Unlocking Giant's True Power[The Guide]

• Kouhai wrote on 2013-08-31 05:54
  remember dex balance formula is changing, where we will only get 50% max (at around 11xx dex) The rest needs to made up with by gear/es. Since we won't be getting much dex anyways we focus on items to give us the 80% bal.
• Daihau wrote on 2013-08-31 06:01
  It's possible to get dex on Giants. Takes work though. In the past month, I've done. Refining, weaving, metallurgy, shearing. Working on Egg gathering. Sitting at about 290 at 1/1, age 11.
• ironwoman wrote on 2013-09-03 14:02
  But 290 clearly isn't enough.
  
  To get to that maximum 50%, we're talking near end game dex. And giants simply cannot get that much dex as humans and elves could.
  
  Chance is, you will need an enchant or two, just to get your balance up.
• Blassreiter wrote on 2013-09-03 19:42
  [S]Why don't we just Dual Wield R Maces with their high balance instead?[/S]
• NetBlaise wrote on 2013-09-04 11:26
  I just started playing a few days ago.. I'm lvl 16 (86 Cumulative).... Started out as a Ginslinger when I first started and notice how bad it was since I was a new player... then switch to lance.. Read a few guides on lvling melee and learned to lvlup combat (warrior) first... My windmill is at A atm.. Hard to lvl it... a few other abilitys are at Rank 9... Been using a 2h Blunt for a while Great mallet.
  
  I wanna start using dual blunts but not sure which blunts to use.... Thinking of getting 2 Morning Stars. it looks cool and I like its upgrades.. Seems liek it will do good crits and provide me with alot of str later on... I don't no much about upgrading and alll that... Also thought of these Morning Stars because there only for Giants.. not sure if that even matters.... Been farming Par Ruins all night to make some gold and lvl up Windmill and Stomp. Everyone keeps saying lvl up Windmill but its a hard skill to lvl up.. Trying to find mobs that you can handle is a is hard.... Made about 12k so far.. should be able to buy any of the blunts.....
• ironwoman wrote on 2013-09-04 17:04

  Quote from Blassreiter;1143811:

  [S]Why don't we just Dual Wield R Maces with their high balance instead?[/S]

  
  
  Because they have terrible damage. You'd be better off dualwielding mace of mercy, and those still aren't good choices.
  
  

  Quote from NetBlaise;1144077:

  I just started playing a few days ago.. I'm lvl 16 (86 Cumulative).... Started out as a Ginslinger when I first started and notice how bad it was since I was a new player... then switch to lance.. Read a few guides on lvling melee and learned to lvlup combat (warrior) first... My windmill is at A atm.. Hard to lvl it... a few other abilitys are at Rank 9... Been using a 2h Blunt for a while Great mallet.
  
  I wanna start using dual blunts but not sure which blunts to use.... Thinking of getting 2 Morning Stars. it looks cool and I like its upgrades.. Seems liek it will do good crits and provide me with alot of str later on... I don't no much about upgrading and alll that... Also thought of these Morning Stars because there only for Giants.. not sure if that even matters.... Been farming Par Ruins all night to make some gold and lvl up Windmill and Stomp. Everyone keeps saying lvl up Windmill but its a hard skill to lvl up.. Trying to find mobs that you can handle is a is hard.... Made about 12k so far.. should be able to buy any of the blunts.....

  
  
  For beginners, go with morning star or mace, although personally, I'd just use a 2h sword and a shield. Reason? More balance related enchants, sword mastery.
  
  And please, please, please, don't say windmill is hard. It's lolez mode for giants, especially after they reworked windmill training.
• Daihau wrote on 2013-09-06 05:25

  Quote from ironwoman;1143732:

  But 290 clearly isn't enough.
  
  To get to that maximum 50%, we're talking near end game dex. And giants simply cannot get that much dex as humans and elves could.
  
  Chance is, you will need an enchant or two, just to get your balance up.

  
  Hence why my enchant listing on the previous page keeps Sight and Elegant as staples. Because all in all they're pretty good enchants.
  
  And speaking of, do you have the FORMULA for the new balance? Or are you just pulling assumptions from nowhere?
• ironwoman wrote on 2013-09-06 18:06

  Quote from Daihau;1144824:

  Hence why my enchant listing on the previous page keeps Sight and Elegant as staples. Because all in all they're pretty good enchants.
  
  And speaking of, do you have the FORMULA for the new balance? Or are you just pulling assumptions from nowhere?

  
  
  The new formula is logarithmic function, if you haven't noticed already. This means that newbies will have higher balance than usual, while later in game, they'll have higher balance in this content.
  
  I don't have the formula memorized or anything, but if you dig through foreign contents here or mabi data, there should be a thread with it. Basically, you might need an enchant or two, preferably sight and elegant, but only on gloves, since if you were to put it on shoes, you'd be losing damage. With the capped dex of giants, it's almost safe to say you won't be able to wield 0% weapons without balance enchants, although this shouldn't be a concern, since there so many gacha grade weapons.
  
  From what I know, for humans and elves, you need around 700 dex to wield a 0% sword. Notice it's a sword, meaning this includes mastery bonus. That should give you an idea of how much dex is really needed for giants to wield lances, guns, knuckles, etc.
  
