Fapworthy WS, SC, or MB dmg. II

[Vajra]

Sub SAM instead of NIN and don't worry about using Souleater so much and you'll do a LOT more damage.

/Sam isn't that fun, when u have to cancel hasso and seigan alot to not having to deal with longer cast time/recast of spells, not my taste in merrit pt. I dont like using this sub in merrit pt (unless there's dedicated vokers who are /nin), but I use it outside of merrit in other events, /nin allows more focus on mobs dying faster, and less focus on taking damage when u dish out big numbers.

/Sam doesn't even have it's place in merrit pt, especially when u have a bunch of other ppl subbing war or sam, can u say MP sponges who dont know how to use seigan...I'm skilled at using seigan, but it's still hard to Hasso WS + Pull hate + Seigan + Third Eye, before getting hit by pecking flurry, unless u WS w/ Seigan up (that'd be almost if not, the same effect as WS'ing with Utsusemi up)

By the time you've cast ABS-VIT and ABS-STR on something, you've sacrificed more or less the same amount of damage (potential as well with TP) than the Souleater will actually add in most cases... in merits at least.

THESE SPELLS ONLY TAKE TWO seconds to cast, and you're not going to cast them unless u want Epeen numbers like i was mentioning fool.

Every 7 minutes doesn't make Souleater very impressive; 5/5 DE over 4/5 contributes more to damage over time on most mobs than this combination.

I also mentioned that u can use souleater to boost ur normal damage hits, instead of combining it with weapon skills, as long as u have capped muted soul that is, and drk magic set for drain (to get hp back). With muted soul, ANYTHING u do with souleater has added -50 emnity, including dishing out DOT...

Cast in Dark Magic/HP/Haste. You want to minimise resists as you say, but you also want the maximum capacity to be high (HP) and Haste is VERY useful for getting that next Dread Spikes out, asap.

When I cast DRAIN and DREAD SPIKES, my Hp doesnt change much at all, ALSO, dread spikes isn't a spell you want to spam, because it has longer cast time and uses more mp than abs spells, i rarley use it in merrit pt, unless i know my next ws will do big dmg and u predict that bird might pecking flurry through utsusemi.

You want to use drk magic to help it mirror (absorb) the dmg of the mobs melee attack, especially for VT+ mobs...If a drk used dread spikes with 269 skill a colibri would crit hit the drk for 190 dmg, and spikes would only absorb 40 dmg or some shit, fkk that, get more skill (dont even need 320 like me) and u'll be able to make the drain count and drain the full 190 crit. REMEMBER THE FREAKING SPELL ONLY LASTS 1 MINUTE KAY!!!


If you dont know how to use souleater, or hate using it, then u might as well quit the job. It DOES have it's place in merrit pts, using the method above. SCH healer is a nice new addition to merrit pts now, because they can cast stoneskinga, which HELPs drks who use souleater, because it absorbs 350 HPloss from souleater (meaning drk can use souleater and lose less HP with SCH stoneskinga)...

Note: u can even stun to prevent magic parroting (and the bird will most of the times replace it's parrot with stun instead of abs tp or drain etc,)

Note: birds can be aspired, and that wont affect anyone except drk and blus in merrit pt, but just have shadows up, or stun it before it's parroted if both aren't subbing nin for some reason.

[Knyghtmayre]

I always CAPITALIZE random WORDS when I want to get MY point ACROSS too. Nicely done.[/quote]

[Vajra]

If a DRK starts casting Drain II and Absorb TP/STR in my Colibri party, he's finding another party. It's annoying as fuck to have a DRK cast Absorb TP and right when I hit WS macro I lose 50 TP.

Go get you some mamools fren.

That's why nin sub is available, unless you want to be an mp sponge sam/war. Nin sub helps out mages MP, and protects u from getting hit with these spells, I cast them in merrit all the time, and the birds only usually reflect them back at me (because I usually have hate), PLUS, they usually magic parrot only on the caster anyways...(which i block with my own shadows).

If u have a pt full of Sam/War, only healers i know that can keep them alive is a SCH (protect IVga + stoneskinga + phalnaxga + regenga II and cures of course). I only let melees sub sam and war, if im healing them as Sch (my sch's pretty decked out merrit healer, or manaburner etc 68/70 spaces always).../Nin is the way to go if you have an RDM or WHM healer...(brds cast freaking victory march and minuet (only madrigral + minuet if 1handers in pt) and whm and rdm haste u for damn sakes, to help ur attack speed, AND ur utsusemi/spell casting timers, if u not subbing nin and u asking for hastes from them, then ur just a bitchass idiot ).

