Borealis VS Caladbolg(90)

I was wondering if any veteran DRKs out there would like to chime in on which is better, the Caladbolg(90) or the Borealis. Borealis seems to be easier to get a lower hit build (since the 480 delay), higher damage and the severe damage. On the other hand, Caladbolg has aftermath.

Borealis i have both and almost never use cala

Caladbolg(90) should beat out Borealis. The severe weapon skill damage proc is only 8% on a weapon skill, while the aftermath applies to the melee hits, which is where most of the DPS will come from.

Each weapon has it's own catch 22 though, so unfortuneately as cool as a Borealis is with the snow-fall aura when engaged, the 90 calad still wins

considering if your using GS your prob using reso the aftermath does not apply cala is a fun toy but bor has done better on every parse i run and easier to x hit.
edit: again i have both and using reso spams i always take my bor, but if i'm f'ing around in abyssea i will prob grab the cala. because i'm on pld and use cala to proc with. i havn't mathed it out so idk a "true" answer but by parsing myself against myself using the dif weapons and appropriate sets for tp and ws bor always comes out ahead spamming reso leaving torcleaver sadly far behind damage wise outside of abyssea.

another option to consider is the Fulguerante occ attacks twice. From what i heard and read, it'll outparse 90 Calad and Borealis in a good set up

Wasn't it proven that the AM doesn't make up for the difference between doing 1 Torcleaver and 1 Resolution?

Rag 95/99 > Calad 99 > OAT > Borealis > Junk

OP said nothing about those other Gs he simply asked bor or 90 cala.
i gave him my honest answer i would agree 99 rag 99 cala but that wasn't his ?

I answered that question, since 90 Calad isn't on that list. It must be junk, shocker. Use Borealis, work on OAT. Profit.

Agreed

Thanks guys, I was thinking the same but I just wanted to make sure. I wasn't sure if using Torecleaver for the aftermath then using pure Resolution on Caladbolg(90) until the aftermath wore off would beat out the Borealis over time since the aftermath counts the normal hits as well.

Another very important thing to keep in mind is that Borealis is sooooooooooo pretty!

Caladbolg 90.

Borealis. You might wana look into making a ragnarok.

Sorry I had to :|

AM1 might not, but I suspect that AM3 would- so if you have TP wings and/or are starting a short fight with 300 TP I would use the Caladbolg. The fact that the difference between Torcleaver and Resolution at 300% is less pronounced also helps.

Unfortunately the little sparkles don't show, but it's glowing! :D

I really get confused why everyone bashes calad so hard.

1) Assuming both Torcleaver and Reso are near perfectly geared, the damage difference is laughable compared to what AM3 does.. especially in a high buff situation.

2) It can be easily shown AM3 Calad white damage vs AM Ragnarok white damage gives a slight lead to Calad. (not to mention Scourge is completely laughable when compared to Torcleaver)

3) I have a Borealis and have parsed against 90 Calads on content such as Ig-alima with equivalent gear/buffs. The difference in white damage is sickening and far too much for Bore's slightly higher WS damage (which does not end up much more than a 6~10% increase) to keep up with calad.

The only situations I see 99 Ragnarok being a better choice than 99 Calad are
- highly evasive content
- content where tping to 300% before engaging is not easily done (or fight is too long AM3 could wear and be difficult to reapply)
- you want to have a weapon for warrior as well.

So in my opinion at least:
99Calad>99Ragnarok in voidwatch
99Ragnarok>99Calad in legion

Will note I'm a bit biased though because I have watched this guy with 99 calad not be challenged by a 99 rag drk even once:

Think he parsed 40% on this one Note: I know this is mostly due to the other DDs being terrible, but still impressive.

Rag is better... don't even start lol

I've still yet to see an accurate explanation as of why, barring the things I have already listed.

Seems like everyone in this thread already pointed out to you why it is the better weapon.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/31399/great-sword-selection-question/

Sure, if you're walking into fights with 300TP ready, Acc is not an issue and the fight will last no longer than 90 seconds then Calad wins. However, as soon as you have to make a sacrifice to maintain AM3 then Ragna pulls back ahead.

Buffed to the nines (discounting atmacites), the difference between 14% Crit Rate and going from 20% > 50% ODD is worth 36 DPS on Qilin according to Mote's spreadsheet. That's a 3240 damage advantage to Calad in its AM3 cycle in the best case scenario (Less if LR is down/missing haste/missing other buffs/whatever). So even if the Rag only gets 2 Resos off to that 1 Torcleaver and you are extremely generous and say Torcleaver=Reso then the Ragna is still ahead (EDIT: Unless for some unfathomable reason your Reso average is below 3240)

@ Avitori:
See a lot of opinions with no explanations per usual. I'll work out some math if I have time today to highlight why Rag is only superior under the conditions I've already provided.

Edit: looks like that was already done above

Don't understand this part right here.

Missing one thing the weapons need to be the same level. Every drk who has a rag can 95 it not every drk with cala can take it to 95. So thats what it comes down to a 10 level or 5 level difference in weapons. No drk in their right minds would sacrifice 300tp on a scourge over reso the AM only adds ~4% crit rate. Then you have rags hidden effect that is always on and acc+35-40 which allows you to lose some acc in ws gear for more str/att. Btw 85 cala has like 109 dmg where as 95 rag has 133.

Edit im completely unbiased as i have neither. Though if i did make one it would be ragnarok its all gold and shiney amd would match my apoc.

That is a wrong assumption when in voidwatch, pal.

The bottom line is Calad needs absolutely everything in its favour to beat Rag. As soon as that is no longer the case then Ragna wins. So the question becomes why spend the gil on Calad when you could get Ragna for less which beats it in the vast, vast majority of situations.

It isn't a wrong assumption as using a Dusty Wing for TP at capped haste is a net loss in damage (or at least that is what I have been led to believe by people who mathed it out)

I'll come back with some math later, class time for now. Will say a 3240 damage difference over a 90 second period, seems way understated.