Clarification.

[DeathlikeHowls]

Judging from the Damage calculator Reborn posted in a previous thread, CD, Rate, and base Attack > Amp?

[TWF]

Yes.. What about them?

[DeathlikeHowls]

They're better than Amp, correct? o.o

[TWF]

Not necessarily "better". The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Having a relatively high cdi or amp isn't all as important to the base attack/magic attack value. I think it all starts in this order, as far as stats are concerned...

Attack > Amp > Critical Rate > Critical Damage. This all depends on what character class you are working with and, overall, how you want to play & build your character.

Let's face it, with low attack you aren't going to be accomplishing much doing anything. Unless you have extremely high defense to compensate for the mediocre attack, and even then this will only work against weak opponents. For optimum results, you should fine tune your base attack and then muster up as much amp as possible to compliment it. Remember, 800 attack & 25% Amp is better than 700 attack & 40% Amp (but only by a little bit).

As far as critting goes, nothing is 100%. Your rate starts off with a cap of 50%, but this can be increased through certain options. Even with satisfactory gear that meets 50%, it's NOT written in stone that you will land a critical hit once every two skills during a combo. Thus, you shouldn't always rely on your crits to save the day for you, especially with extremely long skills as finishers. Remember your rate is just a guideline, not a sure thing. However, the more skills you activate the higher your chances are that more of them will crit. My personal preference and experience with the game tell me that 40+ crit. rate is satisfactory for most situations. The 10% or so unfilled space can be filled if you decide to BM or aura during a fight. Once you reach a comfortable stance on your crit rate, it'd be best to move on to obtaining crit damage gears. Even if you can't gain a lot of good cdi gear, it's still nice to have a decent amount of crit rate because at default you'll at least perform 20% better. Always remember that all the critical damage in the world can't save you if you don't crit. Crit. Rate > Crit. Damage.

In the order of operations as far as raw damage is calculated, Attack x Amp + Add Damage *If the decision is made to critical hit* x Critical Damage Increase. That's just a rough estimate and doesn't include a whole bunch of other in-game factors such as the target(s) defense, level, resistances, the skill in question, and, the BIGGEST one, whether it is another player or a mob. Certain G. Master and Completer skills hit 4x as much damage than normal. You know the ones that dish out a whole lot of quick attacks and flying damages that you can't calculate because of the speed. Shield Break and Shooting Star to name a few. When fighting against mobs, the damage you see is unaltered between the stats of you and the monsters', but in PVP the end resultant damage is divided by 4. There are also other forces to deal with if your opponent(s) defense is much higher than your attack, you may perform minimum damage which is a result of your level divided by 10. So for example, if you were a level 110 FS attacking Berderk with Impact Stab you would most-likely hit 11.

There are too many factors for me to cover them all in perfect detail, but your best bet is to focus on those main 4 aspects in this order. Attack > Amp > Critical Rate > Critical Damage.

[elviento]

nooooooooo essay!!!!nooooooooooo it burns my eyes!!!!

[TWF]

nooooooooo essay!!!!nooooooooooo it burns my eyes!!!!

lmao XD no essay, just a small amount of enlightenment. =)

[DeathlikeHowls]

I suppose I might as well just ask your opinion on the gear I'm buying.
For now, he has:
Osmium Armorsuit +8 (7/50) [Only using this because it fits my other characters too. xD]
Terragrace Gloves +6 (5% Amp)
Shadowtitanium Boots +7 (7% Amp)
Osmium Battlehelm +6 (30 CD)
I'm expecting to buy a Forcy Kat +6 (10 CD) and a Lapis Orb/Crystal +6~7 (26~30 CD)
Two RoL +1, two CR +1.
Any advice?
Can't use good bracelets yet since his Rank is only 4.

