I notice that most or all of the Mythical relics that are Nightblade focused have physical damage, Belgothian’s Carnage for example. Slaughter, my Transcendent relic, has the more appropriate Pierce and Bleed, as does the ability on it. Is there some kind of conversion that can occur with +%Physical, in the same way that weapon damage can be converted to Pierce via boosting Armor Piercing? Or is this just the weirdness of Relic stats in general?
No % phys cannot be converted to % pierce… Carnage has both % and flat pierce damage, is it bad somehow if a relic also gives a % phys bonus to any unconverted phys damage you have?!
Only if it replaces something superior, as it does going from Transcendent -> Mythical. In the case of my pierce/bleed Nightblade-focused BM, the Transcendent damage is better than any Mythical relic.
I haven’t used slaughter in ages, but unless the bleed damage is very significant I’d say carnage is better. It is far and away the best relic for a bm that isn’t heavily focused on bleeding. It has more oa, cunning, flat/% pierce, nice DA reduction, and the cdr mechanic is amazing
Carnage is better even if a bleed dmg is significant imo, you will find many sources of +% to bleed, but wont find any other efficient cdr mechanic that will suit your build.