Netherlight Crucible Tier Tree Confusion

[Aurabass 0]

According to Kib in the Netherlight Crucible Relic Path review, the key trait to seek is CRITICAL CHAOS. Upon reading this review I saw that my 2 Fel and 1 Shadow relics - all lvl 920 Relics - led to a trait tree with NO good traits. Every trait on my tree was in the "BAD" or useless categories. So on a whim I exchanged 1 fel and 1 shadow relic for a 910 Fel and 915 Shadow relic.  That change gave me trait trees with Critical Chaos and Infusion of LIght (twice on tier 2) with Critical Chaos tier 3 and a Wide Eyes.  - but the DPS on my Twinblades went down. 

 

So the question is: Which is more important?  

1 the lvl of the Relic or the traits in the tree?  The provided link below has more detail with pictures describing the tree and the changes 

http://tuathawow.blogspot.com/2017/11/netherlight-confusion.html

Now I am confused - and it may be my 72 years of age - but I don't see any indication about what is more important. If I happen to get a higher level Fel or Shadow Relic should I change it out? When changing relics it re-rolls the the tier tree choices so I may end up with traits in the BAD or useless categories. By changing to lower lvl relics I got the "Best" or "Good" traits instead of the "BAD" or useless original traits but the DPS went down due to the lower lvl of the replaced relics. 

[Valks 2,373]

On 11/13/2017 at 10:58 PM, Aurabass said:

So the question is: Which is more important?  

1 the lvl of the Relic or the traits in the tree?  The provided link below has more detail with pictures describing the tree and the changes 

It's all done by the numbers. You take the base +X item levels of the relic, then add the item level value of the base trait. Take it to the Netherlight Crucible and then find the best path based on the item level values on the crucible page of the guide. Add each number up until you get a total. The relic with the highest total is the best.