Iraklis

Description

 * "A longsword decorated with a bold-looking horn. Causes its wielder to take more damage and use more stamina, but at times deals crushing blows to enemies."

Iraklis increases stamina use and damage, but has a good chance to cause critical hits on enemies.

This sword is the matching weapon for the Hero's Armor Set.

In Dragon's Dogma it can be obtained through a purchase of the Weapon Pack: The Debilitator; in Dark Arisen as well as in the original game it can be bought from the The Black Cat.

Effects
Equipping Iraklis increases stamina use, both for skills and running, by 50%; and increases the damage the wielders takes by 50%.

Critical hit damage
This longsword gives an 2 in 7 chance of inflicting a "crushing blow" (critical hit) against the foe - each critical hit multiplies the damage done by the sword. From unenhanced to gold rarified the mutliplier increases from two and a half times damage to ten times damage.

Strength decimation
With Iraklis equipped, any strength boosting equipment has its effect reduced to one tenth (0.1) of the base value - this effect applies to worn equipment (eg Golden Belt) and even applies to the sword itself. As a result Iraklis' effective weapon strength is under 100, less than a Rusted Greatsword of equivalent enhancement.

Thus the net effect of the sword is to make the offensive power of the wielder based almost completely on their core strength - in a sense the user fights almost naked, like the ancient hero Iraklis (Heracles) portrayed in Greek sculpture.

Tactics
Once properly upgraded, the weapon's capability for powerful criticals enable it to rival even the highest tiers of longswords, as it can and will at times deliver surprising amounts of damage, often outright slaying a non-boss enemy every few attacks swung.

To enhance its capabilities to dish out a critical, attacks that hit multiple times are the most viable options. Other skills become much better to use and even skills that were once quite mediocre, become powerful and usable.

To maximise the likelyhood of a critical hit fast and multi-strike attacks can be used - these include the jumping heavy attack, and the Indomitable Lunge. High damage skills such as Indomitable Lash might still be used, but there is a chance smaller foes will be dispatched before a critical strike, reducing the apparent utility of this weapon.

Stats

 * † - the effective strength shown in square [] brackets.
 * ‡ - the Stagger and Knockdown values for Dark Arisen in curly {} brackets.

Damage and Strength
The base damage done by this sword does not follow the usual patterns - though the strength of the sword is listed as increasing from ~100 to ~300 at three star enchanced the actual damage done does not reflect these figures.

For example with Arisen strength of 573 an unenhanced weapon (str=573+105) with a single hack can do damage of 1016 on an ox, at 1* (str=573+157) the damage is only slightly increased to 1024, and with a 3* weapon (str=573+304) the damage is 1044. Equivalent bladed weapons, eg Two-Hander (str 156) or a 3* Flamberge (str 301) show greater increases in damage with strength :

In effect attacks and skills done with this sword have a dependency on strength that is one tenth (1/10) of that normally found - this makes the effective strength of the weapon between only 10 and 88.

Other equipment
This equipment strength reduction also applies to worn equipment - for example - if the Cyclops Veil and Golden Belt are worn strength is normally boosted by 26. Under the same conditions as above (with a 3* Flamberge) damage from hack on an Ox is increased by 36 when wearing these items. However if the same equipment is worn with Iraklis equipped the damage boost is only 4.

The effect on real strength is not noted in any statistic in menus.

Enhancement Item Locations

 * Silverwheat Paste
 * May be found in chests in various Gransys locations, including within the Catacombs, where Skeleton Knights are first encountered.
 * Sold by:
 * Fournival in Gran Soren.
 * Delec within the Chamber of Estrangement in the Post-Game Everfall.
 * Joye within the Chamber of Remorse in the Post-Game Everfall.
 * Can be stolen from Rats using Master Thief.
 * Tagilus's Miracle
 * May be found in chests in various Gransys locations, most notably within the Post-Game Everfall.
 * Can be stolen from the Chimera, Gorechimera, Wolf and Direwolf with the Pilfer/Master Thief skill.
 * Sold by:
 * Fournival in Gran Soren.
 * Mathias at the Greatwall Encampment.
 * Akim on the exit level of the Post-Game Everfall.
 * Can be stolen from Armored Cyclops using Master Thief.
 * Can be stolen from Cyclops using Master Thief.
 * Shattered Earth Tome
 * Can be obtained by purifying Bitterblack Novelty Lv.2.
 * May be found in chests throughout Bitterblack Isle, including:
 * Vault of Defiled Truth
 * Godly Analeptic
 * Found in chests on Bitterblack Isle.
 * Purification of Bitterblack Novelty Lv.2.
 * Sold by Barroch after purchasing the DLC pack The Crucible of the Lost.