Equipment Advice
Note that this page is largely out of date.
Equipment Advice
The propose of this page is to help new players by showing what good gear is, and the popular ways of being used.
General note #0:It's advised to see detailed information about the Weapons, and Armour before read this.
General note #1:Crits always trigger the equipment Proc of the main-hand weapon type. This means it's possible for a weapon A with less proc chance, but higher Attack Critical Bonus than Weapon B, actually trigger more the equipment Proc comparably to Weapon B. This means Attack Critical Bonus is always an important stat.
General note #3:Good equipment doesn't mean is the best one, so all the examples below don't always represent the best gear around.
General note #4:This is only advices, based on the experience of the older players (For now it's only cmdct's experience), no one are obligated on discarding other strategics.
General note #5:Don't bother sending messages to buy the excellent equipment linked here from the owners. Remember you're not the first to do it, more like the 1000ish user to do it.
Short Introduction about One-Handed Weapons and Shields
Axe
Axes are weapons have high Attack Damage Multiplier, and Bleed Wound values, so they are ideal weapons for dealing high damage to the enemies.
Their use is One-handed, or Dual Wielding, as main-hand or off-hand.
Most Important Stats:
Attack Damage Multiplier, Bleeding tick/chance/turns.
Advantages:
-The faster way to clear rounds is with them, since once a enemy is bleeding, the player can start hitting the next monster, leaving the other dying.
Disadvantages:
-Axes don't have parry, so they give less defense.
-The absence of PA, means that the damage from poison is pitiful, an important fact when dealing with bigger monsters.
Examples of good axes:
Note: In case of physical immune monsters like the RoB Gods, the important stats are Bleeding tick/chance/turns, Attack Accuracy Bonus. Example of an Anti-God Axe: [5]
Club
Clubs are weapons have high Physical Damage Multiplier, capable of dealing high damage to the enemies, but due it's proc (stun) in the end monsters die slower comparative to axes/rapiers and that means more damage from other enemies, and more MP spent from recasting supportive/healing/deprecating spells.
Their use is very unpopular.
Dagger
Daggers are weapons with low Attack Damage Multiplier, high Attack Accuracy Bonus, and high parry values, so they're incapable of dealing high damage to the enemies, but they offer the best protection of the one-handed weapons.
Their use is for Dual Wielding, as offhand.
Most Important Stats:
Parry, Attack Damage Multiplier, Bleeding tick/chance/turns.
Examples of good Daggers:
[6],
[7],
[8],
[9]
Rapier
Rapiers are weapons with low Attack Damage Multiplier, but because Penetrated Armour proc, they still deal high damage to the enemies. Their use is One-handed, or Dual Wielding, as main-hand or off-hand.
Most Important Stats:
Attack Damage Multiplier, Parry, Penetrate Armour chance/turns.
Advantages:
-Since they offer high Attack Accuracy Bonus, and parry, rapiers provide more protection.
-Excellent for dealing with bigger monsters, as well since Penetrated Armour provides extra damage from poison and spirit attacks.
Disadvantages:
-It's slower way to clear rounds comparative with axes.
-The extra damage from penetrated Armour doesn't appear always.
Examples of good Rapiers:
[10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]
Shortsword
Shortswords are weapons with balanced stats, and because of that like clubs their use is very unpopular.
Sword Chucks
Sword Chucks are weapons have high Attack Damage Multiplier, and Bleed Wound values, so they are ideal weapons for dealing high damage to the enemies like axes, but they differ in the fact they possess high Attack Critical Bonus, and don't possess Attack Accuracy Bonus. Their use is Dual Wielding, as main-hand or off-hand.
Most Important Stats:
Attack Damage Multiplier, Attack Critical Bonus, Bleeding tick/chance/turns.
Advantages:
-Due their high crit bonus, they're capable of dealing high damage to the enemies, and they increase the chance of triggering the main-hand proc.
Disadvantages:
-They miss more.
Examples of good Sword Chucks: [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]
Wakizashi
These weapons are only advisable to use in Niten Ichiryu fighting style, as off-hand, parry, Attack Damage Multiplier are the important stats.
Examples of good Wakizashis: [21], [22], [23]
Weapon Fighting Style Characters
One-Handed/Shield Style
Axe + Shield
Arena:Good.
GrindFest/Item world:Very good.
Ring of Blood:Not good.
Battlecasting:Not good.
Rapier + Shield
Arena:Very Good.
GrindFest/Item world:Very good.
Ring of Blood:Good, except Gods.
Shields
Shields are very simple to judge: The more block chance they have, the better they are. The most popular are Kites, since they have almost the same block chance as towers, but with much lower compromise stats.
Examples of good shields: [28], [29], [30], [31], [32]
Dual Wielding Style
Note all the setups below are good for whatever challenge is, except for the Ring of Blood Gods, which is covered by the 4th example. The benefits of the offhand slot are listed below the setups.
Setup examples
Axe + Rapier
Rapier + Axe
Rapier + Dagger
Axe + Rapier (Gods version)
Offhand
Axes
Since one of the primary benefits of an axe is the bleeding wound proc, these are usually not placed in the offhand. Like clubs, they often have good boosts to ADM/AAB (attack damage multiplier/accuracy bonus).
Clubs
Except for the occasional high ADM/AAB, these are not recommended. Stun is the least popular proc effect.
