Natsu and I again, 1 OP, 1 DC, 1 HB SW (me), 1 SB SW (him), 1 GF
ME (HB Fury)
HIM (SB Fury)
It seems he's getting a lot from Aura of Courage and the 2 hastening lights makes a decent difference. The logs are counted from the last pull before Hati to the last boss because he entered the dungeon without bondings hahaha (so he started recording from the last pull before Hati.
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
@tom#6998 looking at the ACT logs that @kallephi#0836 has posted I see you're using the Deadly Curse+Hadars Graps+SS synergy, but I was wondering why you didn't dip into Damnation for Parting Blasphamy. The dmg on it was boosted in Mod10 and since you're spamming and removing WC anyways would it not be worth the dip? Not sure if it would be concidered "Curse damage" though so don't know of it would be modified by Grasp or not.
Would like to see high geared sw post results of fbi and the new 10 man. HBfury vs SB fury. I am a maxed out HB fury but im on xbox and learn alot from you guys here. Fernuu , Nat , and others. Keeping the sw community optimistic on xbox is proving to be a challenge with the TC nerf coming. Ty guys.
I got what you asked for. FBI run with 1 op, 2 dc, 1 HB fury (me), 1 SB Fury (Natsu). I was thinking about switching to SB. Did some tests on the preview but I didnt get convinced, so I asked Natsu to run FBI with me. I don't remember his gear but I'm pretty sure he is 3.7+ GS (I am 3.9), we have the same companions on epic, the only difference is that I use an owlbear and he uses a wild hunt rider. Companion-wise, his fire archon uses a talisman of adorable bites, ring of brutality +5 and a ring of the loyal avenger. 5 brutals rank 12 if I recall correctly (or azures rank 12?). I use a talisman of the loyal avenger, ring of brutality +4 and a ring of the loyal avenger with 3 brutals rank 12. I got all insignias on purple except by 3 barbed and 1 regal, I believe his insignias are blue. He uses a legendary relic main hand and legendary relic off hand. I use an epic relic main hand and an epic relic off hand. He got 100% crit, I got 97.6% before boons. All my offense slots (8) are brutals rank 12, but I don't remember what enchants he uses. That's all the info I remember to tell you. We did 2 runs, the first run I won by 10M damage if I recall correctly. 400Mish damage each one of us, so it was like 2.5% advantage for me. But we didn't get the ACT log for the first run. But he ran ACT for the second run and here are the logs: mine and his.
MINE (HB Fury):
HIS (SB Fury)
Thanks in advance to Natsu for helping me with the comparison.
PS: I use the SAME build I used before the nerf/fix. I didn't change any feats, skills, passives or whatever. I just don't TC bosses anymore, I use Brood of Hadar on them and that's 10% of my dps in FBI.
very interesting. Do you remember how much unbuffed power and crit Natsu had ? Because yours is considerably high (I think you have max level guild power boon). EDIT: i saw in another thread that you 8000 guild boon of power.
Yep we have max power boon, but im scared running FBI with her. might wipe floor with my sb lol
Would like to see high geared sw post results of fbi and the new 10 man. HBfury vs SB fury. I am a maxed out HB fury but im on xbox and learn alot from you guys here. Fernuu , Nat , and others. Keeping the sw community optimistic on xbox is proving to be a challenge with the TC nerf coming. Ty guys.
I got what you asked for. FBI run with 1 op, 2 dc, 1 HB fury (me), 1 SB Fury (Natsu). I was thinking about switching to SB. Did some tests on the preview but I didnt get convinced, so I asked Natsu to run FBI with me. I don't remember his gear but I'm pretty sure he is 3.7+ GS (I am 3.9), we have the same companions on epic, the only difference is that I use an owlbear and he uses a wild hunt rider. Companion-wise, his fire archon uses a talisman of adorable bites, ring of brutality +5 and a ring of the loyal avenger. 5 brutals rank 12 if I recall correctly (or azures rank 12?). I use a talisman of the loyal avenger, ring of brutality +4 and a ring of the loyal avenger with 3 brutals rank 12. I got all insignias on purple except by 3 barbed and 1 regal, I believe his insignias are blue. He uses a legendary relic main hand and legendary relic off hand. I use an epic relic main hand and an epic relic off hand. He got 100% crit, I got 97.6% before boons. All my offense slots (8) are brutals rank 12, but I don't remember what enchants he uses. That's all the info I remember to tell you. We did 2 runs, the first run I won by 10M damage if I recall correctly. 400Mish damage each one of us, so it was like 2.5% advantage for me. But we didn't get the ACT log for the first run. But he ran ACT for the second run and here are the logs: mine and his.
