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I had a few questions about equipment and stats that seemed to be relatively obscure (at least for a new-ish player to the series).

I'm in the postgame, and I've taken down the optional bosses a few times, so I'm basically perfecting my bosskiller party. I've just realized that I don't actually know the difference between some stuff:

Is there any reason to use a staff over a dagger for a caster class in the endgame? All the Yggdrasil weapons have 8 forge slots, and the daggers are faster. Do staves have builtin damage bonuses or anything?

How does +TEC/+STR differ from +ELM/+ATK? I assume that if your TEC is already at 99 +ELM should always be better, damage wise, but what about before that? (For instance, is it better for me to use the Tharsis accessories or to use the 8-ELM accessory)?

I'm also not sure what to slot into the last equipment slot each character has. Currently, I have the Talaria in there, since some extra speed from the boots and some HP/LUK can't hurt, but are there some useful items that aren't particularly obvious?

Staffs have bash damage, daggers have stab. Irrelevant to casters from what I know. I use a dagger on my Arcanist, as they're faster. My RM uses a Driveblade (sub Imperial) because I haven't had the time to get off my ass and make another weapon with 8 +ELE forges. She's just using my Imperial's old 6 ELE slot DB instead.

+ATK and +ELE are better than TEC/STR as a general rule. TEC and STR are easy to max out, and the benefits at higher levels is relatively miniscule. Plus you can't go over 99 (and it's likely you'll hit 99 before then).

I'm also using the Talaria for people who aren't using a secondary equip, and the HP is worth it IMO. Pushes my level-99-Retired level 99 Runemaster just above 400 HP which is good for most bosses.

I guess that means that the Tharsis items are pretty strictly inferior to the 8+ATK or 8+ELM accessories for damage dealers; and that if HP isn't a concern, grabbing a second weapon with 8 damage forges as appropriate is more advisable?

This makes things easier, then, I can leave the +stat stuff to max out my Arcanist's LUK and TEC, or whatever.

STR/TEC add 1 stats to the respective stats. Basically you can completely ignore STR once your character has reached a certain level (The benefit from STR is subject to diminishing returns; in the end game physical damage dealers pretty much max their STR already and the game consider up to 99 for every stats if I am not misled)

ATK and ELE forges add 3% damage per slot to the respective skills. That means if you have a Bushi with 26 ATK forges (8 each from each weapon, and 8 more from accessory and 2 from class armor), his damage modifier would be 178%. So yes, theoretically having two Yggdrasil weapons might be overpower, but like someone said, farming the same boss 16 times kill my soul.

P.S. Imperial's elemental drives consider both ATK and ELE forges, and having the same number of ATK and ELE forges will maximize their damage outcomes.

When determining action order, only the weapon actually used in the skill you're currently using affects your speed; and if the skill doesn't use a weapon (spells?) then your mainhand weapon is the main determinant? Or does the offhand factor into it as well? (So if I have a dagger mainhanded for speed reasons, does it matter what the off-weapon is?)