Randomer Question Thread

[Falaras]

I was just wondering for a Samurai PTing on lolibiri, what is the best Polearm after Tomoe? 2nd?

[SamanosukeShiva]

2nd Gondo-Shizunori
3rd w/e that Lv70 polearm @AH

[Falaras]

Engetsuto? Where is love Halbered Ranked?

[Cream Soda]

I believe someone is forgetting Leviathan's Couse!

[Tormentormike]

Just dinged RDM75, looking for options on where to spend merit points. I do a variety of crap, so I guess if you could list some possible choices and varieties, it'd be appreciated. <3 (For Category 1 and 2 btw)

[drwaffles]

I've never once regretted my choice of 5/5 Ice accuracy and 5/5 Convert recast (especially the latter, it's a fucking godsend no matter what some people with their apparently inexhaustible supply of MP say). Category 2, however, I'm still having problems with even now. I think 5/5 Slow II is something every RDM should have and is pretty much a no-brainer. Having to decide between Phalanx II, Dia III, Bio III and, to an extent, Paralyze II is really hard, though, epecially if you're very versatile and use RDM for lots of different things like I do.

Phalanx II is fantastic if you do Salvage and low-man stuff, Dia III is great if your LS does a lot of zerging, and Bio III is invaluable for soloing (whilst not essential, it does speed things up considerably). Make your decision based on that, assuming you're not like me who fits into all of those categories

[Isiolia]

Just dinged RDM75, looking for options on where to spend merit points. I do a variety of crap, so I guess if you could list some possible choices and varieties, it'd be appreciated. <3 (For Category 1 and 2 btw)

RDM is pretty flexible as far as job specific merits go. Pretty much, if it'd help for what you use the job for, then great.

That being said, the typical cat 1 setup you see these days is 5 Ice ACC and 5 Convert. Personally I'm still sitting on 3 Ice 3 Wind 4 Convert from years ago, and it's fine for me. I've seen people use Earth ACC to augment Slow II as well.

Typical choices in cat 1 are balancing a Convert recast according to what you feel you would benefit from, and accuracies for your most crucial enfeebles. Ice is typical because of Bind, but it also helps with Para, and Blizzard III if nuking. Wind for Gravity and Silence, of course, but it has fallen out of favor some due to the specific resistance to Gravity that many mobs build. So it can be a losing game to build too much for that.

Cat II...I wouldn't say level 5 Slow II is mandetory, but some level of Slow II should be. The testing done seemed to show the cap only really rising every other level (either that or it was so minute that it only really showed every other level). I would say look at level 1, 3, or 5 for Slow II. In any case, the effect is better than Slow, and it has inherent MAcc.

Phalanx II is great if you're typically in a position to use it. At level 5 it matches what Phalanx will do, with a longer duration, unless you merit Enhancing. Otherwise, tank PT and such is the main use.

Para II seems subject to the same randomness as Paralyze...but some have reported nice results.

As mentioned, Dia III and Bio III can be good, or be really meh...up to what you do.

[brisk]

After reading the thread about the Cobra Unit Bow where some say its better than Sbow and vice-versa, which is truly better before going out and blowing AN on the bow?

EDIT: Just realized this should've gone in the other thread...

[drwaffles]

5/5 Slow II really does make a tangible difference, as I discovered when both myself and my friend tried soloing one of the new SCNMs (Marquis Forneus). I wiped at 4% because I simply couldn't keep shadows up consistently throughout the fight, which is really bad when each of his melee swings that connects absorbs a random buff. Problem was that a lot of the time later in the fight I was left with 5+ seconds on Ni timer when my Ichi shadows were down, which led to a lot of unnecessary reapplying of Stoneskin and any buffs that I lost.

My friend solo'd it a few days before I tried it, and we have very similar gear for our RDMs (and the exact same amount of Haste for shadows), so after I wiped I asked him how he managed to keep up with it all. He told me he pretty much never got hit once the entire fight, which was puzzling for the reasons outlined above. Then he told me he had 5/5 Slow II merits, whilst I still hadn't gotten around to ugrading from the pre-update 3/3

Moral of the, um, "story"? Capped Slow II is worth the merits. Oh, and my friend and I both used roughly the same amounts of MND for casting Slow II on this NM as well.

