I am currently planning a rifle build dealing aether/vitality damage with Necromancer as a mastery and using Vortex of Souls. Given that I don’t care about the flat damage but only about %weapon damage, I was hesitating between Fire Strike and Primal Strike. Here is my conclusion:
Primal Strike deals (215%-75%)*(1-35%) = 91% weapon damage in a 2.5m radius at level 16 with Thunderous Strike.
Fire Strike deals (120%+30%)*(1+21%) = 181% weapon damage in a 3.4m radius at level 12 with Searing Might and 12/12 Explosive Strike.
Now Blood Pact and Devouring Swarm give a nice amount of flat vitality damage and vitality resistance reduction respectively, but I don’t think that’s good enough to compensate for the loss of %weapon damage.
Might want to try and use a Granted Skill, and use Occultist. Currently our granted attack skills aren’t great, but if anything better comes out in the expansion, the Vit from Occultist might be too good to pass up. Also, it’d give you some Chaos, and we’ve a lot of Vit/Chaos gear you can use, and a lot of Aether/Chaos gear… Would make synergy maybe a bit easier on you.
But Primal Strike deals its full damage in radius + releases chain lightning from Torrent, while Fire Strike deals only 30% Weapon Damage + some flat physical/burn in AoE (+splinters from Brimstone if you’re ranged).
Sure, Primal Strike is subpar, cause its single-target damage is just too low, and it cant be improved with WPS.
@Nssheepster: I would rather not use Occultist’s chaos damage and conversion to aether because it wastes gear slots.
@MortalKombat: are you sure about that? I think the “30% weapon damage, 3.4m radius” you can read on Explosive Strike are stats that are added to the main skill. I would say Fire Strike deals the whole ~150% weapon damage in its radius.
I’m absolutely sure. Explosive Strike is a separate skill effect (just like Torrent). It deals its damage in AoE (both weapon and not), including main target. That’s what it does, and description says that exactly.
Whole Fire Strike’s damage into AoE would be too OP, lol.
Wouldn’t Savagery be even better? You get more weapon damage plus OA/DA and access to the vitality goodies in Shaman. If you’re going Aether/Vit it seems taking Demo purely for the attack enhancer is a giant waste.
Firestrike is million miles better than primal strike! That skill makes me cringe… “rite undertaken by novice… novice shamans”? come on! :(… it needs more love imo! :rolleyes:
I made a 2H Primal Strike Elementalist and it’s great at clearing rooms. It has poor single target damage though, granted it’s not complete crap since it takes me around a minute to kill Valdaran and he’s a walking electric plant. That and the build is actually defensive with Tree of Life being the main focus.
This is probably gonna be a controversial opinion but, i would suggest to remove the 35% damage penalty or at least lower it. The weapon damage penalty can stay though.
I don’t hate it. I even tried cruci but savagery is >>>>> after wave 130. I does need some extra power though. I’m hoping with ultos devo and new xpansion gear it will be better. much prettier than savagery
I’m joking, of course. We dont need 2 same skills, must be a difference. PS is fun thing for cleaning trash, Savagery is for serious purpose, as killing bosses. Each is the best in his own sphere.
