Bosses hitting damage and about dark knights

I cant answer all questions but anyways:
3: no, we dont.
4: most likely due to the 100% increase pf all dmg.
6: buster hits 3x. Therefore spears are better than PA. Its not about weapon attack but about the main skills you using.

 

Ah, my mistake. I ment spear crusher, since spears do higher dmg when stabbing and this is a stab only skill, spear got the upper hand.

 

He (probably) means either, Spear Crusher or Dragon Fury. While PA probably has the same % of damage, Spear is probably faster, especially with Sky Ski's which you hit faster, so more dpm.
Not sure though since i don't play DK

 

Yeah this game probably wasnt built with balance in mind. For the worst case of this, look at how ridiculously inferior axes are to swords for Heroes.

Also regarding #5: DKs im my guild usually stay away from bishops so that they dont get healed. For example zakum splits the map into 2 sides, and the DK would just go over to the right side.

 

Kimberly for as far as I know you cant really change these things due to Nexons and Wizets designs on these skills. Its the same thing with axes and brandish. A slash+stab skill therefore swords wins out. I know, I know, but its really the error Neckson/Wizet made and not something that can be changed that easily

 

1) This is kind of a weird question because some bosses do a ton of damage that isn't practically significant. For example, Horntail's middle head can do >15k damage, but it really shouldn't matter because you shouldn't be jumping into the head. Same with Anego, whose slap can do ~18-19k but should never hit you if you're doing it properly (though I've died plenty on accident). Practically, you should worry about Horntail's magic attacks which don't deal more than 9k.
2) Honestly not sure on this one. The 5.6k is pretty well-established. Might have something to do with legs/tail damage vs the arms/head magic attacks (legs/tail do more).
3) No
4) Fairly sure for single-target DPS, heroes are better than DKs. I don't have the numbers to back that up, so take it with a grain of salt.
5) Either the DK gets out of range or the bishop stops healing. For Zak and Horntail there are spots where this is possible, and the bishops can usually get away with not spamming heal if attackers know what they are doing.
6) It's true that balance isn't perfect in this game. However, polearms do have some advantages over spears, namely grinding. Spears become endgame weapons because Crusher does more single-target damage which is important for bossing. Crusher always stabs (and therefore gets the stab bonus from spears) and Fury always swings (bonus from polearms).

 

Pole arms arent useless. IMO, they are the best weapon to use in second job because you slash more than you stab and arguably third job because the polearm skill is a better grinding skill. Its just fourth job where spear ultimately wins out. Also if you want to zerk effectively, aim for 30k hp with hb, which is like 18k without.

 

Your end game HP goal should be ~18.7k clean so that you reach 30k with HB. This requires at least some HP washing, somewhere in the neighborhood of 140-160 washes depending on how quickly you want to get there. My DK reached 18.7k by level 140 but I had something like 80 base INT which is honestly excessive, especially if you have INT gear of any kind. Getting to max HP by 155 is totally acceptable.

And yes, many people go "hybrid" which is basically polearms through 3rd job (maxing PA Fury first) and then transitioning to spears (Spear Crusher after PA Fury). Polearms do more damage for grinding purposes for the first ~130 levels anyway.

 

2) 5.6k for magic damage tanking without HB, if you have 5.6k you're still good to tank magic damage from HT without a drk and if tail is dead(tail magic dmg is 7.8k).

 

TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM WITH POLE-ARM VS SPEAR -- MAKE A HYBRID. U GET THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!! Just max pole-arm fury and spear's crusher. "oh but I can't switch during my attacks" YOU WILL EITHER BE IN A BOSS MAP OR A FARM MAP -- WHEN exactly will you need to use BOTH types of attacks?? "oh but sometimes I might go himes and farm crow so the ..." dude. stop. crusher will be just fine there and I HIGHLY doubt you will be zerking on that map.

In regards to the ACTUAL NUMBERS:
Unfortunately I haven't found any data sets via the internet on either skill -- only hear-say of the mechanics about how the spear's 'stabbing' motion vs 'overhead' swing motion change the damage rating (and I've heard this since 2008 but I started playing since beta 2005 if that says anything). The only way to truly find out is to make a pure pole arm and pure spearman DrK. And then get a stopwatch and time how long it takes to kill BF with crusher on each respective build. That WILL give you a SOLID answer.

