I thought any five star gear would get a "boost" at lvl five, until then the four star at lvl ten would be stronger; but maybe the five star gets some boost only at lvl six, not five.
Direct me to the Wiki data or respond according to your ideas. Thanks.
(I"ll bury this topic quickly so as to not clog the forum.)
Cheers.
Four star at lvl ten or five star at lvl 5...?
This has been discussed in many threads. (For example, it's mentioned in my sword guide, which is really a kind of FAQ). As Avenger-Of-Troy pointed out, player tests indicate that a typical 5-star weapon at heat level 7 or 8 does about as much damage as its 4-star version at heat level 10. Therefore the common advice is to delay upgrading your weapons until you have enough Radiant Fire Crystals to heat them to about heat level 8. But you might want to upgrade earlier or later, based on these other considerations:
* Some weapons change damage type at 5 stars. For example, Iron Slug changes from piercing to normal.
* Some weapons get better effects at 5 stars. For example, Divine Avenger's charge attack changes from one projectile to three. Obsidian Carbine gets poison.
* Upgrading also loses you the CTR that you get from heat levels 5 and 10.
While we're at it, we might as well mention that armor and shields benefit very little from heating. Their offensive abilities do not increase. Their status resistances do not increase. Armor gets one extra health at heat level 5, which is nice. Their damage protection increases very slightly, and damage protection doesn't contribute much to the life of a shield anyway. Therefore you want to heat your weapons before your armor and shield.
In stratums 5 and 6 only, a 4* item will be better than a 5* item until lvls 4-9. [depending on the current depth].
In all other stratums, a lvl 1 5* will beat a lvl 10 4* item in terms of damage.
Since most players with 5* items are using them in stratums 5 and 6 (T3 areas), the word of mouth is around lvl 7.
As noted by Avenger-Of-Troy and Bopp, you should also take into account other changes to weapons and the loss of charge time reduction.
If you want to estimate the exact numbers, consult Wiki page on defense and Data that I took for the heating curve of a couple weapons.
Loss of charge time for some weapons is offset by other boosts.
Alchemers get more charge bullets.
Obsidian carbine get poison chance on hit.
Brandishes get bigger and more explosions on charge.
Divine avenger gets 3 swords instead of one.
Bombs (except irontech) get larger radiuses.
Antigua charges get a wider range on the last charge bullet.
For armor/shields you get better everything basically
Thank you for your helpful information.
Sorry to ask what must have been asked a hundred times before.
It just seems counter intuitive to me that a 4 star at level ten is MORE than a five star, even at lvl 1.
I was thinking that a five star at any lvl one would be more than a four star at lvl 10.
Crazy me. :)
Cheers.
a 4star level 10 = five star level 7. I'm not really sure about this, I've just heard it before.
But take into consideration Charge attack and other stuff. Also the CTRs.
Let's say we have a nice DTB and a BTB.
Our Dark Bladey here has a good CTR Med, while the Barby only has CTR low. That's also a factor. But the 5star has the snarby bite, so we must have that! And antiguas too, the 4stars don't shoot out birdies, but the 5stars do (or tentacles .-.).
Hope this helped!