I've read on many forums that Deadly Strike is bugged so that when proced, it causes you to do double your maximum damage every time you successfully proc DS. I've always thought this was a myth, but I keep coming across people who claim that this is in fact how DS works and it's starting to bug me. The following is posted on a GameFAQs topic that is stickied in the D2: LoD section:
What do Critical Strike and Deadly Strike do?
-They're both bugged due to lazy programming by Blizzard employees, while they are supposed to double whatever damage you do on the hit that they proc, instead they automatically double your maximum damage instead. So instead of your base damage of 24-71 being doubled to 48-142, if CS/DS procs, it will always deal 142 damage. If by chance you have an ability which converts physical damage into magic/elemental damage, CS/DS will double the magic/elemental damage as well (ie Vengeance/Berserk).
If this was the case, you should be able to use something like a Headstriker or Death Cleaver + Highlords to achieve 100% Deadly strike, and in theory you would do the same exact damage with every hit (your max damage doubled, excluding variations in elemental damage such as 1-30 light dmg from Highlords).
I find this very hard to believe.
I have no way of testing this at the moment, but can anyone shed some light on the subject? I'm 99% convinced its all bull. If this was true, weapons with higher max damage would be superior to weapons with higher average damage (if you had a high % chance of DS). For example, ebotdz would be better than griefz if this theory was true. However, from personal experience (and countless pvp guides) grief has always been superior in duels because of the insanely high average damage.
I have a feeling this theory came from somewhere similar to where the poison damage/critical strike cancel myth came from, but I just want to make sure.
This all came about because I intend on making an old school WW barb for PvM using a 2 hand weapon. I was comparing an Ebotd Great Poleaxe vs a Ebotd Ghost Spear. I'm leaning towards the GP (lower max dmg, but higher min), but if this theory has any merit to it (which I doubt) I may choose the GS.