Question on Radience II

[Xyfiel]

As I have been prepping my 12Monk/6ranger/2rogue Drow Shortsword build for U5, I am getting close to making my shortswords. Main hand will be lit II. Yes I know this is Rogue forums, it is a sneak attack question after all. Remember that I should gain more sneak die once Scorpion Wraith is added.

Is 4d6+11 sneak damage enough to make the off hand a radience II over another lit II?
Would using the radience II still be better then a metalling of Pg shortsword on raid bosses considering 90% off hand?
Considering holy/shock burst/shock blast lit II with flaming/good burst/insight 4. I prefer to minimize the times I swap off hand weapon. Will use Touch of death and handwraps on non crit enemies, and vorpal kamas as needed.
Build will run with 30 str with burst of 40+ using titan's grip/madstone/yugo.

Thank you in advance.

[Visty]

lit is about 16dmg per hit
till the mob is blinded, radiance is 4d6/5 = 14/5 = ~5 dmg per hit
after the mob is blind, radiance is 4d6+11 plus the above ~5 for 4d6+16dmg

[MrCow]

There are 5 questions to answer to sway you one way or another:

• Are you comfortable with your Unbalancing Strike DC? If so, lean away from radiance.
• Are you often alone or someone who has the aggro of critters often? If so, lean towards radiance.
• Do the critters you tend to fight (that can be sneak attacked) take about 8 or more attacks to take down? If so, lean towards radiance.
• Would the effects of Radiance Blindness help your survivability (critter regards all others as if they had 50% concealment)? If so, lean towards radiance.
• Do you sometimes miss attacks in your earlier attacks due to your to-hit (as Blindness gives critters -2 AC and negates DEX bonus to AC). If so, lean towards radiance.

Another thing to keep in mind is that every single critter you would plan to use your Radiance Shortsword on would take light damage. Only true golems such as Iron Golems and Flesh Golems are immune to light damage (which you already stated you will use your fists for).

[Xyfiel]

Dex build, not using unbalancing strike, +radience
shortman a lot, +radience
yes, assume it works in epic, +radience
concealment always a +, +radience
only 18 so no epic yet but would have a lot more to hit when backstabbing, +radience

seems the best option

[MrCow]

yes, assume it works in epic, +radience

Yep, you can blind things in Epic difficulty.

[RS-Makk]

How long does the blindness effect last (and whats the dc)?
Doesnt affect red named?

[Visty]

theres no dc, afaik its permanent and no, it doesnt affect red nameds as they are immune to blindness

[sephiroth1084]

No DC, does not affect red or purple named (though the 4d6 light damage on crits does), and given how quickly they die, as far as I know it lasts until they're dead.

[Draccus]

The blindness effect is extremely valuable in Epic. It's not on the same level as stun, but it's up there.

The blindness effect is definitely not permanent. I'd guess it lasts about 30 seconds, which is usually longer than the mob lasts...except on epic! I've died fighting epic mobs and watched the blindness wear off.

Also, don't be fooled into thinking that a radiance weapon is only good for blinding things. As Mr.Cow stated, it's an incredibly high DPS weapon that isn't too far behind the LitII. It far surpasses a MineralII, which many consider a great all-around DPS weapon.

Another thing to remember when comparing DPS is that the LitII suffers more from what I call "wasted damage" than any other weapon. Any time your target has fewer than about 600 hit points, a lightning proc is delivering less DPS than it does on paper. This is true for almost all weapons but since so much of the LitII's DPS comes from the massive lightning proc, it's more effected by wasted damage. On paper, many people calculate the damage from lightning by simply taking 2% * 600 for an average of 12 hp per hit. That's actually the max DPS. Average DPS, when you factor in the number of times it procs with the target below 600, is lower.

In other words, from a DPS standpoint, I think it's better to have 10 hits for 100 hit points each than to have one hit for 1000 in the same period of time.

On the other hand...add non-bypassable DR into the equation and the LitII starts to recover.

[sephiroth1084]

The blindness effect is extremely valuable in Epic. It's not on the same level as stun, but it's up there.

