Random Question Thread XIX: Welcome to Flavor Country

[Tsuko_Asura]

I'm aware that RDM is not the most efficient job for group activities and that's what you're basing your advice on, I've stated it a few times already. What you insist on ignoring is that the context of the question is how to improve this efficiency regardless of whether or not a different job would be more useful in Abyssea. You're essentially adapting the context of the question so that your universal views on RDM merits correspond with it. I don't think the OP is particularly interested in soloing or duoing, advising people to arrange their merits on something that they don't plan on doing is just bad advice.

Which is precisely why, in closing, I told him that most of our advice should be treated as an irrelevancy, because he should really just level a different job.

[Mojo]

Which is precisely why, in closing, I told him that most of our advice should be treated as an irrelevancy, because he should really just level a different job.

This changes nothing about the absurdity arising from advocating a merit configuration that is not optimized towards what the OP plans to do, it's poor advice (even if you disregard the possibility of Phalanx II being intrinsically better in any configuration given the shirkability of a 3% marginal reduction in attack speed.)

[Tsuko_Asura]

When you can get virtually any job to 90 in a day or two, bringing a job to a situation where its beyond suboptimal is, in my opinion, just plain silly. Back when getting white mage to 75 would actually take some time, I'd give him a lesson in making his job work in less than favorable circumstances. My kind of "good advice" is to tell him the right way to use his undesirable jobs, while forwardly suggesting that he take up something better. Your advice is perfectly sound, but I find your premise to be incredibly off-base(which, if I'm not mistaken, is almost if not exactly how you feel about my position). Clearly we see the situation in different ways, so I'm not about to combat you with merit choices any further.

[Byrthnoth]

Hey guys, I have 5 Phalanx II, 1 Slow II, 1 Paralyze II, and 3 Dia III. I meritted for Salvage ages ago. Did I do it right?

Trick Question. I never play RDM anymore.

[NynJa]

RDM is obsolete in Abyssea, but outside its still one of the top jobs to have.

[Moridam]

haven't finished verethragna 85 just yet, but wanted to see if maybe i'm on the right track for VS gear once i do.

out of the gate, my setup should be something like:

vere/ / /tantra
aias/justice/brutal/kemas
tantra/heafoc/rajas/epona
atheling/bb/usu/tantra

obvious improvement that sticks out in my head is hachiryu legs, but those are pretty much impossible to find nowadays. might try and farm up a znm set or two and try for it, but outside of that, i'm not really sure what to do there.

naturally, that's an abyssea-centric build i guess. what would change outside? is dDEX worth pursuing, e.g., swap legs for BH?

[Mojo]

During WS, 90 Vere has a base DMG of 35+3+41. Capped fSTR (which only requires +44 STR over the mob's VIT) is going to be capped both outside and inside of Abyssea. So you're WD is equal to 79 + floor(floor(STR*0.60)). I made sort of a table of what I think could be best outside of Abyssea assuming you're trying to cap dDEX.

Item			Slot	STR	DEX	Attack	Accuracy	fTP	DA
Hume			Base	87	81	395	359		5.25	10
Verethragna		Main	15	0	0	0		0	0
Thew Bomblet		Ammo	2	0	8	0		0	0
Aias Bonnet		Head	8	8	0	5		0	0
Tantra Cyclas +2	Body	12	0	15	15		0	0
Ample Gloves		Hand	5	5	0	0		0	0
Usukane Hizayoroi	Legs	5	5	10	0		0	0
Tantra Gaiters +2	Feet	8	0	0	8		0	0
Ire Torque +1		Neck	7	0	0	-3		0	0
Warwolf Belt		Waist	5	5	0	0		0	0
Nifty Mantle		Back	0	5	9	0		0	0
Centaurus Earring	Ear1	0	0	10	0		0	0
Brutal Earring		Ear2	0	0	0	0		0	5
Rajas Ring		Ring1	5	5	0	0		0	0
Thundersoul Ring	Ring2	0	7	0	0		0	0
Red Curry Bun		Food	7	0	0	0		0	0
			Total	166	121	530	444		5.25	15

The Attack value is listed before Berserk and the 23% from Red Curry Bun are applied, but after STR/2 is added (same with Accuracy.) This also ignores the effects of Impetus. You need around 700-800 attack to cap cRatio on mobs outside of Abyssea, or so I've been told. Applying the Red Curry Bun alone yields 651 Attack, with Berserk up you're at 814. So a lot of the time, you're mostly missing out on the WSC bonus from adding more STR. The WD total using this configuration would be 163. If you completely ignored dDEX, you could maybe use the following build.

