Spears...

[PerfectLife]

Brittnay... just kidding, actual spears.

So, Bladed Lance is great, it's clearly the best spear in raw stats, however, the only reason I use spears is for their stagger boost. That way I can have my jump garb stagger most enemies in one ATB bar allowing my Shadow Trooper to pound them to dust. (I hate Artemis Arrows and MM makes me dizzy I only use these on super bosses if required, although, Magic Slash is actually better than bot... I digress) So, the only reason to use Bladed Lance is perhaps on the Ereish fight for longer OC and to make staggering easier, but it's interchangable with Chaos Blade more or less.

I dunno. Just seems to be kind of a let down reward for finishing all the hardest monsters in the game, am I missing something?

[Faint]

it's Fangs

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by lunarvida:

it's Fangs

Who is Fang? She sounds dumb.... seriously, no joke it's Fang's but who cares if it's a let down.

[Faint]

Fine I'll go into detail.... all the hardest to get stuff is a letdown in this game.... unless you know how to use it. The spear is great at staggering meaning its the perfect weapon to use on the two superbosses (the ones that need to be staggered 5 times in a row before they take damage) which its mainly for. Aeronite for instance has a time limit on his stagger that is stupid hard with any other weapon on HARD difficulty. The fact that you get it on NG+ only also should have told you that they expect you to Upgrade it....... once the spear is upgraded the two superbosses are stupid easy even on hard, thats the only real reason for the spear but its enough to make it special, the fact that it's Fangs just gives people who like the game and care for the characters a little more reward, the same could be said about Noel's spear though a lot fewer people like Noel compared to badass, almostly certainly a man in another life, member of the LGBT community, possible daughter of Squall and Rinoa (almost certainly not the case but she looks like a mix between them) Fang

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by lunarvida:

Fine I'll go into detail.... all the hardest to get stuff is a letdown in this game.... unless you know how to use it. The spear is great at staggering meaning its the perfect weapon to use on the two superbosses (the ones that need to be staggered 5 times in a row before they take damage) which its mainly for. Aeronite for instance has a time limit on his stagger that is stupid hard with any other weapon on HARD difficulty. The fact that you get it on NG+ only also should have told you that they expect you to Upgrade it....... once the spear is upgraded the two superbosses are stupid easy even on hard, thats the only real reason for the spear but its enough to make it special, the fact that it's Fangs just gives people who like the game and care for the characters a little more reward, the same could be said about Noel's spear though a lot fewer people like Noel compared to badass, almostly certainly a man in another life, member of the LGBT community, possible daughter of Squall and Rinoa (almost certainly not the case but she looks like a mix between them) Fang

I honestly like you, we could be friends. Thanks, bro.

[LightGecko]

Visually I prefer the Demon Claw or Endless Paradox for spears. I can't remember how Ramuh's Horn looks like, so I may switch to that on Hard.

Edit: Well, I just checked out Ramuh's Horn, and I still prefer Demon's Claw.

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by LightGecko:

Visually I prefer the Demon Claw or Endless Paradox for spears. I can't remember how Ramuh's Horn looks like, so I may switch to that on Hard.

Edit: Well, I just checked out Ramuh's Horn, and I still prefer Demon's Claw.

I may just drop spears and go back to melee sab/tank magic. I'm getting kind of bored with just how mindless jump spamming is.

[LightGecko]

I don't know about you, but spamming Aerora to stagger is way more boring to me. Jump is stylish.

Also, according to this topic:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/681990-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii/68616874

You should be using Shadow Trooper as your staggering garb, because the damage boost is only applied to the hit that staggers the enemy, e.g. the Jump hit that causes the actual stagger.

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by LightGecko:

I don't know about you, but spamming Aerora to stagger is way more boring to me. Jump is stylish.

Also, according to this topic:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/681990-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii/68616874

You should be using Shadow Trooper as your staggering garb, because the damage boost is only applied to the hit that staggers the enemy, e.g. the Jump hit that causes the actual stagger.

Interesting, that means 1st Class is the only garb with bonus damage while staggered. I'd probably be better off using Rhapsody or Amazon or Mi'qote depending on the situation if not 1st Class.

[LightGecko]

Candy Raver is pretty good too. Gives damage boost when your health is high.

For (near) max stats (5000 STR) endgame, I'd be using a Str+ garb with a dual blade weapon.

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by LightGecko:

Candy Raver is pretty good too. Gives damage boost when your health is high.

For (near) max stats (5000 STR) endgame, I'd be using a Str+ garb with a dual blade weapon.

I was no where near that, only like +900 from an easy and normal run. Got to Bunny+ and then stalled out because I was so done with needing custom schemata for super bosses. :P Then steam sale.... so yeah, it might be a few weeks before I go back to making progress.

[chrcoluk]

dual blade wapons are completely pointless, there is a thoery someone posted on gamefaqs they are good with maxed out stats, but after I maxed out my stats on the ps3 they remained poor. I think the only benefit is the dual hit may help stagger a bit and abilities that are good based on # of hits would improve, but they defenitly not better dps. e.g. if you have 8900 raw stats, and have the 5k limit in place, and then equip the dual weapon, it wouldnt drop to 4950 str but instead drop to 2500 str. Due to how the mechanics work 5000 str does way more than double damage of 2500 str.

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by chrcoluk:

dual blade wapons are completely pointless, there is a thoery someone posted on gamefaqs they are good with maxed out stats, but after I maxed out my stats on the ps3 they remained poor. I think the only benefit is the dual hit may help stagger a bit and abilities that are good based on # of hits would improve, but they defenitly not better dps. e.g. if you have 8900 raw stats, and have the 5k limit in place, and then equip the dual weapon, it wouldnt drop to 4950 str but instead drop to 2500 str. Due to how the mechanics work 5000 str does way more than double damage of 2500 str.

The point is when you have a lot of items to boost the 2500 back up closer to 5k so you essentially have like +3.5k that hits twice. Double weapons are very good you just need to min max before they become OP.

[chrcoluk]

even with items it caps at 2.5k.

But I think one 5k hit would still beat 2 3.5k hits.

[LightGecko]

Originally posted by chrcoluk:

even with items it caps at 2.5k.

Fortunately, that's not how the game calculates the final str.

Example:
Siegfried garb (+10% str), Fighter's emblem (max) +20% str, weapon ability -50% str
If your raw stats is 5000 str before any str% modifier, then with the setup above, your final strength would be:
5000 x (100 + 10 + 20 - 50)/100 = 4000 str (5k str limit doesn't apply, because your str is still below 5k)
So an Attack with 1.0x multiplier would give 8000 damage (2 x 4000) before resistances.

Compare that with non-dual blade setup:
5000 x (100 + 10 + 20)/100 = 8000 str, rounded down to 5000 str due to the limit.
Attack with 1.0x multiplier deals 5000 damage before resistances.

So dual blade weapon is far superior at max STR.

It gets even better with the Crocea Mors, since it only has STR -30% or -35% (can't remember), so you get even more *effective* str.

[chrcoluk]

str x attack doesnt = damage.