From what I've read on this topic, most people are confused about what the stats affect and what they don't. In fact, about 40% of the posts I read while playing told players to put Strength and Arcane in the wrong trees. Therefore, I created this short guide to help new players build strong characters.

In this guide, I will briefly discuss how Strength and Arcane affect Scythe attacks, the two Skill Trees, the stats which affect the Skill Trees, my thoughts on Possessed Weapons, and how to use the "Sticks and Stones" side quest to help your Death out. Addition (16 March 2015): how to get 100% critical hit chance as a Harbinger Death.

Section 1: Scythe Attacks
Section 2: The Harbinger Tree
-- 100% Critical Hit Chance (Harbinger)
Section 3: The Necromancer Tree

Thanks to Steam user Infrane, I can incorporate the following bonus damage equations for scythe attacks into this guide.

STRENGTH:

• Scythe Bonus Damage due to STR (or STR Bonus) = (Base Damage/100)xSTR

ARCANE:

• Scythe Bonus Damage due to ARC (or ARC Bonus) = (Base Elemental Damage/100)xARC

Total Scythe Damage Before Criticals = STR Bonus + ARC Bonus + Base Physical + Base Elemental

I modified the equations for clarity

With the result still being that strength is more effective for scythe attacks than arcane in almost all cases, and if you want to build a melee-Death, make sure you have a lot of Strength.

As an aside, some weapon modifiers on the Secondary weapon such as Critical Damage % apply to Scythe as well (not Critical Chance % or Weapon Damage though). However, weapon modifiers on the Scythe do not affect the Secondary weapon (I believe).

Following these suggestions, a level 30 Harbinger Death character with full Abyssal gear and a reasonable Possessed Scythe should melee for over 6000 damage most of the time. Harvest attacks should hit for over 30,000 most of the time.

The Harbinger Tree (on the left) is oriented for players who want to unleash damage face-to-face with your enemy. "Teleport Slash", "Harvest", and "Reaper Storm" all deal damage directly while "Unstoppable" gives great damage bonuses to those three skills in addition to regular melee attacks.


All Harbinger Tree skills are modified by the Strength statistic. Arcane does nothing for any of these skills. Other good stats are Critical Chance % and Critical Damage %.


Scythe

• Critical Damage %
  
• Critical Chance % or Strength
  
• X
  
• Y

Example:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365252403

Secondary Weapon (Crit Chance and Damage, here, only affect 2nd Wep, not scythe)

• Strength
  
• Defense
  
• Resistance
  
• Z

X, Y, and Z depend upon your personal preference:
X-Can either use Life Steal % (available ~level 22) or Life per crit or Wrath per crit
Y-Can either use Strength, Inferno, or Ice
Z-Can either be Hit Points or Wrath


There's another guide on Steam about this questline, so I won't go into how to get it or where the stones are. However, I will mention that you can do this quest in each playthrough.

You want to stack Critical Damage % from these turn-ins. By the time you're level 30, you can have nearly 100% critical chance (see "100% Critical Hit Chance (Harbinger)" below for details on how), so using a lot of turn-ins for Crit Chance % would be a waste. Also, since you'll be critting nearly 100% of the time, Critical Damage % is better per turn-in than Strength is.

• There are 34 Mystic Stones (M).
  
• There are 25 Power Stones (P).
  
• There are 10 Resistance Stones (R).

Since Critical Damage 10% uses one Resistance Stone (R) and two Power Stones (P), we can only get it 10 times during one playthrough. Also, there are far more Mystic Stones than we have any real use for, so they get stuck giving us Arcane.

Therefore, for your first playthrough, I recommend

• 10 turn-ins for Critical Damage 10% (PPR)
  
• 1 turn-in for 5 Strength (PPP)
  
• 1 turn-in for Critical Chance 2% (MPP)
  
• 11 turn-ins for 5 Arcane (MMM)

For your second playthrough, you can do the same as above or modify as you please. So, you could put the first 20 Power stones into Critical Damage %, then place the final 5 Power stones wherever else you'd like.