Item			Slot	STR	DEX	Attack	Accuracy	fTP	DA	TA
Hume			Base	87	81	395	359		5.25	10	0
Verethragna		Main	15	0	0	0		0	0	0
Thew Bomblet		Ammo	2	0	8	0		0	0	0
Aias Bonnet		Head	8	8	0	5		0	0	0
Tantra Cyclas +2	Body	12	0	15	15		0	0	0
Heafoc Mitts		Hand	13	-4	0	-8		0	0	0
Hachiryu Haidate	Legs	10	0	5	0		0	0	0
Tantra Gaiters +2	Feet	8	0	0	8		0	0	0
Ire Torque +1		Neck	7	0	0	-3		0	0	0
Black Belt		Waist	7	0	0	0		0	0	0
Atheling Mantle		Back	0	0	20	0		0	3	0
Centaurus Earring	Ear1	0	0	10	0		0	0	0
Brutal Earring		Ear2	0	0	0	0		0	5	0
Pyrosoul Ring		Ring1	7	0	0	0		0	0	0
Epona's Ring		Ring2	0	0	0	0		0	3	3
Red Curry Bun		Food	7	0	0	0		0	0	0
			Total	183	85	544	418		5.25	21	3

Up to 171 WD, which is a 4.91% WD marginal gain. Food puts you at 669 Attack, and Berserk at 836 Attack. So, while Berserk isn't up, you're out 18 Attack (Berserk up and you're capped either way,) 6 DA and 3 TA, but you're dDEX is pretty crappy. Will the 4.91% WD increase and the corresponding increases from the 6 DA/3 TA/sometimes 18 Attack will outweigh the probably 13~15% increase in critical hit rate from dDEX? I can't say for certain at this point, maybe someone can take over the calculations, or I'll try thinking about it tomorrow when I'm less tired, but my 'gut' says it probably won't (i.e. the first build is better.)

[Kaisha]

Speaking of merits, if you want to remove merits, does it remove all of them for a given slot, or can you bump it down just a level? As for my RDM I'm going to think about it for a bit, I'm still early into experiencing Abyssea so I want to bide my time and see exactly how things go.


And on a completely different subject, anyone have luck getting FFXI running on the latest version of WINE? The day I was setting my Mac up to try it was the day they decided to take the POL servers down 30min after mentioning they might take them down. POL Viewer seemed to work fine and dandy though with zero problems.

[Sindalf]

Looking for some information on the Creed AF+2 set bonus. I read the activation rate is 25% or 5% per piece at a couple places but then I read it's just a flat 5% for when you have all 5 pieces on. Just would like some clarification.

[Fereydoon]

Speaking of merits, if you want to remove merits, does it remove all of them for a given slot, or can you bump it down just a level? As for my RDM I'm going to think about it for a bit, I'm still early into experiencing Abyssea so I want to bide my time and see exactly how things go.


And on a completely different subject, anyone have luck getting FFXI running on the latest version of WINE? The day I was setting my Mac up to try it was the day they decided to take the POL servers down 30min after mentioning they might take them down. POL Viewer seemed to work fine and dandy though with zero problems.

Just one level, like using merits. Also iirc WINE and XI work, not sure about the latest version of it, but Windower won't.

[Atoreis]

Looking for some information on the Creed AF+2 set bonus. I read the activation rate is 25% or 5% per piece at a couple places but then I read it's just a flat 5% for when you have all 5 pieces on. Just would like some clarification.

Its like other sets: 1,2,3,5% with 2,3,4,5 pieces.

