Melee Damage for Dummies. AKA why can't I hit as hard as that next guy.

[earl_of_pain]

Every link I've checked on for melee damage seems to take me to the same 404 page of no long here. So I'm asking if there is a CURRENT link to how to maximize melee damage. Some people claim to be hitting for over a 1000 pts of damage at level 14. I would like to be able to do that also. This is what I've figured out so far.

So. Weapon base. Two handers traditionally do more. Two weapon you strike twice as much. Sword and Board has double strike.

Magic enhancement. A +5 is better than a +2 if the sword has the same effects.

Strength. Bigger the better. enhancement bonus, insightful bonus, psionic bonus, rage, anything you can get to raise that score.

Feats. POWER ATTACK (caps intended), weapon specialization, even shield mastery to increase double strike.

Enhancements. Prestige class abilities, strength boost, etc.

Gear. Crit range and crit damage. Seeker effects. Melee Alacrity. Even a haste potion for that last boss battle.

I haven't hit epic feats/destiny yet so I know next to nothing on that. What am I missing now? Why am I only doing a tenth of what others are claiming?

[Toro12]

Every link I've checked on for melee damage seems to take me to the same 404 page of no long here. So I'm asking if there is a CURRENT link to how to maximize melee damage. Some people claim to be hitting for over a 1000 pts of damage at level 14. I would like to be able to do that also. This is what I've figured out so far.

So. Weapon base. Two handers traditionally do more. Two weapon you strike twice as much. Sword and Board has double strike.

Magic enhancement. A +5 is better than a +2 if the sword has the same effects.

Strength. Bigger the better. enhancement bonus, insightful bonus, psionic bonus, rage, anything you can get to raise that score.

Feats. POWER ATTACK (caps intended), weapon specialization, even shield mastery to increase double strike.

Enhancements. Prestige class abilities, strength boost, etc.

Gear. Crit range and crit damage. Seeker effects. Melee Alacrity. Even a haste potion for that last boss battle.

I haven't hit epic feats/destiny yet so I know next to nothing on that. What am I missing now? Why am I only doing a tenth of what others are claiming?

Greensteel lighting strike vs.lightning vulnerable mobs is about the only way to pull 1k damage at 14.

Don't believe the hype

[Kamode_Corebasher]

Greensteel lighting strike vs.lightning vulnerable mobs is about the only way to pull 1k damage at 14.

Don't believe the hype

I agree with this statement!
It looks like you've done your homework...the other major factors relate to FEATs and enhancements (cleave and great cleave are biggies).

[Qhualor]

I could believe a caster doing that kind of damage at 14, but I suppose it could possibly be one of those multi class flavor of the month builds. I play a 9th life pure barb with Lit II and focus on max strength and maxing out all the dps enhancements and feats with 3 monk past lives. she is pure dumb dumb dps. with full party and ship buffs, she wasn't doing that kind of damage at 14, unless you count the lightening proc. maybe you heard a bard singing a story?

[earl_of_pain]

That makes me feel slightly better about my guy hitting in the 40-50 range with some crits in the 200+ range. One thing I did forget to add in was stunning blow. Love the bonus damage to the guy. I also believe if the mob has a stat lowered to 0 that also does the same "helpless" effect. Yes there is sleep/hold spells but I'm talking just melee ability.

I'm really looking forward to the Epic Destiny. Master's Blitz sounds like a lot of fun.

[Veles]

I could believe a caster doing that kind of damage at 14, but I suppose it could possibly be one of those multi class flavor of the month builds.

Any savant does that kind of damage easily with respective element, heck, blade barrier crits for 500 at level 14.
Any melee is way behind blue bars in heroics, not mentioning aoe damage.

[zero32483]

Any savant does that kind of damage easily with respective element, heck, blade barrier crits for 500 at level 14.
Any melee is way behind blue bars in heroics, not mentioning aoe damage.

True. Generally speaking, melee is there to take the aggro off the squishier blue bars. "Ignore the scrawny guy behind me waving his hands in the air and pay attention to the sharp, pointy thing I'm swinging at you, Evildoer!"

[Inoukchuk]

I could believe a caster doing that kind of damage at 14, but I suppose it could possibly be one of those multi class flavor of the month builds. I play a 9th life pure barb with Lit II and focus on max strength and maxing out all the dps enhancements and feats with 3 monk past lives. she is pure dumb dumb dps. with full party and ship buffs, she wasn't doing that kind of damage at 14, unless you count the lightening proc. maybe you heard a bard singing a story?

