Fuvayus Vortex Stone and Polar Spine set

4 months ago, I wrote a blog entry on Octo-Spine set. Recently, 3 new items have been introduced.

The Fuvayus Vortex Stone is an Epic item. It is award to the guild with the most hits on a Titan. As with all other Epic items, the item alone has 100 Elite Hunter, making it a "1-item set". The Vortex Stone requires minimum level 400 to equip.

In a recent legendary event, a new legendary creature was introduced. The Polar Spine Chomper can be found in the caves via scavenging. They drop 2 items that form a set, much like the other spine chompers. These items are crystalline, like all other spine items. The items are Polar Spine Grips (gloves) and Polar Spine Neckpiece (amulet). This is a level 650 set.

The Vortex Stone has 880 damage when perfect crafted and fully forged. The Vortex Stone does not add to attack stats. The Octo-Spine set with Shield and Stone has 1686 damage and 561 attack, including set bonus. So for the Vortex Stone to beat the Octo-Spine set, the shield must have at least 806 damage. Such item comes only at level 577. So that is the level where I shall start my analysis.

Level 577 (Octo-Spine vs Fuvayus Vortex Stone)
The maximum damage items at this level are :
Gloves of Li Shang, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Master of Magic Spear, Armor of Kithdor, Shield of Roljill, Ring of Limjarrin, Sthenos Slither Boots, Fuvayus Vortex Stone.
Using that setup, the total damage is 7778, with 1142 attack and 897 defense.
With Octo-Spine set, the total damage is 7747, with 1518 attack and 280 defense.
The trade-off is therefore 31 damage for 376 attack. In fact, the trade-off for attack is more, since Keen Edge can give another 273 more attack with the Octo-Spine set. Keen Edge gives no bonus when using the Vortex Stone and the other max damage items.

Level 578-599 (Equal Improvements)
In these levels, the maximum damage can be improved with these items :
Level 578 - Boots of Abknar
Level 581 - Rune of Cralze (Higher damage, but does not add to Elite Hunter) (not applicable)
Level 582 - Ring of Reakel
Level 584 - Gloves of Corpia
Level 590 - Gloves of Renshar
Level 594 - Blade of Panethor
But they improve both the Vortex and Octo-Spine setups equally, so the comparison and trade-offs remain the same.

Level 600 (Adventurer set)
At level 600, the Adventurer set has 2 items that have the maximum damage for that level. They are the Aging Adventurer Breastplate and Looted Adventurer Tower Shield. The Shield actually shares the same maximum damage. The other 2 items that make up the set are the Looted Adventurer Gauntlets and Looted Adventurer Boots.
Using the Looted Aventurer set the accompanying items are : Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Blade of Panethor, Ring of Reakel, Rune of Cralze. The total damage adds up to 7617, with 1290 attack and 2662 defense.
Using the Vortex Stone, the other items are : Gloves of Renshar, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Blade of Panethor, Aging Adventurer Breastplate, Shield of Roljill, Ring of Reakel, Boots of Abknar. The total damage adds up to 8196, with 1125 attack.
Using Octo-Spine set, the other items are : Gloves of Renshar, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Blade of Panethor, Aging Adventurer Breastplate, Ring of Reakel, Boots of Abknar. The total damage adds up to 8165, with 1501 attack.
So the trade-off for Vortex and Octo-Spine still has not changed.

Level 600-649 (Damage upgrades)
Level 609 - Rune of Howbale
Level 612 - Helmet of Grunthar (After 232 levels, finally a helmet upgrade)
Level 616 - Ring of Gasrel
Level 618 - Weapon of Shalok
Level 625 - Boots of Banevor
Level 629 - Rune of Staveal
Level 632 - Ziprael Amulet, Armor of Fellaphel (After 233 levels, finally an amulet upgrade)
Level 633 - Amulet of Lihhal
Level 635 - Weapon of Acualle, Rune of Eassel
Level 636 - Amulet of Tinale
Level 637 - Amulet of Phalla
Level 639 - Boots of Aeroni
Level 647 - Shield of Stalia

