Hi.
I'm a gunslinger players and a sorc player from Phoenix. I'm here to tell you what Awakening is and how to not be scared by it.
What is Awakening?
Awakening is what X-Legend decided to make after you hit level 99. Instead of becoming level 100, you get to do a special "Awakening Trial" that requires you to kill three bosses in a row to gain access to Slvl. 1. Awakening is also the introduction of a lot of new stat mechanics and a lot higher stat caps.
The Trial Itself:
The awakening quest itself isn't actually that bad compared to what happens afterwards. Think of floor 12 from time library and then triple the evasion of the bosses. Your nocturnal still works, but the question now becomes can you hit the boss or not. Put accuracy points in spec if needed, swap to sub bard for more survivability, and make sure before clearing this you're actually ready for what happens when you come out of the quest. It is perfectly clearable in +20 gear, just don't shy away from using tonics and things if needed.
New Stats and Stat Caps:
When I say "new stats" I don't mean things magically appear on your main page. I mean this:
Overcapped crit becomes crit damage cap
Overcapped eva becomes "true evasion" - still useless
"Awakening Coefficient": Basically level difference, like a 4% damage increase
Quick Maths listed below.sket21W.png
What These New Stats Mean and Don't Mean:
The new meta at awakening essentially becomes a game of balancing how much crit dmg you have with how much crit damage cap you have with how much crit you have. The hard cap for bonus crit damage cap is 50% (which requires an insanely large amount of crit). On average, an achievable ratio for this is having about 50-55k crit (roughly 36%-40% crit damage cap). What this means is that spec on crit is absolutely worth it. Spec crit gives so much crit that it's just dumb to not take. What this doesn't mean is that crit is your only priority. What's the point of getting a billion cdmg cap without being able to hit it. Don't go putting 99 points in crit along with a crit mount, crit costume enchants and crit transforms on all your gear, then you'll be sacrificing too much for the sake of cap.
Gear:
Going forward, and I cannot stress this enough PEN IS ACTUALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT STAT IN THE GAME.
Basically what this means is, craft your S1 weapons and get dmg/pen enchants. A Damage/Random Stat/Pen enchant is infinitely better than a Dmg/Dmg/No Pen.
The only case where this really isn't worth is your weapon cards. The order goes: 5% DD with no pen < Random card with pen < 8% DD < Pen + DD.
Armors:
Magic Sundering Top is not worth it. The 2k crit that you get from it is essentially useless in the long run when you look at Magic Sundering Bottom (10% crit and 20% cdmg > 2k crit).
S1 tops are pretty much the only real "upgrade" out of the S1 gear, significantly higher base stats, and flat dmg as a set bonus make the set incredibly worth. 90 tops still work fine at S1-5 if you don't feel like spending all the money.
Trophies
Trophies are also a big thing to consider. Guzi still reigns supreme as your bottom slot trophy. As weird as this sounds, Winston's Sword Fragments is actually the best trophy in the game if you need crit. The stacks from it are really amazing. Also, with the next set of story dungeons, the defense shred crowbar drops, which again, is another amazing trophy. Best combo is probably going to be Winston's Sword Fragments + Guzigla and make sure you have noripan leaf until you hit Slvl 5.
Some players with really high prayer/story/achievement score might not need this trophy because their stats will be naturally higher. At this point, I'd recommend sticking with Delphonia + Guzigla tooth or going Crowbar + Guzigla depending on your ability to stack things.
With recent addition of 95 elemental trophies, this changes. These trophies are basically the 65 gold ones but on steroids in terms of stats. They increase damage by a lot, and in certain cases for certain classes, they should be your bottom slot (lancer dark, guns/shuri storm, etc.)
The dark trophy as an example.
At S5, the best trophy is Storm of the Abyss, it's basically an upgraded version of Delphonia's Earring. It also gives 25% crit damage and a lot of crit. With this trophy and ele trohpies, the end game S10 trophy for violent is Storm of the Abyss + the appropriate ele trophy.
