Which Soulgems do I use?

zpinsky
zpinsky Posts: 27 Arc User
edited August 2014 in General Discussion
Hi, I am an archer and my wife is a Cleric. My wife has reached level 100 and has new G16 Nirvana gear. Now comes the question about what Soulgem to select. She refined her Glaive to +12 and is now trying to decide on what gems to use.

Does she want physical attack or magic attack? How does physical vs magic work differently?

Also I noticed that you can buy level 11 gems at cat shops, but not too often level 12. I see that it takes 6 level 11's to make a level 12. For a Sapphire gem (level 11) you get a magic attack of +75, but a Ice Bourne Stone (level 12) you get a magic attack of +100. Is it worth the cost of buying 6 level 11 gems to make a level 12 for only a +25 increase in magic attack?

So what is the optimal level gem to buy for end game gear (considering benefit vs cost)?

All of her Nirvana armor is refined to +10 (I think six pieces in all). What gems should she put on these? Physical defense? Magic Defense? HP? Should she break it up, or should she make it all the same across all armor? Also what level gem should she get? She was also planning on adding sockets where needed. I was thinking it would cost about $150 million in coin to do so. Is it worth it?

Just to explain how she plays....She goes with other people (usually people lower than her) to help them with their quests (reviving them...etc) But she also likes to attack and take arga sometimes. Also, she loves playing Nation Wars. She gets killed a lot, but she loves it. I know its hard to compete with rebirthed characters with R9 gear, but she tries.

I am a level 90 archer, so I really don't worry about gems yet, but once I get end game gear, I'll have the same questions as well. Would I get different gems than her? I love hiting from a very long distance away. I think my weakness is my defense. What is most benefical gems for an archer that wants to play pve.

As far as expense goes, we don't mind spending coin, but we don't want to plain waste it. So where is the point of diminishing returns?

Thanks for your help
Post edited by zpinsky on

Comments

  • Salari - Raging Tide
    Salari - Raging Tide Posts: 2,102 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    As far as attack gems, you should use phy attack and she should use mag attack. They stack with your type damage. Armor gems can be a toss up it really depends on the amount of coin you can come up with, the best for def is josd, next would vit gems, then hp shards. For attack shards would be deity stones, do nothing for your def but add's alot of attack damage. I suggest just using +40/50 or the free hp shards untill your nuema, meridian and atleast b, better yet A cards are maxed out at least to the base level before rebirth. Once those are done, then work on better armor shards. Magic saphire shards are generally cheaper than garnets so she can max those out pretty quick.

    I would also look into rebirthing 2x, its well worth it even at level 100, it opens up the primal world and makes it easier getting free cards

    Also would like to add, do not use att level shards in your weapon, you gain more from garnets/mag stones (dependent on type toon)
    Marine - Marshall - Raging Tides - Retired
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    DEMHEALSMAN - Dreamweaver
    Yes, because people really need 900+ dex or 1000+ magic just for the lulz
  • Eoria - Harshlands
    Eoria - Harshlands Posts: 6,118 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Saph gems in wep and then two pieces citrine and four pieces garnet in armor is the usual for clerics unless you're gonna do jades in the armor which I don't recommend unless r9rr.

    As for you, you'll want garnets in wep and citrines in armor unless, once again, you're gonna do vit stones/jades for r9rr armor.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    "subtraction has the butt of an angel" - Paulrogers
    I <3 Subtraction.
    /blatant sig copy is blatant

    105/105/105 obtained! b:cute
  • zpinsky
    zpinsky Posts: 27 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Salari - Raging Tide wrote: »
    ...the best for def is josd, next would vit gems, then hp shards.

    Sorry, but can you tell me what josd stands for? Also what is vit?

    Also, can you describe what the difference is between a magic attack and a physical attack? How can I tell much attacks physical and how much is magic? Or does a character only do just one or the other?
  • LilyWinters - Archosaur
    LilyWinters - Archosaur Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    zpinsky wrote: »
    Sorry, but can you tell me what josd stands for? Also what is vit?

