When and What to R9S3?

It's better to go with the armor first for a couple of reasons.

If you get the axe first, you're going to lose your 6th piece set bonus on your R9, which is 20 attack. Now, say you do get some decent stats on your R999 axe... (20 attack for example), you're only looking at a 10 attack gain, roughly 2.5k base damage, and maybe 4-5% crit for what? The cost of 4 summerwinds on my server is 400M; 500M including the +10. It doesn't seem like enough of a boost to justify investing 500M on. The reason casters will get the weapon first is the for purify proc which is a nifty add on, but God of Frenzy already came with the first cast so the R999 doesn't really have much of an extra bonus other than the extra attack level and damage. You can still do just fine PvP wise using the first cast R9.

You're not getting as much bang for the buck here compared to the armor, a 600M investment (including EODs) not including refines/shards where'd you'd gain roughly 2K base HP, 2.5K phys def, 2K magic def, 5 defense levels, 100 STR, and 2 crit. That's like 2.5 Jades, 5 Saph gems, 8 garnet gems in armor, 5 garnet gems and 2 primevals in weapon and 5% HP vs 10 DOT, 2.5k base damage (7 garnet gems) in weapon, and 4-5 primeval crit stones.

It's going to be a slightly more expensive investment than the axe, but the increase in survivability with moderate increase in damage from the 100 STR and additional 2% crit add should pay you back through nation wars more so than the pure damage on axe with no added survivability. PLUS, you probably don't want to waste all your badges re-rolling your axes before you even have your armor.

How is this even a question you should obviously get armor first.

This was a good conversation to see.

I've been considering whether to get more r9 pieces, or r9t3 my axes. I figured upgrading my axes would be a good investment because I'd have more damage output in NW and therefore it'd pay for the rest of my upgrades. But if I do that I lose the 2 piece set bonus of 10 def levels so I'd die easier in nw.

So this was good to see.

The only class where I can see getting the weapon first is alright is Assassins, as they can farm with an APS set as well. (Sort of like the same argument where the R9 weapon should be the first thing for sins to get back in the day for the r9 set).

But as others have stated, full armors first.

Jaabg - Sanctuary wrote: »

I am debating the same question but i am in a different boat. I am starting from scratch r8, so I will get my r9 pieces one at a time. Take a pause, read below

Chips.....Chips.....you have to open all of them, i mean ALL of them b:shocked.

Let's continue, i am getting the summerwind tokens lined up as well, i have the event gold and mirages for +5~+9 refining. I won't be benefiting from set bonuses for quite some time. I might have one r9 3rd cast piece, and 2 r9 pieces.

I intend to go axes, belt, chest. Getting summerwind will take time, at least with the axes, i can do more pve orientated stuff on my 7~12k hp bm.

Belt = same mdef as a g16 warsong +10 belt. Worth the investment to me.

Chest = +5% max hp add

I have the badges and molds ready for 3rd cast, it is the summer wind tokens and money stream for r9 that will be the issue.

Armour does seem tempting for NW reason, but in the event that my r9 is bought over 1~3 sales will probably mean that i have to wait for the benefits for quite some time. Plus i am not looking forward to making all those gst at one point.

Honestly prior to R9ing my BM I went with the axes first because the god of frenzy with 30 attack level was too good to pass up. The first cast R9 weapon to BM is like the 3rd cast R9 weapon to caster. You get the unique add on and get your money's worth. However if you already had your full first cast R9, upgrading to 3rd cast R9 loses some appeal due to losing current set bonuses for new set bonuses.

However... you've got 2 dilemmas.

In your situation you're not really trading off your old R9 set bonus for R999 set bonus, it gets tricky because any investment you make into refining your intermediary R9 or R99 goes to waste when you go to R999. If you want to save money you should just go straight to R999 piece by piece, don't stop at r9 so you can at least +10 without it biting you in the butt later when you want to upgrade.

As much as I'd like to recommend you getting the first cast r9 axes first, but because I don't know long you'd take to gather the summerwinds / badges for r999 I don't know how much they'd be of use to you unless you can refine them somewhat, which would be a waste if you did when you go R999.

Pretty much the r9 axes are a great investment PvP wise, but they also can be a financial burden due to the refines not carrying over for free.

I don't know your current gear at the moment, but if you want a balanced set up with minimal wastage, you could just get the r9 axes and belt for the 2 piece 10 def level, and the r999 chest for the 5% HP add. You wouldn't need to refine the belt, and you could probably just +7 the axes with your event gold without too much cost.

If you want to go ahead with the above set up, you may want to get the axe first, followed by the belt for the set bonus, and chest 3rd for the 5%.