I made my duelist to 77 now and still deciding which armor should i use. I am thinking to start crafting either IC heavy set or Drac light armor set. I will mainly hunt alone (getting buffs off clan hall and some additional buffs that CH dont offer from a friends buffer, i.e. haste 2, focus 3, Dw 3) and not partying anyone when grinding. Anyone can suggest me which armor should i start crafting in this case, IC or Drac?
Honestly, I think I would rather go with a +6 Tallum Heavy set, rather than a +3 IC set.
I prefer doing as much damage as possible. As such, the Tallum Heavy is better for damage output.
Tallum Heavy has: +2 STR and +8% p.atk to contribute to damage.
IC has: +2 STR and -2 DEX. This negative DEX actually reduces your damage output, by decreasing your attack speed, accuracy, and crit rate.
This effectively means that you will have about 10% more DPS in Tallum Heavy than in IC.
Granted, an IC set is a more defensive set than Tallum Heavy, since IC grants +445 max HP and +8% p.def. But, a +6 Tallum Heavy set would still be close in protective quality, since the +6 set bonus provides additional p.def, and with Gracia, the +6 would also give you a comparable amount of extra HP.
Lastly, +6 Tallum Heavy set provides a substantial MP regeneration increase. This can help you spam more special attacks or run toggles or whatnot.
Now, if you had a +6 IC set, then sure, I would lean towards that over a +6 Tallum Heavy set. But... if we are comparing a +6 Tallum Heavy set to a +3 IC set... then I think the +6 Tallum Heavy would be my first choice.
One more thing....
Since you are a Duelist, I assume you will be using dual swords. As such, it means that you will not receive the bonus from carrying an IC Shield anyways (the -80% chance of being Poisoned/Bled)
Honestly, I think I would rather go with a +6 Tallum Heavy set, rather than a +3 IC set.
I prefer doing as much damage as possible. As such, the Tallum Heavy is better for damage output.
Tallum Heavy has: +2 STR and +8% p.atk to contribute to damage.
IC has: +2 STR and -2 DEX. This negative DEX actually reduces your damage output, by decreasing your attack speed, accuracy, and crit rate.
This effectively means that you will have about 10% more DPS in Tallum Heavy than in IC.
Granted, an IC set is a more defensive set than Tallum Heavy, since IC grants +445 max HP and +8% p.def. But, a +6 Tallum Heavy set would still be close in protective quality, since the +6 set bonus provides additional p.def, and with Gracia, the +6 would also give you a comparable amount of extra HP.
Lastly, +6 Tallum Heavy set provides a substantial MP regeneration increase. This can help you spam more special attacks or run toggles or whatnot.
Now, if you had a +6 IC set, then sure, I would lean towards that over a +6 Tallum Heavy set. But... if we are comparing a +6 Tallum Heavy set to a +3 IC set... then I think the +6 Tallum Heavy would be my first choice.
One more thing....
Since you are a Duelist, I assume you will be using dual swords. As such, it means that you will not receive the bonus from carrying an IC Shield anyways (the -80% chance of being Poisoned/Bled)
QFT.
The duelist was originally supposed to be one of the more diverse classes... players were given the option to use duals, single swords, blunts, two-handed swords/blunts, and so on and so forth. They could choose to use heay or light, but the game design lent itself more towards heavy for a well-minded player. Light armor only works in theory for the glad class Pre S grade and Post. None of the light armor sets in the game offer bonuses to suit a close combat character other than daggers, and heavy sets often have repeating bonuses that don't apply to a typical Gladiator playstyle.
For instsance; there are many light are sets that offer +damage (plated leather / doom / Dark Crystal / Nightmare / Drac / and now Dynasty). And players can find light sets that offer extra DEX, extra Attack Speed, or Evasion. But heavy sets are different. Heavy Sets typically compliment a sword & Shield style of play as most of tem offer a bonus only when a shield is equiped. Sinse glads do not use shields, they can make use of only some of the available bonuses.
Also, becouse Glads gain almost nothing from their armor masteries (see other posts about this, there are many of them), they must go heavy to remain competative in PVP or even to survice PvE in some cases, or fall too far behind in P.Def to be playable.
the only excpetion is Tallum Heavy... which is a low-end A grade, so much less P.Def than even nightmare or Majestic... but it is the ONLY set in the game that can generate compensation for a glad's deficiences. All glads use dual weapons... not becouse they couldn't choose to use something else, but becouse 3/4 of their skills won't work without them.. so they typically set themselves up for a high attack speed to offset the relatively low damage of each attack and the poor accuracy (I mena low attack power per swing... not per skill... glad skills kill things like no other... but hit for hit they are a bit lackluster).
The solution to this is to create new "end game" armor sets with bonus akin to those of the tallum heavy set, for the continuation of playstyle.