Originally Posted by
Dezzimal
Originally Posted by
Amastacia
The real question, though, is does the minimal increase in Crit Rate from the +15 DEX on Haidate parse out to more or less damage than the extra hits from Koga Hakama in the long run?
Actually, I've come to be interested in a dex-heavy setup for ninja after seeing one nin pull a 25% crit rate out of his ass with trollbane and a lot of dex. My NIN setup, which is the kind you're suggesting which just focuses on pure speed (no haidate, but koga legs) landed me a 14% crit rate. The other nin used the AF+1 Body/Hands, Haidate and an Unji offhand. Both of us had capped crit hit merits. Its not really a minimal increase, rather a quite substantial one when you make the focus of your setup critical hits.
That's sort of why I'm curious. My question is not whether more DEX does increase your crit rate, it's whether the 15 from Haidate results in enough increase in total damage to eclipse the extra damage vis a vis the AF2 pants' extra hits. I'm sure a pure +DEX build is beastly for crits, but there's a lot of factors contributing to total damage and I'm highly interested in finding the optimal balance for different camps.
I'd love to test it personally, but the only Koga Hakama I've seen drop was when I was guesting on a run with old friends just for the fun of it (didn't cost me anything, I didn't die, but I couldn't lot AF), and as an LS officer, a 2nd job NIN, and a nice guy I don't push hard for priority on Haidate (I certainly would love to have them though). Until I have one or both pairs of pants, I really can't do any testing, taking into account I can and will macro swap as much as I have to as often as I have to in order to get top performance.
Originally Posted by
aurik
Don't forget the rather largish accuracy increase on Byakko's Haidate due to the dex when considering the merits of going koga or byakko in the legs slot.
When XPing in places like sky or Bhaflau Thickets, this isn't a concern. Parsing 95% Acc with capped Katana merits is trivial, although it's certainly worth considering flipping to a meat build instead of a balls-out Haste+Att build that requires Sushi (/crai) if it ultimately means more damage. It's certainly more noteworthy for Halvung (/gag) or Uleguerand Range, though, and I'd imagine that Haidate might be better for both zones for that reason alone.