MINE (HB Fury):
HIS (SB Fury)
Thanks in advance to Natsu for helping me with the comparison.
PS: I use the SAME build I used before the nerf/fix. I didn't change any feats, skills, passives or whatever. I just don't TC bosses anymore, I use Brood of Hadar on them and that's 10% of my dps in FBI.
very interesting. Do you remember how much unbuffed power and crit Natsu had ? Because yours is considerably high (I think you have max level guild power boon). EDIT: i saw in another thread that you 8000 guild boon of power.
Yep we have max power boon, but im scared running FBI with her. might wipe floor with my sb lol
Her who? I'm a guy and Natsu is a guy as well
anyway, for @werdandi#8366, Natsu's unbuffed power is 31,321 (he has 4k power guild boon, and his crit is 17k. MY unbuffed power is 37,669 (with 8k power guild boon). My crit is 17,072 unbuffed, but I always use wild storm elixir + superior elixir of accuracy for +1,350
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Would like to see high geared sw post results of fbi and the new 10 man. HBfury vs SB fury. I am a maxed out HB fury but im on xbox and learn alot from you guys here. Fernuu , Nat , and others. Keeping the sw community optimistic on xbox is proving to be a challenge with the TC nerf coming. Ty guys.
I got what you asked for. FBI run with 1 op, 2 dc, 1 HB fury (me), 1 SB Fury (Natsu). I was thinking about switching to SB. Did some tests on the preview but I didnt get convinced, so I asked Natsu to run FBI with me. I don't remember his gear but I'm pretty sure he is 3.7+ GS (I am 3.9), we have the same companions on epic, the only difference is that I use an owlbear and he uses a wild hunt rider. Companion-wise, his fire archon uses a talisman of adorable bites, ring of brutality +5 and a ring of the loyal avenger. 5 brutals rank 12 if I recall correctly (or azures rank 12?). I use a talisman of the loyal avenger, ring of brutality +4 and a ring of the loyal avenger with 3 brutals rank 12. I got all insignias on purple except by 3 barbed and 1 regal, I believe his insignias are blue. He uses a legendary relic main hand and legendary relic off hand. I use an epic relic main hand and an epic relic off hand. He got 100% crit, I got 97.6% before boons. All my offense slots (8) are brutals rank 12, but I don't remember what enchants he uses. That's all the info I remember to tell you. We did 2 runs, the first run I won by 10M damage if I recall correctly. 400Mish damage each one of us, so it was like 2.5% advantage for me. But we didn't get the ACT log for the first run. But he ran ACT for the second run and here are the logs: mine and his.
MINE (HB Fury):
HIS (SB Fury)
Thanks in advance to Natsu for helping me with the comparison.
PS: I use the SAME build I used before the nerf/fix. I didn't change any feats, skills, passives or whatever. I just don't TC bosses anymore, I use Brood of Hadar on them and that's 10% of my dps in FBI.
very interesting. Do you remember how much unbuffed power and crit Natsu had ? Because yours is considerably high (I think you have max level guild power boon). EDIT: i saw in another thread that you 8000 guild boon of power.
Yep we have max power boon, but im scared running FBI with her. might wipe floor with my sb lol
Her who? I'm a guy and Natsu is a guy as well
anyway, for @werdandi#8366, Natsu's unbuffed power is 31,321 (he has 4k power guild boon, and his crit is 17k. MY unbuffed power is 37,669 (with 8k power guild boon). My crit is 17,072 unbuffed, but I always use wild storm elixir + superior elixir of accuracy for +1,350
Forgive him, your haircut is misleading ^^. And thanks for the additional information: it is really helpful for comparison purpose.
So he is beating you with Sb fury and less dps stats then correct? So I'd say their is nothing more to say. Sb fury seems to be the clear winner to me.
So he is beating you with Sb fury and less dps stats then correct? So I'd say their is nothing more to say. Sb fury seems to be the clear winner to me.
He has a legendary mount, I don't = Cavalry's Warning for him He has legendary weapon, I have epic = around +5% more damage for him He has 5 brutals rank 12 on companion, I have 3 brutals rank 12 on companion = 5.88% more damage and crit chance for him. (2,352 power and crit = 4,704 more stats)..and that 4,704 pretty much kills the difference in stats that I got from guild boon that you claim is the fact that makes me have more stats than him. He got 20% more power from my dark revelry (which he doesn't have). In the other hand I got Infantile Compensation, and he doesn't...
