Gale Windhawk Luxury Sub-Guide by Sophie/Joan
| R.ClickToRename242812 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Introduction
<page under construction>
Hello I'm Sophie/Joan (Guide Date: 28/Aug/2025). You would often see me playing in D1/D2/HoL/LoF/ToT/CT/Villa/Mjol with my Windhawk char R.ClickToRename242812 or with characters of other jobs. Feel free to hit me up to join my #LFG calls.
This guide is merely what I do on my gale storm WH and is not optimized (dm me on discord/In-game if you can improve upon it). I just tried to write it out to satisfy the demand after seeing some people asking in the #archer channel for a Gale Storm build guide from time to time. There's different requirements and priorities with GS build vs CB build (e.g. %acd reduction is not really needed for GS build, while 50% is needed for CB build) and the aim of GS build is strictly for farming (it is not for bossing). However between both builds, most of it is simply the matter of gear swapping (most significantly between the weapons and gambler's seal), so I would advice you readers to familiarize yourself with gear swapping (even easier now that there's a custom skill created for that very purpose).
Scope/For Whom this guide is Intended for
End game luxury of nice to have and fun to do things for those players who have reached end game and have collected most if not all BiS gears or their equivalent (for returning players, y'all can refer to this guide as the continuation of the old meta of Set's End Game WH guide). This guide is not intended to be a stand-alone and more of complimentary for other more comprehensive WH guides. This guide is very subjective and intuitive as I do not provide exact numbers and optimization, but for that case you can find me to test out or experiment with any gears/luxuries that are listed/mentioned within this guide, unless I specifically stated to not have them. In this guide you are assumed to have already worn BiS (Best in Slot) equipment or incomplete BiS (enchanting in progress) and have moved away from wearing
Galensis Card (300261) on garment because 125 LUK is bad for your stat balance.
End game optimization problem is that for some people, some gear/enchant/MVP setups suit them better as it touches the specifics of their playing styles and consumables consumption patterns (e.g. with
[MVP] Snow Angel Card (300473) you will want to consume
Abrasive (14536) ), so we will not assume a narrow-minded stance on this issue and would tolerate a bit lesser or bigger DPS and whatnots as long as things work well (shout out to get the DPS envy immunity people!).
General Overview
Stats&Traits
The actual distribution of stats and traits is more loosely defined (this is not a starter player's guide) but we aim to fulfill these Objectives (by priority):
- Instant Cast (hurt others faster than they can hurt you)
- One Hit (OH) damage capability and 217 critical rate (if they're dead they can't hurt you)
- Survivability, HP pool and evasion (one might get hurt by lag/mishap/bad luck face spawn but somehow have to survive it)
- Curse immunity
- Non-priority niches (carry weight, ASPD, Gale Storm spammability)
Stats
- STR - 50-100; Carry weight
- AGI - 80-120; (all remaining points here); reaching 183 ASPD should be easy
- VIT - 77-110; Should adjust it yourself so that you don't get yeeted by D1/D2 mobs that facespawn on you. Can put minimum amount when in a party with devo
- INT - 100-120; For Instant Cast, SP pool.
- DEX - 120-130; For Instant Cast, Damage.
- LUK - 80-100; For Curse Immunity, Critical rate.
Example (My stats when wearing
[MVP] Yortus Arbiter Card (300530) or
[MVP] Snow Angel Card (300473) :
- STR - 80
- AGI - 82
- VIT - 77
- INT - 110
- DEX - 130
- LUK - 99
Traits
- POW - 110; Damage (non-crit related)
- CRT - 110; Damage (crit related)
- CON - 72; Little more damage and evasion/survivability, otherwise can be put into WIS or STA (so far no content needs it though)
Core Skills
Buff
Improve Concentration: For Instant Cast
True Sight: Additional Critical Rate
Wind Walk: MS and FLEE rate
Calamity Gale /
Unlimit: Makes Gale Storm crit (Calamity Gale only) and adds an additional 350% ranged% damage (both)
Magnum Break (optional, from
Marine Sphere Card (4084) ): 20% fire-elemental bonus damage outside of all other sources. It simply hits above its weight after you have exhausted every other damage% modifier source
Active Skills
Swap Equip: You will want to swap into CB build when Calaminity Gale/Unlimit is not active to recover AP.
Camouflage: Survivability.
Warg Rider: MS and Survivability.
Detect: Useful on some maps like D2.
Crescive Bolt: Your secondary hard hitting skill in case the enemy gets too close and a way to recover AP while still hitting hard.
Gale Storm: Your hard hitter, but is useless without Calamity Gale/Unlimit active.
Gears and Min-Max Technicalities
About Physical Damage Modifiers for Gale WH Build
The general aim of the min-maxing process (as of Date: 28/Aug/2025) is to equalize these damage modifiers while maximizing their overall multiplicative result. The contextual reason of the importance on this matter is because of the aforementioned One Hit (OH) Objective, that we want each hit of our Gale Storm damage to be as high as possible (to be clear it is the single instance of the damage, not the DPS).