Level 650 (Polar Spine set)
Other than the polar spine set, the Gloves of Sarlonde also increases the maximum damage at this level.
Using the Vortex Stone, the other items will be : Gloves of Sarlonde, Helmet of Grunthar, Amulet of Phalla, Weapon of Acualle, Armor of Fellaphel, Shield of Stalia, Ring of Gasrel, Boots of Aeroni. The total damage is 9448, with 947 attack and 1917 defense.
Using the Octo-Spine set, the other items will be : Gloves of Sarlonde, Helmet of Grunthar, Amulet of Phalla, Weapon of Acualle, Armor of Fellaphel, Ring of Gasrel, Boots of Aeroni. The total damage is 9289, with 1069 attack and 1537 defense.
The Vortex Stone - Octo-Spine trade-offs has increased to 159 damage for 122 attack (and another 195 attack in Keen Edge).
Using the Polar Spine set, the other items will be : Helmet of Grunthar, Weapon of Acualle, Armor of Fellaphel, Shield of Stalia, Ring of Gasrel, Boots of Aeroni, Rune of Eassel. The total damage is 9394, with 1799 attack, 1124 defense, and 1765 armor. This setup clearly out shines the other two.

Conclusion
The Vortex Stone was not a big boost. The reduced attack was huge, and the best way to increase the attack is to go back to the Octo-Spine setup. As the level increases, new damage items get introduced and Vortex Stone setup begins to out shine that of the Octo-Spine. But at level 650, the Polar Spine gets thrown in. Even though it has less damage, it has a lot more attack. The trade-off at level 650 is 52 damage for 852 attack.


Thanks to andypearce, UveBinHad, grimnok, and SirJamez for helping me gather the stats of some items mentioned in this blog. Thanks to andypearce who did a sanity check on my initial calculations.

Strategy for Tough Levels

I was planning ahead, and it is not the first time I encounter levels where 1-hitting is impossible, not even with Death Dealer and high level CA. The Lao Xan Merchant Guard need even conservatively 18117 damage to 1-hit, and the maximum I can gather is 18048. 18117 is simply Armor + HP for that creature.

So as usual, I consider the option of staying back. The previous level requires CA 75. That has an efficiency of 1.48, which is worse than using the Potion of Fatality. That assumes that you can 1-hit when wither activates, as well as having enough defense not to get hit when wither did not activate. There's also another assumption that CA is not needed in this setup. If such a setup is possible, the efficiency would be 1.3.

I could not find a combination that has enough defense without the use of CA. The best I came up with was a setup that require CA 25. That adds a 1.0625 multiplier and the efficiency becomes 1.38. This is still better than staying back with CA 75.

That's when I thought about another possibility. What about simply going full damage, and use the shield imp 30% of the time. What's the efficiency of that? It turns out not to be such a good idea. Each imp used is about 8.3 stam. That means 30% of the time, you will not only be double hitting, but also use an imp block. That means the efficiency is 1.46. It is still slightly better than staying back with CA 75, but not as good as a defensive setup with CA25.

So why am I documenting this? Even though it is not the best setup for level 548, this is a viable strategy. If a level is so tough as to require CA 50 with wither in defensive mode, then this setup is no worse. Also, if you can get Imps at below stam cost, that will make this setup more efficient. That can be due to players selling imps below stam cost, or having a friend use Buff Master to buff the Imps.

Below table assumes 16x doubler.
It does not account for Shield Strike, Deathwish and Critical Hits. Please see updated table in my blog on Shield Strike.

Efficiency	Setup
1.00	1-hit
1.06	CA-25
1.13	CA-50
1.19	CA-75
1.25	CA-100
1.25	Back-level (1-hit)
1.30	Wither 350 + Defense
1.31	CA-125
1.33	Back-level (CA-25)
1.38	CA-150
1.38	Wither 350 + CA25 + Defense
1.41	Back-level (CA-50)
1.44	CA-175
1.46	Wither 350 + Imp
1.46	Wither 350 + CA50 + Defense
1.48	Back-level (CA-75)
1.54	Wither 350 + CA75 + Defense
1.56	Back-level (CA-100)
1.64	Back-level (CA-125)
1.72	Back-level (CA-150)
1.80	Back-level (CA-175)
2.00	2-hit