Socketing Azurewrath

[Tubba Blubba]

Socketing Azurewrath

I've been using a 261% Azurewrath with my whirler situationally for a while. I mainly intended to use it for Pindlerunning, but I've also found it vastly useful in CS running with the recent patch (The only non-undead there being the quite frail Megademons).

But I've arrived at a dilemma: What should I socket it with?
Shael: No. Hits breakpoint automatically.
Amn: Maybe. But I've already got about 14% leech from belt + helm, potentially 8% more if I use crescent moon (I use Ravenfrosts on both fingers for the AR)
ED jewel: No. Even a 40% jewel would only add something like 10-10 damage.
Max damage jewel: A better option than ED for sure, +30 max damage is nothing to scoff at. Of course, the very best would be 40%/+15 which should add a total of 12 - 30 or so, but it wouldn't be worth sacrificing a jewel that valuable.
Resistance Jewel: Not a bad idea, my Barb is struggling with resistances, especially since he uses Shaftstop in the CS.
Eth: Another possible idea since a Whirler always struggles with AR.
Ist: MF is always hard to get with melee:ers, this is definitely worth thinking over.

Unrealistic ideas:
Vex: This would be awesome, but I don't have too many Vexes to toss around.
Jah: ITD? yes plx
Ber: Crushing Blow is awesome
Lo: Deadly Strike helps with the low damage.


Any alternative suggestions, ideas? Thanks.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Eld: Cheap AR & Damage% for Undead - however, the Ruby Jewel will add more damage (more of the time) than this.

Actually, you might want to re-calculate the effects of a Ruby jewel - it adds to your base damage, which gets boosted by all of your other +damage bonuses from skills & mastery & such. +10 min/max from the Ruby Jewel is more average damage added than a +15 max damage jewel, so you'd be looking for at least a +20 max damage jewel just to keep pace (and Ruby's easier to find).

Another idea to keep in mind is an Ambergris/Argent Jewel of Carnage - resists/AR and +damage compliments a whirler rather well, and should be reasonably attainable.

 

[San]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

If you don't have over something like 5/6K AR, an Eth should bump your damage output quite a lot, since your chance to hit will rise quite a lot. Perhaps resulting in more then what is achievable with damage jewels. Should help especially versus any bosses, for example Diablos level make up for quite a penalty..

 

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

+1 Eth rune. Affordable + can be Hel'd out in the future should you no longer need it/should you become more certain of what your build needs.

 

[Arkardo]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Eth sounds good... but wouldn't your level ultimately be high enough so that AR is no longer an issue?

Nice to see new things being done in 1.13. +1 for removing IM.

EDIT: I always liked the knockback on Earthshakers for levelling whirlers; you can get quite a few hits in on the same monster sometimes. If you like to take some chances, maybe a Nef could work for you.

 

[San]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Eth sounds good... but wouldn't your level ultimately be high enough so that AR is no longer an issue?

Chance to Hit

100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)
AR = Attack Rating; alvl = Level of Attacker; dlvl = Level of Defender; DR = Defense Rating

Look complicated? Yes, even though I study mathematics at a university, I had to write that down and look at it for a while, to see what happens when dlvl changes.

Maybe it'll be easier to see what happens if I do this

100 * [ AR / (AR + DR) ] * [ 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl) ]

Now if we look at the part that's like..
alvl / (alvl + dlvl)

You can see that if alvl and dlvl are equivalent, this multiplier is exactly 50%, or 0.5. And if we take a simple example, level 92 char, highish for a melee char, in an alvl 85 area. Normal monsters are lvl 85, obviously, which makes the penalty

92/177 = 0.51977...

Which doesn't seem to budge it very much. That's why level difference really only makes a big difference on chances to hit at low levels.

 

[Pijus1]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

I like the Nef idea. I've tried knockback gloves and my double oath whirler. Doesn't really speed up your killing, but it's fun to push monsters around

 

[LeWoVoc]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Another +1 for Eth.
I've almost always noticed a significant damage boost from using them.

 

[Tubba Blubba]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Eld: Cheap AR & Damage% for Undead - however, the Ruby Jewel will add more damage (more of the time) than this.

Actually, you might want to re-calculate the effects of a Ruby jewel - it adds to your base damage, which gets boosted by all of your other +damage bonuses from skills & mastery & such. +10 min/max from the Ruby Jewel is more average damage added than a +15 max damage jewel, so you'd be looking for at least a +20 max damage jewel just to keep pace (and Ruby's easier to find).

Another idea to keep in mind is an Ambergris/Argent Jewel of Carnage - resists/AR and +damage compliments a whirler rather well, and should be reasonably attainable.

Even if I get 10-15 damage or so, that's only something like a 7-8% increase in weapon damage due to the fairly low damage of a Phase Blade (31-35), so yeah.

I think I'll go with an Eth, since it's cheap and I can always just punch it out later. But I'll leave this up 'til tomorrow.

Ugh, browsing without glasses/contacts is horrible - I have to sit at a 15 centimeter distance to see the letter I'm focusing on.

 

[Rhone]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Even if you had a barrel full of Jahs I'd take the Eth over that. -25% defense works against everything; ITD does nothing against (super)uniques, champs, and bosses.

 

[Chairnick]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Actually, it works at 50% effectiveness against bosses, but still, better than nothing.

 

[UllaV]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

Chance to Hit

100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)
AR = Attack Rating; alvl = Level of Attacker; dlvl = Level of Defender; DR = Defense Rating

Look complicated? Yes, even though I study mathematics at a university, I had to write that down and look at it for a while, to see what happens when dlvl changes.

I'm a mathematician and I've always changed that formula into:

100*[1/(1+DR/AR)]*2*[1/(1+dlvl/alvl)) or actually c*[1/(1+DR/AR)]*[1/(1+dlvl/alvl)) (*

Reciprocal (1/x) is easy to visualise. So what is the divisor?

It's 1+DR/AR or 1+dlvl/alvl. You want these be as low as possible, so keep alvl and AR high. Easy peasy, it's reciprocal.

(* Here c = 200, but who cares. As a mathematician, as a difference from physicists, I'm not interrested in the values, I'm interrested on the behavior of the function when variables change.

Ulla

P.S. Sorry about the math lesson

U

 

[Shaandore]

Re: Socketing Azurewrath

I'm a mathematician

Sometimes I wonder how many mathematicians we have. (And it seems that in 2 years I will be a mathematician too)

On topic: I think Eth is your best bet here. Even if you have a ton of AR, you can just change your gear and put on some MF/resist.