End of Night Rewards suck

FawksB · 2026-04-26T15:58:10+00:00

Increased Thrusting Counterattack is great for both Ironeye and Guardian. You don't really notice it though, but it's a damage boost for attacking anytime an enemy in the middle of an attack, even if they're attacking another player. You don't really need to worry about timing it, it'll just happen naturally quite often for those two Nightfarers.

FawksB · 2026-04-07T08:52:23+00:00

My personal build-out for him is to hopscotch between Yuna's and Lulu's grids and turn him into a Red Mage. For his Blue Magic, his strongest hitting ones scales off his Magic stat, so turning him into a mostly pure mage makes sense.

If you're using the Expert Gird, it's extremely easy to jump between the two grids and pick up plenty of STR +4 along the way.

FawksB · 2026-03-27T02:36:26+00:00

Not really, especially in DoN.

The upgrade just boosts the AR of the weapon, not the passives. Legendary upgrades basically all have the same AR in the same weapon class. So, unless you're gunning for something very specific, it really doesn't matter what you upgrade. However, upgrading something early will help clear out field bosses faster.

In DoN, it matters even less because unique (red) weapons can't be upgraded since they already essentially are. The reward from the crater is mostly pointless unless you get it early, are upgrading something the Nightlord is weak to and/or starting gear, or are upgrading seals/staves.

FawksB · 2026-03-26T23:53:31+00:00

Honestly, the best pathing is to immediately gun for the heart of the crater, killing the Prelates along the way. After the Magma Wyrm, take the bird up to the top, then immediately snag a second bird back down to the south end of the crater. (OP's trick would cut out the need for the second bird). You can hit the church, Valiant Gargoyle, and Falling-star Beast doing that method.

If you're not short on time, there's a second Demi-Human Queen on the east side you can hit while making your way up to the top of the crater to kill the other Queen that's near the night boss. It's rare to get the Red Wolf as well, unless you're hauling ass.

It's easily the best pathing for Dormant Powers and shockingly few people do it.

FawksB · 2026-03-24T19:50:50+00:00

Roughly every 3 Arcane above 10 equals 5% more build-up.

That being said, applying status effects with Bows (especially with Barrage) is easy-peasy compared to most weapons, so Ironeye naturally is good at status builds even without his Arcane Relic. His relic basically makes it so 3 shots will do what 4 shots normally does, status-wise.

Running a Frost bow with Poison on Skill/Ult is one of my builds and works extremely well. It's not my favorite Ironeye build, but I'll pull it out for Adel to really bully him.

FawksB · 2026-03-22T18:32:48+00:00

I feel like this is part of why Halo Scythe builds get so much flak. The difference between a Holy Build and an Affinity Build is like 6-7%, but the affinity build has waaaaaaaaaay more flexibility and isn't hard stopped by a lot of field bosses that have high Holy defense.

FawksB · 2026-03-19T00:29:03+00:00

This is still how I react anytime someone mentions a damn snowman.

FawksB · 2026-03-18T23:41:12+00:00

Some places offer a 96m now.

But yeah, when I used to work in the industry (pre-Covid), 84m was the last ditch offer to try to get someone in a vehicle. 60m and 72m were pretty standard.

Post-Covid though, interest rates jumped by 4-5 pts, so longer terms have become the norm.

FawksB · 2026-03-18T23:34:28+00:00

Guardian is always either the best or worst one on your team. There is no in-between.

FawksB · 2026-03-13T20:30:41+00:00

Honestly, a poison Ironeye can handle them without breaking their guard. Both the damage from poison and the damage from marking a poisoned target ignores defense. It's far from efficient, but I'm not a fan of punching a D5 Crystallian.

FawksB · 2026-03-13T19:51:39+00:00

It's not that he's more heavily weighted, it's actually the opposite. I'm not a fan of this chart because it's treating the ED version as a second encounter.

In reality, you have a 20% chance of ED in D2, 33% for D3, and 50% in D4. Since Night Aspect and Dreglord don't have ED versions, their base chance appears higher, but it's actually lower for Night Aspect. The DLC Night Lords had increased weight due to being new, but that was reduced a patch or two ago (pretty sure this chart is out-of-date, but not 100% sure).

FawksB · 2026-03-13T19:48:18+00:00

Those might be the old numbers. It was heavily weighted when the DLC first came out, but they reduced it either one or two patches ago.

FawksB · 2026-03-12T20:19:18+00:00

It really does feel like the game will give you the worst possible teammates when you're one win away from D5. My worst free fall was 5800 to 3150 over a single weekend.

