MinII or LitII?

[smithtj3]

So I've set about devising my next GS craft and I can't decide if it would be more practical to make a set of MinII rapiers and then a set of LitII rapiers, or the other way around. Do I want GS trash beaters first or GS boss beaters first? I understand that kopeshes would ultimately garner better DPS but that's not an option for the build these will be crafted for. Rapiers were chosen because it gives me an overlap between my earthgrab light picks and the rapiers, both of which are covered by Improved Critical: Piercing and Weapon Finesse.

[Cardtrick]

I'd say one of each, Min II first.

[Stormdum]

If your willing to wait around on a Lightening Strike to cover the DR that your not bypassing from Mineral II then Lightening II is best IMO. There are several diff ways you can craft both choices though and I've listed them below. There are some exceptions however the first two are good choices for evil creatures popular RAID bosses.

Min II: Holy/Acid Burst/Acid Blast/Mineral II
Lit II: Holy/Shock Burst/Shock Blast/Lightening Strike

While the next two will still do some damage to evil creatures they will not do as much damage as the first however they will do extra damage to neutral mobs. I.E. IE Animals, Vermin and some constructs etc.

Min II: Acid/Good Burst/Acid Blast/Mineral II
Lit II: Shock/Good Burst/Shock Blast/Lighening Strike


Since your using rapiers and have high dex you could swap out Shock Blast or Acid Blast on any of those for +4 AC if that is important you.

I use Lightening II with Shock/Good Burst on almost everything I fight. I switch to Holy/Acid Burst when I fight popular RAID bosses.

[Seventh]

The whole LitII vs. MinII thing comes down to what content and difficulties you're planning on running. LitII beats MinII in all situation except against most raid bosses on hard or elite and against lightning immune enemies, so if you're just going to run the raids on norm for the most part put together a pair of LitII's first and your MinII's later (or maybe some crafted DR breakers post U9).

If this is for a rogue however (you didn't specify but I imagine it is), the above doesn't really apply- RadII's are the trash beaters of choice for rogues, but they're not useful against most raid bosses on any difficulty, so you'll want to get a pair of MinII's/high quality DR breakers first and then some RadII's.

[DanteEnFuego]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=294976.I had some good feedback here...

[Draccus]

The whole LitII vs. MinII thing comes down to what content and difficulties you're planning on running. LitII beats MinII in all situation except against most raid bosses on hard or elite and against lightning immune enemies, so if you're just going to run the raids on norm for the most part put together a pair of LitII's first and your MinII's later (or maybe some crafted DR breakers post U9).

If this is for a rogue however (you didn't specify but I imagine it is), the above doesn't really apply- RadII's are the trash beaters of choice for rogues, but they're not useful against most raid bosses on any difficulty, so you'll want to get a pair of MinII's/high quality DR breakers first and then some RadII's.

This.

There is, however, one boss in the game where your RadIIs are better than either MinIIs or LitIIs. I'll let you guys guess. One hint: It's not the Abashi in Chrono because RadIIs are only best when he's in one form. The boss I'm thinking of is best suited for RadIIs the entire fight.

[grodon9999]

Both. Your priorities on which to make first depends on what you run the most.

Lightnings are trash weapons, they do the most damage against stuff that isn't that hard to kill in the first place. Mineral II are best on those 300k HP devils in elite VoD/ToD and yeild between 8-10 more points a swing over a +5 metaline/PG weapon. I craft Mineral II first because it gives you DPS where you need it the most.

[PopeJual]

With the new crafting system, you can eventually craft weapons that are straight up better than MinII at killing the demon and devil bosses. LitII is better than MinII at killing just about everything else in the game, so the "obvious" choice to me would be to craft LitII weapons and then wait for the U9 crafting to make something even better than MinII for the situations where you wouldn't want to use a LitII.

HOWEVER...

The details on the U9 crafting keep changing and it's possible that you'll end up having to level up your crafting on each character that wants to make weapons or items instead of just leveling up one character to be the primary crafter for all of your characters. Because leveling up in crafting is a much bigger investment in both time and resources, having to level up each character that wants to craft is a major chore.

TL;DR version: I'd suggest waiting a little while before you craft your Greensteel weapons since the ingredients won't get stale in your ingredients bag. Either the crafting will be great and you'll be able to make some outstanding boss-specific weapons and use the LitII weapons for general trash beating or it will be a massive pain in the behind and you'll want the MinII weapons. Since it takes such a long time to craft either a MinII or a LitII, I think that waiting a little to see how things shake out makes sense.

[Cardtrick]

There is, however, one boss in the game where your RadIIs are better than either MinIIs or LitIIs. I'll let you guys guess. One hint: It's not the Abashi in Chrono because RadIIs are only best when he's in one form. The boss I'm thinking of is best suited for RadIIs the entire fight.

Abbot, I'm assuming? Since he's immune to lightning, but has no fire resistance or metalline-bypassed DR.

[Rydin_Dirtay]

There is, however, one boss in the game where your RadIIs are better than either MinIIs or LitIIs. I'll let you guys guess. One hint: It's not the Abashi in Chrono because RadIIs are only best when he's in one form. The boss I'm thinking of is best suited for RadIIs the entire fight.

The white dragons in Prey?

Or, lol, the Titan. You take down most of his hp with the laser, and while you're lasering him you can wield your RadII's all you want, haha.

[Draccus]

Both good guesses. The abbot has DR/Blunt though so a RadII rapier, scimi, or khopesh isn't a good choice. The White Dragons are good guesses, too. However, with Epic Red Dragon Armor, you're getting flaming burst every hit anyway, so LitIIs or even MinIIs are better if you're wearing red.

I was thinking of the Hezrou in Epic Into the Deep. He's got extremely high elemental resist against all elements so MinIIs, and LitIIs aren't getting any extra damage. But he has no resistence or immunity to light damage. 4d6 on a 15-20 (for a rapier or scimi user) is the best damage boost you'll get, especially if he's in autocrit.

The MinII's slicing my be higher when he's not autocrit, though.

[grodon9999]

Both good guesses. The abbot has DR/Blunt though so a RadII rapier, scimi, or khopesh isn't a good choice. The White Dragons are good guesses, too. However, with Epic Red Dragon Armor, you're getting flaming burst every hit anyway, so LitIIs or even MinIIs are better if you're wearing red.

I was thinking of the Hezrou in Epic Into the Deep. He's got extremely high elemental resist against all elements so MinIIs, and LitIIs aren't getting any extra damage. But he has no resistence or immunity to light damage. 4d6 on a 15-20 is the best damage boost you'll get, especially if he's in autocrit.

The MinIIs slicing my be higher when he's not autocrit, though.

I'm using dual-weilding STR-sapping of PG on him in that fight.

Auto-crit on bosses is going bye-bye next update, welcome to the wonderful world of Turbine nerfs.

[smithtj3]

After reading through the responses I think I'll start working on the MinII's first. . . assuming some U9 research doesn't compel me to bide my time. ToD PUG's are the only runs that come to mind where I find myself thinking, "If this raid boss stays standing much longer, it's game over for us" so it makes since that the best way to resolve that problem would be better boss beaters. They'll also serve HoX overall considerably better than the LitII rapiers would. Thanks for the sage wisdom all.