Daggers
The high parry on these is sometimes very useful. To a lesser extent, you can also use rapiers, shortswords, or wakizashis if they have enough parry.
Rapiers
[45] Parry is often decent and you may get good ADM/AAB. Normally used in main hand for the armor penetration proc effect.
Shortswords
[46] or [47] These two examples are low level but show that it is possible to have 7+ parry even from a low-level shortsword. Most use daggers, instead.
Sword Chucks
[48] or [49] Not very popular combination but since every critical hit triggers the proc on the primary weapon, this can sometimes be useful. There is no attack accuracy bonus.
Wakizashis
[50] Example showing parry of 9+ even at level 40. [51] Example with over 43% AAB. These are useful if you can find a good one and need both the accuracy and parry benefits.
Two-Handed
Two-Handed is a style, where it's supposed to hit several enemies each turn, done by Domino Strikes, and due this fact bleeding is the best equipment proc in this style, because once you trigger, the player don't need to get luck and hit the same monsters again. In other words the proc is always max availed, while Penetrated Armour and Stun aren't.
This also means that Estocs and Maces aren't as good as other equivalent Two-Handed weapons, so their very unpopular to use.
Another thing is that it's a faster style than One-handed, and Dual Welding, So they're popular to use for grinding.
Longsword
Longswords are the Two-Handed bleeding weapons with more popularity because they drop more common than the other 2 bleeding sisters. They have moderate attack damage multiplier, low attack accuracy, and good Bleed Wound values
Examples of Good Longswords: [52], [53], [54]
Katana
Katanas are bee seem as better Longswords, since they are like them, but with high attack damage multiplier, high attack accuracy, and good Bleed Wound values. They're also have another gift: They can be used in Niten Ichiryu Style. Considered the best Two-Handed weapons.
Examples of Good Katanas: [55], [56]
Scythe
Scythes are unpopular more because of their rarity, than because of their stats, they are Longswords with better attack damage multiplier, but lower attack accuracy.
Examples of Good Scythes: [57], [58], [59]
Doesn't matter what of the 3 type the player use, what's important is that the weapon should be capable of killing to death each monsters once his bleeding, and high damage multiplier to accelerate the process. In case of low level players, attack accuracy bonus can be preferable than attack damage multiplier because of lower base Physical Accuracy.
Arena:Not Good.
GrindFest/Item world:Very good.
Ring of Blood:Not good.
Battlecasting:Not good.
Niten Ichiryu Style
Is a style using a Katana paired with a Wakizashi. This style can be seem as Two-handed style, but with more raw power, and protection. A good Katana is more fundamental than a good Wakizashi. Biggest disadvantage is the lack of 2H/1H proficiency gain while in use.
Arena:Good.
GrindFest/Item world:Very good.
Ring of Blood:Good, but not great.(Not good for Gods)
Battlecasting:Not good. Examples of Good Niten sets: [60]+[61], [62]+[63]
BattleCaster Hybrid Style
Battlecaster is a style only effective for Ring of Blood, and due their rarity to drop it's better to use "non battlecaster" weapons rather using the battlecaster ones, since they usually have crappy stats, and doesn't cover the extra magic bonuses and low interference.
Note:Each point of interference lower magic damage by 1%. The only good setups are: Rapier+Shield, Rapier+Dagger, Niten??? The rapiers are the best because of the advantage of Penetrated Armour, allowing extra magic damage to the monsters.
Important stats: Rapier: Proc turns, Proc chance, interference, by this order, and in case of battlecaster versions, magic damage multiplier, and magic accuracy are also important. Shield: Block chance, interference, and in case of battlecaster versions, magic damage multiplier, and magic accuracy are also important. Dagger: The same as shields but parry instead of block.
Examples of good equipment for battlecasting: [64], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69], [70]
Mage Style
Not much to say, raw power is the best way for maging, meaning the popular/best staffs are the Ebony Staff of Destruction or Katalox Staff of Destruction. After that the electrical element is the most important of the 4 elements, since it's what the monsters are resistant. Examples of good staffs: [71], [72], [73]
Note in lower levels, Magic accuracy bonus can be better than Magic Damage Multiplier, and for those cases, "focus" should be used instead: [74]
Armour
Current top ranges seem
(link to Rend's page after revised)
Ethereals
Ethereals are a rare special type of weapons that have soul (and later, void) physical type damage, and possess no burden or interference, other than just for collection, since they usually don't have better stats than their equivalent non-ethereal, there's only 4 classes where their special ability is good to use:
Axe, Rapier, Estoc, Katana
Examples of Ethereals: [75],[76],[77],[78],[79],[80],[81],[82],[83]
See also: Fates elemental weakness to soul damage
Pre-nerfed equipment
Pre-nerfed equipment are gear that was generated before the H.V. 4.0 patch. They can have certain stats with values above of the current ranges, making some of them superior of anything equivalent that drops today. Any equipment with ID above 60000 is considered dropped after 4.0.
This is the equipment dropped just after the opening of 4.0. version and has an ID of 60070 [84] (deleted). [85] 60451 is close.
Examples of that awesome gear: [86], [87], [88], [89], [90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95], [96], [97]
5.0 Equipment
968400 or so is the last ID before the 5.0 patch. [98] January 30th 2011 drop after patch
