Has anyone ever used different shards

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver · March 2012

Based on a previous post and the fact that I have a load of topaz shards

I could probably merge them and do +200 earth damage x2

i've seen some people with different types of damage elements in there weapon like

fire and water ect but what would be the point?

lets say i did such a thing, i understand it would effect mobs weak to to wood damage

but ive been buffed with things like add water or fire damage to your attack

i do not fully understand it, if its +200 earth damage how would that be calculated

on say another player ? i understand it would depend on said wood defense rate

but would there be a point?.

has anyone been able to figure and factor in for these types of stones and there desired

effects?

yes i know its a complicated two part question

Riverwell - Archosaur · March 2012

I can't get into numbers, but it basically does what it says. If it's +200 wood damage, then 200 wood damage would be applied to whatever you're attacking after calculating their defenses.

The only issue, is these things aren't multiplied by skills like physical or mag attacks are.

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver · March 2012

so in theory i'd do my base attack +400 earth damage if i went that route?

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver · March 2012

yea im using the r8 pole so was trying to figure out if there would be a point

were thinking its magic defense as well as there natural earth defense?

Vixter - Harshlands · March 2012

i believe so, like stated above, but then minus the calculations of their magic defense... and it only works on physical attacks as well.

Quilue - Sanctuary · March 2012

Having elemental damage empowers you with the powers associated with its corresponding Element of Harmony.

Wood: Kindness
Fire: Laughter
Metal: Loyalty
Water: Generosity
Earth: Honesty

If you manage to combine all the elements into one attack, then you can turn your opponents into stone or banish them to the moon. That is why you should shard elemental shards.

Bobobejumbo - Raging Tide · March 2012

Quilue - Sanctuary wrote: »

Having elemental damage empowers you with the powers associated with its corresponding Element of Harmony.

Wood: Kindness
Fire: Laughter
Metal: Loyalty
Water: Generosity
Earth: Honesty

If you manage to combine all the elements into one attack, then you can turn your opponents into stone or banish them to the moon. That is why you should shard elemental shards.

Really? I thought they would turn into a pony and become 20% cooler.

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver · March 2012

Quilue - Sanctuary wrote: »

Having elemental damage empowers you with the powers associated with its corresponding Element of Harmony.

Wood: Kindness
Fire: Laughter
Metal: Loyalty
Water: Generosity
Earth: Honesty

If you manage to combine all the elements into one attack, then you can turn your opponents into stone or banish them to the moon. That is why you should shard elemental shards.

Bobobejumbo - Raging Tide wrote: »

Really? I thought they would turn into a pony and become 20% cooler.

so... ummm. what?

Sagek - Sanctuary · March 2012

I use them because it gives my weapons a nifty green aura. Wish they would expand on Elemental stones.

Euthymius - Heavens Tear · March 2012

Quilue - Sanctuary wrote: »

Having elemental damage empowers you with the powers associated with its corresponding Element of Harmony.

Wood: Kindness
Fire: Laughter
Metal: Loyalty
Water: Generosity
Earth: Honesty

If you manage to combine all the elements into one attack, then you can turn your opponents into stone or banish them to the moon. That is why you should shard elemental shards.

Correct, but you are missing a certain element
Or...is Magic the [Non] element? ... ... ...

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver · March 2012

meh well i guess we'll never know

thanks for the posts :-)

Michael_Dark - Lost City · March 2012

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver wrote: »

meh well i guess we'll never know

Everyone else already knows but you. b:pleased

Jellytops - Heavens Tear · March 2012

Whatever you do, please keep in mind what someone said very early in this thread.

If you shard with the planned stones, sure, you get +400 earth damage. But if you shard with "normal" attack shards (+phy/+mag), that number in those shards will be multiplied, depending on amount of str/dex/mag (depends on what you really are..). So it could be smart to do some math on this before making up your mind.

A good point though, is that you already have the earth stones :0P

Quilue - Sanctuary · March 2012

Euthymius - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Correct, but you are missing a certain element
Or...is Magic the [Non] element? ... ... ...

The element of Magic can only be manifested when the other 5 are together! :O

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver · March 2012

Jellytops - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Whatever you do, please keep in mind what someone said very early in this thread.

If you shard with the planned stones, sure, you get +400 earth damage. But if you shard with "normal" attack shards (+phy/+mag), that number in those shards will be multiplied, depending on amount of str/dex/mag (depends on what you really are..). So it could be smart to do some math on this before making up your mind.