In this section, I discuss how a level 30 Harbinger Death can reach 100% critical hit chance without using any Sticks and Stones quest rewards. To do so, Death needs to mix his default chance, equipment, and his "Unstoppable" ability.

By default, Death has a 3% critical hit chance.

At level 30, Death should have access to all of his Abyssal Armor[darksiders.wikia.com] set and level 29-30 Possessed Scythes and level 29-30 Talismans. From those items, Death can obtain as much as 89% critical hit chance.


Examples of a Possessed Scythe and Talisman:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365252403
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365252114

A Harbinger Death should use the "Unstoppable" ability with "Inevitability" in order to gain an additional 10-20% critical hit chance for eight seconds per use.

By combining each of the above, a level 30 Death can attain 94-112% critical hit chance as long as Unstoppable is active.

With my set, I was at 106% with gear and Unstoppable, so I removed one Abyssal item and replaced it with one which gave more Critical Damage.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365257682

Note: Thank you to Androlicious for pointing out a detail error I made which prompted me to write this section.

I have not spent as much time with the Necromancer Tree as I have with the Harbinger Tree, so I don't have estimates of damage over time.

The Necromancer Tree (on the right) is oriented for players who want to use ranged spells and small armies to damage enemies in addition to normal melee attacks. Also, it allows a player to create a very survivable Death. "Exhume" and "Murder" both summon units to fight for you. "Aegis Guard" provides significant defensive and offensive boosts. "Frenzy" allows for ranged casts.


All Necromancer Tree skills are modified by the Arcane statistic. Strength does nothing for any of these skills. Other good stats are Arcane Critical Chance % and Arcane Critical Damage %.


Scythe

• Arcane Critical Chance % (if not capped at 100%) or Arcane
  
• Arcane Critical Damage %
  
• X
  
• Y

Secondary Weapon

• Arcane
  
• Arcane Critical Damage %
  
• Arcane Critical Chance %
  
• Z

X and Y depend on your level while Z depends upon your personal preference:
X-Can use either Life Steal % (available ~level 22) or Life per crit
Y-Can use either Wrath Steal % (available ~level 22) or Wrath per crit
Z-Can either be Wrath or Hit Points or Defense


There's another guide on Steam about this questline, so I won't go into how to get it or where the stones are. However, I will mention that you can do this quest in each playthrough.

You want to stack Arcane Critical Damage % from these turn-ins. By the time you're level 30, you can have very high Arcane Critical Chance % from gear and the 20% chance from Aegis Guard, so using a lot of turn-ins for Arcane Critical Chance % would be a waste (at least for the first playthrough. If you're getting close to 30 and are still a long ways away from 100%, putting a couple points in Arc Crit Chance % is fine). Also, Arcane Critical Damage 10% is better per turn-in than Arcane when nearly every attack is a critical hit.

• There are 34 Mystic Stones (M).
  
• There are 25 Power Stones (P).
  
• There are 10 Resistance Stones (R).

Since Arcane Critical Damage 10% uses one Resistance Stone (R) and two Mystic Stones (M), we can only get it 10 times during one playthrough. Unfortunately, I'm not 100% convinced on what to spend the other stones on. I believe my recommendation below is a good one, but I don't know that it's the best. We have a lot of Power Stones left over, so they're stuck giving us Strength.

For your first playthrough, I recommend

• 10 turn-ins for Arcane Critical Damage 10% (MMR)
  
• 4 turn-ins for Arcane (MMM)
  
• 1 turn-in for Arcane Critical Chance 2% (MMP)
  
• 8 turn-ins for Strength (PPP)

For your second playthrough, you can do the same as above or if you feel you need more of a different stat, tweak some of the turn-ins. I recommend keeping Arcane Critical Damage % at 10 turn-ins though.

I hope this guide was understandable and that you found it helpful. If it was, please give it positive rating. Thank you.

If you discover some serious problems with the content, please let me know.

Darksiders II and all associated imagery are property of Vigil Games and THQ (until someone else buys the IP).

Update: As of 22 April 2013, Nordic Games now owns the Darksiders IP.