imo its best to use max amount of gems.
I’d aim to 95% and higher
I used maximum number of blessed gems it required to ensure a 100% transcendence for each level.
Before reading other info below, I recommend reading the 27/10 kTOS translated patch notes by Gwenyth: http://pastebin.com/uM7PpfdK
【Transcendence Item Changes】
- When extracting blessed stones stones from the transcendental items, the item will extract stones in proportion to the potential of the equipment, at a of minimum 20% and maximum 90%.
- When you fail to transcend an item, the potential will decrease by 1. If you fail at 0 Potential, please note that your item will disappear.
- This applies to items that have progressed further than one step in transcendance. (1 Reduced Potential, One Step is kept)
I still didn’t have enough sample size to test this, I only tested it on my own weapon at each stage of transcendence, but I think the formula in how many gems you can get back from extracting is:
ROUNDDOWN of [ Current Potential / Total Potential x (Total number of blessed gems invested in all stages of transcendence - 1) ]
(also note that the min-max % from current potential/ total potential is between 20% to 90%, as indicated from patch notes, though I still have not test it yet)
Seeing I can get back most of my blessed gems, given the potential left on my Bow, this is one of the reasons that I decided to invest maximum blessed gems to get a 100% transcendence on my Bow, rather than risking -1 potential when fail as this will result in less blessed gem for me to retrieve.
Thank you for your answer!
I have a few more doubts.
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Does the bonus range pasive from mergen affect mergen skills or only auto attacks?
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(For PvP mainly but I will thank you if you talk PvE too
) How does your build compare to Nicola’s fletcher build? -
For PvP would you recommend getting more STR to avoid being blocked? What would be the ratio str:dex?
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How good is split arrow for lvl 300+ content? And if you can, compared to fletcher (yes, I’m trying to convince my guild mates my choice of scout3 over fletcher3
).
you guys do realize shes literally the only person running an scout with ranger 1 at circle 7 right, her gear and attributes are fantastic, 200+ million easily that’s why the build works but theres a reason not a single person runs this build…unless all you want is split arrow and no class synergy, but again, if you put a 100mil bow on a hunter and max their main damage attribute to 100 itll work to, doesn’t mean its something you should want to do
(trade 1 circle of archer for rogue in this build and you can now Double Cast Arrow Sprinkle AND Flare Shot at once and also Feint>Barrage to double it’s damage and make it worth having on your hotbar, otherwise you just wasted an entire class circle for steady aim5)
(trade ranger for falconer, you now can use circling with homing arrow for the most powerful large scale aoe archer has atm outside of an SR’s retreat Shot, circling also works with Triple Arrow, otherwise again, you just wasted an entire class circle for steady aim 5)
Trading ranger for falconer would make this build competitive against other archer builds, isn’t?
The bonus range only applies to auto attack
For pvp, I believe I mentioned in my previous post about how a Scout C3 Mergen build will perform in various pvp platforms like tbl, gbl, open world gvg and also how the current meta really don’t favour archers. As for a fletcher-mergen pvp build, I can’t really comment on it as I didn’t have that build and I haven’t been keeping up-to-date on various pvp builds nor joining tbl often since rank 8 release and how pvp become so unbalance. For pve, I will touch on it together with your 4th question.
A good method that has been somewhat working for me, as a dex build, is to equip Bone Gauntlets with 2 yellow gems, and 2 Glass Bracelets for block penetration. In pvp, when vs a high Con build with shield, archers’ attacks either get blocked (not enough str or block penetration) or will not crit (not enough dex or crit rate). Con adds hp, crit resistance and block. This dilemma between str or dex will always be there, and sadly, I also don’t have a perfect solution for it, but only to compensate for what a dex build lacks with block penetration equips.
For pve, In my opinion the main purpose of choosing a Scout C3 build path, is for farming. Scout C3-Mergen, is still mostly a farming-centered build, but having a Mergen in its build allows it to become somewhat viable for high level content. Do note that most of the dps or “viability” work is done by mergen skills not scout. I think @Tigris explained really well about Scout C3 vs Fletcher C3 on pve aspect.
Lastly,
As for the ranger choice I made, I had explained in my previous post
In short, Ranger1 was my crazy bet when max level is 280. Given my aversion towards the pet companion system (not just falcon, but pets AI & system in general), and given of the information at that time (the only synergy with circling is multishot), I decided to go for Ranger1. Now with mergen and the synergy of mergen skills with circling, Falconer1 can be a good consideration.
Btw, I happened to read about your concerns between a scout3-falcon-mergen vs fletcher3-mergen. I can tell you Scout3 is still a farming-centered build. If you really like falcon-mergen concept, and want to do better in overall damage output, you can go with something like Archer3-Ranger1-Scout1-Rogue1-Facloner1-Mergen (for the ease of leveling, go ranger1 at rank2). You will have a wide range of skills with high synergy. Level 15 multi shot with circling, feint + barrage, capture flare shot/ arrow sprinkle, mergen skills with circling etc.
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BTW … In ktos, this build with ranger is not as rare as they imagine =D
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This is my project also. Too bad capture+flare shot lv 5 is not as strong as capture+flare shot lv 15… and capture’s weakness is enemies who always moving around
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Hi @Tiaaa ,
My mergen have the same stat distribution as yours,
I’m considering which set card is better (to me): Glass mole / Ellaganos:
(1) With 2k5~3k physical attack, is Glass mole slightly better?
