The (my) official word on Smash 'n Crush and Brutal Cyclone

As is the current trend in Age of Conan, two of the feats in the Reaver tree have very, very vague descriptions. So vague, in fact, that I have heard at least 3 different explanations about what they do!

In an effort to put all the confusion to rest, I went ahead and did a little observational testing of my own. Didn't log any of it, since it was pretty clear and anyone can easily reproduce it.

Basically, when performing a combo there are 3 "stages" of damage. Apparently one of them is known as "Opening" as per the tooltip. Let's just say, for ease of definition, the others are called Pre-combo damage and finally Combo damage.
These stages occur as follows:

• Opening
• When you initially press the key to activate a combo, before any directional attack input is given, you perform one white damage swing. Press the CoS key, and nothing else, and you will do one swing of white damage.
• THIS IS WHAT SMASH N CRUSH AND BRUTAL CYCLONE AFFECT
• Pre-Combo
• This is the white damage that occurs as a result of the directional attack input required to execute the combo.
• Combo
• CoS Hits for XXX
• CoS Hits for XXX
• CoS Hits for XXX
• .
• .
• .

Now then, since we have this established, we can see that the effects of Smash 'n Crush and Brutal Cyclone are applied to the Opening damage. One white damage attack per CoS has a very high chance to crit.. really hard. Right now, at level 64, they are critting for 700-900. This is a substantial chunk of damage, and when it doesn't land in PvE, it's noticeable. However, due to the general tactic in PvP, and, even in fast paced PvE, of winding up combos, this Opening damage rarely gets applied to the target.

So, what's it mean?

I'll be taking both of these out of my PvP build (look for an updated build, and some thoughts on sever tomorrow) most likely. However, following a Clobber, it seems you might be able to reliably lay down an opening hit... what do you guys think?

I would like to thank Remnance for originally providing this idea, of the three I initially mentioned, this one was correct, and without his mention, I probably wouldn't have thought to look at that aspect.

Here's the thread on the Forums