[GoldFalcon22]

I suppose I might as well just ask your opinion on the gear I'm buying.
For now, he has:
Osmium Armorsuit +8 (7/50) [Only using this because it fits my other characters too. xD]
Terragrace Gloves +6 (5% Amp)
Shadowtitanium Boots +7 (7% Amp)
Osmium Battlehelm +6 (30 CD)
I'm expecting to buy a Forcy Kat +6 (10 CD) and a Lapis Orb/Crystal +6~7 (26~30 CD)
Two RoL +1, two CR +1.
Any advice?

im no fb expert but from what i know, you can either get an amp forcy kat/blade or a 30-40 dmg kat/blade, same with orb/crystal, 30-40 dmg helm or a 7/34, 7/40 etc then u need the merg ring, at 140 ur buffs give u rate and crit dmg so u can wear 3 cr and 1 rol/m. ring need cr+2 also, ur gloves should be 7 amp st or pc amp whatever u can afford, ur boots are fine for now til u can get better. Zzz i hope i can help :P

[TWF]

I suppose I might as well just ask your opinion on the gear I'm buying.
For now, he has:
Osmium Armorsuit +8 (7/50) [Only using this because it fits my other characters too. xD]
Terragrace Gloves +6 (5% Amp)
Shadowtitanium Boots +7 (7% Amp)
Osmium Battlehelm +6 (30 CD)
I'm expecting to buy a Forcy Kat +6 (10 CD) and a Lapis Orb/Crystal +6~7 (26~30 CD)
Two RoL +1, two CR +1.
Any advice?

Although I personally find no REAL differentiation between using a Blade or Katana on any of my characters, for a sword skill based character Blades and 7% S. Amp > 10 CDI are the way to go IF you have the money. Now, if your on a budget, which I assume everyone is in some form or another, than that katana is fine considering I don't know what you were using before.

Again, on the Orb vs. Crystal, go with the crystal if you can, but as far as the grade goes, I beg to differ on Lapis DB vs. Topaz+ No Epic. You might find that when you do the math, the extra 12 or so attack you gain from a Topaz Cry 20 cdi is more satisfactory to increasing your base and, through which, your crit. damage than 6 or 7% cdi straight from the epic. Remember, Attack > Crit. Damage. It's completely up to you though, because Lapis DB resells better than Topaz/SIG w/no epic, but if you are going to go with a Lapis DB Orb/Cry, than go with 30+ cdi. And of course +7 > +6 any day.

Also, on the rings. I find that the crit. dmg difference from RoF+9 and CR+1 weighs more in the favor of the critical ring, obviously, but the added stats and defense you gain from the ring of fighter upset that balance for when you don't crit. RoF+9 > CR+1. Again, IF you can afford it. And if you want to see a wider selection then.. CR+1 < RoF+9 < CR+2 < RoF+10. But who in the hell can afford/find a RoF+10 anyways, right?

[DeathlikeHowls]

Although I personally find no REAL differentiation between using a Blade or Katana on any of my characters, for a sword skill based character Blades and 7% S. Amp > 10 CDI are the way to go IF you have the money. Now, if your on a budget, which I assume everyone is in some form or another, than that katana is fine considering I don't know what you were using before.

Again, on the Orb vs. Crystal, go with the crystal if you can, but as far as the grade goes, I beg to differ on Lapis DB vs. Topaz+ No Epic. You might find that when you do the math, the extra 12 or so attack you gain from a Topaz Cry 20 cdi is more satisfactory to increasing your base and, through which, your crit. damage than 6 or 7% cdi straight from the epic. Remember, Attack > Crit. Damage. It's completely up to you though, because Lapis DB resells better than Topaz/SIG w/no epic, but if you are going to go with a Lapis DB Orb/Cry, than go with 30+ cdi. And of course +7 > +6 any day.

Also, on the rings. I find that the crit. dmg difference from RoF+9 and CR+1 weighs more in the favor of the critical ring, obviously, but the added stats and defense you gain from the ring of fighter upset that balance for when you don't crit. RoF+9 > CR+1. Again, IF you can afford it. And if you want to see a wider selection then.. CR+1 < RoF+9 < CR+2 < RoF+10. But who in the hell can afford/find a RoF+10 anyways, right?

Well my budget is really lacking, lol.
I have 290m in alz, trying to sell some +7 FS Boots for 140m, so that's 430m.
The Suit/Helm are a definite, I assume from your disregarding them, my gloves/boots are sufficient.
I understand all your points, and this is really helping me to equip my FB again, but could you possibly help me with the pricing?
I don't know many of these things off the top of my head, and now that you know my budget, it'll help. ^^
And thanks for all this.