After using Gram rush lv. 5 & Earth worm lv. 1 I can safely say, neither are truly worth having past lv. 1 to unlock the rest of the branch*. Taking that into account, I've made a new skill build for my Cres to use at 38. I've also used the last 12 points like this. I thought about Imperio but I guess I prefer Levicorpus. The stat build I chose is going to be 30 Str, 25 Agi & 41 Int. Thoughts? I could really use some feedback.
*Reasons for saying this: Gram rush at it's best, using the Green Pandora scythe, when it lands a critical usually hits around...28x points in damage. My Deim wind with crits & Pandora Scythe hits..400-59x points in damage at its highest critical; and at it's lowest usually hits for around Gram's critical hits. So as it stands right now, I simply see no point in leveling it up past level 1 for it to have all those wasted skill points when it doesn't hit for much to begin with.
*Reason for Earth worm: It's incredibly situational, doesn't hit very hard, and it hits 2-3 of the enemies adjacent to the enemy you attack it with. It's very annoying especially when it pulls more monsters that you can handle. At it's highest critical it has hit for 176 damage for me using the same setup as the above; needless to say Deim > Earth worm. I bet my Dots could do higher if I had more Int. To be completely honest; they probably already do if stacked together. Fernuculus hits for almost double it's base damage every tick already.
**The above is purely my opinion & my observations put together. If you have had a different experience using these skills; lemme know.
Don't forget that Bram Gush and Earth Worm apply magic damage, not physical, and our magic damage is expected to be re-mediated. The end result for magic damage projections follows the following construction:
*All gear will give equal parts Int as they give Str (1:1)
*Only certain weapons will give any Matk at all (Pandora is one example). Such weapons will give equal parts (1:1) again.
To apply these calculations in estimation, take your current total Patk, and subtract your weapon's Matk, while using a Pandora weapon (or any weapon which gives 1:1 atk ratios). Use the result as your projected total Matk once Crescentia gears are patched. If you expect you will be using a 1:1 weapon, you can simply use your actual total Patk in your estimations for this. (However notice that Crescentia Str values are abnormally high atm)
Once you have these numbers, calculating your actual damage output is easy. While skills like Diem Wind, Tempest, and Contingency will continue to apply total Patk for their damage percentiles, all other damage skills should be estimated using the projected total Matk for their damage percentiles. This was determined accurate with first class skills due to Alter armor having proper stats. Lets apply this in practice.
For this, I've pulled statistics from a Crescentia grinding who had 1100 Patk. Their Pandora weapon yields 250 Matk, which means that projections with a 1:0 weapon would have 850 Matk. Continued use of a 1:1 weapon would continue to yield 1100 Matk. Now to apply to skills. In all skill cases, I'm going to use this data to generate damage at skills level 1 (min) and at max level (using min-max). Matk skills will list them in the format of 1:0 / 1:1 in relation to weapon Matk types. Stigma skills or other skills with secondary damage will indicate their bonus damage after a + sign, then total all bonus damage with a = sign (always using 1:1 weapons for such calculations). Continued use of the same formulation will bypass deviated results caused by damage variation formulas as well as enemy statistics, after all, such effects all skills equally.
Diem Wind (14-20P): 154-220
Illusion Blade (14-21M +30M for Curse): 119-179 / 154-231 +46-69 =200-300
Curse Burst (6-10M +1-5M per Stigma): 51-85 / 66-110 +11-55 =121-385
Bram Gush (7-10M): 60-85 / 77-110
Earth Worm (16-23M): 136-196 / 176-253
Tempest (68-100P +1-5P per Stigma): 748-1100 +11-55 =803-1375
Death Grip (77-105M +x10 per Ally): 655-893 / 847-1155 +423-578 =1270-1733
Crucio (19-28M +9-14M @10s): 162-191 / 209-308 +99-154 =704-1078 @10s
Furnunculus (10-15M @30s +x4 each 5s) 85-128 / 110-165 =1707-2560 @30s (Growth changes)
Contingency (16-24P +1-5P @30 stack 5) 176-264 +11-55 (Complex stacking)
Land of Darkness (6-10M +1-5M per Stigma): 51-85 / 66-110 +11-55 =121-385
The last skills belong to the curse tree, so we can even apply Curse Reinforce at max level:
Crucio: 810-1240 @10s
Furnunculus: 1963-2944 @30s
Land of Darkness: 139-443
Curse Burst, Bram Gush, Earth Worm, and Land of Darkness are all AoE. Taking their total damage capacity and applying it to the maximum number of targets:
Curse Burst: 1210-3850
Bram Gush: 770-1100
Earth Worm: 880-1265
Land of Darkness: 1390-4430
With these numbers, it is not hard to then apply how each skill works specifically to figure out its overall performance. However, that's not something I'm going to do at this time. Going back to the original point however, comparing all the numbers, both Bram Gush and Earth Worm are the weakest of all the AoEs, but both require no setup (stigma, with stigma threading usually), and otherwise are upgraded otherwise for their stigma or slow effects. However, compatibly, their AoE damage really isn't that bad, so long as you have enough targets. It all depends on how often you expect to be using AoEs vs individually applying DoTs.