There are a lot of things to take in consideration before saying one build is better than the other, and not only this. Sometimes you get hit 10 times by Hati, other times you get hit 30 times by Hati, sometimes you die and that might make you lose 10M damage for that time you was dead and rebuffing while the other SW deals 10M damage, and that 20M damage difference can make you lose the damage contest in the end. Sometimes Drufi does her storm before you can use warlock's bargain/hadar's grap while the other SW managed to do it thus increasing his damage against yours...etc etc etc.
It's nice to make comparisons but you might find that sometimes a build wins, sometimes the other build wins. For me they are both in the same boat (as you can see if you watch the video on previous posts along with the logs where I won). He won once, I won twice, but there are only 2 logs in here, 1 from my win, 1 from his win, but not the one for the first run where I beat him for 10M damage only. SB Fury is said to be better for single target dps, HB Fury is said to be better for trash mobs dps. In a dungeon or trial you might have only a single target fight the most time, sometimes you have more trash mobs...the builds work differently and they both excel at some points. In the end they are close to the same for me.
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Understand that. Only reason I said his seemed better cause of less stats from what I knew nothing else. I'll find my own build once mod 10.5 hits. I have used my own variants to builds since day one. Just wanting to hear some opinions
Still working out/testing the pure SB Fury build (though it's nothing unique/special really, feat/rotation wise), and bouncing back and forth between that and HB Fury.
Good thing I have a metric HAMSTER-ton of Respec Tokens from the last Winter Festival, and I'm gonna have to save up a bunch more this year!
Thank you for putting so much energy into this. I'm looking forward to hearing more on the subject!!! I also tried several builds in the last 2 months and run out of retrain tokens. For now I'm stuck with a Dark revelry flavored SB Fury which is not a bad build. I think we need the extra movement so as not to activate the new weapon set defense bonus with running.
The damage is close enough that I will keep my Hellbringer, much more fun for me playing that build. That is part of this also, if they are that close, try the 2 and pick which one you enjoy playing more. I mean we are literally now after these tests splitting hairs.
Totally I agree with you, and for me Hellbringer is way more fun than Soulbinder, but, each person has a different opinion. I love Hellish Rebuke so much that I can't see doing anything without it hehehe
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Kallephi, if i'm not wrong, when you attack an ennemi with hellish rebuke, if he strike back, he takes damage again.
I supose it's different with my low gs survability, i kinda always strike mid-range but do you play mid range or stay close to the ennemi to take hits and benefit hellish rebuke bonus damage ?
Kallephi, if i'm not wrong, when you attack an ennemi with hellish rebuke, if he strike back, he takes damage again.
I supose it's different with my low gs survability, i kinda always strike mid-range but do you play mid range or stay close to the ennemi to take hits and benefit hellish rebuke bonus damage ?
I'm totally melee oriented (at the back of the enemies of course), but only when the tanks are close. If there's no tank close to the mobs I go into close-to-melee range and put PoP + Fiery Bolt + Arms of Hadar. It really depends on the dungeon and the mob. I can go into melee with undeads in CN, golems in Master SVA, CR HE and even a giant (although I run when they do their melee hits), but I can't go into melee with a Glabrezu or Nalfshnee without a tank close. I have high lifesteal, and that makes me able to face a lot of mobs. I prefer a group of mobs since I can heal more with PoP under my feet but one mob is ok too since he's not going to last long.
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
J35t3r199 I aggree with what you're saying but, most of the ppl on here are min max. I played dungeons and dragons all my life and my dm would hate my characters.
If you want to have fun, play what you want. Nothing wrong with that. If you have fun topping charts, do that. It's all about fun. I follow the ppl that post on these forums to better my SW and have fun destroying your lock in ToS...lol. love you guy.
ive really noticed that my single mob dps has fallen away. for the early mobs in mSVA im doing really really well then it comes to the boss a load of gwiffs take over as my damage falls away. im running a Dark Rev build. using pop wb and dt for solo bosses. any suggestions?
Tab
Tabatha@rotters // Scourge Warlock // Co Leader // Civil Anarchy
ive really noticed that my single mob dps has fallen away. for the early mobs in mSVA im doing really really well then it comes to the boss a load of gwiffs take over as my damage falls away. im running a Dark Rev build. using pop wb and dt for solo bosses. any suggestions?
