Archer/Hunter Help Spectral Slingshot Or Maelstrom?

I was always told that the maelstrom was a very powerful weapon, but after some digging, found it to be around the same strength, and even weaker than my spectral slingshot. I have both weapons now and can use both, so which one should I use?

 

Maelstrom with a T4 thunder powder is pretty close in base damage, and the slight extra penetration is worth it imo - plus you get good damage and sp boosts.

 

maelstrom is just better

 

No matter what powdering you use, Spectral Slingshot always has more base damage than Maelstrom. So, that's definitely not true.

 

Maelstrom gives more bonuses and requires less skill points which is the deciding factor for me also Wynndata says the DPS output is pretty much identical granted Maelstrom has those good IDs.
i also just prefer maelstrom since it carried me to level 88

 

i'd say that maelstrom has a slight edge in combat (higher pierce, lower req, sp, ws), but if you're doing sort of mindless/easy grinding, you could use spectral slingshot for epic (small) xp boost. also, spectral slingshot may be better in terms of combat capabilities depending on enemy defences and stat rolls on maelstrom.

 

Maelstrom is more useful against things with higher elemental defenses (such as Bob), while Spectral Slingshot is better for the opposite, i.e abusing weaknesses. They're honestly pretty equal, but Maelstrom is easier to use due to it's lower req.

There's also Corrupted Witherhead's Bow, which I'd argue is better than both of them, but that requires you to complete CDS 7 times.
It's worth the grind, but Maelstrom/Spectral are both pretty close.