new player general thoughts/questions

[Raldo]

Eh, I'm seven books in already. Light grind will be the worst... unless you can't do the 50 dungeons the second time unsynced? You sure as heck can for the book grind. It's actually a lot of fun just facerolling 50 content at 60.

I've not done it myself, but I believe you can do all the dungeon runs unsynced. You just won't be able to solo the ones with cockblock mechanics requiring multiple people (see: first boss of Lost City of Amdapor that eats a player).

Also worth a mention in case you're unaware, but when you're doing those later dungeons for the zodiac quest drops, you do not need to use your relic weapon, heck you don't even need to be on the same job. And if you haven't started collecting Alexandrite, I'd suggest starting now; you'll need 75 of 'em and your easiest way to get them right now is via the old hunt seals, since I don't think you can buy the alexandrite maps until you're on that stage in the quest.

[octopus]

Each alexandrite maps give 5 alexandrites now. You just need 15 maps to get 75.

[TheDirtyHobo]

Also worth a mention in case you're unaware, but when you're doing those later dungeons for the zodiac quest drops, you do not need to use your relic weapon, heck you don't even need to be on the same job.

You can also do them unsynced and solo them pretty fast depending on your job at 60, or worst case scenario duo them.

[StaplerGuy]

Each alexandrite maps give 5 alexandrites now. You just need 15 maps to get 75.

I saw this, they nerfed the hell out of the relic quest line and that's part of what made me do it. That said, I didn't know about the old hunt seals buying some and I have a stock from when I was first grinding law+ilvl when I hit 60, so that's pretty good to know.

Also worth a mention in case you're unaware, but when you're doing those later dungeons for the zodiac quest drops, you do not need to use your relic weapon, heck you don't even need to be on the same job.

That's pretty good, eso weapon should speed up my runs even more. Thank you!

e: Wow, it took me literally three hours to get 75 Alexandrite. 35 from seals I had lying around and 40 from eight maps. That stage was nerfed to hell and back. Thank you for the advice on the Hunt seals! Seriously, much less painful. Time to farm light. Now THAT will suck, even at 4x.

[Siya]

Figured I'd plop my questions in here rather than making a new thread. Might be picking up heavensward to play with some friends, unfortunately they are on a different server. Is there any cross-realm stuff? I could have swore there was but maybe my mind is playing tricks and I'm blending FF14 with WoW. Also how hard/confusing is it to get into heavensward? Quit around the middle of the second coil of bahamut.

[Silenka]

Nothing you can plan. Duty Finder throws you in with others from the same data center but it's random. If you want to play with your friends, it would be best to transfer.
It's not hard or confusing to get into HW, the story is a little time consuming but after that it's basic sidequests and leveling jobs for miles.

[Raldo]

You can technically force it if you have a full group (across the same data center) if you just have everyone flag for the same duty with just the same lesser-used language flagged (D or F), but if you care that much, you should probably just buy a server transfer.

[Ragnus]

How exactly does Potency work? I get that more potency = more damage, but is it's a percentage or just some number thrown into an algorithm?

One of the major reasons that DRK uses the Delirium combo is that it's something like 10-20 potency more than the Power Slash combo which means that it's better for tanking despite the previous having built in enmity grabbing.

Yes, I also get that the Delirium Combo also presents the opportunity to close with DA+Souleater.

[FHT]

How exactly does Potency work? I get that more potency = more damage, but is it's a percentage or just some number thrown into an algorithm?

One of the major reasons that DRK uses the Delirium combo is that it's something like 10-20 potency more than the Power Slash combo which means that it's better for tanking despite the previous having built in enmity grabbing.

Yes, I also get that the Delirium Combo also presents the opportunity to close with DA+Souleater.

I don't know about the former question related to potency, but for the difference between Power Slash and Delirium, its simple.

When you open a boss fight you want to put a maximum of enmity on it to give yourself room to breath and do other things, some people will tell you that you should DA Powerslash, some will say that its not worth it, both side have their view and I'll say do it if you feel like its necessary (as if you are badly outgeared, this could be an example) you prevent any other party member to jack the threat away from you.

Now as DRK you have Darkside on all the time (you should) and this stance deplete your MP when you use a weapon skill. This is where the Souleater/Delirium start to make a difference, not only it give more raw potency (more damage) but it also help to sustain Darkside while giving you a little bit of an extra MP.

Things like Dark Passenger/Unleash/Unmend/Abyssal Drain/ cost MPs to start with and to remedy to these cost you'll want to use Blood Price as much as you can depending the situations, and every WS you do will be enhanced by Darkside but you'll trade MP for that, this is why once you established a good enmity level you can just focus on Delirium/Souleater, in the best scenarios it will also help you greatly, like when I do A1S it does help me to put Delirium on the oppressor and it does make my healers job a bit easier to throw an enhanced Souleater in.

