u/ChiefFloppyCock

I am new this season, but I am running a homebrew Purify/Judgement build.. And I am curious what (if any) difference there is between:

• +% Damage
• +% Holy Damage
• +% Judicator Damage
• +% Damage to Judged Enemies

From what I gathered, +% Damage and Holy Damage are put in the same bucket and are calculated the same when it comes to Judicator skill/Judgement damage. So essentially, is there any difference?

Judicator Damage, I would think, also goes into the same bucket, but does it get counted towards Judgement? Is Judgement considered Judicator damage?

And lastly, does the Damage to Judged Enemies go into the same bucket? I would imagine it is considered as another form of additive damage, so maybe it is just as valuable as +% Vulnerable Damage, but I would imagine that this doesn't increase Judgement damage?

I was lucky enough to find a weapons rack in a LK that always dropped Balrog Blades. I thought "Great! Oath bases!".. but is it really the best option? It has 4 max sockets, and it is always suggested when talking about Oath, but it has a rather high strength requirement of 175. Maybe something like Cryptic Sword would be better, since it has a significantly lower point requirement, though it may not do as much damage?

I ended up putting a table together including the effective average damage (after applying the strength bonus) and damage per point invested. Base weapon speed is marked by the weapon name.

I only accounted for ethereal weapons since Oath makes it indestructible. This is also just weapon damage. Skills and gear will obviously change your output. This doesn't take into account attack speed, as I didn't know exactly how to apply that. Additionally, with the 50% IAS on Oath, I don't know how much attack speed would actually influence damage output. I am also only looking at swords and axes because Grief.

The first thing I noticed was how poorly Champion and Cryptic Swords perform. I don't know if I ever realized how much strength matters in your effective damage output. The next thing I noticed was how good axes are for the amount of points invested! I don't think I have seen anyone mention axes when discussing Oath. Granted.. the low Dex requirement means you are tanking your AR (5 per Dex point after starting Dex), but the extra 70 points you are "saving" means you can be a bit more flexible.

So is Balrog blade the best? I think it depends in the end, but my initial reaction would be no, not really.. Yes is has one the best effective damage, but that seems to be propped up by the 175 strength. If we look at the average damage before the strength bonus, it becomes tied with the Conquest Sword. I think the answer really depends on what you value more. Do you have the runes, but are just searching for a base? Then really the best base may be whatever base you find first. Are you a lower level or are struggling to not die (like me)? Maybe you are better off with something with lower requirements that allows you to put more points in to Vit, like an Ettin Axe.

Weapon	Min	Max	Avg	STR	DEX	Effective Avg Damage	Total Attr Points	Damage/Point	Max Sockets
Conquest Sword (0)	242	347	294.5	132	102	683.24	234	2.92	4
Cryptic Sword (-10)	30	506	268	89	99	506.52	188	2.69	4
Highland Blade (-5)	145	409	277	161	94	722.97	255	2.84	4
Balrog Blade (0)	96	492	294	175	77	808.5	252	3.21	4
Champion Sword (-10)	158	356	257	153	93	650.21	246	2.64	4
Colossus Sword (10)	171	462	316.5	172	85	860.88	257	3.35	5
Colossus Blade (5)	162	426	294	179	100	820.26	279	2.94	6
Small Crescent (10)	250	396	323	105	73	662.15	178	3.72	4
Ettin Axe (10)	215	435	325	135	35	763.75	170	4.49	5
War Spike (-10)	198	316	257	123	44	573.11	167	3.43	6
Berserker Axe (0)	158	466	312	128	49	711.36	177	4.02	6

https://preview.redd.it/zfkf8kairhfh1.png?width=553&format=png&auto=webp&s=57185bfbd4b3f23aa1f5925ad7c59e0a8bb2c477

I've been messing around with a little shopping, crafting, and cube recipes in general and it just blows my mind just how much potential shopping and crafting has. Like I shopped the magic axe and crafted a blood weapon. It is obviously trash, but just think about how good this could be.

If anyone has played SSF melee, they know that upgrading your weapon can be difficult, and your bases or uniques don't always drop... but you can find fool's mod stuff in the shop.. FOOL'S MOD.

The problem with shopping though, is that they really only sell normal tier gear. Even in hell.. Which makes shopping essentially useless outside of some niche items. You can't even upgrade a magic item to the next tier (afaik).

And like, crafted gear sounds like such a good idea, but the mods it adds just don't scale.. up to 60% ed? Up to 4% life steal? Not only that, but you are rolling the gear through all of the potential mods including some that are just trash like bash charges or Lv3 fire bolt on attack.

The way I view crafted gear in this game is that it should be a, somewhat, cheap way to upgrade your gear in a meaningful way. It should be somewhat consistently "okay" on the low end (think SSF barb leveling through nm), but should be chased on the high end (think caster ammys)

What I would like to see:

1. Shops should have a higher chance of selling the appropriate level gear (exceptional in NM and elite in Hell). The chance should scale with player level and act number.
2. Crafted gear should select from a fewer number of mods depending on the gear and the player level. They shouldn't all be GG mods, but at least get rid of the ones absolutely no one wants.
3. Crafted gear mods should partially be dependent on the level of the crafter. i.e. a higher level player should have the chance to roll higher ed and life steal on blood weapons (without taking up an affix slot).
4. You should be able to upgrade crafted gear just like you can with uniques, rares, and set items.
5. Weapons need a flat damage increase across the board.

I'm a bigger guy and I wear suspenders to keep my pants up. I used to work in an office and just wore my dress shirts tucked in and suspenders showing, but now I can't believe I ever did that... I've worked from home since covid, so I haven't needed to really dress nice in a long time, but I would like for that to change.

Over the winter, I found some really nice sweater vests, but I'm not sure what to do now that it is warmer..

I've thought about trying to look for some more casual waist coats, but they always look too formal.

I have thought about wearing a jacket or a blazer, but I might as well just wear a sweater vest at that point for how warm i'd get.

I have a work function coming up, and I'm probably just going to wear an untucked polo.. but I would like to find some solution to the suspender problem (besides lose weight and wear a belt)