+%Piercing Damage vs. +Piercing Damage

[chikkenball777]

My question is quite simple.

When a character already has more than +400% piercing damage, solely from gear and passive skills, which is better? The Masteries Mod skill 'Sharpened Blade' provides +140 piercing damage at max level (8/8). Is this more or less effective than adding an additional +50% piercing damage?

As far as I can tell, +%piercing provides more damage than either of the two bonuses discussed in the previous paragraph, so it is the primary goal. However, as it can only be found on certain skills, it is better to focus on the other two bonuses in most cases.

Thanks for any assistance,

Chikken

[bmac1987]

I really wish someone replied to this thread. I am wondering the same thing myself. I have a ranger and want to know if it is really worth it to put points into marksmanship since it only gives plus pierce damage and not a +% pierce damage.

[nesmar]

This is just a guess but im assuming 140 bonus pierce damage is better than more % since you already have so much. The 140 also adds to your base pierce damage which all the %'s you have boost further.

[Sova]

It really depends what is better.
Flat piercing damage will be better in the beginning where %damage doesn't increase your damage by that much as will flat piercing dmg.
Later on %piercing will be more powerful (when you get your base dmg up).
Example:
You do 20 piercing dmg and add 10 flat dmg that is 30.
You do 20 piercing dmg and add 10% = 22dmg.
Again, your DPS meter is a pretty good estimate in that so look at it and see.

[bmac1987]

Ya I'm a low level right now. I maxed out marksmanship and scatter shot. Pretty much unstoppable in normal now. When I get to further levels I will definitely see myself respecing out of them.

Your point about the flat damage is very true. My physical damage isn't that high right now. So after the 25% conversion from my bow it really doesn't add up to much.

Thanks a lot guys

[Bukikekh]

When a character already has more than +400% piercing damage, solely from gear and passive skills, which is better? The Masteries Mod skill 'Sharpened Blade' provides +140 piercing damage at max level (8/8). Is this more or less effective than adding an additional +50% piercing damage?

To write your question in numbers:
140*5 vs. (flat piercing dmg)*0.5*(1+dex/1000)
Lets say dex=500:
700 vs. (flat piercing dmg)*0,75

So +50% piercing dmg is better if you have more than cca 930 flat piercing dmg. Since there are not that many flat piercing dmg modifiers, lets say 850 is the base piercing dmg and so your phys. dmg (after +% modifiers and str.) has to be cca 3400 and that's rather extreme even by the end of the game.
So mostly +140 piercing dmg would be better than another +50%.