Laphria Vs Hellheim

Are there any proud owners of both the prime GS and prime GA. Looking to gear up WAR but I also play RUN and I would like to dabble in DRK. So I am wondering how close / far apart are these two weapons for DPS on WAR? Are they close enough that the trade off for slightly less DPS on GS is worth because it can be used across multiple jobs? Or is it so far behind Great Axe that it isn’t worth ??

I have both. The Great Axe is superior for war as one would think. If war is your main, id highly recommend it over helhime.

That said, helhime is a very underrated weapon. It is Drk's highest dps option (though scythe and caldbolg are not that far behind but still noticably behind) and it is definitely usable on war. I consider it useless for run but I only use my run to tank oddy. When i have used it though, its impressive damage for a Run and fun to use for sure.

When comparing it on war specifically to Laphris, I find the white dmg much lower, ws dmg about 5 to 7 percent less and slower in gaing tp. I do use it often on war when I need Shockwave (cough limbus)and love having the option to swap between both but that lower weapon rating and not having breaks, combined with weaker dmg and slower tp is always subpar.

Definitely not a horrible idea to go with Helhime based on your situation but Laphria just makes war feel right.

I agree with Atrox.

I have both s5 and they are very similar with an edge to Laphria for DPS and the party utility of GA.

I made Helheim first because it can be used for WAR and DRK also Shockwave is very useful for crowd control in Limbus.

Helhiem used by 4 jobs and covers Darkness SC option, same Laphria, which is used only by WAR. both need 6 month grind. if you love WAR go for Lapharia.

Laphria is darkness my friend. Unless I misread you?

Thanks for the feedback, kind what I was expecting. Not as good as Laphria or WAR, BUT it has use over multiple jobs and it’s good for one of those jobs and fun for the other… I think it’s worth the trade off for me to make Helheim

My Bad :D

You pick Laphria so you can immediately lockstyle into Helgoland (the giant concrete block hammer you can get from Ambuscade), and have Disaster look like you're turning someone's face into a smoothie.

at stage 4, caladbolg is slightly stronger than helheim for drk/pld FYI. So if you are not going all the way to stage 5 consider that.

I kind of regret doing helheim honestly. It is a great weapon, but thinking back, i would have rather had a great great axe for my warrior than helheim. The difference between Caladbolg and Helheim aren't enough imo for that job. And for pld and run it's a toy for MLs really, not anything else.

I would and I did go for Helheim. It swings 12% faster than Laphria by default, and is not hard to gear to 5-hit, 100% datk. Laphria has appreciably higher base damage for harder hitting autos, but Fimbulvetr has superior SC properties and damage calculation vs. Disaster and its autos come out faster.

If you're finding substantial advantage in damage with Laphria, then you're probably not using an appropriate set for Helheim. It's fallen into this weird group think where people just want the, "signature" weapon of WAR to be the best, so everyone seems to be chanting ad infinitum, "Yeah Laphria is slightly better overall plus BREAKS!" Which, you know, if you need Breaks for content, then you can still do them and weapon swap(or you could be realistic and have your BRD do Shell Crusher cause breaks other than DEF down are usually not cared about, but if they are they are worth the weapon swap). The horror!

That said, Disaster does have the cooler WS animation. Just can't beat a giant sun shaped explosion. Thanks Metatron Torment! (Course I'm still really fond of Scourge, as it looks like opening up heaven with a small halo at the top, and then slicing through the firmament of reality)

But I would definitely go for Helheim, especially if you are interested in the other jobs on it as well.

Nah I've seen both, Laphria on War is a bit stronger. The appropriate ws sets are all the same, only stat mods change.

+10 Store TP is more useful on WAR then +10 DA, both WS's perform the same and both make Darkness. Both are 60% STR/VIT with similar fTP scaling.


The stat mods are identical.

Well, Laphria has 380 DMG and Helheim has 336, so I wouldn't expect the WS to perform exactly the same.

Laphira swings a bit slower (because of higher delay), but also does more damage.

Swapping cape stats evens them out for the most part. DA for Helheim, STP for Laphria. Hoxne Ampulla favors Helheim if you go that route.

I meant in general all the prime WSs use the same WS sets, only thing that changes are stat mods.

Did not realise stat mods are the same between Fimbu and Disaster though, that's neat.

I would think the higher delay is a net positive for War too given 100% DA. Add /sam for hasso and stack storetp and it's like a mini zanhasso.

The only issue is missing fencer, but that's 2H weapons in general on War. You have to get used to WS-ing at a higher TP than with naegling.