Tab
WB and DT are the reason, mainly DT and ignoring Killing Flames. WB is really good but overall Arms of Hadar dps is better because of how the cooldown works. And DT? 6 seconds to do that amount of damage, and you are stuck and bound to do nothing during those 6 seconds (ignoring the hand of blight + DT bug). Try arms of hadar instead of DT and Killing Flames instead of WB, you're ignoring the best damage dealing power from our class.
If you run msva with 2 dcs and they are using hastening light (and the majority does) you are just losing let's say 2 Killing Flames + 2 arms of hadar casts by the time you are casting a single Dreadtheft. That's a huge dps loss, HUGE.
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
ive really noticed that my single mob dps has fallen away. for the early mobs in mSVA im doing really really well then it comes to the boss a load of gwiffs take over as my damage falls away. im running a Dark Rev build. using pop wb and dt for solo bosses. any suggestions?
Has the right of it, definitely a rotation issue...
I've found Firery Bolt / Pillar of Power / Arms of Hadar is good for the 1st Phase, and once he yells 'Enough!' I run to a 'safe place' while also switching FB for Killing Flames. Then go to town on his candy HAMSTER!
ive really noticed that my single mob dps has fallen away. for the early mobs in mSVA im doing really really well then it comes to the boss a load of gwiffs take over as my damage falls away. im running a Dark Rev build. using pop wb and dt for solo bosses. any suggestions?
Has the right of it, definitely a rotation issue...
I've found Firery Bolt / Pillar of Power / Arms of Hadar is good for the 1st Phase, and once he yells 'Enough!' I run to a 'safe place' while also switching FB for Killing Flames. Then go to town on his candy HAMSTER!
Yes, that's EXACTLY what I do.
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Another question for those out there running HB fury, what are the opinions on running FOE vs NPNM? I don't know how much I like losing the dot from Hellish rebuke, and if you have the boon for combat advantage damage on crit already, doesn't that make it irrelevant? (Or do I have this incorrect/confused?). And percentage wise, how much of the total damage from Hellish rebuke is dot vs the initial blast? (Considering the changes to HR in mod 10 where they quadrupled the initial hit dmg). Sry if I'm pulling hairs here, just on PS4 and it's difficult to track quantitatively, no logs and I tend to pub a lot, therefore parties are never the same lol
That's what i did as fury. Doing trash mobs in let's say CN i run ACC+NPNM for better burst. Running trash in FBi it's FoE+ACC. Doing single traget there is no big diffence between npnm+FoE and ACC+FoE , but FoE is allways on vs singel because it´s 18% plus damage with offhandfeat. Combat advantage is active most time in a group vs a single target, on a dummy I could not see a big difference between ACC+FoE and NPNM and FoE, since there is not much curseconsum left these days. For a damnation- or temptationlock ACC is not that important , since fury capstone benefits most of it, but I guess ACC/LC still is the best option doing trash, esp using aoe like DT/firy bolt etc
Another question for those out there running HB fury, what are the opinions on running FOE vs NPNM? I don't know how much I like losing the dot from Hellish rebuke, and if you have the boon for combat advantage damage on crit already, doesn't that make it irrelevant? (Or do I have this incorrect/confused?). And percentage wise, how much of the total damage from Hellish rebuke is dot vs the initial blast? (Considering the changes to HR in mod 10 where they quadrupled the initial hit dmg). Sry if I'm pulling hairs here, just on PS4 and it's difficult to track quantitatively, no logs and I tend to pub a lot, therefore parties are never the same lol
I always use ACC + FOE..the only time I use NPNM is for Dragon Turtle and Drufi from FBI. Like schie (not going to type the whole name, it's diffucult lol) said, NPNM could be good in trash mobs, let's say in MSVA, but in the end you won't hit a mob more than once with hellish rebuke, because sometimes they just die with fiery bolt and the other dps skills from the dps in your group..for ME the difference is so minimal that I prefer ACC. To get combat advantage against all those giants and golems you need to crit on them first (let's say fiery bolt), and maybe you won't hit them again with arms of hadar because the group killed them...so in the end, you are not getting combat advantage against all targets...I just prefer to run ACC and flank them.
