Weapon paths for Stormbringer

Sylvae - Sanctuary
Sylvae - Sanctuary Posts: 1,018 Arc User
edited January 2015 in Stormbringer
Decided to put down this info, to help people who are making choices on what to get for their Storm.

For mine, I originally was planning on getting the warsoul. Had 2500 tokens saved up, just needed the coins. But when I reached 80, I looked at the numbers, and it made no dang sense to get it.

The shroud morai weapon was already nice, but the recast allows you to get 70 slayer levels, which should be a boost of about 63% damage. So even with gimpy gear that has no ATK levels of any kind, Jones alone means the weapon has an effective 81.9 ATK levels on it. And the recast warsoul, which isn't around and costs even more, would max at 65 ATK.

Keep in mind, this without adding any other sources of ATK lvl in. The more sources you have, the more the morai weapon outpaces the warsoul. And while it is PvE only, it will build in power PvE while you get your boundary level and armor up with more ATK lvls from set bonuses, culminating in R9rr where morai will still be the best choice, even unrefined.

Simply because we have meridians, nuema, and cards we will be getting at the same time. The more we get there, the more the Slayer advantage will beat out the higher base damage and refinement of warsoul, G16; even R9rr weapon. For PvE anyways.

And the idea for G16/warsoul to be able to PvE earlier, doesn't work as well nowadays as it did with lower gear reqs. Because of spirit, and the boundary levels, even a warsoul won't make up the difference to damage another player, let alone survive their hits, when the spirit difference is so great. So while it is a nice myth that it will make a difference, that is more or less assuming equal levels of spirit; that's not even getting into the differences in sharding and refinement.

The nice thing about going this route, is its very cheap; almost free, really. I went from TT60->TT70-> free morai weapon at 95. Didn't have trouble killing things or questing, Jones blessing basically renders that moot anyways. So there's no difficulty in going this way; plus let's you sell the TT70 to get back your money, or make it. If molds are out later on, and don't require time sinks, going that way works as well.

Nice thing is this also frees up the money/time sink from going G16 or warsoul, and allows you to invest it into either refining the morai weapon (making the damage of the morai weapon equal to or higher, with better stats, for the same over-all coin cost), or simply using it to work on getting reputation and start getting your PvP weapon and PvP/PvE armor earlier than you would otherwise.

Now while I did enjoy selling the tokens I was going to waste on warsoul, making warsouls to sell to another storm who wanted it for 50% higher price than normal, I figured I might as well write this down so people don't waste time getting something that isn't going to be what they want anyways. Warsoul will not be better than Morai mid to late game, likely even earlier; and it won't be better than R9rr. Add in the hard resell value for a warsoul/G16 weapon that only works for one class only, as opposed to magic instrument or axe having multiple users, and it seems to be best only for status.

So I'd recommend getting in a character calculator and plug in the values you think are reasonable for early mid-game. Plug in what you think you want, then replace it with a Morai weapon and look at over-all damage output. And yes, people will mention PvP; but you're only going to be beating other new players with such low spirit at that point anyways. The money saved can instead go to getting you R9 faster, and actually having real competitive gear by the time your boundary level and cards have brought your spirit up enough to matter.

Just something to consider while you're building up. Also keep track that all the time spent in instances for weapon mats, is time not spent leveling to get reawakened for FSP runs.
Post edited by Sylvae - Sanctuary on

Comments

  • zenmonkeyzzz
    zenmonkeyzzz Posts: 48 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Thanks for the info. From what you say it does sound like a nice weapon, especially as I only do PvE. Where did you get the information from about the +70 Slaying level? I didn't see any mention of the 'extra' stats at the forges. I'd like to see what other bonus stats there might be. Remember too a G16 Nirvana comes with +40 attack levels.

    The price might be an issue too. You say yours was practically free, but the morai weapon seems to cost 31m then a further 36m to change to G15. You'd get most G16 weapons for a bit less than that on my server ( not that the SB one exists yet).
  • Sylvae - Sanctuary
    Sylvae - Sanctuary Posts: 1,018 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Thanks for the info. From what you say it does sound like a nice weapon, especially as I only do PvE. Where did you get the information from about the +70 Slaying level? I didn't see any mention of the 'extra' stats at the forges. I'd like to see what other bonus stats there might be. Remember too a G16 Nirvana comes with +40 attack levels.

