Blade Fury Analysis

[AnimeCraze]

The one I have currently is like this:
Weapon: Eth suwayyah fury, it boosts my deadly strike to almost 100%. It also has ignore target defence, life leech, and decent damage.
Shield: 134 ED jewels monarch, I had a rare jewel in that that's too good to pass up, I only gave up a few % ED's and in return gives my 24 fire resist. It also has +16 str in total, ie. the ED total is 146%. With this, I have max block. Yes, you read it right, I have max block with a monarch.
Armor: Fortitude
Helm: Guillaume's, with a rather good jewel too.
Gloves: LoH is just too good.
Belt: Using arach right now for the damage, but am considering a T-gods. IF only razortail works with it......
Boots: Gores, that's obvious.
Amu: Highlord's, for deadly strike.
Rings: Ravenfrost for AR, manald for mana leech, hoping to get the manald replaced eventually.
Charms: Anni, torch, trap, and cold resist SC. The trap boosts my trap damage as well, so the lightning traps are strong enough to kill immunes.

Switch: Eth obedience that my old necro merc has. It gives enchant on kill. Being a glass cannon, she has enough str/dex to hold it.

She has no points in vita or energy, so every point contributes to 0.75% ED. Due to this, she's rather fragile. I have been dying a bit as well, as I have not gotten used to playing with a char with less than 500 life, especially since I skipped the shadow this time around.

Merc uses Reaper's Toll. It absolutely destroys Baal and PI's, if only he doesn't die first.

[Ceramic Weasel]

Weapon: Eth Stormlash+Jah... or better a Death ettin axe ?

Depends on your playstyle, and whether you intend to combine with kicks, etc. When I tried this weapon I didn't get much use out of the static field, since I had knockback + CoS and was sniping everything from far away. Death will do much more damage, but you may have issues with AR. If you're willing to max Claw Mastery, there are some nice options down that route.

Shield: Better Moser's with two of them ? Headhunter's with three ?

Definitely. The shields I used in my testing were just for damage calculation purposes. I wonder what the odds of a Jeweler's Monarch of Deflecting is.

Helm: Guillaume's seems to be the best chioce.

Giant Skull works out pretty well also.

Gloves: LoH will add lots of damage to demons

I've been tinkering with Lava Gout's and a Fool's mod claw recently, but LoH is naturally great for damage.

Charms: Will trap skillers pay off well enough or should it be +max charms ?

As kavlor points out, +8 is better than 3 small charms with (3/2)*0.75

Merc: nm act 2 offensive (might), but which weapon ? I'm not sure if he will survive with Pride (not enough on-weapon damage). Infinity would only be useful versus bosses (the aura reduces defense rating of enemies). Insight, so I won't need mana leech ? Or simply Obedience for damage + CB ?

You should be able to manage with only a small amount of mana leech (Death has 7%). Infinity may be too costly if you're a bit stingy, and I've recently learnt that Blessed Aim + Pride is probably better for personal improvement anyway. If you can't solve your AR problems, you'll need to build your merc around that (so either Blessed Aim or Infinity). If AR isn't an issue, you've got more options. In either case, you'll want at least one damage aura out of him (so either Might or Pride), and the rest is preference.

[AnimeCraze]

Edit: Nevermind.

[acceleration turkey]

can anyone describe the mechanics of play when using voice of reason with blade fury? does an orb trigger force a red-out of your blade fury and cause you to pause your attack, or are you able to attack unmolested by the casting of a timered skill?

[Ceramic Weasel]

does an orb trigger force a red-out of your blade fury and cause you to pause your attack

Yes, Orb will interrupt BF (red-out) with the casting delay.

[krischan]

Thanks for the reply!

[Doppel]

Nice thread. Possibly a very dumb question coming up:
Is there any benefit in wielding a second claw when using Blade Fury? In fact, has this been tested?

[Ceramic Weasel]

I knew I missed something. Maxicek's thread in the SP forum covers some of this, but there are a few things I really ought to test for myself. As far as I'm aware, the only off-hand weapon mods that work are indirect ones, which don't affect the BF skill in any way:

Indirect mods
These always work regardless of which claw they are on:
- Resists
- FHR
- +Skills
- +Stats like life, mana, strength etc.

[onderduiker]

Is there any benefit in wielding a second claw when using Blade Fury? In fact, has this been tested?

Read this post in the Dual-wielding weapon mods that carry over to both attacks? thread for what should be a complete list of secondary weapon modifiers that apply to the attacks of the primary weapon. The following modifiers on the secondary weapon will increase Blade Fury's damage:

• Skill bonuses
• Attribute bonuses (Strength and Dexterity)
• -% Enemy Resistance

+% Skill Damage will be applied once to Holy Shock and Venom and Enchant when cast, but because BF is a ranged attack there'll be no second application.

[dd_angel]

Is it venom worth to be used with BF ?
Can we kill PI with it in Hell player 8 ?