[X] My Assistant

As you mentioned, ethereal is only really a choice for those who want to leave it at level 9 and use 2 infusions to get the 'optimal' strike choices for any content, but the gain is extremely minimal and may not be observable in terms of turns at all.

Shortswords are also worth considering besides rapiers when playing imperil-style 1H (which is observably faster in all cases) due to their higher base ADB & parry.

Huh, so you mean the element of the weapon doesn't really matter unless you want to go insane with min-maxing? Or, at least, doesn't matter overall if you do Grind and Arena and don't have cash to have TWO top-tier weapons? (I mostly do arenas though, so holy/dark would be slightly better for me, I guess?)

I remember having a shortsword discussion years ago, and from what I remember, that extra damage is mitigated by the rapier's better proc, while the shortsword proc has no time to really work. Has that changed since then? Or does it change the more you forge it, due to ADB and parry scaling by percentage, and make shortswords the better endgame weapon?

Here's a quick breakdown of what each part is, and what they're good for:

Can someone put or at least link this into the advice portion of the wiki? This is a hell of a lot more detailed and comprehensive than what it has at the moment.

@Zeroneos you don't need full forging for arenas. Forging for my equips was about 10mil - staff and cottons only - but i can consistently clear arenas on PFUDOR. With cure-a-lot and elixirs on not SG arenas.

Sadly, I belong in poor player's club and never I have reached more than 1 Mil before. Even now I'm struggling and can only get by with at least "power" heavy, not even slaughter nor any savages yet. Game very cruel on credits gain (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

That's why mage seems too far for me and I can only hoping to make one from coincidental "lucky drop" (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Huh, so you mean the element of the weapon doesn't really matter unless you want to go insane with min-maxing? Or, at least, doesn't matter overall if you do Grind and Arena and don't have cash to have TWO top-tier weapons? (I mostly do arenas though, so holy/dark would be slightly better for me, I guess?)

I remember having a shortsword discussion years ago, and from what I remember, that extra damage is mitigated by the rapier's better proc, while the shortsword proc has no time to really work. Has that changed since then? Or does it change the more you forge it, due to ADB and parry scaling by percentage, and make shortswords the better endgame weapon?

Yeah, it doesn't really matter. Even if you were min-maxing, only the difference between elemental, and holy/dark, would be noticeable against non-SG monsters, and the effect of that is still fairly minimal.

Opinion has sort-of changed on shortswords. Decondelite has pretty conclusively proven that imperil is the fastest way to play 1H these days, and with the imperil style, the distinction between rapier and shortsword is much less noticeable. I do not think shortswords are definitively better - they may be marginally worse - but they're definitely cheaper and more accessible, and they've been shown to be close enough that there is doubt over the clear winner.

That said - it's a very controversial subject, and there are still conflicting opinions, especially by older players who dislike imperil (and that's fair enough, imperil is less braindead and requires more input attention). On paper, the rapier proc is still quite strong too, but it's negated a bit both because debuffs are applied after damage (so the first application does not affect damage on the turn it was applied) and because procs aren't applied by counters, so you only benefit from it against targets you've already manually hit.

To my knowledge, most/all of the foreign language guides still consider rapier non-imperil to be the only way to play 1H (with slaughter armour, too). This may also affect common player opinions.

Finally - there's just not a lot of data available at different levels, or fair comparisons between comparable weapons, so it's hard for me to give you any absolute advice here. But I personally believe shortsword is - if nothing else - worth consideration for the sole reason that it's good enough, and cheaper, and 1H players may be avoiding too much investment as they save up for a switch to mage.

Can someone put or at least link this into the advice portion of the wiki? This is a hell of a lot more detailed and comprehensive than what it has at the moment.

Most of the reason I haven't already is because I don't feel the wiki is an appropriate place for guides - it's supposed to be raw information, while HV advice is always biased by player understanding of the game, and common opinions. However, since these are very common questions, I am slowly coming around to the idea of renovating the advice sections... Noni has handled those for the longest time, maintaining & cleaning them, so we may collaborate to improve them.