    The price might be an issue too. You say yours was practically free, but the morai weapon seems to cost 31m then a further 36m to change to G15. You'd get most G16 weapons for a bit less than that on my server ( not that the SB one exists yet).

    You get the Morai 45 slaying levels weapon completely free; there is no cost associated with getting that one at all, it is part of the quest chain in Morai. So while you could get the G15 Nirvana weapon and wait on G16 to come out, there likely won't be a point.

    For finding the weapons, I just searched the mats, looked at what can be crafted, and found the items that way. G16 isn't even listed yet, but G15 nirvy and recast morai penumbra are there.

    Honestly I am not going to do the math for this forum. There seems to be a good amount of people who have already stated they are hording knowledge, but don't seem to mind taking; people posting with no idea what the skill does, meaning most likely want us to do all kinds of work to tell them how to kill us as they don't have one. Or some other variation of not helpful in any way.

    I even have a few posts with CDs wrong, or other minor things, to check if people would actually correct it. Nothing. So basically the forum serves no real purpose, other than to give any ideas or strats away to people who can just CS past me and make it known thrugh use before I get he chance to enjoy using my own ideas. No sense in being the only one helping others, when the only thing it can do for me is take away the surprise of anything I discover on my own.
  • Fail_BM - Raging Tide
    Fail_BM - Raging Tide Posts: 929 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    I have to admit morai is a pretty great option, but it is strictly used for PvE. Trying to PvP using G15 morai (won't test its second cast version) is like going around with TT99, for today's standarts it is pretty bad.

    Also, as a tip, if you are going for the recasted version (which is also G15 as well) you would go right away for G16. The sum of the crafting feed of both weapons is around 50 mill, 10 million less than G16 (raging tides).
  • zenmonkeyzzz
    zenmonkeyzzz Posts: 48 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    @Sylvae - I found the info from the mats as you suggested and yes, there it is, +70 Slaying.

    I have the free Morai sword on an old 'main' I only use for buffing and emergency revive. I didn't realize you got the weapon from a quest as I'm only level 80+ and had seen the one you can buy with influence +cash from Shroud.

    The thing I like about the Penumbra weapon is it has similar ( if not identical ) stats to those that a G16 would get - so even the chance for extra attack levels or +100 mag att.

    I'm just trying not to get too excited yet as earning the mats to craft it is going to be harder than Warsong runs, running the new instance with random people.

    Thanks again for your help and I ofc understand why you don't want to do all the work for the forum users.
  • Tsukishi - Dreamweaver
    Tsukishi - Dreamweaver Posts: 50 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Where are you seeing that you can use the quest reward morai weapon to build into the g15 things. I have never seen that option before and just looked it up but didn't find anything that implied you could use that to build into the g15. As far as i know you have to buy the g15 weapon for your order with influence and coin.

    Each first cast weapon from morai can be purchased for a litte over 17m + 36m fee for recasting (and mats of course but those are farmed only) putting it around 53m total not counting potential recast fees.

    On Dreamweaver I can make a g16 magical instrument for only roughly 17m, but that is also because of Divine Aegies TT99 weapon doesnt need any souledges. The scythe does require souledges to build up to so lets be generous and call it 10m more (dont feel like checking prices on mats cuz i would have to run around arch a bit). Thats still roughly half the price of the morai for more base damage.

    Now Morai recast has 1 unique attribute (70 slaying level) and 4 random, from which i looked on the database the scythe did not have a chance for -chan.. unless that is an error on databse. but -chan not the biggest issue for this class anyway and rare on a magic weapon g16 to begin with.

    G16 weapon has only 3 random stats +40 atk lvl. but like i said more base damage. Your skills have mostly very good scaling off of your weapon damage and magic attack so that is a very relevant consideration here.

    Does 70 slaying level really out power having better base damage on your weapon? this is the one thing i could not come to terms with while i did my own reseach and number crunching comparing morai and g16 for PvE only. I mean if you are amplfying less damage are you actually exceeding the greater base value of g16 damage?


