Primal strike vs. savagery?

[ZarahNeander]

I'm by no means a shaman expert. PS has good AoE, savagery can proc WPS, what else? Savagery might have the higher DPS, but I fear, that savagery lead to a "click on each and every enemy, and again", which I dont like.

Thoughts? Advice? Thx.

[Valkez]

Savagery totally tops the charts when it comes to single target dps, especially on 2handers.
Primal Strike is, as you already know, great for the AoE, but then its damage is comparable to Forcewave. Good, yes, but not top tier on the single target.

The idea usually is, if you have BiS end-game gear, go for Savagery; if you don't, stick to Primal Strike.

[Cthulhu's Email Server]

Use both if you go 2H. Savagery for single target, PS for mobs.

[Windor Kariel]

I built 3 2H warders in HC, from lvl 1 to 100, so I guess I can tell you about that.

Thunderous Strike (Primal Strike + modifier) is excellent in normal and elite difficulty, basically allowing you to roll on the game with a bad gear, quickly and without any skill needed.

My advice is to switch from a thunderous strike skill build to a savagery + feral hunger skill build when you're between lvl 50 and 60 / in the middle of elite difficulty. This way, you can go VERY quickly through the game.

When you'll change, you need to make sure you can lvl up Feral Hunger and Savagery's final subskill, since those are extremely efficient in this setup. Feral Hunger will make you very efficient by giving you AoE and lifesteal, and Savagery's last subskill gives you a lot of AS.


Savagery becomes more powerful when you can have all those skills leveled up and potentially the Kraken devotion.

Basically, Thunderous Strike is only good for leveling. You should not use it as an auto-attack because it has awful single target DPS and is even worse against Lightning heroes who you can take several minutes to kill with it if.

The main difference is that Savagery counts as a normal attack, which procs skills and everything, while Thunderous Strike does not. However, Thunderous Strike procs lifesteal which makes it a great skill against crowds to feel very safe, since it does so against many enemies at the same time, but at the price of the DPS.


However, Primal Strike (without modifier) has a great CC which you may be interested in later on.

[ZarahNeander]

Thanks for the answers. Very helpful.

I'm leveling a (home-grown) vindicator, Savagery was kinda underwhelming till I hit 75. Once I equipped storm reaver, PS became somewhat redundant but we'll see.

Thanls again!

[Windor Kariel]

Originally posted by ZarahNeander:

Thanks for the answers. Very helpful.

I'm leveling a (home-grown) vindicator, Savagery was kinda underwhelming till I hit 75. Once I equipped storm reaver, PS became somewhat redundant but we'll see.

Thanls again!

No problem, happy to help ;)

I also tried to level up a vindicator; I used the same strategy but I actually kept Thunderous strike longer, killing the Elite Loghorrean with this build. Then I was lvl 71 and I went to the Loghorrean again to get XP, but when he died, I approached and got killed by I don't even know why. So my vindicator is still dead, at lvl 71, and I can't even tell you how good is a ranged Savagery build since I didn't have time to try it. Good luck with yours, I hope you'll find those superb crossbows that I leveled up mine for ;)

[RodHull]

Put another way

Savagery for melee
PS for ranged

:)

Of course its more complex than that but generally speaking PS is much much better on ranged builds than melee, and savagery has TOTB which is excellent

That said the lack of PS being a default attack is not as keenly felt with shaman based builds as they often dont have a lot of skills that activate from default attacks anyway. Now if your playing something funky like a trickster or ritualist then for sure PS is not good.