Can you explain finishing blow?

[DrakenKin]

+50% damage + 50% per missing %, that can't be right...

 

So you get 500% damage against a target that is missing 10%? Sounds wrong...

 

Please explain what this ability does.

 

Optionally, please explain what its upgrade does... it says adds 2%, where the first sounds too big, this sounds too tiny...

[KDubya]

You get the first +50% all the time.

 

The rest depends on how much endurance the target has. At 50% endurance you don't add anything beyond the base +50%. At 30% endurance you add +20% damage to the base +50%. At 5% Endurance you add +45% to the base +50% for 95% total.

 

I'm not sure what the booster talent does. The +2% did not make any sense to me. The ability itself is pretty bad so I never though to even think about the booster for it. Per encounter it'd maybe be worth looking at but per rest puts it in the garbage heap. As a Rogue you already are at +200 - 300% damage add so another 50-100% is not much.

[Undesirable]

This ability will literally finish off anything it connects with. I've had 240+ damage crits with it. If you have the Bloody Slaughter talent then they are going to be utterly decimated regardless of DR (not immunities though, heh). Three only drawback is the 2 pure rest limitation.

[Tomice]

This is from Nerdcommando's Steam guide:

 

Finishing Blow – a very potent tool against all kinds of fat and sturdy bosses and mini-bosses. For every percent of health they miss beyond 50%, it deals 3% extra damage. It may seem small but it adds up quickly and against foes with quarter of health it's already very good. But that's not the full story...

Devastating Blow – this is. The description is funky – it's not +2% extra damage, that would've been insulting. It's +2% per missing percent of health, raking it up to 5%. And that's even more considerable. For a dragon, a quarter of health (where the bonus now is 125%) is still about a hundred points. This is an excellent tool for bringing that down to zero ASAP.

[KDubya]

This is from Nerdcommando's Steam guide:

 

Finishing Blow – a very potent tool against all kinds of fat and sturdy bosses and mini-bosses. For every percent of health they miss beyond 50%, it deals 3% extra damage. It may seem small but it adds up quickly and against foes with quarter of health it's already very good. But that's not the full story...

 

Devastating Blow – this is. The description is funky – it's not +2% extra damage, that would've been insulting. It's +2% per missing percent of health, raking it up to 5%. And that's even more considerable. For a dragon, a quarter of health (where the bonus now is 125%) is still about a hundred points. This is an excellent tool for bringing that down to zero ASAP.

Is he counting the base 100% damage as well? At 3% per missing endurance you'd get 50% + 150% for +200% damage add in the 100% you do already and you get +300% damage.

 

If he is correct then the description is off as it should read 50% + 150% damage based on endurance loss

 

If he is counting the base 100% damage then it would be 100% + 50% +50% for a total of +200% damage which matches his total of 50% +50*3% = 200% but his math is wrong, its not +3% per missing endurance below 50% it is 100% base + 50% talent + 50% x 1 for =200% damage or +100% added to all your other modifiers like Might, Reckless, Savage Attack, Sneak Attack and Deathblows. This also matches the in game description.

 

The +2% would then make it 100% base +50% + (50% x 1+2) = +300% damage counting the base damage.

 

Your typical Rogue with 20 Might, Reckless, Savage, Superb weapons, Sneak and Deathblows will do 100% (base) + 30% (might) + 20% (Reckless) + 20% (Savage) + 45% (Superb) + 50% Sneak and +50% deathblow for +315% damage including the base damage.

 

You won't be activating Devastating Blow when they are at zero so you'll never see the full bonus. Let's say you use it at 20%. This gets you 50% + 30% for another 80% damage. Your total is 315% + 80% = 395% damage. This is roughly 25% more damage.

 

If you used all three uses one after the other you'd get 11.85 unit damage compared to 9.45 unit damage or slightly less than the damage caused by one more attack. Is that worth an Ability?

 

The booster talent ups the unit damage from 3.95 to 4.55. Using that three times in a row gets you 13.65 unit damage which puts you ahead by a full attack and change. Is that worth the cost of one Ability and one Talent?

 

For sure three hits to kill something is better than four hits but the opportunity to see bigger numbers comes at a steep cost in abilities and talents. Backstab gets you +100%, is usable every time you come out of stealth and doesn't have any per rest or low endurance requirements and it still is a bad choice, but I'd say it is better than Finishing Blow.

[Boeroer]

With cloak of the Master Mystic Backstab becomes quite OK.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Boeroer