It’s really not a big ask to ws at a little higher tp with Laphria. Each attack round builds so much tp and the white damage is incredibly good. The 10 DA on the stage 5 just means you build a cape with 10 sTP instead of DA, so it’s not actually wasting anything. Laphria was my first stage 5 and I agree with the consensus here that it has a small edge. It’s warrior’s strongest weapon. I chose Laphria because I don’t play the other jobs on Helheim. As the warrior specific weapon, it makes sense it would be a little stronger for us.

Yes it's a very minor difference. The two weapons are nearly identical in performance so I was just pointing out that a semi-permanent +10 Store TP is more useful then +10 DA.

The WS's are damn near identical with Fimbulvetr having slightly higher fTP but Helheim having lower base damage.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Fimbulvetr

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Helheim

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Disaster

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Laphria

The only real difference is +10 Store TP vs +10 DA.

+10 Store TP is generally a better semi-permanent stat then +10 DA, but you can switch out your TP cape if needed so it's a minor difference at best. These weapons are so close to each other that it's a matter of personal preference. In matters of taste, the customer is always right.

I've been on the fence with these two weapons also. 5 stage 4 primes deep, 1 stage 5 and still don't want both simply because they do look so alike. I will pull the trigger on Hellheim due to the fact that i've always wanted a torcleaver for WAR type weapon.
Thanks to thread input!

I was pretty underwhelmed finishing helheim. Not like the excitement of kusa on sam or gae buide on drg. It's alright for /sam situations and when you want to SC but naegling does enough work that I would probably not remake a war weapon unless points were burning a hole in my pocket

There's like 2 weapons worth the S5 grind (polearm/gkt). Horn is 100% S5 worthy. But is it the weapon itself that is underwhelming, or the job behind the weapon? Or the fact that you have Naegling lurking and it can spike higher numbers? Might be a combination of all 3 IMO.

WAR was not usually the hardest WSing 2hander unless under certain circumstances (Naegling, Mighty Strikes), so it's not unusual if the damage is "just ok" comparably. SAM is great because of Overwhelm and favorable hit builds. DRG is great because of absurd WSD traits. The weapons only really shine with max buffs, before that, they're all meh. When Naegling can deal higher spike damage than a weapon you grinded months for, it takes away a LOT of the sparkle on prime weapons IMO. That's not only the case with some of the 2h weapons, doubly so on the 1h (i.e. katana is facepalmworthy terrible compared to Naegling Savage Blade). The coolest part of prime weapons is the fun SC properties on them.

I was considering Helheim next as an up-to-date GS option for WAR, but I am slightly disappointed to hear Caladbolg is probably stronger (for when I can use it on DRK).

That is how I feel with WAR as well. War was my original main. I feel bad that I've not gotten a prime weapon for it. I'm glad it will have a Hellheim in its arsenal!

100 percent agree. I did laphria stage 5 and wasn't blown away by it. The white damage increase was is wonderful but I could have stayed at stage 4 and been content. I dont regret it but I probalky would have done the dagger or gun instead (i love ny worthless rng)if knew then what i know now.

I also have Gae Buide stage 5 and i have zero regrets with the investment. I haven't touched naegling since (cept for the occasional seg run) a d all is good in the world lol

Of all the primes only the Horn and Shield are significantly impactful. Out of all the weapons the Pole Arm changes the job the most due DRG not having a really powerful fTP scaling WS to use. Everything else is just flavor and preference as most every job already has access to some sort of TP scaling single hit WS.

That’s not true about the katana, it is perfectly fine. There’s a lot of people who can’t play the job. I’ve used it vs the GK and polearm, it always parses very close to both of them. Katana will be normally 7-10% under both the top primes. With enough pdl in the ws, it can do close to warrior laphria/helheim at 3k tp. Warrior only has the 10% boii legs vs the 27% from mpaca legs,neck, ear+2.

Yeah I think this plus the expectations from other 2 handers. Sam/drg/drk have JA haste where war doesn't but fencer makes up for that in gaol. Just don't expect either prime to be a replacement for all your other tools, but is it worth having a tool to 3 step dark especially if war is your only DD? yeah probably but you could also switch jobs depending on what you're doing

Don't have Helmheim, but I do have Caladbolg and Foenaria and let me say: Origin is WAY BETTER than Torcleaver, in my experience. Even leaving aside the drain/aspir part, the damage is incomparable, it's very, very significantly better.

And I really think people sleep on the SC properties. Sure, in a lot of content you're unable to SC because there are 4-5 melee, but there's also plenty of situations where you want to or need to SC, and it makes primes absolutely ***all over things like naegling (and to a lesser, but still very real, degree: caladbolg)