(2) When upequip sissel bracelet (x2), I felt too hard to have critical hit (as my expectation). Do glass bracelet (x2) add enough block pen (situational), then Ellaganos better in this case?
I’m aiming 2k5~3k physical attack (with transed weapon), my current crit rate after ss around 770.
Please shed light on my case! I wanna hear your opinion 
Glass Mole is good for a burst build and if you don’t mind consuming sp pots. Also, if you are going for world boss build, then glass mole is better.
Ella is a more stable choice by increasing your crit rate and allow you to crit more consistently. If you already crit-ing 100% of the time, more ella won’t help in getting more dps output. Though I think right now, it is getting harder to crit than in 280, hence I think ella will be of help in this case.
Both cards are good. You may also consider to have like 1 glass mole 7 ella, or 4 glass mole 4 ella etc, just to also get the % scaling from glass mole. Of course, you can also choose to go all 8 for one of them.
When pvp, I find that having bone gauntlets with two level 5 or 6 yellow gems and two glass bracelet is enough for me to hit pure con builds. I rarely switch to glass bracelet for pve contents, even in ET 1F.
Thank you for responding!
My original concept is x8 Glass mole. But when hit level 317 (now 320), I noticed I cannot have fully critical hit from both bosses in Crystal mine (1st stage).
That make me worry, I just wonder if 80 dex from ella is better than 80% from glass mole (in case I have to fight to high-crit-resist boss).
Maybe 80 DEX would make me comfortable though Glass mole is better for bossing. After all, I’m scout3-falco-mergen O_O, I dont think WB-slayer is my main role (just situational).
Is there any infomation about highest bosses/mobs’ crit resist? If not, do you think your crit rate is enough or higher-than-enough (ensure to have fully critical hit)
My new team setup have dps-check on dungeon 315: we cannot finish the 1st boss on time (I’m the only one have decent-gear, the other - eleWL - is good). That’s why I’m leaning toward glassmole.
So what do you think?
[Off-topic] I agree with you
I have an chance to dps-check on 1F with those ridiculous hogma’s block.
I feel that I still do fine with my falcon, even with low block pen.
If you are not aiming for boss killing build, I highly recommend ella cards. Glass mole might still be good if you want to use burst to clear mobs like in ET, but I think ella cards will do just fine too. Additionally, if your scout3 is meant for farming, I will recommend ella cards too. The reason is that when my split arrow didn’t crit, I find my clearing speed slows down. Though I haven’t really test something like full str scout3 vs full dex scout3 clearing speed, but at least, thats how important I feel about the need to ensure both bounced arrows crit.
For crystal mine, I am also not able to crit 100%even with a high dex build (you can check my videos). I used to be able to crit 100% when max level is 280, but now it seems harder and harder to get same crit percentage. I don’t have information on mob crit resist, but it always changes from mob to mob, and boss to boss. Hence, it is quite impossible to optimized damage output between str:dex while the main factor, crit resist, always varies. For me, I use a benchmark by putting enough dex or crit rate till my split arrow can crit 100% with swift step in 145 dungeon.
As for 315 dungeon, at the area which you need to kill the boss within time limit, it really require at least a boss killer build. My scout3-mergen loses out in boss dps ranking to a full-con elewar build at the area. My team has 2 elewar (1 high int, 1 full con), linker-chrono-enchanter, and priest3-pd2. There is some trick to hold the boss down at 1 location. Using Frost cloud, or multi-shot to hit the boss before it moves or jumps, will make it go back to its original position after it jumps. (This is like how dulla always go back the same place after dashing.) Hence, for my team at least, we rotate between frost cloud and multishot to make the boss stay at 1 location and use all our skills. We always just barely make it with 5secs to 30 secs left depending how successful we prevent the boss from moving or knockback on us. You can try this and see if it works for your team. Otherwise, I really think a boss killer build is necessary.
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Woahh I need to try to use your trick, sounds amazing. 
Hey Tiaaa, Do you consider Lolopanther leather set?
Did the same thing with my swordie in crystal mine, good thing all boss AI is stupid xD
except when you fight stonewhale and salamander simultaniously
I think lolo leather gloves and boots are a good way to boost crit rate (2-set bonus). For top and pants, you may want to consider plate instead which offers more physical defense (not necessarily lolo plate). I did considered about the leather set and its bonuses, but as I am already doing 100% crit on 145 dungeon, hence I don’t feel that I need it.
Hahas. Nowadays, I will sit and wait for the 5mins (watch some video or youtube) and not risking it as my main objective is to farm ores. Though, if you can kill the boss fast enough, there are extra mobs which spawn at the boss area which also drop ores.
I think when I face with 2 boss with range or magic attack, it is quite hard for me too. When I was level 280 and can’t kill bosses fast enough, I tend to drag one of the boss out to the previous area so that when the next boss spawn, I won’t have to face two of them @_@
Do your weapon also leave it at +5 to avoid potential drop?
+0 Aufgowle Bow
520 - 781 Atttack
+10 Aufgowle Bow
+165 on both Min and Max attack
With Stage 5 transcendence (Transcend it initially in +10 anvil enhancement)
1712.5 - 2365
In the video
1714 - 2366
Pretty close
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yea, the thing is that with that stage 5 transcendence, everyone was like omg, so high, and others going, yea you can’t do this unless you invest billions of silver blahblah.
after transcending to just stage 3 on my CROSSBOW, I’m higher than her, realized that the 1700-2370atk power isn’t even that much, cause all her other equips are basic. And most people would be bale to get to her power just by buying some cheap headgear with 100atk power