Nar vs Grandice

I guess it's common in most games that if it's hard to get, then it must be good, whether they be characters or equipment or other special trinkets. This ideology somehow runs the same way in sGE. Constellation Weapons, Garim / Magic belts, Argus earrings, Crafted Necklaces - they're all hard to get and sure are powerful. Reckless Emilia, Catherine Torsche and Grandice also fall within this category.

But there are also times when stock, free or easy to get characters are just as strong. Wizards, Scouts, Elementalists are common in the PVP metagame, Fighters and Coimbra Troopers cant be replaced in their roles in IWT and musketeers still rule ranged raids.

This brings me to compare Nar vs Grandice. If it weren't for several events, a lot less players will have Grandice due to the difficulty of acquiring her. Getting Nar on the other hand, is much easier. Despite this difference, the two are actually on par in PVP.

Grandice is wearing a +2STR Stance Ring and +1HP necklace

Nar is wearing a +1STR Stance Ring and a +1STR necklace

Wearing the same armors and roughly same stat weapons and under the same buffs, Grandice has a slightly higher base ATK than Nar, even with Nar's level 12 militant buff. Accoring to the wordwood, Grandice HG has +70% base attack whilst Nar Semilunar only has +50% base attack. Grandice also has 10 more AGI than Nar.

Their skills are similar to each other but from my experience, Nar's skill set is better and here's why

• Harsh Kick vs Impulse - same cool down and cast time, Harsh Kick is stronger by 28% at level 10 but Impulse ignores block and some def and hits 3 targets. Winner : Impulse
• Volition vs Merciless - Volition has a shorter cool down but it has a minimum distance (Grandice will actually step back) while Merciless has a higher multiplier (198% more at lvl 10) and has 10% more chance to stun. Winner : Merciless
• Ruthless vs Gruesome - same range and cast time, Gruesome has quicker cool down by 2 seconds and can attack 3 targets at once. Gruesome also has a much higher multiplier than Ruthless. Attacking 3 enemies at once is a big advantage to clear out an entire enemy family in 1 skill. Winner : Gruesome
• Slaughter vs Militant - albeit they are different in purpose, I decided to pair these two skills. Slaughter gives access to another potential killer skill (its damage is between Volition and Ruthless) whereas a level 12 Militant will greatly increase survivability and damage output of Nar. For raids when I need to spam skills, I would choose Slaughter but for PVP, 3 killer skills is more than enough. Winner : Militant for PVP.
• Carnage vs Occult Science - both low multipliers but cause "unexplainable" damage. It is believed that Carnage and Occult Science deal -holy- damage, ignoring all defense. Carnage is a bit hard to combine with Volition (knockdown, get close, cast at the right time) than Merciless + Occult Science (same ideology). Occult Science however can hit air units, can inflict status (IF they survive) and has a larger AOE (and is so much cooooler - Hi Avey, i like your rainbows). Winner : Occult Science

I also took stance bonuses into consideration when I chose between Hanging Guard and Semilunar. HG has 10% defense against ranged attacks, but is 20% more susceptible to magic and 10% more prone to debuffs. Semilunar has 10% defense against ranged attacks, but has 20% defense against magic and debuffs. The current metagame features a lot of magic attacks and debuffs, so Semilunar was a clear choice for higher chances of survival.

I must say in my recent PVP experiences Nar has proven to be better than Grandice. Merciless + Occult Science pretty much clears almost everyone. Occult Science is nice when Nar has just dodged several Reckless Emilia and/or Elementalists charging up for Abyss Flare. In the midst of chaos, hit the Occult Science button and watch (most of) the enemies die.

High Level PVP team progression

When I first started out, I had no intention of engaging in PVP. I knew sGE has been out for quite some time, and surely a lot of players would have far better equipment than me. So I was mostly a PVE player, just leveling my characters to expert and doing the raids I can.

After some time in Millenion, a number of players started engaging in PVP. They were masters already and I was still expert but I decided to join in anyways. I remember heavenzmandate and his fighter on defender as well as TheShadowKnightz with his elementalist in LOE stance. It was a lot more fun trying to use your skills against players who were not as predictable (sometimes) than normal mobs. This gave me the motivation to train my first 3 characters (Romina, SohoTheWind, Grace) to master and start engaging in PVP.

Training in Bahama AT to master allowed me to camp quite a number of King of Greeds (KOGs) and by the time I mastered my 3 characters, I already got 2 Dragon Heart Recipes. This allowed me to craft a black dagger for STW and a serpent rifle for Grace. Romina stayed with her +6 Trump Sword (woot!).

My initial team was ok-ok, able to handle various threats and can buff and debuff. I did however have problems with Hard Armour characters due to my weapons. After a few months, I got an iPod (calyce) and was extremely lucky in making a constellation crossbow (2 tries to +7, used 7 chips to get the stats) so I retired Grace and started using Calyce. She was fun to use, at the start. Approaching the enemy while invisible then releasing burst shot and watching bodies kiss the ground was fun until the 100th time, then I got bored of it.

I was contemplating on replacing Calyce with someone who was able to handle metal armour, and coincidentally a friend of mine was selling Grandice. In my faction I think less than a handful had Grandice, but I already knew she would be a great HG user. I bought Grandice and traded out my Crossbow and ELB fighter for a Constellation GreatSword, an Elite Schvarlier Armor and some other stuff.

While Grandice was training to master and still lacking a weapon, I went back to Grace for a few weeks. It felt so weird using flintlock again for PVP, but it was only temporary. The constellation GreatSword took 155 veteran chips and tranquilizers to get the current stats.

I was on Romina - STW - Grandice for a long time. It was quite a popular build and even until now, I still see top tier players using the same build. However, Grandice got old (get it? GET IT? ok.) and I moved on to try Nar.

I encountered a Nar user at Poison Yard and was impressed at his power, but I thought maybe that player possessed a really really good Hestia which would explain the great killing power. After training my Nar to master, I borrowed a War Crescent with 39 Atk Stat and tried out Nar's skills. To my surprise, even a +5 39atk 1s War Crescent dealt considerable damage to ESA + Garim + HOA. This pvp test closed the deal and I poured a substantial amount of my savings to prepare my Nar for PVP. His Hestia and stance rings took a lot more resources to complete than expected. Enough to make me EMO //__* but when it was all ready, it was very satisfying.

My current team is Romina - STW - Nar and I need a few more weeks of practice to completely sync their skill timings. But so far, Nar has proven to be thicker and stronger than Grandice.


And now for the hao lian part. My current weapons for my PVP teams.

Romina - Equites

Grace - Flintlock (now shared with Romina)

SohoTheWind - MMA (set sold)

SohoTheWind - Arnis

Calyce - Sagitta (sold)

Grandice - Hanging Guard

Nar - Semilunar

a side note on these pvp weapons - I am unsure as to whether Penetration Rumins are better than Attack Rumins.

One theory relates rumins to weapon type. Apparently one should put attack rumins on physical weapons  and penetration rumins on magic weapons. Another theory is dependent on stat weapon. If it's attack + AR, put attack rumins because the extra AR will penetrate through high DR. If it's attack + human, put penetration. A forum thread suggested that penetration wins hands down, but it used a japanese / russian damage calculator; the difference from attack rumins were only minor, less than 5% damage really. I really don't know which is good, not that rich or too concerned to test out damage with different rumin sets against different armor sets. If only GE had a damage calculator -in English-.