a couple questions about avian scream and attributes

right now my archer is level twenty and i haven't put any points into avian scream because i'm more concerned with running around cruel blasting everything. anyway what i'm wondering is this, with 5 ranks how is the damage component of avian scream? does it do enough damage to be worth using in pvp?

i am also wondering how skill damage scales. do your skills scale with weapon damage? if so do they scale with the normalized dps or do they scale with the weapon damage regardless of speed (like a warrior using a slow 2hander in wow)?

also, i have seen it argued that straight dex gives you the most dps. but i am wondering, since strength increases base damage, why doesn't having some strength also go towards dps. i would think that having some strength would allow you to do greater burst damage from a blast shot which would be nice in pvp. can someone explain to me why this is wrong?

does anybody know the answers to these? i feel like these things would be useful to know

I believe you can do the same amount of dmg with your skills with or without a weapon equipped. It can crit however just like any normal attack.

Avian scream is incredibly worthless for any dex bear. You're at a distance, and 90% of the time you're not within a 3 radius bubble of your enemy. If you are, you aren't really doing your job till higher levels. The AoE dmg is poor and like I said, the radius is crap. Don't even bother getting it. However the other scream is an absolute must (level 5). It's one of your classes key debuff skills. Can you get by without it, of course, but you will contribute less to your team.

The only reason you would want to buff str on your dex archer is to gain Health per second regen. Put it to 11 max (for your 1 H/s) and then walk away from that stat. You will scale DPS and weapon dmg exactly the same if you boost dex instead of str. The stat description is totally misleading. What you want from dex besides the dmg/dps is dodge and crit. No other stat can give you that. 11 skill points in Int is also nice for the extra 1 M/s. However if you use Thoth gear as you get bigger, the Int bonuses will tip you over that 11 skill point scale and you can redistribute it into Dex.

Ideal pure archer at early mid levels is 11str 11int rest dex.

thank you for your reply. so you mean that dex increases base damage like str does?

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Originally Posted by Pudge

thank you for your reply. so you mean that dex increases base damage like str does?

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Only dex increases base damage, STR does NOT.

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Originally Posted by Pudge

thank you for your reply. so you mean that dex increases base damage like str does?

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Yes it does, and for a bird, I'm pretty sure Dex increases it faster.

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Originally Posted by FluffNStuff

Only dex increases base damage, STR does NOT.

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Str does increase base damage (at least for bears and elves, and I'm almost certain avians too, I honestly haven't played my bird in forever).

Str only seems to gain health for birds but perhaps it does gain more damage but regardless go full dex for the dodge and crit!!

As an avian who tried and tested every build out there, I can definitely say weapon damage affects skill damage by a lot. You will feel this if you have used a Str build, switching around 2h and 1h swords. Also though I am not sure, I am inclined to think min-max damage is what affects the damage output, not DPS.

Max damage also affects your crit damage