Re: Does damage on javelin matter for light fury / CS?
ok, so a regular ceremonial jav has 36 average base damage. add in the 200% ed and the "adds 25-50 dmg" from titans, and you get 146 damage. and eth matriarchal javelin (up'd) has 76 base damage (50.5 + 50.5/2), so 266 damage in the end.
266/146 = 82% more leech, more than a "very slight improvement" to me.
with 150% ed:
228/128 = 78%
if you upgrade non-eth 200%ed titans:
189/146 = 29%
if you upgrade eth 200%ed titans:
266/200 = 33%
eth vs non-eth, both non up'd (200%)
200/146: 37%
also, pierce enables you to hit more than one monster per throw/mana depletion...
the dex requirement of upgrading sucks to some people, but imo the added life leech and a potentially higher block easily compensates for that. for max-block javas, the higher dex req is moot.
now damage wise (non up'd non eth vs eth up'd @ 200%ed), add in 230% ed from a might merc with an andys (why not, i've had holy freeze for a while and i think its useless)
146*3.3 = 475
266*3.3 = 879
now add the high chance a zon has to get a critical strike (61% with 1 point invested and +12 skills)
475*1.61 = 765
879*1.61 = 1415
with 35% deadly strike from highlord's wrath (no its not 61 + 35)
475*1.75 = 831
879*1.75 = 1538 (85% more, even better than 82%...)
thats roughly 700 more damage, 350 with 50% dmr (some monsters will have less than that...). it doesnt seem like much but against LIs its not insignificant. after conviction with no griffon they will still have what, 85% res? a good griffonless java will do about 3500 LF dmg/bolt.
3500*0.15 = 525 dmg
525+350/525 = 66% more dmg
now i know its not really 66% because LF bolts fly around a lot. its even less with a griffon because of the -% res. its hard to estimate what the added physical damage really does, and it depends a lot on the situation.
but typically for an infinity java its not rare that every non-LI will get vaporized with one throw, while a few LIs will still be there. in that context there isnt that much bolts flying around. granted, you're probably better off using CS there anyway

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so whats the tradeoff anyway, a little bit of life? who cares! i think life is overrated in pvm. imo mana and LIs are a bigger problem than 200 or so life for a java. and if you're using phoenix... imo you're much better off using a 20/20 and leeching...