Salvage Cell Distributions

[Kaylia]

Yeah, but I honestly don't really trust people to be able to gauge, in an instant, whether or not they need something more than others. What I most likely would get is RDMs lotting far too many things, or things like THFs and CORs trying to get fully equipped. And then in the end, chances are, everytime someone will go missing something important.

Quite frankly, after the the tank (or main dd), it doesnt really matter who get what. There is a few slot that could do a small difference, but it will never make the difference between success and faillure.

[NynJa]

I usually make sure my mnk tanks have priority on all equipment. After that I give gear to the mages, and then my spares (people who dont fit into my conventional salvage setup for a certain area)

[aurik]

After gearing tanks, I tend to upgrade mages only to the point where we're self-sufficient without needing meds or downtime. Then I upgrade melees to improve kill speed. Faster kills means more cells faster. After that we finish out mages.

[Byrthnoth]

I'm currently helping with a Salvage shell and looking at these different ideas. Basically, my goal is to get 8-9 unlocked for boss runs and about that many for farming runs, but we'll probably be entering with 12. I figure 2-3 BLM, 2 MNK, WHM, BRD, RDM, RNG can probably take down about anything in Salvage, and we'll pretty much always be able to make those 8-9 (with 3-4 extra that we will gear according to cell availability).
I'm obviously still a noob at this, but my basic idea would be to gear one MNK preferentially so the RDM only has to Phalanx II one person and can spend more time Hasting. All the melees we enter with have some H2H skill (except the RNG I think). We have a few BB MNKs, but no relic weapons or Ridills. Pretty much everyone in the LS except for me has done HNM for a while, so our gear is pretty decent. I'd like to gear fully the people who will be doing the fighting at later levels before I pass cells out to extra melees who won't be fighting the final boss due to TP reasons. On one hand, giving a weapon cells to a THF might increase the farming speed on the first floor, but we might only end up with 8 weapon cells total, meaning the WHM is down a Light/Dark staff (10% Cure Potency/MPwH+10) on the final boss. I'm unsure if this is what I'll be doing for early level farming runs, but it seems like a good idea for bosses.

I figure a completely unlocked RDM and two completely unlocked MNK/NINs are fairly important, so I tend to give them priority for cells unless it should obviously go to another job. Here are my priorities, though not necessarily the order I'd distribute cells in: (Note, I just gave the BRD whatever she asked for because I know jack shit about that job)
Head/Neck: MNK->RDM->MNK->BRD->RNG->BLM->BLM->WHM
Back/Waist: MNK->RDM->MNK->WHM->RNG->BLM->BLM->BRD
Vitality: MNK->MNK->RNG->WHM->BRD->RDM->BLM->BLM
Body: MNK->MNK->RDM->RNG->WHM->BLM->BLM->BRD
Sub Job: RDM->MNK->MNK->BRD->WHM->RNG->BLM->BLM
Dexterity: MNK->MNK->RNG
HP: MNK->RDM->MNK->RNG->BRD->BLM->BLM->WHM
Weapon: MNK->MNK->RDM->WHM->BLM->BLM->BRD->RNG
Charisma: BRD->MNK->MNK->RNG->WHM (/shrug <,<)
Agility: MNK->RNG->MNK->BRD->WHM->RDM->BLM->BLM
Abilities: MNK->MNK->RNG->RDM->WHM->BRD->BLM->BLM
Strength: MNK->MNK->RNG
Mind: RDM->MNK->MNK->RNG->WHM->BRD->BLM->BLM (If our RNG has a decent Holy-bolt build, then I'd rethink this)
Magic: RDM->BLM->WHM->BRD->BLM->MNK->MNK->RNG (If we have a WHM in our extra people, they'd get it before the RNG)
Hands: RNG->BRD->MNK->MNK->RDM->BLM->BLM->WHM
MP: RDM->WHM->BLM->BLM->BRD
Legs/Feet: BRD->MNK->MNK->RNG->RDM->WHM->BLM->BLM
Ranged: RNG->BRD->MNK->MNK->BLM->BLM->WHM->RDM
Intelligence: BLM->BLM->RDM->MNK->MNK->WHM
Rings/Earrings: RDM->RNG->MNK->MNK->BLM->BLM->WHM->BRD

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that there are no fewer than 5 undebatable cases of cell missappropriation in here. Please point them out so I don't look like an ass Friday when I give them to the wrong person <,<. Also, I'm gearing one MNK first, assuming that I'm going to get enough cells to gear the second MNK, the final goal is to have them be equal so they can trade hate on whatever we fight. I recognize that one fully geared MNK and a half geared MNK are not going to be able to dual tank something. I'm also giving RDM priority over other mages because they halfass everything other mages can and debuff. BRD gets such high priorities sometimes for its debuffing abilities as well.

[Blackice]

I'm really wondering why in the world you'd give a MNK AGI before a RNG.

[Francisco II]

I'm really wondering why in the world you'd give a MNK AGI before a RNG.

Evasion/Critical Hits Taken? But meh...

[Byrthnoth]

Relatively speaking, I was assuming that accuracy wouldn't be an issue on the low levels for RNG due to their +40 from JTs, whereas Agility might up the early floor tankMNK's Guard/whatever proc rate and evasion. If I was only given one cell it would go to the RNG for Racc and WSmod, but this is perhaps something I should reconsider.

