Thoughts? I haven't used either but at a quick glance it looks like Combuster is better due to its charge attack lighting enemies on fire. Freeze is useful but I'd rather have fire. Anyone tried both and have a verdict?
Combuster vs. Glacius
One other question... so these two weaps deal both elemental and normal damage. Do you still do a good amount of damage to beasts and gremlins with them being strongly resistant to elemental damage?
Not enough damage to warrant not carrying a weapon specifically for those families.
I've heard some say Glacius' usefulness is counteracted by the explosions breaking the freeze they create, but I haven't verified. All I can say is that Combuster is a fantastic weapon for charge attack kiting and combo damage.
Guess I'll have to stick with Levi... sigh. Was hoping to just carry one jack-of-all-trades sword. Levi is awesome and has an incredible charge attack but I wanted something a bit flashier. Oh well..
If a weapon has non-normal damage anywhere on it, it cannot function as "jack of all trades". Resistances are just far too noticable.
I have to disagree your opinion; based on the information I'm presented with, assuming scaling on the damage bars are linear (and I haven't seen proof on the contrary), the Leviathan Blade caps out at eight bars of normal damage, while the dual damage type Brandish series caps out at 14 (seven each at level ten), even if the scaling wasn't linear it would still have a more noticeable damage output on a "neutral" target. Their speed (but who cares, charge attack makes this series insane IMO), is the same.
Resistances are massive, that I do not contend, however due to the already higher base damage than a Leviathan, you would hit for less, but not a drastic amount compared to the Leviathan hitting the same target, but you wouldn't be dead in the water either and still hit for decent enough damage. I've killed many post T3 Basil gremlin healers, gremlins and beasts with just my Blazebrand (the charge attack is IMMENSELY helpful, more helpful than it's basic attack IMO).
Unless you're a min-maxer, who won't accept anything but the perfect tool for the job, this sword will function just fine as a "jack of all trades" blade, if you want to focus your weapon slots else-where.
I'm currently using the Iceburst Brandish, and it's awesome. As far as I can tell the Glacius will just allow to freeze larger groups of enemies. If the enemies are capable of being frozen then you can gib most enemies just by charging and freezing them and then just waiting for them to unmelt while you charge up again. I've had it where I've re-frozen a group of 3 enemies three times in a row. And then they died.
Beside that, I have a friend who is using Calibur-series swords. And oh my gosh they wreck havoc with my freeze. Freeze a large group of enemies -> He goes and charge attacks in the middle. Apparently he says that the freeze keeps them in place longer so he gets off more hits from his charge attack.
The Brandish series' attack combo is pretty good too and I find it's very smooth, allowing me to wait for a very short second before attacking with the second or third attack which allows me to change targets if necessary. Overall I haven't been displeased by the Brandish series yet.
Edit:
Also to those who don't know. The burst 'can' hit them out of freeze. But you have to understand the charge attack. He strikes with his blade and then the 1-3 explosions might appear afterwards. As far as I remember, both the strike and the explosions can freeze. So you can break your own freeze if you hit with your strike and then the explosion gets them, if your strike freezes them.
But then again, if your strike doesn't freeze them and they get hit by the explosion and freeze. Then, if they dethaw, the charge attack is doing a boatload of damage. Generally my strikes deal 140-200 damage. The explosion usually deals 100-170 damage. And the thaw usually around 120.
The bars lie. They can absolutely not be used to compare weapons from different alchemy lines, or to measure a change in damage output down a certain alchemy line. The bars are not auto-generated based on the actual damage numbers of the weapon, but rather made separately from any real data. We've experienced this with a balancing update during the Preview Event, where weapons damage got changed sometimes drastically, but the bars not always updated.
The only way to compare two weapons is to wield them, pick an appropriate depth and target, then hit that target with both weapons and note the damage numbers. Anything else is speculation and can't be trusted. Especially the bars.
Really would like more clarification on this. Can someone with a Combuster leveled to 10 heat show me in game to compare damage? I'll pay the CE to join. I'm using a plain Leviathan leveled to 10 heat. I'd like to test it on weak/neutral/strong to elemental damage enemies...
ign is green-lantern
Try contacting IGN: Mavericks, Deckard. He might have his Combuster at 10 by now.
I was unaware of the inaccuracy of the bars (which is annoying, because I picked out my ideal items sometimes based on these), this game needs some form of standardisation with damage measurement then. Additionally, following on from your advice, and Deckard's suggestion, someone should test the numbers and preferably post them here, so that we can see how big the difference in damage between weak-normal-strong is, compared to the Leviathan. I would offer to do it myself, If I could find the Combuster recipe.
Mavericks' Combuster isn't 10 yet.
Rap: If I find a Combuster recipe, I'll sell it to you at cost. Then just let me know when it's leveled and we'll do some quick tests.
Why not, Combuster AND Glacius?
I've been playing around recently with Fireburst and Iceburst Brandishes and it's working nicely. The general plan is to charge attack with freeze, then do one of three things:
1. If none are frozen then charge attack with freeze again.
2. If one is frozen, charge up the fire sword and circle around the frozen target. Ideally you swing fairly quickly after he unfreezes while hopefully balling up other units around him to ignite while you were circling him.
3. If more than one is frozen then simply charge up the fire sword and unleash on the crowd you have captured, maybe try to include others if you can get them to walk in.
And this has been fairly decent for even the Iceburst and Fireburst. I can only imagine with 3 blasts that the 5* versions would be more effective at this strategy.
I personally (make note of this) find that fire and ice don't work well together, for an ablaze target can not be frozen (fire lasts for like 10-15 seconds), so you're effectively locking out Glacius if something is on fire. If used the other way around, the fire breaks the ice, which in turn eliminates the bonus ice damage + CC. Additionally I've never had problems funnelling enemies into my Blazebrands charge attack regardless of additional CC.
Green-Lantern: I'm about to do some Basil runs now, to get the Combuster recipe, I'll let you know when I have the Combuster and when it's ten.
I think the combuster and glacius are nice alternatives to using a Divine Avenger in firestorm citadel
the combuster is obviously better than the glacius thanks to the ignite attack it has but glacius would definitely be better in firestorm citadel than using the combuster since u can't ignite flame zombies.
And yea so should I go for the glacius or the Combuster? Pls I need lep too kinda like Green-Lantern over there.
Seriously, how can this serial necromancer be allowed to be free? (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
you know what timestamps are? they are the things that tell you you shouldn't necro threads which are almost 3 years old.
if you want damage, go for combuster.
if you want to freeze enemies, go for glacius.
that's all.
I find your usage of asking the OP for advice to be extremely effective! However, I would recommend that you use more irrelevant information, never be relevant to the topic.
Except that green lantern has been gone for quite some time actually.
And combuster and glacius are both the same sword, except for the charge. Comubster does more immeidate damage; glacius does more when you freeze + refreeze + gives better utility.
One other question... so these two weaps deal both elemental and normal damage. Do you still do a good amount of damage to beasts and gremlins with them being strongly resistant to elemental damage?