So I looked into the viability of using a BotDPB. 60 IAS only puts me 12 addiontal IAS away from 4 Frame Zeal. I think I would prefer to keep my FCR ring & Ammy allowing me to hit 75 FCR for teleporting, but would be forced to use 20IAS gloves in order to hit 4 frame Zeal meaning I would lose Life Tap. Fortunately BotD has an available 15% LL, which can be accompanied by a possible 6% from crafted blood gloves and 8% LL as a mod on my FCR ring putting me at a total LL of 29%. 29% is a far cry from the 60%LL granted from dracs (10% on gloves and 50% from LT) but still would provide substantial leaching.

Next I looked at damage. I have a possible maximum ed of 415% from BotD. I get an additional 144 from level 28 Zeal and 240 from the sacracfice synergy = 384. Now since I would be using Reapers Toll for Decrepify on my Merc I really don't have much use for Holy Freeze because when Decrepify Procs it also slows my targets. This leaves me available to use a might merc to provide extra physical damage. At lvl 90, A2 Might Mercs run a lvl 18 Might Aura, add 2 skills from Andys and I'd receive an additional 230 ed from lvl 20 Might. So 415% wep ed, 614 off wep ed, and 163 Str equate to 1708 AVG physical damage using a BotDPB. Grief is really the only way to go for superior physical damage. It is truely the king of Melee.

So I've finally narrowed it down to 2 main setup choices...

Setup #1 - Run Fanatacism, use Holy Freese Merc and give him Infinity for level 12 Conviction. Main Con - Cannot break physical immunities
Setup #2 - Run Conviction, use Might Merc and give him Reaper's Toll for CTC Decrepify. Main Con - Only 5 Frame Zeal

DPS Calculation:

Weapon Damage: PB = 31-35, Sup 15% = 36-40, +400 DMG from Grief = 436-440 (438 AVG)
Deadly Strike: Gores - 15 + Grief - 20 = 35
Off Weapon ED (Fanatacism): Lvl 28 Zeal - 144 + Lvl 20 Sacrafice Synergy - 240 + Strength - 133 + Lvl 28 Fanatacism - 509 = 1026
Off Weapon ED (Conviction): Lvl 28 Zeal - 144 + Lvl 20 Sacrafice Synergy - 240 + Strength - 133 + Lvl 20 Might Aura - 230 = 747
Physical Damage per Attack (Fanatacism) = [(438 x 11.26) x 0.65]+[((438 x 11.26) x 2) x 0.35] = (4931.88 x 0.65) + (9863.76 x 0.35) = 3205.72 + 3452.32 = 6,658 AVG
Physical Damage per Attack (Conviction) = [((438 x 7.47)+438) x 0.65]+[(((438 x 7.47)+438) x 2) x 0.35] = (3709.86 x 0.65) + (7419.72 x 0.35) = 2411.41 + 2596.90 = 5,008 AVG
Light Damage per Attack (Fanatacism) = lvl 30 Holy Shock = 1 - 1536, Lvl 20 Resist Lightning Synergy = 240%, Lvl 5 Salavation Synergy = 20%, Synergized Holy Shock = 1 - 5,530 (2766 AVG)
Light Damage per Attack (Conviction) = lvl 30 Holy Shock = 1 - 1536, Lvl 20 Resist Lightning Synergy = 240%, Lvl 7 Salavation Synergy = 28%, Synergized Holy Shock = 1 - 5,652 (2826 AVG)
Total Damage per attack (Fanatacism) = 6658 + 2766 = 9424 AVG
Total Damage per Attack (Conviction) = 5008 + 2826 = 7834 AVG
DPS (Fanatacism) = (6.2 {Attacks Per Second} x 6658) + (6.2APS x (2766 + (0.85 {lvl 12 Conviction} x 2766))) = 41279.60 + 31726.02 = 73006 AVG
DPS (Conviction) = (5.0APS x (5008 + (0.5 {Decrepify} x 5008))) + (5.0APS x (2826 + (1.5 {Lvl 25 Conviction}x 2826))) = 37560 + 35325 = 72885 AVG

Wow, I don't blame you if you didn't read all of that.

Anyway, my conclusion is as follows...
When running your own conviction the additional damage from the higher -Light Res and the -50 physical res from Decrepifiy makes the DPS for both builds almost identical. With the DPS being the same, running my own convitcion aura allows me the luxury of breaking physical immunes, something I do not have on the Fanatacism based build. Bottom line, Conviction is the way to go.

Revised Skill Assignment: Lvl 90
20 Resist Lightning
17 Conviction
20 Zeal
20 Sacrafice
8 Holy Shield
7 Salvation (remaining points here)

All Equipment will remain exactly the same except I will swap out Infinity in favor of Reapers Toll on my Merc.

This post was edited by Fierless on Jul 16 2010 03:45pm

I like it

I was thinking of making a chaos zealer ^^

tl;dr