Nature Gear [Old vs New]

Even with the festivities in place, this week’s Wanted Challenge (WC) still runs as per normal, proving how much WC is *cough*really essential*cough* to DH5. Well…the show MUST go on!

This week marks the 3rd elemental gear set and features the strongest nature set to date and showcasing some noteworthy attack/armor multipliers (13%). Something of which might possibly highly sought after for due to the absurd number of voror knights in strongholds.

However, as the mid-way point of the ‘beetle coin’ WC gear and reviewing this week’s results, I’m starting to wonder whether my initial statement about the new WC gear (and how it made the previous edition obsolete) might be true after all.

Let’s look at the facts before we jump to conclusions.

*Special thanks to Higira for correcting some of the figures inside this post! 

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*Note: If you use auto-mode, do note that it is slightly broken in this map. It is advisable for you to check on it at the end of the match as there is a high chance that your character might do one of the following:
– Stand around the map after the boss is dead because the chest does not spawn only unless your character moves about after killing the boss
– Stand in the swamp pit till death
– Constantly walking into a tree and dodge rolling (?!)

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The Armors

Swamp Monster Hide

Base Armor 2467
Nature Skill Cooldown 10%
Crit Hit Damage 30% (54.8%)
Health 6%
Nature Attack 13%

 

Titan Hornplate

Base Armor 2322
Nature Skill Damage 10%
Damage to Attacker 75 (95)
Nature Skill Cooldown 12%
Nature Armor 10%

 
Quite an obvious difference here. The Swamp Monster hide has traits that focuses more on attack while the Titan Hornplate focuses more on defense. Both have nature skill cooldown reduction, though I question how much a 2% difference would make a significance during actual combat.

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The Weapons

Dragon Bile Blade (Greatsword)

Base Attack 2467
Nature Skill Damage 8%
Attack Speed 13% (14%)
Health/Hit 11 (15)
Nature Armor 13%

 

Asgirr (Glaive)

Base Attack 2322
Nature Armor 10%
Nature Skill Damage 10%
Nature Skill cooldown 12%
Attack 75 (140)

 
Again, the newer variation takes the cake. Despite having the same base attack (the Asgirr boosted by its raw 140 attack), the Asgirr loses out by one trait and lacks the 14% attack speed that the Dragon Bile Blade has. This means the new Greatsword makes your character a hard-and-fast hitting machine, which is advantageous against Vorors and other pesky dark minions.

In the latest update, the Asgirr loses out on the raw attack bonus but is balanced out by the armor bonus addition. Although it doesn’t have as much ‘punch’ as before, it makes your character slightly hardier, especially beneficial in Voror fights and tanking swarms of Voror knights. (back to normal!)

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Comparison
Seriously, is there any point in comparing?
Both weapon and armor are already individually superior than their predecessors.

Anyway, just for the sake of it, here we go!

As a Nature set, let’s try gear with health bonuses this round.

Fixed gear and attributes which I used for this comparison would be:
Back – T5 Healing Shield (+10% armor)
Hand – T5 Shockwave (+10% attack)
Belt – T5 Earthen Wrath (+10% armor)

Trinkets – 3 x T2 trinkets (+24% armour & attack)
Guild – 5% for both armor and attack

The weapon and armor used are fully evolved T5 versions.
Superfusion points have been kept at 0 for standardisation.

Combo (1): Dragon Bile Sword + Swamp Monster Hide
Attack: 5830 (Global); 3835 (Base)
Armor: 6388 (Global); 3943 (Base)
Traits: Nature Skill Cooldown 10%; Nature Skill Damage 8%; Crit Hit Dmg 54.8%,; Health 6%; Attack Speed 14%; Health/hit 15

Combo (2): Asgirr + Titan Hornplate
Attack: 5324 (Global); 3830 (Base)
Armor: 6419 (Global); 3798 (Base)
Traits: Nature Skill Dmg 20%; Nature Skill Cooldown 24%; Damage to Attacker 95

Although having similar base stats for attack, the newer weapon has an extra attack speed as discussed earlier, making it much more deadly compared to the Asgirr.

Armor stat wise, the older set wins in terms of global stat value due to the additional armor bonuses from both armor and weapon, something can be depended upon when facing off swarms of voror or tormentors. However, when against other elemental types, the newer set fares much much better.

While the older set has faster cooldowns and increased damage for spell skills, I question how much and how often players will actually use their skills in combat. The newer gear has more reliable traits like health bonuses and health/hit, making it more versatile, especially in melee combat.

Overall, my vote goes with the newer set with this one as it has higher base stats and more traits which are useful as well.

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Other Combinations

Combo (3): Dragon Bile Sword + Titan Hornplate
Attack: 5715 (Global); 3835 (Base)
Armor: 6153 (Global); 3798 (Base)
Traits: Nature Skill Damage 18%; Nature Skill Cooldown 12%; Attack Speed 14%; Damage to Attacker 95; Health/hit 15

 

Combo (4): Asgirr + Swarm Monster Hide
Attack: 5822 (Global); 3830 (Base)
Armor: 6269 (Global); 3943 (Base)
Traits: Nature Skill Cooldown 22%; Nature Skill Damage 10%; Crit Damage 54.8%; Health 6%

When mix-and-matching weapons and armors, combo (3) and (4) prove that the original combinations maximise the effectiveness of their respective gear and make more sense to don on the matching weapon/armor.

However, if I had to pick a combination, I would choose combo (3) as it prioritises on offense while packing a ‘damage to attacker’ trait and decent percentages on skill damage and cooldown, despite its lower global values. I would say…this makes the character function like a ‘half-warrior/half-magician‘ hybrid that hits hard and attacks equally with spells. (Okay, I know that DH5 doesn’t have classes, so let’s not go there.)

Highest global attack: Combo (1) – 5830
Highest base attack: Combo (1,3) – 3835
Highest global defense: Combo (2) – 6419
Highest base defense: Combo (1,3) – 3943

Happy Holidays!