixed long ago for overwhelmingly out performing all others weapon enchantments.
for optimum performance i guess it be lightning enchant for mob clearing and switch to bilethorn/vorpal for boss fight i guess ...
Again changing enchant is kinda pain, therefore i will use lightning all the way or stick with vorpal all the way ...
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
edited March 2017
I could see having a Relic Weapon with Bilethorn and a Mod 11 weapon with Lightning for quick switchout. I wish I had the 16 million AD to set that up (just cost of enchants.)
I could see having a Relic Weapon with Bilethorn and a Mod 11 weapon with Lightning for quick switchout. I wish I had the 16 million AD to set that up (just cost of enchants.)
Swapping at the boss fight would be no big deal.
Well there is that .. Spending 16m for 2 different weapon enchant ...require to spend gold from time to time to swap... not to mention risk of clicking the wrong button when switching and destroy a 8m weapon enchantment
Ya, how I wish they would remove the discard button from epic enchants and other high value items. Nobody would do it on purpose. Not discarding your artifacts, weapons and enchantments is like a mini-game, for real.
Yup Epic Enchants are totally discardable, but don't you dare throw away that valuable companion experience tome! I end up spending 30+ seconds just staring at those buttons making sure I am clicking the right one. Such a waste of time, but is almost required.
Nope. The weapon damage part isn't even that good. Its biggest claim to fame is its damage increasing debuff and enemy damage debuff.
Since GWF is all about damage, Frost sucks. Feytouched is good by virtue of giving a damage buff.
I personally think that Vorpal is still the best GWF enchant on the condition that you can consistently land hard hitting IBSes (depending on the team, think like 10mil or more). If you're all about at-will hits, you might want something different.
I switched my GWF to Trans Fey Touched a week ago. I'd say my DPS are pretty much the same as with Vorpal. The debuff is nice for the party, but if I end up with another Fey user, then I'm screwed.
Thats on a 100% Crit chance, 118% severity GWF.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
inspected lazalia 3days ago i have seen he switched to feytouched as well
I decided to check that out myself: today he had T Flaming. Lazalia likes to test things.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
So would a dungeon run with T Bilethorn be less dps than an equal run with T Vorpal, or more? I mean, without switching enchants in the middle. Take CN or FBI for examples...
So would a dungeon run with T Bilethorn be less dps than an equal run with T Vorpal, or more? I mean, without switching enchants in the middle. Take CN or FBI for examples...
I tested CN with lightning, vorp, and bilethorn with similar composition parties where I was the primary dps (so it wasn't a sprint-ahead contest).
Bilethorn struggles on trash, but catches up a little on boss fights. Lightning melts trash, but slows down on boss fights. Vorpal is somewhere in between.
Will be testing feytouched next for the funzies, but I think I'll eventually meander back to vorpal and call it a day.
So as with many things, it kind of depends on what else is going on in your party and how close to BiS you really are. The reality is, for most content, we're talking about small increases to already overwhelmingly sufficient dps.
Did our party struggle with zombie hordes when I slotted bile? No not really, but I could also run without an enchant and we would finish.
Was it faster killing zombies with lightning? You betcha, but the slowdown was definitely noticeable on bosses.
Did I try a run where I swapped enchantments a lot? Sure did, and it outperformed my vorpal run. Was it worth the annoying UI and risk of destroying / discarding enchant with an errant click? I wouldn't say so.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
Got my hands on a bilethorn today and see what you mean about it feeling more "grindy." Since its poison is DOT you don't get as much up-front damage as with Vorpal, so you have to keep swinging even as the mobs are ticking down to nothing. I can see where this might be stronger in a boss fight, with 3x stacks of poison.
I think it really depends on your build/playstyle If you like dps lightening is awesome. If you're more of the tank playstyle I would choose Vorpal. I am currently using a Vorpal on my IV GWF.
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On preview, before going live, Lightning was nerfed a little from it's previous buffed state on Preview. What was released to live is still a massive improvement over the previous live version.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
edited March 2017
I'm wondering what's better on LARGE mobs, a la FBI. My guess is vorpal, though possibly bilethorn would be better in areas other than the trolls. I think lightning will likely only be appropriate in the troll areas. Any experience on this would be welcome.
I just got lightning ranked up, so time to test!
(Amazing that lightning is now going for ~11m on auction house now and vorpal is half that. I like lightning so far, but it doesn't have that kind of a difference.)
I was thinking about getting trans fey should a nerf come, but now I'm thinking about switching anyway. Not at 100% crit as is and when the ring change hits console, I will be even less so, so technically a buff to my base dps with 0 down time is better than crit severity, especially in fbi where I'm doing alot more running around, is what I'm thinking. plus an aoe debuff would be nice to have around for trolls. some well timed daggers could save everybody an injury kit or two or three or four.
I've just been testing trans fey vs trans vorpal on the dummys and my ibs is the exact same damage amount as my vorpal this is with 100% crit chance, it like the vorpal isn't giving the 50% crit severity
Comments
It wil remain Vorpal for me, for now.
Lightning better is clearing mobs
Bilethorn is better in long single target (boss fight) bad for mobs as they die too fast before it effects kicks in
Guess Vorpal is all rounder ...
I doubt there be anymore changes too, its not overpowering but slightly better bout 10% difference in performance in certain area
IF something like that were to be fixed vorpal was fixed long ago for overwhelmingly out performing all others weapon enchantments.
for optimum performance i guess it be lightning enchant for mob clearing and switch to bilethorn/vorpal for boss fight i guess ...
Again changing enchant is kinda pain, therefore i will use lightning all the way or stick with vorpal all the way ...
Swapping at the boss fight would be no big deal.
Spending 16m for 2 different weapon enchant ...require to spend gold from time to time to swap... not to mention risk of clicking the wrong button when switching and destroy a 8m weapon enchantment
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Unconfirmed so far.
Since GWF is all about damage, Frost sucks. Feytouched is good by virtue of giving a damage buff.
I personally think that Vorpal is still the best GWF enchant on the condition that you can consistently land hard hitting IBSes (depending on the team, think like 10mil or more). If you're all about at-will hits, you might want something different.
Thats on a 100% Crit chance, 118% severity GWF.
Bilethorn struggles on trash, but catches up a little on boss fights.
Lightning melts trash, but slows down on boss fights.
Vorpal is somewhere in between.
Will be testing feytouched next for the funzies, but I think I'll eventually meander back to vorpal and call it a day.
So as with many things, it kind of depends on what else is going on in your party and how close to BiS you really are. The reality is, for most content, we're talking about small increases to already overwhelmingly sufficient dps.
Did our party struggle with zombie hordes when I slotted bile? No not really, but I could also run without an enchant and we would finish.
Was it faster killing zombies with lightning? You betcha, but the slowdown was definitely noticeable on bosses.
Did I try a run where I swapped enchantments a lot? Sure did, and it outperformed my vorpal run. Was it worth the annoying UI and risk of destroying / discarding enchant with an errant click? I wouldn't say so.
Lightning is good and all but if you're a GWF and don't 1-2HK trash mobs anyway, you need to work on your build.
I just got lightning ranked up, so time to test!
(Amazing that lightning is now going for ~11m on auction house now and vorpal is half that. I like lightning so far, but it doesn't have that kind of a difference.)