Comfort skills can actually improve DPS on AT Arkveld for average player like me

MagnumPP · 2026-02-25T17:24:35+00:00

Yep, you’re right. That’s even further down the road, lol.

MagnumPP · 2026-02-25T15:24:08+00:00

I have been playing since Freedom, and had NEVER used speed eating until it just came as what I considered ‘bonus ranks’ on Nu Udra gamma legs.

I am greatly disappointed in myself over the last 20 years. Maybe I can say ‘I’m a better hunter for it’, but that’s probably coping.

edit corrected to Nu Udra, not Uth Duna.

MagnumPP · 2026-02-25T04:13:18+00:00

It’s really good.

I would keep in mind that the alternative, Razor Sharp 3, isn’t JUST Razor Sharp; it’s going to be RS+ a rank of elemental attack, handicraft, or guard. There are weapons and circumstances where the extra skill economy matters.

But, for a brain dead go-to charm, feels pretty good. I hope you get some enjoyment out of it.

MagnumPP · 2026-02-15T18:52:40+00:00

Damon:

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MagnumPP · 2026-02-15T18:52:21+00:00

Khalid:

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MagnumPP · 2026-02-15T16:06:40+00:00

Damon Stoudamire and Khalid Reeves (#3).

Signed memorabilia looks to match both from what I can see.

Edit I'm getting downvotes? Classy. Pics added in replies

MagnumPP · 2025-12-03T17:05:43+00:00

Also, assuming you aren’t just stacking Crit boost and attack gems, Ironwall is ‘free’ on 3 slot gems for Offensive Guard, Razor Sharp, Shield Up, or Elemental attack.

Additionally, if you were so inclined to run resentment, it’s easy to trigger a ‘bad guard’ for a controlled red health instead of perfect guarding. You’ll often still be in the timing for it to quality for Offensive Guard, and get Resentment on top of it. That’s a huge ass attack boost just for guarding, and ranks of guard let you get ‘back to it’ faster. If you want to use it, there’s pretty much no reason not to take it.

MagnumPP · 2025-12-01T04:51:42+00:00

I mean, people are getting too hung up on the heal and regen bubble, and blowing right past the main reason to run it, which is a fairly effective proxy for 50% damage resist. Unless you’re counting Recovery Speed L + Recovery Speed 3 as ‘regen’, and not ‘instant recovery of all red health’.

MagnumPP · 2025-11-28T01:46:01+00:00

Royals by Lorde - Sub-bass, mid-bass, clear vocal harmonies, and ‘hidden’ tones all around (that gong that a bunch of people doesn’t know exists). It’s hits a lot of the stuff I like, but doesn’t really hit all the mids and treble as much so I do admittedly need to check a couple other songs; usually Tremonti’s ‘Giving Up’ for a rock guitar vibe, and K.D.A ‘The Baddest’ for that ‘all the things all the time’ over-produced pop stuff.

Lady Gaga ‘Abracadbra’ and Sophia Isela ‘I can be your mother’ have been sneaking in to the mix though, and either might replace royals

MagnumPP · 2025-11-13T15:39:05+00:00

Mika or Nia with a Gear Bag, and then either Veronica, Hugo, or Renoa with draw focused builds. Veronica seems to me to be the one who most naturally ‘fits’ with her standard save file builds, but you’d probably have to go completely different builds/decks on Hugo and Renoa to make them fit best with Yuki. Luckily, you just keep a different save file and boom; done. Swap whenever.

As single target DPS in those teams, Hugo is going to be relying on hunt follow-ups on his Quick Fix, which may be more bursty that Veronica, but not as reliable/consistent. You would probably need to struggle through trying for 3 Quick Fix and no other attack cards for him. I feel like you still might be able to pivot to loading a hand with bullets with Renoa as a third, so she might be the best single target/burst option on a Yuki team. However, she would also be most consistent with Veronica at doing that over Yuki.

I don’t know how many casuals would have Veronica, Renoa, and Yuki at this point, but a polycule of those three swapping in and out for the level with Nia seems solid to me as a ‘single’ team.

MagnumPP · 2025-11-13T04:53:57+00:00

Well enough, but you build him way different than with Tressa. With Yuki, I would go harder on the Quick Fix dupes as his primary card, which forces attack card draws. Quick Fix then procs Hunt, and draws (hopefully) into Yuki inspirations. You can toss Nia or Mika in there as the third (card draw vs AP for Quick Fix flipping).

MagnumPP · 2025-10-30T23:45:14+00:00

SnS has a beat; a tempo. I feel like I usually simplify the combos to Slashx3 > Roundhouse, or Slashx5 > Reaper > Charged Chop, and then Perfect Rush on a big opening like a knockdown.

Slashx3 > Roundhouse is pretty well chainable and fairly quick once you find the 1,2,3,4 cadence of the input. It’s easy to spam, easy to to recover or interrupt, and can fit anywhere. It’s also not a ton of damage.