Don't let Shade hear you or he'll start *****ing about epic mobs running away from him again...

[Talon_Moonshadow]

How long does the blindness effect last (and whats the dc)?
Doesnt affect red named?

It's been my experience, that as soon as they get blinded....they don't stay alive long after that.

[Draccus]

It's been my experience, that as soon as they get blinded....they don't stay alive long after that.

Except in epic!!!

Dresek can not go toe-to-toe with a single Drow Fanatic in Epic OoB. Even when I fully buffed, displaced, with over 507 hp and keep him blind the entire fight, I die first. I hate Epic OoB and those epic Drow Fanatics might be the most powerful non-named mob in the game.

I have no trouble with any single non-named mob in the Epic VoN quests but the Drow Fanatics are unreal!

[LordPiglet]

As I have been prepping my 12Monk/6ranger/2rogue Drow Shortsword build for U5, I am getting close to making my shortswords. Main hand will be lit II. Yes I know this is Rogue forums, it is a sneak attack question after all. Remember that I should gain more sneak die once Scorpion Wraith is added.

Is 4d6+11 sneak damage enough to make the off hand a radience II over another lit II?
Would using the radience II still be better then a metalling of Pg shortsword on raid bosses considering 90% off hand?
Considering holy/shock burst/shock blast lit II with flaming/good burst/insight 4. I prefer to minimize the times I swap off hand weapon. Will use Touch of death and handwraps on non crit enemies, and vorpal kamas as needed.
Build will run with 30 str with burst of 40+ using titan's grip/madstone/yugo.

Thank you in advance.

with 12 levels of monk, you might consider using weighted had wraps and stunning fist. From what I understand, unarmed combat will give you a 12% increase in attack speed before stances, you also have 2d6 base damage. They're change weighted to 3% with a dc, however the dc will now stack with stunning fist. You can use the force ritual and ToD rings for burst damage.

[Ukenburger]

How long does the blindness effect last (and whats the dc)?

18 Second duration, no DC to save against.

[Darkrok]

with 12 levels of monk, you might consider using weighted had wraps and stunning fist. From what I understand, unarmed combat will give you a 12% increase in attack speed before stances, you also have 2d6 base damage. They're change weighted to 3% with a dc, however the dc will now stack with stunning fist. You can use the force ritual and ToD rings for burst damage.

You could do both too in something like epics. If the mob's going to be alive a long time then you could blind them, swap weapons to the weighted, and then go to work on them. Or stun them first, then switch, blind them, and then switch back to stun/dps them again. I don't know the math necessary to determine which would be better and at what point the swaps cost more dps than they gain but I can say that there would certainly be a success rate on stunning fist and mob time to live that would make stun/swap/blind/swap/chain stun+handwrap dps make sense.

Edit: Just saw the 18 second duration comment. Strike that swap back. You could still use the stun to get the first crit to blind though.

[Xyfiel]

with 12 levels of monk, you might consider using weighted had wraps and stunning fist. From what I understand, unarmed combat will give you a 12% increase in attack speed before stances, you also have 2d6 base damage. They're change weighted to 3% with a dc, however the dc will now stack with stunning fist. You can use the force ritual and ToD rings for burst damage.

That won't work and here is why:

Shortswords crit 17-20x2, wraps crit 20x2(no feats spent on either)

Stunning fist requires a feat, so I have to lose one

Stunning fist dc is based on monk level and wisdom. -4 from multiclass, changing to wisdom lowers my dex, i.e. my to hit, my stealth, my imp evasion, -to hit from wraps not being +5 enhancement. Would lose 5 or 6 to hit, which in end game, is a lot. Also, neither my race nor any of my classes have + to combat feats, so I would never get that high to begin with. If building for a dc effect, better to get as much as possible.

Using 2 Tod rings costs me 3 AC from chattering ring, and +2 exceptional dex. I will make at least one holy burst one for fighting undead and portals, but it won't be equipped that much.

Using shortswords allows me to get radience II, which also will have insight 4 on it. Going wraps would cost me that 4 AC and blinding ability to increase dps from sneaks.


Wraps and stunning fist are nice, but not really effective for my build.