[Atoreis]

haven't finished verethragna 85 just yet, but wanted to see if maybe i'm on the right track for VS gear once i do.

out of the gate, my setup should be something like:

vere/ / /tantra
aias/justice/brutal/kemas
tantra/heafoc/rajas/epona
atheling/bb/usu/tantra

obvious improvement that sticks out in my head is hachiryu legs, but those are pretty much impossible to find nowadays. might try and farm up a znm set or two and try for it, but outside of that, i'm not really sure what to do there.

naturally, that's an abyssea-centric build i guess. what would change outside? is dDEX worth pursuing, e.g., swap legs for BH?

If U want to go for crit set outside I would use this: WS and yes I know its a lot not easy to get items.

@Mojo - MNK cant use C earring

[Byrthnoth]

Okay so, kind of a statistics-y question here.

If I'm swinging with a 1H weapon from 0 TP (high n) with plenty of DA and TA, will I (on average) over TP by half a round? How would I calculate that? The probability is not fun to work out.

[Atoreis]

Okay so, kind of a statistics-y question here.

If I'm swinging with a 1H weapon from 0 TP (high n) with plenty of DA and TA, will I (on average) over TP by half a round? How would I calculate that? The probability is not fun to work out.

Over TP with 1h weapon is much less painful then with 2h weapon because the delay of 1 round is much lower. There is also not worth to count it because the randomness of this is just to high to make any build around it.

[Byrthnoth]

Over TP with 1h weapon is much less painful then with 2h weapon because the delay of 1 round is much lower. There is also not worth to count it because the randomness of this is just to high to make any build around it.

I don't really want to know it for an x-hit build. I just want to know it so I can compare between 2H and 1H weapons. Currently I'm assuming about 7% over-TPing.

[Syntex]

haven't finished verethragna 85 just yet, but wanted to see if maybe i'm on the right track for VS gear once i do.

out of the gate, my setup should be something like:

vere/ / /tantra
aias/justice/brutal/kemas
tantra/heafoc/rajas/epona
atheling/bb/usu/tantra

obvious improvement that sticks out in my head is hachiryu legs, but those are pretty much impossible to find nowadays. might try and farm up a znm set or two and try for it, but outside of that, i'm not really sure what to do there.

naturally, that's an abyssea-centric build i guess. what would change outside? is dDEX worth pursuing, e.g., swap legs for BH?

Ok correct me if I'm wrong and I might be because I have a career of only mage jobs until a few weeks ago but does that(bolded) do ANYTHING for a WS or is it lazyness on your part to get another ring for your WS?

I see a lot of geared players use it and want to know.

Also why not alk over heafoc bracers 2 less str and dex but no acc issues.

[Atoreis]

Ok correct me if I'm wrong and I might be because I have a career of only mage jobs until a few weeks ago but does that(bolded) do ANYTHING for a WS or is it lazyness on your part to get another ring for your WS?

I see a lot of geared players use it and want to know.

Also why not alk over heafoc bracers 2 less str and dex but no acc issues.

Double attack and triple attack can proc on WS. On multihit WS or while dual wielding they can proc two times (2x TA, 2xDA or TA+DA). Limiting factor is 8hits is max on WS so for example TA cant proc 2times with evisceration (I have no idea tho if it cant proc at all or if it proc 2 times the 9 hits will be capped to 8?). Every additional hit gained that way is fTP +1 for that WS. So for example on Blade:hi with TA proc we have 4.0 base fTP + 1.0 from dual wielding +2.0 from TA proc. The lower is base fTP the more it gives (tho technically its still the same). Good example is Ascetic fury. Its 2.0 and with 2x TA it can be 6.0 which is 3x more (and since in abyssea MNK can have like 21%DA and 18%TA on WS its one of the reason that Ascetic has spikes up to 6k+ dmg).

[Fallyn]

Also why not alk over heafoc bracers 2 less str and dex but no acc issues.

I can answer this one: because your acc will be capped so the -acc is negligable, and the STR&DEX will help more with WS.

[Buffy]

Gonna screw around with Cor when the game comes back. Is there a good/great empy gun? Can't do mythic cause of alexandrite supply. I'm looking at the gun trials page on wiki and it doesn't make a lot of sense to someone who is primarily a mage.

[Colenzo]

If you like pumping out massive damage in abyssea then do the empyrean gun. Wildfire is awesome. Its also relatively decent outside abyssea too.