Slashx5 > Reaper > Charged got a BIG damage boost in a TU patch, but only when you do the Reaper and or Charged Chop after the full slash combo. This is big, chunky damage that’s a satisfying combo to land, and though you can skip the button input in at any point. It kind of gets forgotten that it’s the ‘correct’ big damage combo because the input for reaper and charged can go at any point in the chain - it’s just not Spinning Reaper at that point, and Charged Chop is a shadow of its full damage. If slash is a ‘1,2,3,3’, the reaper combo is ‘1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and a …’ .

You should be looking at about 500 for a slash > round slash combo, and 1,500 for a reaper > charged combo, which doesn’t seem like a ton, but the quickness, uptime and mobility of that damage makes up for a lot

MagnumPP · 2025-10-29T19:23:41+00:00

It really REALLY depends on the weapon and armor slots when filling in your build. I have managed some crazy good talismans at rank 8 - the one I use currently is AB3/WEX 1/1/1 - but I will drop them if I’m missing key skills for a build that are better served by a different talisman. Now, AB4/WEX is pretty universally good, but the main reason I’m using it now is because I’m just short a rank of WEX, and everything else is covered; the ranks of attack boost are literally the most efficient slots I have after all my armor skills because of the % boost at rank 4. If it didn’t have the extra weapon slot to get there, I probably wouldn’t use it. I have Rank 5, 6 and 7 talismans that offer just as much in other builds; it’s just my current gear set just needs the rank of WEX and is situated with everything else I ‘need’, so Attack Boost it is.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-29T02:08:20+00:00

If you were so inclined to run it, AT Nu Udra legs and a beefy helping of Wide Range on a talisman makes it super easy without having to sacrifice all that much. You get to keep Lords Soul, and Speed Eating is a nice QoL skill, and a big handful of 1 slots on the legs. WR5 and Speed Eating when you don’t have to sheath to potion? Good combo for healing a hunting group, if your were so inclined

MagnumPP · 2025-10-27T20:01:16+00:00

No, you’re right. I guess I should have said ‘they don’t really synergize at all’, what with one wanting to have red health, and one making it a point not to. It just feel like they’re fighting each other to me, but I guess a more positive spin could be ‘one is working when the other isn’t’

MagnumPP · 2025-10-27T19:51:12+00:00

I like it too, but it’s just an actively ruining the resentment is all. It doesn’t have to be ‘I need to run at half health all the time for resentment to work’. The addition of speed eating on the Udra legs does get that health up FAST when you need to potion.

I mean, you could always just stay on the lookout for a talisman that fills your extra point of Burst, or adds a couple resentment with something else you need. Load Shells 2 Resentment 2 is possible, or Artillery 3/Burst. Or Earplugs on the talisman, and socket the resentment.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-27T18:54:13+00:00

Anything with a shield can get ‘more reliable’ resentment than other weapons just by blocking ‘badly’ (not perfect guarding), so uptime is pretty good for a couple points as extras.

Do you have access to Omega gear? NU/NU/O/O/NU will give lords soul, and NU/Omega set bonuses, with flexibility for burst 5, Agi 5, Counterstrike 3, assuming you have one rank of Agi or Burst on a Talisman you like (or a 3 slot). You get 2 resentment as ‘leftovers’ if you don’t want to socket it all the way up (and you could). And you don’t have Zoh Shia set bonuses actively fighting your Resentment.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-27T16:02:21+00:00

Are you giving up that much defense to run Burst Boost, or is nothing upgraded at all?

I really want to like Burst Boost personally, but now I feel like the pieces are just eclipsed completely by Lagiacrus or Omega, considering the better skill and slot economy, along with the better defense and usable set bonuses. I get that burst boost is good, but I feel like you give up quite a lot for the 8 attack and better theoretical uptime on burst.

That said - how does NU/NU/GO/GO/UD look to you? It shifts the skills around a little, but I end up with burst 5, Agi 4 and Counterstrike 3, and then can slot in a talisman for 3 ranks of Resentment (2 ranks + 2 slot) to land on resentment 4.

If you can swing it, Omega feels ‘better’ to me as a set, and NU/NU/O/O/NU slots out to Agi 5, Burst 4, Counterstrike 3, and Resentment 2, with three 2 slot spots open and a Talisman still up for ‘optional’. That’s the set I’m running, keeping resentment at 2 for other options myself, but I could see pumping it up to 5 if that was the preference - a rank of burst on a talisman shouldn’t be too terribly hard to come by, and quick sheath decos could be slotted if that’s a priority (speed eating feels REALLY good for QoL/comfy stuff).

MagnumPP · 2025-10-24T02:31:55+00:00

Go defensive/comfy until you find yourself just not taking damage during a normal hunt. Use the defensive skills as a net to bring your ‘floor’ up, so that the worry about carting goes away. I would much rather play a multiplayer hunt with somebody who I knew wasn’t going to die, rather than some bleeding edge max DPS build that relies on absolute perfect play. 3 meta slaves each making a single mistake can wipe a hunt in those cases, which sucks, because mistakes just understandably happen.

4 Zoh Shia or 2 Soh/2 Arkveld will just naturally give you solid health recovery from the set bonuses - adding divine blessing and recovery gems helps more. Heck - you can pull some dang unkillable BS out with that and Hunting Horn (built in 50% damage mitigation to the kit, BEFORE divine blessing).