I could see it happening on a barb with SoS. At that point you have x5 crit on 19-20, on a helpless mob. Assume they are using some effect to give them +5 weapon damage (e.g. tantrum) or +10[w] (slaughter) and have high seeker + rage with max str on a helpless mob. Helpless + crit is x7.5 damage, so they would only have to reach 134 base damage with seeker. Figure:
+77 - base = 11[2d6] (slaughter attack)
+37 - Str*1.5: 50str - +20 horc, +4 enh, +9 double frenzy +6 item +4 tome +2 ship +2 pot +3 level-up= 25*1.5=37
+5 - Enchantment
+13 - PA
+8 - seeker
+6 - racial enhancement
+6 - item (deadly VI)
=152 on an average roll *x5 crit=760 x1.5 helpless=1140 not counting any bard buffs or other effects they could have from splashing (ram's might, divine might, etc). At +5[W] a base damage roll of 57 (out of possible 72) gets your 1k crit without other spells/effects/exploits. Could get higher with damage boost. And I'm sure an expert on barbs could add some things to my list above

So yeah... possible. That said you'd have to be a brainless barbarian that loses HP like a raincloud loses water. And you'd have to have a helpless mob, which you could accomplish easy enough with stunning blow.

[Inoukchuk]

I could see it happening on a barb with SoS. At that point you have x5 crit on 19-20, on a helpless mob. Assume they are using some effect to give them +5 weapon damage (e.g. tantrum) or +10[w] (slaughter) and have high seeker + rage with max str on a helpless mob. Helpless + crit is x7.5 damage, so they would only have to reach 134 base damage with seeker. Figure:
+77 - base = 11[2d6] (slaughter attack)
+37 - Str*1.5: 50str - +20 horc, +4 enh, +9 double frenzy +6 item +4 tome +2 ship +2 pot +3 level-up= 25*1.5=37
+5 - Enchantment
+13 - PA
+8 - seeker
+6 - racial enhancement
+6 - item (deadly VI)
=152 on an average roll *x5 crit=760 x1.5 helpless=1140 not counting any bard buffs or other effects they could have from splashing (ram's might, divine might, etc). At +5[W] a base damage roll of 57 (out of possible 72) gets your 1k crit without other spells/effects/exploits. Could get higher with damage boost. And I'm sure an expert on barbs could add some things to my list above

So yeah... possible. That said you'd have to be a brainless barbarian that loses HP like a raincloud loses water. And you'd have to have a helpless mob, which you could accomplish easy enough with stunning blow.

Also, to reiterate what someone else said, being able to reach some stupid huge # under super stupid ideal circumstances doesn't make the best DPS toon necessarily. You have to take into account crit range, rate of attack, average damage per swing, and then once done calculating DPS consider if 10% more/less damage is worth a major difference in survivability and versatility. That's why most of the melee builds you see posted now (posted and actually played will vary greatly) are fighter/monk/something mixes.

[zwiebelring]

Every link I've checked on for melee damage seems to take me to the same 404 page of no long here. So I'm asking if there is a CURRENT link to how to maximize melee damage. Some people claim to be hitting for over a 1000 pts of damage at level 14. I would like to be able to do that also. This is what I've figured out so far.

So. Weapon base. Two handers traditionally do more. Two weapon you strike twice as much. Sword and Board has double strike.

Magic enhancement. A +5 is better than a +2 if the sword has the same effects.

Strength. Bigger the better. enhancement bonus, insightful bonus, psionic bonus, rage, anything you can get to raise that score.

Feats. POWER ATTACK (caps intended), weapon specialization, even shield mastery to increase double strike.

Enhancements. Prestige class abilities, strength boost, etc.

Gear. Crit range and crit damage. Seeker effects. Melee Alacrity. Even a haste potion for that last boss battle.

I haven't hit epic feats/destiny yet so I know next to nothing on that. What am I missing now? Why am I only doing a tenth of what others are claiming?

1k damage at lvl. 14 is probably a fortunate planetar constellation basedcritical hit. And because bigger numbers look better than tiny ones dps is measured in crit.s. There is a big difference between having a nova dps build (means, burn hot and really fast, aka Furyshot AAs) or having steady and slow but continous dps, like tanks and survivable melee builds show.

The current enhancement changes to Kensai giv you the best of both things. You might check out T5 Kensai enhancement One With The Blade.

For your goal it seems best to use a high crit. multiplier weapon and push your base damage to the maximum. What you have to calcualte, though, is what threat range + according multiplier has biggest efficiency as well as to how you achieve a high multiplier and threat range till lvl. 14.

Something like Greensteel Falchion Lit2 used by a Kensai comes to mind spontaneously. But there are other not so obvious options as well, I guess.

[visibleman]

Feats. POWER ATTACK (caps intended)

Gear. Crit range and crit damage. Seeker effects.

To get those really big numbers, you need to crit.

So pick a weapon with a good crit profile, some named weapons have boosted crit profiles.

Also, some mobs have Fortification which makes them immune to crits. So, while PA is useful, if you have to choose and can't have both, go for Precision - you'll hit more and crit more.