Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Crusader Strike and Divine Storm Vs. Single Mobs

I've been seeing unsettling and, frankly, incorrect statements popping up on the comments of my 3.0 FAQ in regards to prioritizing Divine Storm over Crusader Strike. One commenter claiming that Divine Storm is better because it procs seals, and others saying that cooldowns dictate that you should do one thing first rather than another, and others still saying that librams and such make it so that Divine Storm is top priority...

I'm here to set the record straight regarding Crusader Strike and Divine Storm. Let's break it down:

Crusader Strike

  • 6 second cooldown
  • 8% base mana
  • 110% weapon damage before gear modifications
  • hits 1 target
  • procs seals
Divine Storm
  • 10 second cooldown
  • 12% base mana
  • 100% weapon damage before gear modifications
  • hits up to 4 targets
  • heals the paladin and 3 friends for 25% of damage caused
  • procs seals
Take a look at the pretty lists. Notice that Crusader Strike is a shorter cooldown, more damage, and less mana. Both strikes can proc seals. The only things that Divine Storm does which Crusader Strike doesn't are a) heal you, and b) hit multiple targets.

If you have the Venture Co. libram, Divine Storm will give you 73 crit rating for 8 seconds every time you use the strike. For those playing the home game, that's 1.6% crit at 80 with a 2 second gap in the up-time if you Divine Storm every cooldown. If you delay using Divine Storm for an extra second to make sure you squeeze a Crusader Strike in, not having that percentage and a half of crit is not going to lower your DPS so much that it's worth sacrificing the extra weapon damage you're getting from the lovely extra Crusader Strike or two you've manufactured over the course of the fight. Plus, as your gear gets better, your weapon gets bigger, and your base crit rating gets higher, the up-time on that libram gets less and less significant.

Let me put it in a sentence for y'all -

If you have the choice between Crusader Strike and Divine Storm against a single opponent, use Crusader Strike. I'm not sure how much more plainly I can put it.

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