Loki and Deathbringer Standalone

Forum » General Discussion » Loki and Deathbringer Standalone - Why? 7 posts - page 1 of 1

Before I begin, please take this thread and its topic more as a means of genuine curiosity. I'm not intending to insult anybody's logic, I'm simply questioning it.

I've been playing Loki a lot for quite a long time now, hellbent to get him up to mastery 10 before trying any other god. That said, I know my way around how to play him, what items to build, and what skills to utilize. After some time playing, I've been looking back on the guides here (and occasional critiques from people in my team who question my build and their suggestions) to reflect on and see how it differs from the build I'm using.

One thing I've noticed most people and guides recommend is deathbringer. Don't get me wrong, it's got good physical power and its passive makes it a very deadly weapon. What I don't understand is why you have to take it standalone. It's only got 20% critical strike chance, and looking at most guides, a lot of them don't recommend Loki get items to increase his attack speed.

What's the point of doing 50% more critical damage if you still hit slowly and have a rather low critical hit chance? If you're relying heavy on burst damage, you're also going to have to rely heavily on luck and hope like hell you actually land a critical hit. I just don't get it.

On my current build, I'm using the following:
Warrior's Tabi, Qin's Sais, Rage, Executioner, Deathbringer, Jotunn's Wrath.

And while I may lack the extreme (apparently luck-based) burst damage most people and guides recommend, I attack fast enough and have a high critical chance that I can still melt most enemies before they can react. And with Executioner and Qin's Sais, I still have power to literally beat down a tank.

So please, can someone explain to me why slow attacks and high burst damage with only a 20% chance to deal 50% crit damage is so important? Or, coincidentally, is my current build actually viable to not need what I'm questioning about?

EDIT:
I forgot to mention this. Before anyone mentions it: Yes, I've had experience with the deathbringer standalone build recommended on most guides. I've used that strategy for about 5-6 mastery levels before switching over to the current build. I personally feel my current build is better.

IGN: Pizzarugi (Add me if you like joust, assault, siege or arena)
Total Diamonds: 9 (Latest: , , )
Favorite Gods: , ,
Favorite Roles: Carry, Assassin
Least Favorite Roles: Tank

Looking to be great at laning as ? Check out this guide! It was the runner up for best hunter guide in the season 2 contest.

Remarkable (8)
Posts: 209

Your build is fine. Personally, I would switch Exec with Titan's Bane, and Rage with Malice.

You really shouldn't be building DB standalone - you should always get malice if you get DB. The people who made those guides must not have thought it through.

Prominent (33)
Posts: 768
View My Blog

Very nice query pizzarugi, though i m not a loki pro but played him a lot. I hav the same argument with deathbringer , for loki i always prefer 'rage' lots of attack speed lifesteal penetration and cooldown. I guess in conquest deathbringer is much more viable as u r not going to be attacked by too many people and can compromise on attack speeds, also deathbringer gives higher ctitical damage which gives u more lifesteal.

Fun and Heart
IGN: arka222
Clan: ARKA GANG
Motto: Never let the team down..find a way to win..
Country: India
My Guide on Vulcan
A god idea...

Memorable (12)
Posts: 665
View My Blog

wrote:

Oh, thanks for bringing up another item that I was also questioning: Malice! :D

Why Malice? All I can see from it is that it gives you a flat 10% more critical chance over Rage. With one single hit (and no critical hit), Rage can match it then later exceed it. With Rage and Deathbringer both, your critical strike chance potential goes all the way up to 100%! If you swap Rage with Malice, you lower the critical chance to a flat 60%.

As for Titan's Bane, it sacrifices faster attack speed for a 2nd kind of penetration that differs from the others (not that it's a bad thing), and lowering attack speed also lowers how quickly you can pump out critical hits. A fully stacked Executioner lowers physical protection by 15+21%. If you wanna think about practical uses, you lowering their defenses also opens them up to more damage from teammates too. Titan's Bane only buffs your attacks, but Executioner essentially buffs your teammates. You're a team player! :P

Remarkable (8)
Posts: 209

no no no... you get AND , if you're going to get one, you always get the other. Period.

Also, is better than if you have deathbringer, no matter what. There was a theorycrafting thread on reddit that proved it (malice had like 1% better DPS /deathbringer than rage/w deathbringer, if I remember right).

Prominent (33)
Posts: 768
View My Blog

Yep, as has been stated, standalone DB is useless, but everyone (everyone) who builds deathbringer should be building malice. And malice has better deeps than rage, since you crit more often than not at 60% crit, so the raising 10% per non-crit is near useless. You'd need to not crit at 50, 60, and finally crit at 70%, just to even out the average crit % on rage, and that's with two misses at 50% and 40% chance, which is about 20% likely, just to simply even out the crit chance.

Anyway, yeah. Never build DB alone. Stupid idea xD