rangifer’s diary: pt. xxix
rusa rawr
rusa is my DEX spearwoman, who you may recognise from previous diary entries. As of this writing, she’s level 55, and the V-day event is putting a damper on her progress, as I focus on doing way too much grinding on my other characters. But, I’ve been concerned for rusa’s third-job future. Whatever will I spend my skill points on? Dragon Fury: Polearm? Spear Crusher?
Or perhaps… rawr. After all, it’s common knowledge that rawring at CDs is extremely effective; at max level, rawr has enough range to hit two of the platforms simultaneously! The issue is that each rawr consumes HP, and a lot of it. Even at max level (the HP consumption decreases with skill level), rawr drains the dragon knight for 30% of their MAXHP. So rawring as a method of training doesn’t really function without a priest to Heal the dragon knight. The issue is, then, a question of how effective my rawr could really be. If, as a STRless dragon knight, my rawr is just too pitiful, it’s likely not worth investing in (at least, not until later on), because who would want to continuously Heal me as I roar myself to pieces? Maybe if I cut a deal, like letting the priest take all of the loot, or have a priest ally (likely a STR priest, in that case) who is willing to train with me, it could work. But we need to know in more detail what we’re dealing with, in order to decide whether or not to focus on rawr as an attacking skill.
I’m going to attempt to project the damage that I would deal, at three different levels, using a mixture of gear I already own (this is most of the gear), and some gear that I don’t (but plan on getting anyways):
The gear
- Ravana Helmet │ +18 STR, +18 DEX (clean; I don’t have this yet).
- Sad Mask │ +6 DEX.
- Spectrum Goggles │ +4 DEX.
- Glittering Altaire Earrings │ +2 STR, +8 DEX (I don’t have these yet, so we’re assuming an average scrolling outcome for 60%s).
- Pink Gaia Cape │ +4 WATK, +6 DEX.
- Bathrobe for Women │ +12 STR (my sad robe).
- Silver Deputy Star │ +5 STR, +5 DEX.
- Green Mittens │ +12 WATK
- Green Christmas Sock │ +5 STR, +6 DEX.
- Ellin Savior’s Ring │ +1 STR, +1 DEX.
- Monster Book Ring ⟨Tier 1⟩ │ +1 STR, +1 DEX (I don’t have this yet either, but rusa should have no problem getting T1).
- Ring of Passion │ +3 STR, +3 DEX.
Total: +16 WATK, +47 STR, +58 DEX.
The buff
We’re assuming that I’m using Cider (+20 WATK).
The weapons
The weapons outline the three levels that we’re doing calculations for: level 81 is the earliest that rawr can be maxed out, level 85 is the first level that allows using the Sky Ski, and level 95 is the first level that allows using the Purple Surfboard.
- [1]White Mop │ speed 6, +100 WATK, +7 STR.
- Sky Ski │ speed 6, +109 WATK, +7 STR.
- Purple Surfboard │ speed 5, +111 WATK, +4 STR.
Footnotes for “The weapons”
- [↑] Editor’s note: rusa cannot actually wield the White Mop, as it has a STR requirement of 230+.
The base stats
The three DEX values are for levels 81, 85, and 95, respectively.
- STR: 35.
- DEX: 387; 407; 457.
The target
We’re going to be pessimistic and only compare against the stronger of the two CDs: Greatest Oldies. The weaker of the two, Latest Hits Compilation, is actually thrice as abundant (because exactly three spawn when a Greatest Oldies is slain), and has less WDEF (300 < 400).
- Level: 76.
- WDEF: 400.
- HP: 8 500.
The level won’t be an issue here, because the lowest level for rusa that we consider is 81 ≥ 76.
The results
Level 81
- Range (avg): 1 503〜2 134 (1 818.7).
- DPS: 1 377.8.
Level 85
- Range (avg): 1 711〜2 377 (2 043.6).
- DPS: 1 548.2.
Level 95
- Range (avg): 1 896〜2 550 (2 222.9).
- DPS: 1 807.2.
To rawr, or not to rawr?
Keeping in mind that this is just the pessimistic case (Greatest Oldies only), we might consider level 86 as the crucial level here; rusa would fully graduate MPQ at this level, and we would be expecting to do roughly 2 050 damage per-rawr-per-Greatest-Oldies. Greatest Oldies have 8 500 MAXHP, so that’s some 8 500∕2 050 ≈ 4.1 hits to kill them, on average. As I kind of expected, this is fairly impressive for an odd job like a STRless warrior, but is likely not going to cut it for those with more ordinary expectations.
Our main point of comparison is Dragon Fury: Polearm, so let’s check that out with the same assumptions, at level 81:
- Range (avg): 1 730〜2 525 (2 127.5).
- DPS: 2 954.9.
Now, that’s a lot more impressive, but keep in mind that there is no new weapon to use at level 85 (unlike with rawr, where rusa can switch to Sky Skis), that there is a much smaller reach (no massive AoE), and that Fury only hits up to 6 monsters at once. However, Fury is much more versatile (it basically just works anywhere), and doesn’t demand that a priest be surgically attached to the dragon knight’s side. So Fury is probably the way to go here, less exciting as it may be.
