Lehko Vs. Cornelia Vs. Ephramad

This is a debate I keep seeing repeated, so I figured why not dedicate a thread to it?

I'll admit that I’ve been a Lehko user for a long time. I never really put much thought into changing it until this week when I started reading other players’ opinions.

From my personal perspective, I’m starting to feel like I’m not getting as much from Lehko anymore. I play DRK, RUN, DNC, COR, RDM, THF, and BST, so Cornelia might help me more overall.

Ephramad for DRK and DNC in high buff situations is also very tempting though. Those are my main damage jobs at the moment. I am lacking augments on Nyame, but am actively working on that with my group every week.

Of course, I know I could just pick one, test it out, and swap later if I don’t like it. At the same time, I’d rather pick one, adjust my sets around it, and not have to revisit the decision again for a long time.

From what I’ve gathered from reading other posts:

Lehko

Best if you are supremely geared and hitting 99999s almost all the time. It may also be better for players who struggle with accuracy or who don’t often join party setups with top tier buffs and debuffs.



Cornelia

Benefits most jobs in most situations due to the WS damage, but it still depends on the job. Magic WS on COR, for example, benefit a lot from this.

There’s also less to think about with Cornelia. Might be more appealing if you are lacking augmented Nyame.



Ephramad

Clearly excels when attack is capped, but the key is actually knowing when that is happening. The top players using this will usually have a very good understanding of their buffs and will maintain separate sets for attack capped and uncapped situations.

A lot of players aren’t willing to go that far. It may be stronger, but knowing exactly when to use it can turn some people off.

I also read something earlier about MNK, WAR, and BLU benefiting because they lack PDL options from other sources, but I can’t remember where I saw that.



In the end, I don’t think this should be about ganging up on people for choosing one over the others. The amount of debate around them tells me SE probably succeeded in making all three viable, which is a good thing. Having options is great.

I think you hit the highlights and this post serves as a reference for players trying to decide between them. I'm not so sure about "players struggling with accuracy" though, since several prominent rings have as much or more accuracy than lehkos.

IMO cornelia appeals to jobs with less native attack like BRD, COR, NIN, SAM, RDM, etc. Since they have a harder time hitting the attack cap, especially when loaded up with PDL (SV Aria).

It also has a more broad appeal because it's useful on nearly every ws for nearly every job, whereas the uses of lehko and ephramad are more situational.

When ephramad shines, it really shines though. It has many complementary stats that are notably missing from cornelia.

Really it ultimately comes down to your job selection, buff situation, WS and weapon choices, and play style. Which is why there will never be a consensus. If you primarily play solo, doing content like escha NMs, sinister reign, Omen, and vagary, your answer will be different to someone who 6bots or always plays with a party full of full power buffs in endgame content.

I chose Lehko's before and I'll choose it again, because I'm a *** for crit.

I know crit builds aren't achieving anything particularly noteworthy, and at best you're pushing 20% of your overall DPS through white damage in the best crit builds with an Empy like Ukon or Twash, but gd is it fun and satisfying.

I felt like I had plenty of options for hitting capped damage in certain content, so getting a ring that let me put together builds for fun was more enticing for me personally. I'm sure the +4 STP over Chirich +1 isn't changing anyone's x-hit, but not having to worry about hitting haste cap in pretty much any gear configuration was a nice bonus too.


Violently agree.

I've always saw Cornelia's as a fantastic stopgap (for a long time) before tranfering to Ephramad's. Corn is for players who aren't exactly new but are getting into the thick of it before they get upgraded Ody gear. Also a popular choice for COR, a job with a low barrier to entry.