How to proceed in upgrading my gear

[LiquidSwing]

I've reached kind of a plateau in maple, and need help. I only recent came back from an extended break, and to give you a sense of time frame gollux had not been released when I began the break. As a result, you will know what I mean when I say my knowledge is limited in how to proceed with upgrading my character efficiently.

As my current stats are, I have alot of boss damage, but my ATK and % str are severely lacking. For str, I have 1% from codex, 4% from tattoo, 4% from glasses, 2% from belt, 10% from xenon, 15% from mw. I'm buying another 25% boss neb for my emblem, and I'm trying to transpose my PA into sweetwater(33 failures zzzz), but after those 2 upgrades my direction gets murky. So here are my questions.

1. What ways can I min/max my stats with what I have? I've listed my current card set up, but I have all cards available to me. I also have all link skills available, and my Jett core is at 25 atk, so there is not much more to get out of that.
2. Is it better to do tyrant gloves/cape/boots over the sweetwater equivalents? You can wear the belt either way, so im not worried about that. Also, is it even worth transposing Tyrants into Sweetwater since W. Atk upgrades don't transfer? Is the most efficient gear set to do Tyrant gloves/boots/cloak belt and fill the rest in with Sweetwater?
3. Would I do good to have more PDR, or has the new formula neutered it hard? (idk how new it is still it was new when I quit). If its worth pursuing are there any other methods to acquire more PDR?
4. At what point does the Boss% diminishing return start to become an issue?
5. What is the order of damage increase for me in regards to Boss damage, w. atk, % str, and PDR?
6. Can I solo cygnus in my current gear?
7. What is the most efficient way to cube for Rank, and then once you achieve legendary, what is the most efficient way to get the stat lines you want?
8. What is the fastest way to make denaro using your voyages? Im currently doing Rien harbor, and 2 days away from being able to go to lith. Also fastest way to farm Sweetwater equips?
9. What should I be doing to upgrade my gear long-term? I realize I will have to cube eventually, but I'd like to avoid doing so until I absolutely have no other ways left to upgrade.

here are my stats in case anyone needs to know for finding stat weights

Spoiler

cards(all are rank S)
xenon/mechanic/shade
kaiser/hayato/avenger
kanna/tamer/marksman

Sorry about the big post, just wanted to give you guys as much info as possible.

[fodjgngf]

Well in the video you included it does show that tyrants do get the attack transfered, obviously not the base attack tyrants have but the scrolled stats.

[LiquidSwing]

Well in the video you included it does show that tyrants do get the attack transfered, obviously not the base attack tyrants have but the scrolled stats.

oh I was reading their stats wrong, I thought the 20 atk n stuff was from upgrading through EEs! If that is the case, what is the point in using tyrants over SW at all since the SW bonuses make up for the atk loss?

[fodjgngf]

oh I was reading their stats wrong, I thought the 20 atk n stuff was from upgrading through EEs! If that is the case, what is the point in using tyrants over SW at all since the SW bonuses make up for the atk loss?

Ideally you'd want a 15 star tyrant to transpose for optimal results. It's also mostly because you can sell/trade your tyrant where Sweetwater at best only allows you to trade it once and never again or not at all.

[Lozmaster]

8. What is the fastest way to make denaro using your voyages? Im currently doing Rien harbor, and 2 days away from being able to go to lith. Also fastest way to farm Sweetwater equips?

Annoyingly enough, to purely get denaro, it's not worth doing the more energy expensive maps at all.
Last I checked you get 3 per 10 energy run of the very first map from doing 4 soaps + 1 from bonus = 30 a day (36 when you get the 120 energy boat). Rien only gives you 7~8 per run, and you can only do it twice.

One of the other low tier ones might be better than the very first, but I haven't honestly checked.

[Bacon]

How much money are you looking to/willing to spend?

[LiquidSwing]

How much money are you looking to/willing to spend?

Im down for anything, as long as the upgrade is guaranteed. That is why I dont mind buying boss nebs, since I know they're gonna work. Im leery of Cubes because I have no idea if Ill get lines that are good =/

[Bacon]

It would be best if you could give me a price range, since the money for those 5bil boss nebs would be much better spent on other upgrades if you're only going to be spending ~20b total.

[LiquidSwing]

It would be best if you could give me a price range, since the money for those 5bil boss nebs would be much better spent on other upgrades if you're only going to be spending ~20b total.

i dont know conversion rates, but with mesos and real cash combined probably about 500-700 bucks worth

[hadriel]

Luna gives the most Denaro, coin/energy wise, but you'll need to do Luna with other cities to use up all your energy. [This will be in my new write-up, but I've not gotten around to finishing it yet and will take several days, the f-long quest line...] Do the party voyages too. You can do Lith + 2*Rien for all the bosses you want, and to level up your boat. At solo voyages for the moment, killing bosses and getting denaros are mostly 2 different options and you can't quite have both.

I don't recommend transposing anything else except: cape, glove, shoe. Use the coins to better use i.e. sell the Sweetwater accessories. Belt should be Superior Gollux (or at least Reinforced) unless you have many many stars on a Tyrant belt. All 3 of the transposables (ideally) should be 12-stars-and-above Tyrants.

