To Soul or not to Soul?

HousePet

So I've got my Wild Hunter to level 199 and I'm still using the Frozen gear. I bored myself almost to death with the Wu Tien Mountain (characters should get 100 willpower points for each time they repeat the time attack...) and now have a Potent Red Tiger Soul (+3 att and whatever the skill is).
I'm wondering if I should use it on the Frozen Crossbow or save it for a later level crossbow.
I have no idea how hard it is to get an Absolab weapon (or when I should), or how hard it is to get a decent soul, so I really have no idea what to do here. Haven't played since ages ago, so this content is all new to me.

YinYangX

I'd probably use it is since both the Frozen gear and the Red Tiger Soul aren't really late/end game, unless you're planning on upgrading to Pensalir/CRA soon. Soul's aren't that hard to come by once you're able to solo the dailies bosses + Cygnus.
As for when you should get Abso, probably as soon as convenient? Either when you can afford to buy one or have friends/guild/ally mates carry you.

HousePet

Pensalir appears to be worse than Frozen, except that it can be starred more.

Equipment progression seems way more complicated than it used to be.

Fuhreak

HousePet wrote: »

Pensalir appears to be worse than Frozen, except that it can be starred more.

Equipment progression seems way more complicated than it used to be.

Scrolls/Stars/Potential/Flames (Bonus stats) are more important than the raw equipment stats.
This is especially true at 15+ stars. Get the highest level gear you can (Pensalir or better) and focus on upgrading it.

Higher level equips allow for more stars and better flames/potential. So for now you'll want to grab a pensalir or CRA set and just focus on that.

YinYangX

Last I remember, order of equipment progression (from best/end game down) [could be a bit wrong/off]:
Arcane > Abso > Sweetwater > Ranmaru > CRA > Empress > Pensalir > lvl gear going down.
(CRA top + bottome > any overall)

And like what Fuhreak said, scrolling/stars/potential/flames(bstats) contribute to range a lot more than the base equipment stats. Like I'm running a full Pensalir set and I'm matching the damage of most of my guildmates/bl mainly cause I just have really good potential on my gear.

HousePet

Thanks, I've been carrying around a full set of Pensalir gear and just holding on to the ones with the best Bonus stats. (Using the Gloves and Boots already, as Frozen doesn't have any.)
Its been looking at bit iffy as to whether starred up Pensalir gear will compete with the Frozen gear, as I'm not sure I can afford even 10 stars on everything and the set bonus on Frozen looks better. I'll try starring up another piece of Pensalir and compare it.
I'm a bit worried that gear appears to be all boss sourced. Grinding bosses is probably the quickest way to get me fed up with the game.

YinYangX

HousePet wrote: »

Thanks, I've been carrying around a full set of Pensalir gear and just holding on to the ones with the best Bonus stats. (Using the Gloves and Boots already, as Frozen doesn't have any.)
Its been looking at bit iffy as to whether starred up Pensalir gear will compete with the Frozen gear, as I'm not sure I can afford even 10 stars on everything and the set bonus on Frozen looks better. I'll try starring up another piece of Pensalir and compare it.
I'm a bit worried that gear appears to be all boss sourced. Grinding bosses is probably the quickest way to get me fed up with the game.

It's a hard knock life. =l
But you got to do the hard stuff to get the good stuff. What world/server are you on? If you're on Scania, my guild runs most of the weekly bosses needed for towards end game gears.

HousePet

Mardia.

Tried upgrading the Pensalir archer armour up, as its got some extra dex and +2or3% all stats as bonus stats. Cost me 1/3rd of my mesos to get to 10 stars and its still worse than the Frozen armour at 8 stars (less armour and drops my raw damage by 3000 (but the damage might just be from losing the top tier Frozen set bonus)). I thought that might be the case. Looks like a lot of money is needed to get it to better than what I'm currently using.

I might just get to level 200, have a look at what that opens up, and then go back to all those things I've missed due to the Mega Burning Event. I'm sure I've missed midgame gear in some slots from skipping half the game. Then I'll get into those bosses and see if I've collected enough money to make Pensalir work, or just skip it.

ChroniusNightmare

How about trying to beat normal Hilla a bunch to get the Necromancer equip set for level 120? It's gives 15% Boss Damage wearing the entire set (Hat, Gloves, Boots, Overall, weapon).

HousePet

I may have thrown away a necro crossbow because it looked crap. (Its annoying that you have to equip something to see the set bonusses. I completely forgot to look at them.)
The Frozen set gives:
All stats +15.
Attack +42.
IED +30%.
From one of the various wiki the Necro set gives:
All stats +8.
Attack +10.
Boss Damage +20%.
Necro equipment also has much lower base stats compared to the Frozen stuff. Is +20% boss damage worth it?

ChroniusNightmare

Actually, all you need to do is right click the item to see the bonuses. The Necro set is a decent set if you're unfunded and can't quite afford the better 150+ equips. I suppose the same can be said about the Frozen set. Heck, you can probably go the whole game without having to change your gear up until 5th job where you're going to need 100 stars on your equips for advancement.

HousePet

Can confirm that is the case. I just got to 200.
Although you start taking a bit too much damage from enemies after level 190.