The fights for the new content are full of mechanisms who make the bosses and mobs to go out of range or to limit your targeting: Hati jumping, Drufi dashing and invoking the snow storm, Dragon Turtle slamming. Giants dashing or invoking runes so you need to move or even throwing boulders, golems exploding, etc....When they do that, you need to move or to wait for them to become targetable again, and that is the time where Hellish Rebuke dot excels. Another example is the Goristro from Edemo when he charges against a portal or against the wall...he goes out of range but Hellish Rebuke dot keeps damaging him. Schie is right about using NPNM in CN, not for the combat advantage, but for the Hellish Rebuke initial damage since the mobs die fast, but I just don't like the idea of changing class features all the time so I keep ACC running all the time. Also, sometimes you don't really have time to curse a mob, if you do they die before you hit them, that happens a lot to me in MSVA, so you just throw an arms of hadar, but then you realize they didn't die by some reason, so you throw a fiery bolt, and since the arms of hadar crit, they have lesser curse, meaning curse synergy from fiery bolt will apply and all surrounding targets will take the full damage. Well, it really depends on the group, on your playstyle, on the situation. But I prefer to maintain the lesser curse source.
So the only time I use NPNM is when I really can't flank the target AND I don't have other meanings of getting Combat Advantage from the members of my group.
Ly'saaera, Hellbringer Fury Scourge Warlock of Thieves World Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Nice logs fernuu, could you link the build ur running now (unless it's already on here, just point the way). At some point in the future when I'm less squishy I may switch over just to play with SS again. There was always that fun of going nuclear with SS when all the right debuffs are up lol. Both sides have their charms though, there's also the little ring of death and hellish rebuke
Nice logs fernuu, could you link the build ur running now (unless it's already on here, just point the way). At some point in the future when I'm less squishy I may switch over just to play with SS again. There was always that fun of going nuclear with SS when all the right debuffs are up lol. Both sides have their charms though, there's also the little ring of death and hellish rebuke
@fernuu I see you are using Murderous Flames and I assume your rotation in aoe is : Killing Flames, Fiery Bolt and Soul Scorch. Is it really worth it? At the moment I prefer playing BoVA over Killing Flames and not taking Murderous Flames to take Sparkbinder which is incredible in single target.
I don't see how you can build Soul Sparks fast enough to spam Soul Scorch without BoVA. But is it the goal of your build? Or did you find out that it wasn't the way to go?
Comments
ME (HB Fury)
HIM (SB Fury)
It seems he's getting a lot from Aura of Courage and the 2 hastening lights makes a decent difference. The logs are counted from the last pull before Hati to the last boss because he entered the dungeon without bondings hahaha (so he started recording from the last pull before Hati.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
anyway, for @werdandi#8366, Natsu's unbuffed power is 31,321 (he has 4k power guild boon, and his crit is 17k.
MY unbuffed power is 37,669 (with 8k power guild boon). My crit is 17,072 unbuffed, but I always use wild storm elixir + superior elixir of accuracy for +1,350
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
And thanks for the additional information: it is really helpful for comparison purpose.
He has legendary weapon, I have epic = around +5% more damage for him
He has 5 brutals rank 12 on companion, I have 3 brutals rank 12 on companion = 5.88% more damage and crit chance for him. (2,352 power and crit = 4,704 more stats)..and that 4,704 pretty much kills the difference in stats that I got from guild boon that you claim is the fact that makes me have more stats than him.
He got 20% more power from my dark revelry (which he doesn't have). In the other hand I got Infantile Compensation, and he doesn't...
There are a lot of things to take in consideration before saying one build is better than the other, and not only this. Sometimes you get hit 10 times by Hati, other times you get hit 30 times by Hati, sometimes you die and that might make you lose 10M damage for that time you was dead and rebuffing while the other SW deals 10M damage, and that 20M damage difference can make you lose the damage contest in the end. Sometimes Drufi does her storm before you can use warlock's bargain/hadar's grap while the other SW managed to do it thus increasing his damage against yours...etc etc etc.
It's nice to make comparisons but you might find that sometimes a build wins, sometimes the other build wins. For me they are both in the same boat (as you can see if you watch the video on previous posts along with the logs where I won). He won once, I won twice, but there are only 2 logs in here, 1 from my win, 1 from his win, but not the one for the first run where I beat him for 10M damage only.
SB Fury is said to be better for single target dps, HB Fury is said to be better for trash mobs dps. In a dungeon or trial you might have only a single target fight the most time, sometimes you have more trash mobs...the builds work differently and they both excel at some points. In the end they are close to the same for me.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Its up to the player to decide which he wants to play.
Still working out/testing the pure SB Fury build (though it's nothing unique/special really, feat/rotation wise), and bouncing back and forth between that and HB Fury.
Good thing I have a metric HAMSTER-ton of Respec Tokens from the last Winter Festival, and I'm gonna have to save up a bunch more this year!
