When do I replace my Ethereal Destroyer?

[Kebrarn]

I got an ED a couple of months ago, and I'm really happy with the DPS on it.  I hate the agro on the thing, but thats a whole different story.  What I'm wondering is, when did you guys bag the ED in favor or something else?  

I've checked weapon DPS tables and it still lists the ED as like the 2nd best DPS weapon for us.  I imagine thats only going to get better with OoW weapon caps and higher levels of spell crits.  

In alot of magleo I've noticed that alot of you have either replaced the thing completly or moved it off to offhand.  Is it an issue of lower stats on the ED (avoidance on Shinai of the Ancients comes to mind), better DPS weapons or just an agro issue?  

btw, I'm using a ED mainhand and a Hammer of the Timeweaver offhand.

[Choppin]

Replaced it with spiked steel baton, more procs more aggro - ! more dps ! -.

Guess epic v2 will be next upgrade.

[Tastian]

It'll depends how things go in omens.  FoM helps ED.  However, higher skill caps, more atk, etc all help the melee portion of weapon dps.  If proc dps doesn't scale at about the same rate then it's possible ED will fall off a bit.  Atm though from a pure dps point of view ED is very hard to beat and most only bag for aggro issues or because they don't like the graphic hehe (<3 ED+shinai look personally *shrugs*).

[Kebrarn]

Replaced it with spiked steel baton, more procs more aggro - ! more dps ! -.

Guess epic v2 will be next upgrade.

how rare is the Spiked Steel Baton?  and have you considered wielding a ED and Spiked Steel Baton?

[Dummkopf]

Some replace ED in their magelo only for eqrankings reasons. My usual combo is still ED/Shinai, however i dont use that for my magelo :)

[Choppin]

Replaced it with spiked steel baton, more procs more aggro - ! more dps ! -.

Guess epic v2 will be next upgrade.

how rare is the Spiked Steel Baton?  and have you considered wielding a ED and Spiked Steel Baton?

not really rare considering that Zun drops 4 items, his loottable isnt too deep either, I am a bit annoyed that it got less hps than a much easier obtained demerix

[Sempai]

I ended up replacing my ED full-time for raids when I finally got my handwraps of captured magic. I used that and a shinai for a while, before upgrading to my current setup of handwraps and spiked fists. We have not had the spiked steel baton drop yet, but I will be on the list of people that want it when it does.

The ED primary is really the only way to go, since you lose your dexterity bonus on proc rates if you use it off-hand. I used the ED for a very long time, but the aggro issues were immense. Due to tank issues, or lack of tank aggro, I was forced to bag my ED on many raids.

As we sit here waiting for OoW to really go live, I still consider the ED as one of the best dps weapons that a beastlord can get in game. I believe that the ED / handwraps combo would be top 5 in dps options pre-OoW. And I believe that Choppin may have the best combo available for us in terms of dps at the moment.

I used to play the magelo game for a while, but now I just show my gear the way it is. Sure, I might drop a few ranks in attack or HPs, but it shows my guild what I use, and we use magelos to decide our loot calls. For example, if I equipped my jagged onyx staff, I think I would be top 5 in eqrankings, but it has been bagged for some time. :lol:

Bottom line, I think you have a good combo for now. ED and Timeweaver are solid choices. To me, your next logical upgrade would be the handwraps of captured magic, but for dps, I would go ED / handwraps and bag the timeweaver. However, for max HPs and resists, I would go handwraps / timeweaver. Either way, you are in good shape for some time to come.

[Oneiromancer]

The ED primary is really the only way to go, since you lose your dexterity bonus on proc rates if you use it off-hand.

???

From what I understand, and what it seems like all the parses on this board and others have shown, the proc rate of the off-hand is simply half that of the main hand.  Where did you get this information?

Game on,

[Dummkopf]

I think Sempai means that but just describes it as dex bonus. Got some confused tells from friends in his guild about that as well :)

In an award guild i would always show my actual combo since magelo is normally a tool for the loot council, in a dkp guild nobody cares about it anyway and you can play the magelo game (hint: i greatly dislike the dkp system in my guild vs. the award system in my old guild).

Btw, i use yet another combo for uqua, DoD and timeweaver for most sta and least aggro :)

[Sempai]

Sorry if I am confusing people there. The off-hand proc rate in my experience is very poor, and most people I spoke with attributed this to game coding related to Dexterity. I have no idea if I am right in my belief, but my parses did show that an off-handed ED was a very significant decrease in dps. You can use Coprolith's weapon spreadsheet to check it out. I sent him hours of parses with the ED when I was trying to prove if it made sense to equip it mainhand when the rest of my guild thought I was nuts to do so. As I learned from working with Coprolith, the only way to know for sure is to parse your own results and see what you get. That will lead you to the right answer for your toon no matter what anyone else thinks.

Bottom line for me, I mainhand my best procs whenever possible. The ED was awesome and served me well. I recommend it highly and will miss it when you replace it, unless you go with with spiked steel baton.

As for Uqua, I have been known to pull out my DoD as well. Heck, I even used my Caen's a few times since aggro there is a major no-no and my chance at getting heals was below 0. :lol:

[Oneiromancer]

Ah, well, basically the off-hand proc rate is exactly half of the main hand proc rate.  At 250 DEX, the main hand rate is 2 procs per minute (ppm) and the off-hand is 1 ppm.  With Weapon Affinity 5, that becomes 3 ppm / 1.5 ppm.  So yes, DEX affects proc rate, but it's not a DEX "bonus" really.

Game on,

[mythral]

i use spiked steel baton and handwraps of captured magic as well, must say its a great combo, especially with 25 combat effects.

one thing ive noticed tho, and DISCLAIMER, this is pure observational speculation, but to me it *seems* like combat effects only seem to work on main hand procs. keep meaning to do some parsing to find out, but never get around to it...anyone tested this at all?

[Tastian]

http://www.thesteelwarrior.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5656&page=1&pp=15

[mythral]

thanks much, seems i was wrong ;p

[Coprolith]

OH proc rate gets a dexterity bonus just as the MH does. Its simply one half of the MH proc rate.

/hugs