DRK Greatsword

best build would be something like
OAT GS/Rose Strap/nothing/White Tath
STR +12 helm/gorget/STR +3 earring/Brutal
Grim Cuirass +1/Heafoc Mitts/strigoi ring/rajas ring
Cerb +1/Bale Belt/Onyx Cuisses/Heca leggings +1

For GS WS, like Spinning Slash?

"Optimal" would be something like this:



Now more "standard" GS WS sets have:

Ammo: Bomb core
Head: hecatomb cap (AF+1 helm, if you don't have heca cap)
Neck: Sea WS gorget. Either Thunder gorget or Breeze gorget works.
Ear1: Triumph earring (Assault earring can work too, if you don't have triumph earring)
Ear2: Brutal earring
Body: Are's Cuirass (Hecatomb body, if you don't have Are's Cuirass)
Hands: Alkyoneus's Bracelets
Ring1: Rajas ring
Ring2: Flame ring
Feet: Hecatomb leggings
Legs: Onyx Cuisses (Black Cuisses, if you don't have Onyx legs)
Belt: Warwolf Belt
Back: Forager's mantle

Basically, you gear Spinning Slash with mostly STR+ (though attack+ still helps on HNMs because the Cratio, attack bonus, doesn't quite cap your attack completely on HNMs), and you don't really need to worry about equipping a lot of accuracy gear for Spinning Slash because it has an Accuracy bonus. (like most other 1-hit WSs, and the first hit of a multi-hit WS)

STR +4 WSDMG +2% Galea works better than other non-heca options too, but the new helm isn't too hard to get

Cool, But how much does double attack/attack help boost spinning slash as aposed to pure str?

Brutal Earring is a 5% increase to WS damage over time assuming no other Double Attack gear and no Double Attack trait. No matter what other gear option you have for your ear, it's not going to beat a 5% increase.

Accuracy bonus isn't applied to DA on spinning slash. You'd basically be WSing in way less than 95% accuracy on your additional hit, so it will not be a direct 5% increase.

Brutal on a single hit WS will be considerably less than 5% over time.

The DA will have an fTP of 1 which is significantly less than the 2-3 fTP the first hit is likely to have.

Also there is some people who believe that DAs don't get the attack or accuracy boost of the first hit, which further weakens the DoT of a DA item.

Brutal still kicks major *** though as nothing gets close to it; but Black/Onyx will normally out do Ares unless you are capping attack (which is possible, but not as easy as it is for SAM).

As for the exact amount of extra damage a DA item will provide, that comes down to the set, the bufs, the debufs and the mob.

Everybody allways seem to forget that :P

There is normally some dispute over whether or not the DA gets the attack and acc boosts, but one thing no one can doubt is the the fTP is 1.

So the DA (if it gets the same buffs as the first hit) will only give a ~33-50% boost (WS and TP dependant), 5% of the time which is only a 1.6-2.5% increase in WS damage.

Right, double attack may not be as effective on a 1-hit WS, as compared to on a multi-hit WS;however, there is nothing else you can equip on your ear that will beat the increase that Brutal earring is still giving you.... thus even for a 1-hit WS like Spinning Slash, it's still usually: Brutal earring + Triumph earring (or some other STR+ earring), or Brutal earring + Assault earring.

And yeah, I would use Onyx/black cuisses over Are's legs too, unless I know the Cratio bonus is really capping my attack...but chances are it won't be capped. (particularly if fighting HNMs) Then, not to mention that Ares's legs also has INT -3... which is a WS modifier for Spinning slash etc.

so this TP build and WS build is acceptable
except for gorget/acc necklace/bomblet

What's with the bomb core for a pDif WS like Spinning Slash? Doesn't that kinda make atk not all that useful for WS?

And for those who aren't Hume/Elvaan, there's the Goblin Grenade/Peiste Dart.

Spinning slash has a 30% modifer.

(1/0.83)/0.3 = 4

Therefore to guarantee an increase of 1 WSD you need to increase your INT by 4. So it is unlikely that Ares will reduce you WSD or that abyssal will increase it.

The Cratio bonus on Spinning Slash is only ~50% ...

You won't be capping attack on HNMs. Which is why you also would wear forager's mantle or Cerberus Mantle +1 (if you had that)...instead of Smilodon Mantle +1.

Same reason even SAMs would usually wear Forager's mantle on HNMs.. and they have a 100% Cratio bonus on Tachi: Gekko.

Did you think that Spinning Slash's Cratio bonus was high enough to always cap your attack?

so just better to go brutal/triumph/other str earring than brutal/abyssal?

Yes, brutal/STR will win.

Even Brutal/Assault will probably beat Brutal/Abyssal

so if one can't get triumph earring
then brutal/fowling be okay?
brutal/triumph > brutal/fowling brutal/assault brutal/minuet > brutal/abyssal?

Pretty much.

then for the meleeing(TP gaining) one should use fowling/assault earring as the optimal choice paired with brutal. or if /drg then brutal/wyvern? then minuet would be the least favored?

Yeap, unless there are new earrings I don't know about

Not so much it caps attack, but the gear is mislead me to believe that, being so STR heavy, and considering Heca+1 was in there as opposed to Varangian Helm, that the gear wasn't with ATK in mind. I guess the Varangian Helm was just forgotten about.

If fighting weak mobs, and Cratio bonus on Spinning Slash caps your attack, then Heca cap+1 has the same STR+12 as Varangian helm... thus there would be no difference, but if you are fighting something like HNMs, the extra attack from Varangian Helm would be good, yes. I didn't intend to go into so much detail.. (because it was just a general optimal set, but like many things in this game, a lot of things are situational etc.)

I don't know why you are trying to nitpick so much.
The addition of Varangian helm was simply forgotten, yes.

Situational gear is situational etc.