From EWD to Crit Mage: Before and After

(Posted by Eliatan)

Hey you guys, I've been thinking for awhile that it's time for me to move my mage from an EWD (enhanced will destroyer) build to a crit one. I haven't seen a side-by-side comparison of the two options yet, so I hope this proves interesting and informative :)

My main reasons for moving to a crit build:

1. The sylph system seems to really favor crit builds -- huge Iris heals, frequent rage-free delphic attacks, and many other good reasons to have crit on your side.
2. I enjoy the PvE parts of the game, where crit is extra strong, more so than the PvP aspects.
3. I could use a change. I've been a very pro-EWD player for a long time. I play rather conservatively and enjoy a certain amount of predictability, so it's about time I break out of that shell and do something different!
4. One more excuse to make pewpew jokes with those naughty archers.

Thing I'm sure to miss most about EWD: being a sturdy little tank mage; you can invest so much in survivability stats when you don't have to commit to crit.

And now onto the before (left) and after (right):

4 MDEF and 4 HP gems converted to Crit; 6 MDEF and 1 PDEF stats refined to Crit

EWD, Illusion, and EGA (Enhanced Guardian Angel) switched to
Sniper's Edge, Determination, and either Illusion or EGA

Stat change summary:

• -146 (-0.57%) PDEF
• No change in MATK
• -4,241 (-12.6%) MDEF
• +5772 (+801.3%) Crit
• No change in Block
• -10,424 (-8.5%) HP
• No change in Troop count
• -699 Battle rating 

I mostly gave up MDEF (followed by HP) in exchange for the Crit, because I favor balanced defense (nice way of saying I'm am scared of PATK). After the switch my battle rating actually went down, which is unusual when moving to a critical build. Another problem is I ran out of refinement crystals, so in some cases I'm taking lower quality critical stats over very high M/PDEF ones.

Plans for the future:

• Finish getting the rest of my gems to level 7 (will raise my crit and HP)
• Collect more refinement crystals to get better crit on my gear
• Make up for some of the lost survivability stats by focusing on Armor and Endurance during the next mount whip event
• Bake cupcakes, because cupcakes make me happy. And everybody knows that happy people with cupcakes crit more than their unhappy, cupcakeless counterparts.

So, what do you guys think? Please share anything you think that might help this crit build! I probably still need to adjust it a bit. I think I gave up too much MDEF, but this is what I went with for now ^^