Vengeance and Conviction

[portishead]

Mathematically, assuming exactly 20 skill points to spend, and zero elemental resists for the PI monsters (I believe that's almost exclusively the case for normal PI monsters, but Stone Skin bosses are of course another matter), the optimum choice for damage per swing is 17/3 Vengeance/Conviction. That does elemental damage equal to 232.4% (taking into account the lowered resists) of your weapon's damage. In comparison, 18/2 would do 232.2%; 16/4 would do 232.0%

However, if you're more worried about running out of mana than you are about kill speed, the optimum for damage per mana is 1/19 (Vengeance/Conviction) (or are resists capped at -100%? If that's the case, then the best is 5/15).

- Dagni

Dagni, given 20 points, 17/3 is the best distribution for elemental damage per swing. And resists are capped at -100, so Conviction auras over level 15 do the same to a monster with 0 resists as higher levels Conviction auras; hence, your suggestion for a 5/15 split to get the most efficient mana-usage is correct.

Ghost:

So basically your saying to go with option number 1. I already have sanctuary so getting the one point in conviction is not a problem. Unless, you think that the ias bonus from fanaticism would be more helpful than the -30% resist all?

With respect, to vengeance elemental damage, my guess is that a level 20 fanatacism is at least comparable to level 1 Conviction (or level 3: see Dagni's post or above). I haven't crunched the numbers to compare them, and am a little busy lately. Ignoring the clvl/mlvl curve, the combination of Vengeance's and Fanatacism's AR bonuses means every swing should land (assuming it does not get blocked). If you use Vengeance + Fanatacism, you can also use a slow, big damage weapon to do a lot of elemental damge per swing--that's my Pally's solution to the problem and he does well. Having said all that, I think 5 into Vengeance and 15 into Conviction would be a good solution for you and have other advantages. You wouldn't have to deal with the mana-vampire that is slvl20 Vengeance. You could also double the damage of any sorcies near you, give ice-maidens a nice boost to their frozen arrow damage, etc.

Gotta' run. Have fun with it, no matter what you decide.

cheers all