The difference at max damage... on the first floor of FSC vs slags....

76 vs 87 on normal hits = 11 difference; about 13% less damage for plague
217 vs 245 on charge hits = 28; about 11% less damage for plague

This then reverses itself (253 vs 271 on d25 blitz vs poison, for instance) when you take into account poison. There's also the bit where poison makes healers kill things, and enemies do less damage, and all of that.

What I will say though. This is still enough to one shot charge a slag here, if you land all of it... and it's still enough to one shot trojans on solo at least. I think it might hinder your trojan murdering abilities in a party of 4 however. In this case, blitz may outshine it? Which would certainly be huge for the blitz case.

I don't think it's that big of a deal which one you choose though. It's certainly a much bigger deal how you prefer getting the recipe, whether you really love the color green, and how much you like the idea of countering those healers/etc.

3 blitz + 1 plague beats out 4 blitz vs Vanaduke, but the difference isn't that huge I don't believe. I'll get numbers if I run it later... If anything, you'd want plague if you're always in a full party with competent blitz noodlers, since they'll kill the trojans etc. that need blitzing prior to asap anyway and you can boost the vana fight even further with the 3 blitz/1 plague thing. You don't have to worry about other plague noodlers since they're quite rare- plague is harder to make for most people and the payout isn't very big and people really like pure damage..

It is worth mentioning that poison stops vana's fireballs from coming back, and that keeping him poisoned makes the fight slightly safer I guess?