DRK Knights and Esoterics First Item

It seems to be upgrading from ilvl180 chestpiece directly to Esoteric Chestpiece would yield more benefits to a DRK main tank as compared to upgrading from a Hive weapon to an Esoteric greatsword.

True, you lose 2 weapon damage but you get more armor and approximately 10+ more of STR and VIT.

Bonus points for being able to get it a week earlier.

Bonus bonus points for the Esoteric gear looking nicer than the Gordian ilvl190 gear.

If you already don't have a hive claymore though the choice does get harder.

I'm going weapon. Dps checks be everywhere.

Ah but you get it one week earlier so u can clear harder content earlier, and you get a decent more chunk of strength as you going up twenty ilvls instead of ten.

If you plan on doing Savage you should be buying the weapon.

Also if you are MT'ing as of right now you can tank AS1 and AS2 with 16.5k HP which is easily achievable with food and accessories.

If you aren't going to do savage, buy whatever you want.

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Originally Posted by Domnall

Ah but you get it one week earlier so u can clear harder content earlier, and you get a decent more chunk of strength as you going up twenty ilvls instead of ten.

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Nothing makes as big an impact on your damage than the weapon does. The +2 damage is kind of a big deal.

Each point of wepaon damage is equivilent to something like 8 of your main stat iirc. Which is why weapon first upgrade is always a prioirty.

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Originally Posted by nyttyn

Each point of wepaon damage is equivilent to something like 8 of your main stat iirc. Which is why weapon first upgrade is always a prioirty.

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If it's worth 8 main stat, you gain a total of 25 strength from the Weapon (from the i190 hive weapon: 2x8 from WD +9 raw strength).
The Chest will give you 25 as well (coming from i180).
The chest is a clear winner then, given the vit, defence and the fact you get it a week earlier.

(WD=8strength is sketchy at best, though. Clearly if it's worth 9 or more the weapon comes out ahead)

EDIT: Woops that's the 210 chest. The 200 is only 15 strength

I would posit chest/legs are better for both dps AND survivability per point of esoterics.

You can do a simple test. Compare law weapon + gordian chest/gloves vs hive weapon + law chest/gloves.

chest+1 that just me

Weapon first on every job, no exceptions.

If weapon damage is +8 STR like at 50 (and I'm pretty sure it's higher now), you're gaining over 25 STR and 11 VIT. i180 chest to i200 gives 15 STR and 19 VIT. Small amounts of VIT and defence don't matter since fights are all about cooldowns. Every little bit of extra DPS speeds up a fight, helps skip mechanics and helps beat enrage. Plus, people that were smart and planned out their Alexander normal drops should be getting the i190 chest this week and finishing up the drops next week, while a weapon is the only thing you can't get from there.