First time player of Grim Dawn and been going well so far, have been lurking here to learn a bit more but now got a question so here I am.
I got a Epic Crossbow dropped a couple days ago and the damage per second on it is insane, or so it seems to me since I can’t figure out what makes it have such high damage output. My build is a Soidier/Demolitionist, and using Blackwater Cocktail’s, Grenades and recently started with Canister Bombs. It’s all bang and fire, the Crossbow is Lightning damage.
Here is a comparison shoot between the crossbow and a rifle, which I thought would do my build good but… well, hence my confusion.
If someone has the time and patient to explain what makes the crossbow so overpowering compared to the rifle, then I be all ears… well, eyes in this case I guess !
Crossbow has more flat damage on it (lightning and electrocute) and a fat % bonus to both types. Rifle fires a little faster, but simply brings lower flat and % numbers. For me it looks as simple as that.
You’re using black water cocktail and bombs? The DPS estimates don’t matter then. The DPS you see on item comparisons is for attacking with the weapon, but your build doesn’t do that.
Looking at the DPS of your skills is better for you. Just enter your character sheet and you can see the DPS values for the skills assigned to your left and right clicks
I take it the flat damage is the 112-142 Lightning damage vs the 90-131 Fire damage ? And then the 126% Lightning and 107% Electrocute Damage, plus the 219-318 Electrocute Damage over 3 seconds would be the fat % bonus, which all in all makes the large damage boost ?
So, if you were playing a Demolitionist, would you still use the crossbow, or use the rifle for the extra +4 to Canister and Thermite skills ?
I like the extra stats on the rifle but not sure if it is worth it compared to the DPS ?
The DPS with the crossbow equipped is 1318 and with the rifle it is 736. Should one just go after the DPS, or also what the extra stats on an item gives the toon ?? In this case it be an extra +4 on Canister Bomb and +4 on Thermite Mine, plus a bit more damage when using Canister Bomb’s. Would that make up for the difference in the DPS, or how do you guys and gals decide what items to use ?
If the numbers cannot tell, go out and fight. Sometimes you can feel it.
Or you stick to something like: You see +4 Thermite Mine, which you should always max out, because it contains important RR, and because its RR, its not inlcluded in the shown DPS or damage numbers.
So the +x on skills can matter. Especially RR.
I say those weapons are closer to each other than the DPS numbers may appear therefore.
The Fleshwarped Incinerator converts the physical damage on CB to fire and adds a burn mod. The chance that isn’t better, for a Commando caster that primarily uses CB, is zero.
If rifle lowered the DPS of my “weapon attack” but boosted some other skills, I would still consider using it. Depends which skills are important to you. Or - as Ungoliath said - you can feel which item is better.
Maybe I would even choose the weapon as trivially as: “I want this character to have a crossbow”.
I ended up respecing my toon so now the difference between the crossbow and rifle is +900, so as @Res said, it ended up being as trivial as my toon did indeed want to be a crossbow user, for now at least !
At least after the respec my DPS doubled so think I be going with it as it is for now. But as so much loot always dropping, I am sure there be something coming along that will be equal confuzzling for me later on.
Once again, thank you for your inputs ! Might be back with more questions later.
If anyone curious, here is the present toon. If anyone has any suggestions on improvement, feel free to comment.
Should probably have mentioned that my second weapon set is a one handed weapon and shield when I feeling like smashing mobs instead of shooting them from a distance. My bad, sorry.
