comments, comin up.

(1) Demonshear
BoP 2h sword, exclusively available from our good friend Balnazzar.
damage: 163-246 (53.8 dps)
speed: 3.80
chance on hit: 270 shadow damage over 6 seconds.

(2) Arcanite Reaper
BoE 2h axe, but out of the price range of most casual players.
damage: 153-256 (53.8 dps)
speed: 3.80
equip: +62 attack power.

i'll point out the obvious fact that the reaper will probably get slightly higher crits. and i won't worry about the mechanics of exactly how much higher.

i believe 62 attack power is about 4.4 dps. multiplied by 3.80 seconds, this is about 16.8 extra damage per hit. on a side note, this means the axe actually deals roughly 170-273 damage, increasing the crit gap.

here's how i see it. you might see it differently. you can have a chance of dealing 270 damage over 6 seconds, or you can add a flat 16.8 damage to every hit. look at both weapons as dealing an average of 204.5 damage (not counting mitigation). with the sword, you'll add an extra 270 every once in a while. with the axe, you'll do that 270 damage every 16 hits (16.8 x 16 is about 270) due to the attack power increase, even assuming no critical strikes.

damage mitigation is everywhere in this game, and as soon as you categorize damage you've got targets resisting it. i'm not going to get into the math of that, cuz frankly i don't know it. there are sources of info on that though and i'm sure one of them will point out my noobishness soon.

i do know that tank types tend to resist physical damage better than other characters, and anyone who invests in resistance gear and remembers to use it will resist magical damage. so the Arcanite Reaper might be less effective against heavily armored opponents, and the Demonshear might lose a lot of its spiffyness against anything with general magic resist or specific shadow resist.

my vote would be in favor of the arcanite reaper, because it seems to me to have more damage potential against the majority of opponents. feel free to correct me if i'm wrong.