    As far as the armor goes the 33 warding levels most likely does balance out. Morai recast even has better stats than the g15 nirvy- nirvy does win in bonus attributes because it has the % def increases, but keep in mind 4% is also quite neglible and you get like half the def lvl compard to warding level.

    The other consideration i had was going full morai armor and g16 weapon. But the 6th peice to the set -the weapon- gives an impressive 600hp. And then there is the farming question. You can farm WS very easy for badges and molds and people do it alot.

    Quicksand Maze is new, people havent even been doing the level for R8 mats much. Getting an acutal squad for the low level one is hard (i have just solo'd with my veno every time instead of wasting teles and time). The Morai Mats are in 95+ range and people would only do it for morai mats. how many people are gona do those runs with you for no gain to themselves. At least in WS you can get things even if you dont directly need something from a run.

    Plus, farming G16 would be cheaper. I farmed like 70% of my mats for my g16 set and bought only the 99 gold mats cuz they're a pain in the *** to farm. That plus manufacture fess put it around 70-80m total. The cost of making the first cast morai is approximately : 31m for armor set first cast and 17 for weapon + 45m for recasting all armors and 36m for weapon. totaling 130m. Of course you would do it over time so that number doesnt seem as daunting that way.

    All things considered i will probably go g16 on my stormbringer despite very much liking the morai gear. If im gona buy something just because i like it, well then its fashion not gear xD
  • Sylvae - Sanctuary
    Sylvae - Sanctuary Posts: 1,018 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    I mentioned the 45 slaying, because I thought that was the weapon he meant for early use. The morai weapon does cost a good amount, but it is also better than G16. The recast weapon is better than warsoul early on, and better than warsoul 2nd cast once you get meridians/nuema/cards to base level A cards. It will be better than warsoul 3rd cast once you get full on end game.

    Base damage is only a worry when we had no other sources. All A cards that have no set bonus or leveling up give 400 mag attk. Rings should be giving minimum 240-340 mag attk. Nuema maxed gives 200, and meridian maxed will be giving 280 minimum. That is also your base mag attk, and adds up to a large amount. And with freebie events and sign in rewards, my cleric already got an S card for free, and my SB had 5 B cards before rebirthing. And that was being really unlucky.

    So at that point it becomes a matter of refinement, and whether that allows one to outpace the other. Obviously we're ignoring cost difference for warsoul vs morai recast, because otherwise there isn't even a contest. Also the adds are the same, and benefit morai recast if taking best ones, but I didn't count them as you're almost a 50% chance of getting health each add.

    So to determine if refinement is worth it, you have to decide what your over-all gear is going to be. Granted if they don't bring back jones' blessing, it could skew results when you have a lower base ATTK level from lesser blessing. But I went with jones blessing, 25 ATTK lvl (from necky, belt, set bonus, etc.) which is low end if you're going R9 and talking +10 refines, and the weapon. 70 slaying should be about 63% dmg boost, applied to 55 ATTK lvl, giving it an effective ATTK level of 97 basically. And that is vs. warsoul 3rd cast's 65 max ATTK.

    That means the warsoul needs to refine at 15% more to keep pace at those numbers, which it does at 15.3% difference with max value of 975 vs. 1125. But that is all it does, keep pace. It doesn't get better, and it must have 65 ATTK value to be that good.

    It's why warsoul sucks. Even at its best, you have to spend a ton of money to get something that will not outperform the morai recast weapon. And that is with me counting the adds for the warsoul 3rd cast, and ignoring any adds on the morai recast. Even one +100 mag attk will have a large effect over-all. And all that money saved, means you could go R9 and get the best weapon for pvp to complement the Morai. G16 isn't even worth talking about, since even Warsoul beats that.

    The only thing that can make a case for G16/Warsoul, is if we don't get Jones back or any good blessing with ATTK level on it. Otherwise, they are not going to be great for much, and even the idea it might help in PvP won't matter, since the difference in spirit level means the 40/50 ATTK level won't matter anyways. Especially since with the influx of new people, you can kill them without requiring that gear up. And by the time G16 is out, there's no reason you can't have R8r already on the way to R9.