Harm versus Fireball

[thuanlinh]

I recently picked up a 5x38 dbl axe: fire area,lightning, hla, hld, hsl. I am not sure best way to add points to max damage. I asked around a little bit and was told since it has fire area, the final weapon should be meelee. If that is the case, should I go with harm or fb? what else should I consider if I want to max damage output?

[Johnny Warren]

Since fireball does significantly more damage than harm and you stated you wanted to maximise the damage output, I would suggest fireball.

[Nick]

Lighting is the best spell for dmg followed by fireball and a distant third and fourt are harm and magic arrow. I would chose harm over magic arrow personally however, a two spell lighting and fireball is probably the best bet for you right now. harm and magic arrow add some but not a lot of damage.

Now only if I could get E-bolt and flamstrike added to a weapon....sigh

[Johnny Warren]

Lighting is the best spell for dmg followed by fireball and a distant third and fourt are harm and magic arrow. I would chose harm over magic arrow personally however, a two spell lighting and fireball is probably the best bet for you right now. harm and magic arrow add some but not a lot of damage.

Now only if I could get E-bolt and flamstrike added to a weapon....sigh

I paged and suggested a deed that adds 1-5% Hit E-bolt/FS to a levelable weapon would be an awesome grand auction item. My flamestrikes do over 200dmg to most mobs =)

Nick is correct, until you have multiple relayers with and lots of spell damage increase hit harm/MA won't be doing a great deal of dmg.

I would definitely leave the weapon as a Double Axe (my personal fave weapon in the game), I would add HML, Harm to 38% then spend the rest on stats and stuff at, depending on your level. Or bump everything to 40.

[thuanlinh]

thanks all for suggestions

[Bulsie]

harm also has diminishing dmg that goes lower when mob is farther away best bet is always firball/lightning and 3rd for ww wep i would say harm if bow ma

[Eless]

Hit Harm deals on average 19.5 * (1+sdi), fireball 21.5 * 1(+sdi). I wouldn't say the difference is huge, especially when you compare it to Hit MA (12 dmg * (1+sdi)).
Hit Lightning deals on average 25 * (1+sdi).

Then the question comes about mobs average resists, if average cold resist is much higher than fire resist then fireball would be significantly better.

[Nick]

I consider harm a second tear spell because it does less DMG per hit AND you need to be close for full dmg value.
I consider Magic Arrow a second tear spell because it does pitiful DMG but, it does have the advantage of doing equal dmg from 10 range.

I still pick harm over Magic Arrow even for bows because most bow fights take place at 0-1 range anyway and I prefer the extra dmg from Harm. Clearly this is a personal opionon but, I have heard the argument for MR over Harm and I just dissagree.

If you are a new player and want to include some stats.. +HP or something else you "shouldn't" put on a weapon, or your weapon was a 38%/42% ect instead of a 58% starting out I think it is fine to only have lighting and fireball as the spells of choice and not have a third. If given the choice I would clearly take a 4 spell 60% weapon... but, I don't have 250million lying around (I mean I might but, im not selling my yard items they are too precsious, Man I love mindcraft)