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[PC] 3 cheap weapon enchantments you may want to consider to play as a support
rapo973
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 831 Arc User
The topic of the weapon enchantments captures the attention of many players. Currently vorpal, dread, lighting, bilethorn, holy avenger are quite requested, but they are very expensive.
In the last weeks I collected 3 different weapon enchantments that, imo, are quite good if matched with their AH price: trans plaguefire, trans terror and trans frost enchantments.
I don't say that they are the best, but they have a high benefit/cost ratio for a support class.
They all debuff and each of them has particular features that make them interesting.
For example, the trans terror enchantment has a decent debuff and it has an interesting terror damage (necrotic) as a high % of the weapon damage. It's very good at high power. Even a gwf guildie of mine tested it when power buffed and he was very impressed if the cost is considered. The last time I saw it, the cost was 3.6 mln AD
The trans frost enchantment debuffs, blocks the enemies and increases the cooldown of the enemy. The damage increase of this enchantment is meh, but when in group it does its dirty job. The last time I saw it, the cost was ~4 mln AD. I found a pure frost at 2.6 mln and then I refined it (so add ~870k AD to the cost). I currently use it because I really like it.
Plaguefire is well known and currently it's the cheapest: ~3.1 mln AD. It was my first trans enchantment some years ago and still love it.
If you cannot/don't want to spend a lot, I suggest to have a look at these enchantments.
In the last weeks I collected 3 different weapon enchantments that, imo, are quite good if matched with their AH price: trans plaguefire, trans terror and trans frost enchantments.
I don't say that they are the best, but they have a high benefit/cost ratio for a support class.
They all debuff and each of them has particular features that make them interesting.
For example, the trans terror enchantment has a decent debuff and it has an interesting terror damage (necrotic) as a high % of the weapon damage. It's very good at high power. Even a gwf guildie of mine tested it when power buffed and he was very impressed if the cost is considered. The last time I saw it, the cost was 3.6 mln AD
The trans frost enchantment debuffs, blocks the enemies and increases the cooldown of the enemy. The damage increase of this enchantment is meh, but when in group it does its dirty job. The last time I saw it, the cost was ~4 mln AD. I found a pure frost at 2.6 mln and then I refined it (so add ~870k AD to the cost). I currently use it because I really like it.
Plaguefire is well known and currently it's the cheapest: ~3.1 mln AD. It was my first trans enchantment some years ago and still love it.
If you cannot/don't want to spend a lot, I suggest to have a look at these enchantments.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
3
Comments
I'm specifically looking at frost or plague. I've read a little about the 2 enchantments and it seems plague is perhaps the better choice. I also think I have a decent understanding on how it works/is mitigated/etc.
But Frost seems to have has some ups,downs,bugs, and fixes. Does anyone know how effective it is nowadays (ie. should I use it over plague?)
I can tell that it does disable the enemy for some seconds and it debuff as expected (at least lance of faith).
Test case: nude DC, respecced with no power points, no boons, no equip, no insigna, no companion, no artifacts, nothing. 1 point only on lance of faith against dummies.
I often play with other support classes that have plaguefire, vorpal, dread, so I like the idea to add another different source of debuff. Yes it has ups and downs. Don't know about bugs: in my short test, it worked as expected: debuff for 10 seconds, then cooldown.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
My understanding though is that frost is "double mitigated" so against lvl 73 mobs the debuff is more like 5% (shot in the dark number; not accurate). Do you find it beneficial in the higher end content?
Also, does the cooldown on frost get reset once out of combat (similar to how our avatar feat works)?
Most of the people I group with (most random groups as well) seem to have the dread covered. Its luck of the draw on plague (more often then not I'd say no one in my group has that though), and no one uses the frost. So I'd say I'd like to run the frost over the plague, but not if its substantially worse (in terms of buffing damage) then a plague.
Same testbed: nude dc, test weapon, lance of faith at the river district. In that condition, lance of faith does 1081 damaged against dummies without the trans frost enchantments.
