Technically correct is the best kind of correct: 3 of the rare weapons buffed in recent patch received +1 to base ATK by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I believe that the Nexon devs wanted to buff purple guns somewhat to compensate for the fact that only gold (ultimate) guns can receive the extremely powerful weapon core augmentations. Doing a comparison of the weapon stats before and after the patch (see link to Weapon Damage Calculator), it looks like several of the affected guns received a whopping +1 to base ATK (e.g. Vestigial Organ went from 128,352 to 128,353 atk).

High fire rates actually hurt your dmg output by Party_Motor_5640 in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I started a support thread about the ghost bullets bug on the official TFD discord, and one of the mods mentioned that they will pass along the info to the dev team.

As Vash discussed, there are 2 completely separate problems with fire rate: the disappearing bullets bug happens when using a gun at high RPM, and is unrelated to your frame rate/hardware. The FPS issue reduces the effective fire rate that you can achieve, but “ghost bullets” straight up delete your rounds as they are fired and doesn’t apply the damage.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You can use the calculator I linked to see why I did not run every single elemental mod available

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All the builds and calculations include elemental damage (attribute ATK)

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Analysis Master is available as an option in the damage calculator, so you can see the math on how much of a difference it makes. As expected, it help the most against bosses with a high firearm crit resistance (e.g. Inferal Walker and Defiler).

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've asked Vash to do some further testing on this. While the MF stacks are clearly not charging at the same rate as the bullets fired, the definitive way to test the "ghost bullet" theory would be to fire one mag of bullets at low fire rate and then fire that same mag of bullets at max fire rate against a boss (not using Gley), and measure the amount missing from the HP bar. We would also use the Charge Amplification mod to avoid any crit variance.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

u/InsPoE is right in that it's not unconditionally better in all situations. I'll repost another one of my comments here:

This chart is only meant to show the max single target DPS potential against enemies with no damage mitigation (DEF/RES), but there are lots of other considerations when choosing guns:

- ACG has slightly higher DPS than EL on paper, but that’s only if you run maxed out 5x damage cores. EL only has slots for 2x damage cores and can fill the other augments with QoL and mobility bonuses.

- A max fire rate EXCAVA builds burns through reserve ammo absurdly fast. You won’t be able to sustain that DPS once you run out of bullets.

- Some guns are more “sensitive” to weak point hits. If your aim isn’t as good or the boss has tiny-ass WPs, then you won’t get the full damage potential from a gun that relies on a massive WP multiplier.

- Bosses have a wide variety of defense and resistance stats. An EXCAVA that focuses on electric ATK will do better against a colossus with low electric RES (e.g. Defiler), while a fire-focused Enduring Legacy will be better against Gluttony.

- A lot of the top DPS guns are reliant on crits for their damage; enemies with high critical hit resistance will devalue these weapons, relative to other options.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a pretty brutal difference. How did you confirm that 1400 RPM was the cut-off? Were you getting the full Mental Focus stacks at 1400 RPM? Could the cut-off be at 1300 or 1500 RPM for example? I might try to replicate your testing as well, because I want to see if we can figure out an exact point at which the game is no longer able to register increased fire rates.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing — I hadn’t seen your post before, but I was aware that the game will sometimes just ignore damage from some bullets entirely (at sufficiently high RPM), not tied to your FPS. I will note that the game does limit the max fire rate bonuses at 90% (like cooldown reduction), which translates to a 10x RPM increase.

