Grief: Why is it so good?

Not to mention because of the fact that Grief is a flat damage increase it also ally’s it’s effect to Smite, making your smiter insanely powerful.

Everyone is sleeping on Astreon's Iron Ward which is one of the major and few weapons that also provides the same flat +dmg mechanic like Grief albeit much lower of course. Grief always will dominate the overall DPS conversation, but Astreon's is a very strong alternative for Ubers and personally what I used in my Hardcore grail.

If you are fortunate to roll a +4 Combat, on top of something close to +75-85 flat dmg, with the 33% CB; it provides you optionality around your over arching gear choices as well since Deadly Strike / Prevent Monster Heal (Grief) does not apply to Pandemonium Event Ubers ( Smite); only CB & OW. Don't sleep on the 25% slows target either which works on Ubers.