Greensteel DPS (other than Lit2)

[SirValentine]

So I want to make a greensteel weapon as a generic DPS-weapon to swing from levels 12-19 after I TR. Not worried about a DR breaker, I have that covered, and not worried about level 20, I've got a couple epic weapons that I like.

Now, I know that the very best DPS greensteel in generic situations (no DR, no special immunities or vulnerabilities) is Lightning 2.

But EVERYBODY gets Lit2! I want to be different! And I'm willing to sacrifice a little DPS (but no more than needed) to be different.

So my question is, which OTHER greensteel combination has the next best DPS after Lit2 for generic mobs?

- Corrosive Salt
- Disintegration
- Elemental Mastery
- Magma Surge
- Steam
- Crushing waves
- Incineration

?

Any ideas which of these is best? Who's run the numbers or tried them out?

Thanks for any insight on this.

[protokon]

triple positive work very well, especially since there is a plethora of undead stuff throughout the game (minus end-game of course) and also works well on devils. cheap to build, also functions as a raise dead clicky.

earthgrab weapons are nice although getting nerfed next update will still output some very nice damage.

I am building incineration weapons this life when i get near cap to try out for my next life. So far I have played with triple positive, mineral II's, lightning strike and earthgrab weapons - all of which are very nice while leveling, i prefer the lightning strike because, well, smiting a mob for 600 points of damage with a very nice visual effect just makes me grin every time

[tihocan]

I'd also agree that triple pos is probably the best generic DPS weapon after Lighting Strike... I wouldn't call it original though

After that, my preferred choice would be a Radiance weapon. Blinding everything is fun, and it adds dps to anyone with a bit of backstabbing ability.

Another fun option is sundering ooze, to spawn tons of oozes everywhere

You can also make some cold/cold/cold or fire/fire/fire weapon for specific monsters, but those tend to be less generic.

[Matuse]

- Corrosive Salt
- Disintegration

Both bad options, since they involve a negative shard. Unholy or Evil Burst will not hurt evil aligned monsters, which is a sizable majority of them.

- Elemental Mastery

Too unpredictable.

- Magma Surge
- Steam
- Crushing waves
- Incineration

Any of these can work, but you will run into resistance issues with all of them. Fire and Cold are the most heavily resisted elements of any type. It's one of the big reasons that people make Mineral and Lightning...not a lot of monsters will shrug off acid and lightning damage.

Positive III is a good option (used to be double positive, but greater disruption is getting a huge boost with U9). It's also light on large devil scales, so it's easy to make.

Earth III gives good overall damage, and earthgrab to boost damage even further (U9 takes away the autocrit, but grabbed monsters will still get whumped).

Vacuum II gives some shock damage for a rarely resisted element, and when the TtS goes off, it's basically a vorpal. Litter the ground with soul gems!

[brian14]

Earth III gives good overall damage, and earthgrab to boost damage even further (U9 takes away the autocrit, but grabbed monsters will still get whumped).

Doesn't summoned Earth Elemental grab things rather more often than the weapon itself procs? Seems to me that earth/earth clickie is almost as good as earth/earth/earth -- especially if you already have some high-DPS Tier 3 to whack whatever your pet elemental has grabbed.

Vacuum II gives some shock damage for a rarely resisted element, and when the TtS goes off, it's basically a vorpal. Litter the ground with soul gems!

If you have Improved Precise Shot, then an arrow has a chance to proc on every enemy it hits. REALLY litter the ground with soul gems! Problem with Vacuum weapons IMO (bow or otherwise) is that they are pretty much worthless at Tier 1 and Tier 2. Lightning, double-positive and (especially) double-earth are all respectable in their own right. Vacuum... I may be wrong, but I think it will just take up space until you craft that dual shard.

[tihocan]

Oh yes earthgrab is fun when leveling up, and should still be even after U9 (they won't be good weapons for epic questing anymore though).

[sirgog]

IIRC the pecking order against mobs without resists is something like this:


Tier 1 DPS: Lit 2

Tier 2 DPS (a long way behind tier 1): Steam, Radiance, Mineral. Mineral is by far the most popular due to bypassing the DR of every difficult boss in the game except the epic VON3 Marut.

Tier 3 DPS (not too far behind tier 2): Triple Positive, Triple Water, Triple Fire, Magma, Dust. Of these, triple positive is probably the best choice as the currently worthless Greater Disruption is getting a huge buff in U9 (6d6 damage to undead on every swing), and less mobs are immune to Goodburst than are resistant/immune to elemental damage.




The rest are mostly quite a bit behind these. For instance, in raw damage output Earthgrab is the same as triple fire without the Incineration proc (so about 6 damage a swing behind Fire/Fire/Fire), and against the majority of foes which are evil, Ash is 7 damage per hit and 21 damage per crit behind Radiance (7 from losing Holy, 14 from the light damage on crit proc).

Of course, that considers nothing but DPS. Some of the oddball weapons have useful utility effects, like Sundering Ooze, that you might desire and be willing to accept lower DPS to have.