Ruinator

[Akutenshi]

I kind of wanted to use bst/sam or bst/sch to mess around with entropy just for sh*ts and giggles lol I have more other important things I should do before I do something as silly as that though.

5/5 Merits for a ws isn't that long to do lol I have work, school, gym, going out, visiting family for the holidays and still found time to do it in two good sittings for a few hours each time. How is that not worth it for a better ws which I feel has better skill chain properties then just simple old rampage and does consistently more damage.

Don't really play DRK much anymore so I might shoot for Tachi Shoha, then shun, the polearm one, or maybe apex arrow.

[Dreamin]

I supposed 1mil merit points would be better than maybe setting up these ws as BCNM quests that would require 18 ppl to fight (each needing an entry item), special proc conditions during fight with 1 win resulting in only 1 item that can then be used to upgrade 'a' specific WS 1 time. So you'll need to do that 5x to max 1 ws to max levels. For 18 people, that would be 18x5 = 80 BCNM fights.

Did I just figure out a better/longer way for SE to give us TIME SINK?

[darkhorror]

I am hoping that this is only the first part and down the road we can adjust these ws's even further.

[xbobx]

I am hoping that this is only the first part and down the road we can adjust these ws's even further.

Yes and no, because i nkow I will max 3 of them, they will turn around and screw up two of those ws so then i have to unmerit them and level a whole other group.

which they will do just to stretch out the game some more

[Aldersyde]

Is it better off to just straight out stack strength for this ws? Would wearing the ferine gausape +2 and trying to stack the killer effect bonus be a good idea? Would beast trousers +1 (with its added killer effects %) be on par with avant cuisses (the nq)?

I played around with 5/5 ruinator on em/t verglas golems (mostly because I know what my rampage looks like on them) and there still seemed to be a wide range of damage (from 1400 low to 3100 high with rr/apoc/mounted champ, my standard bst set in Abyssea) so I'm not sure I would call it a "consistent" ws. Does ruinator crit or double attack?

Sorry for all the questions but I really want to make a good ws set for this and I'm not familiar with all ins-and-outs of it yet.

[Theytak]

Is it better off to just straight out stack strength for this ws? Would wearing the ferine gausape +2 and trying to stack the killer effect bonus be a good idea? Would beast trousers +1 (with its added killer effects %) be on par with avant cuisses (the nq)?

I played around with 5/5 ruinator on em/t verglas golems (mostly because I know what my rampage looks like on them) and there still seemed to be a wide range of damage (from 1400 low to 3100 high with rr/apoc/mounted champ, my standard bst set in Abyssea) so I'm not sure I would call it a "consistent" ws. Does ruinator crit or double attack?

Sorry for all the questions but I really want to make a good ws set for this and I'm not familiar with all ins-and-outs of it yet.

with the 100% str mod and the current alpha value, this ws effectively converts 85% of your total STR into your weapon damage. It is a multi hit ws though so you'll not want to go balls-to-the-wall-sam-ws style, you'll want to make sure you at least have positive accuracy from your ws set. Vs something EM~T, you wouldn't need much in the way of +acc, unless the EM~T thing was like... a gnat, since they have insane evasion. You would want at least some for VT~IT mobs, and a bit more for higher level NMs.

Also, no it does not crit. No weapon skill crits unless it expressly says "critical hit rate varies with TP" (except true strike, because true strike is special and ALWAYS crits). The only way to make a non-crit ws crit is with sneak attack, the dnc-sneak attack, or mighty strikes. It can double/triple attack, though.

[SpankWustler]

You are forgetting last stand which has ftp of 2 and it applies to all hits.

Oh, right. Jishnu's Radiance seems the same, also, now that I think about it.

So it's not a new thing really, just unexpected because this weaponskill isn't ranged. This gives me more confidence that it won't be "balanced" again later.

I played around with 5/5 ruinator on em/t verglas golems (mostly because I know what my rampage looks like on them) and there still seemed to be a wide range of damage (from 1400 low to 3100 high with rr/apoc/mounted champ, my standard bst set in Abyssea) so I'm not sure I would call it a "consistent" ws. Does ruinator crit or double attack?

Since it's only four (five with dual wield) hits, Double Attack and Triple Attack can activate on Ruinator. As with any weaponskill that is fewer than eight hits.

Ruinator can not critical without Sneak Attack. As with any weaponskill that doesn't mention critical hits in the description.

I assume the huge range was from Triple Attack kicking in on the high-end result, and a missed hit on the low-end results. Also, not having super-high attack may have contributed to the large range.

As for the Ferine Gausape +2, it should be worthwhile while Killer Instinct is up even if it's beaten by Twilight Mail or Avant Mail +1 or something otherwise. Similarly, if Ferine Gausape +2 wins with only normal killer effects in effect, it's best to also have a set for stuff you have no killer effect against.

So, I'd say the Avant Cuisses are worth picking up for an alternate set even if Beast Trousers +1 win out when you can take advantage of Killer Effects.

I can't really say which set will straight-up win, sadly, but I hope this general advice was helpful. Also, somebody please correct me if Killer Instinct counts towards the +25% cap and actually makes the Ferine Gausape +2 less useful while it's active rather than more.

[Zaknafein]

I was under the impression that the ki from beast trousers was still not functioning all the time. Unless it has been corrected recently, and I missed it.

[Xilk]

Actually I think Bryth's full analysis of the killer effects answers why we got inconsistent information from the beast trousers.
They probably only add +1 to killer effects. So w/ gausape its 1/2 mod to damage. This won't show up unless you have another odd number boost to killer effects for the other 1/2 percent.