So, the Darkdrift...

[TrueArchery]

Just liking it for the looks. Never bothered with it in-depth, but I'm kinda curious about this:

Technically, it just asks to be infused. Low scaling, base-damage rather high for a Katana. 25 Dex, but ehh... still.
However, since it has shield-piercing: Is that effect exclusive to the physical part? Meaning that an infused Darkdrift would get less shieldpiercing (natural chip due to partially elemental damage aside) than the uninfused one?

Oh, and using Magic Weapon and such "ruins" the hidden blade, right?

[hachimagi]

IMO buffed Darkdrift is one of the coolest looking things in the game. It just looks like you are swinging the fiery effect around with a slightly visible colored blade. You can try using a resin if you arent sure what i mean. I am 99% sure that shield piercing effect applies to all dmg, but never tested it. And yeah, its a great weapon if infused. (just as almost any katana tho)

[Professor Chaos]

As far as i know, it looses its shield piercing ability when it gets infused!
I was looking out for a katana to my likings that i could infuse with a dark effect and darkdrift was on my list for a long time.
For me, it felt underwhelming in the end, especially since it has rather high stat requirements.
Still though fashion > stats, so if you like it that much ... does it even matter?!

[hachimagi]

Message me if you wanna test the shield piercing, I also got kinda curious

[Professor Chaos]

Nevermind mind my comment, i must have confused something - the wikis dont say anything about loosing the shield piercing when infused.

[TrueArchery]

Originally posted by JumperCzech:

Message me if you wanna test the shield piercing, I also got kinda curious

Yeah thanks, another day, tomorrow maybe.

I guess a Fire-infused Darkdrift vs a Gyrm Greatshield should make the results clear enough.

[WickedRequiem]

It's an A scaled dex weapon, so 28dex isn't that unreasonable (since that'll be the stat that you'll be pumping, anyways).

It's durability's only 20 :(, which is rather unfortunate for PvE (obviously not a problem for pvp).

Does anyone know if it's shield piercing ability works against PvE, as well? Quite a few number of knights in the game, especially towards the end.

[myoptic]

Originally posted by WickedRequiem:

It's an A scaled dex weapon, so 28dex isn't that unreasonable (since that'll be the stat that you'll be pumping, anyways).

It's durability's only 20 :(, which is rather unfortunate for PvE (obviously not a problem for pvp).

Does anyone know if it's shield piercing ability works against PvE, as well? Quite a few number of knights in the game, especially towards the end.

An A scaling in dex is like 45-55%. Thats not that great. Lots of dex weapons infuse well because dex scaling is crap.

[TrueArchery]

So, testing results:

Direct hit, 2hR2, uninfused Darkdrift +10(437 AR): 483 damage
Blocked hit, 2hR2, uninfused vs Gyrm Greatshield: 382 damage

Direct hit, 2hR2, Fire Darkdrift +10 (286 phys AR + 200 Fire AR): 534 damage
Blocked hit, 2hR2, Fire: 208 damage

So about 80% of the usual damage goes through the shield in case of the uninfused one (I remember reading that value elsewhere, too, so seems fine).
About 40% in case of the infused one in this testing (it should be noted that direct hits with the Fire-infused one can also vary a lot depending on the target's Fire-resistance, so this isn't a generally valid %). Usually chip damage would make it a bit better as almost noone uses 100% elemental shields.

Result: Infusions kill the shield-piercing effect.

However:
Comparing the physical ARs to the damage through the shield:
Uninfused one: 382/437 = 0.87
Fire one: 208/286 = 0.72

It should be the same ratio, unless something slipped my mind, so this is a bit weird.
Idea: Maybe the Fire-part would still pierce the shield, but the Gyrm Greatshield prevents the Fire-part? That would completely defeat the point of "shieldpiercing abilities" though...

Thanks Miyazaki.
Well anyway, the important result and lesson is still obvious enough. Simply don't make weapons with shieldpiercing R2s elemental.

[hachimagi]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

However:
Comparing the physical ARs to the damage through the shield:
Uninfused one: 382/437 = 0.87
Fire one: 208/286 = 0.72

It should be the same ratio, unless something slipped my mind, so this is a bit weird.
Idea: Maybe the Fire-part would still pierce the shield, but the Gyrm Greatshield prevents the Fire-part? That would completely defeat the point of "shieldpiercing abilities" though...

I am not sure how exactly do phys. defences work in this game but I think they mostly reduce the damage by a flat ammount that diminishes at higher ammounts of defence. The damage after block is probably reduced by a certain ammount of defence and thats why the percentages dont match.