CH: Soulsmasher not worth it?

Gloom raises your attack by 100% weapon damage.. thats 2/3 of a single spark. The only time your normal arrows will equal your base damage is if the target has 0 physical defense.

Neodaystar - Sanctuary wrote: »

Go to this thread for more info on the build that was used to obtain the data:
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=456402 [test done by Elenacostel]

They are not tests. I just copied and pasted what came out of pwcalc.ru .

Bah soulsmasher is perhaps THE best investment i've made. It shoots fast has gloom(dont even qq about mp. MP food is cheap. Use it.) and with demon spark i drop mobs higher then me so fast it scares me. I choose this bow over 3 other bows. First dragon bow...is well crappy imo. Granted you get +2% crit(+1% from bow and +15dex can make another %) but thats about it. My ch:s is refined to +5(no i didnt cash shop it) and the bow is like 4mil if you farm everything else and use chips to buy the golden spirits. I didnt like vast lands because of its limited add ons and Broadlands...-pdef on an archer? No thank you. I'd rather keep my citrines and not have to replace for garnets. And your damage being lower WITH gloom? I find that highly unlikely. I suggest you bring some proof to back up that claim as when i gloom(+ demon spark = b:dirty) i do a ton of damage. I'm only 90 and i have to manage my aggro with some 95+ barbs. So my suggestion is get soulsmasher especially if you wont be getting the 90 bow.

Neodaystar - Sanctuary wrote: »

Gloom's proc last only 5 secs.

10 seconds.

Neodaystar - Sanctuary wrote: »

Gloom's proc last only 10 secs. Gloom's effect adds only 100% weapon attack. Gloom's proc damage increased does not get multiplied by the effect of demon spark, so it will not give you an insanely increased amount damage but only an extra attack or two due to the increased attack rate from spark. Anyway, its not like as if you can predict the time it will proc and advance spark before hand to pull of an extra proc'ed attack or two. The increased attack is small, and the chances for it to proc is 5%, " a 2/3 of a SINGLE spark" of added damage to those couple of shots.

so youre arguing that a random 2/3 of a single spark is bad? have you used this bow? and im not sure where youre getting at but i know with barb buff demon spark and gloom i have close to 20k max atk which to me isnt bad.

Though CH:S is a decent bow I'd recommend Vast Land over CH:S whenever someone asks for advice. The FC ranged weapons weren't available back in late '08 early '09 which made CH:S an actual option. However with VL being available now, there is really no need for CH:S. VL caters for everything CH:S doesn't. CH:S is obsolete.

VL is:
1. cheap
2. not bound
3. on par with CH:S in dps

Assuming statistical distribution, for 1 proc to occur you fire 20 shots which takes 27seconds. 27seconds for 7.4 of 20 shots of 100% weapon damage becomes +37% weapon damage average every shot. This means that an Archer hovering at ~1300 weapon damage (dual misty, CH:S +5, dual flaw. garnets) will be dealing ~190 more dps than a VL of the same refine level on average.

The dps you deal with a CH:S over a VL is miniscule and does not justify it being 2-3times more costly than VL and never having the option of recouping the initial capital. This is a big plus for VL.

The down side to VL is it is available at 85, but seriously, when is 80-85 ever a problem especially now that exp can be analogous to sample food?

Lu$t - Sanctuary wrote: »

so youre arguing that a random 2/3 of a single spark is bad? have you used this bow? and im not sure where youre getting at but i know with barb buff demon spark and gloom i have close to 20k max atk which to me isnt bad.

I didn't say that the random proc'ed damage from gloom is bad. I was pointing out in the previous post that it was due to a small chance, and the dps overall is not that huge of a difference between the 2 bows, because the gloom effect is only 100% extra weapon attack by chance and VL has higher raw attack values. People kept saying "oh! it's great when it procs and with this buff and that buff I have close to 20k max attack!" When comparing weapon damage between these bows; advance spark and barb buffs should be left out of the equation:

Attack Multiple = 1 + DEX / 150 + Mastery + [Gloom] + [Spark] + [Barb buff]... etc

Because you still get those buffs and effects if you use similar bows except without the gloom effect in the equation. I can also tell you that with VL if you had barb buff, demon spark and all the other buffs, it can ALSO give you close to 20k max attack.


Anyway, I was plugging in some values into the calc to get some rough estimates of the dps of the two bows before I had realized Lady Legerity had already posted some numerical values. What I had was very much similar to hers.

Instead I used a time frame of 20 min or 1200 sec (approx. time to kill world bosses)
CH:S attack rate = 0.69...............828 shots
VL attack rate = 0.67..................804 shots

For CH:S it procs 5% of the time:
- 41 of those attacks will proc
- Considering the effect last 10 secs (gives 7 proc'ed shots) it will yield 290 proc'ed shots
- That's about 35% weapon damage average every shot (Similar to what Lady Legerity had ~ 37%)

In addition to this, if you consider the effects of blazing arrow buff:

Fire Damage = Average Damage from WEAPON ONLY * Blazing Arrow Percent

Vast land have a higher min and max weapon attack value than CH:S, thus yielding about 60+ fire damage more than CH:S. If you consider the max attack values each bow's bonus gives, and the extra dex VL gives, VL will have about 80+ fire damage more than CH:S. Also, the 10~11 dex on the VL can contribute to an increased crit rate of 1% if you are boarder line (20 dex=1 crit). So these factors can make both bows be on par with one another in terms of dps considering what Lady Legerity had mentioned about CH:S dealing ~190 more dps with her assumptions. However, with other facts she had mentioned, VL would be a much better option making CH:S not worth getting (answering the OP's question).

If you are grinding, the difference in attack rate of 0.02 don't matter a whole lot. VL wins over CH:S as it has higher raw attack value, and it doesn't take 20 shots to kill a mob (for a proc on CH:S to occur).

Legerity - Sanctuary wrote: »

Assuming statistical distribution, for 1 proc to occur you fire 20 shots which takes 27seconds. 27seconds for 7.4 of 20 shots of 100% weapon damage becomes +37% weapon damage average every shot. This means that an Archer hovering at ~1300 weapon damage (dual misty, CH:S +5, dual flaw. garnets) will be dealing ~190 more dps than a VL of the same refine level on average.

The dps you deal with a CH:S over a VL is miniscule and does not justify it being 2-3times more costly than VL and never having the option of recouping the initial capital. This is a big plus for VL.

I lurve the CH : Soulsmasher. After snapping of STA and waiting for the hp of the bosses in BH69 or 79 to fall 10%-15% before I attack, I'm almost always sure to steal aggro even from a 9x barb. When gloom procs and a crit follows, that's when I know I have to cast WoG. Plus it looks real cool with a bow on b:laugh

That's with normal attack and no skills used. b:chuckle

PvPed a same level archer who had chain on with same level refine. Gloom proc and took him out in 2 hits.

Can't wait to get to 95 to use the HS

Haxxz - Harshlands wrote: »

Any opinions would be appreciated and yes, I'm kinda living on a small budget but I have a few million I could spend although I'm not sure about CH: Soulsmasher since you can't re-sell.

See Post 13 of this thread.