Warrior/Knight Tierstack Weapon Balance - Alkatraz Vs Aftershock

Alkatraz is a lvl 94 melee weapon while Aftershock is a lvl 77 melee weapon, both are for melee, so Alkatraz should be better, however, Aftershock clearly is better because of various reasons:


Alkatraz vs Aftershock:

- Alkatraz has -15 dex to remove some dmg as well as -15 def and -15 agi to make it glassy.
- Aftershock has +2.4k hp, no neg. dex, no neg. agi and +20 def; It doesn't get lower dmg and is tankier.

- Alkatraz has slightly higher dmg and an effective +78% dmg boost (+39% earth +39% melee).
- Aftershock has only +26% earth dmg and slightly lower dmg, but it has access to courage, boosting it's dmg way higher then Alkatraz's dmg.

- Alkatraz, as a warrior weapon, has the +10% dmg buff from War Scream.
- Aftershock, as a shaman weapon, has the +35% dmg buff from Totem.

- Alkatraz has 120 str req which restricts you while building, usually you have to sacrifice some dmg for skill points.
- Aftershock has 80 str req, meaning you can focus on dmg way more (50 less sp req).


Possible Solutions:
- Lower Aftershock's dmg / Remove Aftershock's powder slots / Add 2 powder slots to Alkatraz.
- Swap the sp and hp bonus: +hp +def for Alkatraz, -dex -def -agi no hp for Aftershock.
- Maybe even buff War Scream's dmg boost to +20%, Warrior needs a buff anyway.

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Example build: ETF Tierstack

Alkatraz: 590 ls and 168 hpr for sustain (please note that super fast atk spd and ls is very unreliable), 43688 dps with war scream, 13.7k hp, 63 def.

Aftershock: Same sustain as alkatraz + 597 heal per second, 60823 dps with totem boost + courage, 16.1k hp, 118 def.

 

While I do agree with most the stuff that's been said, some
SHIT TO NOTE!

• Aftershock's health are roll based, which might decrease ehp by a significant amount of you get a shit roll.

• Melee shaman has its "issues" and we gotta remember that.

• Despite the aftershock build having more hp and more defence it is actually glassier then the alka build when counting in warrior and shaman's base defence + war scream resistance. (Aftershock has heal and really low cost uproot so it makes up for that, but you gotta clarify)

• Shaman might be a bit more difficult to manage in sticky situations - since you have no intel totem costs four Mana, and casting two spells takes more time then casting one (you cannot spam haul as it'll get you nowhere), and so hauling out might be harder then charging out.

• Courage won't be active throughout the duration of an entire fight, and so although being a nice damage boost I don't think it should be counted directly to dps.

MAKE ALKA GREAT AGAIN

 

I'm not talking about rolls in this thread, I'm talking about both weapon designs and the balance between them.

If melee shaman is as close to the mob as melee warrior there won't be any problems.

Because of the heal and uproot and eventually some aura spells it won't have any problems to nopot any boss, that's why I didn't add this point. (Alkatraz has problems to nopot eg Aledar and Tasim because it's glassy (low hp, low def) and super fast life steal sometimes just doesn't trigger.

From my experience it's way easier to escape using totem haul then using charge because totem haul boosts you a few blocks into the air (usually you don't get hit while hauling), charge spell gets hit by an attack many times (and when it gets hit it stops).

Every time I played melee with courage I had it active the entire fight, it takes about 6 seconds to charge it and lasts 8 seconds.