Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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[MapleStory SEA] Arcaneshade Guards vs Fafnir Risk Taker

Dear Night Lords, how good are your ACS claws + Fafnir Helms?
How good do they need to be in order to beat Fafnir claws + C.Vel Helms?

As I’m approaching 275 in a few weeks' time, I will finally move on from having to train and do weekly bosses on the Night Lord and will be parting ways with my Fafnir Risk Taker. Some have questioned why I did not go for Arcaneshade Guards over the past year, and this video shows just why.

*Disclaimer:
1) The Arcaneshade vs Fafnir weapon comparison cannot be applied in similar fashion with other weapon types. Claws have the lowest base weapon attack hence the least advantage in upgrading from Fafnir to ACS. Weapon types that may be considered for this argument include Gun, Revolving Gauntlet, Energy Sword, Soulshooter and Knuckle, to an extent Dagger and Katara for Dual Blades as well.
2) This article does not make an argument for the ACS weapon + Absolabs helm, shoulders, cape, glove and shoe build, a build that I strongly discourage. ACS weapons belong with ACS armors. Fafnir weapons can go with ACS or Absolabs armors.
3) Comparison is done with my current set of equipment. Results may vary widely for different players with various ranges of funding.

In this video, I’m comparing the use of the popular Arcaneshade Guards + Fafnir Helm with Fafnir Risk Taker + Chaos Vellum Helm. For reference, I’ll be using a 51% Att Emblem and a 42% Boss Damage, 36% Att Secondary along with ACS shoulders, cape, gloves and shoes. The 21* Arcaneshade Guards, which belongs to JackForLife, is very well cubed with 12% Att 60% Boss Damage in the main potential, and 18% Att 18% Boss Damage in the additional potential. In today’s market it would probably cost around 4 times as much as the 22* Fafnir Risk Taker that I’m using, with a 120% Boss Damage main potential and 5% IED 18% Att additional potential.

Just to help the 21* ACS claw’s case a little more, I have equipped one of the better Fafnir helms against a relatively weaker Chaos Vellum Helm (the scrolling, flaming and additional potentials all have much to work on) in this comparison. With Decent buff skills applied, 100 Quadruple Throws with each set of equipment were recorded against a level 275 High Def Dummy in Battle Analytics for, well, analysis.

*Spoilers*
As you may have gathered from the video, the ACS claw + Fafnir helm combo achieved an average of 23.786b per cast of Quadruple Throw, as compared to the Fafnir claw + C.Vel helm combo which produced an average of 22.587b per cast. That is a mere 5.3% higher overall damage output in the ACS claw’s favour. Is that good enough for a sick ACS claw?

Granted the ACS claw can be improved with one more star, similar standards of improvement can be further applied to the Fafnir claw (additional potential to 21% Att) and C.Vel helm (better scrolling, flaming and additional potential overall). Most players in MapleSEA Aquila will be realistically using average ACS Guards (60% Boss, 9% Att + 21% Att) and Fafnir helm (27% Luk + 8% Luk) by cubing themselves, which would bring them even closer to the damage output granted by the vast availability of rigged Fafnir claws and C.Vel helms at a cut rate in the market.

A 22* Arcaneshade Guards has an average of 150+/- weapon attack advantage over a 22* Fafnir Risk Holder. This is the most common reason why players tend to favour the ACS weapon. However, on a character with mostly 22* equipment, one will have a total weapon attack well above 3000, which makes the 150 weapon attack advantage translate to less than 5% final damage. Conversely, the Chaos Vellum Helm in the Fafnir claw set up negates that by providing an additional 30% Boss Damage via unlocking the 4th set Chaos Root Abyss bonus. Therefore the advantage towards the budget build lies in their rigged potentials (a handful of more than 90% Boss Damage Fafnir claws and 36% Luk C.Vel helms are available in the market), that the regular hard cubing of ACS claws and Fafnir Helms cannot realistically match. Other advantages of ACS claws and Fafnir Helms like more luk and IED only serve to compensate the stronger rigged potentials of their counterparts.

In conclusion, Arcaneshade Guards will still edge out a little as a best in slot weapon (Genesis Guards aside), but at what potential costs? If cubing weapons isn’t painful enough, starring Arcaneshade Guards is gonna be hefty. One will still need a very well done Fafnir Helm (kuro scrolled and very well cubed) to support the ACS claw. Using the Fafnir claw + C.Vel Helm build would also allow Absolabs armors as a viable value-for-money alternative for ACS armors. Hope more Night Lord players will consider their options and find more success in the game after this video.

PS: Special thanks to Jack and Marcus for being generous and trusting with lending me their equipment for the purposes of this video.
PPS: The Fafnir claw and amulet are sold.

Thanks for watching!