Anyone willing to RISK their LIFE for it?

[Ice Sniper]

Yes I know, odd title but its creative. Are Life or Risk even worth using? Yes I know they both hurt you but im pretty sure they offer a better damage output then celeb. Im asking because what if somebody gets a really nice rare but it has one of the two, still worth using?

Discuss

[HeartBreak301]

I could see life being useful on a long range weapon for busting up Rohjades and Rohcrystas. But only if you have resta available, otherwise I don't see it to be a practical option, especially in the tower. As for risk, the random activation can really screw you over if it goes off when you don't want it to and get killed as a result. (at least I'm pretty sure life has 100% activation and risk doesn't) Regardless, I won't ever be using them, celeb included. Never been a fan of sacrificial specials.

[Arcanas]

Well, I don't see why not... I don't usually bring meseta with me into instances. That, and the higher levels of the elements use a lower percentage of health. I think the same goes with Celeb?

[Chaos Rappy]

Celeb is a 10% damage increase (note: DAMAGE increase, not attack increase) per every element level. Life and Risk are 50% damage increases no matter what level it is, but you lose less HP when you attack with them (Risk when it procs). Celeb only costs 20 meseta +10 added per its element level (30 meseta at Lv1, to 70 meseta at level 5).

Celeb has, overall, the best to gain with the smallest to lose. I tried using a Life Lv5 Zero Rifle with Flame Hit, and I ended up dying before I even finish a single room because of an enemy attacking me when I was hitting a ton of enemies at once with Flame Hit. And that was Life LEVEL 5, meaning the smallest HP-loss, whereas even with Celeb Lv5, I still end up making money at the end of every stage because of how much you can get with the items you sell just by killing enemies.

[Kirukia]

Lol.
At level 5 celeb will do the same amount of damage, but I realize most weapons can't reach 5 without an element boost, or even at all.
I think celeb is still more effective, because of how valuble hp is. For CASTs Risk/Life is just ludicrous. They have no way to even really heal the damage effectively. For forces it's deadly because of their extremely low def/hp to begin with. The only way I could see it being effective is with HUnewm/newearls, HUmar/l, RAcast/caseal (maybe). For the CAST rangers it's even iffy because they'd have to stay in the back and not get hit to avoid wasting hp items. In most situations the life drain is just too much of a sacrifice. Losing meseta per hit isn't much of a penalty, especially considering you still have a positive meseta gain, and meseta is almost useless. HP however allows you to do tons of stuff in the game. Hunt weapons, level up, have fun xD Unless you find dying fun I guess....

Anyway at level 5 celeb is better obviously. At level 4 an element boost can get it to 5. At 3 which is the lowest maximum for elements, it's just not efficient because of the valuble sacrifice you'd have to make. Perhaps HUmar/l's could make good use of life though assuming they have a tank to protect them.

Anyway that's my outtake. I haven't tried Risk or Life so feel free to experiment. I'm just guessing.

[FoMarlBorough]

my ramarl and racaseal are playing with life4 mechguns. with an element boost.
makes the game more interesting. the ramarl can just resta if needed. the racaseal, not so much. a hp regen unit is recomended and it keeps you on your toes. the damage output is nice. but dont get hit. some bosses are a little tricky with this setup but it is thrilling to use- if you dont mind the threat of putting youtself in harms way.

i recomend trying the build. life+mechgun+hp recover unit+element boost. maybe a hit mag...mechguns can miss even with a ra.
always proc's and im not sure yet if you can kill yourself via the life drain. it uses a proportion of your remaining life and ive always cleared a room before i got down to 1 hp.

[The_Pup]

I tried a life handgun with Flame Hit once... That was pretty damn scary... I bet it would turn out the same way with Quick Draw (though it's better for inflicting status effects than damage).

Risk, on the otherhand, isn't so scary. It's nice when it activates, and even nicer when making critical hits.

[Arcanas]

So then, Life is always on, while Risk takes into account the weapon proc rates?

Now, silly question, but I've never used Celeb, so I don't know...is that always on, or is a proc?

[Heartless Cookie]

So then, Life is always on, while Risk takes into account the weapon proc rates?

Now, silly question, but I've never used Celeb, so I don't know...is that always on, or is a proc?

It is always on.

[Arcanas]

Very interesting...very...now I just need to get out of the habit of depositing my meseta at the end of every run...

[The_Pup]

So then, Life is always on, while Risk takes into account the weapon proc rates?

Now, silly question, but I've never used Celeb, so I don't know...is that always on, or is a proc?
Life and Celeb are always on.

Risk is based on weapon activation rates.

Soul is always on if your HP is below 33%.

