best early epic bastard sword for melee arti

[skaught78]

I'm running a Melee Arti through a few epic life's. I am a bastard sword wielding bladeforged (+1ed the pally level out) about half and half renegade mastermaker and battle engineer.

I'm thinking the updated Epic templars retribution is the best weapon I could have at level 20. Someone I was running with last night said it was no good, but couldn't offer an alternative. Anybody got an idea of what might be better?

Also taking recommendations for a good filigree set to compliment it.

[magaiti]

https://ddowiki.com/page/Itemuergar_Waraxe_of_the_Weapon_Master

[Stoner81]

I can't think of anything at level 20 to be honest except for maybe one of the events like Cove or Night Revels might have something? Beyond that a Cannith Crafted one with 2 slots would be fairly decent and then at level 23 switch to the one from Caught in the Web.

EDIT - Oh you could try the ones from Borderlands which are made easily.

Stoner81.

[skaught78]

Aye, not that its great, but does allow for filigrees at level 20. And thats good right?

[magaiti]

Again, Duergar Waraxe of the Weapon Master is the best leveling weapon for melee artificer.

Consider swapping your exotic proficiency feat, or taking both feats.

[skaught78]

Again, Duergar Waraxe of the Weapon Master is the best leveling weapon for melee artificer.

Consider swapping your exotic proficiency feat, or taking both feats.

One of my shortcomings is maths and number crunching. I am failing to see why the Duergar axe is better than the BS. Is it because of the crit profile and maiming? If so, would that still amount to more damage on a crit than a crit from the BS? I would think the burst (10d6) and blast (4d6) would amount to more damage on a crit no?

[magaiti]

One of my shortcomings is maths and number crunching. I am failing to see why the Duergar axe is better than the BS. Is it because of the crit profile and maiming? If so, would that still amount to more damage on a crit than a crit from the BS? I would think the burst (10d6) and blast (4d6) would amount to more damage on a crit no?

Yes, crit profile. Expanded crit profile is one of the most influential factors in your DPS.

By level 21 you should have weapon damage around 60-100 and melee power between 50 and 100.
Meaning your average physical damage on a non-crit hit is about 100-150.
Crit profile expanded by 2 means you deal critical damage (x4 for an axe with +1 multi from enhancements) extra 10% of the time, so you gain 0.1 * ((100 to 150) x 3) = 30 to 45 more damage on average.
This only gets better as you gain 6 melee power with each epic level, and wear more powerful gear (looks for things with deadly, seeker, bonus to your main stat (intelligence with HA I assume))

14d6 on a crit would only add ~13 damage on average (assuming you miss on 1, and crit on 16-20)

[skaught78]

Thanks for that! Imma have to go farm that bad boy now and give it a go!

Appreciate your help!

[kmoustakas]

I used the one from one man's treasure alot and it looks the part but yeah, as far as damage goes nothing beats the duergar axe. It's 3w when the borderlands weapons went back to 2w and has a better critical profile than normal.

For filigree, I find that the repair set that heals you on hit is amazing for 20 to 28 outside of r10s