Twin Calamitys and Fist of Bashing VS Unarmed.

[Planetside]

I have been fighting unarmed with str-sta-int 4-4-8 aa's for quite awile.  Having stumbled upon a Twin Calamity and a Fist of Bashing in the last week I decided unarmed combat was going bye-bye.  So I respeced and went Sta-Wis-Int 4-4-8.  I have the Combo AA as well and mostly master spells missing only the 57-60 ones.  It seems that my dps took a serious hit going this route.  While fighting unarmed with 4 pieces of Wu's I was double attacking 98% of the time.  Now I'm double attacking 2% of the time.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  Also another question...what kind of adornments did the monk community put on thier duel weild weapons?  I'm looking to throw some adornments on the Twin Calamity andthe Fist of Bashing and was wondering what would be the best ones for as much plat they cost?

[Zutan]

Unarmed will never come close to two "high end" fabled weapons like TC and FoB.  There is a monk in my guild that does unarmed and I out DPS him badly even if he is in a better DPS raid group.

[Planetside]

<p>Ok then..tonight I will go out and solo some stuff with ACT running.  I will do the first one as I'm speced now..then will go back and respec to the 98% double attack and parse the same mobs on ACT and compare.  After reading the forums for months about this  unarmed vs armed it was always said until you have 2 fabled high dmg rated weapons that unarmed was higher dps.  Thats why I was confused..maybe I need more time/different fighting style....ACT will tell me all I need to know tonight<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[AsureaSkie]

What I've found is that a bit more investment into your INT tree, namely for max crit and Eagle Shriek, turns fist weapons into some major damage.  Not only is the base DPS higher than bare fists, crits on 20% of your attacks makes a great stride towards equaling your lost double attacks, especially when it applies to CA's as well.  Solo'ing, Eagle Shriek's total 95%+ crit...well, says enough. Just debating TC+FoB or FoB+Fists of Pain....

[Bladewind]

<p>Regarding double attack:</p><p>With 8 points in box 3 of the str line, you get 96% double attack when fighting bare handed.  Having 3 pieces of Wu's armor equipped gives you another 2% double attack.  That is why you were seeing 98% double attack with the str line and only 2% without it.  The catch about barehanded fighting is that it is treated like fighting with a <i>1-handed weapon</i> with a DR of 50ish and speed in 2ish range.  The base damage output from 4-4-8 str barehanded is comparable to dual wields with a DR total of 120 or so.  </p><p>Changing to the AA setup you described with the weapons you specified should lead to higher dps.  Something to consider: Now that you have two weapons, you are going to be swinging more often (especially in the case of the high speed calamity).  That means you are much more likely to overwrite auto attacks when executing combat arts.   It will probably take you a bit of time adjusting your tempo with combat arts to get to where you can minimize/eliminate your overwrites.</p><p>Another benefit to opting out of the str line that often goes unmentioned:  You get more out of outside bonuses to DPS and double attack.  While the built in bonuses from str are great to make your weak bare fist effective, they also limit the use of outside DPS and double attack buffs.  Illusionists can give a 25% double attack buff, which would be useless to you if you already had 96-98%.  The right melee buffs and adornments can easily push you into the +120 dps range, past the dimishing returns boundary.  Being able to do comparable damage without the built-in +20% means you can now get more out of +dps buffs as well.  </p><p>Regarding Adornments:  </p><p>I think the most consistant damage adornments are the +12 damage per hit ones that weaponsmiths make.  These are legendary and require quite a bit of transmuted goodies, though.</p><p>There are also nice and much more affordable treasured adornments made by transmuters that have the potential to do the same or more damage if you get lucky on proc rates and damage rolls.  If you regularly group with templars or bards who buff proc rates or enjoy high int buffs (which will boost the proc damage), these will probably outperform the legendary adornments.</p><p>For your calamity, the scintillating runic temper is the highest damage proc adornment - hits for 300ish magic damage.  An alternate choice is the scintillating sceptic temper - hits for about 250 disease and then ticks off a dot for a few seconds that adds another 150ish.  Look up 'temper' on the broker to get a feel for what is available for a piercer.</p><p>For the fist of bashing, the scintillating molten binding hits for about 270 heat and ticks off another 100 or so as a short dot.  I can't remember offhand if any good non-dot bindinigs are available.  Look up 'binding' on the broker to see what is available for blunt weapons.</p><p>If you have power issues, you can get phantom handles, which are relatively expensive fabled adornments that siphon power from your target on proc.  The disadvatage to them is that they do not increase your damage output at all.</p><p>If you do a good deal of tanking, you may want to look into vampiric handles.  They are also fabled, ie expensive.  They only do about 150 damage, but they also heal you for 120ish when they proc.  If you are mostly dpsing, I'd go with a different choice, but I figured I would mention these just in case.</p><p>In short, if you want to <i>cheaply maximize dps</i>, go for a runic temper and a molten binding.</p>