So to get a max pierce damage build, one way is to max physical damage through however means and then if you max Armor Piercing it will take care of all of it?
no
atleast not if you’re thinking of maxing %physical dmg
and also armour piercing only converts flat physical dmg on skills with weapon dmg
so like grenado you can’t turn to piercing with Armour Piercing
So what I said but only flat dmg on weapons and any % phys but not skills? Which would be fine I think, cos other skills can be converted through other means?
no, again, %phys doesn’t get converted, you need %pierce dmg
yes skill, if a skill has %weapon dmg it gets (proportionally) converted to pierce via armour piercing in the appropriate hand, ex 2h forcewave you can convert flat phys on with a 2h armour piercing weapon, even tho forcewave is a spell, since it still has %weapon dmg
stun jacks you can convert the phys to pierce via an item that adds tiny bit weapon dmg to stun jacks, even tho it’s a pure spell
yea some will have direct conversion available somewhere if the skill was intended for it/pierce dmg
Sorry to labour the point but AP only converts flat not total damage? What happens to the % phys damage?
correct
nothing, just like usual with conversion, bonus/global %dmg is not converted,
just like how %fire dmg is not converted into aether when you convert fire dmg to aether in other builds, only flat fire is converted
What about % damage on the weapon itself?
no, %dmg isn’t converted, doesn’t matter if it’s on the weapon, a devotion or augment or armour, %dmg is not converted
That sounds really weak then?
He means if you converted 100 % phys to pierce, then % phys bonuses no longer matter, as you have 0 flat phys left. You need % pierce bonuses now.
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no, because like any other build, you stack the %dmg of your build/final dmg type, and thus end up getting plenty
like how aether builds stack %aether dmg, despite converting fire etc into aether, and they get a lot of %aether dmg items etc
so if you’re a pierce build, using armour piercing, you stack %pierce dmg bonuses on items, devos, augments, etc
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look at the amount of %pierce dmg in character page 2
plenty bonus dmg obtained, and plenty simple to obtain such amounts
So Armor piercing plus high flat phys + high % pierce damage is the key?
don’t have to aim for high flat phys, can just aim for flat pierce, but yes, flat phys can work too, and yes “whatever” you do, you want to stack up that %pierce as your bonus dmg type
cunning and %pierce will boost your flats and final dmg
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But anything converted to physical won’t get converted to pierce by armor piercing (as conversion can onlhy happen once)?
Yes. Only once.
Weapon piercing conversion also is the last priority of all conversion steps, which means you might have to be careful when planning for this effect.
In my experience, weapon piercing conversion (ie, piercing focus) is not as flexible as one would think - mostly because items that do provide extra physical flat damage also often have a inherent conversion to physical damage. Which results in a unwanted hybrid…because I’m trying to build a pierce focus.
All part of the challenge.
It’s weak indeed, but NOT because of that. It’s weak because only 2 masteries support pierce damage (Nightblade & Inquisitor), and those two dont get along together well.
You also cant have ANY item or buff with global “physical → [something]” conversion, because armor piercing stacks multiplicatively with it and has the lowest priority. So, if you have, for example, a 15% physical->fire conversion, then you literally lose 15% of your total damage.
no it’s not, it’s potentially weaker than couple other dmg types because of years worth of nerfs to pierce items etc
pierce dmg used to be so good it was one of the easier dmg types to meme, even if you only used 1 pierce mastery, or even none
complete BS, infiltrator is splendid and splendid still for pierce dmg
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Yes, that’s what i meant.
Of course it’s splendid because you literally have no other choice for good RR… Other damage types have more options (aside from chaos).
if you agree Infiltrator is a splendid class for pierce dmg, why say they don’t go along well together, when they do go along well together 
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