Listed from most precious to least worthy, type @bs in game to see yours:
- Class%: Hardest and most expensive to get, generally speaking. You will have 30%-85%. Main Sources:
[MVP] Encroached Tan Card (300533) ,
[MVP] Realized Amdarais Card (4602) combo,
[MVP] Violent Coelacanth Card (4529) ,
[MVP] Snow Angel Card (300473) , Demigod Set, HoL accesories and enchantments, Abysmal Knight Pet. - Enemy_Element%: Rare modifier mostly seen on more modern iterations of items (post 2016), but is less expensive than Class%. You will have around 40%-130%. Main Sources:
[MVP] Boitata Card (27126) -like MVP cards on body slot, Maximum Mammoth Shadow gears, HoL garment 2nd slot enchant, Varmundt Boots 2nd slot enchant, Dimensions/Time Gap Weapons 3rd slot enchant, Jitterbug combo and proc. - Skill%: Quite hard to get as the source is only from TDRC and Dimensions/Time Gap Weapons for Gale Storm skill and is already mandatory. You will have 35%-95%.
- Enemy_Race%: Not very rare but getting the right ones could be costly. You will easily have 70%-200%. Main Sources:
[MVP] Boitata Card (27126) -like MVP cards on body slot, HoL accessories and enchantments, various equipment. - Enemy_Size%: Easy to get and cheap. You will have 45%-170%. Main Sources: Cards on Weapon slots, TDRC, Shadow Gears.
- Res_Ignore%: Only source for now is the Fatal Master Shadow Gears for 20%. The effect is only roughly 5-10% pure damage increase, though it is nice, because it is outside all other modifier calculations.
- Critical% and other critical related modifier like C.RATE: You will have around 300-550% critical% and 80-140 C.RATE. Main Sources: various for Critical%, Shadow Gear Enchantments for C.RATE
- Other non-critical related modifiers like POW, P.ATK. Main Sources: Shadow Gear enchantments, Varmundt boots/garment 3rd slot enchantments,
[MVP] Encroached Tan Card (300533) - Range%: We already have a lot thanks to Calamity Gale/Unlimit, so adding on this is generally redundant. You will have above 350%, around 450-550% or above.
Gears
Recommended gears (as of Date: 28/Aug/2025):
| Type | Item | Card | Enchants and Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper | +12 to +15 [A] |
|
|
| Middle |
|
| |
| Lower | and/or |
| |
| Armor | +12 to +15 [A] |
|
|
| Weapon | +12 to +15 [A] and/or +12 to +15 [A] |
|
|
| Garment | +12 to +15 [A] |
|
|
| Shoes | +12 [A] and/or +12 [A] +12 [A] |
|
|
| Accessory (Right) |
|
| |
| Accessory (Left) |
|
|
- Shadow Gears:
- Double Maximum Mammoth combo: very strong if not BiS, theoritically explained by the 12% gain in Enemy_Element% modifier. Only wear double with
[MVP] Thanatos Card (4399) otherwise just wear one pair. - Needing full penetration/infinity otherwise wear
[MVP] Thanatos Card (4399) for 100% def pierce and
Infinity Shadow Weapon (24386) or
Infinity Shadow Shield (24733) or
Mistress Egg (9193) for ignore weapon size - Otherwise double +10/+10 Bow/Fatal/Sword Master Shadow Gears is not bad, however it will lock you into using or
Mistress Egg (9193) . There's also possibility of using one set of +10 Bow/Fatal/Sword Master Shadow Gears and
[MVP] Ancient Tao Gunka Card (27294) (Experimental) and then the rest of the shadow gear will be a pair of Maximum Mammoth - With
[MVP] Thanatos Card (4399) use +10/+7 Bow/Fatal/Sword Master Shadow Gears instead so the 50% def pierce won't trigger
- Double Maximum Mammoth combo: very strong if not BiS, theoritically explained by the 12% gain in Enemy_Element% modifier. Only wear double with
- Currently not-haves list:
[MVP] Ultra Limacina Card (300377) ,
[MVP] Encroached Tan Card (300533) ,
[MVP] Boitata Card (27126) ,
[MVP] Gloom Under Night Card (4408) ,
[MVP] Jewgoliant Card (300007) ,
[MVP] Bone Detardeurus Card (300021) ,
[MVP] Gaia Pol Card (300445) ,
[MVP] Broken Thanatos Card (300280)
Glossary
- BiS: Best in Slot, refers to items/cards that are considered the best according to the ongoing meta. May be subject to change, that is why I put emphasize on dates whenever the term BiS is mentioned on that part.
- Old BiS: Old Best in Slot, was the BiS on previous meta. Some have the potential to be BiS again in the future (e.g. Bio5 MVP Ranger Shecil card in the case future Job 4 Wind Hawk Bio MVP cards will give strong combo bonus), so they are generally still top tier recommended items, though not to die for.
- Experimental: Strong items that could possibly be BiS on some setups, but are not widely accepted as the BiS and still need a lot of testing and discussion for it to be universally designated as BiS. Or items that are situationally considerably better than BiS or offering niches that are considered worth trading with the boons gained from the BiS items depending on your personal playing style.
Acknowledgements
- Special Thanks to Tmisn for editing and proofreading.
- Discussions and demonstrations from Various Masters (ain't namedropping y'all but you know who you are) mostly but not limited to #archer, #swordsman, and #mage class channels of MuhRo Discord that have educated me on so many things regarding this class beyond general guides.
- Hurt Locker's Wind Hawk Guide character picture format was used for character picture formatting of this guide.
- Goldie's EM Guide Endgame part table format was used for gears part formatting of this guide.
- Credit to Yanalicious for personally contacting me and pointing out that on
Creative Signet of Star [1] (490135) the double
Star of Master Archer Lv5 (310701) enchantment was actually the slightly better enchantment than double
Star of Sharp Lv.5 (310706) enchantment (tested, around 1-2% better). (30/Aug/2025)