That being said, even if I do go Fury, I will likely put at least one SP into rawr, if only to be able to mist train with Tacgnol, if she ever needs someone with high accuracy to finish off monsters that are far too high level…
Farming cards & farming the event, all at once
If I can, I like to:
- farm cards,
- farm roses,
- farm event ETC items,
- & farm Love Tickets…
…all at the same time! One good spot for this is at The Burnt Land V, or, if I don’t need any more Lupin cards, The Burnt Land III:
cervid, farming
Victory! Oh, and I finished all three card sets of the monsters that spawn at The Burnt Land V!!
cervine, farming
Oh, and another good spot is at the Alcadno Lab, Area B-3:
hashishi and Gambolpuddy, the dynamic KPQ duo
My besinner, hashishi, and her DEXginner friend, Gambolpuddy (Taima, Tacgnol, Boymoder, Yotsubachan), make an excellent duo! They are both non-standard permabeginners, as they are both STRless!:
Here they are, in their first-ever KPQ:
Transcription of the above image
hashishi: guys sorry i only have 4 dex so i couldnt advance to rogue
so i cant use lucky 7 :/
Gambolpuddy: lmao
Our party was a bit of a strugglebus, as we were joined by a new magician by the name of xXHabibXx, and a new archer by the name of Maise, so I somehow ended up being the main DPS of the party! We also had some struggles with staying alive:
Lucky, neither hashishi nor Gambolpuddy have any accuracy issues, as they are pure LUK, and pure DEX, respectively. So with bit of extra effort and time, we were able to pull through these KPQs.
Grinding CDs with Gumby and ayunah
GM buffs were given out not too long after I logged on, and ally and permabeginner Gumby was hoping to use the GM buffs to grind at Taipei 101. I suggested heading to CDs, so we headed there as a duo, with me playing my woodswoman, capreolina. After a little bit, a priest by the name of ayunah, who already knew Gumby from PPQ, showed up and formed a trio with us:
We were there for quite a while (a little over two hours), and got a lot of EXP; enough for Gumby to be over 97% of the way to level 103(!), and enough for capre to be about 90% of the way to that same level!!
More farming cards & farming the event
I went back onto my STR priest, cervid, and headed to Golem’s Temple I for some more farming:
cervid farming @ Golem’s Temple I
Rose farming with Tacgnol
Tacgnol, Gambolpuddy/Taima’s F/P gishlet, came online, and she wanted to do some event farming. I was prepared to do the same with my I/L magelet, cervine, so by our elements combined, we formed a fierce Chunin-farming duo!:
Not pictured above are cervine and Tacgnol, for their appearances being obscured by the flurry of third-job mage spells…
Oddly enough, despite the fact that the map that we were in was actually an exact 50⧸50 split of Chunins & Kunoichis, we both ended up with 5⧸5 Kunoichi cards (with 1 or 2 cards left to spare), but only 2⧸5 Chunin cards each!:
And after quite a while of killing these slippery ninjas, we finally found one (1) rose:
Transcription of the above image
Tacgnol: A ROSE
cervine: :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We gave up on Chunins and decided to move to STDs, with me now playing cervid:
I was able to get to 4⧸5 STD cards pretty quickly, but once the final card proved to be somewhat elusive, I resorted to verbally intimidating the straw dummies. And it worked, almost immediately!:
OmokTeacher scrolls another Arcglaive
Ally and permabeginner extraordinaire OmokTeacher (Slime, Slimu, JumpQuest) has been trying to beat his completely perfect (118 WATK!!!!!) Blood Snowboard by scrolling Crimson Arcglaives. For those not familiar, Crimson Arcglaives are extraordinarily difficult to craft, but OmokTeacher managed to muster yet another 400 Crimson Woods. And with Baby Typhons being fixed (so that they are now killable), he was able to farm up the Typhon Feathers necessary to complete the next Crimson Arcglaive. Much to everyone’s excitement, the Arcglaive came out with the maximum possible WATK (107)!!! So we all gathered in what is a nearly religious experience for odd-jobbers, scrolling an Arcglaive:
Aaaand it boomed on the first slot. :(
Oh well, we’ll get ’em next time.
Some more KPQ with hashishi & Gambolpuddy
hashishi and Gambolpuddy went out for another few KPQs, including one with a swordsman by the name of Thrusting, who left our party after one PQ that he described as “miserable”, because he couldn’t contribute in combat the entire time:
Transcription of the above image
[system message]: ‘Thrusting’ has joined the party.
Thrusting: i am like 80 int
legit cant do shit
hashishi: wow ur smart
brains of the party
Gambolpuddy: go read a book nerd
A little more CD grinding, with peelings
And for just a last little grinding sesh, I headed to CDs and found a dragon knight by the name of peelings who was grinding there. I asked if I could join their party, and they kindly obliged. I’m not sure whether or not to consider what peelings was doing to be “solo” grinding or not:
Transcription of the above image
capreolina: youre controlling both?
peelings: ye
capreolina: thats talent
peelings: holding a button AHAhA
capreolina: i can barely control
one at a time
lolll
peelings: XDD
In any case, peelings was very quick about rebuffing HS and HB on me, and was very nice. And I got enough EXP to bring capre to level 103!!! Yayyy!!
<3