A good point though, is that you already have the earth stones :0P

thanks :-) basically psy and mag stones are better so the other stones will be best served

on maybe playing around on smaller toons as they level up for fun and looks

Kuzshi - Dreamweaver · March 2012

It may not be the optimal thing to do, but sharding elementals in non-endgame stuff can give you an extra kick for a LOT less money. And saving money for more important things is good.

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary · March 2012

There needs to be Alcohol Shards. >_>

The G13 version can be called the Absinth Stone.

Lenestro - Sanctuary · March 2012

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary wrote: »

There needs to be Alcohol Shards. >_>

The G13 version can be called the Absinth Stone.

or the kerona shard. :P

and if you saw somebody with element shards, some bm's put 1 ele shard in their axes to stun through expel.

Bladed_Tony - Raging Tide · March 2012

Lenestro - Sanctuary wrote: »

and if you saw somebody with element shards, some bm's put 1 ele shard in their axes to stun through expel.

^This is the main reason

it helps when psys use their Psychic Will or when any class uses Expel..

sins have condensed thorn
Archers have Blazing arrow
Barbs have Poison Fang
Bms have Drakes Breath Bash but it costs 2 sparks (no more CC

)

its just good to have the lil elemental added so u can keep the opposition from running away while u are unable to majorly damage them..

Nymphali - Dreamweaver · March 2012

CrusherJam - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Based on a previous post and the fact that I have a load of topaz shards

I could probably merge them and do +200 earth damage x2

i've seen some people with different types of damage elements in there weapon like

fire and water ect but what would be the point?

lets say i did such a thing, i understand it would effect mobs weak to to wood damage

but ive been buffed with things like add water or fire damage to your attack

i do not fully understand it, if its +200 earth damage how would that be calculated

on say another player ? i understand it would depend on said wood defense rate

but would there be a point?.

has anyone been able to figure and factor in for these types of stones and there desired

effects?

yes i know its a complicated two part question

Tell you whats the point.

If you're that Mothafreakingly awesome R9 +12 sin, you'll still have trouble killing full rank 9 seekers and barbs, you can bring your old g15 +12 daggers with you, sharded with the most awesome water damage shards, these water damage shards penetrate heavy armored bishes like a knife in the grease b:bye

Miugre - Heavens Tear · March 2012

Hey, **** you buddy, the Lion's Eye Carbuncle is my idea! ;[ (Naw, j/k, it's okay)

I think an important aspect that needs to be considered is pre-endgame gears. Suppose you have a TT70 or 80 weapon. Are you really going to blow 4mil on a perfect garnet for a wep you'll be using for a few weeks to a month or so at most? Nah, most people would just settle for a flawless for such a short term weapon. But then again, you can often get a perfect element shard of some variety for about the same price or cheaper. Is 80 static Earth damage better than 25 expandable physical damage? I dunno, I don't usually bother to do the hard math on these things (because really, who cares unless you're rabidly interested in PVP). But if you've got 2s on one of those arguably-temporary weps and you just want to have some fancy green rings? Why the hell not? :P

But it doesn't have to be limited to pre-endgame. That's what I did with my barb's Dragon's Vibrancy... put a perfect alabaster and aquamarine in it. Why? Because I've already got a 99 dualaxe with a perfect garnet in it and the 99 gold polehammer with a perfect amber. Why not make the DV my "for the lulz" weapon?

There is also a certain functional quality to being able to do some damage to a physical immune mob. This is less of a problem for archers and barbs, but sins and BMs don't naturally have much of a way to do elemental damage (unless you get the 79 sin skill or you feel like blowing 2 sparks on your BM for that 59 fist skill). IMO it's worth keeping an element shard on a minor weapon.

Any way you slice it, you're never going to do as much damage as you would with a garnet of the same grade. But that shouldn't necessarily dissuade you from using one.

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary · March 2012

Miugre - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Hey, **** you buddy, the Lion's Eye Carbuncle is my idea! ;[ (Naw, j/k, it's okay)

I think an important aspect that needs to be considered is pre-endgame gears. Suppose you have a TT70 or 80 weapon. Are you really going to blow 4mil on a perfect garnet for a wep you'll be using for a few weeks to a month or so at most? Nah, most people would just settle for a flawless for such a short term weapon. But then again, you can often get a perfect element shard of some variety for about the same price or cheaper. Is 80 static Earth damage better than 25 expandable physical damage? I dunno, I don't usually bother to do the hard math on these things (because really, who cares unless you're rabidly interested in PVP). But if you've got 2s on one of those arguably-temporary weps and you just want to have some fancy green rings? Why the hell not? :P

But it doesn't have to be limited to pre-endgame. That's what I did with my barb's Dragon's Vibrancy... put a perfect alabaster and aquamarine in it. Why? Because I've already got a 99 dualaxe with a perfect garnet in it and the 99 gold polehammer with a perfect amber. Why not make the DV my "for the lulz" weapon?

