i was interested in getting the guide to help me compare weapons and items better so i know what i should work on. are the tables in the guide awesome enough that you can understand which one is stronger, better magic, ect.? i know i can find this info online and i have but faqs and black and white and there is so much info that some things are missing. id like to know the progression levels each time they upgrade.

there are e good charts showing base strength/magic stats of every weapon and each of it's upgraded forms. They were also nice enough to give you the max levels before transforming an item to help in your calculations for upgrading (which they give pointers that you've probably seen people saying they "discovered" on the forums. Other than that they also have the synthesized groups that weapons can be part of for special abilities that are typically designed to offset a weapons weakness or attributes if you use it with the right accessories. Is it useful, yes. Worth $20-$25 for that section alone, not really. Like you said, most of that info has been disected and reprinted on the internet so unless you use the guide for other things as well I wouldn't say to buy it.