At the river district, I attacked a level 73 loyalist with the test weapon, no enchantment.
Here the results:
The effectiveness is 64%
Here the same against the same loyalist with the trans frost on:
The effectiveness is now 68,8%, +4,8%
Now some tests using my equipment to be closer to the real gameplay. I increased the armpen along the next 3 tests to see the effect on the effectiveness of the frost enchantment using lance of faith.
Second test with my equiment on, fey symbol, but no boons, no feats (so I don't have other sources of buff/debuff) , no insigna. In few words, stats only.
In this case I've a bit of armpen (500 = ~6,5% RI)
Trans frost off:
Now the effectiveness is 70,5% (the effect of the armpen)
Trans frost on:
The effectiveness is 75.8%
Now the difference ("on"-"off") is +5.3%.
Third test.
Same as above, but now the armpen is 1500 (16.5 RI)
Trans frost off:
The effectiveness is +80,5%
Trans frost on:
The effectiveness is +86.5
The difference is +6%
Fourth test.
Same as above, but now the armpen is 2200 (22.9 RI)
Trans frost off:
The effectiveness is +86.9%
Trans frost on:
The effectiveness is +93.4% and the difference is +6.5%
Unfortunately I don't have enough Armpen to check what happen when RI = DR, but there's a trend. Furthermore different lvl 73 mobs have different damage mitigation: in this case the loyalist has 36% damage mitigation.
I'm not a debuffologist (probably @michela123 / @thefabricant can help), but it seems to me that the armpen plays a role. Ofc, all the above is limited to lance of faith: cannot tell what happen with other powers.
If the 4 tests above are a sample of a more general rule, the effect of the debuff is not fixed.
If I plot the data I collected, the following is the behavior of the debuff of the trans frost enchantment (armpen on the x axis):
[EDIT]: I suppose this is the effect of the incoming patch going live today:
Certain Enchantment powers that did not take Armor Penetration and Resistance into consideration now properly do so.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
At R8, you can choose what your pockets can afford, depending on your build and playstyle: if you play support and you don't want to spend a lot, the plaguefire, terror, frost are good options, but you may want to consider a vorpal or dread as well.
The loadouts enable different playstyles and make the selection more flexible.
For example my AC DC loadout goes T.Frost/T.Plaguefire on the L.Fey set (PvE support), while the DO DC has the L. lighttender's holy set equiped with a T.Terror (soloing - dps oriented, but not fully optimized yet). Imo when I play solo, I don't need overpowered - overpriced enchantments, because I just need what it's stricly necessary to clear the mobs quickly and the T.Terror does its job very well. That's why I drop the T.dread to have more options.
Yesterday evening I was amused when my DO DC hit 1 mln damage with DL while soloing a medium SH HE: I'm not used to see such numbers with my DC, but it also means that, at my level, the T.Terror is enough to cover my needs without investing more.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
but i wholdnt level anything beside ligthing, vorpal or feytouch.
the rest dont worth it
This evening a trascedent plaguefire costs 3.1kk AD a pure one costs 2.1kk AD while the transcendent dread costs 6.9kk and the transcendent lightning is 9.8kk AD: a support DC with a plaguefire is acceptable and the cost is not extremely high.
If you have enough resources to make or buy a dread or vorpal , ofc go for it: I'm not saying to not buy it.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
Getting any trans piece is a hefty investment, and not all WEs are worthwhile at lower ranks. I know that frost is rubbish until you get to trans. I think PF you want perfect or higher (and trans is kind of a ripoff). Not sure about terror.
So given a limited budget, what would you actually recommend? Would we invest in like a perfect PF and work towards a frost?
Part of me wants to suggest a perfect vorp or dread (or even lower) because someone without access to BiS stuff likely is still working through campaigns. And vorp or dread can really speed up solo times. Or maybe terror hits the sweetspot for mid-game progression?