Caladbolg Inquiries (primarily store TP)

Hello the DRK forums! Allow me to preface by saying I'm a Paladin making a Caladbolg, but since my thread in the paladin forums got no love whatsoever, I came here seeking advice from people who actually know what this weapon looks like.

My main question is "How much store TP is sane with /sam?" I'd also like to hear what priority various stats get for a weaponskill set~ I've heard attack then vit, would like confirmation.

Finally, any gearset examples you could provide would be wonderful. Obviously paladin doesn't wear all the same stuff DRK does, but I can at least extrapolate from what you use what would be good for me as well.

Thanks in advance!

Vit is king with Caladbolg, and pld have some of the best vit pieces bar none...when I use to use my caladbolg I had a ws gear set strictly focusing on VIT and I would even cast absorb-vit for even more VIT. With all my VIT gear on drk my torcleaver was sometimes able to break 3k damage outside abyssea. You should get interesting numbers if you focus on VIT

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Originally Posted by Airyl

My main question is "How much store TP is sane with /sam?"

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Not sure what "sane" means, but /SAM will give you 15 Store TP, which is an 8-hit build all by itself. To get a 7-hit, you'd need another 15 Store TP, which seems reasonable to get (Rajas Ring, Goading Belt, Brutal Earring, Tyrant's Ring for example). A 6-hit build, while possible, would probably be less efficient, because you'd have to sacrifice many other things for it, like Haste, DA and Accuracy. Speaking of which, the rest of your TP set should consist of Zelus Tiara, AF3+2 hands, legs and feet, and possibly body, unless you have something better (I'm not aware of anything). That will pretty much cap your Haste, aside from rounding errors. Atheling Mantle, Rancor Collar also sound like decent choices.

As for WS, VIT is the only WS modifier, but STR and Attack will play a role on any physical WS. If you WS in Koenig Gear, you'll probably just lose every bonus you possibly get from the VIT anyway. Twilight Helm would probably be ideal for the head slot, Ares's Cuirass for body. I'm not up to date on many items from the last two updates, so forgive me if some of these sound outdated, I'm sure others could correct me, but Spiral Ring also comes to mind, as does Warwolf Belt, the new STR and VIT neckpiece (+6 on both I believe), or Apathy Gorget which is also pretty cheap these days. PLD AF3+2 hands, Jingang Hose and Dilaram's Sollerets for feet, if you can get your hands on some, otherwise try Jingang Greaves. Some situational pieces include Vampire Earrings, if you macro for nighttime or Shadow Mantle, on Darksday. Not sure if VIT earrings are worth it, since there's nice Attack items for those slots (namely Centaurus Earring) or even a Moonshade Earring with TP Bonus as latent effect. Second earring slot for Brutal. If you need more Attack (unlikely inside Abyssea, outside probably necessary), try using Anguinus Belt over Warwolf, Attack earrings over VIT. Second Earring I'd keep Rajas, for the Store TP.

Speaking of which, you could also replace the Pole Grip with a Rose Strap, and switch the Tyrant's Ring for Blitz Ring. That way your Haste would be capped and you'd keep the Store TP on your WS set.

Another thing, I see a lot of people suggesting elemental Gorgets/Belts, although I don't see them as being very useful, since Torcleaver is a very high fTP WS, even at 100% TP. The damage increase from those would only be ~2%. You have to see if that beats 6STR/VIT or 9VIT on neck, and 5STR/VIT or 15Att 1DA on waist.

Regarding the gorget and belt, they change your fTP from 4.75 to 4.95. (4.95-4.75)/4.75 = 4.2% increase to WS base dmg. So the STR and VIT you're adding in those slots would have to increase your WS base dmg by greater than 4.2% of the previous amount to be a better option. This number varies based on your current fSTR and WSC mods so you'll have to compute it for your own sets.

Changing your waist for attack gets a bit more complicated since you have to deal with mob's defense in the calculation. I would say if you're not even close to atk cap, go with the attack, bc i've seen this WS dmg fall off pretty hard when attack doesn't keep up.

Edit: said gorget, meant both gorget and belt in that equation. sorry.

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Originally Posted by Dragonlord

Regarding the gorgets, they change your fTP from 4.75 to 4.95.

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Weren't elemental gorgets +0.1 fTP?

