Bracers of Mighty Striking: Near Useless?

[Mirtek]

When you have +6 bracers of mighty striking, your basics do more damage than at-wills.

And that's exactly the problem. How good is an extra at-will as a racial power when at-wills become worse than basic attacks?

Why pay a feat to become able to make at-wills instead of basic attacks if basic attacks are better anyway?

Why get a paragon power to be able to make an at-will instead of a basic attack after charging if basic attacks are better anyway?

Why ever make an at-will as a standard action attack when you could make an superior basic attack?

 

[DLichen]

The at-wills don't necessarily have to do more damage to be worth taking. Cleave is good at minion killing, tide of iron pushes, twin strike always beats anything else in damage while the other ranger powers provided manueverability, rogues probably want to use their dex to attack, paladins get nifty bonuses beyond damage with their at-wills.

Wizards in particular really really like the third at-will.

Bracers make basic attacks better in raw damage, which provides another option in a varied offense.

That and humans have the best racial feats, good defenses, and versatility in stats.

If on the other hand, you are referring to half-elves, yeah, they kinda suck.

 

[MindWright]

Forgive me if I'm missing something here (I hope I am), but the Bracers of Mighty Striking seem really bad to me. Two more damage on my basic melee attacks? Well, I guess that applies to OAs, but basic melee attacks are used so rarely otherwise that I'm having a hard time seeing the point of this item.

Is there something I'm missing here? Forgive me if this has been brought up before, but I didn't see anything in the collected errata about it...

So, Dragonborn Brutal Scoundrel at 5th level, Bracers of Mighty Striking, Backstabber, Horned Helm, +1 Rapier. Has a +11 to hit on a charge and if I beat their initiative on the opening round I deal 3d8+1d6+11 on that charge attack. My basic attack does better damage than some of my powers, I just wish my ripostes were a basic attack.

David