Random Question Thread XXVII: Okay this roman numerals bullshit is getting ridiculous

[Buffy]

So I have MNK and five mage jobs (including BLU). I'll probably level NIN and DRK, possibly THF. Moonshade earring: Can an argument possibly be made for Refresh over TP Bonus? I've wanted a maxed refresh set for ages, but Moonshade seems like a clear winner, especially in this age where MP doesn't matter as much as it used to. Just hoping someone can justify my perfect idle set dreams.

Also, I play with myself a lot (with a pocket healer). Is THF justifiable? Seems like it could come in handy for Abyssea and Dynamis farming, but otherwise I have zero fucking interest in the job. Suck it up and level it anyway if I refuse to socialize in a MMO?

Your choice on moonshade is going to be a personal preference. The TP bonus on a ws like victory smite is quite strong, but I use mine for refresh, since I don't have a strong WS that would benefit from the TP bonus. My friend a career mnk with rdm/whm/blm wouldn't consider refresh. You gotta decide what job is more important to you is all. I use it in a great idle for for mage with 6-7mp/tick and -40%pdt. As a taru, I love the combination.

THF solely for dynamis isn't the best answer probably. Since you have blu, you can equip TH spells and destroy mobs. THF is fine, but don't level a job you hate when you have a perfectly viable alternative.

[Kalmado]

Your choice on moonshade is going to be a personal preference. The TP bonus on a ws like victory smite is quite strong, but I use mine for refresh, since I don't have a strong WS that would benefit from the TP bonus. My friend a career mnk with rdm/whm/blm wouldn't consider refresh. You gotta decide what job is more important to you is all. I use it in a great idle for for mage with 6-7mp/tick and -40%pdt. As a taru, I love the combination.

THF solely for dynamis isn't the best answer probably. Since you have blu, you can equip TH spells and destroy mobs. THF is fine, but don't level a job you hate when you have a perfectly viable alternative.

I just finished WoTG tonight and plan to get TP Bonus Moonshade and am in the middle of redoing sets. Besides any WS stating "damage varies by TP" are there any WS's where moonshade>any?

The reason I bolded that statement is Blade: Hi has the exact same "Chance of critical hit varies with TP" as VS. The consensus for Blade: Hi is Brutal/Centaurus > Brutal/Moon, yet for VS Brutal/Moon > Brutal/Ghillie +1 with +3acc and only -1att compared to Brutal/Centaurus?

[Delain]

What is Arch-Omega like? I cant seem to find any party setup info on the fight, and what to expect. Is it something that a group of good emp/relic DDs with two box healers could take down easily? Have plenty of MNK, WAR, NIN, SAM emp/relic dds and more than enough two-box whms/schs to throw around. Just kind of want to know what to expect and what the minimum number of people to do it safely would be.

[Cairthenn]

I read something about 2 BLU being able to duo (even simpler with a SCH or WHM). I've not done it, but given that Ultima can be done with like 4 SMN, I wouldn't expect anything too difficult.

[Squah]

What is Arch-Omega like? I cant seem to find any party setup info on the fight, and what to expect. Is it something that a group of good emp/relic DDs with two box healers could take down easily? Have plenty of MNK, WAR, NIN, SAM emp/relic dds and more than enough two-box whms/schs to throw around. Just kind of want to know what to expect and what the minimum number of people to do it safely would be.

Uh, I'm no expert on him by any means ( fought him first time on thursday)... went in with 11, stays in 4 legged mode until 75% (bring some magic damage or it will take a long time to knock him out of PDT mode). The difficult part is finding a tank for the first 25% since the mages will likely tear hate off of a tank (even if they don't pile pitch on the tank will make him charge after them anyway). Once he drops under 75%, we had a BLU stunlock him while a group of DDs took him down. AoEs will hurt you if you don't stunlock him which caused a few deaths once he stood up and hate went haywire (see previous pile pitch comment. This was basically everyone's first time at AO so we didn't know what to expect). He's pretty evasive (95 apoc with RCB was @70~% acc) but he's pretty squishy. Saw a few 1000+ Apoc crits, Cata in the ~2000s. Once we had him stunlocked he went down like a sack of bricks. Only Relic we had was a 95Apoc, along with a TP bonus SAM and other run of the mill DDs.

[Obsidian]

I've done it a couple times and it was rough goings as a party of six. It hits like a truck and I couldn't counter it for shit, the range on Guided Missile II is massive, and when it absorbs attributes it becomes impossible to hit. You'll need some form of magic damage to get it to stand up, since it heavily reduces physical damage on four legs, and make sure to kill the pods, because they hurt if they go boom.

Having only done Arch-Ultima once, and Arch-Omega thrice, I'd say Omega is definitely the more difficult one, but maybe I just suck.

[diasetsu]

The reason I bolded that statement is Blade: Hi has the exact same "Chance of critical hit varies with TP" as VS. The consensus for Blade: Hi is Brutal/Centaurus > Brutal/Moon, yet for VS Brutal/Moon > Brutal/Ghillie +1 with +3acc and only -1att compared to Brutal/Centaurus?

AFAIK Blade: Hi is +15%@100tp, +20%@200tp, and +25%@300tp. That means that 25 TPBonus is usually only adding 1% crit, occasionally adding 2% at certain TP values(average of 1.23% for starting values between 100 and 275 TP). Smite is 10%>25%>45%, so 25TPBonus adds more often than not 4% crit, occasionally only 3% for starting TP values between 100 and 175(average of 3.74%). For starting TP of 175+ 25TPBonus adds mostly 5% crit for smite, rarely 4%(average of 4.86% for starting values between 175 and 275 TP).