TLDR; Powerslash is an enmity combo, Delirium/Souleater are more DPS and utility and they will recharge your MP gauge little by little overtime to allow you to use other stuff when necessary/free (like an enhanced Carve & Spit for additional damage or an enhanced Dark Mind because the boss is going to use his magical tank buster)

Edit;

Look at Destinye's DRK Lazy tanking video, while its supposed to be "lazy tanking" in the latest raid she does show how things can be done properly, i.e: Using Scourge often & when its about to wear off, using Low Blow when its ready because its a form of DPS increase, and mainly she is using Delirum/Souleater not only because of the potency difference but also because it helps for what I mentionned above, in the long run.

[Raldo]

How exactly does Potency work? I get that more potency = more damage, but is it's a percentage or just some number thrown into an algorithm?

The simplest answer is that it's just a number thrown into an algorithm. That said, you can use the potency numbers to compare the damage of abilities against one another (so yes, you can think of them as percentages if you like).

If you have an ability that is 100 potency and you see that it hits for 100ish damage, then an attack that is 300 potency is going to do 3x as much (so 300ish damage).

[Seravi Edalborez]

That said, Potency between magic and physical jobs isn't directly 1 to 1 comparable because of the different (higher on casters) weapon damage values.

So while you can "compare" (Holy/Flare/Gravity) and (Fell Cleave / Dark Arts Carve'n'Spit / Tornado Kick) assuming equal-ish gear/weapons, you can't compare Deathflare and Fell Cleave purely on potency.

[Raldo]

Well sure, though I wouldn't even suggest comparing anything between any two different classes/jobs/gearLevels, even similar ones. You often have to look at far more than just the potency. Tank stances are different, Maim and Darkside further skew things. On WAR you can also safely expect the slashing debuff, but on other other tanks you can't. NIN stances are +20% while MNK/DRG are +15% (I think). BRD/MCH get equal traits to boost their damage, but MCH also has a buff they should be keeping up that directly boosts their damage whereas BRD does not (yes, there's straight shot, but that won't directly affect potency). Cleric's Stance boosts damage by 10% so comparing healer nukes to standard DPS mages isn't as simple as looking at the raw potency numbers.

[nyttyn]

Casters get greater value from potency from skills overall because they don't get auto-attacks (and in the fights they do, it's a totally negligible source of damage, like sub 1%). As for how it's calculated, it's ...well, casters get more damage per potency even ignoring their higher base weapon damage IIRC. And the substat values don't match up between classes. And... Without being here all day, the short of it is that Square Enix are assholes who use magical wizard numbers that are different for every class and different between DoW and DoM.

Also they changed all the numbers with Heavensward. But only for level 51+, which is why you suddenly take an assload more damage and do less when you level from 50 to 51 (which in turn lead to the reports that undersynced mobs did like 25% more damage. It was just the weird janky ass formulas that SE uses). And Pets get their own weird ass potency formulas.

[TheDirtyHobo]

Well sure, though I wouldn't even suggest comparing anything between any two different classes/jobs/gearLevels, even similar ones. You often have to look at far more than just the potency. Tank stances are different, Maim and Darkside further skew things. On WAR you can also safely expect the slashing debuff, but on other other tanks you can't. NIN stances are +20% while MNK/DRG are +15% (I think). BRD/MCH get equal traits to boost their damage, but MCH also has a buff they should be keeping up that directly boosts their damage whereas BRD does not (yes, there's straight shot, but that won't directly affect potency). Cleric's Stance boosts damage by 10% so comparing healer nukes to standard DPS mages isn't as simple as looking at the raw potency numbers.

For having all the old jobs above 50, most of them even at 60 already, your understanding of how they function on a basic level is very confused or short-sighted. Excluding damage debuff, NIN is 20%, DRG is 15%, MNK is 50.15%. MCH has 5% damage, BRD has 10% crit rate which is essentially the same thing (marginally less because of diminishing returns) on a less regulated scale before considering the double dipping they get from crit rate. Cleric gives healers 10%, but BLM also has Astral/Umbral stances and most likely Enochian, for a nearly 97% increase. SMN is the only class without any innate 'permanent' modifiers (aside from the universal traits that ranged get).

[Niiro]

MCH/BRD have increased action damage traits as well, as do all DoM (different % and different name tho).

[TheDirtyHobo]

MCH/BRD have increased action damage traits as well, as do all DoM (different % and different name tho).

(aside from the universal traits that ranged get)

Yep.

[Raldo]

For having all the old jobs above 50, most of them even at 60 already, your understanding of how they function on a basic level is very confused or short-sighted.

Says this, then proceeds to rehash most of what I already said... uh, sounds like you're agreeing with me, so I'm not sure where that comment came from. Yes, I certainly overlooked GL and BLM stances.

[Rocl]

MCH/BRD have increased action damage traits as well, as do all DoM (different % and different name tho).

These traits are such a clusterfuck and it makes me angry

[Raldo]

These traits are such a clusterfuck and it makes me angry

The worst part about them imo is that it's unclear if they stack or they replace each other without doing testing. (I'm sure the answer is known, I just don't actually care)

[StaplerGuy]

Did the Zodiac item drop rate also get buffed in 2.5 or 3.0? Finally done with light farming (thanks, double buffs) and wondering how many times I'll have to run 50 dungeons.