Let's be really honest with ourselves here: Dark Knights are so appealing because they have beholder's constant buffs of: att,def, acc, avoid/heal, HB, berserk, dragons blood... etc. It sounds like the FULL package! But there is a BIG 'HOWEVER'.

However, Hero's are the DPS class of the warrior branch. When properly HP washed -- they can sustain the same spot while spamming brandish; and brandish is truly the fastest attack despite only doing 2 lines of damage in comparison to the slow climbing 3 line attack of a Dark Knight's crusher. And don't you worry about "oh but DrK has zerk" yeah and Hero has advanced combo! "oh but DrK has dragon's blood/and-or beholder's buff" yeah and fighters have rage!! OK. not only that but the hero/pally guys can equip a shield. So .... shield WAtt scrolls/Mchaos scrolls.... + 1h (fastest) sword.... HELLO. (I believe Stonetooth 2h has more reach, though; and to get the 1h sword past the level of a Stonetooth -- u need a WELL SCROLLED shield) I'm just saying. If you were truly looking for DPS in the warrior class then Hero is where it is at. By the time a Dark could pull off 3 crusher attacks (9 lines of damage, total) -- a Hero could do about 6 brandish attacks ~ 11 maybe 12 lines total at the very worst (it might actually be faster than that).

EDIT: I just want to add that Spearmen are completely VALID here in this server. And that is because and thanks to Kimberly; she has kept the HP Washing mechanics -- that is, obtaining AP resets very .... 'time consuming'.... we will just say that; so it is very common to see many people with HP under 9K. Therefore HB is a VERY WELCOME THING in this server. See?? So you wont feel useless as a spearman because you can do 'some' DPS but most of all you can tank and support! yay! Back around v83 release in GMS -- I remember DrK's going extinct! NOT HERE THO! NO SIR! THEY ARE ALIVE AND WELL HERE.


(HP WASHING: need to save AP resets for 3 years -- if u need to see the actual data -- i have a spreadsheet on nx cost/hp wash/time it takes etc)

 

This is just basic oldschool (pre-BB) Maplestory knowledge. Anyways,

- Heros have the highest DPS among warriors. DrK isn't too far behind though, and you get the sexy HB.

- Spear vs Polearm: Just go pure spear or hybrid, you'll be fine either way. As long as you don't go pure Polearm you're good.

In 1x server (GMS) hybrid was the best way to go, since you're leveling up so slowly that you may spend a YEAR to reach level 90. Doing power strike and slash blast, polearm is better (and also polearm scrolls are much cheaper). Also even at higher levels, if you do grinding/farming at maps with lots of spawn, polearm fury is far superior.

But in most private servers none of that matters, you're gonna level up fast and won't be spending much time in 2nd job. Also at very high level you're just gonna be bossing, and if you need to farm you're gonna use a bishop/mage character for that, so the advantages of PA fury for farming is irrelevant. So in a private server just go pure spear, you won't have to bother with switching weapons.

However some people (like myself) choose to go hybrid purely for nostalgic purposes.

- boss dmg / your HP: Your end goal should be enough to tank bigfoot while in berzerk. That's around 13k touch dmg, so you need about 26k HP (with HB). If you have 26k HP then you can zerk in HT as well.

At level 180 a normal DrK will have around 18k HP (with HB), and 20k at level 200.

 

As a healing class that is soon to farm the himes map -- I will say that if I had my choice of spear fury or pole-arm fury DK -- I will tell the POLE-ARM guy that he's in my party. And this is from a training/farming standpoint. In bossing -- they just want you for ur HB; they just want you for your hot body -- u piece of meat. (subliminal messsage -- join Horny guild! We recruiting!).

 

Yes fourth job is the end goal, but its still quite a journey to get there so polearms are very useful in second and third job. So yea go hybrid. Also yes you need 5.6k hp not including HB to survive horntail.