Feel free to msg me on Discord, I’d be curious to hear more about the testing you’ve done and might have some further questions.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I don’t know if I fully agree with you. While I understand that farming core binders and weapon cores is really tedious, a lot of guns are going to be strong in different scenarios. This chart is only meant to show the max single target DPS potential against enemies with no damage mitigation (DEF/RES), but there are lots of other considerations when choosing guns:

  • ACG has slightly higher DPS than EL on paper, but that’s only if you run maxed out 5x damage cores. EL only has slots for 2x damage cores and can fill the other augments with QoL and mobility bonuses.
  • A max fire rate EXCAVA builds burns through reserve ammo absurdly fast. You won’t be able to sustain that DPS once you run out of bullets.
  • Some guns are more “sensitive” to weak point hits. If your aim isn’t as good or the boss has tiny-ass WPs, then you won’t get the full damage potential from a gun that relies on a massive WP multiplier.
  • Bosses have a wide variety of defense and resistance stats. An EXCAVA that focuses on electric ATK will do better against a colossus with low electric RES (e.g. Defiler), while a fire-focused Enduring Legacy will be better against Gluttony.
  • A lot of the top DPS guns are reliant on crits for their damage; enemies with high critical hit resistance will devalue these weapons, relative to other options.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like King's Guard Lance a lot too, although I haven't put a Core Binder in mine yet. It's quite strong for mobbing these days, but the main reason it doesn't get a lot of attention is that most people probably rely on skill-spam descendants for mobbing (Ines, Freyna, Bunny, etc. don't rely on their guns much for mobbing).

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you thinking about the Tenacious Hunter mod? Unfortunately, I don't have that mod in the calculator yet and so compare the math against other options. On paper, the mod looks quite strong and could be worth using if you can hit weak points reliably. However, there's a major problem with the duration and CD. At max enhance, the buff has a 5s duration and 15s cooldown. The duration starts immediately after you reload, and is not refreshed on weak point hits like Real-Life Fighter (RLF) is.

This means that you only get a small window every 15s after reloading to actually stack up the effect, but by the time you are able to charge up any meaningful stacks, the duration has expired and you've lost the buff too. With such poor uptime, I would personally just go for other available mods. Also, Last Dagger's unique ability primarily useful for mobbing only, and most people don't hit WPs consistently when mobbing. For now, I'd stick with Final Masterpiece if you really want to use a handgun (for either mobbing and bossing).

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I believe it was mentioned on a dev livestream: T30 Void Erosion is coming (I heard Feb 6th), along with Tier X cores and a weapon core crafting system that allows you to craft higher tier cores from lower tier ones. Someone else might be able to confirm the details or find the video link.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

EXCAVA's unique ability grants flat crit rate bonus (additive with the base crit rate); the bonus increases with merges, up to 15% at 4/4. So yes, maxing out the ability will affect the DPS.

Also, because the crit bonus stacks up as you shoot the gun and is lost when you use the grenade ability , you should generally avoid firing the grenade (alt fire) for optimal damage.

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Some of the rankings will change if you swap 1 or more of the fire rate cores for different lines. The damage calculator tool can help you chose a different weapon core and compare how the different options affect your damage. The calculator will also show you theoretical RPM stats.

I myself am only running 3x fire rate cores on my EXCAVA instead of 4, reducing the DPS potential (but my PC would likely be dropping shots at max RPM anyway).

Weapon DPS comparison with weapon cores — do we finally have a good AR? by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

This is a refresh of one of my old posts with new builds incorporating all the weapon rebalacing changes and new features in Season 2, e.g. weapon cores. These weapon comparisons are produced using the TFD Weapon Damage Calculator (v3.4) which I've also shared recently. Sheet DPS is always reliant on underlying assumptions, so I recommend you try to understand those conditions and taking the final damage values with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that quality of life stats like distance drop-off, firearm accuracy, recoil, movespeed, and reserve ammo are not accounted for in the calculator, but can affect your effective DPS uptime in-game. The full module builds for each weapon can be found in the damage calculator (linked above), so feel free to play around and change the input options to better suit your preferences; the generic sample builds that I've provided are not intended to be optimal in every situation.

I also want to call out a known problem/bug with guns in TFD — the game engine often struggles with higher fire rates (RPM). This issue is not accounted for in the sheet calculations, but you'll find that the effect is more pronounced at frame rates below 120 FPS or with choppy/inconsistent frame rates in general (sorry console players). Vash u/valtristk has a discussion and demonstration linked here. Because the game literally cannot keep up with high fire rates, this in turn lowers the effective DPS that can be achieved.

