Guide to Weapon Imbues
There are a total of ten offensive Weapon Imbues in Asheron's Call. Knowing which imbue to use on which weapon is key to optimizing your damage output and the speed with which you kill enemies.
This guide is focused almost exclusively on non-PK content.
There is no one best imbue for all circumstances. A good player will have a variety of different weapons suitable for the different circumstances where that weapon is the most effective.
Physical Damage Weapons
I will use Swords as an example for physical damage, but almost everything here will be applicable to all weapons that deal physical damage, whether it be another melee weapon or a missile weapon.
Elemental Rends
Elemental Rends (commonly called "Rends") are imbues that act as a built-in vulnerability spell for a certain element. The effect is permanent and is based on your base weapon skill. The effect of rends maxes out at 400 base melee weapon (360 base missile weapon) skill, with an additional 150% damage. This is equivalent to a level VI life vulnerability spell.
There are seven different types of rends that correspond to the seven elemental damage types.
- Salvaged Imperial Topaz - (Slash Rending)
- Salvaged Black Garnet - (Pierce Rending)
- Salvaged White Sapphire - (Bludgeon Rending)
- Salvaged Aquamarine - (Cold Rending)
- Salvaged Red Garnet - (Fire Rending)
- Salvaged Emerald - (Acid Rending)
- Salvaged Jet - (Lightning Rending)
Rends are the most commonly-used weapon type for nearly all characters. Though the effect is less than a level 7 or 8 vulnerability spell, the time saved by not having to cast a vulnerability spell is well-worth it when facing creatures that don't have a great deal of health. For reference, it takes about 3.5 seconds to cast a level 8 spell, during which time a melee or missile character can perform almost two full power attacks. If a monster dies in four full power swings, it will almost never be worthwhile to cast a vulnerability spell on it.
By far the most effective way to utilize rends is with an Imperil spell. A Imperil plus a rending weapon will do much more damage than most other combinations of weapons and spells, and there are several additional ways to Imperil a target, including Alchemical Throwing Phials, the Incomparable Lense, and Royal Runed Weapons.
Critical Strike
Critical Strike (commonly called "CS") is an imbue that increases the percentage chance of a critical hit. Like all imbues, it is based on the user's base weapon skill, and maxes out at 400 base skill. Physical damage skills have a 10% chance to land a critical hit, and CS can push this just above 50% at its maximum effectiveness.
CS is not typically an effective imbue for physical damage weapons. Used by themselves, a rend will always outperform an equivalent CS weapon. With an Imperil added, the rending weapon becomes even more effective than the CS weapon. The only situation where a CS weapon outperforms a rend is when the target is Imperiled and Vulned, and in that circumstance Crippling Blow and especially Armor Rending are nearly always more effective options.
There are a few specialized uses for CS weapons, including PvP (for some weapon types), and certain quests (such as the Burun Kings).
Crippling Blow
Crippling Blow (commonly called "CB") is an imbue that greatly increases the damage done by each critical hit. The effect maxes out at around 7 times the weapon's maximum damage (where a normal critical hit is 2 times the maximum).
CB weapons are quite effective, though against most content Armor Rending is more effective. Like CS, CB is less effective than a rend unless the target is Vulned. With an Imperil and Vuln, however, CB crits can be devastating.
CB is the primary imbue used by physical-damage-dealers in PvP.
Armor Rending
Armor Rending (commonly called "AR") is an imbue that ignores a portion of the target's physical armor, including shields.
An AR-imbued weapon combined with an Imperil and Vulnerability spell does the most damage over time of all the weapon imbues. There are some important exceptions, however.
Some monsters have a low (or zero, in a lot of cases) natural armor level, and an Imperil spell causes their natural armor level to go below zero to a negative number. Having a negative natural armor level causes a huge increase in damage. AR does not distinguish between positive and negative armor levels, so it will ignore a portion of the damage-increasing negative armor level, causing an AR weapon to do less damage than a non-AR weapon would against the same enemy. In these circumstances, use a rend, CS, or CB weapon for maximum damage.
Examples of low/zero armor level creatures:
Overall
I will order each combination of spells and imbue types from most damage-over-time to least. Note that there are exceptions (as described above plus some others) to this general rule.
- Imperil + Vuln + AR
- Imperil + Vuln + CB
- Imperil + Vuln + CS
- Vuln + AR
- Imperil + Vuln + Rend
- Imperil + Rend
- Vuln + CB
- Vuln + CS
- Rend
- CB
- CS
War Magic
Armor Rending has absolutely no effect on magical damage, so War Mages only have nine imbue choices for their wands.
Elemental Rends
Like physical damage-dealers, War Mages use Rends more than any other type of wand. Every mage will want one of each element. As with physical damage-dealers, keep in mind the time that it takes to cast a vulnerability spell when deciding whether or not to use a Rend or a CB/CS wand.
Critical Strike
Critical Strike is use much more commonly by War Mages than by Melee/Missile characters. While Crippling Blow deals more damage-over-time than CS, the low rate of critical hits with magic (5%) means that no matter how large CB critical hits are, only one out of every twenty spells will be a critical hit.
Crippling Blow
Crippling Blow is quite useful for boss fights and for fights against enemies with a lot of hit points. The longer something takes to kill, the more benefit a CB wand will be over a CS and especially over a Rend.
A good general guideline is that if a monster takes less than eight spells to kill, use a rend. If it takes more than eight but less than 15 war spells to kill, use a CS wand with a vulnerability spell. If it takes more than 15 spells, use a CB wand with a vulnerability spell.
Overall
I will order each combination of spells and imbue types from most damage-over-time to least.
- Vuln + CB
- Vuln + CS
- Vuln + Rend
- Rend
- CB
- CS
Void Magic
A Void Mage's imbue choice is very simple. Since the seven Elemental Rends and Armor Rending have absolutely no effect on Void Magic, the only choice is between Critical Strike and Crippling Blow. Also, keep in mind that a Void Mage's Damage-Over-Time (DoT) spells cannot critically hit, so the only effect of the wand choice is on Bolt, Arc, Streak, Ring, and Blast spells.
As with War Mages, against a boss-type creature with huge amounts of health, a Void Mage will do more damage-over-time with a Crippling Blow wand. However, taking into account the amount of damage done by the mage's DoT spells, the difference is much smaller than with a War Mage. For this reason, most Void Mages use CS wands exclusively.
A Void Mage requires fewer wands than a War Mage, but will still want wands tinkered for different purposes. For example, a wand tinkered with Brass for defensive purposes for one area, and one tinkered with Green Garnet for damage for another.