The Spirit Realm

I still use my sharkspine club. HP/mana are horrible for todays content but the dmg dly and proc are solid still.

Most of your damage will be coming from procs. Also, proc crits are affected by our nuke crit AAs. I use a Hammer of Hours augged with a Faerie Hex Stone from DON merchants. With max nuke crit AAs (2.4 x base damage), I'm putting out some respectable melee damage:

Proc/Crit
400/960 <== Panther
175/420 <== Chaotic Strike IV
750/1800 <== Time Lapse

Staff of Eternal Flames, from PoFire 35dly/50dmg 400 dd (-300FR resist check)
Illuminated Hammer, from Yxtta Primals 27dly/26dmg Timelapse proc

Unmei...am I the only one that find it weird that pure caster lotus spine weapon from PoW has a proc mod, and the sharkspine club doesnt?

I loved that blue wand on my chanter...70 proc mod! crits ftw

You guys are spot on. If you're really all that concerned with melee dps (which is pretty silly imo) then focusing on the proc is the key.

I have a couple of weapons that I got long parses on before they nerfed the katta banker that illustrate this.

25dmg / 26 dly :: Time Lapse - 750pt. DD

30dmg / 20 dly :: No Proc

I'll see if I still have the parses handy when I get home tonight but I believe that these were the approximate numbers- Rod: ~15dps, TimeLapse: ~45dps; Cudgel: ~25dps. My analysis was that the Proc alone on my Rod did almost twice the damage over time as my Cudgel. Even though the ratio on my Cudgel is clearly superior (and one of the best ratios available to us in the whole game). The other thing I noted was that total dps on my rod was still only ~60. EVEN if I put a chaotic strike aug on it, and pantherd myself I still can't put out dps approaching our disease dots. My conclusion was that I am a caster, and it is painfully obvious that SOE intended me to remain such.


EDIT: OH! And you should note that the int caster version of the lotos spines weapon available from PoWater DOES have a proc modifier. The wis caster version does not.

The is zonewide rare drop from drachnids in 68.1. It's a 12/20 1HB with decent stats (145hp/mana), and procs Rend, an 855 dd. The weapon is visible when drachnid has it; it looks like a long black staff with spikes.

Ahhhh! That has a 110% proc mod also! That looks like a winner for Sharkspine Club replacement.

Here are your links for sharkspine and kelp hilted mace btw...

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=21885

and

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=22946

Notice the 170% proc mod on the int caster version.

I agree with your opinion that we shouldnt be bad healers in favor of doing DPS but i find it rare in groups that i dont have at least one spell slot free for DPS. With 9 spell slots you should as well. You list 7 spells you always keep up, so what are the other two?

i personnaly keep malos, slow, direct heal, HoT, canni always memed. and the rest depends on the group, i use ornate pants for rooting or VP so i almost never mem root.

So what i was getting at is that you should still be able to do some spell dps along with your melee dps.