War Weapon Question

[TheShadyMan]

I'm a lvl 48 WAR, and I plan on taking it all the way to 75, but I don't know if I should stay with Great Axes, or switch out to dual axes. I've read that dual axes could outparse G. Axes, but I didn't know if that had changed since the two handed updates.

[Max™]

Run, run fast.

Use what you enjoy, they're both pretty even nowadays, Great Axe is a little easier to build for, Dual Wield has Joytoy and Ridill, it's up to you.

I prefer Great Axes though, leveled the job because I enjoyed the animations and smacking the guts out of stuff with them.

Seriously though, this is going to degenerate into a flame war between people you don't know and haven't ever seen in like 5 posts, well, 4 now.

[TheShadyMan]

Yeah, I expected that.

I like Great Axe better since when I go War/Mnk (When I'm not forced into a /nin sub, I don't (Which will probably cause another flame war to ensue)) I can get a good TP build with Double Attack and Counter, not to mention I'd really hate to lose Sturmwind, since I usually end up closing a skillchain without meaning to.

If it matters at all, right now I'm using the Full Iron Ram set (Head, Body, Hands, Legs, Feet), Venerer Ring, Woodsman Ring, Spike Necklace, 2 Beetle Earrings +1, Horror Voulge, Brass Grip +1, Tilt Belt, and Earth Mantle. (I try to stack acc, but feel free to scream at me if I fucked this too.)

[Capo]

level both for xp, and sword if you can. there are also many other weapons you will want to cap once you are 75. hope you enjoy skillup parties 8)

[Ferien]

Pick whatever you want, just make sure to keep them skilled. Great Axe is always good, and since it's not sub-dependent, it's more customizable. 48, 50, and 55 are all very good levels for dual axes, bringing them up to about the same level as Great Axe. Swords are good if you've got full merits in it.

[sleekmotorwurkz]

Keep them both capped. What you actually choose to party with is a matter of preference, but I would say...

Gaxe until you can use rampage with axes
axes until you can use Raging rush with gaxe
Gaxe until you get a Ridill

Since my last topic go so far derailed it got locked before I could respond, I will just respond here because its somewhat relevant.
IN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION I seem to do better with Maneater/Ridill then I do with Fortitude axe or Perdu Axe. But I would assume Fortitude or Perdu Gaxe would blow axe/axe away. In the end I have more fun playing with my ridill then I do with Gaxe, and maybe I need to change up my gearset for gaxe but all other things being equal I outparse myself using Fortitude and Perdu Gaxes with Maneater/Ridill and its more fun.

[Tajin]

Boy everyone scared of the aurik

P.S. Pussies

P.S.S.O.T.: Either if you choose to level both or just pick one, nobody is going to tell you are wrong, since both are acceptable. Of course in the extreme case you have to tank is handy to have a dual axe or axe/shield on you. (For the lower delay attacks, not for real defense mind you <.< )

[Churchill]

well aurik is scary because he said so much useful stuff right.

use whatever you want, try /THF for sturmwind too, try /SAM at 60 for Raging Rush.

[sleekmotorwurkz]

I tried /sam at 60 and all it did was get me killed. All you are until you get seigan is an mp sponge (and usually after seigan as well)

[Ferien]

I didn't use /THF at all on the way up. You'll certainly need /NIN, and I'd level /SAM as well. /MNK is pretty good, and is probably the next best after /SAM for Great Axe use. /THF is really only good if your tank sucks post-60, because before then, besides the fact that you'll do more damage overall /SAM or /MNK, Sneak Attack will probably end up pulling hate, and /THF has no defensive perks at all (evasion bonus...on WAR?)

[orson]

War/Sam GAX seems to have the maximum damage potential now. War/Nin Axe/Ridill in a lot of situations is very close. Overall it's easier to perform well with GAX then dual wield IMO. Mostly GAX vs Dual Wield depends on build.

/Thf is a total joke now it's dead as SCs. With /Nin you can easily lvl War to 75 for endgame War needs /Nin and /Sam. The only time /Thf is used is if you really have nothing better to do then TP to 300% outside of alliance. /Mnk isn't an overly good sub except for early on. I can't really think of one situation where /Mnk would be more useful endgame then /Nin, /Sam or even /Dnc for that matter.

[aurik]

You won't have seigan until 70/35, so 3rd eye is an extremely flimsy defense prior to 70. You'll only want to sub sam if you're reasonably confident that you're not going to have hate or there is an abundance of healing. If you're decently geared and exping in a pickup, neither of those are likely to be true. So don't sub samurai unless you know very well that you aren't going to be causing your party more trouble than you are worth.

Regardless of what you end up using, try to keep both g.axe and axe skill levelled. You can worry about sword later if/when ridill becomes a possibility.

[Max™]

Pimped out Ridill War(and Drk) on Carby said he feels he does better as War/Sam with his Perdu, has more fun too (Ebody, Haidate, full haste build, all those tasty toys being in an established HNM shell gets you, like full heca) and enjoys pitting the setup against other builds.

War/Mnk is fun, and actually has some upsides, besides the gobs of HP and yaycounter, Aggressor and Focus can be staggered for a full time 20+ Accuracy buff, Boost before a WS is a free 50 something attack, and the Str/Dex is good, plus chakra. I toy around with it in sky sometimes.

War/Sam with 6 hit build and spamming WSes due to full haste is ridiculous, War/Drg is too, but you get faceraped so bad.