I also tried several builds in the last 2 months and run out of retrain tokens.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Kallephi, if i'm not wrong, when you attack an ennemi with hellish rebuke, if he strike back, he takes damage again.
I supose it's different with my low gs survability, i kinda always strike mid-range but do you play mid range or stay close to the ennemi to take hits and benefit hellish rebuke bonus damage ?
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
I aggree with what you're saying but, most of the ppl on here are min max. I played dungeons and dragons all my life and my dm would hate my characters.
If you want to have fun, play what you want. Nothing wrong with that. If you have fun topping charts, do that. It's all about fun. I follow the ppl that post on these forums to better my SW and have fun destroying your lock in ToS...lol. love you guy.
Tab
Tabatha@rotters // Scourge Warlock // Co Leader // Civil Anarchy
We are looking for non elitist guilds to join our alliance.
If you run msva with 2 dcs and they are using hastening light (and the majority does) you are just losing let's say 2 Killing Flames + 2 arms of hadar casts by the time you are casting a single Dreadtheft. That's a huge dps loss, HUGE.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Has the right of it, definitely a rotation issue...
I've found Firery Bolt / Pillar of Power / Arms of Hadar is good for the 1st Phase, and once he yells 'Enough!' I run to a 'safe place' while also switching FB for Killing Flames. Then go to town on his candy HAMSTER!
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
do u know what weap enchantment u were using in this ESVA run? was it Terror or Dread?
Doing trash mobs in let's say CN i run ACC+NPNM for better burst.
Running trash in FBi it's FoE+ACC.
Doing single traget there is no big diffence between npnm+FoE and ACC+FoE , but FoE is allways on vs singel because it´s 18% plus damage with offhandfeat.
Combat advantage is active most time in a group vs a single target, on a dummy I could not see a big difference between ACC+FoE and NPNM and FoE, since there is not much curseconsum left these days.
For a damnation- or temptationlock ACC is not that important , since fury capstone benefits most of it, but I guess ACC/LC still is the best option doing trash, esp using aoe like DT/firy bolt etc
Like schie (not going to type the whole name, it's diffucult lol) said, NPNM could be good in trash mobs, let's say in MSVA, but in the end you won't hit a mob more than once with hellish rebuke, because sometimes they just die with fiery bolt and the other dps skills from the dps in your group..for ME the difference is so minimal that I prefer ACC. To get combat advantage against all those giants and golems you need to crit on them first (let's say fiery bolt), and maybe you won't hit them again with arms of hadar because the group killed them...so in the end, you are not getting combat advantage against all targets...I just prefer to run ACC and flank them.
The fights for the new content are full of mechanisms who make the bosses and mobs to go out of range or to limit your targeting: Hati jumping, Drufi dashing and invoking the snow storm, Dragon Turtle slamming. Giants dashing or invoking runes so you need to move or even throwing boulders, golems exploding, etc....When they do that, you need to move or to wait for them to become targetable again, and that is the time where Hellish Rebuke dot excels. Another example is the Goristro from Edemo when he charges against a portal or against the wall...he goes out of range but Hellish Rebuke dot keeps damaging him. Schie is right about using NPNM in CN, not for the combat advantage, but for the Hellish Rebuke initial damage since the mobs die fast, but I just don't like the idea of changing class features all the time so I keep ACC running all the time.
Also, sometimes you don't really have time to curse a mob, if you do they die before you hit them, that happens a lot to me in MSVA, so you just throw an arms of hadar, but then you realize they didn't die by some reason, so you throw a fiery bolt, and since the arms of hadar crit, they have lesser curse, meaning curse synergy from fiery bolt will apply and all surrounding targets will take the full damage.
Well, it really depends on the group, on your playstyle, on the situation. But I prefer to maintain the lesser curse source.
So the only time I use NPNM is when I really can't flank the target AND I don't have other meanings of getting Combat Advantage from the members of my group.
Hælja, Swordmaster Conqueror Guardian Fighter of Thieves World
Mod 10:
[Combat (Self)] Critical Hit! Your Killing Flames deals 16636893 (1009292) Fire Damage to Ethraniev Marrowslake.
Mod 9:
[Combat (Self)] Your Murderous Flames deals 376274433 (18876929) Fire Damage to Red Tiamat Head.
At the moment I prefer playing BoVA over Killing Flames and not taking Murderous Flames to take Sparkbinder which is incredible in single target.
I don't see how you can build Soul Sparks fast enough to spam Soul Scorch without BoVA. But is it the goal of your build? Or did you find out that it wasn't the way to go?