PLD Help (To blink or not to blink)

[Neosutra]

Oh ok, using the most efficient gear is overkill.

Gotcha.

By the way melees, if you are swapping out gear for WS, you are a moron, because you can do enough damage w/o WS swaps, and doing too much damage is overkill.

[Kipling]

Oh ok, using the most efficient gear is overkill.

Gotcha.

By the way melees, if you are swapping out gear for WS, you are a moron, because you can do enough damage w/o WS swaps, and doing too much damage is overkill.

I knew it, I had a bad feeling about that damned Snow Gorget!

[Max™]

Oh ok, using the most efficient gear is overkill.

Gotcha.

By the way melees, if you are swapping out gear for WS, you are a moron, because you can do enough damage w/o WS swaps, and doing too much damage is overkill.

The topic just got pwned harder than my werewolf derail.

[FailureMidgard]

homam body = 15
homam hand = 4
homam legs = 3
homam feet = 6
c mantle = 7
t ring/sniper ring+1 = 14
suppa = 5
ancient torque = 11

that's +65 acc right there

So you're advocating Paladins full-time Homam Body?

At the very least, drop your Ballad and pick up a Madrigal, then drop your Homam Body and full-time Ares. End up with the same refresh, and more of everything else.

[Araelus]

My reason is to NOT FUCKING BLINK!!!!

How often have you heard these statements from misguided advocates of keeping all your visible gear the same, or even woefully uninformed BLMs and PUPs? Why do people cling so tightly to these beliefs, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong? Why do they get so furiously angry when smart people point out that their arguments are factually and logically incorrect?

How can you communicate with these people who seem to be out of touch with reality and rational thought?

One approach to help you deal with anti-blinking people is to understand their psychological processes. Once you understand why these people behave so irrationally, you can communicate more effectively with them.

Defense Mechanisms: Projection, Denial, Reaction Formation

Spoiler: show

Reading this thread, we often see that anti-blinkers accuse blinkers of being stupid, lazy, illiterate, and even bad at their job. This is an example of what mental health professionals call projection – unconsciously projecting one’s own unacceptable feelings onto other people, so that one doesn’t have to own them. In some cases, the intolerable feelings are projected not onto a person, but onto an inanimate object, such as a Hydra Haubert, so that the projector believes the item itself will make one a bad tank.

Projection is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological mechanisms that protect us from feelings that we cannot consciously accept. They operate without our awareness, so that we don’t have to deal consciously with “forbidden” feelings and impulses. Thus, if you asked an anti-blinker if they really wanted to blink, he would vehemently deny it, and insist that other people want to make him blink.

Projection is a particularly insidious defense mechanism, because it not only prevents a person from dealing with his own feelings, it also creates a world where he perceives everyone else as directing his own hostile feelings back at him.

All people have lazy, and even lackadaisical, impulses. For example, it’s common to hear people say “It’s easier to not blink”, or “If you blink any more I’m not going to heal you.” They don’t actually mean that they’re going to, or even would, stop healing anyone; they’re simply acknowledging anger and frustration. All of us suffer from fear and feelings of helplessness and vulnerability. Most people can acknowledge feelings of rage, fear, frustration, jealousy, etc. without having to act on them in inappropriate and destructive ways, such as not blinking.

Some people, however, are unable consciously to admit that they have such “unacceptable” emotions. They may have higher than average levels of laziness and sloth, or fear of blinking. Perhaps they fear that if they acknowledge their desire to blink, they will lose control and carry 70/70 inventory items. They may believe that “good people” never have such desires to blink, when in fact all people have them.

This is especially true now that FFXI “experts” commonly prohibit tanks from blinking. Instead of learning that such gearswaps are normal, and that laziness needs to be curtailed, children now learn that blinking is evil, dangerous and subject to severe punishment, such as your HP reaching zero. To protect themselves from “not being healed”, they are forced to use defense mechanisms to avoid blinking. Unfortunately, using such defense mechanisms inappropriately can endanger their mental health; tanks need to learn how to deal appropriately with the reality of blinking, not how to avoid it.

Another defense mechanism commonly utilized by opponents of blinking is denial. Denial is simply refusing to accept the reality of a given situation. For example, consider a paladin who idles in enmity gear. She may get extremely angry at a well-meaning friend who suggests that there are other, better stats, to idle in. The reality is obvious, but the enmity-idle paladin is so threatened by her mistake that she is unable to accept it, and so denies its existence.

Anti-blink people do this all the time. It’s obvious that we play a game that requires gearswaps, where sidegrades and situational gear is added in every update. Just about everyone has, or knows someone who has, situational gear. It’s equally obvious that without using this gear, you can’t perform to your full potential. Extensive scholarly research demonstrates that mages can learn to target properly and that blinking is the most effective way to cast spells such as Flash, Utsusemi, and also spam Atonement. There is irrefutable evidence that refusing to blink nearly always precedes losing HP and wiping to Bubbly Bernie. Nonetheless, the anti-blink folks insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that “they are just as efficient and definitely not on the sidelines”, “I probably keep hate better than you do” and “I don't look like an idiot while doing it”, where “it” is everything from tanking a single mob to kiting twenty monsters.

Anti-blink people who refuse to accept the reality of the proven and very serious dangers of keeping all visible gear the same are using denial to protect themselves from the anxiety of feeling helpless and vulnerable.

Reaction formation is yet another defense mechanism common among the anti-blink folks. Reaction formation occurs when a person’s mind turns an unacceptable feeling or desire into its complete opposite. For example, a tank who is jealous of a more powerful tank sibling may exhibit a desire to learn from the hated paladin.