[Sylphet]

Why do BRDs get legs and feet before anyone else? Actually, Why are you giving any gear priority to BRD? BRD is the least needy in terms of gear: Magic, Ranged, Sub Job, HP, MP, CHR, weapon (luxury). Really, gear is not but completely not necessary for BRD.
Why do MNKs get MND before WHM? (assuming you're not going to be chiblasting anything here)

Give AGI priority to RNG please!

I don't think that RDM should get HP cell before all melees are complete. Don't forget that when stripped of most gear RDMs have TONS of HP in comparison to MP. If anything they'll be needing HP <> MP gear as opposed to a HP cell during the early parts of the run as opposed to your melees who will be in close proximity to the mobs.

I believe magic should go Healer (RDM or WHM) then BRD since songs help speed up kill speed tremendously

P.S. NEED THF IN SALVAGE

[Byrthnoth]

Yeah, we have 2 THF, I just wasn't counting them in our geared 8.

Ok, switched the RNG/MNK cell priority. I doubt it'll really be an issue because so far the stat cells I've seen have all been multi-drops.

As I mentioned, I don't know crap about BRD. I just asked our BRD which spots were most important. She said she basically just needed magic and ranged for songs, but if I wanted her to land Elegy/Threnody on anything she'd want head and feet, I think. She might have named a few more slots, but I was prioritizing landing Elegy/Threnody below whatever other people could do with those slots. I'll mark that as another error.

Also, I can't read. See, I'm a Tarutaru, so I was giving the RDM an HP cell for Convert, because we'd need it to get anywhere near efficiency an our convert. However, the person who is actually going to be doing our RDMing is a Mithra, so she probably won't need the HP so much. Noted.

We're at 3*, don't slow down now people!

[Sylphet]

Your BRD may hate me but, oh well!

Aside from Ranged there are 2 thing that will help you land elegy and those are CHR and Weapon.

However let's face it, BRD really is last priority on weapons when you rank the relative importance of them to basically any other member of the team.

Early mobs are really weak so even just naked singing can land elegy on them (though it doesn't really matter so much since they die rather quickly). I would definately prioritize BRD on HP over RDM simply because they need to get close to the melees to give songs and without HP, they'll die from AOE attacks from chariots or even gears. I am BRD for most of the runs for my team so I'm not just being a cell-greedy melee! Very often I'll find myself almost completely naked with an entire party of fully geared melees and that's really fine. The only think I'll bitch about is if we are short on MP cells and I have a sub but not enough MP for a curaga II. Then I'll bitch about lotting one gear cell just so that I can bump my MP over 120 (I'm elvaan, and yes I have full MP merits too ;; )

[Wizerd]

I would definately prioritize BRD on HP over RDM simply because they need to get close to the melees to give songs and without HP, they'll die from AOE attacks from chariots or even gears. I am BRD for most of the runs for my team so I'm not just being a cell-greedy melee!

I disagree. The only things that will kill you as BRD without HP cell are subsequent AoE attacks, a single Rail Cannon, or any of the AoEs from boss chariots (not normal chariots). I consistantly give our Taru BRD his HP cell nearly last, only before the WHMs, because he's never in any real danger of dying. Rail Cannon is conal, so it's avoidable, and anywhere that I plan to fight a boss I give the BRD HP cell before the BLMs because BLMs don't pull hate on bosses. Otherwise, it's not needed at all.

Red Mage, however, gets the benefit of an efficient convert after about the first or second floor of any area. Their HP is rather low without the cell, in the 350-450s I think is what I usually see depending on race? But not too sure as I don't examine it that much. Their MP pool is about 550-600 after getting an MP cell, so even if their HP cell brings them over 1000 it makes a difference to the efficiency of the group. It's so helpful especially for Arrapago NM farm runs.

[Sylphet]

Of course, ideally both jobs would get HP cells. Their setup in particluar is mage-heavy and therefor I see less of a need for RDM to have an ideal convert ratio than for a BRD to have survivabilty.

That being said, as the phrase goes, "shit's situational" and you won't always have everyone there and depending on what you are targetting. I've solo healed LBC on RDM/WHM and as much of a pain in the ass as that is, I couldn't even imagine doing it w/o HP cell (and fully merited convert). In that situation, RDM clearly should get HP priority. However I still think that for most things, BRD survivability is really important and should take priority.

[Suiram]

A lot of that stuff depends on what zone (how many of a given cell you can reasonably expect to get) and what your objective is. Using the HP cell example, if you know you're likely to be getting another one before you fight anything with particularly nasty AoE like 3-gear or chariots as you could say in Zhayolm or Bhaflau, then give to RDM before BRD for convert ratio as people have said. If it's Arrapago and you're going for the boss, you might want to give it to the BRD first because who knows if you'll get another one, but if you're just farming 35s and RDM is your primary healer, then you might want to give it to him or her.

Also, having a detailed of list of who gets what that everyone is expected to remember is probably more trouble than it's worth. Depending on the run just outline the critical cells (usually weapon, JA, magic, HP, MP, SJ) in advance, both so people know lot order but also so you how many you need to get so you don't spend too much or too little time on the mobs that drop them. Stat cells are pretty self-evident, and people can walk into salvage for the first time basically knowing who should get DEX or STR or INT first. Equipment, especially in armor-plentiful zones like Bhaflau and Silver Seas, just pick two people (the tanks) to gear up first and you can make basically everything else free lot like other people have suggested. Make a few exceptions like waist to MNK first (if MNKs aren't your 'tanks') ranged to BRD then RNG or THF, head or body to RDM after tanks if they're your main healing and have af2 head and dalm/morrigan. After a while of the same group going together, you can treat armor like stats too because everyone will be so familiar with who lots what.