[Knyghtmayre]

The fuck would you have a party full of SAM/WARs for? I don't merit if there isn't a first voke, I don't have the patience to seigan tank birds for no reason. That being said, I still end up having hate after every WS which is at least once/mob and Colibris target the person with hate with whichever spell has been casted on them, not the original caster. You've really never gotten slept or slowed on engage? So fuck casting anything on birds at all. Dia, maybe. I'm not subbing NIN for merits, I'm fine with actually making mages use a moderate amount of their MP instead of leeching. God forbid they pay attention.

[Vajra]

The fuck would you have a party full of SAM/WARs for? I don't merit if there isn't a first voke, I don't have the patience to seigan tank birds for no reason. That being said, I still end up having hate after every WS which is at least once/mob and Colibris target the person with hate with whichever spell has been casted on them, not the original caster. You've really never gotten slept or slowed on engage? So fuck casting anything on birds at all. Dia, maybe. I'm not subbing NIN for merits, I'm fine with actually making mages use a moderate amount of their MP instead of leeching. God forbid they pay attention.

Exactly, and how many mages PAY attention in merrit (except the good ones), healing isn't exactly a job that everyone pays attention at (unless they're good ones who never get below half their MAX MP at all). When brd lullubies a mob, it usually gets reflected on them, unless they go out to pull and are out of range, and then it hits the person who has voked, or pulls hate at the start will get slept (no shadow sam/war will say: "ZZZ") and if mage not paying attention, then u'll stay asleep until next fight.

Atleast with /nin u have more survivability and fealty against debuffs. If elegy resists on the fight that u pull the most hate on, then ur also fucked, because birds will truck u down faster than u can say MAMAMIA!!! then pecking flurry you cause u got voke up...

Anyways, the game has it's balance, balance urself, balance your party, balance your brain, and post some damage screenshots, that's what this thread's for isn't it o.0!!!

[Aragon of Odin]

/Nin does not equal more survivability. Both /Nin and /Sam offer their own little differences in terms of survivability. Sch sucks for merit parties. The lack of haste is too big of a loss. The only time I'd take a Sch as main healer is if there was an outside healer hasting the melee.

[Vajra]

/Nin does not equal more survivability. Both /Nin and /Sam offer their own little differences in terms of survivability. Sch sucks for merit parties. The lack of haste is too big of a loss. The only time I'd take a Sch as main healer is if there was an outside healer hasting the melee.

You sir are an idiot, ive main healed in merrit pt as sch and got chain 285 at birds(highest with ME main healing, but have gotten 302+ with me pulling, and 160 pulling mamools only at TOP of birds camp), not hard if u know what aoe's to cast (firestormga +7 str, single target thunderstorm +7 dex for 1handers), stack phalnaxga with stoneskinga in a certain cycle, and keep regen II (single target) on melees(especially ones not subbing nin), and give everyone enspellga, so they have more dot (ice only for birds).

Also, my sch has 380 as initial sublimation (light hp gear i carry based on what i got in inventory that adds HP), then my other sublimation are 356-362 (of course capped max sublimation. My MP never runs out, with such high sublimation, along with resting good /resting set (with wizard cookies).

All i said bout sch too, is their stoneskinga allows drk to use souleater EVEN MORE freely, since stoneskin absorbs some of souleaters HP drain...

Sometimes i even toss on a blizzard IV (with enlightenment up) when the bird has half HP left (only if most melee are subbing nin). Even then, the bird never gets chance to reflect it, cause it's almost dead, and my blizzard iv does 1200ish to them with klimaform and MAB (only 800-900 with elemental resist). I only do this if i have plenty of MP, and a fully charged sublimation though. Sch has ability to up their party's survivability to the max, that can easily be traded off with haste spell...ALSO only good mages know how to maintain MP/Haste Cycle melees, not many good pick up mages that are THAT good at all, good luck with that .

P.S. Drk/nin has more survivability than a drk/sam EVER will at both birds, and mamools, UNLESS you have a freaking apocalypse, in which ur practically invincible (MEGA HP Drain WS).

[Raen Ryong]

/Sam doesn't even have it's place in merrit pt

Drk/nin is a waste of a party slot compared to other DDs. DRK is HUGELY SJ dependent for damage.

I also mentioned that u can use souleater to boost ur normal damage hits, instead of combining it with weapon skills, as long as u have capped muted soul that is, and drk magic set for drain (to get hp back).

