My Game Guide

THIS is a work in progress. Be patient with slow progress please.

Raising Minimum damage decreases the weapon damage range. This makes the damage more consistent and reduces the amount of weak hits. But it does not increase the highest damage that can be dealt directly. 2 pts. of Min damage will add approx. 1 damage average to your swing. It will assist most often in killing unarmored, weaker foes by dispatching them quickly and consistently.

Raising Maximum damage increases the weapon damage range. This makes the weapon more powerful and increases the amount of strong hits. But it makes the weapon damage inconsistent. 2 pts. of Max damage will add approx. 1 damage average to your swing. It will assist most often in killing armored, boss-type enemies where a hard hit is needed to bust through armor.

Balance is a bonus that is very handy for characters without a lot of Dex. Weapon balance improves the range of damage your weapon uses. The effectiveness of balance depends entirely on the range of damage your weapon has. For 1% Balance to be equal to +1 Max/Min, a weapon must have an actual damage range of roughly 50 points. (1 to 50, or 20 to 70 for instance) Balance is hard-capped at 80%, so if your character has a lot of DEX, there is no point to improving it with additional balance on the weapon.

Critical Increase is a bonus that can be maximized by character build. If your character is designed to do lots of Critical damage, this bonus can be very helpful. The advantage of extra Critical fades against weaker foes, as your Critical rate is hard-capped at 30%. But against bosses, extra Critical will keep your Critical rate high even against foes with lots of Protection against damage.
1% Critical can loosely be considered worth 1 to 4% your weapon’s actual damage, depending how highly you have leveled the Critical Skill. To be directly equal, in total damage, to Max or Min damage increase, you would need a weapon with actual average damage around 50 for a basic player, but only 13 for a player with maximized Critical skill.

DUrability is the most valuable and most expensive change type. Most often an upgrade will reduce durability. Some upgrades (like for instruments) can actually improve durability. Adjusting a weapon’s durability will change its overall worth. Regardless whether you are using a low-cost blacksmith that breaks points often, or a high-cost one that is expensive to use, lowering the weapon’s durability will decrease its lifespan and value. Note that it is percentage based: A durability -1 on a weapon with 10 Durability has lost 10% of its value. A durability -1 on a weapon with 2 durability, lost 50% of that value. To this extent, weapons can endure a durability loss easiest when they are new. Either way, a Durability decrease is a very big expense that should only be considered if you know you will be changing weapons fairly soon, or are willing to spend the heavy extra resources to use. Similarly, a Durability increase may not be glamorous - and at times it can be more expensive than the original weapon’s durability was - but it lets you keep your already-upgraded weapon. An increase to durability, again, is most valuable when a weapon has low durability. It is less valuable on a fresh weapon, though any increase to durability will decrease the necessary repair frequency - a nice bonus.

STAGE 2 ANALYSIS

If your character has a lot of balance, then Maximum damage increase is worth more, and minimum damage increase is worth less. Both of these factors are important; with a high balance character, you can add more maximum damage to the weapon, and add other bonuses at the expense of minimum damage, to get a better weapon overall.

Conversely, if your character has poor balance, then increasing the minimum damage will be effective, and raising the maximum damage will not be as effective.

You can also adjust the value of the balance modifier by raising or dropping minimum and maximum damage. By tuning a weapon with added maximum and reduced minimum damage, the Balance bonus becomes more effective. Simiilarly, raising the damage minimum and lowering the maximum will make a balance reduction less expensive.

Critical bonuses can be made useless by having 30% chance to crit on a monster already. This is common against weaker foes with high ranks of Critical Hit.

On the other hand, a loss from Critical Hit means much less when facing down a Boss with lots of protection, and no personal ranks of Critical Hit. Many strong foes will protect away your Crits if your Critical Hit rank is low, so a reduction of chance to Crit is not really a loss at all - no crits is no crits! This is FLATLINE logic, simply assuming you will NEVER critical.

STAGE 3

When deciding which mods to put on a weapon, your concerns should be:

1. How much do I plan to use this weapon? Is this my “one weapon” for now? Do I plan to get this enchanted? Or is this just a piece of junk that is temporary until I get something much better, that I might as well improve?

If you’re dumping in time, save up for the more proficient upgrades that have a bigger effect, since a weapon only gets 5 upgrades total.

But if you aren’t willing to put time into the weapon, you should go for low-proficiency-cost upgrades that you can benefit from, right away.

2. How much do I plan to spend on this weapon? Is this my bankroll in my hand? Or am I on a really slim budget?

If you have money to spend, then you should get the expensive upgrades, to maximize the weapon, even if they get pricey.

But if you’re on a budget, look for cost-effective upgrades instead.

3. What is my character design? Do I focus on Critical? Is my Balance poor? Am I a boss-killer, or a mob crusher?

If you have Critical leveled, you should consider Critical Upgrades.
An improvement to Balance should be considered if it is poor enough to hinder your damage.
If you focus on killing bosses and piercing armor, you should raise the Max damage of the weapon.
And if you swipe through weaker mobs, Minimum damage can ease the job.

4. Am I a newbie stats-wise, or an utter pro? Do I already have 80% balance and 30% Critical, or do I need all the help I can get?

Of course, if your Critical and Balance are already great, you can focus on other upgrades. If they are really good, you can even absorb a loss on the weapon in them.

But if you need the help with Criticals and Balance, you should get it. Don’t look at what you dream to be; look at what you are.