[Amele]

After reading the thread about the Cobra Unit Bow where some say its better than Sbow and vice-versa, which is truly better before going out and blowing AN on the bow?

EDIT: Just realized this should've gone in the other thread...

it depends on whether you want to favor sbow or not (moonphase)

in it's 'worst' configuration, assuming your overcapped on racc, SBow will do worse than Cobra. - it'll be d72 racc25(wasted) ratt5 vs. d77 racc5 ; 5 D will always beat 5 ratt.

on the other side of it, it's d72 racc5 ratt25 vs d77 racc5. 25ratt will always beat 5D.

in the situations where its crescent, 50%, or new, sbow should be equivalent/better (assuming a gross rule of thumb 3:1 ratt:D holds, which at the numbers we're talking for base D on bows is probably true) at gibbous it's probably worse and at full it's almost certainly worse. (Although you'll land barrages like a mofo).

[Tormentormike]

So Convert recast should be around 5/5 like I thought. Figured that'd be an option. Probably 3 Ice, 2 Earth for Category 1. Category 2...Dia 3 only lasting 30 seconds at the first level sucks. Bio 3 I don't think I'd ever use. Phalanx 2 seems like a winner, as I someday want to find a good group for salvage. Slow 2 should go to 5 I think, cause that seems useful for the tanks. (More often than not I'd be on PLD though, so I would think this is more useful for me in that perspective.) Paralyze 2 seems like a winner too.

Convert - Level 5
Ice Magic Accuracy - Level 3
Earth Magic Accuracy - Level 2

Dia 3 - Level 2
Slow 2 - Level 5
Phalanx 2 - Level 1
Paralyze 2 - Level 2

Looking at the damage absorbed by Phalanx 2, and that I'd only be able to hit the second tier of it (275-299 skill, no magic skill merits left) kinda blows. I guess it'd be useful in Salvage, but yeah, need some advice here.

(No one mentioned Blind, so I'm guessing that isn't worth upgrading as well.)

[Keria]

How much mnd does a /whm job (105 enhancing) need to cap stoneskin?

[Baelorn]

How much mnd does a /whm job (105 enhancing) need to cap stoneskin?

146(I think)

[Keria]

orz still 14 short

[Isiolia]

Moral of the, um, "story"? Capped Slow II is worth the merits. Oh, and my friend and I both used roughly the same amounts of MND for casting Slow II on this NM as well.

Thing is, you're really only looking at like a 2% or so difference in your slow effect...which won't be as big a difference as you're saying.

Looking at the damage absorbed by Phalanx 2, and that I'd only be able to hit the second tier of it (275-299 skill, no magic skill merits left) kinda blows. I guess it'd be useful in Salvage, but yeah, need some advice here.

It's still better either way. You won't hit 28 damage on it, but Phalanx II actually is stronger earlier, if at level 5...they're on par at 290 skill (27). Hitting 301 doesn't require merits, though it does take having most available gear with Enhancing on it (don't need one of the +3 pieces, earring or Glamor Jupon). It's hitting 310 for Phalanx to actually beat Phalanx II level 5 that would take merits (as well as hitting 320 for a 30 damage Phalanx).

At level 1, Phalanx II is really weak. I would at least do two levels in it to match Refresh's duration (starts at 2 minutes).

Personally I have level 5 Phalanx II, level 3 Slow II, and level 2 Para II. Again, there's really no completely wrong way to do things here, though most would agree that Slow II should be in the mix.

[Tormentormike]

So what's the genral census[sp], Dia 3 only useful for zerging mostly? Doubt I'll ever be doing that. Blind 2 still useless?

[Isiolia]

Dia III can also be nice if you do a lot of meriting on RDM. 60 second duration is perfectly fine for TP burn fights, though the MP cost is higher as well.

[Valyana]

Dia 3 is great for any time you're killing anything with melee. Can't argue with another -5% defense down, it makes kills go faster so you can knock out more mobs in the same amount of time.

But one or two levels seem to be plenty, as usually fights don't last very long and if they do you can always reapply.

[ubermonkey]

How does bio3 stack up rdm merit wise? I remember hearing that at lvl3 it's better mp efficiency than bio2, so is it worth taking to level 5?

[Ruiner]

Depends entirely upon how much you solo, ubermonkey.