Comparing Brittle Blade and Scarlet Circle
I am likely not the first demonologist in this situation, but after having farmed the Khitai 6-mans for a while I have now ground my Brittle Blade faction reputation to rank 4 and amassed enough Rare relics to purchase head and chest, so finally the time has come to pick. My initial goal was to go for the full Brittle Blade set, but recently I have started to wonder whether sprinkling in a few Scarlet Circle pieces might be worth it, and hence would like to start an in-depth discussion. Mind you this is for group PVE with the intention to eventually go T3/T4.
The hard numbers first, listing for each piece the delta the Scarlet Circle item has relative to the Brittle Blade one, so a positive value means the Scarlet Circle item is better in that stat.
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Damage Crit Crit Damage Hit Mana Manareg -Hate Con Prot
Belt -2 -6/-12 -55 204 6.2 2 30 /50
Chest 6.8 -50 -6/-14.6 -1 155 5.0 - 4 21.5/50
Feet 6 -5/-12.5 -55 177 5.5 25 /50
Hands 8.4 -15 0/- 5.4 -55 215 6.5 - 2 32 /50
Head 8.8 -15 0/- 7.8 -15 174 5.4 -13 24 /50
Legs 7 - 5 -1/- 8.5 -47 183 5.5 - 3 25 /50
Shoulder 25 0/- 5.3 -55 215 6.5 -30 4 32.5/50
Wrist 5 0/- 5.3 -15 226 6.5 -30 1 32.5/50
For critical damage rating the first number is the unmodified difference, while the second one assumes Will of the Sublime Rank 5 is slotted.
For protection the first value is against Fire, Cold and Electrical damage (where Intelligence also offers protection) while the second one is against all others.
The emerging trend is quite clear. Scarlet Circle offers slightly higher base damage, but lower secondary damage stats. This is most glaring with hit rating. In turn Scarlet Cirlce gives a bigger mana pool and mana regeneration, and a bit more protection.
Which is where my relative inexperience comes into play, as I simply find it hard to gauge where the trade off is worth it and where not. In particular with hit rating, which as a capped stat is difficult to evaluate in a vacuum.
From a first look the slots where Scarlet Circle is the most competitive seem to be in no particular order Head, Legs, Shoulders and Wrists. But that is just a mildly educated guess, and 'being competitive' still does not mean 'a better choice that Brittle Blade'.
Hence any outside advice is welcome.
