General and specific question about mob weaknesses and defenses

Please let me know if you think I should move this. It is a question, but still might be more appropriate somewhere else.

I know that here and there I have defeated plenty of mobs with the "wrong" weapon based on their defenses. At some levels I had little choice, so I know that generally speaking, you can still beat them but it may take longer. There do seem to be a few exceptions, or maybe I wasn't patient enough or just didn't manage to not die long enough.

Anyway, is there any rough general rule of thumb? Like what % of power it takes. An extreme example would be not swapping to a 200 dps weapon that was strong an a mob's weakness versus a 500 dps that was primarily or even completely using an element the mob has defense for.

Specific instance is the boss in the fire division at the hive.

DOUBLEPOST=1668694339,1668693288][/DOUBLEPOST]Mob:



Possible choices. I have one other, but don't have it with me and not at bank. might be able to dig up info. Similar to Tidebinder but not all water.





Yes, there is a unique spear in the running. I could hardly believe it myself when I put the build together, but I am about 90% sure I beat the boss once with Sharpened Harpoon but was glitched. I got all the mob's dialog and had been battling a long time when I was suddenly tped back to the hive division lobby with no sould points lost and no explanation. Also no catalyst and Yansur wouldn't talk to me. Had some other very long battles with more than a glimmer of hope.

Anyway, am I better off using Tisaun's Proof. Another surprise is that at level 102, the best build I can do with a readily available spear is Tisaun's from level 88. But I have an extremally good roll and it provides all those extra skill points. I might be able to do a Zephra build a little better. Don't have huge war chest to go after a lot else. These are all using the same build with swapped spears, but Tisaun's adds 60 skill points and Tidebinder adds 21/5s mana regen.
https://hppeng-wynn.github.io/build...M0ZN0q71B160o1B0o1c00001000BMzz++++-z+xIvPg67
WynnBuilder build:
> Morph-Stardust
> Libra
> Vaward
> Virtuoso
> Hustle Core
> Marvel
> Reminiscence
> Ensa's Faith
> Tisaun's Proof [f4f4]

 

Due to the attack speed modifier no longer being after the ele def calculation, there should be smaller effects than before - however, Hive division bosses have tended to have unusually high ele defs, so that might be a relevant point. I would say in the general case it's rarely worth switching weapons, but if anything is the exception to that rule it would be the Hive division bosses.

 

I had what I think was an elemental problem with Bob in Reincarnation. As archer I had Torrential Tide and was running circles at high speed (start with an escape and have windy/stormy feet) with panoptes a very long time and finally gave up and ran out the portal (one of the few boss rooms allowing that), went over to the bank and switched to Return to Ether and then went back and killed him with the same strategy.

One of the problems in the fire boss room is that I am using a similar strategy with warrior using charge and run to stay in motion and uppercut for attacking, healing potion as necessary (as many as 24 lv 100 doses in one attempt). I rarely look straight at boss for more than a fraction of a second to see the health; kind of judging by dialog. When I die, it's when the boss manages a couple of hits too quick for potion. A lot of earlier attempts were with different builds. Going to do some other things before going back. Warrior's healing potion for this one room has probably cost over a le by now.

 

Forgot about Bob, yeah he probably also does have unusually high ele defs. Qira may be similar, at-level. In terms of the effect of ele defs, it's probably Hive division bosses > Qira and Bob > everything else generally speaking

 

Grand Magus has insane ele def aswell. Practically unkillable on the wrong element