War/Thf is stupid fun (Oops, got myself killed again, tee hee, maybe I shouldn't have opened that mob with a full Tp WC SA Zerk/Warcry Steel Cyclone and bloodtanked til I died huh?) at times, but the TP speed sucks after getting used to /Sam.

War/Dnc is awesome, I can solo things I wouldn't consider before, DC-EM is cake, I imagine I could take higher mobs of the right type if I started out with TP, but I can WS and keep going against lower mobs. War+Soloing ANYTHING over EP= wtfamazing.

Naturally these are all Gaxe subs, I'm very out of practice with /Nin, never was very impressed with it pre-Ni, and given War Eva and a limited haste build, wasn't that impressed post-Ni honestly.

I'm not a War/NIN, I'm a War/Sam/Dnc/Drg/Thf/Mnk/Nin/Bst/Rdm.

[Tythera]

I haven't parsed since the slight 2h nerf ( 1 to 1 -> 1 to .8 ) but I know I was doing better fort axe than man/ridill, at least at mamools; did close to a 100 fights in each with everything else equal. Axe/axe vs gaxe is probably 6 and one half dozen of the other so I'd just echo trying to keep both capped as you level.

[Wizerd]

Pimped out Ridill War(and Drk) on Carby said he feels he does better as War/Sam with his Perdu, has more fun too (Ebody, Haidate, full haste build, all those tasty toys being in an established HNM shell gets you, like full heca) and enjoys pitting the setup against other builds.

I believe it. JP friend of mine switched to Perdu Voulge after the first 2H update and hasn't switched back to Ridill since (in Salvage at the very least), because he does more damage in the 100 minutes inside, and he's sub NIN usually, not SAM.

[orson]

Meh, shit is situational, bottom line. It's actually nice to have options for War. We finally have it at the point /Nin is better at damage mitigation and War/Sam tends to cap out higher on DoT and it's not to the point that either of them are "gimp" per say. Now if SE does something to make Vit and Def a bit better then /Nin might actually start losing out. As it stands in an average pick-up meripo I'd end up having the mob glued to me 90% of the time with War/Sam unless I held TP which basically defeats the purpose of War/Sam (what's new pick-ups suck.) If you have the proper healing and people who can swap hate well with a War/Sam then you can really cut loose.

Also elphaba you really want to get a Perdu Voulge it's probably one of the best weapons besides Relic/Ridill for War. Most of the parses that people in my linkshell have run showed Fort.Axe just lacked damage on /Sam. Meripo and JoL are what we parsed but I guess maybe /Nin might be a bit different Fort.Axe might do better iono.

[Max™]

I'm still dying to see Rampager vs Perdu parsed, cause I know Rampager > Byakko's already, and Perdu isn't a significant jump over Byakko's, 2 Dmg, 5 Acc, 5 Att, no lolwind damage.

Fort with a properly spammy build, and like, a Samurai, and Cor hitting Fighter's and Samurai rolls, would be unbelieveably fun, 4-5 hit setups, 40% DA before the virtue procs, you'd just be obscured by the Fragmentation SC effects going off around you, and as I've said before, your job would change to Whirling/Dervish.

[orson]

Rampager I was really interested in but the low base dam kinda turned me off of it. I can't remember but did anyone ever figure out in the multiple crit WS threads if BCNM weapons crit +% stack with WS?

[Theodoric]

I have a really good question. Not long ago I got WAR to 75 because I have a TON of gear that swaps between DRK and it. I have just about all weapons capped, including dagger and club LOL.

Now my question is, has anyone looked into the Imperial Bhuj? I have some decent STR gear (82+62 Subbing SAM) and really want to know if it will have a positive effect on the Imperial during right days. It's a pretty cheap weapon in comparison to the Perdu (I'm a PSC so I'm not getting one soon).

[Theodoric]

Rampager I was really interested in but the low base dam kinda turned me off of it. I can't remember but did anyone ever figure out in the multiple crit WS threads if BCNM weapons crit +% stack with WS?

They do not, unfortunately. Otherwise a Subduer would be retarded broken. But I can tell by just watching my average damage.

Average Spinning Slash: 900-1000

Sneak Attacked SS: 1200-1400

It's probably the most consistant WS to try anything on to watch the effects. Not to my knowledge does +Critical Hit Rate even effect a WS period, let alone a Multi-Hit. It'd be interesting if it did though. For it to effect the Multi-Hit Critical WS's like Jin, wouldn't it have to effect other WS as well, like Double Attack? Not to derail the OP or anything. Just mind drifting a bit.

Anyhow on the GA vs. DW:

Cap em both. I like having the option for both, as it's easier to tune your damage to the environment.

Subjobs and Purposes:

/THF isn't quite dead yet, but it's lost much of it's power by comparison unless your sporting a Martial with heavy amounts of STR. I've only seen WAR/THF w/ Martial Bhuj on Wyrms and such since update.

/SAM is for the "Adrenaline Junkies" of FFXI imo. Very pimp subjob for WAR, since WAR does not have any negative effects barring Casting restrictions as DRK or PLD do.

/MNK loses a lot of it's power at around lvl40 it seemed anyhow. /THF with GA til 50 using Sturmwind was great though. Very low surviveability past lvl55, albeit high VIT/HP.

/NIN for the most part, highest surviveability of all the subs. Also offers zero offensive JA's or anything for that matter.

/DRG... Haste+5% earring. High Jump= Enmity Shedding, Jump=TP bump(especially with Baron Legs) Otherwise void of any other offensive weapons for WAR.