smiter - beast vs heavens light

[Sharaz]

im finally working on my smiter, after taking a break from d2 to get married!

ive had a +3 heavens light on ladder for ever and ever (inherited), that recently moved down to normal.

now, im thinking about varying my smiter from the norm, bu maxing conc instead of fanat, and ive though of using beast runeword to give some fanatcism on top of maxed concentration. i also just re-read the stats, and beast has 20% CB and 25% OW. this seems to me to solidfy that my direction is the right one for me, since i try to stay away from "exactly how everyone else does it".

that said, a +3 heavens light with ber-ber (40% CB) would definately compliment a smiters attack, but looking back to beast, it also has 40% IAS. PMH (which i understand does not work on ubers?) and a nice chunk of STR round out the beast for what i think might be a winner.

so before i make a huge mistake...

AS says that lvl 9 fanat (from beast) gives 186% ED, and lvl 20 conc gives 345% ED. wouldnt it be ultimately best to have 531% ED and 29% IAS, over 373% ED And 35% IAS (from maxed fanat)?

beast/concentation smiter, on paper, just seems like it would be the best of both worlds. also, if im way off, it probably means i need a lesson on how smite works, and what off-shield mods do and do not work with smite.

thanks!

*edit*
oops, just re-read heavens light stats, and it appears to already have 33% CB, 20% IAS, and -33% TD... but as of now, i still think im leaning towards beast.

[Xenon[XoA]]

If you can afford a beast, by all means, get a Grief pb instead ><

but... if your true aim is to make it different by not using grief, you'll be doing considerably less damage :l

Auras do effect the smite dam, but.. it'd make more sense (to me anyway) to have a higher base damage and slightly less ed, than to have a relatively low base damage and lots of ed.

[Sharaz]

well, for one, im non-ladder, so i cant make grief (and id prefer not to go thru the grief of tracking one down).

2nd, but can you clarify more what your talking about here?

but.. it'd make more sense (to me anyway) to have a higher base damage and slightly less ed, than to have a relatively low base damage and lots of ed.

i thought that for a smiter, that the base dmg of the shield was the only thing in question. i assume that a grief zerker might have considerable more ED than a beast zerker by your statement, but im not sure what that has to do with shield smite? am i missing the point that ED from weapon still improved damage from shield smite??

[WesleyGibson]

well, for one, im non-ladder, so i cant make grief (and id prefer not to go thru the grief of tracking one down).

2nd, but can you clarify more what your talking about here?



i thought that for a smiter, that the base dmg of the shield was the only thing in question. i assume that a grief zerker might have considerable more ED than a beast zerker by your statement, but im not sure what that has to do with shield smite? am i missing the point that ED from weapon still improved damage from shield smite??

Grief's +damage is a straight up damage increase, not ED or anything of the like. Because of the way it's applied, it adds onto the weapon damage of whatever you strike with. You weapon will hit at base damage +340-400, and so will your shield. Thus, picking up a grief shoots up your smite damage by like x10.

[Sharaz]

ahhhh i see!! very interesting!!

[Xenon[XoA]]

my apologies. I kept it vague since I didn't have the actual numbers to work with. Wesley explained it pretty well. Say your shield's smite damage is 125-150 (after HS) for simplicity's sake. Would you rather have that + 531eD, resulting in 788.78 - 946.5, or a higher base damage [(125+340 to 400, 150+340 to 400) -> (465 to 525, 490 to 550)] and 373eD, resulting in 2199.45 to 2483.25 (min), 2317.7 to 2601 (max).

See the diff :l ?