    Also, can you describe what the difference is between a magic attack and a physical attack? How can I tell much attacks physical and how much is magic? Or does a character only do just one or the other?

    b:shocked Level 90 & 100 and didn't read skill descriptions? That was depressing to read. Dude, read your skill descriptions to find out which do magic damage and which do physical damage....b:surrender

    JOSD = Jade of Steady Defense
    Vit = Vitality
    Whoever said nothing is impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
  • Salari - Raging Tide
    Salari - Raging Tide Posts: 2,102 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    zpinsky wrote: »
    Sorry, but can you tell me what josd stands for? Also what is vit?

    Also, can you describe what the difference is between a magic attack and a physical attack? How can I tell much attacks physical and how much is magic? Or does a character only do just one or the other?

    jade of steady defense they have 2 defense levels per gem and can run up to 450m or more a piece(depends on server)

    characters are either melee ( or ranged) or a caster (magic). clerics, mystics, psy's, wizards and veno's are caster classes. They inherit their skills from magic even though some do have a physical attack. Veno's do have a melee attack but they are a magic class. archers, barbs, blade masters, assassins and seekers are considered melee classes. Even though melee's inherit their skills through a physical attack (Arrows, swords axes hammers fists knifes ect) they do have some type of magic skill.

    To gain the best damage through a weapon you need to shard it with the characters base attack. How attack levels are calculated the damage range of the weapons would have to be 2x if not more higher than they are now to exceed what the base shards can add.

    Vit stones add 10 vitality which add's hp, magic and phy def.
    Marine - Marshall - Raging Tides - Retired
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    DEMHEALSMAN - Dreamweaver
    Yes, because people really need 900+ dex or 1000+ magic just for the lulz
  • peckked
    peckked Posts: 224 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Going from level 11 to level 12 gems in your weapon is perhaps the LEAST cost effective way of increasing ones damage. Helm/Neck/Ring engraving, getting r9 ring, r93 weapon, Sky Cover/Cloud Stir, NW ring upgrades, levelling A/S war avatars, diety shards in armor, and even the high end tomes typically give better attack returns per coin.
  • SerenityCNB - Dreamweaver
    SerenityCNB - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,225 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Just my two cents.

    Since you didn't really mention what level gems she has already, and since she has G16 +10, I'm going to say this. (Some of this, she probably already has, some of which she may not.)

    If she's looking to increase her survivability...which is more where I tend to focus my sharding towards, than straight damage, I'd go for a mix of citrine and garnet. With a lot of gear, I usually do somewhere around a 40/60 split. With her gear, I'd likely shard it full garnet, or garnet with maybe one piece citrine.

    The reason being is because despite herself being +10 everything, I'm +5 all armor pieces, and if you were to look at the pdef of +10 G16 AA, and +5 G16 AA, its the same. So she's already getting a nice healthy hp pool from just the armor. Hence why I'd go pdef with it.

    The gems, I'd go Sapphire.

    Now, since you're looking at gems...and gem level. I personally wouldn't shard G16 with super high level gems, if you have more of a budget.

    Meaning, JOSD, Diety, DoT, DoD, Drakeflame, Stone of Gaia, Icebourne, Vitality.

    Pretty much out the window. Honestly, as much as I would like to, I wouldn't even shard it with the gem versions.

    I'd give G16 either exclusive morai shards (Shroud for garnet, luminance for citrine, corona for sapphire), or I'd go for Incomparible shards.

    I would do that for both of you respectively.

    As an archer, in your case, I'd likely go for the same mix type. (I'm a cleric specialist, not really an archer, but I know enough to know that the same mix wouldn't really hinder you. If you've got some issues handing magic, I'd add sapphires, but I'll leave that to someone that knows more about archers than myself. I'd aim for garnet shards for your weapon, and I'd also aim for morai exclusive sharding, or incomparible sharding.

    I don't really feel that super high end sharding is really worth the coin in G16 necessarily.

    Gems would be as high as I would go, and that's stretching it a lot for me. (Considering the prices of gems on my server. One gem costs more than an a G16 armor piece....specifically garnet and citrine.) Honetly, I feel that incomparible and morai will serve you both well. The high end sharding is more for suited for the R9rr +10/12 crowd, due to their insane price, and the fact that R9rr is leaps and bounds over G16, so its not worth it to shard G16 armor with those shards, when its not the top gear. G16 is second toughest gear around, but I'd stick with incomparibles and exclusives.

    To increase your wife's defenses. Consider this:

    2 lunar rings. (It doesn't offer the attack power of cloud stir, but its not to be overlooked).
    Warsong belt. (Though you likely have that.)
    Cube Necklace, (though you likely have that.)