[Mercilessturtle]

I don't know why everyone is acting like arch-omega is a big deal, take 2 DDs and 2 healers. Whenever he does a tp move, he does 2 back to back, so make each healer responsible for a DD and have them cure him up before the second TP move goes off. Just pick a DD that can do magic damage for the first 25%, twilight scythe drk or formless 5/5 monk are good. Switch to the pod when he pops them and kill it before it explodes. If you have more people, take a brd before you bother taking anyone to nuke.

[Kalmado]

AFAIK Blade: Hi is +15%@100tp, +20%@200tp, and +25%@300tp. That means that 25 TPBonus is usually only adding 1% crit, occasionally adding 2% at certain TP values(average of 1.23% for starting values between 100 and 275 TP). Smite is 10%>25%>45%, so 25TPBonus adds more often than not 4% crit, occasionally only 3% for starting TP values between 100 and 175(average of 3.74%). For starting TP of 175+ 25TPBonus adds mostly 5% crit for smite, rarely 4%(average of 4.86% for starting values between 175 and 275 TP).

Thanks for the response. Definitely clears that up.

[Squah]

Of these two, which would be better for Vsmite? Nemetona Cap or Thaumas Hat?

[Kaisha]

Did Optic Fiber ever drop from ENM PUP Pulling the Strings?

I could have swore it did since I used to farm that ENM back when it was mandatory for PUPs to do so to not suck (and for gil), but then I got one from Ashu, did a look up, and nothing about it dropping from Strings.

[fantasticdan]

I'm pretty sure it was always exclusive to the ashu talif BCs, along with turbo charger, tranquilizer, etc.

[pchan]

Of these two, which would be better for Vsmite? Nemetona Cap or Thaumas Hat?

maxed shura+1 > nemetona > thaumas

[Taim Meich]

Could you double check that? I'm almost positive I read a test many years ago that confirmed the maneuver potency thing. It'd be easy to test with Regen attachments (would do it myself right now, but I have day drinking to go do). Unless of course you've already 100% confirmed, in which case I'll just take your word on it.

I linked to the tests on Overdrive that Nateypoo did in the wiki entry. There, he shows the stats increase during the 2H (without attachments on, so we can rule out their influence), and then tests maneuver potency by comparing nuke damage with one loudspeaker and one ice maneuver with and without Overdrive. He only tests with that attachment, but from personal experience I can tell you that, for example, Valoredge's attack speed during Overdrive is higher with 3 wind maneuvers than with one, so that one isn't acting as three.

[crux]

Every time I reload spellcast, my melee DD gear stops switching when I engage and I have to use a macro to switch back and forth from idle and TP, but if I don't reload after I login it works fine. What gives?

[Nightfyre]

[Zirael]

http://cdn.bluegartr.com/images/styl...quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Zirk http://cdn.bluegartr.com/images/styl...post-right.png
How does Feint work with respect to TH? Does just the first hit that applies Feint get the doubled chance to increase TH i.e. should stack your Feint hit with SA/TA, or all the hits while the mob is afflicted with evasion down?

There have been no tests done that I know of.

No tests were ever done, but having played THF a lot since that change was introduced I'm inclined to say the first hit that applies bonus gets the boost only. I ofen duo things with PLD friend and if we want a drop (Salvage NMs, empy farming, popped Kings), I do Feint-TA (no WS used, weaponskills do not activate Feint, only normal hits) him and follow it with SA. Feint-TA nets me TH upgrade much much more often than following SA.

Testing it shouldn't be hard, just bit time consuming, if anyone's interested. Just put on full TH gear as THF/BLM, set your home point at some outpost (say, Cape Terrigan), find a mob you will use every time and do a series of normal SA, Feint-SA and Feint-hit-Bully-SA hits on it. Then count the difference in upgrades. The reason for warping out after hitting mob is to deaggro and reset it's TH level and let it regen. You'd also want to spam the same mob every time to remove any variances (if things like mob level or family affect TH chance by some weird reason). Also, make sure you use max TH gear, which makes TH upgrade harder and easier to distinguish Feint boosted ones from normal. Quite time consuming, hence not something I'd have time/patience to do

[NynJa]

the lower the TH level, the more likely it is to increase, this is relatively known, so counting from say...base of 3, makes it pretty hard to notice any differences. Every time I fight LAC, I do a set of non-feint SA/TA and Feinted SA/TA rounds between charms...I dont usually get past 9 tho (open with max TH+)

[Zirael]

What is Arch-Omega like? I cant seem to find any party setup info on the fight, and what to expect. Is it something that a group of good emp/relic DDs with two box healers could take down easily? Have plenty of MNK, WAR, NIN, SAM emp/relic dds and more than enough two-box whms/schs to throw around. Just kind of want to know what to expect and what the minimum number of people to do it safely would be.

You got few good replies so far (using 2 DD/tanks + support), so I'll just add few cents. A different approach would be to use a couple of SMNs with 1-2 people tanking if you're worried about mages pulling hate. I like this method because it allows you to bring random people and not worry about whether they grasp the idea of PDT/MDT sets or even gear swapping. Covers both magic and meele phase too. And saves you from feeding too much TP, if your healers are slow/suck. The downside is, it's slower.
Or just bring a Twilight-DRK or two and embrava the hell out of it. Stona Paralyna and Echo Drops will be your best friends.

[Zirael]

the lower the TH level, the more likely it is to increase, this is relatively known, so counting from say...base of 3, makes it pretty hard to notice any differences. Every time I fight LAC, I do a set of non-feint SA/TA and Feinted SA/TA rounds between charms...I dont usually get past 9 tho (open with max TH+)

I consider reaching TH9 within ~10min using SA/TA and Feint method a good score, possible to reach TH10-11 within 20-30 min (I stall this long pretty much only on king pops and use hand-to-hand after applying TH not to kill it to fast, ie Behemoth).