Isn't there a bit of a contradiction in increasing your DoT with Souleater only to lower it by having to cast Drains?

ALSO, dread spikes isn't a spell you want to spam, because it has longer cast time and uses more mp than abs spells

Don't bother with any spells but Dread Spikes and the occasional Stun. Cancel Hasso/Seigan for Dread Spikes and you pretty much have most of the damage mitigation you need not to mention it provides damage of its own. Cast it between mobs or if you're not going to get another hit in before the mob dies. Ethereal Earring or the odd Refresh means it's not an MP issue.

if u not subbing nin and u asking for hastes from them, then ur just a bitchass idiot ).

Or you could be good at helping the mages conserve MP and using SE/TE and bouncing hate intelligently, along with use of Dread Spikes.

Exactly, and how many mages PAY attention in merrit (except the good ones), healing isn't exactly a job that everyone pays attention at (unless they're good ones who never get below half their MAX MP at all).

I only merit with competent people because it's not worth the time stumbling along in lacklustre meripos so this is hardly a good reason to have to sub nin, especially on drk.

P.S. Drk/nin has more survivability than a drk/sam EVER will at both birds, and mamools, UNLESS you have a freaking apocalypse, in which ur practically invincible (MEGA HP Drain WS).

Only if your melee suck. SE/TE is a more efficient way of blocking Pecking Flurry than Utsusemi, the principle damaging move they use. Mamools... some types of Firespit hurt you more /sam, Rushing Stab/Slash hurt you more /nin, Fang Rush hurts you more /nin ... etc. Dread Spikes negates physical damage most of the time so that's not an issue (and physical hits are rarely the killers anyway).

Meripos aren't just about survivability either, they're about killing quickly and Drk/nin is diabolical compared to other DDs whereas Drk/sam is very powerful.

[Virg]

SAM/WAR, Hasso, Berserk, Minuet x1, no Dia, no Food. Meh.
Still didn´t break my old record of 2084 Gekko yet but hoping each WS I will....
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1429/gekkobu2.jpg

[Aragon of Odin]

Chain 285 doesn't mean shit. I've got chain 122 with just me as War/Sam and my friend as War/Nin with a Rdm and a Brd at bird camp before we decided to stop. What you fail to realize is the loss in DoT from not having Haste is not made up by your en-spells or your odd T4 nuke you cast or the storms you cast on the players.

Just because you hit chain 285 doesn't mean that's the best exp you could have attined in that allocated time. With a Rdm or Whm hasting and curing you may have been able to hit chain 320 in the same period of time, and which do you think will be the better exp?

[Vajra]

Chain 285 doesn't mean shit. I've got chain 122 with just me as War/Sam and my friend as War/Nin with a Rdm and a Brd at bird camp before we decided to stop. What you fail to realize is the loss in DoT from not having Haste is not made up by your en-spells or your odd T4 nuke you cast or the storms you cast on the players.

Just because you hit chain 285 doesn't mean that's the best exp you could have attined in that allocated time. With a Rdm or Whm hasting and curing you may have been able to hit chain 320 in the same period of time, and which do you think will be the better exp?

I always get infinite chains with Pick up parties, No matter what job im on (I have Mnk, Drk, Sch, Brd) most of the time, when we get 302, 285, 245, 215, etc, their merrits become filled up (they usually have like 5-6 merrits stored b4 they come and shit), so when we hit chain 200+ they gain about 4-5 merrits or so, and then their at cap (and most ppl always have capped xp buffers), so then we have to break party right before we get into chain 300s.

My playstyle works better on drk/nin, than drk/sam (maybe yours is diffferent), because i actually out damage everyone, except good drgs and rngs. Stun helps to lessen feather tickles, and im not sure what type of crack you're on, there isn't always an rdm who will be healer, haster and refresher(for drks and blus), and dia IIer, and still maintain high MP, or a whm that can heal, haste, devotion (drks and blus), and dia II, without getting bored sometimes and forgetting to continue their cycle.

If you XP with a certain static of friends, then that's fine, I've been exping alot recently, so ive found ways to create optimal pick up parties (now 384/462 merrits need 78 more merrits til not having to merrit anymore at all, only thing uncapped is attribute (str or int not sure yet), (and brd group 1 (7/10) and group 2 (2/10)).

All in all, all im saying is, if u dont know how to use souleater in merrit pt, then your missing out. Casting drains in merrit pt doesn't reduce ur dot, unless u casting it in lolhaste gear. I'm elvaan, maybe you two are humes who always have 400-500 MP, so im very careful at what i cast, but my drain I always does 260-330ish dmg on birds, and 300-460 drain II's with 320 skill, when i cast, i want to make my spell count, and actually contribute to my dot. Drain only takes 3 secs to cast.