There is also a certain functional quality to being able to do some damage to a physical immune mob. This is less of a problem for archers and barbs, but sins and BMs don't naturally have much of a way to do elemental damage (unless you get the 79 sin skill or you feel like blowing 2 sparks on your BM for that 59 fist skill). IMO it's worth keeping an element shard on a minor weapon.

Any way you slice it, you're never going to do as much damage as you would with a garnet of the same grade. But that shouldn't necessarily dissuade you from using one.

Barbs DO get poison fang, supposed to do Wood damage.

I stuffed an elemental shard into a free bow (from Divine questing) and tried it out on some mobs that said shard was 'strong' against. I believe it is an Incomparable level shard. I then got the same weapon and stuffed a flawless garnet in that one, went into an area with the mobs I had sharded for (FCC) and tried them out.

The Incomparable sharded bow and the flawless sharded bow... Did more or less the same DPS to mobs. If I sparked, the flawless sharded bow obviously did a lot more DPS than the Incomparable. I also tried sharding with an incomparable fire shard, and a metal shard. To me, the fire shard didn't stack with blazing arrow, so it wasn't worth it. The metal shard didn't seem to do much unless I metal debuffed the mob, but then, a lot of mobs in FCC are Metal affinity.

Personally, I'm gonna stick with Garnets in my Melee weapons, Sapphires in my Magic weapons, and one of each in my Veno's weapon.

Kawaiiiii - Raging Tide · March 2012

heard the add ons dont apply when you spark.

monkydluffy · March 2012

Elemental shards only works on melee weapons, or melee attacks, i tried this ove r afull r9 seeker with 90+ def lvl, using Fire Damage Shard + DDB + Water Wiz buff + Wood damage pot, the damage was pretty epic, if u use and combine at least 2 elemental shards plus buff the dmg its nice b:bye

Miugre - Heavens Tear · March 2012

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary wrote: »

Barbs DO get poison fang, supposed to do Wood damage.

Which is why I said,

This is less of a problem for archers and barbs

:P

I actually remember when I did my barb's wedding ceremony at the Phoenix Nest. Someone was generous enough to spawn that boss in the center which is physical immune and has ridiculous amounts of evasion, and the only way I could get contrib for it it was to make sure PF was on and then just spam Ream for 100% accuracy. XD

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary wrote: »

I stuffed an elemental shard into a free bow (from Divine questing) and tried it out on some mobs that said shard was 'strong' against. I believe it is an Incomparable level shard. I then got the same weapon and stuffed a flawless garnet in that one, went into an area with the mobs I had sharded for (FCC) and tried them out.

The Incomparable sharded bow and the flawless sharded bow... Did more or less the same DPS to mobs. If I sparked, the flawless sharded bow obviously did a lot more DPS than the Incomparable. I also tried sharding with an incomparable fire shard, and a metal shard. To me, the fire shard didn't stack with blazing arrow, so it wasn't worth it. The metal shard didn't seem to do much unless I metal debuffed the mob, but then, a lot of mobs in FCC are Metal affinity.

Personally, I'm gonna stick with Garnets in my Melee weapons, Sapphires in my Magic weapons, and one of each in my Veno's weapon.

Look, let's not kid ourselves - unless you're a hyper-mathlete who's setting out specifically to test these things, you are NOT going to see any significant difference in your output no matter what you shard in your wep. Certainly not enough to justify the dogma-level devotion people have to garnets. :P It's still unquestionably the best shard to put in a physical weapon (unless you have accuracy problems in which case you can make an argument for ambers), but people act like it's an unholy sin to shard anything else when we all know that a weapon's base damage (and more importantly, refines) will make far more difference than a shard ever will.

I mean, like anyone else, I cry a little inside when I see people sharding alabasters into a cleric's weapon, but that's because they're simply misinformed about what the shards actually do. Big difference from knowing what the shard does and choosing it over a garnet anyway.

Has anyone ever used different shards

Comments

Categories