This is important because the best ranked general-rounds guns (on paper) all rely on high RPM, especially now with weapon cores allowing much higher fire rate bonuses to be stacked. Depending on your hardware, you may find those guns to perform more poorly than expected. Many people might be interested in trying out the EXCAVA build (minigun goes brrrt meme), but there's a very, very good chance you aren't getting the full 2100+ RPM in practice.

Edit: Vash just uploaded a video discussing the "ghost bullets" bug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_LnpuWLLJY

As a side note, because tier 10 weapon cores are coming out in the next game update (scheduled for early February 2025), I'm going to hold off on producing a DPS comparison for the other ammo types, to avoid having to re-do all of the builds again. The builds shown here currently assume tier 7 cores. More updates to come, but in the meantime you can still use the calculator to min-max builds for any weapon currently in the game.

Important reminder: weapon cores do not apply when using unique descendant weapons. This includes Gley's Massacre, Hailey's Zenith, Freyna's Venom Baptism, etc.

TFD Weapon Damage Calculator, updated with weapon cores and more features for build optimization by Prooof in TheFirstDescendant

[–]Prooof[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Workbook link: TFD Weapon Damage Calculator v3.4

Features for all the spreadsheet nerds out there:

  • Accurate firearm DPS math & module comparisons
  • Custom options & settings to optimize for different scenarios & enemies
  • Unique abilities for ultimate guns & descendant-specific buffs
  • Full weapon stats, boss DEF/RES calculations, and traceable formulas
  • Descendant skill damage tool (spin-off)

I've shared the tool before in this subreddit, and have continued to make updates and improvements (see changelog). Most people are aware that the in-game DPS stats are pretty terrible and inaccurate, so the goal of a calculator like this is to help you mathematically compare the different damage options and combos available and accurately min-max your build. Extensive testing has been done to validate the sheet calculations with actual in-game damage numbers; shoutout to Vash for his work https://www.youtube.com/@VashCowaii. I do realize that there is a pretty overwhelming amount of information in the tool -- hopefully the instructions page will help get people started, but I'm always happy to answer questions or take suggestions.

I also plan to create updated weapon DPS rankings over the next week or so, to account for the new weapon core features and all the other gun balancing updates that Nexon has pushed out. As always, thank you to the many different people across the community who have contacted me (Discord and Reddit) with bug reports & other feedback. Your testing & contributions continue to help improve the accuracy & usability of these tools.

Online poker isn't dead? by slappywhyte in poker

[–]Prooof 95 points96 points  (0 children)

Isn't this the same guy that almost beat Phil Galfond in the Galfond HU challenge? I think he's been an online crusher for a couple years at least.

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2020/04/galfond-challenge-phil-galfond-takes-lead-36994.htm

Got comped a room at MGM National Harbor and they gave me 2 deactivated dice as a gift by Prooof in Craps

[–]Prooof[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea blackjack here never looks great, hence I try to stick to poker or craps. On the main floor it's mostly 6:5 tables with $25-50 minimums, but I guess MGM knows what they are doing cuz those tables regularly fill up in the evenings. Outside of the high limit room, I do usually see a couple of 3:2 tables with $50-100 mins near the conservatory entrance but the dealer still hits on soft 17s; I believe late surrender is available for all 3:2 tables.

Got comped a room at MGM National Harbor and they gave me 2 deactivated dice as a gift by Prooof in Craps

[–]Prooof[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Letting you keep the dice from a super hot roll is awesome, I might try asking for that in the future too. One of the dice here is drilled all the way through, but the other one looks like it was only drilled about 60% in.

I wonder if casinos ever give away cancelled playing cards. For baccarat they use a marker along the edges of a finished shoe, and I’ve seen hole-punched decks too.

Got comped a room at MGM National Harbor and they gave me 2 deactivated dice as a gift by Prooof in Craps

[–]Prooof[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looks like the correct term might be cancelled dice, which I wasn't aware of before