[JoseJoseRSD]

Here's the issue behind strength, it is the highest stackable stat in the game, I think that it should just add flat damage to basic attacks rather than add critical damage, which is a modifier that could quickly get out of control, its also a benefit to builds that don't build crit either, so you know, versatility like you wish for.

STR is not more stackable than any other stat, yeah ,there is Dragon Knight set, but theses come at a cost, it is not like you will get 5+ STR for free, you have to waste parts of the inventory that could have been used for another purpose.

Flat damage to basic attacks will not solve the problem, people either use basic attacks or use autohits, there is no such thing as picking both and because people do not pick both, adding flat damage to basic attacks would be the same as adding crit damage to it but worse, do you realise that you can not deal good basic attack damage without critting anyway?

Also, Crit damage should be added to STR for the purposes of versality, GUI being the only option means that people have to either get it, or they deal no basic attack damage, do you know that Axes, Sword and other STR scaling items, that also would like to basic attack and deal good basic attacks, would get a door very open if STR would become the Crit damage stat for that kind of weapons? so that gives a lot of versatility, but you are changing the point because I am using the "Versatility" as a subject of argument, why stop there in such logical fallacy? give every stat everything, regardless of the point of a debate to fix a problem, put versatility in an altar and make it so every build is viable because they will have every stat, bonus and skills.

I dont want to sound offensive, but just showing up the problem about such argument you are trying to make, the main point of the conversation is making STR more viable to increase versatility along with it(instead of a stat that you should dump if you can lol), if versatility would be the main point, I would go against main class skills in the first place.

The function is still the same, adding damage to the hit, but less in the form of a modifier and more in one that covers for a recent change to power on basic attacks, also to say that there is no such thing as picking both is simply just untrue, because people pick both all the time, have you ever seen a lightning critical build? Or Demon Hunter or Soldier in general when paired up with Duelist? Swords perform the best due to their role as being the versatile weapon, but Demon Hunter can circumvent that entirely and remove the weapon restriction entirely, that is its strength.

Adding a modifier to STR is just going to make it disastrous because STR is the highest stack able stat in the game, home to 2 races sporting 10 Base amount along with the dragon king armor, gloves and helmet, two of these pieces are easily slapped into any STR build, if not all 3, you can see STR hitting upwards to 70 to even 75 Scaled if you're decked out enough to do that, which makes some weapons hit some pretty drastic amounts of damage.

Also axes shouldn't solely be defined to the weapons with the most critical damage, they are also among the heaviest and highest power weapons in the game, with hefty scalings centered into STR to boot, and the more a weapon focuses on 1 stat the easier it is to achieve even higher SWA amounts for that weapon, and the higher your SWA the more damage you'll just deal with overall, until the point where critical damage isn't necessary to have, but this only holds true to weapons that are amplified by two hand's modifier really, as they should be focusing on pumping up SWA rather than critical damage to start with.

There are also weapons specialized into dealing damage with criticals, the battle axe for instance, or the Hisen or Duodent are all very good examples of martial weapons that may be used for purely critical based builds instead of mixed builds like they honestly should be.

I just don't think you get it because fundamentally they do the same thing except one can be controlled easier due to a flat number rather than possibly getting out of control on the high STR base races because its a modifier.

Assuming STR gets 0.5% crit damage, what is the highest amount of crit damage the stat could get itself? 40% extra crit damaga? because with diminishing returns, at best it would be 30%, so why are exaggerating STR being overstacked if Dev can just simply do the math to give a balanced number?

No, lets better do this, nerf CEL, GUI, LUC and SKI, because people who uses theses 4 stats, stack them up to the point of 60 or 70 numbers in all of theses stats, so if STR being overstacked should be a problem, let it be a problem to every stat then, that way it would be fair.

Also another issue worth looking up in the whole issue of strength based crit builds is how easy it is to be tanky and have a pretty decent amount of critical evasion.

Then this will also help builds with no STR but have somewhat a base STR, also, the point is giving a bump to the set of STR based crit weapons (Axes, some swords and spears) so focusing in things that could counter a build like that should not be used as argument.