Leaden Salute

**Jurgen** · 2009-06-30 09:14

Recently dinged COR 75 and am looking to add some damage potential. I am not exactly rolling in dough nor do I have /RNG, so Gears+1, Steel Bullets, and spamming Slug Shot isn't something I really want to go for, and I rarely use COR anyway.

I was wondering how going COR/NIN and meleeing for TP (maxing accuracy gear with Dagger/Joyeuse) and spamming Leaden Salute would be in terms of damage. I'm a melee noob for the most part so I had a couple of questions about Leaden Salute.

1) How would the accuracy be for COR/NIN compared to Slug Shot with COR/RNG? Assuming comparable gear for both builds (I use Martial Gun too)?

2) Since its a magic WS, is it natively more accurate than a melee WS? Seems like I miss less Atonements than say, Savage Blade. If so, would the best idea be to stack AGI/MAB and forget about Racc (aside from AF+1 gear).

3) Which pieces would be better for Leaden Salute? Moldavite Ear vs. Drone Earring? Crapaud Earring vs. Drone Earring? Denali Kecks v. AF1+1?

4) Which (if any) Gorget should I use?

I should mention this is for XP and mid level NM as well. Thank you in advance!

**Vedder** · 2009-06-30 09:30

For accuracy, Leaden Salute is going to be way better than Slug Shot. It's a magic based WS as you stated and therefore not affected by mobs Defense and Evasion, so I'm pretty sure it will hit 100% of the time (though can hit for 0).

The downside is that the damage is quite weak compared to Slug Shot / Detonator. The only way to boost it is by MAB+, Dark/Pluto's Staff, or AGI Modifier.

Personally, my gear for Leaden Salute is the same as I use for Quick Draw except I use Denali Bonnet instead of Corsair's Tricorne since it has 1 more AGI. Corsair's Tricorne +1 has the same AGI as Denali Bonnet though, so if you have that these two pieces are interchangable.

It's best uses are really specific cases like fighting magic weak mobs or PLDs/THFs in Dynamis that have 2-houred. However, one good thing about it is the damage rating of the bullets you use for Leaden Salute have no effect so you can use Bronze instead of Steel and save a couple gil.

Not an impressive WS by any means, but you can find uses for it if you play COR all the time.

**Greatguardian** · 2009-06-30 09:45

Unless that dagger's an MKris, just use Joyeuse single-wield even while /Nin. Honestly, Cor/Nin is not very powerful. /Rng adds 22 acc to RA and TP (Huge, COR needs this in TP). Sharpshot gives you 2-3 infallible WS's every 5 mins, and barrage is just hot.

If you're using a Martial Gun, and have respectable gear, you should still be able to pull out 80%~ WS acc at 100TP using Sushi. Personally, even /Nin, I am loathe to use Leaden Salute in exp. If you're /Nin, fighting mid-level NM, Slug's performance may start to drop because of its accuracy issues. But, Detonator can be used reliably here, assuming you have it. Speaking of Deto, if Accuracy is becoming a huge problem in merits, you can just switch to Detonator and do more than Leaden would.

I don't think it's possible for Leaden to miss, but I haven't really used it enough to find out. I'm fairly certain it's just a pure AGI/MAB stack though, like Quick Draw. And yeah, Moldavite earring here. Denali Kecks as well.

**Jak** · 2009-06-30 10:25