Complete Lv 55 Archer Gear List

[adwin]

As a cheap alternative to RR, I'm curious how Gutter would compare to Drain set, with respect to survivability and pot usage.
DPS vs Armor...
If you have the time, a comparison like the one you did for AO would come in quite handy.

[Physiologic]

As a cheap alternative to RR, I'm curious how Gutter would compare to Drain set, with respect to survivability and pot usage.
DPS vs Armor...
If you have the time, a comparison like the one you did for AO would come in quite handy.

The AO runs with the level 50 equips took a lot of tiime since each run took ~12 minutes, so I probably wouldn't have the patience to do that again But no worries - I can safely say that Drainer's is definitely better than Gutter's in terms of survivability and pot usage.

Let's consider the defensive aspects of the two sets since you only mentioned survivability and pot usage. I'll use the auto-bows (since they add +5 armor).

Gutters: 5 dodge, 3 h/s, 81 armor
Drainers: 23 dodge, 21 h/s, 105 armor

Let's say a Hideout run takes 5 minutes to complete from start to finish (boss is killed).

Evasion is a 10 second buff that gives +30 dodge with a 30 second cool-down between casting. In 5 minutes you will cast a max total of 10 Evasions, for a total of 100 seconds of that +30 dodge buff.

For 100 seconds in that run, you get a whopping 53 dodge with the Drainer's set compared to 35 dodge with the Gutter's set - enemies will miss half the time when you have Drainer's equipped + Evasion casted.

Now in regards to h/s, in a 5 minute run you will have auto-healed a maximum 900 health (3 h/s x 300 seconds) with Gutter's set - note that you cannot possibly get healed a total of 900 health because you'll be at full health at random intervals during the round. With the Drainer's set, you will get auto-healed a maximum 6,300 health (21 h/s x 300 seconds). One potion heals ~150 health for archers, so that's a max 42 pots saved using Drainer's and a max 6 pots saved using Gutter's. Drainer's sounds pretty good to mean in terms of pot usage.

A difference of 24 armor lies between Gutter's and Drainer's, and IMO that's pretty significant. Let's say 3 enemies attack you at 100 damage each using the Gutter's set for a total of 300 damage. Using Drainer's, that damage is reduced to 228 damage. And for an archer, damage dealt to you does count.

Hope that clears up the difference without the trouble of runs The Void/Sentinel/Sunblessed runs were created because of the similarities in those sets, but in regards to Drainer's and Gutter's, I think the difference is very clear.

In regards to damage/DPS...The huge crit bonus and damage difference in the Gutter's set gives it a huge offensive advantage over the Drainer's. Regarding Crit especially, you have 29 crit with Gutter's and adding Focus gives it an extra 30 crit (59 crit total). It's all a matter of preference ultimately though, if you're good at surviving dungeons you should go along with Gutter's. If not - stick to Drainer's. You aren't limited to just sticking with these sets - you can mix/match like Riccit's example (and they're very balanced too).

[Moogerfooger]

It's all a matter of preference ultimately though

I think a lot of people are missing the point (not meaning necessarily anyone in this post...just in general) What Phys said above is 10000000% true. There is no best set; some offer great dodge and h/s, but damage-dealing capability drops a lot. Some offer much higher damage/crit, but other stats like dodge and h/s drop a lot.

We can sit here all day, for many days, debating and testing the literally hundreds of combinations that are now possible with all the gear (thanks, devs) but at the end of the day, it is personal preference to fit your playing style. Do you not mind jamming pots and are good at staying alive in mobs? Go with a damage set. Do you not mind not dealing supermax damage (but still decent) but have the peace of mind not to have to worry about pots and have better survivability? Go with one of the other 55 sets or the Sentinel/Void sets. Do you want to have a balance of both? Mix and match to your taste Do you have a mob clearing set and switch to a different for bosses? Awesome.

BTW, Riccits, I do the same sort of thing...use a mob-clearing set for better survivability (because no matter how good we are as archers - and there are some good ones in this thread - you will die if you make a mistake for a split second), then switch to pure Raid for the bosses...love seeing the 500-1000 crit hits from Cruel Blast.