Faded Orb of the Mangus vs fully loaded 2.0... hrmmm...

[Niblix]

so i got all excited today because i got my new Faded Orb of the Magus because it seemed to be the thing to do. then it hit me BAM! why did i want this? oh SNAP! what have i done?

here's my logic...

get your Faded Orb of the Magus and plop a Sodkee's Sympathetic Stone
( http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=85795 & http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=85709)

now take...

Focus of Primal Element with a Sodkee's Sympathetic Stone and a SaNril's Sympathetic Stone in it.
( [url]shttp://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=33204[/url] & http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=85709 & http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=85711 )

now compare the two. sure, the Faded Orb of Mangus renders more mana BUT it's not all about mana or is it? even if it renders about 600 more mana than your 2.0 but during a battle it only converts into a single nuke. how often have you been in a long battle and you've been burning mana? oh wait! if you're burning mana then you don't really need a boat load of it then. now imaging that as you're nuking away as you would normally that your 2.0 is dropping small-mid sized nukes for free as you go. hrmm, not costing you any extra mana is it. i suspect that when you add up all the damage done by these free nukes that it would greatly outweigh the lonely nuke you dropped thanks to the extra 600 mana you got from the Faded Orb of the Magus.

am i out to lunch? no, i don't have any data to back this up so feel free to rip this apart in the name of education. it is all just a theory so enjoy. i'm thinking of turning in my Faded Orb of the Magus for the Urgak's Soothing Stone and putting it into mu shield...

[Bastler]

Actually I would take the mana add aug in place of the Lighning one.

[Redius]

the mana return aug > everything else for long fights. If you're not in a fight where you are not going to go OOM, obviously the damage augs are better.

Going back to your original question; yes, I believe your 2.0 > new wep simply based on the extra chance for damage because you're not punting that much mana....however, you do have to consider what your spelldamage is in order to figure out at what point it becomes a bad move to keep 2.0

[wire]

First of all, you're comparing total damage potential between weapons, so do that. The arena primary has a sympathetic effect built in: Sympathetic Minion. That proc is more DPS than either Sympathetic Fire or Sympathetic Lightning individually. So, in that scenario the arena primary wins out easily over the epic, since you can put another sympathetic aug in it.

You're also gaining spell damage from the arena primary, which does matter. The last time I went through the numbers, you could get anywhere from 1-4 DPS per spell damage depending on what you're doing.

The arena primary is also our best combat proc weapon currently, due to its above average proc rate. So, if you plan on meleeing at all, that difference should be considered.

Second, in a lot of situations you would probably prefer mana over damage, since you can get upwards of 30 DPM pretty easily. There's only 3 sympathetic mana procs currently: 1 from the arena, 1 dropped from fungal forest, and 1 on various caster primaries. So, if you are concerned about mana, you should get a primary with the proc built in already and both of those augs. This still leaves you 1 extra slot to throw a DD aug in.

[Niblix]

so i get the distinct feeling that i'm about to turn into a "hands on" mage, going toe to toe or rather my toes to the mob's back. BATTLE MAGE!!

i did some messing around last night in BoT try to better understand the Faded Orb of Magus better. i know the raw DPS of the swing will be crazy, it's got better DPS then my warrior's best weapon DOH! (( btw, i'm 81 and my warrior is 78 )) the Rockfall was nice, had several crits around 3.8k... 1H Blunt! (5) if memory serves me correctly, as my 1H Blunt goes up i should see it proc a little more. in looking into this whole melee thing i started to compare my stats vs my Warrior and found that my AC is almost as high as his, oh dear. i'm guessing if i get my CS and CA maxed i might be able to tank fairly well, not as well and my warrior but decent.

so i'm feeling a little better now about the Faded Orb, thanks to the awesome feedback. i suspect the other value might be in its versatility... short fights : nuke away and send in the pets, long fight : if able, go toe to toe and save the mana for when you're avoiding Rampage, dealing with adds, etc... a situational thing which many other items don't have.

thanks everyone

ya, gotta update that Magelo profile of mine lol...

[Bastler]

You dont need to really hit for a proc to go off, if I remember correctly.

[sharrien]

Yeah, 99% sure that your weapon skill will not affect procs. You can increase procrate by increasing your Combat Effects (CE), however that bonus has a greater impact using weapons that have a low innate procrate. Of course you'll see at least some increase swinging your Orb, but don't expect the procrate to get tremendously better.

[Vardamur]

Yeah, 99% sure that your weapon skill will not affect procs.

You are correct. I'm coming out of retirement just to get this thing... I melee all the time in a group scenario.