Medusa v TBS

STEVIL · December 2016

So, its often mentioned that Twice Born Star with Thief and Shadow mundus is a top tier set.

I want to observe and see hopefully some discussion in the notion that perhaps MEDUSA set drops makes a better TBS than TBS as far as magica builds go.

Some operational pro's and con's
TBS is craftable and thus can be sold and crafted into any armor piece/type of any trait and motif. it is a 9 trait crafting item from craglorn. it cannot be combined with any other crafted set.
Medusa is a solo-able dungeon farm-raised heavy armor set that also comes in jewels and weapons. (While TBS has weapons, swaps can be problematic.) it allows a crafted set to be used with it if the jewels are used.

2-3-4 Bonuses Comparison:
Both provide max shealth and max mag in their 2-3-4 bonuses.
TBS also provides max stam while medusa provides Spell damage, making TBS better for an all-round build and Medusa more focused on spell damage magica builds.

5pc bonus:
TBS is simple, a second mundus, usually shadow to accompany thief - so extra crit damage. Note howvee r that if you change roles you might be able to just go change mundus and support different roles with TBS. i rarely see it but that flexibility is there.
MEDUSA provides straight up always on 12% boost to crit damage. this seems to be in the midst of the same range of bonus you get from TBS depending on how many divines you run. its basically on par or close.

So, for my money, it seems like medusa is better than TBS for magica builds due to the "spell damage bonus vs the max stamina bonus" and the "jewels and weapons are fine" elements. These seem to make for a better damage combo than the usual TBS thief-shadow would - at the expense of the drop v crafted logistics issues.

now, if there was a way to routinely gain the crit bonus damage thru active or passive skills it would be a different story, much like how the set giving you always on Major Sorcis pretty lame, but unless you want to slot some odd skill combos the boost isnt easy to come by IIRC - a fighter's guild trap costing a chunk of stamina lasting a few seconds maybe. So i wouldn't be thinking use a set like this but wpn dmg for stamina since they can trap all day.

thoughts?
discussion?
nuts?

Ishammael · December 2016

Three comments:
1. Medusa is a heavy armor set.
2. The crit damage bonus from Medusa will not be increased by Divines trait on gear like the crit dmg bonus from your second mundus.
3. Minor force is available via the skill Trap Beast and others making it redundant.

So... If we are talking about end game PvE DPS, Medusa will never even touch TBS. Some players may get mileage out of Medusa in a PvP setting since skills and builds are completely different.

STEVIL · December 2016

Ishammael wrote: »

Three comments:
1. Medusa is a heavy armor set.
2. The crit damage bonus from Medusa will not be increased by Divines trait on gear like the crit dmg bonus from your second mundus.
3. Minor force is available via the skill Trap Beast and others making it redundant.

So... If we are talking about end game PvE DPS, Medusa will never even touch TBS. Some players may get mileage out of Medusa in a PvP setting since skills and builds are completely different.

Out of curiousity, what other sources for minor force as far as magica skills do you know of?

And yes, the hvy, divines and minor force were all mentioned in my post.

of course, now i am intrigued at a notion of medusa plus tbs-thief-shadow.

but regardless.... thanks for the input so far. glad to see so far i haven't missed anything.

Masel · December 2016

STEVIL wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Three comments:
1. Medusa is a heavy armor set.
2. The crit damage bonus from Medusa will not be increased by Divines trait on gear like the crit dmg bonus from your second mundus.
3. Minor force is available via the skill Trap Beast and others making it redundant.

So... If we are talking about end game PvE DPS, Medusa will never even touch TBS. Some players may get mileage out of Medusa in a PvP setting since skills and builds are completely different.

Out of curiousity, what other sources for minor force as far as magica skills do you know of?

And yes, the hvy, divines and minor force were all mentioned in my post.

of course, now i am intrigued at a notion of medusa plus tbs-thief-shadow.

but regardless.... thanks for the input so far. glad to see so far i haven't missed anything.

I use a heavy attack build on my dk and sorc that has stalwart guard in it, which gives permanent minor force, so there is that (making other mag DDs very happy btw

), but it's not that frequently used in things other than the warrior in vet hel ra or other trial situations.

Heavy armor mostly is an issue, as you lose a lot of max magicka through healthy jewelry. Medusa would only be viable if it came in arcane jewelry while using two body pieces so you don't lose the Light armor passives, which implies keeping 5 light pieces and thus requiring you to wear full medusa jewelry, assuming you are using double destro and want to keep it on both bars.

It's not a totally bad idea, but max magicka does directly affect the effectiveness of most skills, and will be at least 3-4k (with inner light. Bound armaments and mages guild passives) lower than with tbs. If it wouldn't give minor force, 5 light TBS, medusa and minor force would be a combination to look into, but not the way it is designed right now.

DRXHarbinger · December 2016

I thought this too. It sucks there are no unique rings in arcane. If it did I'd use it with a dw magplar and Julianos and them for sure it would out perform anything. Run shadow mundus and you'll be fine for doing stupid damage..but nope it's trash. Like 99% of 1T sets.

Ishammael · December 2016

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

I thought this too. It sucks there are no unique rings in arcane. If it did I'd use it with a dw magplar and Julianos and them for sure it would out perform anything. Run shadow mundus and you'll be fine for doing stupid damage..but nope it's trash. Like 99% of 1T sets.

This is correct. If there were arcane jewelry it would be amazing.

acw37162 · December 2016

If the jewlery dropped in arcane this would be a very interesting ssecond set in magica builds.

Although I subspect quite a few things are going to change when they are pushing people towards attttibute points in health like they mentioned. Healthy jewlery might either not hurt so bad or be completely worthless depending on how they implement.

nordsavage · December 2016

If you plan on using Medusa for PvE good luck on getting two sharpened swords as its a heavy armor set with healthy jewelry.

Rohaus · December 2016

Rattlecage set drops with Arcane jewelry... I have the neck and a ring as Arcane... does that mean Medusa too might drop with Arcane jewelry ?

Asmael · December 2016

Even if it wasn't a heavy armor set, a full gold setup (7 divines) with the Shadow Mundus provides 18.3% critical damage.

Compared to Medusa, you basically lose a spell damage bonus, but gain 6.3% critical damage (again, supposing best in slot traits). For information, a standard spell critical bonus provides an extra 3.14% critical chance, and increasing your critical damage provides similar results to boosting your critical chance when both values are in the same range.

I am not aware of your current setup and gear quality, but unless your base max magicka / spell damage is really low, Twice Born Star is going to be the clear winner, that is if Medusa comes in Arcane / light traits & pieces -which is not the case.