Blade Fury: Claw vs. Non Opinions?

[sir goatscelot]

Hi all. Just wanted to know if anyone has tried both and if so, which you prefer and why. Gear choices, weaknesses, strengths etc, would be kind for each type. I have read the guides and currently have a lvl 86 Bf girl. I went Cm and max Bf which most advise againest. Just wanted some more opinons.. Thanks all

[lextalionis]

BF

Bows: maybe for when you run out of arrows, but BF is substantially reduced damage for Two Handed Weapons and a bigger damage penalty for Bows.

Two Handed Weapons: Also out. you get no shield, which is no blocking. You also get 50% damage penalty. This hurts this to the point of not being desirable. -- Caveat, look at the mods, BF is good because of mods too.

Claws: Biggest benefit is the small amount of AR bonus you get from Max Claw Mastery. Notice the AR benefits are small on CM, as they contemplate it also being used with Martial Arts skills like TS, CS, DC, etc. Even with max CM you will still have to modify your gear to increase your AR. Damage is smaller, even when you contemplate the Critical STrike hits for double damage. You can do better pure damage from other weapons, claws just dont' have good base damage. Claws biggest melee advantage is the quickness at which Assassins can yeild them. Here attack speed is roughly the same no matter what weapon you use. Then final weakness of claws, the mods. The mods just aren't there. You can't use the attack mods from your second claw. Claws generally don't spawn with mods that are good for BF. Most people like CB, Static, OW, etc. These just aren't found in the same abundance on Claws. Especially when you start looking for base damage and some of these mods, as STRENGTH won't give a good damage bonus to go with its CB. MALICE would grant 100% OWs. Fury will give decent damage and some other good mods. CHOAS is probablyu the best pure damage claw you can get. But you just aren't looking at the damage.

One handed weapons are the way to go. Fleshripper has all the perfect mods. Stormlash is good damage too. Deathclever isn't bad either. CRESENT MOON ethereal cryptic sword is really good. Even Shaeffer's Hammer is an option.

-- Laugh if you want but shields can even help you here since shields sometimes have offensive mods, like OW on the Swordbackhold. So they can be good beyond blocking and defense which are both important.

Also look at the rest of your gear. DS can be gotten there to make up for the lack of Critical Strike from Claw Mastery.

Verdict. You can make an ok BF guy with a claw, but for the most part you are better off with one handed weapon with good damage and good mods. STORMLASH STORMLASH STORMLASH

[sir goatscelot]

Thanks for the info :) I was actually planning on using shield., or actually currently using one. The info you gave on non claw weapons was the kind of thing I was looking for. Stormlash is nice.., but hard to find and exspensive as well as high lvl req's. The question remains, if both chars were to have the identical set up, but one would use claw and Cm, the other non claw based, who would perform better? I am thinking of building another which is why I would like to know if there are any major issues with non claw. I hear in Hell that AR bites for non claw users.. I just want to know if it's been done, and if so, does it compare to claw based. Thanks again!

[lextalionis]

Thanks for the info :) I was actually planning on using shield., or actually currently using one. The info you gave on non claw weapons was the kind of thing I was looking for. Stormlash is nice.., but hard to find and exspensive as well as high lvl req's. The question remains, if both chars were to have the identical set up, but one would use claw and Cm, the other non claw based, who would perform better? I am thinking of building another which is why I would like to know if there are any major issues with non claw. I hear in Hell that AR bites for non claw users.. I just want to know if it's been done, and if so, does it compare to claw based. Thanks again!
AR is a problem, but there are ways to solve it. Read Ritslev's guide.

CM is not a solution for AR. Its just not, its a small increase. Angelic Rings and amulet will pretty much fix your AR especially when paired with charges of Enchant. But CM isn't a huge AR increase. Its just not. Go with the weapon and there a lot of weaons cheaper than Stormlash that are better than pretty much any claw. Fleshripper isn't that expensive. But fleshrender isn't awefull. Neither is the Ethereal Cresent Moon Cryptic Sword.

[sir goatscelot]

Thanks again. I will take it under advisement :)

[Ritslev]

Thanks for the info :) I was actually planning on using shield., or actually currently using one. The info you gave on non claw weapons was the kind of thing I was looking for. Stormlash is nice.., but hard to find and exspensive as well as high lvl req's. The question remains, if both chars were to have the identical set up, but one would use claw and Cm, the other non claw based, who would perform better? I am thinking of building another which is why I would like to know if there are any major issues with non claw. I hear in Hell that AR bites for non claw users.. I just want to know if it's been done, and if so, does it compare to claw based. Thanks again!
I have tested this .. since it took m 7 Furysins to get this right before writing the guide.

Claws as you mention are great.. yo'ull most likely get more damage some time down the line.. you'll hit more if you don't have ITD. All that is really important.... just not in hell.

In hell it's all about area damage. Taking down one monster at a time makes you seem slow. Tedious. Ineffecient. That is basically what a claw has to do. Yes once you have Death Sentry that will help, BUT still you'll have to take the first 5 or 7 corpses down before they all fall..

Static which is only present on 2 weapons is what makes the difference and while you may not know or have seen teh difference I can verify that there is a huge difference. So while yes Stormlash is the expensive choice it's also the goal not just cause it has Static and great damage but cause it has Crushing blow too.

So what choice do you have. The 'cheap' choice but one I -definately- also recommend is Cresent Moon in any ETHERAL one handed weapon (preferably a Cryptic Sword)... it will match Stormlash 90% of the way... and it will beat down ANY claw in any part of the game.

The AR does bite.. but as I map out in my guide .. it's not all that matters... besides Cresent Moon runeword use Ignore Target Defence. So at level 94 you'll hit 95% of the time with any monster (I could be wrong but tht is how I*ve understodd the ITD rules)

I hope this helps a little. If not make a Europe Character and I*ll demonstrate the difference.. with Ament-Ra my Furysin.

SonofRa

[sir goatscelot]

Thanks for the offer and I may take you up on that :) It would be interesting to see the differences. So far Hell as has not been an issue I am enjoying playing her.