Reaping Knives and Monk

[Serpit]

Finally got White March after waiting for Part 2, and decided to use my first party, with a Monk main character.

 

What I discovered is an amazing synergy between unarmed attacks and the new Cipher spell Reaping Knives - namely the fact that they apparently benefit from unarmed damage boni, as seen here:

 

 

This makes my Monk do absolutely bonkers damage while my Cipher pretty much generates more focus than she can reasonably spend. The best strategy for everything at that point seemed to be buffing the Monk as much as possible and just letting her take apart everything pretty much on her own. Note that this makes her do 100% raw damage, so the unarmed damage essentially gets transformed into raw.

 

Just to be sure, I tested Reaping Knives on my Barbarian as well, and sure enough, they took over the slot from the equipped weapon, so it's not like they just add their raw damage on top of the equipped weapon. 

 

I assumed the Reaping Knives being affected by unarmed boni is not intended, but I went back to check the Accuracy breakdown - and lo and behold, Monks actually get double Weapon Focus boni here.

 

 

Note that Reaping Knives apparently give you a Weapon Focus bonus even if you usually wouldn't get them for daggers, so long as you have any Weapon Focus talent at all. Here, however, they get it twice - my Monk has both WF: Peasant for the unarmed attack and WF: Ruffian for the secondary set of double stilettos.

 

All of this leads me to believe that this is not merely an oversight or an unintended interaction, but actually designed so that Reaping Knives don't overwrite fists like other weapons, but rather get grafted onto them. adding their damage to the base damage of the fists and transforming it all into raw damage. If so, I very much like my monk being Godlike not just in appearance, but combat ability.

 

 

tl;dr New Cipher spell Reaping Knives seems to stack with Monk's unarmed attacks, giving them super-strong raw damage fists

Edited February 24, 2016 by Serpit

[Boeroer]

Awesome - this will so get nerfed.

 

But until that it maybe would make sense to roll a rogue or barb with Novice's Suffering.  

[Dr <3]

Awesome - this will so get nerfed.

 

But until that it maybe would make sense to roll a rogue or barb with Novice's Suffering.

Agree, barbarian with novice suffering and knives can become the ultimate aoe dps

[Serpit]

Awesome - this will so get nerfed.

 

But until that it maybe would make sense to roll a rogue or barb with Novice's Suffering.

 

Hasn't even considered that. I read before that Novice's Suffering bis bugged and that Carnage doesn't work on unarmed damage, but assuming those are not the case anymore, Barbs should potentially be super-beastly with RN.

[hilfazer]

Double weapon focus seems to be a bug.

 

Other than that it's a great synergy. It makes sense Reaping Knives count as unarmed weapons - if i open inventory screen my dude has only fists, if i watch attack animation of reaping knives user it's same as with fists.

[Boeroer]

Like all summoned weapons, it uses whatever Weapon Focus you chose. But it shouldn't use two. Maybe this bug is also there when you use other summoned weapons and take two Weapn Foci. Since very few people spend two talent points on Weapon Focus, maybe nobody found out yet.

[ottffsse]

Would soul bound weapons double up accuracy with 2x weapon focus then too?

[Boeroer]

I don't know - that's the question of the day.

 

I'm sick and weakened (I mean in real life - curse on you, virus cipher and virus priest). So maybe someone else feels like testing this.

[Kaylon]

I don't know - that's the question of the day.

 

I'm sick and weakened (I mean in real life - curse on you, virus cipher and virus priest). So maybe someone else feels like testing this.

Do you know if weapon mastery/expertise apply too to soulbound weapons?

[AndreaColombo]

^ they do.

 

No idea about doubling up WF either, though. Logically, I would expect only one to apply and the other to be suppressed, since it's the same kind of bonus from the same source.

[Boeroer]

Yes, but look at the Reaping Knives which are summoned weapons. This bug could affect all summoned weapons. And since the mechanics for them seem to be the same as for soulbound weapons this bug could also affect those, too. As I said: very few people take two weapon foci so maybe this was simply overlooked. Or maybe not... come on - do some testing, I'm curious!

[AndreaColombo]

Heh, can't do much testing from the office will try when I'm home if nobody beats me to it.

[Boeroer]

Heh, can't do much testing from the office will try when I'm home if nobody beats me to it.

What? You didn't install PoE on your office computer? You're not a real believer!

[gogocactus]

 

 

Heh, can't do much testing from the office will try when I'm home if nobody beats me to it.

What? You didn't install PoE on your office computer? You're not a real believer!

At least bring a PoE bootable USB stick =P

[Serpit]

Alright, I tested it. It seems to be a display bug without an actual effect.

 

 

Here's the same thing with the Grey Sleeper equipped. Now, next I rerolled my character to add every Weapon Focus ability to see if they stack, but...

 

 

As you can see, it seems like it, but the total accuracy doesn't actually go up, leading me to conclude that any Weapon Focus above the first doesn't have an actual effect, despite being displayed.

[Boeroer]

That's not half as cool as I hoped for.

 

Thanks for testing!

[Ichthyic]

anyone try out the barbarian with reaping knives yet?

[Boeroer]

Nope - will do as soon as my cipher gets reaping knives. It can't be long. I have Zahua and Meneha in the party so comaring monk and barb will be easy.

[Crucis]

Damn, monks are great with Reaping Knives.  But if RK's work with a barb's carnage attack, the, well, carnage is going to be spectacular with all that raw damage flying all around.  And the cipher may have more Focus than he can expend with spells (well, maybe not, but who knows until you try).

[Raven Darkholme]

Damn, monks are great with Reaping Knives.  But if RK's work with a barb's carnage attack, the, well, carnage is going to be spectacular with all that raw damage flying all around.  And the cipher may have more Focus than he can expend with spells (well, maybe not, but who knows until you try).

Oh, don't worry a cipher can spend plenty focus since focus cost went up after 3.0.

I'm not sure whether barbarian is that much better than monk tho, if I played with a party of 4 I would definitely take a monk over barbarian any day, in a full party it might be different.