Sadly, I belong in poor player's club and never I have reached more than 1 Mil before. Even now I'm struggling and can only get by with at least "power" heavy, not even slaughter nor any savages yet. Game very cruel on credits gain (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

That's why mage seems too far for me and I can only hoping to make one from coincidental "lucky drop" (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

If you want to make credits from HV, consistency & reinvestment are the keys. There is a lot of daily income from arenas, and drop trainings (to a reasonable level) can improve this further. Almost everything is sellable these days - particularly trophies, amnesia shards and high-grade materials from salvaging mag+ cloth, staffs or non-force shields - but also from unused potions/elixirs and scrolls. Do this for a while and the credits will stack up to a healthy stockpile - you can definitely achieve a mage set in a couple months (and HV is definitely a game that is played in months or years, not days or even weeks).

This post has been edited by lestion: Aug 10 2020, 19:55

Sadly, I belong in poor player's club and never I have reached more than 1 Mil before. Even now I'm struggling and can only get by with at least "power" heavy, not even slaughter nor any savages yet. Game very cruel on credits gain (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

Yeah, yeah, i hear you. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

That's why mage seems too far for me and I can only hoping to make one from coincidental "lucky drop" (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Dont even hope for that one lucky drop that will solve all your problems. I never got one like that. I got two quite good drops, but they didnt solved any problem for me.

with the imperil style, the distinction between rapier and shortsword is much less noticeable.

I was under the impression imperil and breach proc stack, was I wrong?

I was under the impression imperil and breach proc stack, was I wrong?

They do, but there is still a limit to how much you can reduce the monsters mitigation.

I was under the impression imperil and breach proc stack, was I wrong?

They are layered, which means that the actual benefit of PA is much lower when combined with Imperil.

To add my two cents: Shortsword has not only a higher ADB, but also higher STR and DEX. So you do get very slightly higher parry and crit chance too. The higher ADB benefits pretty much everything: direct attack, counter-attacks (especially when the targets are imperiled), and OFC.
On top of being fit only for Imperil 1H, that weapon is preferably used in a Protection+Warding power set, as the greater ADB will be less shadowed by the power armor. Protection+Warding is the way to go in PFFEST anyway.
Some players also appreciate the shortsword for its ability to maintain the stacks of BW against schoolgirls after using Vital Strike, but TBH I'm not sure it's really that great, due to the stack base power being reset to a low amount at the first refresh of BW.

The main reason to choose a shortsword is either to save up on credits, or to get the best out of Imperil 1H, in particular in PFFEST. That said, a Peerless Shortsword is now very, very expensive. They go for dozens of millions nowadays, but heck do they pack an enormous amount of power.

Shortsword has not only a higher ADB, but also higher STR and DEX.

Bullshit. a shortsword has higher Str and Agi, but the same Dex and also the same Parry ranges, and because Str has nothing to do with parry, in the end a shortsword has not even a single 0.1% more or less parry as a rapier. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

Can I sell the soulbound peerless weapon/armor which I obtained from the lottery to others?

Can I sell the soulbound peerless weapon/armor which I obtained from the lottery to others?

Nothing soulbound can be traded

Is there any benefit to XP boosts after you hit 400 and can take advantage of bought lvl 500 gear? Do clear times shrink, for example, or is that overwhelmingly a gear quality question? I'm thinking of whether to invest into any more XP abilities/perks at this point.

Is there any benefit to XP boosts after you hit 400 and can take advantage of bought lvl 500 gear? Do clear times shrink, for example, or is that overwhelmingly a gear quality question? I'm thinking of whether to invest into any more XP abilities/perks at this point.

Clear times get slower, actually, monster HP & defenses scale faster than your damage will regardless of gear or forge level.

Those exp perks are valuable at 500, because they contribute towards proficiency gains. But I don't think there's any particular reason to rush to 500 if you're past 400. (Fests get a little more survivable, I think, but that's about it.)

(IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) Can someone explain to me what the damage you do with the FUS RO DAH Attack depends on? Because there are times when I make that attack while the spirit stance is activated, I actually kill a whole group of 10 enemies and sometimes up to 12, but there are others in which I don't kill even half. Is the percentage of damage of that attack influenced by the percentage of damage you have or something similar?

This post has been edited by Arkoniusx: Aug 13 2020, 23:12

(IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) Can someone explain to me what the damage you do with the FUS RO DAH Attack depends on? Because there are times when I make that attack while the spirit stance is activated, I actually kill a whole group of 10 enemies and sometimes up to 12, but there are others in which I don't kill even half. Is the percentage of damage of that attack influenced by the percentage of damage you have or something similar?

You sometimes manage to kill 12 enemies with FRD? I'm kind of impressed, given that 10 is the maximum number of monsters in a round (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

It's a skill (not a spell), so it should be based on ADB, same as every other one. Spirit stance doubles physical damage. FRD is not a strong attack by itself (the multiplier is low), so you're probably just having good luck with crits, or using it in rounds with mostly weak monster types, and no giants or undead or high-chaos, high-level monsters.

(IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Yeah, sorry for the 12, I didn't sleep well, and I was dreaming of an update that included 12 monsters per battle, I think I woke up believing that part of the dream was real.

...so you're probably just having good luck with crits, or using it in rounds with mostly weak monster types, and no giants or undead or high-chaos, high-level monsters.

Well, maybe it is because I have equipped a Rapier with 99% of ADB that has a combination of Fatality 5 - Brutality 4, and which I am improving with 10 bindings of slaughter every week if I can, maybe that's why.

This post has been edited by Arkoniusx: Aug 14 2020, 00:11

For Training, I need to go to it again once the timer for the skill/perk is completed for it to apply correct?

Also, Amnesia shards will only get rid of the potency from IW right? Not any of the upgrades that I've spent?

For Training, I need to go to it again once the timer for the skill/perk is completed for it to apply correct?

Also, Amnesia shards will only get rid of the potency from IW right? Not any of the upgrades that I've spent?

Yes, Training bonus is validated only when visiting the page again once it's finished, or you're still on the page when it does. The Wiki page can confirm that (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

And also yes, the Wiki page doesn't mention upgrades, and since you can't reforge an upgraded but without potencies equip, no reason it would erase the upgrades (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

So, I'm currently using a Legendary Arctic Rapier of Slaughter and its IW include Hollowforged, Butcher Lv. 4, Swift Strike Lv. 3, and Overpower Lv. 2.

And I've been upgrading it with materials since then. Should I use amnesia shards on my rapier and try IW again to see if I can get better upgrades or should I stick with what I have now?

Regarding the training that improves drop rates and quality (Scavenger, Luck of the Draw, Quartermaster, Archeologist): how much investment in them is economically feasible?

Also how good is Assimilator? And which Hath perks should you consider next after you have Postage Paid, Innate Arcana and the HP/MP/SP+10% buffs?

So, I'm currently using a Legendary Arctic Rapier of Slaughter and its IW include Hollowforged, Butcher Lv. 4, Swift Strike Lv. 3, and Overpower Lv. 2.

And I've been upgrading it with materials since then. Should I use amnesia shards on my rapier and try IW again to see if I can get better upgrades or should I stick with what I have now?

I'd reforge. At your level, you'll want perfect IW. But I am a bit of an IW snob.

Regarding the training that improves drop rates and quality (Scavenger, Luck of the Draw, Quartermaster, Archeologist): how much investment in them is economically feasible?

Also how good is Assimilator? And which Hath perks should you consider next after you have Postage Paid, Innate Arcana and the HP/MP/SP+10% buffs?

invest in training only what you can easily earn in a few days, maybe a week or so. Perks - depends on your playstyle. Mage: prof-perk first, then ohter IA up to 4, then riddlemaster, then DD1. Melee: IA up to 3, then DD1. But what do I know?