GS Greataxe...pos/pos/pos or Mineral2, and why?

[Tanks]

hi all,

I did a search to look into whether a +/+/+ or Mineral2 would be the best upgrade path for my Green Steel Greataxe blank which I recently crafted but came up short...most of the stuff I read said that Mineral2 is best on Harry and Sally end-bosses (particularly on Hard or Elite) but that the +/+/+ is all-around the best DPS. None of the articles I read addressed the greataxe specifically, though. Can anybody explain the DPS math to me so I can figure this out? And where are the resources for which mob has what DR, resist, immunity, etc.?

BTW, I'm using Barb Crit Rage 2, pre-rage str30.

[sirgog]

hi all,

I did a search to look into whether a +/+/+ or Mineral2 would be the best upgrade path for my Green Steel Greataxe blank which I recently crafted but came up short...most of the stuff I read said that Mineral2 is best on Harry and Sally end-bosses (particularly on Hard or Elite) but that the +/+/+ is all-around the best DPS. None of the articles I read addressed the greataxe specifically, though. Can anybody explain the DPS math to me so I can figure this out? And where are the resources for which mob has what DR, resist, immunity, etc.?

BTW, I'm using Barb Crit Rage 2, pre-rage str30.

Mineral 2 anyday.

It's all about Transmuting.

Against Harry (on normal), Transmuting is worth 15 extra damage. (Compare this to Holy, generally considered a strong modifier, and Holy only adds an average 7 damage per hit). Future bosses are only likely to have higher DR, and equally hard to beat or harder to beat DR at that. Then you also get Keen (which means you can switch out Improved Critical: Slashing, giving you a free feat; and you also gain Slicing (a free 2.5 damage per hit on many but not all mobs and bosses). Transmuting also helps on more and more non-boss monsters these days too.

In order to gain these significant bonuses, you have to take Acid Burst instead of Goodburst (Acid Burst is a tad weaker, but Slicing alone makes up for this most of the time), and you have to take Acid Blast instead of Good Blast (Good Blast again is better, but not by enough to matter).

So overall, Mineral 2 is better than +++ by about 1 feat and Transmuting - that's a HUGE difference. Especially as Transmuting is the best single weapon attribute currently in game for fighting present and future raid bosses.

[Tanks]

Thanks for the response.

I get that transmuting bypasses most DR and is worth an extra 15 base damage against Harry (more on Hard/Elite), but don't devils have a bit of acid resistance? So by your suggestion:

base damage + 2d6(holy) + 2d10(acidburst) + 2d10(acidblast) (+ 4d6 on a 20) - whatever acid resistance

vs

base damage + 2d6(holy) + 1d6(good) + 4d6(goodburst) + 4d6(goodblast) (+4d6 on a 20) - whatever DR

...is worth the 12 extra larges? I get that against Harry and Sally that Mineral2 is better but what about all the other mobs in the game? Good damage works against elementals, vermin, etc.

Also, when a mob has acid resistance does that count for each element of the acid damage in a hit or the total (ie: basedam + acid + acidburst + acidblast)? That would be important for me to know I think.

[BlackSteel]

if you already have a great pit fiend beater then you'd be better off going triple holy/lit 2/ or steam for more damage on anything that doesnt have DR, but keep in mind mineral 2 is a great weapon agaisnt anything with DR, and frankly I dont even bother carrying around specialty weapons anymore, its not worth the hassle or the icons.

it has to be a very nice beater to top mineral 2, sure you dont get the acid damage due to resistance on devils, but you still get the holy or pure good (depending which way you craft); if you did holy, thats 2d6 plus the extra dice for being greensteel, plus slicing and its +5. Its roughly equivalent to a +1 transmuting of greater bane. Greater bane agaisnt everything evil.


and yes, the acid, burst, and blast are all seperate, so very rarely will you see any nice numbers from those on devils

[Tanks]

Since the acid is negligible on Harry I suppose I need to calculate the math on whether the +d6(good) on every strike in addition to 20% chance of +8d6(goodburst/blastCRIT) and 5% chance of +4d6(goodblast20) reasonably mitigate the DR15 so that the weapon is my Swiss Army knife all-purpose mobkiller. I, too, am tired of carrying all those specialty weapons (although I'd still carry banish/smite/vorpal).

Is 3.5dam per d6 a reasonable average?

d6(good): 3.5
8d6(goodburst/blast)/5: 5.6
4d6(goodblast20)/20: 0.7

...so avg of 9.8/swing seem about right? That's still -5.2 from Mineral2 (does the Slicing effect proc against Harry?), though.

[Shagn]

I chose good burst instead of acid burst because it makes the weapon great against true neutral mobs (elementals and such). Good burst works on just about everything. You can make arguments both ways though. And even a third to just con damage it to death.

Mineral II is the current best end-game dps weapon available that works well on everything.