  And no, I'm not pulling this out of nowhere, I'm actually one of the first people to know about the balance change.
• Daihau wrote on 2013-09-07 01:46
  Probably the worst weapons I use would be 5% balance warhammers, or my 14% balance lance. So I don't know how much I will be worried about it. And yeah I only have 1x elegant anyways. 2 seperate sets. of boots/gloves actually. One for fighter that's Expansive Swarming gaunts + Fleet Elegant boots. And another for melee that's Expansive Elegant Gaunts, and Fleet Hawk boots. Really wanna get Nostalgic or Burlesque on my second pair though. lol
• Kotokodama wrote on 2013-09-09 13:48

  Quote from NetBlaise;1144077:

  I just started playing a few days ago.. I'm lvl 16 (86 Cumulative).... Started out as a Ginslinger when I first started and notice how bad it was since I was a new player... then switch to lance.. Read a few guides on lvling melee and learned to lvlup combat (warrior) first... My windmill is at A atm.. Hard to lvl it... a few other abilitys are at Rank 9... Been using a 2h Blunt for a while Great mallet.
  
  I wanna start using dual blunts but not sure which blunts to use.... Thinking of getting 2 Morning Stars. it looks cool and I like its upgrades.. Seems liek it will do good crits and provide me with alot of str later on... I don't no much about upgrading and alll that... Also thought of these Morning Stars because there only for Giants.. not sure if that even matters.... Been farming Par Ruins all night to make some gold and lvl up Windmill and Stomp. Everyone keeps saying lvl up Windmill but its a hard skill to lvl up.. Trying to find mobs that you can handle is a is hard.... Made about 12k so far.. should be able to buy any of the blunts.....

  
  
  The best lower level duel weapon set IMO from research and practice was fomor maces upgraded 250 path. Down side is you have to run commerce for repairs. You can also upgrade for max damage if you need the balance, but currently can grow into the 250 path's lower balance. With the impending update for the way dex is nerfed to balance, this may lean the preference to max damage path.
• gundamweed wrote on 2013-09-09 16:06
  I like how I don't have to worry one bit about balance, even with the change in how dex affects it. I use a gacha crocodile highlander claymore, and after upgrades I've got 23 balance on it. With combat and sword mastery, I'm already up to 53% balance. All that's left is for your dex to reach 27% balance, and that's doable. Elegant's a really nice enchant, too. There isn't much that'd replace it. With that, 17% balance. Of course you can make it without much dex, especially since you get the most balance with the easiest dex obtainable.
• ironwoman wrote on 2013-09-09 18:33

  Quote from gundamweed;1146049:

  I like how I don't have to worry one bit about balance, even with the change in how dex affects it. I use a gacha crocodile highlander claymore, and after upgrades I've got 23 balance on it. With combat and sword mastery, I'm already up to 53% balance. All that's left is for your dex to reach 27% balance, and that's doable. Elegant's a really nice enchant, too. There isn't much that'd replace it. With that, 17% balance. Of course you can make it without much dex, especially since you get the most balance with the easiest dex obtainable.

  
  
  That's where it actually problem appears for giants - because they need balance, they have to sacrifice some damage. For example, although elegant itself is a decent enchant, we all know there are better enchants. The most ideal would be Difficult, but that adds no balance to already low-balance giants. Your best other bet is swarming, but still much inferior to difficult or camo. Another spot would be armor prefix. Ideally, you would want conceptual... but too bad you're gonna lack some balance, so you're gonna end up with sight. You're losing almost about 10 damage there. This results in Giants having more limited gear compared to humans and elves, and consequently, potentially less damage set up.
• radionoise wrote on 2013-09-09 19:06

  Quote from ironwoman;1146083:

  That's where it actually problem appears for giants - because they need balance, they have to sacrifice some damage. For example, although elegant itself is a decent enchant, we all know there are better enchants. The most ideal would be Difficult, but that adds no balance to already low-balance giants. Your best other bet is swarming, but still much inferior to difficult or camo. Another spot would be armor prefix. Ideally, you would want conceptual... but too bad you're gonna lack some balance, so you're gonna end up with sight. You're losing almost about 10 damage there. This results in Giants having more limited gear compared to humans and elves, and consequently, potentially less damage set up.

  
  
  This isn't really an issue, giants can have like 700+ dex (800+ after the new skills) naked without any sort of dex specialization, equipment or boosts... and you only really need 500 to get almost all of the balance from dex even with the new formula.
  
  If you're so far along that you're considering Difficult and Conceptual, then you most likely have way over 500 dex already. Giants don't really need to sacrifice any damage... the only weapon that might require balance boost (regardless of race) is knight lance, but giants can equip guard cylinder which grants +15% balance to lance.
• Kotokodama wrote on 2013-09-12 15:14

  Quote from radionoise;1146092:

  This isn't really an issue, giants can have like 700+ dex (800+ after the new skills) naked without any sort of dex specialization, equipment or boosts... and you only really need 500 to get almost all of the balance from dex even with the new formula.
  
  If you're so far along that you're considering Difficult and Conceptual, then you most likely have way over 500 dex already. Giants don't really need to sacrifice any damage... the only weapon that might require balance boost (regardless of race) is knight lance, but giants can equip guard cylinder which grants +15% balance to lance.

  
  
  For end game dex this may not be such an issue, and I am not too concerned about race balancing debate. What I am concerned about now is what to do until getting to 500+ dex. The zero merlin update will have a massive impact on enchant and skill builds for those below the upcoming 50 balance cap. I am personally in the upper 200s for dex and currently capped at 80 balance in all my weapons. I am also hunting for conceptual enchant. Granted my gear is above average for my level. So, what I am gathering from all this is that I have to put off knight skills so I can bring my melee back up to par... the new par.
  
  Think we are going to need a bigger guide!
  
  Edit: Now that I have had time to consider the rebalance, the short term fix was to go with + balance enchants (sight and elegant). It was a minor drop from my special es and peaceful es, but well worth it so I can use my warhammer again with 80 balance. +rep Ironwoman, even if the intent was to point out the balance limitations, the enchants were a nice fix for me. I hope that it is a short term fix.