I am trying to figure out the biggest possible void cleave(assuming no uniques and t5 affixes and also before level of void cleave affix)
The issue I come to though is that void cleave does 1 point physical and 1 point void, with 400% added damage scaling(with a +75 void in its tree, I am unsure if this is applied before or after scaling - i will assume before) it may seem an easy thing to figure out but there are lot of extra factors complicating things.
Firstly all my sources of added damage, I get 4 stacks from multistrike(+40 phys), get added from a relic(5-10 void), multistrike procs smite for the +30 fire damage. And obviously 38-48
for the added damage affix on the weapon.
there is also passive tree nodes giving +5phys, 70 void and a lot of increased damage nodes.
This totals my added damage to 40phys 30 fire 120-125void before weapon and weapon affix.
Weapons are the most complicated part. There are several that are competing,
The competing options are the Hollow blade(66 phys 22-42 void, 6-12 void pen),Zweihander(100phys 5-15 phys pen) and Bardirche(130 phys)
also increased damage for weapon may be hard to decide, melee increased is 73-110 but void damage/phys damage is 128-192.
So the optimisation questions are
Which weapon to pick
Which weapon affix combination results in the most damage(as in number of added damage affixes, if you go increased phys, void or melee, etc)
What point setup is best for void cleave
Are there any other non-unique sources of added damage that I missed?
This is only if the other parts are calculated, as in if t5 void cleave level causes the setup to change(as this affix includes 61-90% increased melee damage)
I suspect void is best, but because most melee weapons have phys as the biggest stat, I want some input regarding the numbers.
The question you have to answer first is "what damage type can you scale best on your build (including passives and skill synergies/idols)
The skill alone scale with every flat damage type. If you are naked and have no passives, it doesnāt matter if your weapon has physical, void or cold damage on it. Every flat damage type will be used for the base damage calculation. And all the modifiers like āskill does more damageā that are in the tree (and donāt specify a damage type) will scale with every flat damage type. So even melee lightning damage will scale well up to a certain point.
If you are Void Knight, you have access to a lot of increased void damage. This will only scale the void components of your skill. So Iād guess (not tried it, not calculated) that it would be better to go with the Hollow Blade. The other weapons might have a higher flat damage number, but since they donāt scale with your passives, the outcome would be worse.
The easiest way would be to just buy some of the different weapon types and look at the DPS tooltip.
@OP: For VK the Hollow Blade for sure (maybe also Apathyās Maw but in my own tests it seemed inferior) because VK is packed with Void Dmg
Otherwise the end of the fire branch on Cleave is clearly made for FG minions, or the middle branch (void to fire conversion) can be used both for FG with fire or phys+fire or Pally with fire.
Fire would be with this Axe i guess?
I didnāt spec my FG (yet) on those, I guess a big combo is Multi proccing Forge strike, also FG can raise +phys from Multi and Forge strikes, but you need to explore on that.
About affixes my choice is to go with those exclusive for melee which are: melee crit chance and melee added void/fire/phys. Try yourself but personally I think nothing beats melee crit + melee flat dmg
quick calcs put hollow blade +melee void affix at 180-210 total void(with pen). Bardirche +added phys at 208-218 total. Zweihander at 178-188 phys(with pen).
So the question is - is 6-12 penetration worth 8-28 flat
Ignoring of couse that there are likely increased void stats in void knight that increase void scaling
