21 FA and brandish.

So the typical dawn warrior build says to max rage and booster, leaving FA at 21. FA is probably not going to be used anyways.

I was wondering, does 21 FA even benefit brandish at all? I heard max FA increases brandish dpm slightly, but I think 21 FA would lower it. Any confirmation?

Also, I'd like to know if I should even max FA.

Someone with maxed brandish and FA should time their kill time with a low level weapon in boss raid lord pirate room. Then we'll know which is better.

Just be a man and leave Rage a 0. I don't plan on putting a single point into it; I'd rather pay 500k for 13 hours worth of Warrior Elixirs than max out a skill that not only lowers my DPS, but also grows annoying at bosses that dispel. Having one less skill to cast is kind of nice.

Just be a man and leave Rage a 0. I don't plan on putting a single point into it; I'd rather pay 500k for 13 hours worth of Warrior Elixirs than max out a skill that not only lowers my DPS, but also grows annoying at bosses that dispel. Having one less skill to cast is kind of nice.

How does Rage lower your DPS?

How does Rage lower your DPS?

If you max out Rage, then you won't be maxing out Final Attack (Maxed FA raises your DPS, whereas 21 FA might lower it) unless you take points out of booster, and that's just annoying.

In my build, I did 12 Booster, 19 Rage and max Final Attack. Even if I don't use FA much, it does come in handy sometimes, and it's just nice to have in case. Unlike with Explorers, it doesn't hurt you to get it.

It's not a big deal AT ALL having to recast Booster more often. It's not like it lasts that long at max anyway. And I love Rage. It's vastly superior to having to waste money on pots when you get a skill that gives it to you. One less Use slot wasted. Tons of money saved over time.

Booster is always the lame skill that should be given the short stick, if needed.

^I think the opposite way. Booster is a skill you'll use almost everywhere, sometimes rebuff means losing pin, take damage, annoyance, and stuff. So I'd rather recast it every 200secs instead of 120secs.

Dawn Warriors don't get Stance or Powerguard. I doubt you'll be "pinning" anything.

With that said I'm going FA-less.

Hmmmm, waste my time with a final attack, or get an extra brandish in...

Ohhhhhhhhh thats a toughy.

im using points that would be in fa to max powerstrike, which i left at 9 till 63 because it hasnt been useful. anything less than max fa will be far less useful than max and since brandish looks like it gets a marginal boost if any, anything less than max will be practically pointless. so far i have 1 in for looks and will probably end with 5 or 10 depending on whether i want my sprite buddy maxed or not. you know what, pineapple it, im maxing sprite.

[rant]
instead of powerstrike, i did iron body for 30 less damage from low level monsters. it made my hp pots last ~1.5x as long because i have equips without def anyways. call it dumb but if you used powerstrike without special circumstances (ie... 1 monster between you and the rope to a platform with a mob) you did it wrong. i only maxed it after thinking about goby training. 10ks will be nice against houses. and if fa is useful at gobies, youre doing it wrong.
[/rant]

leave fa at 1. make kittens happy.

Hmmmm, waste my time with a final attack, or get an extra brandish in...

Ohhhhhhhhh thats a toughy.

What's this supposed to mean? Who cares if you get an extra Brandish when your DPS with Brandish+FA will top it

^I think the opposite way. Booster is a skill you'll use almost everywhere, sometimes rebuff means losing pin, take damage, annoyance, and stuff. So I'd rather recast it every 200secs instead of 120secs.

Pinning what exactly? That's a valid point for a Hero, maybe, but not a Dawn Warrior. What boss are we going to be fighting that needs to be pinned? I won't be fighting Tengu (well, maybe sometimes), Anego or Bigfoot. Papulatus is the only boss I can think of, and he isn't hard to pin. He pretty much stays like a good boy as long as you don't just sit there and try staring him to death. Booster takes like a second to cast; it doesn't mess up anything.

Dawn Warriors don't get Stance or Powerguard. I doubt you'll be "pinning" anything.

Plus, this. Only makes the whole bossing thing much worse for us.

less booster ftw

So I'd rather recast it every 200secs instead of 120secs.

I have 20 booster on my Paladin and 13 on my Night Lord and the difference isn't even noticeable to me. Spent most of 3rd job with 9 booster, too (put it to 13 at the end to match Meso Up) I spent the other points in Endure because it saves more money. (+mp regen) I think my DW is gonna go FA over Booster as well.

As for pinning, I dunno about Brandish vs. Blast but my NL is way better at pinning than my Paladin just because TT gets 6 KB attempts instead of 1.

What's this supposed to mean? Who cares if you get an extra Brandish when your DPS with Brandish+FA will top it

Even if Brandish+FA is mathematically stronger than Brandish (and I'd like to see numbers on this), if the difference isn't more than 5% or something you'll probably just end up wasting swings as you get knocked away from bosses because you don't have Stance.

Even if Brandish+FA is mathematically stronger than Brandish (and I'd like to see numbers on this), if the difference isn't more than 5% or something you'll probably just end up wasting swings as you get knocked away from bosses because you don't have Stance.

Actually, FA activates and hits almost instantaneously after brandish's 2nd hit. It's just that there's a slight delay after it hits (so it's not like FA has no cast time).

You can see it here in this video (skip to about 1:10): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpgIboK3bcg

It hits much faster than a regular fighter's FA. I have a crusader and yes, it's extremely annoying to get knocked back and your FA activates, wasting time and such. But this FA with brandish seems to activate instantly, so if your brandish hits then your FA hits.

Or at least thats what it looks like

Personally, I'm getting Max FA, 12 Booster, and 19 Rage.

Max FA is for fun reasons and when bossing, it can't hurt.

11 Booster is because I don't mind recasting every 2 minutes, I mean come on..

20 Rage is because I don't like leaving skills incomplete if I don't have to.

FA isn't worth it.

Brandish only gets like 2% more DPS or something but its not worth the lack of control.

You do what you want but I'm just getting it for the animation and dumping the rest in 1st job crap.

FA isn't worth it.

Brandish only gets like 2% more DPS or something but its not worth the lack of control.

You do what you want but I'm just getting it for the animation and dumping the rest in 1st job crap.

I don't notice any lack of control when I use brandish+FA. It is much faster than power strike+FA.

[rant]
instead of powerstrike, i did iron body for 30 less damage from low level monsters. it made my hp pots last ~1.5x as long because i have equips without def anyways. call it dumb but if you used powerstrike without special circumstances (ie... 1 monster between you and the rope to a platform with a mob) you did it wrong. i only maxed it after thinking about goby training. 10ks will be nice against houses. and if fa is useful at gobies, youre doing it wrong.
[/rant]

It would make more sense to skip slash blast instead of power strike. 30def is also completely useless at higher levels. I maxed FA since I think a 3.04% increase in damage is better than an microscopic increase in def that becomes useless after level 30.

Maybe it's just me, but I hated my lv9 booster on my paladin. Sure it matches up PG timer, and it takes less than a second to recast, but add them together it starts to interrupt the...feel, lol.

And on my BM most buffs lasted longer than booster, so having it maxed allowed me to spam hurricane as long as possible. It's especially important at newt, where if you kill a bit slower, the spawn cycle get messed up.

But if sacrificing booster gives you the chance to max other more important skills, by all means do it, technically you only need lv1 booster for its effect, longer timer is just more convenient.