Anyways lets go back to posting ur dmg screen shots, maybe ill post a real one soon, of my 2,6k guillotine as /nin, i never got to SS it last time i did it, cause i use SE's windower, and no time to take a desktop(ffxi) type screenshot when in an infinite chain...

I've also had an insurgency that did 1900 on mamool and mirrored light off a warrior's king's justice, that ws is bananas, most ppl fail to realize that because of it's lv 3 SC property it's actually more powerful than guillotine, (that and the random dmg spike it has that no one can explain), that time at mamool staging, me and this war/nin were literally beating every mob with king justice/ insurgency, or guillotine/ raging rush SC's (other 2 dd were just 2 sam). Not hard to sync 100% tp with a warrior, especially if you know how to play drk

[Demosthenes11]

lol @ str+7 making up for loss of haste

[Killkenny]

My playstyle works better on drk/nin, than drk/sam (maybe yours is diffferent), because i actually out damage everyone, except good drgs and rngs.

I knew you were an idiot before you made this post, but you have really excelled yourself here.

Drk/nin is not better than /sam and it doesn't depend on your playstyle, so you are playing your job wrong. Good rngs, what the fuck do you mean by good rngs? K club rngs? A rng without a K club shouldn't be outparsing anyone in merits who dares to call themselves a good DD (maybe M kris or ridill rng but I have yet to see this work effectively).

[Vajra]

I knew you were an idiot before you made this post, but you have really excelled yourself here.

Drk/nin is not better than /sam and it doesn't depend on your playstyle, so you are playing your job wrong. Good rngs, what the fuck do you mean by good rngs? K club rngs? A rng without a K club shouldn't be outparsing anyone in merits who dares to call themselves a good DD (maybe M kris or ridill rng but I have yet to see this work effectively).

I'm talking about on birds and mamools man..., if u read my freaking post then you'd understand lol, that i ONLY meant that /NIN Is more efficient at bird and mamool camp, to be less of a burden and manipulate Souleater(in a good way).

Rng actually does out parse anyone on birds (average weaponskill speaking) if you've seen their 2.4k + slug shots and 1700 barrages, no way you can outparse (average weaponskill speaking) a job that takes away half - 3 quarters of a mobs HP with 1 WS. Drg can do both DOT, and higher average weaponskill than the rest of the dd's at a bird camp. I WAS ONLY referring to colibri camp with the rng and drg reference. Any piercing dmg PERIOD, (except maybe a non mandau ghetto geared thf) will outparse slicing/blunt damagers on birds PERIOD.

On mamools, DRK and WAR, SAM and MNK will shine there, and out dd mostly all other jobs. So, shut the fuck up, sit down and read before you call me an idiot, u fucking bitchass idiot . Now back to posting on topic please thank you .

[Mansin]

It's nice to see you're still just as stupid as I remember you, Vajra.

[Killkenny]

Rng actually does out parse anyone on birds (drgs will out parse rangers and everyone else though) if you've seen their 2.4k + slug shots and 1700 barrages, no way you can outparse a job that takes away half - 3 quarters of a mobs HP with 1 WS.

No it doesn't you're still an idiot. Stop trying to rerail a thread you've already derailed yourself just because you've got no arguement.

A rng thats standing and shooting will not outparse any well geared DD that benefits from march and haste because they take so long to get 100% tp that that 2.4k slug has been matched by 2-3 WS from other jobs.

[Vajra]

No it doesn't you're still an idiot. Stop trying to rerail a thread you've already derailed yourself just because you've got no arguement.

A rng thats standing and shooting will not outparse any well geared DD that benefits from march and haste because they take so long to get 100% tp that that 2.4k slug has been matched by 2-3 WS from other jobs.

Listen, you can keep derailing the argument yourself, by trolling me, or we can both get proof, and come back here and prove each other wrong...

