Leaden Salute, the uber quick draw?Follow

I've played around with the numbers quite a bit... and you CAN get passable* numbers... but you really have to make sacrifices to make it work... like using a pluto's staff... but then... I guess you're shooting for TP... while /BLM. o_O;

And Magic Defense+ mobs are still going to laugh at you.

* A good DD build will still deal more damage unless we're talking about flans or something. In playing around with the formula, assuming I don't fail at Excel Spreadsheet math, I was getting results in the 800-900 range against what I considered to be a fairly average expected Int value (70) for other mobs. But you've really got to have it all to push this number... and anything with MDB is going to reduce that. That's even counting in a Leaden Salute-tailored Anwig Salade... lol. (AGI +4, Weaponskill Damage +2%, MAB +2)


Also, all the times I've plugged numbers into the formula, it doesn't seem like MAB is that much stronger of an effect than AGI is. So, really, Peacemaker shines as the best Leaden Salute gun, if you want to really use it that way, unless you get the AGI +5 Fane Hexagun.


I still feel, at this point, Fane Hexagun is only worthwhile if you get AGI+ and Magic Acc+ on it. It's the best Light Shot gun at that point. Not sure I want to spend 60k (on my server) for 5 shots at a Light Shot-only gun.

Still haven't heard of anyone getting MAB on it.

If you want a different and new weaponskill, might I suggest giving Detonator a try? ^^

Edited, Aug 11th 2009 2:55pm by shanecf

You can ditch most of the R.acc you would use on slug shot and gear primarily for STR and AGI with detonator. AGI is only a 30% mod though so focus more on STR than on AGI.

There have been a few cases where LS has been pretty good. When I'm in a pulling only build in nyzul; i work up some extra TP and usually LS the magic weak monsters. Dynamis is another area i enjoy. Leaden Salute works wonders on a two houred paladin or thief monster.

Also, if anybody plays for fun, I pump up the magic attack and store TP on my cor in campaign and spam the hell out of Leaden Salute. It cannot miss. It's pretty nice.

A (slightly unrealistic) comparison:

Max damage of Detonator if you cap fSTR, pDIF, with WS salade, gorget, reasonably difficult but not impossible to obtain gear, HQ staff vs. piercing weak mob:

1561 damage

Max damage of Slug Shot with the same gear set, feint on the piercing weak mob, angon, dia III, DRK roll, /WAR berserk (basically everything to cap your pDIF):

3062 damage

Max damage of Leaden Salute with max AGI build, max MAB build (+15), pluto staff, Anrin obi on darks day, target INT = 60, /RDM:

1117 damage


So for a merit level mob, especially colibri, the ceiling on slug is about 2x that of det and over 3x that of LS. But this isn't WS averages, this is if you debuff a mob, buff the snot out of yourself and want to pop a single epeen shot where your pDIF value lands right on the max (for slug at least, Det and LS won't vary as much).

But....

If you increase mob level to 90, VIT to 85, inrease mob def by 50%, make RACC consessions for slug and INT to 80, but still have feint, dia III and angon:

Max damage of det (you can use about the same gear set as above thanks to the ACC bonus, swap out a little AGI for more STR since the fSTR cap is higher):

882 damage (45% reduction in damage over merit mobs)

Max damage of Slug swapping out some gear for RACC but still /WAR with berserk and DRK roll:

991 damage (68% reduction in damage over merit mobs)

Max of LS with the same build as above:

1046 damage (7% reduction in damage over merit mobs)


So, this is not 100% accurate, but it gets the point across. Slug has the highest ceiling, but as your target gets more difficult its damage output decreases very quickly and you need to rely on your party/alliance to keep its damage up.

Det is decent, consistant damage.

Leaden Salute requires a very good gear set to get decent numbers out of it, but it will be the most consistant damage (I'd argue the numbers above are about 20% higher than the average-above average LS build will get). In that case, it is very much like an uber QD. 300 QD damage on a merit mob is not super significant, but 300 damage on an HNM is better than some WSs. LS's 800ish damage on a merit mob is not spectacular, but 800ish damage on an HNM is respectable.

They all have their place.