Corrupted Ashbringer Monk

[Gourmandise]

Now that 2.2 has come out(and I have obtained Corrupted Ashbringer <3 ) I wanted to try and see if there are any reasonable builds with it.

From my digging around I have discovered the affix "elemental skills deal x% more damage" does absolutely nothing with "+ xxxx-xxxx elemental damage" found on weapons nor(I assume) the massive holy based damage buff on Ashbringer.

Besides flavor what it the use of the "+ xxxx-xxxx elemental damage" on weapons?
I was hoping to make a build based on holy damage because of the Ashbringer. I love this weapon but am super worried about it's viability regarding any synergy, especially elemental. I know the effect is plain good, with its situational flaws, but I've grown extremely bored of the lightningfest I have been using.

Feel free to correct me on anything

[announced]

ancient corrupted ashbringer is great. idk if monks will substitute it for a furnace but, its all about finding the right element. its doing holy dmg if i recall and while monks have some holy % based skills like dashing strike way of the falling star, or something along the lines of a dashing strike build. unfortunatly most seem to go with ancient SK and in-geom weps. who knows maybe its faster with 1hands.

[Rickarus]

increased holy damage %, as well as any % damage bonuses not tied to any type of attack (such as %elite damage, and buffs/debuffs from skills or other items that do not specify another element or skill or summoned creature, etc.) will definitely increase the damage of the proc on Ashbringer. As far as I know, the element of the damage range on weapons doesn't really matter anymore, and the bonuses effects are entirely based on the skills.

[Gourmandise]

increased holy damage %, as well as any % damage bonuses not tied to any type of attack (such as %elite damage, and buffs/debuffs from skills or other items that do not specify another element or skill or summoned creature, etc.) will definitely increase the damage of the proc on Ashbringer.

I was just not sure it was labeled under Skill.

As far as I know, the element of the damage range on weapons doesn't really matter anymore, and the bonuses effects are entirely based on the skills.

There was a time when it mattered? If so, they should bring it back. It's very silly to have all these useless affixes on weapons concerning enchanting, unless it's just there to give you a higher chance at the + damage roll when enchanting.

[Coldkil]

There was a time when it mattered? If so, they should bring it back. It's very silly to have all these useless affixes on weapons concerning enchanting, unless it's just there to give you a higher chance at the + damage roll when enchanting.

The min-max damage type never mattered - it was always overridden by the skill damage type. Only moment when damage type counted was when it was bugged and only black (no-element) damage counted towards the bonuses, but it was fixed some time after. Thios doesn't mean that the damage doesn't count, just it's the type changed into the one of the skill every time.
Call it flavour.

However, special weapon affixes/skills are affected by elemental damage, so + holy damage works with ashbringer special proc.

[Bigbazz]

I don't quite get how the weapon works, I got one though it was underwhelming (3200dps ish) but I couldn't work out exactly how the proc was working or what it was doing for me. I think it's the kind of weapon that only works if you have a very powerful version, such as an ancient with 4300dps or so, and even then it doesn't really compare with a Furnace or Heart Slaughter, or an IK Maul for set bonuses. I didn't feel anything special was happening with it damage output wise.

Still though it does look really awesome!

I was just not sure it was labeled under Skill.



There was a time when it mattered? If so, they should bring it back. It's very silly to have all these useless affixes on weapons concerning enchanting, unless it's just there to give you a higher chance at the + damage roll when enchanting.

I remember cold weapons had a cold/slowing effect but as a result all cold damage weapons had lower damage than other types. In the end blizzard decided it was better as a visual effect, and of course later they worked on actual interesting weapons with real procs, as apposed to the pure stat sticks we had back then.

[Coldkil]

Going deeper into the "viability" of the weapon.

Ashbringer is strong, period. The proc is really powerful and is affected by +holy damage affix making it a very good weapons for monks and crusaders that can build around the element.

The problem is about what you consider "viable". Want to farm t6? every conceivable build/weapon is viable for that - you have better/more optimize builds but you can farm t6 whithin a matter of time (read: when you have gear good enough and maybe a couple of upgraded legendary gems).

Want to push GR to the highest levels? I'm afraid nothign beats the Furnace with his 50% elite damage. The reason is that going high into GR you start to skip elite packs which become more a time loss than anything (too much hp for the purple globes i's not efficient) and you focus on chaining white mobs as fast as possible.
However, the Rift Guradian will still pop out and still have a bazillion HP. You need o kill it so any damage increase is godly - furnace is the best weapon for this task; you cannot simply throw away a 50% damage increase on Rift Guardian.

Weapons with procs are usable in a bigger variet of situations, still some situations prefer different approaches.

[Bigbazz]

Going deeper into the "viability" of the weapon.

Ashbringer is strong, period. The proc is really powerful and is affected by +holy damage affix making it a very good weapons for monks and crusaders that can build around the element.

The problem is about what you consider "viable". Want to farm t6? every conceivable build/weapon is viable for that - you have better/more optimize builds but you can farm t6 whithin a matter of time (read: when you have gear good enough and maybe a couple of upgraded legendary gems).

Want to push GR to the highest levels? I'm afraid nothign beats the Furnace with his 50% elite damage. The reason is that going high into GR you start to skip elite packs which become more a time loss than anything (too much hp for the purple globes i's not efficient) and you focus on chaining white mobs as fast as possible.
However, the Rift Guradian will still pop out and still have a bazillion HP. You need o kill it so any damage increase is godly - furnace is the best weapon for this task; you cannot simply throw away a 50% damage increase on Rift Guardian.

Weapons with procs are usable in a bigger variet of situations, still some situations prefer different approaches.

Greater rifts are my aim of course, prior to getting Ashbringer last night I was using an Ancient Skycutter (new version, cool proc) + Stormshield on my Barbarian with the new Whirlwind (Wastes) 6set + IK 2set, the weapon and shield is simply for survival sakes and a pure experiment that worked out well, trial got me a 38 rift stone and I finished it in just under 9mins..

Last season it was all about Raekors and no doubt the damage + survival with that setup in Grifts is still amazing, but theres so much satisfaction to be had with this new set purely because you can finally do damage to the rift guardian. I needed a shield to survive a Rift 38 at my Paragon/Gear level in S3 but I was still able to clear it in good time (not hugely slower than Raekor really) and killing the boss was so much easier, in terms of damage and survival.

About Ashbringer, I didn't feel anything special was happening with it, the proc for me was more of a rare occasion and it's based purely around killing stuff so loses total value on Grift bosses, and even then when It did proc I saw the awesome visuals but wasn't noticing anything happening damage wise, probably because of my dust devils already throwing around ridiculous numbers all over the screen.

[Coldkil]

About Ashbringer, I didn't feel anything special was happening with it, the proc for me was more of a rare occasion and it's based purely around killing stuff so loses total value on Grift bosses, and even then when It did proc I saw the awesome visuals but wasn't noticing anything happening damage wise, probably because of my dust devils already throwing around ridiculous numbers all over the screen.

Proc definitely does good damage. However as you said, it's based on killing stuff so it's nearly zero effective on Rift bosses.