Curse

Dregos · Jun 06, 2005, 08:53 PM // 20:53

Just want to pick you brains regarding which weapon mods are good. What are good offensive mods, defensive and all around good mods? Mainly interested in melee weapons and bows, but casters feel free to talk about wands and staves too.

Jade · Jun 06, 2005, 09:05 PM // 21:05

Alas, as far as I've been able to discern, you cannot have upgrades on wands. But as for staves I enjoy a staff head that ups my total energy and a wrapping that ups my fire ele skill. Of course it all depends on what the staff already has on it. The one I'm using now has casting speed and skill recharge of 20% when using fire skills. The staff has crappy damage but honestly how often do I use the staff to attack someone? I'd have to say....... never. (when I solo that is, partying is different) And on that note I'd just like to add something that everyone has prolly heard too much of lately. Ele's Rock!

P.S. Someone's prolly already said it, but when you have an ele who's main speciality is fire, toss in a little earth and soloing becomes a cake walk.

Red Locust · Jun 06, 2005, 09:25 PM // 21:25

For wands and staves, the preferred mods are 20% longer enchantments and 20% chance of faster skill cast or recharge. I myself would kill for a 20% enchantment boost.

Naz Warhammer · Jun 07, 2005, 07:08 AM // 07:08

For melee weapons, i think the best mods would be >+20 health bonuses (which would be great for tanks) and amour bonues (esp >+5 AC). Or those that lengthen condition effects (eg sundering and poison).

Improvement to skill recharge/casting or armour penetration are great theoretically but the chance to happen is usually too small to make it worthwhile for warrior primaries

I dont see whats so great about vampiric or zealous mods. The health/ energy degen is scary

Lestat Requiem · Jun 07, 2005, 11:59 AM // 11:59

The godly mod for me is melee lightning damage

because it offer me 25% armor penetration on all hits hehe

Ensign · Jun 07, 2005, 04:55 PM // 16:55

Zealous, Vampiric, Sundering, and Furious are all useful weapon prefixes under the right circumstances, and I stick to Defense and Enchanting suffixes. Elemental damage is useful with Conjure, otherwise it's a wasted slot - well, I guess you could abuse some PvE maps with 'em.

On staves it's a choice between Insightful and Defensive staff heads, and Enchanting and Defense wrappings. Which to use depends on the build, really, though I generally do not use Insightful over Defensive.

Peace,
-CxE

relientK_fan · Jun 07, 2005, 04:58 PM // 16:58

I find Barbed on swords, or Cruel are really nice for my build anyways. I combine them with Sever Artery and Gash, and it's on!

Moskel · Jun 07, 2005, 05:12 PM // 17:12

5/-1 Vampiric is by far the best damage upgrade, that 5 damage bypasses armor and heals you. Combine that with skills like Flurry, Berzerker, and Hundred Blades and Warriors can actually do decent PvP damage. Good luck on getting one though, they are few/far between and in VERY high demand.

Why is it such good damage? Well lets say you already have 12 swordsmanship, if you got a +1 swordsmanship hilt (100% of the time) that would amount to about a 4% damage bonus before armor. Lets say you hit your target for even 20 damage after AC, that +5 more would be a 25% boost in your damage output. 5/-1 vampiric is far more important than +15% damage while H>50%.

Barbed/Cruel hilts might be nice for PvE but in PvP if your bleeding/wound time isn't long enough you've got issues killing your target. Unless they are removing conditions you should be able to overlap it as is, and if they are removing them your added duration does nothing.

Dregos · Jun 07, 2005, 07:17 PM // 19:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moskel

5/-1 Vampiric is by far the best damage upgrade, that 5 damage bypasses armor and heals you. Combine that with skills like Flurry, Berzerker, and Hundred Blades and Warriors can actually do decent PvP damage. Good luck on getting one though, they are few/far between and in VERY high demand.

If I'm not mistaken, only bows and hammers go up to 5 vampiric, swords and axes go up to 3 max.

Here's a delima. Which axe haft would you choose?
1. of fortitude (28 health)
2. of axe mastery +1 (17%)

Ensign · Jun 07, 2005, 08:27 PM // 20:27

Personally I'd bleed someone dry for that fortitude axe grip, find a cheap +4 armor (or get lucky and find a +5 armor) grip, and be done with it. Even a 20% Axe Mastery part is pretty lame (it translates to less than one damage per hit, and only when using skills), and fortitude is so valuable on the open market that I wouldn't think of using them with cheap armor pieces around.

Peace,
-CxE

ShadowMaster · Jun 07, 2005, 10:19 PM // 22:19

I enjoy my 20/20 max damage air staff, have a +5 energy head, and a +20 health wrapping, on the lookout for the +30 health wrapping....

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 10:39 PM // 22:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lestat Requiem

The godly mod for me is melee lightning damage

because it offer me 25% armor penetration on all hits hehe

You trying to say that a lightning damage weapon upgrades causes 25% armour penetration on all your attacks? Are you sure? I'm quite certain few people have confirmed this to be false in the past or is that really true? If so i'm getting a shocking bow string straight away... but I don't think its true otherwise every single person will have lightning damage mod.

Can someone just double confirm me.

Ensign · Jun 07, 2005, 10:43 PM // 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Howling Wind

Can someone just double confirm me.

Lightning damage does not have inherent armor penetration. Several of the Elementalist's Air skills have armor penetration. A lightning bow string does nothing other than change the damage type to ignore resistances.

Peace,
-CxE

Howling Wind · Jun 07, 2005, 11:57 PM // 23:57

Ah okay now thats cleared, its just plain elemental damage, it would pretty unbalanced as well to let lightning have armour penetration and the others...just adding elemental damage.

Oh and an ideal weapon mod would be a fortitude grip of +30 health...nice....
A weapon I desire greatly and would pay good money for would be
Short/Halfmoon bow
15+ % dmg while health above 15%

Moskel · Jun 08, 2005, 05:52 PM // 17:52

All vampiric go up to 5/-1, you'll just need to shop around a bit longer or find a bigger farm to plow. Happy hunting. Don't believe me? Go take a look at RPG Trader and search for vampiric, you'll see plenty of 4/-1 axe/sword/hammer around, you may see a 5/-1 but those don't sell too often (well maybe on hammers, if I want knockdown I'll use gale, I want massive two handed usable damage powers).