Phy Dam vs CB/CS/DS etc...

[joe05]

Guys - I finally found a Crushing Blow weapon.
My question pertains to "total Phy Dam" vs damage done by Crushing Blow; Critical strike and Deadly Strike.

I'm playing Druid-Werewolf.
I can see that attack speed + damage will be most important.
I'm also guessing based on gameplay, using a shield is not so important.
As one noted: do you fear Diablo's melee attack or lightning hose

So, I was using a Battle Axe .. total damage(?) of 30-52
Then I found a Gold Mace(Crushflange) ... total damage(?) of 9-24; 33% chance of Crushing Blow ... plus I get to use a shield

I'm making Andariel runs at the moment.
Since I don't know the "ins and outs" of this game, I make trial runs with different weapons to try and see "what works best".

I can can tell this game is all about choices; which gear to use based on modifiers vs what your character needs etc...

The Battle Axe mows downs everything in 1-2 hits on the way to Andariel.
The Crushflange, takes 2 hits just to kill a little knee-biter
When I get to Night Lords or the room before Andariel, I'm fighting for my life do to the number of enemies = takes alot of whacks with the Crushflange
The Battle Axe mowed them down and I took less damage.
Now, when going against Andariel, the Crushflange was much better.

Because of my physical limitations, I can't hotkey health during batlle = I have to watch my health vs creatures health and decide: do I stand and fight or cut and run to antidote/heal/portal.

Making this observation leads me to believe Crushing Blow deducts a certain percentage of health points when it connects, and thus is much better vs high health point creatures.
Whereas, a high total PD weapon will work better vs the lower creatures.

Since this character can use any weapon, and I know some high PD Gold large/broad/battle Axes are out there, I'm perplexed on the weapon to use.
And then we have Mauls and Polearms

At what point do you say: forget the Crushing Blow and low Phy Dam.
Go with the high Phy Dam weapon.

Already the difference is 100+% between weapons ... I'm guessing it will increase when I find better two handed weapons
Using a shield really isn't helping my Werewolf.

I hope this question wasn't confusing/convoluted
And I hope my observations/points were lucid and correct
Maybe a smart question on my part ?
This is a PvM question. I'm guessing the rules change in PvP.

Any info/help is always appreciated.

[moltovir]

Your observations are correct Crushing Blow takes away 1/4th of a monsters current life (this is affected by monster's physical resistance, number of players and the type of monster, 1/4th is the standard), so against creatures with very high HP such as act bosses it can cut their HP to a sliver very quickly. Crushing Blow itself can't kill anything though, it will constantly continue reducing a monsters life by 1/4th. When fighting creatures with low hp absolute physical damage works much better, since 1/4th of low hp means low damage.

Example:
When fighting a monster with 100 life using a 50 damage weapon, you'll need 2 hits to kill it. If you have a 1 damage weapon with 100% CB, the first hit will reduce his life to 75, the second hit to 1/4th of 75 = 57,25, the third hit to 1/4th of 57,25 and so on... and it will take ages to kill the monster. However, when fighting a boss with 100,000 hp, Crushing Blow can quickly take him down to 10,000 or less, whereas that would take a much longer time with a normal weapon with high damage but no CB.

The key is to have a weapon with both high damage and high CB, or to use a weapon with high damage and get CB from your equipment (eg Rattlecage, Goblin Toes, Gore Riders. The first two are pretty easy to get, they're the golden gothic plate and light plated boots, try to run mephisto or diablo for them). You can use the Crushflange on your primary weapon slot to weaken bosses and put the axe on your weapon switch to fight normal monsters and finish act bosses, but since you're physically limited that might be too difficult. I think there's a solution though: you should try to get a mouse with multiple buttons (more than 3 I mean). Currently I'm using a Logitech MX518, which has 8 buttons you can map to various skills, your belt for potions, and your weapon switch. I bought mine for 45 USD, but that was half a year ago so the price might have dropped even more by now.

[joe05]

Moltovir - thanks for help.
I'll look into that mouse ... though I like the one I have; it's a big button mouse ... could hit the buttons with my elbow if needed (LOL)
Time being, I'll use the high PD weapons on the run, then swith to the CB weapon right before the bosses.
Nice to be able to use any weapon.