What I recommend now is, seeing you have so much %Boss, keep the Empress 4-set, and get all the %STR you can get. 300%STR should get you close to 1M. CRA set is the best bang for buck until you can get a full Sweetwater set. Seeing you have 2 pendant slots, your second slot can be a second (superior?) Gollux pendant, but I'm not sure if that can give you a 4-set bonus for free. I don't recommend Alien Fragment set (you need to be >200 anyway, unless people want to PSoK it for you). Reinforced or Superior Gollux too. You will almost never be short of %Boss.


For the people out there, can you get 2 set lines using 2 of the same pendants e.g. 2 Superior gollux pendants?

Hadriel

[tecul1]

can you get 2 set lines using 2 of the same pendants e.g. 2 Superior gollux pendants?

Hadriel

All the pros do it.

My question is if scarlet rings count toward it.

[Bacon]

Alright, $500-$700 roughly translates to 50b-70b in mesos, so let's work with that. My post is going to be a rough estimate with prices I've seen in Bera, so your own experiences may differ a little, as a lot of these will depend on how much patience you have and what's currently available in the market. I'll let other Berans price check for me.

First thing you should decide is how you'd want to spend your money. Do you enjoy making equips yourself? Or would you rather buy pre-made equips that you can perhaps upgrade later? The rest of my post is going to assume that you're going to be buying pre-made equips, but if you'd rather self-make equips let me know and I can give different suggestions.

I realize that you're deciding to go Sweetwater, but as a Sweetwater user myself, I would actually recommend going the CRA+Tyrants route. I actually regret investing so much into my Sweetwater set, mainly because of resale value and tradeability issues with SW. CRA+Tyrants, I feel, is a better investment in the long run because you can transfer it to other characters if you ever get bored of your Dark Knight, and you can always sell off the equips and "cash out". I would try to sell off your Lionheart gear (if your PA is well scrolled you can most likely get up to 8b for it) and start afresh with CRA+Tyrants+Reinforced Gollux gear.

With 50b-70b, you can get:

Legendary +10ATK Scroll Perfected Faf PA with good lines: (~9-15b depending on the lines/neb. If you're spending 15b it should be a REALLY good PA.)
Legendary Berserk Chain: (~5-10b depending on the lines/neb. You can get a cheap legendary one for around 5bil and cube it yourself. Since it's already legendary you can expect pretty good lines out of it. I really dislike cubing as well since it's a huge gamble, but I've found that if an item is already legendary, you will have pretty good chances of at least breaking even with your cubes. I'd aim for a 21% ATK or 60~70% Boss Chain with a 25% Boss Neb on it. )
Clean Uniq CRA 15% STR gear: (~3.5-4b per piece, three pieces in all so ~12b total)
Perfected 15% Reinf Gollux Earring: (~5b-6b)
Perfected 15% Reinf Gollux Ring: (~5b-6b)
Perfected 15% Superior Gollux Ring: (~6b-7b)
Perfected 15% Reinf Pendants: (~4b, you can get two if you purchase a second slot)
Tyrants: You can get 21% STR Legendary 7 Star'd tyrants for ~13-20b a piece depending on which one it is (cloaks are cheapest and boots are more expensive). I'm actually pretty new to the Tyrant game and haven't seen enough around so I'm not sure the prices of the cheaper Uniq 5 Star'd 15% STR ones, but I'd say they'll be less than 10b each. Aim for those if you see them in the market.
Glove: With this much funding and as a DrK in Bera, you will get Dojo top 50 gloves with no problem so I'd use those.
Misc Pieces: You can get Tempest 9% STR Rings for around 700mil, a 9% tempest shoulder for around 1-2b, you can also get 7% STR SW Face/Glasses for like 300mil a pop, which is definitely the best bang for you buck.

As you can see, the prices add up to more than what you're hoping to pay, but I think it's a pretty good set for you to aim for. To offset the initial cost I would either skimp out on the Tyrants or the Reinforced set, meaning that you can get clean versions of the Reinforced items (perhaps the unscrolled but cubed versions) or clean Tyrants, and use the leftover money as well as event shop scrolls to scroll/cube them yourself. I would definitely spend the money on a good PA and a good chain, as they will give you the biggest boosts in range and damage (especially since those two are the only items that can get you %Atk/%Boss lines, without having to self-cube your emblem from Rare->Legendary.)

With the gear mentioned above, you will be around 1mil range buffed, and depending on the %Boss/%Atk lines, you'll be hitting around 10mil per Impale line on normal monsters, and around 25-40mil lines on bosses with Gungnir.

I know I'm highly suggesting the CRA+Tyrants route, but if you're interested in still going the SW route, I can tell you my own experiences in upgrading my SW set on my Dark Knight, so just let me know!

[CakesXD]

All the pros do it.

My question is if scarlet rings count toward it.

If there's a ring in the set, then it counts.

[hadriel]

All the pros do it.

My question is if scarlet rings count toward it.

Meister 3-set, Fafnir full set, SW 4-set, Gollux 3+1 set (no earrings). Or Black Tinkerer set, Fafnir full set, SW 4-set, Gollux 3+1 set (no belt).

Hot damn, that's a lot of WA! Then you're just left with the rings, badge secondary and emblem to deck out. *shudders*

Hadriel

[tecul1]

Meister 3-set, Fafnir full set, SW 4-set, Gollux 3+1 set (no earrings). Or Black Tinkerer set, Fafnir full set, SW 4-set, Gollux 3+1 set (no belt).

Hot damn, that's a lot of WA! Then you're just left with the rings, badge secondary and emblem to deck out. *shudders*

Hadriel

Tyrants tho

meh they overrated anyway rite gais