[2.6] CRIT HoWA BF/ST Raider [13k ES, 60k BF/265k GMP ST DPS, Stun-immune] [4 sec Chayula kill]

Non-crit raider is easy to build because you have fewer mods on gear to have to worry about, but that also means that you reach your dps output ceiling much earlier.

By going non-crit, you can only stack:
1. INT
2. Attack speed
3. %Damage

All of the above will start providing diminishing returns at some point.

For instance,
1. If you have 500 int, stacking another 100 int is effectively a 20% damage boost. If you already have 1000 int, stacking another 100 int is only a 10% damage boost.

2. Let's assume your average damage is 8000 and your attack speed modifier is 50%. As a dual-wielding HoWA, your APS would be 1.6 * 1.5 * 1.1 (DW) * 1.6 (BF) = 4.224 APS, which would translate to 4.224 * 8000 = 33,792 DPS. Stacking on another 50% attack speed would put your new APS at 5.632 and DPS at 45,056 which is a 33% damage boost. Were you to stack on another 50% attack speed however, your new APS would be at 7.04, DPS at 56,320 which is now only a 25% damage boost from before. Considering most raider builds have no problems stacking at least 150% attack speed modifier from gems/jewels/tree, you can therefore see that just focusing on stacking attack speed alone when your attack speed is already so high is also not going to be as rewarding.

3. Most non-crit builds will be hard-put trying to stack >100% lightning/elemental damage modifiers on the tree as compared to their crit counterparts. The significance of this 100% becomes less when you consider opal rings as well as the abundance of %WED mods on gear.

Also, by going non-crit and grabbing elemental overload, you render an entire set of mods (ie crit chance/crit multiplier) on gear/jewels largely irrelevant to yourself.

Crit builds have the above to stack up on but also have the additional crit chance/multi modifiers to build up once the above-mentioned (%damage, attack speed, INT) start providing non-optimum returns.

40% more modifier on your damage is great, but it actually provides marginally less extra %damage modifier as someone with 35% crit chance and only 220% (baseline is 150%) crit multiplier, which now that I put it this way, doesn't sound all that impressive does it? --> 0.35 * 2.2 + 0.65 = 1.42.

If you're the kind of player who likes investing in his character, I'd still advise you to go crit eventually, because even though its tougher to gear, its not tougher without being rewarding. By going non-crit permanently, you'll find it easier to gear not because its more powerful but because you're forced to ignore alot of other mods and its therefore easier because there're lesser things to consider when gearing your char!

For crit gearing requirements, you essentially only need crit multi on an ammy and on your jewels. Everything else remains the same as non-crit. The tree will of course be different, but because elemental overload is likely not going to be far from your path, you can still pick that during the leveling process and respec from it later on when you've got the right gear + enough crit nodes.

But wait, if you think these DPS figures are good, remember that an inquisitor's tooltip dps will still be better simply because of the extra gem slot (inquisitors won't have to reply on the lightning pen gem). Inquisitors also get to have extra 100% crit chance/45% crit multi which does not reflect on their tooltip DPS.

In summary, in terms of consistent mapping DPS (i.e. taking into account all the detrimental elemental resist/equilibrium/hexproof mods):
Inquisitor Crit BF > Raider Crit BF > Raider Non-Crit BF

HOWEVER, Raider's elemental status immunity is a huge plus. At the end of the day, it depends on which one gives you a higher fun factor, and I suspect that for most players, the answer to that will be raider.

link to my inquisitor version

Stats based on Level 95 and a 6L of:

ST (20/20)
LP (20/20)
GMP (20/20)
Incr. Crit Strikes (21/20)
EF (21/20)
WED (21/20)

Note: Gear and jewels are as shown in the gear section and are identical to what I use for BF. Most of my jewels are BF-oriented rather than ST-oriented (melee modifiers on them do not benefit ST), hence the potential DPS can still be higher than that displayed.

Growing pains

The Chaos Immune Phase

End-Game

Growing pains

The Chaos Immune Phase

End-Game

Maximal DPS Version: Discipline and Wrath

Balanced DPS Version: Discipline, HoT and Purity of Lightning
This version is recommended if you want more protection versus reflect. Your DPS will fall by about 5% but you will then get approx 23% reduced damage from reflect due to the 4% incr. maximum lightning resistance and the loss in your DPS.
- Get a level 20 HoT with 23% quality - way cheaper than a level 21 HoT and provides higher DPS.
- You will need a Level 3 Enlighten to pull this off comfortably.
- You will gain 1-2 suffix slots on gear - you won't need that much lightning res on gear
- You will lose 2 gem sockets due to the need for HoT + Enlighten.

Slightly Tankier Version: Discipline, Arctic Armour and Purity of Lightning
This version is recommended if you are already doing alot of DPS but want more protection against phys damage and reflect. Your DPS will fall by about 12% (compared to the Wrath version) but you will also get >40% reduced damage from reflect (compared to the Wrath version).

Early game: Blade Flurry - WED - Incr AOE - Lightning Pen - Faster Attacks
Late game: Blade Flurry - WED - Incr AOE - Lightning Pen - Incr. Crit Strikes - Elemental Focus/Incr. Crit Dmg (Elemental Focus will give you more effective DPS, but ICD is recommended if you want to inflict those satisfying status ailments on mobs.

Swap out Incr. AOE for Conc. Effect versus major high HP bosses.

Early game: ST - WED - GMP - Lightning Pen - Faster Attacks
Late game: ST - WED - GMP - Lightning Pen - Incr. Crit Strikes - Elemental Focus/Incr. Crit Dmg (Elemental Focus will give you more effective DPS, but ICD is recommended if you want to inflict those satisfying status ailments on mobs.

Swap out GMP for Slower Projectiles versus major high HP bosses.