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Weapon Artifact Choice
babyjmr
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 23 Arc User
I was curious what weapon artifact does everything think is better for a PVE Min/Max build. Chilling Cloud or Magic Missile?
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This is my very first pass. Its good for pvp though.
MM:
pro: armor pen >rec (I have more than enough rec(3500+) w/o even trying)
10% dmg is not much but its something
You might want to consider this w/o even using MM.
con: MM dmg was nerfed in mod4 by 22%. You see CWs using CC all the time. So why use it anyway?
CC:
pro: The final strike of Chilling Cloud now takes 1 second to fire (down from 1.2).
Probably does more dmg than MM.
Extra chill maybe useful especially now that CWs chill was just nerfed we might need more.
Proccing bitter cold, blighting power.
con: rec <arp
So yes. Its pretty hard to me to choose. Requires testing. Probably CC though.
Compared to other classes artifact weapon speciality ours isnt that much.
but CC/RoF ones also viable
I was hoping for a CC but got to open 3 boxes before I got 1.
BlackberryCheesecake CW
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
CheeseCake House
Most cws are soft capped on recovery by virtue of HV being the main choice, along with common itemizations such as Dread Legions as a weapon set. I had fallen dragons in mod2, but since quitting, returning and creating a new account I've seen no need to upgrade from DL, thus cannot recall what's the 2 set bonus on FDs.
On DL however, if i switch to artifact weapons, I lose the 450 recovery set bonus and I'd be shying a small chunk away from 3k recovery. What you want as your final stats is your choice. Just emphasizing certain key points and approaches whilst addressing your question.
Taking the MM artifact weapon gives you crit and armor pen. That chunk of armor pen allows you to free up, up to 2 enchantments or move around your jewellery stats(depending on gearing), allowing more room for more powa!
The second take on this is effects based.
CWs generally do a lot of damage. Mostly. A class touted to be overpowered can be played so badly by many players it sickens me. Running skirmishes (sot) this past week has shown me that. So let's assume you're a cw who knows how to play and you do a lot of damage with what you have. After a certain point, in my case, i think... that's enough damage. Let's just... make control a little easier. This is where chilling cloud comes in. I find myself using at wills a lot more in mod 4 compared to previous incarnations. At wills are also remarkably stronger, not because of the at will itself, but in its use (more on that later).
Sudden Storm puts 5 stacks of chill on enemies if feated. Good stuff. But mobs don't always line up the way we like. At legendary, chilling cloud has 60% chance to proc an aoe chill effect on every hit. CoI + Icy Terrain + CC weapon = freeze in a hurry. If you're a melee type CW, chances are mobs will be frozen, and in good positioning... around you, tightly packed even without sing. Given a reasonable party, these mobs should die within or moments after they thaw.
These are the two ways I saw it when i considered my selection.
Lastly, I did some parsing between at wills.
SS Thauma (bittercold + frozen power transfer), Focused Wizardry(30% more damage on single target at wills, 10% less on aoe, penalty would affect CC)
The ranking of overall dps came out to be this.
1) Chilling Cloud
2) Ray of Frost
3) Magic Missile
If we were to merit the ranking based solely on at will damage alone, Magic Missile would be number 1. But let's be practical here. The reason why Chilling Cloud came out tops is because of storm spell. 2 minute parses between each at will showed that Magic Missile procced in a range of 30+ storm spells. Whereas Chilling Cloud and Ray of Frost both maintained 50+ storm spell proc rates within the same duration.
So if you're SS thauma specced... lay magic missile to rest. Different circumstances for MoF, you got no storm spell. Magic Missile is still probably your highest single target dps at will.
edit:
Going down the path of Chilling Cloud means you'd be sacrificing arcane mastery stacks on single target fights. Adjust according to what you farm most! On the other hand... using CC artifact weapon doesn't mean you're barred from using magic missile...
Anyway its kind of a meaningless choice right now. Freezing stuff just got nerfed into the ground so getting extra chill stacks when the mobs will be immune to them like half the time is super so what. If you are about pvp the ray one still might not be significantly better the way it would have been yesterday. Dudes will go into statues faster except gfs who you flat out can't face anymore but it will take like 8 seconds to freeze them again anyway at which point they are in your face and things don't usually go well there.
PVE.
If playing with CC in mind. Just steal time after freeze duration ends. Stun duration ends, freeze freely again. It's a minor nerf, don't see why so many are overstating it.