Weapon Damage vs weapon critical chance... need help :(

[Natalie]

Hey guys, I need opinions... I'm a stamina dps nightblade, and I'm trying to build a strong stamina dps character. I'm using CombatMetrics addon to help me to see how much damage I dealt in the fight, but now I come to the problem to make decision which build (Build 1 or Build 2) is better for my character builds. I am only CP238...

Build 1:
Weapon Damage 1677
Weapon Critical Chance 63.5%
Critical Damage Strike 87%

Build 2:
Weapon Damage 2010
Weapon Critical Chance 55.1%
Critical Damage Strike 79%

Sorry my maths is sucks. People said with the higher weapon critical chance, you can hit critical damages on enemies easier. But what I have found out from the CombatMetrics results were with the higher weapon critical chance (Build 1), sometimes I could even score as low as 50% or even a 30% chances of critical hits.

And as for Build 2, although it has lower weapon critical chance than Build 1, but sometimes I could score like 100% to 50% chances of critical hits.

Isn't higher weapon critical chance hits harder? But why sometimes lower weapon critical chance could hit harder and better than the higher weapon critical chance? How do this weapon damage and weapon critical chance are actually calculating in ESO? And which build (Build 1 or Build 2) is better for my stamina dps nightblade?

[Naravolian]

Critical Hit Chance is just that - chance. Having a higher crit chance increases the chances of each of your hits being a crit, but you can still get extremely unlucky in one attempt and parse much lower than other times. Therefore you have to go off the assumption that higher crit chance = more damage, and hope you get lucky most of the time.

That being said, both of your builds (from a meta-standpoint) are lacking quite a bit in weapon damage,

I'd recommend trying to reach at least 3000 weapon damage as a minimum, otherwise you won't be able to parse all that high to begin with.

As for crits, you'd always want to go for a high crit chance and crit damage. I think the golden rule for stamina builds is having around 60% critical chance, and then you get your critical damage up to around 80% or more and you should be good.

But this is all taking self-buffs into consideration of course, so make sure you use your passives and skill bonus-passives wisely (e.g. the ultimate "Flawless Dawnbreaker"), although it should be said that a self-buffed Nightblade in meta should be able to reach about 5000 weapon damage.

From the two builds you have, if you really don't want to put the energy in to rework either of them, I'd say go for build 1. You'll probably get more out of that because of the difference in critcs, rather than the ~340 weapon damage difference (I might be wrong about this).

[Soul2506]

build 2
50% crit chance is sufficient also stamina abilities/skills depends on weapon damage

[Natalie]

I'm a bows user, so is it possible to reach 3000 weapon damage with bows?

I'm currently with
5 items buff of Night Mother's Gaze
5 items buff of Hunding's Rage, and
2 items buff of Kvatch Gladiator.

which
7 armor pieces are Divined buff
Both weapons are Sharpened buff, and
Infused, Robust and Bloodthirsty for each jewellery buff.

Also, I just reset my cp skills and retune my equipment, so now my
weapon damage is 2010
weapon critical chance with full buff 60.2%
critical damage 87%, and
physical penetration is 11081

And I'm using The Shadow buff. If I change my mundus stone to The Warrior for Weapon Damage, I will lost 18% on my critical damage while my weapon damage increases by 379.

[Naravolian]

Originally posted by Natalie:

I'm a bows user, so is it possible to reach 3000 weapon damage with bows?

I'm currently with
5 items buff of Night Mother's Gaze
5 items buff of Hunding's Rage, and
2 items buff of Kvatch Gladiator.

which
7 armor pieces are Divined buff
Both weapons are Sharpened buff, and
Infused, Robust and Bloodthirsty for each jewellery buff.

Also, I just reset my cp skills and retune my equipment, so now my
weapon damage is 2010
weapon critical chance with full buff 60.2%
critical damage 87%, and
physical penetration is 11081

And I'm using The Shadow buff. If I change my mundus stone to The Warrior for Weapon Damage, I will lost 18% on my critical damage while my weapon damage increases by 379.

First of all, don't change from the Shadow Mundus Stone. It's the best you can slot for your build.

Secondly, using a double-bow build should still allow you reach 3000 weapon damage, assuming you're using weapon damage glyphs for your jewelry.

[Naravolian]

Originally posted by r34lian:

build 2
50% crit chance is sufficient also stamina abilities/skills depends on weapon damage

Also yeah, I agree with that actually. I change my vote from build 1 to build 2.

[Soul2506]

What is your buffed weapon damage?
Generally 3k is what people mostly aim for
Also you maybe need more penetration it looks low
And if you going for crits might wanna change your setup not very ideal
Something like leviathan or advancing yokeda would be good for crit
I'd recommend going leviathan + relequen both are super easy to get and you'll always find groups
Best would be browse all sets at eso-sets.com