Minuet / Minne vs Etudes

[Soonyi]

Hi, can someone help clear this up for me? I know that:

Valor Minuet = Attack up
Knight's Minne = Defence up

vs.

Sinewy Etude = +STR
Vivacious Etude = +VIT

So what's the difference(s)? Or is it so subtle that when my LS party tested this last night in Crawler's Nest, we couldn't really tell the difference...

Also, is it the higher CHR I have, the more +STR and +VIT that's generated for the Etudes?

Thank you in advance!

[Kite322]

The difference is in the stats. I'm not sure exactly how it works but someone will. STR != Attack, VIT != Defense.

I've had it explained to me multiple times but I always forget. Anyway, the boost of Attack when singing Minuete is MUCH better than the palty STR boost when singing the Etude.

[Reaperx90]

5 STR = 2.5 to attack (I think), and a slight increase in damage cap (which you won't come anywhere near hitting vs IT monsters)

+40(ish) ATK is much more useful in that it enables you to come closer to your damage cap.

This is all what I've tested out myself in Valkurm. with no Minuet I do like 50-90 to the stronger goblins. With Minuet I do like 80-90 damage to them. (level 51 BRD now). With my current sword I would estimate my damage cap to be about 100 or so.

Don't go spouting this as the truth though...I could be wrong.

And also, I guess vit/def go the same way. VIT = reduction in the MINIMUM damage monsters can do to you, and DEF makes the damage come closer to that minimum more often.


But whether that's true or not, this is: Minuet/Minne are better than their etude counterparts. This is undeniable~

[Karinya]

First of all, CHR doesn't affect buff songs, it only affects resistable songs (requiem, threnody, lullaby, elegy). I tested this with my 18 BRD the other day:

Unbuffed 69 atk, 73 def
Minuet I, Minne I with 20 CHR: 83 atk, 84 def
Minuet I, Minne I with 20+8 CHR: 83 atk, 84 def

Now you may say that +8 CHR isn't much, but it was nearly 50% of my base CHR at that level, so if CHR had any effect, it should have been visible. When I get higher level I'll try it with etudes, but I doubt if it will make any difference. (Obviously you can't see if it has any effect on madrigal, mambo, etc. which have non-visible effects, but it's reasonable to assume the same rules would apply.)

Now, about the damage formula. The base damage of an attack is (excepting H2H which uses a different formula in which STR counts more):
Weapon's DMG + Attacker's STR - Defender's VIT

Then the base damage is multiplied by a randomized amount that depends on Attacker's ATK / Defender's DEF.

What this means is that if you are seeing very low damage (like under 10), it is most likely a result of high monster VIT, and +STR might help more than +ATK. But if you are already doing pretty decent damage, your base damage is probably pretty good and you would increase it more with +ATK.

Also, low damage low delay weapons like daggers and 1h katanas benefit more from +STR, while high damage high delay weapons like great axes and scythes benefit more from +ATK.

The same equation applies in reverse to monster attacks (monsters have a base DMG that substitutes for weapon DMG in the formula): high damage slow attacking monsters like pugils will be reduced more by +DEF (although pugils also have low accuracy so +EVA is a possiblity), while fast attacking monsters like mandragoras will be reduced more by +VIT.

That's the theory, anyway. Try both songs in practice and see what results you get.

[Soonyi]

Thanks so much for the replies. I wanted to know mainly because the Etude songs become available at higher levels, but yet seemingly giving the same effects as M&M. I'll give the theory Karinya posted a try and see what the results are; although, I've been reading more and more that people generally use M&M over the Etudes.

Soonyi.