[Chaos Rappy]

Yes, but Soul only affects Weapon ATP/MST, not overall damage, unfortunately, unlike Celeb/Life/Risk, which do. : /

[Arcanas]

Soul sounds dangerous...it's like in FFVIII, running around with low HP so you can always use limit breaks

[leviayurashyguy]

Risk and Life pale in comparison to Celeb, Life being a bit better only on higher level as the HP loss is not as bad (5%>4.75%>4.51>etc) so you won't kill yourself nearly as quickly. Flame hit with Life 5 on 4 enemies shouldn't take you past half. don't no the numbers cuz im too lazy to go past 5 calculations

Risk seems great cuz its +50% regardless of level, unliek celeb or life, but then you have to consider proc . for example, daggers have 15% proc, risk bonus is 50%, so it only boosts daggers effectiveness by 50*.15=7.5%, less than lvl 1 celeb which is 10%

[Chaos Rappy]

95% of HP remaining per hit, to the power of 3 hits times 4 enemies = .95^12 = .54036 = ~54% HP remaining.

You will lose ~46% of your HP on one Flame Hit if it hits 4 enemies at once and lands all three hits... so long as my calculations of Life Lv5 being only 5% of your HP. Let me recheck that here...

EDIT: Yep, I was right, it was 5%.

[leviayurashyguy]

thnx chaos for the calculations. i was doing it the long way (x*.05) and didn't no how to make it exponentially easier (literaly)

[RRyuugu]

Risk is not worth it.

Not because of the HP cost. Risk is a chance thing, you'll never get consistent results out of it. Even 1 level of Celeb gives better results than Risk, plus it's consistent.

You can easier plan your strategy around the extra damage from Celeb.

If let's say it takes you X hits with Risk and X+1 hits if Risk doesn't work on the first try, then you have situations where Risk's activation is useless. If you already dealt X hits and risk activated on the X+1th hit then you've wasted that chance with Risk. So the actual effective damage increase of Risk is even lower than 150% * Proc Rate, since at the last hit it wouldn't have mattered if Risk activated or not.

While on Celeb the only random factor is the variance of weapon ATP (which also is a factor of Risk)

As for Life, I can only see it being useful on weapons you don't have Celeb 3 or 4 or 5 on. Don't forget that with Element Boost you gain 1 Level of Celeb, and yes if you have Life you don't need Element Boost to increase your damage, so you're trading at least 10% with Celeb 3 for 25 ATP/MST while with Celeb 4 you're trading only 25 ATP/MST and with 5 you're not losing anything.

25 ATP/MST is then offset by the time you need to cast Resta which is important if you're engaging enemies and your HP drops low enough that one hit can kill youwhile there are enemies near you.

So the only effective reason to use Life is on weapons that cannot have more than a Level 3 Element. And that's still doesn't take into consideration stuff like if Celeb 4 is already enough for Swords or if you still need the extra 10% from Life.

Another reason to use life is you find a rare weapon that only has Level 1-3 Element on it but has Life, but then again you can always use the common 7* version of that weapon which is easier to farm for max Celeb.

Celeb will always be useful, Life on the other hand is extremely situational, while Risk is simply too random to be effective. And in the times Life would have been better than Celeb, finding a way to make Celeb better again shouldn't be too hard often times. Unless for some reason you find a Life Millias Breaker with 50% in all Attributes and Acc Adj

[Chaos Rappy]

Another reason to use life is you find a rare weapon that only has Level 1-3 Element on it but has Life, but then again you can always use the common 7* version of that weapon which is easier to farm for max Celeb.

Perfect examples: My Life Lv5 Zero Cane with Magical Sign and my Life Lv5 Zero Rifle with Flame Hit... -_-;

[leviayurashyguy]

while 5% of my life per hit was manageable, 10-15% is pushing it. i would rather use lvl 1 risk, which i no for a fact won't get me killed as never will 10% of my attack out more than half my life, over Life 3-4 which can get me to half in less than 6 hits

[RRyuugu]

Except that for any situation where Risk would have been better than Life, Celeb automatically becomes the best choice. Unless you really want to use a certain non-synthesizable weapon that has Risk stuck on it.

Life at least can be a "best pick" in some cases, Risk on the other hand will always be overshadowed by Celeb.

[leviayurashyguy]

well duh Celeb outclasses Risk. there is no contest there. Celeb is 100% proc while risk is based on weapon. the only case where risk is better is if you got a ajax with bull smash and level one risk, that increases its effectiveness by 50*.25=12.5% which is better than level one celeb.

sure celeb is better than risk and life, but unless life is level 5, you lose way too much to consider it practical over risk

[RRyuugu]

Life 1 can be used.

The situations where Life 1 is usable and gives more efficiency over Celeb 2 (seeing as Celeb 1 is boosted to 2) aren't a lot but there are still instances where that applies. Like a RAmar whose only 6-7* weapon that can be synthesized is a Level 1 Handgun or Rifle, picking Life 1 and playing smart will can provide more efficiency than synthesizing Celeb onto it

While the situations where Risk is better than Celeb 1 practically don't even exist. Unless you're not talking about Super Hard anymore. Actually if Celeb and Life were somehow both not a viable option, even Heat or Stun might be better options over Risk.

[johnwolf]

can't you re element a zero rifle ?? if you did with Celeb it be an automatic lv 5 Celeb.

[Chaos Rappy]

No, as it's been said a million times over (at least by myself, not literally), rare weapons, more or less SPECIFICALLY the ones that sell for 10 meseta, CANNOT have an element changed/swapped/resynthesized/added to or from them.