ELB vs SoD (in General)

My ELB is my primary damage dealer. I've been considering switching to a SoD for the splash damage. However I'm not sure if giving up the higher base weapon will actually be a benefit or not. Also using the SoD do you see a higher rate of misses?


Thoughts?

Let's even throw the Mageseeker in the mix.

I did a little bit of testing at the level I'm at and the MsK was the most effective - damage is king however, and NOTHING compares to the ELB for that.

The only issue is you can't forge the ELB. I've been debating replacing my enforcer xbow for the SoD or ELB myself. I'm leaning towards SoD for the splash and being forge able. Also interested in this thread.

That's easily fixed these days

That's for insta, but I like to forge my own gear.

I tried all three and prefer the massive damage from the ELB. The MSK is to tailored towards mage teams and the SoD suffers from Guardian Angel retal. With my strat (EC instead of dispel magic) the GA can be a real killer.

It really depends on your strat and goals though. All three weapons are effective if combined with an appropriate strat. Plugging a SoD into my team instead of an ELB would be a mistake, but if you have a good DM and cover enough weaknesses/exploit enough vulnerabilities the SoD makes a great weapon. Ditto for MSK.

SUite - the ability to forge the SoD and then blacksmith it into an ELB is what I was talking about

I had completely forgot about that. Good looking out

Note all of the below is based on my logic and reasoning; I have no experience or data from which to make observations. Yet.

I agree with miteke; a lot depends on the value you can get from the splash damage. If it helps to get around a wall and pick off low-HP minions, FB/CoC teams will benefit, and it seems a good way to funnel some damage into a PL minion via lower-AC targets.

But if splash damage is just 'more damage' for your strategy, the ELB probably has the SoD covered given the greater base damage and PTH, and the option of Archery.