What trait does the most damage in a bow: Precise or Sharpened?

OrphanHelgen

I do everything, a mix between PVP and PVE. So what is the best trait for me to use? Precise = crit (damage or chance?). Sharpened = armor penetraion %.
And, also, is there an addon out there that shows how much armor an enemy have? If I meet a skeleton or something.. Have no clue how much armor it have. Is stacking armor penetration good, so you almost get "true damage"?

I heard that crit damage is only 50%. I dont think that is THAT good. Only good thing about it that I can see, is the no crit cap compare to weapon power soft cap.

I want to make this right decision, before making my bow legendary ;-)

Edit: Found out precise is only crit chance, not crit damage.

Father

Sharpened for sustained dmg boost good for pvp, precise gives crit rate/chance and its more PVE , and a must if you run a crit build.

OrphanHelgen

Thanks.. Last question. Do you know if poison damage can crit, and does more damage the less armor the enemy have?

kijima

Sharpened is still the go, it's not borked like it used to be but it's still worth having.

Jacques Berge

Depends on your build, For NB, crit is always better. Since you have access mark target. Also, Crits give ultimate.

Sharpened is good in pvp, but thats because most good players use impen.

GreyBrow

The math:

Crit chance affects your average damage in the following way:

Crit/2 = average damage increase

Ex.: adding 10% crit chance gives you 5% extra damage, on average.

Since no one seems to know exactly how much mitigation a certain amount of armor gives (besides 35% at softcap and 50% at hardcap), and no one knows exactly how much armor a mob/player may have, its hard to tell how much sharpened will reduce their armor, which means it's hard to tell how much extra damage per hit it will do.

If a player is at 2200 armor, reducing their armor by 12% gives them 1936 armor. This may or may not translate to 5% less damage reduction, but I highly doubt that it does.

What I suggest is to go find a mammoth, equip your crit bow, and test how much damage your light attacks do. Then equip a sharpened bow, and test how much damage your light attacks do. If the sharpened attacks don't do 5% more damage, go with crit.

bellanca6561n

Not powered then I take it?

Yes, I know it was not among the choices but I am curious as I have had good results with powered (or imagine I have) with bladed weapons.

NotSo

To answer your question about poison being able to crit:
Yes, poison and all other types of damage over time effects can crit. Crit damage should be getting reduced by armor and as a side note: impenetrable armor trait will decrease the chance of being crit.

A stamina crit sorcerer (which I am) can use critical surge to also benefit from healing every time a crit procs and will heal for 1/2 of the crit damage caused to include the crits from poison arrow's poison effect and even crits from the dot ticks from volley, making it possible to easily solo large groups of mobs (more enemies in volley = more crits for heals).

s7732425ub17_ESO

The answer to your question is to use two different bows- a sharpened for PVP and a precise (crit chance) for PVE.

If you PVE more, make that bow legendary. If you PVP more, make that bow legendary. Keep the other one purple. It's that simple.

Surfinginhawaii

bellanca6561n wrote: »

Not powered then I take it?

Yes, I know it was not among the choices but I am curious as I have had good results with powered (or imagine I have) with bladed weapons.

I'm curious about this also, I've read powered is also a good trait to get.

OrphanHelgen

Surfinginhawaii wrote: »

bellanca6561n wrote: »

Not powered then I take it?

Yes, I know it was not among the choices but I am curious as I have had good results with powered (or imagine I have) with bladed weapons.

I'm curious about this also, I've read powered is also a good trait to get.

The reason I didn't think of this as an option, is because one of DK's abilities, gives you if I remember correctly 22 weapon damage for over 1 min after activated. Im also crafting set items that gives you 24 weapon damage. At this point the weapon damage reach its soft cap. What is then left for me as a stamina based damage dealer for most damage output, is armor reduction, crit chance and elemental damage. I might get mistaken here, since I haven't crafted this set yet. Still need to finish two researches. And I also think I heard that update 6 will remove soft cap. Can someone confirm that? In that case, powered as a trait might be nice.

Surfinginhawaii

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

The reason I didn't think of this as an option, is because one of DK's abilities, gives you if I remember correctly 22 weapon damage for over 1 min after activated. Im also crafting set items that gives you 24 weapon damage. At this point the weapon damage reach its soft cap. What is then left for me as a stamina based damage dealer for most damage output, is armor reduction, crit chance and elemental damage. I might get mistaken here, since I haven't crafted this set yet. Still need to finish two researches. And I also think I heard that update 6 will remove soft cap. Can someone confirm that? In that case, powered as a trait might be nice.

I see, igneous weapons or molten armament of the DK's abilities will gives you that effect.