Hello! I am an F2P player and need help in deciding an elemental sword. Right now I'm using Wolver Cap, Wolver Coat, Bristling Buckler, and a Calibur (for the moment). I plan on upgrading my Wolver Coat and Cap to Skolver, so I was wondering which elemental sword (Divine Avenger or Brandish) would compliment this choice the most.
Thanks ahead of time,
Ackal
P.S. If a Brandish is better, which of the three status types would help the most?
When you make a thread like this, you will get several lists of "What do you want more" and "These are the Pros and Cons" which I don't really find that useful... Therefore I'm going to be blunt and opinionated.
[Your results may vary]
I use Brandishes because I don't like heavy swords. They are a much easier to use and are the cheaper elemental swords.
That being said, I would suggest at least making a 3* Brandish to swing around the Royal Jelly Palace while you farm tokens. Once you get a Sealed Sword, swing it around for a bit and see if you like Heavy Swords. I didn't, but do realize that the Sealed Sword does FAR less damage than a Divine Avenger. The DA doesn't get really good until the 5* version, while the Brandishes are good all the way from 3* to 5*. I only use the DA because a single swipe has really good knockback, so when I'm surrounded by 6 Mecha-Knights, one swing and I got breathing room. Conversely, when I'm being followed by 12 Mecha-Knights, I can unleash a single Glacius Charge and 9 of those Mecha-Knights are frozen solid.
As for element, I would go with Freeze. Shock is a PVP reward, and requires a LOT of unhappy PVP grinding to get. Fire is good for pure DPS, but the Brandish already does enough damage. The extra DPS ends up being "Do the enemies die in 4 hits or 3?" Admittedly, there are some points in the game (most of the time dealing with 10+ enemies in small areas) where killing in 3 hits is far more important than killing in 4, but the Freeze lines allow you to deal with portions of the enemies at a time. For larger guys like Slag Guards and Lumbers, you can practically Freeze-lock them, something the Fire line cannot do.
I have both a Glacius and a Divine Avenger, and I find myself using the Glacius more. However, I do use the Divine Avenger on my Gunslinger builds because it knocks enemies away, or allows me to carve an escape path. I also use it in PVP because a 2-hit DA combo instant-kills Skolver Strikers (unless they have trinkets).
Heavy sword (2-swing combo) style is quite different from 3-swing combo swords like a Calibur. It swings slower, and you will be relying on a heavy sword's larger reach and knock back to keep you safe from retaliations, doing only the first swing and shield cancel most of the time. Some people don't like heavy sword style; for me, both are useful for different purposes. Some only like heavy swords after getting a full Vog Cub armor set or Swiftstrike Buckler to increase attack speed.
For charged attacks:
- Sealed create a single golden blade, DA creates 3 in a tight spread. The blades have knock back. Due to a problem OOO refuse to fix for a very, very long time, if you have a tall wall (those you cannot shoot over) right behind you when you release, your charge will be "sucked" backwards and be wasted. You need to keep this fact in mind when using the charge in crowded places.
- Branish charge attack creates a line of explosion, one explosion per item level. It knocks back as well, but not as much as Sealed/DA (e.g. won't push lumbers away). Other than Acheron, they inflict status on enemies. Please ignore the runt called Cautery Sword.
For me, Combuster has replaced DA completely, even in Firestorm Citadel where the fire DPS is useless, while Gran Faust's normal swings remain very useful against wolvers, jellies and gremlins.
Since you only get a Sealed Sword by farming Royal Jelly, I'd say a Brandish -> Nightblade or Fireburst Brandish first. Then you can compare them yourself and see if a heavy sword fits your style.
Don't think being F2P will limit you to a small arsenal - you will eventually get CE to craft a lot of stuff. I've been playing for almost a year, completely F2P, and I have a huge 5* arsenal. It's not about if you should get it or not, it's just about which to get first so you can farm more efficiently.
Thanks for all the responses! I forgot to put in a few bits of info so this may help. I have 19 Jelly Gems already, saved up to a total of 19,000 crowns, and can solo the Royal Jelly. Don't know if the last two will help, but... Just felt like putting them there. Right now what I'm leaning towards is down below.
LOAD-OUT:
Skolver Cap
Skolver Coat
Barbarous Thorn Shield
Glacius
Acheron
Final Flourish
Argent Peacemaker
x2 Elite Sword Focus Modules
P.S. I'm thinking about getting the Voltedge, I heard it makes up for the time you put into PvP.
You may find my sword guide helpful, and in particular the sections on elemental swords and armor.
In that case, I would suggest at least trying the DA a bit. While I don't use my DA nearly as much as my Glacius, it was still a sound investment.
I would suggest not getting the sword modules even if you are pve because the brandish lines charges are already fast enough unless you really like spamming the charge attack a lot. Get a heart pendant as extra health will always help no matter what you do be it pve or pvp as it give you more room to make mistake as well as potentially saving you lot of mist or ce from having to revive.
Belongs in arsenal section.
The difference between the two is a heavy sword style, and a med speed style. Which one you like is up to you. Heavy 2 swings have a high damage, slow, and wide hit on both swings. A med speed 3 swing is the same as a calibur.
Number-wise, a brandish outdps a divine avenger on similar targets when fighting with 2 or less enemies. With 4 or more, a heavy will do more.