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Originally Posted by Arcon

Useful Information

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Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. :)

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Originally Posted by Arcon

Not sure what "sane" means, but /SAM will give you 15 Store TP, which is an 8-hit build all by itself. To get a 7-hit, you'd need another 15 Store TP, which seems reasonable to get (Rajas Ring, Goading Belt, Brutal Earring, Tyrant's Ring for example). A 6-hit build, while possible, would probably be less efficient, because you'd have to sacrifice many other things for it, like Haste, DA and Accuracy. Speaking of which, the rest of your TP set should consist of Zelus Tiara, AF3+2 hands, legs and feet, and possibly body, unless you have something better (I'm not aware of anything). That will pretty much cap your Haste, aside from rounding errors. Atheling Mantle, Rancor Collar also sound like decent choices.

As for WS, VIT is the only WS modifier, but STR and Attack will play a role on any physical WS. If you WS in Koenig Gear, you'll probably just lose every bonus you possibly get from the VIT anyway. Twilight Helm would probably be ideal for the head slot, Ares's Cuirass for body. I'm not up to date on many items from the last two updates, so forgive me if some of these sound outdated, I'm sure others could correct me, but Spiral Ring also comes to mind, as does Warwolf Belt, the new STR and VIT neckpiece (+6 on both I believe), or Apathy Gorget which is also pretty cheap these days. PLD AF3+2 hands, Jingang Hose and Dilaram's Sollerets for feet, if you can get your hands on some, otherwise try Jingang Greaves. Some situational pieces include Vampire Earrings, if you macro for nighttime or Shadow Mantle, on Darksday. Not sure if VIT earrings are worth it, since there's nice Attack items for those slots (namely Centaurus Earring) or even a Moonshade Earring with TP Bonus as latent effect. Second earring slot for Brutal. If you need more Attack (unlikely inside Abyssea, outside probably necessary), try using Anguinus Belt over Warwolf, Attack earrings over VIT. Second Earring I'd keep Rajas, for the Store TP.

Speaking of which, you could also replace the Pole Grip with a Rose Strap, and switch the Tyrant's Ring for Blitz Ring. That way your Haste would be capped and you'd keep the Store TP on your WS set.

Another thing, I see a lot of people suggesting elemental Gorgets/Belts, although I don't see them as being very useful, since Torcleaver is a very high fTP WS, even at 100% TP. The damage increase from those would only be ~2%. You have to see if that beats 6STR/VIT or 9VIT on neck, and 5STR/VIT or 15Att 1DA on waist.

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neck slots were tested, they're so bloody close that it really doesn't matter unless you're a min/max type. I use gorgets/belts and they've never let me down. My numbers have always been very solid.

Arcon hit most of it on the head, go for a solid 7 hit (you can 6 hit inside abyssea with atma of the scorpion queen, rr, AoA) and keep your basic set. I'm not sure how much you use drk inside abyssea for but there is that. Otherwise stick to that 7 hit as previously mentioned.

Also for the ws, outside remember that on anything relevant (IE voidwatch) you will have a rough time capping your fstr. So use your normal ws gear, bale+2, heafoc, ares body, twilight helm, spiral ring, rajas, etc) inside abyssea where your fstr is capped most of the time you can go with a vit+ build.

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Originally Posted by Dart

[..] bale+2 [..]

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He was talking about PLD, he just came here because no one in the PLD forums answered (I didn't see it there), and he figured DRK would have more experience with Torcleaver than PLD.

ares's body and jingjang(spelling) feet/legs, hands you can stick with heafoc. only leg/feet pieces with str and vit that I know of that pld can use are jingjang. Of course the usual twilight helm (and to a lesser extent twilight body if you don't own ares).

Creed Gauntlets +2 are better for PLD. Pants, unfortunately, Jingang are probably the best, or at least I'm not aware of better ones.

Depends on mob, Heca Sub +1 will fair better on high end things as PLD won't be very strong in the Atk department, but I wouldn't bring a PLD/SAM with GS anyway.

good catch with creed gaunt+2, I hadn't looked up the stats on them.

I posted this in the PLD forum but this is what I use when I lol around:

TP Phase
Notes: 8hit w/o /SAM. If you want to 7hit w/ /SAM switch Blitz Ring with Tyrant's Ring.

Weapon Skill