    To increase attack power:

    2 Cloud stirs. (Go for the NW upgrade.) (Best alternative to an R9 ring...though I do not know about its price efficiency...primarily because I'm aiming to fortify my defenses, as a pose to my attack power....and am not trying to spend a ton to do so.

    Warsoul weapon. This is not cheap, but if she wants attack power, getting the Warsoul weapon, and upgrading to to NW level is the way to go. Now the question becomes...is it worth it to do so. And that's something that I'll leave for you both to answer.


    (I'm not including R9rr gear, because that's obvious for defenses and attacks, and that's not really what you asked for.)

    Other players mentioned high end tomes, rebirth, and card sets, and I agree.

    Hope that helps some.
    "Male Player using female toon. Please don't flirt with me."

    Need to see the cleric guide for questions, comments, or concerns? Just copy and paste the link.
    "http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1246011&quot;

    (Ignore the quotation marks. URL isn't allowed, so I had to do it that way.)
  • Narcillatrix - Dreamweaver
    Narcillatrix - Dreamweaver Posts: 461 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    LilyWinters - Archosaur wrote: »
    b:shocked Level 90 & 100 and didn't read skill descriptions? That was depressing to read. Dude, read your skill descriptions to find out which do magic damage and which do physical damage....b:surrender

    JOSD = Jade of Steady Defense
    Vit = Vitality


    That was literally my exact thought while reading it lol
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Verenor - Morai
    Verenor - Morai Posts: 699 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    zpinsky wrote: »
    ...She refined her Glaive to +12 and is now trying to decide on what gems to use.
    (...)
    As far as expense goes, we don't mind spending coin, but we don't want to plain waste it. So where is the point of diminishing returns?

    I'd have to say stop right there. If you don't want to waste coins, it's already too late. Making G16 +12 so early in the game (it sounds like you're quite new to the game by not knowing who and what deals magic and physical damage) seems like a bad move to me:
    +11 and +12 orbs are quite expensive, even moreso they get easily outpreformed by Rank 9 gear.
    If you have so much cash lieing around, it would've been better to get R9 first before you invest in lv11 gems since they aren't exactly cheap.

    BUT, since your wife already has G16+12 and +10, I'll keep on topic and focus on sharding those:
    - Armor Shards: purely Garnets. As a cleric/arcane caster her pdef is naturally low and needs the boost from shards. The +10 refinements on her armor make up for lack of HP shards. Clerics with full garnet shards in their armor can become extremely tanky (for NW that's a big boost).
    - Weapon Shards: Purely Magic Attack shards.

    What grade all depends on howmuch coin you have.
    - There are lv90+ weekly quests in Seat of Torment & Abaddon that can give you good shards for quite cheaply but takes a lot of time since they are weekly.
    - Morai shards bought from their respective orders (corona - Sapphire, Shroud - Garnet, Luminance - Citrines). Only the Citrines are more expensive than the weeklies.
    - High-grade shards (costs of over 100mil coins ea when buying from other players): Diamond of Dragon, Diamond of Tiger, Jade of Steady Defense, and several different stones that all grant +10 Vitality when placed in armor. These are expensive shards usually only placed it end-gear armors like Rank 9 3rd recast form. G16 will still easily be outclassed with those shards by R9r3 armors with worse shards/refines, but they are the highest shards around (DoT and DoD can be upgraded)

    As for your archer: focus on HP Shards. Archers are quite balanced in Mdef/Pdef when you wield Pdef necklace/belt as we're supposed to. Our survivability comes from gaining higher HP pool and later on Passive skills (after Reawakening you can level passive skills that grant 8% defense per levelup of skill).
  • ImNotFeelnIt - Heavens Tear
    ImNotFeelnIt - Heavens Tear Posts: 211 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    LilyWinters - Archosaur wrote: »
    b:shocked Level 90 & 100 and didn't read skill descriptions? That was depressing to read. Dude, read your skill descriptions to find out which do magic damage and which do physical damage....b:surrender

    JOSD = Jade of Steady Defense
    Vit = Vitality

    Smoothly done. That kind of approach always encourages people to ask questions so they can learn.

    \would have been more concise if you just said "L2PLAY, N00B"

Categories