“Best element”, “which armor”, “how many weapons”... and the list of questions keep piling up without an answer but today… I won’t also give a direct answer to them but will invite you to join me on my journey to pick my next set.

(You will be seeing “For me;” parts which will tell what I am thinking. That is only my option and preference so you don’t need to follow them)

A- The Route

First thing to understand on this journey is there are a lot of factors affecting each other and it is hard to calculate all the options so we need to pick our priorities at each step;

-Versatility

-DPS

-Defense

or anything you want to achieve with your build.

For me; I want to focus on DPS and will make my choices in that way.

B- Packing up

Now we know what we want to achieve so we need to learn about our tools and how to use them.

Basically we will be using;

-Behemoth weakness/resistance

-Stats

-Weapons

-Armors

-Skills

I will try to give most of the info but some are depended on your priorities, play style, weapon choice.. etc so the rest is up to you to fill in.

So let the journey begin;

1-Stats

Depending on your priorities you need to calculate your stats like; physical or elemental damage, HP, armor, crit chance/damage etc which will be our foundation. Note that I am keeping Armor, Weapon and Skills out of this part as they will be added later. At this point you will find it hard to have an exact number for everything but a realistic guess will be enough.

For me; I will be calculating the stats that affects damage. You can see my stats table and their sources for an idea at Google Table / Yo5uN's Stats

When you are done with the calculations you will start to have an idea what kind of a build your stats favor.

For me; As a longbow user, weapon based skills and runes favor attack power (physical damage) so I picked my necklace and wild soul according to that. Looking at the total I can see going for a physical weapon can create an advantage.

2- Behemoth Weakness & Resistance

Something else to think about is behemoth's weakness and resistance. Fighting with the right element creates a huge advantage and plays a big role on our decision. The B. Weak/Resist tab at google sheets shows the current situation. What you will do with this information is totally up to you.

For me; As a level 80, I will only examine the max level behemoths. That shows most behemoths are weak to poison damage and it is also a good secondary weapon when you have a physical one already. Now I am thinking of adding a poison weapon to my set so I can keep the advantage when the enemy is resistant to physical.

On it's own the table shows;

-Against all; Frost has the most advantage and a lightning or poison weapon can be a good secondary weapon

-Against max levels; Poison has the most advantage and a lightning weapon can do wonders as a secondary

Note that last part is only calculated for the table and your stats from other sources (having %X elemental bonus etc) can change the outcome. Also the results may vary as more behemoths are introduced to the game.

3- Weapons

Now we are almost halfway there and it is time for a big decision. We need to eliminate the weapons we won't use. The weapons tab at google sheet shows all the weapons at max level.

Some info about weapons before we dig deeper;

-You unlock all final weapons at level 50

-Those weapons can be evolved from previous ones

-To have the most of a weapon, you need to keep upgrading and enhancing them

-That is a time consuming process so it is not a great idea to work on all types at once

-Status weapons only deal the physical damage, stun/paralyze works on its own.

For me; As I decided before I want to use my physical damage advantage and poison was a good secondary to that. So I am noting 4 physical weapons; Negative CC, CC/CD, CC, Flat and 2 poison weapons Flat and CC

You can see all the weapon stats there but it is not enough to make a final decision. We need to add all the stats together to see what works. What is more about weapons is they also have a secondary effect, usually about soul-chain or defense. I don't have all the info there but they can also play a big role on your build.

4- Armor

At the moment (counting out the basic sets) we have 20 to choose from. Each set gets 5 positive and 1 negative skills and some resistance/weakness to each element. You can find the maxed out armors at google sheets/armors and their base weakness/resistance chart.

More info before we move;

-Armors unlock when you first kill the behemoth

-Enhancing an armor piece to +15 gives bonus skills (shown as +x on the table)

-Skill/stat wise armors are equal but give different skills

-Enhancing/upgrading them is also time consuming and better to focus on less sets at once

Now is a good time to eliminate the ones that won't help our priorities.

For me; I am going for a DPS build and determined to use physical & poison weapons so I will rule out any skill that doesn't affect those. What is more I want to mix 2 sets together so I can cancel the negative skills without spending skill points and maybe balance armor weakness/resistances a bit.

5- Putting it together

We decided what we don't want and now we are going to decide what we want. Basically we will be testing each combination and find the best result. I won't release all my calculations and results here as it can be misunderstood as a "best choice" but I will make a sample calculation to show what it is. You can find it at google sheets/example tab.

About this step;

-You can make the calculations on best case scenario or average outcome or worst case scenario

-Average DPS = Damage + (damage*CC*CD)

-Damage = Physical + Elemental

-CC = Crit Chance

-CD = Crit Damage

-Max Damage = Damage + (Damage*CD)

-Given at same ratios Damage is more valuable than CC and CD

-CC and CD works together and best outcome is when they are close to each other

To clear those lets make a sample calculation; if we have a X element weapon (600 physical + 400 elemental damage) and %10 physical damage increase + %20 X element damage increase with a %25 CC and %50 CD

Elemental Damage= 400*1,2=480

Physical Damage=600*1,1= 660

Total Damage=480+660=1140

Average DPS=1140+(1140*0,25*0,5)=1282.5

/for me; I wanted a dps build, calculated my base stats, picked the weapons I may use and ruled out armors that won't be of use. As an example I will try which physical weapon gives the best result with a goros armor.

• I am only using physical and critical stats as I want a dps build with a physical weapon

• I am only calculating the skills that changes dps

• To find a skills final effect I am multiplying it with current point/max point and probability

• For example Might gives %15 AP at 30 points but as the set gives 20 points it's final effect is; 0,15*(20/30)=%10 AP

• For example Treacherous gives CC from behind so I multiply it with a %50 assuming you can be behind half the time.

• Finally I add armor bonus to stats and do a calculation for each weapon

• The results show if I want a dps build and going to use goros armor, best physical weapon to use is Critical Chance one.

Now if you can do the calculation on each armor + weapon pair, you can find the best set.

6- Skills

And finally you should be adding skill points from remaining sources (socketing, rings, horses) and finalize your build.

Final notes;

-Sometimes "the best" is forgetting all these and do what you feel like

-Having all weapons/armors is not a realistic strategy

-If you want a quick weapon tip; critical chance weapons usually do better then others at endgame

-Now you know why there is not an answer to "the best" questions :)

If you are still with me, thank you for your time and don't forget you can ask for more anytime

Yo5uN (EU) / #3653