Non-Thief Sneak Attack (WAR/THF, BST/THF, DRK/THF etc)

[Cylo]

I rarely use THF sub on my jobs, but I am trying to use it more often now that WAR is almost 75. I am curious about gearing for SA+WS...

1) Are the weaponskill modifiers (STR, VIT etc) the only important stat to boost? Or is attack also just as useful?
2) With SA and multi-hit WS (i.e. Decimation) does the SA boost only the first hit?
3) Does DEX increase critical hit damage... or are STR and Attack the only way to do this?
4) Is there anything else I should be thinking about to help maximize my /THF damage?

If you happen to know any formulas and functions that can help me, those would be appreciated as well! Thanks.


I know this is a noob question, I would have taken it to Alla or KI, but you guys have a noob section now! Pbty.

[Kilik]

From what I understand:

1)Attack is useful, but the stat modifiers are more so. But it depends on the equip slot and what you have available really.. like, replacing a +1 or +2 of a stat with something that has 10 or more attack will probably end up in higher numbers. Probably differs with each WS though.
2)Yes, first hit only
3)DEX doesnt increase crit dmg, you could test this out by doing regular sneak attacks on mobs with different amounts of dex on.
4)Testing different combinations of gear is probably the best way to go with anything really. Switching out different amounts of the 1 or 2 modifiers for your WS, adding attack in places where the +stat is really low. Ive always seen really high numbers when both modifiers (STR and INT for spiral hell for example) are boosted instead of just going all STR.

[klvino]

Post subject: Non-Theif Sneak Attack (WAR/THF, BST/THF, DRK/THF etc)

Thief /jas always miss if you spell "thief" incorrectly. It'll help your SATA to fix it.

[Cylo]

Thanks for the spelling note, fixed.

[dietvanillapepsi]

I am curious why you think /thf is the way to go. I mean, it's good for a change of pace and all but it's not better than doing the traditional /nin. Thf sub only brings SATA to the party and only once a minute. With /nin you build faster tp for ws spamming.

I think if you roll as /thf you might find the slower tp build frustrating. IMO, the ws dmg increase isn't worth it.

[Kaylia]

1) Weapon skill modifier is and should alway be str. What you mentioned is the secondary attribute, which can be a mix of any stats. Unless you can get a ton of that particular stats, you should just go for str (genbu's kabuto 15vit vs 3str on something for example).

Attack is obviously useful, but not as much on WS. It's easy to tell attack do something when you check your dmg with or without song, or with berserk on/off. I cant give you an exact number as to when you should go for attack or str, but it's probably around 1str vs 5atk on xp mobs (I might be completely off on this one tho)

2) Only first hit, it sucks

3) Dex increase critical hit rate by a factor of 1% per 8-9dex on xp mobs. Hard to say for critical hit WS like rampage.

4) Get all the str you can, 2 minuet