B-Star or Azurewrath?

Hi All:

My Lvl 88 Avenger found Azurewrath (I play SP) and I was wondering if you think that B-Star or Azurewrath is better for an Avenger. B-Star give slightly more damage (about 50 pts/hit) but Azurewrath has a way faster attack speed. Is the IAS from Azurewrath worth the lack of damage, especially when I am only talking about 50 points out of 3000 damage?

What is your experience? Thanks!

I know it's a noob question, but I am still re-learning after having been away for a number of years.|||Normally I'd take the Azure yes.|||get larzuk to add a socket to azurewrath

then put a perfect skull in it

Now azurewrath Steals 4% life, 3% Mana

it makes it much better for the times when monsters mana burn you|||I'd use azure for the ias/additional magic damage (cold/magic), as long as you don't mind the santuary aura. B-star does give a nice AR boost though.|||But with Conviction, you won't need it.

I think Oath in an eth Small Crescent beats both. For an Avenger, anyway, since you need high physical damage in order to dish out high elemental damage.|||First thing I'd do is test out the Azurewrath for a few days. The biggest question is, "Does the Sanctuary drive you insane?" If not, lets look at the numbers. I'll assume you're 1 vengeance, 20 auras, and +5 skills.

25+ Conviction (-150) will usually floor (-100) most non-immunities. Most Hell mobs have one immunity. Conviction will often break immunities, but it will usually only break it down to around 90%. So in Hell diff, you basically take the average Vengeance damage for one element and multiply it by 4.1 to get a rough idea of damage after conviction and immunities.

A B Star will deal an average of about 410 extra elemental damage from its bonus damage after conviction. The difference in actual vengeance damage is a lot more than 50, though. Avengers benefit hugely from relatively small differences in weapon damage. A B star has 29 more average weapon damage than an average ED Azurewrath. That becomes about 357 extra vengeance damage after conviction and immunities.

From its bonus damage, your Azurewrath will deal 375 average magic damage (most Hell mobs have no magic resist). Against non-CI's, though, it will also deal about 750 extra cold damage. Conviction probably breaks less than half of CI's in Hell diff, though, since CI's tend to have much higher immunity. So it usually will deal zip bonus cold damage to CI's.

So your Azurewrath is probably dealing about 350 more damage against non-CI's. Against CI's, though, it's dealing a whopping 400 less. Worth it? Not worth it? Your call.

Personally, I'd go with the B Star. But that's not because of the numbers. It's because Sanctuary drives me insane. The only mobs I can think of where you'd want to avoid contact that badly is those charging undead knights (Reanimated Horde, etc.), as a few stray charges will kill you in Hell. Guess what, though? While I've never used Azurewrath, I've tested even higher level sanc on Pindle runs. It usually doesn't stop the charging at all. It just annoys me when it comes to targeting.|||i am pretty sure the last thing you want against undead knights with the charge ability is an aura that knocks them back. knockback gives them distance for another charge doesn't it? my paladin zealer uses Azurewrath when fighting bosses like baal and his minions, or agaisnt P.I. monsters. and it kills them fast. but i swap to lightsaber much of the time because its faster to fight without sanctuary aura. i swap back to azurewrath when those little undead exploding dolls swarm me. sanctuary really helps against them.|||I think some people here are kind of missing the point when it comes to debating Azurewrath and Sanctuary Aura... now I will admit right from the beginning my experience with the weapon was not with an Avenger, it was with a 1pt Smiter/Zealot. But I still think I can add to the discussion with some huge important points that haven't even been brought up:

1) When playing D2, almost all of us are after a goal, not just aimless wandering around doing full area clears of ALL the maps in one game til we end our gameplay. We are doing something - whether that be Key Running, or Boss Hunting, or getting Organs and then taking out the Ubers, etc. We are trying to accomplish a goal, and the fact that some of the most annoying unimportant mobs in the game get knocked back from the Sanctuary Aura is a GODSEND, especially in places like Arcane Sanctuary. I could normally speed run past all the ghosts and vampires without even having to pause, when I was doing a key run. Hit some demons? Then whack a quick zeal, but for 99% of the map I could just maneuver thru and Sanctuary would clear the path. WHY AGAIN are you guys chasing down every lame normal mob in the game, just because Sanctuary knocked it back a bit? Is it some special unnamed boss mob that drops a hybrid torch/anni god item that none of us know about, or do you just suffer from OCD and need to kill that pesky mob that is "trying to escape it's fate from me!!1!one!"??

2) How could none of you bring this up, in a discussion about Azurewrath? The number one insanely useful ability of Sanctuary is not the knockback, it is the fact that it allows Life and Mana leech to carry thru on a previously un-leechable PI Undead mob. This changes the entire game for a melee char build like most Paladins that are not using Blessed Hammer. Even with Lightsabre, trying to clear past packs of PI Undead was mind-numbing, and if they happened to be Stoneskin as well then my poor Paladin would literally break down in tears.

After Sanctuary kicks in, ALL PI Undead in the game become do-able... and of any PI mobs you normally encounter, Undead packs were always the most annoying anyways. Ghost mob packs in particular, fall almost instantly to Azurewrath. Demon and other mob types that are PI Stoneskin will still take an extra moment to take down, but in my experience it was always the Undead packs causing me problems anyways. Problem Solved.

I agree with the poster above about socketing. Drill a hole, slap a Perfect Skull in your Azurewrath, and viola. Literally all of my issues were solved from that point on, and it made a perfect fit for my mostly standard gearset on my Smiter/Zealot. Ubers were easy, keys and organ farming was easy, I walked fearlessly in any Hell area of the game, confident in my ability to mow mobs down. Many other gear items contributed highly to that ability, but it wasn't until the Azurewrath was obtained that many of my frustrations disappeared.

People are severly under-rating Azurewrath. Keep it up tho, low demand might keep the prices low when I can finally afford to buy one for this ladder season =p|||kill everything, EVERYTHING!!|||Ok.. as long as you are cool admitting it is about OCD, not playing smartly =p

I don't have a problem with you choosing to chase every mob down. It IS your game, and your time after all, haha.



Joking aside tho, I hope no one overlooks the important point about Sanctuary leeching Undead PI mobs. I am serious about how it changes the game.