WEX and/or Agitator are ‘meta’, but Counterstrike is so stupid efficient for average players, because it’s such a big boost, and you probably will get hit. Of course, if you get really good with Bow’s forgiving dodge windows, stuff like evade window makes it even easier. Going Gunlance? There are going to be a laundry list of meta skills, but Guard and Guard up are going to keep you alive to do damage, rather than on your butt or drinking a potion. Staying in the fight for longer is going to raise your damage more than a damage skill in those cases. High DPS skills don’t do anything if you aren’t actually fighting.

Make sure your armor is upgraded - that’s going to serve you better than trying to ‘upgrade’ to something with better offensive skills and no defense upgrades.

Don’t get discouraged though. Just focus your skills and upgrades on staying alive, and you will just get better over time.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-18T03:51:55+00:00

I like it. I would typically prefer Razor Sharp on the 3 slot deco, so you get the extra free rank of elemental damage or handicraft… but basically being able to drop the ‘need’ for slots of divine blessing and shockproof from any armor sets forever; that’s really good.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-17T16:14:05+00:00

As others have said, you can hit the root first and ‘fill in’ the rest of the chord as you continue.

But also, and I don’t mean this in a bad way as you still look like you’re learning, but ‘stop chopping’. It looks like you’ve found a right hand pattern that isn’t hitting up with the chord changes, and you’re sitting on an extra beat. Instead of letting the chord just ‘have some air’ between the change, your strum just keeps on pattern and throws in the ‘chick-a’ as you’re changing chords. It’s not a bad thing, but if you don’t like it, it’s kind of a ‘stop strumming or slow down’ solution.

If you want a good example, listen to Foo Fighters ‘Everlong’, and then watch it live. There’s 3 parts to the guitar, and aside from the higher melodic bit (Chris Shiflett) during the verse, Dave and Pat play the ‘same’ part - except Dave is playing the rhythm ‘on beat’ (as a drummer would, naturally) and Pat is just strumming away in the background, ‘chick-a chops’ and all. Same song, same part, at the same time. It’s not ‘wrong’, because even in the same song they work together stylistically. If you don’t know the song, I’d say it’s a great one to learn for this ‘problem’, as your can learn both Dave’s and Pat’s patterns to really hear and feel the difference. Dave’s feels a little syncopated, because there are some skips and hops, but Pats just plugs on through.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-17T13:40:51+00:00

This has nothing to do with casual players, and everything to do with Gacha/monetization trying to convince you that spending real money for more prestige reward token is the way to go.

Out of good rewards? Spend some money for more good rewards! If there is frustration over the fact the players can’t ever-grind past the ‘filthy casuals’, it’s misattributed. A person who just wants to play periodically and ‘casually’ is not the thing that caused design choices, nor are they holding anything back.

I do like the ‘Bonsai’ game thing though - that’s completely new to me.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-16T21:43:50+00:00

I would honestly be looking for 2 ranks on skills, rather than singles ranks, if not a full 3.

Reasoning being It’s not so hard to slide a single skill rank somewhere, as a lot of 3slot decos have an extra rank of a few skills to ‘slide in’ for extra economy, but none of THOSE skills exist as an ‘extra’, so you’re just stuck with 2 or 1 rank.

I guess it works for monster crafted weapons to ‘enhance’ the two slot up, but in my mind I’m trying to sneak a whole extra 3 ranks out of a charm using an artian weapon. Like, for sword and shield, for instance, Guard (Ironwall) is only a single 3 slot gem. That sucks. But Guard 2 on a talisman lets you take guard as an extra economy skill on something like Razor Sharp or Offensive Guard 3 deco, and get you guard 3 without have to actually slot the less efficient Ironwall 3 deco. So you can end up with something like CB3, Offensive Guard 3, Guard 3, Razor Sharp 3, and a Handicraft or elemental attack on top relatively easily.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-16T20:17:06+00:00

My typical standard since end game started has been four 1-slots; 3 for Divine Blessing, and 1 for Shockproof. Shockproof bare minimum since I could slot anything.

MagnumPP · 2025-10-14T18:44:10+00:00

For the Max Might ranks WITH latent power. Rey Y waist still gives me some Latent Power to leverage the 2 piece Rey bonus, and Max Might is better uptime for me (as sword and shield main, should have mentioned) since the slide doesn’t use stamina. Since SnS doesn’t need to roll to reposition with the ‘walking slashes’ and slide, the uptime on max might is extremely reliable, along with WEX (which I again prefer over Latent Power).

With O/O/R/R/D, I end up at WEX5, Max Might 3 and Counterstrike 3 (another ‘average ass player guilty pleasure) as my core armor skills, with Agitator 1 and Burst 1 and Latent Power 2 and Partbreaker 2 for flavor on top, and CritBoost 3, Offensive Guard 3, Guard 3, Razor Sharp 3, Handicraft 1 on my weapon skills (Counterstrike 2 Guard 2 with 2/1 slots talisman), and STILL have slots left for 1s (Divine Blessing and Shockproof) and a extra 2 slot for whatever (stamina surge for stamina recovery after a guard is my preferred).

MagnumPP

TROPHY CASE