DO NOT USE SYNETAR'S SHARD. NEVER USE FROST HORN. The trophy itself gives 0 in terms of useful stats, and the miniature zeal that it gives is equally useless. The way this trophy works is you have to get both of the 20% attack speed procs, then with those procs stacked you then have another % chance to 50% zeal on your attacks. It's in no way, shape, or form worth the investment.
Accessories
Accessory Set. Our lord and savior, the level 95 gold set that gives crit and cdmg cap. You will use this set past 95, all the way up to S10. This set is actually the best thing ever invented in this game. It gives 30% cdmg and 50% cdmg cap on a proc. What more could you need?
Just to summarize the gears:
Top Set: S1 Oranges (If you lack cdmg) / S5 Golds (If you cap your cdmg)
Bottoms: 90 Magic Sundering (Tons of crit, crit rate, etc. what more could you need)
Accessories: 95 Golds (Cdmg cap, and cdmg to help reach the new cap, also gives crit on every piece)
Trophies: 95 Elemental trophy (for your class since OS forting is still too expensive) + Storm of the Abyss (S5 Delphonia)
Before those release: Tooth + Agate (You're gonna need the crit especially if you don't have prayers done)
Weapons: S1 are a must, the pen is too important to not have
S5 weapons are also a must for every class, they're too high of a DPS increase to not have (However they won't make or break your clears, if you're a +30 lancer that extra dmg is like a .1 second difference between how quickly you 1 shot a boss.)
Crafted Gear/Gold Gear:
S1 set as a whole is a really meh upgrade. The top set gives more flat stats and the set bonus is flat dmg. It's more stats, but 90 tops work well.
S5 Gold tops are a really really good set if you don't need crit damage. Some classes meet their crit dmg caps incredibly easily, some don't. This top set is very comparable to S1 tops but it's better if you don't need the crit dmg.
Next, let's look at S5 gold weapons. These things are possibly the biggest damage increase you can find in the whole game. Total, they give roughly a 25% dps increase over an S1 crafted weapon in a vacuum. They even have really good effects (except sorc, sorc never gets anything nice.) These are naturally the most important gear upgrade you could make.
S5 Lance as an example.
S1 Crafted Weapon Stats:
Finally, S1 Crafted Weapons. These weapons are X-Legend's attempt at forcing you to diversify classes because some of these weapons are actually awful. They give 15% PEN though, so you're kinda forced to use them.
Crit DMG Taken -15% + Boss DMG 10%: Guard
DMG Taken from Bosses And Elites -8% + Boss DMG 10%: Bard
Crit DMG Against Bosses 30% + Boss DMG 10%: Wizard, Ravager, Lancer, Holy Sword, Tachi
Damage Against Elites And Bosses 8%: Bow, Sorcerer
Crit Rate Against Boss 20% and Boss DMG 10%: Gunslinger, Grenadier, Scythe, Shuriken, Duelist, Katar
Rerolls:
In the future there are 2 new kinds of rerolls that come out. Firstly, purple secret stones. Purple secret stones are both amazing and a huge scam at the same time. First, in order to upgrade them, the stone needs to be level 70, and you need 10 of an item called Mysterious Rainbow Gems. These gems drop from OW field dungeons (i.e OW SIF), and are super rare. You also need them to craft the rerolls. When you upgrade a stone to purple, the stats get completely randomized, meaning that unless you're rolling in advanced rerolls I'd highly recommend not upgrading them instantly.
Next, we have the new costume rerolls. These are incredibly broken and make costumes incredibly important (you might actually have to commit to an outfit with them).
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Final Remarks:
While awakening might seem intimidating, and this is a lot of information, just remember that at the end of the day, if you have +30s and decent prayers you'll be fine. The awakening quest is the first reality check because it's a solo with decent stat debuffs. If you can't clear that then you don't want to be awakening (unless Aeria releases the quest skip item for AP, then a bunch of people are going to be complaining about their stats). Hopefully this is a wake up call for Aeria to make +30 affordable and make transfer scrolls available. If you have any questions feel free to DM me on here or on Discord Chris.#0404. Enjoy all the nice new pictures and stuff.
-Chris
if you change from lv80 Perfect War to CRIT 90 Gold acce? 
