DW Traits

Amerises

If 500 penetration = 1% more damage gets through, sharpened adds 3.276% damage.

Nirnhoned adds 15% damage, which is a total of 200 damage. Being that it is percentage based, it's not multiplied by things like major savagery, but additive, meaning its a straight 200 WD regardless of buffs. For stam, 200 WD is maybe a 2.5% to 3% WD (I'm not sure if skills are still 50/50 dmg/stam though, so the bonus maybe not add that much to damage.

Precise adds 3.6% crit, and lets say at 100% crit damage, which is relatively easy, adds that much damage.

With other crit damage multipliers (shadow, khajiit, major force, kilt, etc) precise obviously gets stronger.

If you have two of these traits maxed out, but not the third, obviously that will be less damage, so I understand is a triangle trying to get the most area, but I'm not sure where the math says which to prioritize. Napkin math says precise > sharpened > nirn.

So what is best trait setup?

And yes, I can test this parsing, but before I do my own testing, I'm wondering if anyone has answers. It seems like most builds are nirn/sharpened dual daggers, but is that really the best?

MirandaSharp

Amerises wrote: »

If 500 penetration = 1% more damage gets through, sharpened adds 3.276% damage.

Nirnhoned adds 15% damage, which is a total of 200 damage. Being that it is percentage based, it's not multiplied by things like major savagery, but additive, meaning its a straight 200 WD regardless of buffs. For stam, 200 WD is maybe a 2.5% to 3% WD (I'm not sure if skills are still 50/50 dmg/stam though, so the bonus maybe not add that much to damage.

Precise adds 3.6% crit, and lets say at 100% crit damage, which is relatively easy, adds that much damage.

With other crit damage multipliers (shadow, khajiit, major force, kilt, etc) precise obviously gets stronger.

If you have two of these traits maxed out, but not the third, obviously that will be less damage, so I understand is a triangle trying to get the most area, but I'm not sure where the math says which to prioritize. Napkin math says precise > sharpened > nirn.

So what is best trait setup?

And yes, I can test this parsing, but before I do my own testing, I'm wondering if anyone has answers. It seems like most builds are nirn/sharpened dual daggers, but is that really the best?

On a dps setup I run nirn dagger in main hand and sharpened mace in off-hand. It all depends on what the group provides.. If they have tremorscale, pierce armor, infused crusher plus other debuffs, it may be overkill. For pure damage dual daggers is my favourite, but only in groups where penetration is sorted. In pugs I run with the before mentioned setup.

Ythotha

Amerises wrote: »

If 500 penetration = 1% more damage gets through, sharpened adds 3.276% damage.

Nirnhoned adds 15% damage, which is a total of 200 damage. Being that it is percentage based, it's not multiplied by things like major savagery, but additive, meaning its a straight 200 WD regardless of buffs. For stam, 200 WD is maybe a 2.5% to 3% WD (I'm not sure if skills are still 50/50 dmg/stam though, so the bonus maybe not add that much to damage.

Precise adds 3.6% crit, and lets say at 100% crit damage, which is relatively easy, adds that much damage.

With other crit damage multipliers (shadow, khajiit, major force, kilt, etc) precise obviously gets stronger.

If you have two of these traits maxed out, but not the third, obviously that will be less damage, so I understand is a triangle trying to get the most area, but I'm not sure where the math says which to prioritize. Napkin math says precise > sharpened > nirn.

So what is best trait setup?

And yes, I can test this parsing, but before I do my own testing, I'm wondering if anyone has answers. It seems like most builds are nirn/sharpened dual daggers, but is that really the best?

penetration will not add the same amount of damage in all cases. if you got no pen it will add more damage than if you were close to cap. Same goes for flat damage as well. More you have it less good it gets. Also nirnhoned does get multiplied by percentage buffs

It is pretty much same for all offensive stats that they get less strong the more you have. So it is about finding the balance between all of them so that when multiplied gives you bigger number.

Im pretty sure theres a formula out there that makes this all very simple ( at least less difficult lol) but i dont know.

I would say unless you enjoy doing the math dont bother and just follow a guide. Im fairly confident people that do this as their main job have it all figured out.

WrathOfInnos

The 200 weapon/spell damage from Nirnhoned does get % multipliers, because the 15% affects the weapon itself, and this brings it very close to Precise for the main hand trait. Nirnhoned does almost nothing in off hand, so Precise is usually the answer there.

Artemis_X_

I run nurn e main, precise offhand. Right or wrong it appears to do more dos based on mybtemplate plugged into the uesp character builder (assuming I'm in a 4 man group for some extra pen)