Only point i was trying to make is that drk/nin allows u to manipulate souleater (in a good way), and allows u to be less of a burden on MAMOOLs and BIRDs ONLY (merrit pt), i dont care about rangers or drgs or w/e, i was just trying to give my two cents on someone saying:

You Souleater, you die unless you have a kclub, end of fucking story

, in which he means that souleater is only useful with krakenclub and blood weapon (which in many cases it actually is insanely useful because of the 20k+ dmg output, but only once every 2hrs or to the extent of corsair 2hr resets or random deals for souleater + cure bomb on JOL etc)

Also, all i was saying is that /sam = restricted on what spells u can cast (dread spikes mainly, after debuffing hasso or seigan to not mess w/ timer), and only focus on hitting (dot with meditate, hasso), and if u dare to ws with /sam you'll most likely pull hate (and not even get seigan + third eye up in time, unless ur reflexes are insanely good (u cant block pecking flurry unless u ws with third eye up either). If you want a good /sam job, play drg/sam or war/sam at birds, not fucking drk/sam, and hell no at playing /sam at mamools.

/nin allows drk to cast w/e they want (as long as everyone else in pt is /nin too but spells are parroted onto the caster most of the time anyways). ABS-TP is a big help as meditate and store tp is (if u know how to time it u can get 70-102 TP easily), and u can cast it w/o having to debuff seigan and hasso with nin sub (debuffing these abilities is quite an annoying feat, when u want to cast ABS-TP). /Nin allows drk to manipulate souleater (using drain II at max HP + souleater ws, then debuff max hp boost and diabolic eye so ur hp goes back to white technique. And that stoneskinga from sch actually helps even more if u know that souleater's detriment is abosrbed into stoneskin.

Same goes for you too mansin, trolling doesn't make sense, if you dont have any logical input in the argument, this isn't a a thread/boards to troll people in, save that stuff for KI. This aint the thread to argue about merit parties, save that for KI, we only discuss actual screenshots that are posted "Frap Worthy Dmg", and that's it k? It's better to rerail a thread, than to continue responding people's trolling responses to a light argument, our posts are most likely gonna get deleted by a mod soon anyways...

[Killkenny]

No, you posted a number of times now without contributing anything to this thread other than your terrible advice on drk. You have derailed this thread more than any other individual so just stop arguing that point.

I'm not trolling you, I simply read the past 2 pages of this thread and drew my conclusions about you from that.

/sam doesn't restrict you because drk is a DD job, its not some glorified job of tactics and skill as you're making out. Your goal in a party is to do as much damage as possible whilst remaining sustainable from a mage point of view, nothing else. If a war can manage to /sam then a drk can also and it will perform better than any other subjob. /sam doesn't magically remove your ability to use soul eater and if your mage is so bad you're forced to /nin you probably shouldn't be using soul eater anyway.

If you want to sub /nin and spam Absorb Str on the mob thats fine, but don't come on a forum and suggest it is the best way to play.

Oh and the "I ouptarse everyone" stance is one of the best ways to loose any credibility you have.

If you're so concerned about the thread being derailed then stop posting instead of telling others to do so.


Hasso, Sub, 1 Minuet back when I had Hagun
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...1609/Ixdmg.jpg

[Ohaigaiz]

Anyone who ever subs /nin on drk that isn't in nyzul should just go ahead and off themselves. I never go anything but /sam on drk because STP, Hasso, Seigan, Meditate, whatever are all invaluable, and much more efficient then utsusemi.

On birds I tank most of the time unless I'm with ridill wars from my LS, and yes, I tank with /sam. What you fail to see, Vajra, is that birds are only alive for mere seconds, and that is why you can tank with /sam. Seigan > third eye, ws, takes down third eye, bird hits you like twice, then it's dead and you move on. Of course this is only for drk since, as everyone says, it's very sj dependent.

Also, having a high counter rate, and the fact that you can block an entire multi-hit ws with one third eye and still have a few more anticipates left over is golden.

[Vajra]

If you want to sub /nin and spam Absorb Str on the mob thats fine, but don't come on a forum and suggest it is the best way to play.

Oh and the "I ouptarse everyone" stance is one of the best ways to loose any credibility you have.

If you're so concerned about the thread being derailed then stop posting instead of telling others to do so.

You couldn't just post your screenshot without making further stupid comments like those?
Abs-Str isn't something i spam, unless im going for epeen dmg (gives u around 15extra attack u know because of 17 str boost, stacked w/ abs vit, dia, angon or w/e else u want to do to the mob and urself buff/debuff speaking), they take 2 seconds to cast, easy spells to cast between a melee hit when nearing 100% TP, and only cast while /nin, not /sam.

If you sub sam there is a certain balance that must be reached to use it on birds and colibri, restricting you from going ALLOUT, atleast on /nin, the only balance is keeping shadows up, and knowing how to maximize your overall damage potential using even more spells (between hits or between fights). Remember, we were only talking about birds and mamools, and nothing else...The balance obtained by one job, also requires proper party support to achieve optimal efficiency.