What do you mean? Cast speed isn’t used, but the extra damage still applies.
But I do see what you mean. The Weapon Specialist mode can still apply to the void conversion if you use an axe, otherwise the bonus is lost.
If I had the option to get a different bonus and i’m focusing entirely on void? Definitely. The phys damage is bound to be irrelevant to the total damage.
It’s not though, it’s just less useful. Flat damage is still flat damage & your skill will still do more damage, just not as much more as if the tags aligned.
The devs adhere to the notion of skill point taxes & putting powerful nodes behind nodes that you have to take but would be less useful. They’ve said so themselves.
Plus that doesn’t change the fact that that node does not add base damage. Base damage is always only the initial damage of the skill. Anything else from any source is added damage.
I feel like this node could be really strong if you just used an axe and stacked Vit for more damage from the VK passive.
100%. I’m guessing the intent would be to use something like Apathy’s Maw with it. However:
If it were free, no. But I was trying to see if I could make something stupid work. The idea was to use Black Blade of Chaos. Dex stacking would get us the flat damage on Rive and void pen. But getting that crazy amount of void pen isn’t gonna do much if most of the damage I’m stacking is phys. So this might just kill the idea. Oh well.
I’ve been wracking my brain for what the actual use for this even is. What would actually make you happy to dex stack on a sentinel that isn’t using a throwing skill?
The only answer I came up with was the new Scissor of Atropos that stacks from melee attacks then spends those stacks on a ranged attack. So I guess you stack dex, that’s all your flat melee damage, then you invest in throwing damage for your throwing skill and the dex helps with that?
Idk I guess that’s A use, but it’s not super satisfying.
My guess is it was initially phys per strength, got deemed too strong in playtesting and changed to dex.
Although tbh, the flat fire damage per attunement with a mace is kinda worse (IMO).
Maybe they should have just made it some lower ratio then. This just feels really confusing.
What about the Sunforged set 2h mage with Rive Spawning Forged weapons and stacking attune for them… yeah that still sounds terrible.
Yeah, that’s fair.
No, it was always per dex, it’s a Rogue-themed sword after all.
I meant the Rive node not the black blade sword’s affix.
Purely speculation, I was not part of any playtest IK its always been dex in the live game.
Ah, yes, I see what you mean now. Carry on, then. 
Ah, pretty sure that’s been dex for years too. You could try doing a search for the node name in the patch notes section of the forum if you’re that curious.
You seem to have skipped the replies after that. He did specify he meant changed in playtesting. Not in release. 
I actually didn’t skip those replies! But that’s not a particularly new node so it would likely have something in the patch notes about it being added or changed. There are a few nodes that are dex-based for the Sentinel as a whole, but they tend to be ignored because stacking Dex as a Sentinel is kinda dumb/weird since virtually all skills are either strength or attunement.
Edit: that node was changed in 0.9. Previously it was Insidious (flat added void damage).
So it’s always been like this since 0.9.
Here is a very rough sketch of an idea with the Scissors: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/QWJl8M2A
Honestly it’s probably not the kind of build I’d ever play. I don’t like the thought of needing to remember to do my shield throw once every 8 rives. But MAYBE this is the kind of thing it can be used for? But if this node has been in since .9 then that still begs the question what they thought it was for when they added it.
You can pick that node without going into the void conversion. It will still give you plenty of bonuses that way.
If you do plan on converting, then either the bonus becomes irrelevant or you have to plan differently (by using an Axe, in this case).
Right I recognize that you don’t need to go into the void conversion. And obviously if you use the axe that clearly had an intended use in mind, but functionally the node is 3 different nodes with their own uses. (I guess unless you dual wielded different weapons, but idk why you’d want that either)
So what I’m just wondering is why you’d want then dex → flat melee phys for Rive with a Sword specifically. Very little hooks into dex in sentinel so it’s hard to imagine why you’d actually go out of your way to build around it considering you otherwise wouldn’t be building dex for a skill that does not scale with dex.
Even in the build I posted, I’m not even sure it makes that much sense because it’s not like the throwing attacks don’t also scale with str. If you want to scale both you can still just stack str. I guess you could try stacking both str and dex, but why exactly? It’s not like you can’t get flat melee phys elsewhere. I guess technically this lets you put flat damage on affixes that otherwise couldn’t have it. idk is that enough to be interesting/good?
Yeah, I have no idea, it’s just something they’ve done. It’s a bit odd since Dex is a dead stat for Sentinels unless you’re doing a throwing build. And even then, strength is better because it provides % armour.
I am pretty sure that must be how it works, right:
I have Temporal Warror (converts Rive to Void dmg).
I have 1555 tooltip dmg on Rive (incl. some sources of added void melee dmg on gear).
Equipping a ring with +9% increased physical damage increases my tooltip dmg to 1588.
This is probably because I have the Sentinel passive Overwhelm which adds +5 flat phys, which gets a lil somethin somethin from that increase, even though Rive is converted to Void, is this reasoning correct?
If you remove that passive, you’ll still see an increase on account of the +phys per dex while using a sword.
Yes. Added damage that states a damage element (+5 phys melee damage, for example) stays phys if you convert Rive to a different element.