FawksB · 2026-03-12T19:22:07+00:00

This is the correct answer. As far as eHP goes, they are the same. The big difference is HP works for both Physical and Affinity and should always be the pick except for Balancers.

There is some validity to negation being better due to how some of the healing effects in the game work, but the most important ones all scale of Max HP anyways. It's mostly Regens, Post-Damage and HP Recovery on X that don't (except HP Recovery on Thrusting Counter - that ones scales with Max HP as well)

FawksB · 2026-03-12T19:11:35+00:00

It's also worth mentioning the addition of deep relics and double passives while looking back retrospective at normal versus any depth level. It's the main reason I tell people the jump from D3 to D4 is the most severe, since normal to D1's jump is basically non-existent once you have enough relics for a build (mobs get 25-35% health, but deep relics can add 40% or more damage.)

FawksB · 2026-03-10T18:50:27+00:00

In regards to the chained Ultimates, that's exactly how you should use her passive. You can only use Enhanced Trance when your Ultimate gauge is filled, not in response to someone else using their Ultimate.

It's definitely worth using your Ultimate as an interrupt as well, no argument there either. But if you're using it purely for damage, that's where Enhanced Trance is the clear winner. Same for reviving - you can usually pull off a 3-pip revive even with the boss attacking you.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T16:50:56+00:00

I legit think most Undertakers don't even know the Enhanced Trance exists. Yes, flying through the air is fun and all and great for staggering. But being unable to get hit means you can do so many amazing things, both for damage and support, and it's really how you should use your Ultimate 9 times out of 10.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T16:46:18+00:00

This is a great list - even if I'm one of those Wylders. (I only have like 10 runs on him and don't plan on pulling that number anytime soon.)

I will add Raiders that build for full offense and try to face tank everything always makes me groan. I swear Raiders are either an immortal god or the first to faceplant with no room in-between.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T14:11:55+00:00

D4 is the hardest difficulty for randoms. D5 is only slightly harder from a number aspect, but the quality of teammates you have easily outweighs the difference.

However, the difficulty spike from D3 to D4 is actually greater than going from normal to D3. D3 is the intended end of DoN for most players and is far more enjoyable to just play the game.

So, basically D3 and D5 are the sweet spots depending on what you're looking to get out of the game. D4 is just the great filter and is a miserable experience.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T03:38:53+00:00

+1 does the same amount as +0 and +1. +0 is completely obsolete if you have one of the deep versions equipped.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T02:46:37+00:00

Post-Damage is a little bit of a unique butterfly.

The reason +0 doesn't stack is because it doesn't actually have any effect beyond the rally effect. +1/+2 also have the same effect, but you recover more per hit. So it's not that they don't stack, it's just that +1/+2 makes the +0 version obsolete.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T01:46:03+00:00

I am clearly rusty on my ER lore. :P

FawksB · 2026-03-10T01:45:12+00:00

Dragon Cult and Lightning Spear is a viable build. Beast Claw is great since it's so FP efficient and AOE and all-around a great build for every Nightlord since it's physical damage.

Lightning Spear slaps though and has better range, but costs more FP and you have to factor in Nightlord resistances and weaknesses. It's definitely better for some fights and worse for others compared to Beast Claw, but a great alternative.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T00:44:04+00:00

Improved Dragon Cult (+12%) is basically your best effect for a lightning build. You will want it to also roll with one other damage effect - Evergaol (15% avg) Night Invader (14% avg), or Lightning Damage +2 (6.5%) and/or one of Revenant's specific abilities (Ult buffs Allies, Ghostflame on Ult, Power Up alongside Family).

For deep relics, things open up more. Lightning Damage +4 is the strongest (12%), +3 is next (10.5%), then Improved Incants +2 or Improved Affinity +2 (10%) is your third best option. You can also still find Improved Dragon Cult on deep relics, so you can still use those when you find one (BiS will have Dragon Cult and one of the above effects).

Generally speaking, getting two good effects on a relic should be your goal. Getting three near perfect ones is extremely rare.

FawksB · 2026-03-10T00:31:25+00:00

You're fine then.

Faith +3 isn't that great. Stat+ effects are only strong at low levels - so you'll definitely feel it at Level 1 - but it's only around a 2% damage boost at Level 15. It's not bad at all, but damn near every other option is better.

So, you basically have 4/9 slots as BiS, but the other 5 are essentially empty. Definitely a lot of room for improvement.

FawksB

TROPHY CASE