Pirate Build-a-Bucc-Workshop: An exploration into the problem of the rope

Imagine it's 2017 for a moment. Things are pretty great, you have a Nightlord and they sling some mad lines with your dozen apples, you and your buddies are just casually killing Horntail, and you're pretty proud of your squad's 150 minute kill, but those arms are kinda scary so don't touch them yet. Berserk 30 dropped? Nice! That'll be a good paycheck this week!

It's too bad that it isn't 2017 anymore. It's 2020, and life is pretty shit. Your jobs have been taken, and it was those rotten dex buccs and HH mules that did it. They're an infection and a scourge on the maple world. This new world is scary. It has technology and it's confusing. It's then that you realize you're a maple boomer, and your mad Night Lord DPS just doesn't cut it anymore. You can't just solve all your problems by flinging endless throwing stars at the nearest part anymore. You have to put your DPM 45 into your resume to get on runs. You have to think, advance, improve, and be a degenerate until the other degenerates love you.

Having a dex bucc is super viable to bring along with your well-endowed melee class, and a true marvel of technology. The pinnacle of civilization. If you bring one, then congratulations on having such a galaxy sized mind and you can pick up your Maplestory tryhard sticker in the kiosk on the way out.

But are regular buccaneers still viable in the face of this new technology? I have no earthly idea.

End of thread.

Or maybe I should do some numbers or something. The current builds of most classes either optimize for damage, or optimize for some mule stat. It's pretty rare to try to find a balance between both, and to find that gray area where you can perform exactly how you desire in different content.

Classic buccaneer philosophy is to minimize dex and maximize str, and because of that it can create some different scenarios, but the result is usually the same: Low base dex and just enough from gear to equip the weapon.

But maybe it's not so bad to go over the dex requirement. Let's come up with a couple sets of gear with a few different AP builds on a casual level 170 buccaneer. By using 2 sets you can quickly increase your damage or your avoidability in different circumstances, so it's likely the go-to method of attempting to optimize both damage and utility.

Spoiler: The gears

Full offense gear:
Zakum Helm - 17 str / 30 dex / 15 luk / 20 avoid
Spectrum Goggles - 2 str
Rudolph's Red Nose - 1 attack
Red Belly Duke - 27 str / 3 dex / 2 avoid
Black Duke Barkin Shoes - 7 str / 7 dex
Single Earring - 9 dex
Pink Gaia Cape - 7 attack
Brown Work Gloves - 13 attack
Dragon Slash Claw - 100 attack / 11 str
Mark of Naricain - 5 attack / 5 str / 5 dex / 5 luk
Ellin Savior's Ring - 1 str / 1 dex / 1 luk
Monster Book Ring <Tier 5> - 5 str / 5 dex / 5 luk
Coke Zero Pill - 15 attack

Total stats from gear: 134 attack / 59 str / 60 dex / 26 luk / 22 avoid
Total avoid from that gear: 125

Dex maximizing gear:
Zakum Helm - 17 str / 30 dex / 15 luk / 20 avoid
Spectrum Goggles - 2 dex
Sad Mask - 7 dex / 7 avoid
White Pioneer - 6 str / 22 dex
Black Duke Barkin Shoes - 7 str / 7 dex
Single Earring - 9 dex
Crimsonheart Cloak - 5 str / 18 dex / 5 luk
Red Martier - 3 str / 5 dex / 10 attack
Dragon Slash Claw - 100 attack / 11 str
Horntail Necklace - 23 str / 23 dex / 22 luk / 39 avoid
Ellin Savior's Ring - 1 str / 1 dex / 1 luk
Monster Book Ring <Tier 5> - 5 str / 5 dex / 5 luk
Coke Zero Pill - 15 attack

Total stats from gear: 115 attack / 67 str / 106 dex / 48 luk / 66 avoid
Total avoid from that gear: 249

Spoiler: The AP Builds, theoretical damage ranges, and dodge rates

Now that we have the stats from some theoretical average gear, we need to make some AP builds for the level 170 bucc. He has 864 AP to spend on either str or dex, and using the offense gear he needs at least 50 base dex to equip his knuckle, so that will be our floor.

Spoiler: Offensive gear:

attack: 134
str: 963 (= 822 + 82(mw20 from his friend pepelaugh) + 59(gear))
dex: 115 (= 50 + 5(mw20) + 60(gear))
avoid: 229 (= 1.5 x dex + .5 x luk + avoid + bless)

Max attack range with offensive gear:
MAX = (Primary Stat + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100
Knuckle Primary = Str x 4.8
= (963 x 4.8 + 115) x 134/100
= 6348

Dodge rate in Horntail with offensive gear:
Minimum because it's believed you need to have more avoid than the monster's accuracy to benefit from avoid

This gives the bucc the best lines, but at the cost of having the minimum chance of avoiding an attack in HT, which could lower damage in it's own right from knockbacks/repositioning, as Buccaneers can't always have stance.

Now let's equip the dex gear and see the change in range and avoid for the bucc with 50 base dex.

Spoiler: Dex Maximizing Gear:

attack: 115
str: 971 (= 822 + 82(mw20) + 67(gear))
dex: 161 (= 50 + 5(mw20) + 106(gear))
avoid: 353

Max attack range with dex gear:
MAX = (Primary Stat + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100
Knuckle Primary = Str x 4.8
= (971 x 4.8 + 161) x 115/100
= 5545

Dodge rate in Horntail with dex gear:
Dodge Rate = 10/9 - (250/0.9)/(Avoid) [Thanks Skarmory for the nice thread]
= 32.4% dodge rate

Spoiler: Stop saying nerdy shit, just tell me what it means

The important numbers to compare are the ranges and the dodge rates in HT.

Wear dex gear and you'll do 5545 / 6348 = ~87%(At least if damage is linear) of the damage from the full attack gear but you'll go from the minimum chance to dodge to a 32.4% chance to dodge.

Is that a good tradeoff? Hell if I know, I don't play bucc.

Spoiler: Speedrunning numbers for adding higher dex - not even gonna show any work so good luck proving it wrong you nerd

Dodge rates are all vs. HT's magic attacks

+50 dex and -50 str
Offensive gear range: 6068
Offensive gear dodge rate: 21.8%
Percent of optimal damage: 95.6%

Dex gear range: 5293
Dex gear dodge rate: 47.25%
Percent of optimal damage: 83.4%

+100 dex and -100 str
Offensive gear range: 5788
Offensive gear dodge rate: 40.4%
Percent of optimal damage: 91.2%

Dex gear range: 5082
Dex gear dodge rate: 57.4%
Percent of optimal damage: 80%

I need to climb this rope immediately: +150 dex and -150 str
Offensive gear range: 5508
Offensive gear dodge rate: 52.6%
Percent of optimal damage: 86.75%

Dex gear range: 4801
Dex gear dodge rate: 64.7%
Percent of optimal damage: 75.6%

That last one had avoids of 475 and 599. Honestly a bucc that chooses to go for 200 base dex and the rest attack gear looks like it could be a decent monster, especially since it keeps most of its damage.

tl;dr: Make a 200 dex bucc it looks pretty neat