So I'm looking at the anytime combos:

CD Anytime:
Hurricane (21) .483 Atk: Low Bonus / Def: Med Penalty Fat: High
Solar Flare (39) .812 Atk: Low Bonus / Def: Low Bonus Fat: Med

Pierce Anytime:
Black Widow (12) .391 Atk: Low Bonus / Def: Low Penalty Fat: High
Sidewinder (18) .671 Atk: Med Bonus / Def: None Fat: Med
Asp's Bite (34) .858 Atk Speed 22% (20sec) Atk: Very High Bonus / Def: Medium Bonus Fat: Low

And I'm not too sure which way to go. Obviously the first 2 CD skills are better in damage, though BW and Sidewinder have better Def penalties and Attack Bonus. Then Asp's bite is fairly nice...good damage and Atk speed decrease.

Doing BW -> Sidewinder ->Asp's Bite should do more damage obviously then Hurricane -> Solar Flare -> Hurricane again (for fair comparison). Any thoughts?

There are two factors that will influence this decision.

First question: Will you be going 50 in both CD and Pierce? Otherwise, you will do less damage with the pierce style vs the CD style?

Second question: How often do you think you can reliably finish the 3 part pierce chain? And will the damage difference (if any) vs the CD ones really matter in those situations?

My choice would be the CD styles. Since you will spec that higher for offhand value and landing the third style in the pierce chain is less reliable.

Overall, taunt is going to be superior. Sure, two taunts get outdamaged by the chain, but 2x first in chain and 1x 2nd in chain gets already outdamaged by the taunt x 3.

Also, on targets where u get only one swing off, your damage will be rather bad.

I won't be speccing 50 pierce, but I assume that (for example) 50 CD and 39+11 pierce is still the same thing.

Ceartas wrote:I won't be speccing 50 pierce, but I assume that (for example) 50 CD and 39+11 pierce is still the same thing.

As long as you use CD styles that is the way it used to be. But if you plan on using pierce styles then it becomes a different story!

Puz wrote:

Ceartas wrote:I won't be speccing 50 pierce, but I assume that (for example) 50 CD and 39+11 pierce is still the same thing.

As long as you use CD styles that is the way it used to be. But if you plan on using pierce styles then it becomes a different story!

This is correct. Extra piercing will still effect the style dmg, meaning your pierce styles will hit for less. If you go the 50 CD, 42 shield, 39 weap you should always be using CD styles unless you have your shield out.


And as was mentioned ealier, taunt will be better. It's got a good growth rate and you shouldn't really be having to use your anytime more than once or twice in a row unless you are soloing / small man grouping (or the fights over already).