Likewise, a person who is being an idiot and not blinking may claim to be a devoted paladin and an expert on all manner of tanking. Often such people take refuge in various spurious rhetorical trends and believe that they are “superior” to “less civilized” folks who engage in “problematic behavior” such as blinking gearswaps. They may devote themselves to “proving” that blinking is not efficient. This not only allows the anti-blinker person to avoid dealing with his shortcomings, it allows him actually to harm the tanks he hates without having to acknowledge he hates them.

Contrast the sincere newbie or mage-only player with the strident, angry person who wants to ban blinking and believes tanks have the obligation to not blink for the good of healers who don’t know how to type in <p#> or <a##>. The truly uninformed, newbie player refrains from forcing others to do what he believes, and is generally driven by a desire to improve, while the angry anti-blinker spews harmful rhetoric and ignores all evidence which shows their opinions wrong.

In the case of anti-blink people, reaction formation keeps any knowledge of their hatred for their fellow tanks out of consciousness, while allowing them to feel superior to “idiot blinking paladins”. At the same time, it also allows them to cause serious harm, and even loss of HP, to other tanks by denying them the tools (blinking) necessary to tank well. This makes reaction formation very attractive from a psychological point of view, and therefore very difficult to counteract.

Defense Mechanisms Are Not Mental Illnesses

Spoiler: show

Defense mechanisms are normal. All of us use them to some extent, and their use does not imply mental illness. Advocates of non-blinking may be misguided or uninformed, they may be stupid, or they may be consciously intent on being bad tanks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are “mentally ill”.

Some defense mechanisms, however, are healthier than others. A safe general rule is that a defense is healthy if it helps you to function better in your role in-game, and unhealthy if it interferes with your FFXI job, your linkshell, or the well-being of other players. Young 10-year old gamers utilize projection and denial much more commonly than do healthy adults. On the other hand, “if projection is used as a defense mechanism to a very great extent in adult life, the user’s perception of external reality will be seriously distorted.”

Defense mechanisms are also frequently combined, so that an anti-blink person may use several defense mechanisms simultaneously. For example, the unfortunate “kandiekane” uses projection to create a world in which all his mages refuse to cure him if he blinks. As a result, he becomes more angry and fearful towards blinkers, and needs to employ even more defense mechanisms to cope. So he uses projection to attribute his own inability and foolishness to others, he uses denial that there is any need to blink to play FFXI better, to protect himself from those mages who he believes will not heal, and he uses reaction formation to try to control everyone else’s playstyle because his own is so horrible.

Also, it’s important to remember that not all anti-blink beliefs are the result of defense mechanisms. Some people suffer from blink phobia, an excessive and completely irrational fear of blinking, usually caused by a traumatic childhood experience with Christmas decorations. But with all due respect to the epileptics among us, most anti-blink people do not have true phobias. Interestingly, a person with a true phobia of blinking realizes his fear is excessive or unreasonable, something most anti-blinkers will never admit.

Defense mechanisms distort reality

Spoiler: show

Because defense mechanisms distort reality in order to avoid unpleasant emotions, the person who uses them has an impaired ability to recognize and accept reality. This explains why anti-blink people persist in believing that their mages will not heal them if they blink.

People who carry lots of excellent gear and swap it around in a skilled fashion are actually less likely to require cures and less prone to losing hate in all kinds of events than is the non-blinker.

Say NO to being a non-blinker!

Spoiler: show

But no one needs to be a non-blinker! Quite simply, it’s not very easy for a mob to kill a tank who owns good gear and knows how to use it. If most tanks gearswapped properly, wipes would decrease.

Reversing Irrational thoughts

Spoiler: show

One approach that can be helpful is simply to feed back what the anti-blink person is telling you, in a neutral, inquisitive way. So, when replying to arguments against blinking, you might say: “So you think blinking will mess up your magic timing. What makes you think that?” When you simply repeat what the person has said, and ask questions, you are not directly challenging his defenses. You are holding up a mirror to let him see his own views. If he has very strong defenses, he can continue to insist that blinking causes problems (that it does not actually cause). However, if his defenses are less rigid, he may start to question his position.

Another example might be, “Why do you think that you are continually capped on Enmity without swapping in Enmity+ gear?” You might follow this up with something like, “Why do you idle in a mix of damage-down, Enmity, and Haste gear?” Again, you are merely asking questions, and not directly attacking the person or his defenses.

It’s important to ask “open-ended” questions that require a response other than “yes” or “no”. Such questions require the anti-blink person actually to think about what he is saying. This will help him to re-examine his beliefs. It may also encourage him to ask you questions about gearswap use and blinking in general.

Of course the anti-blink person might continue to insist that you are “blinking like an idiot”.

Why these techniques do not always work

Spoiler: show

You should remember that you will not be successful with all anti-blink people. Some people are so terrified and have such strong defenses, that it’s not possible for someone without professional psychological training to get through. Some people have their minds made up and refuse to consider opening them. Others may concede that what you say “makes sense,” but are unwilling to change their misguided actions. A few may have had traumatic experiences with blinking and losing all their HP, from which they have not recovered.

You will also not be successful with the anti-blink ideologues. These people have made a conscious choice to oppose proper tanking behavior. They are not interested in the facts or in playing FFXI properly. They know the facts and understand the consequences of their actions, and will happily wipe to weak monsters repeatedly out of some masochistic agenda. Do not use these techniques on such people. They are beyond the realm of help.

Conclusion
By better understanding advocates of keeping all your visible gear the same, and by learning and practicing some simple techniques to deal with their psychological defenses, you will be much more effective in your efforts to communicate with anti-blink people. This will enable you to be more successful at educating them about the realities of tanking and enmity, and their importance to gaming efficiency and effectiveness.

Educating others about blinking is hard work. It’s not glamorous, and it generally needs to be done one person at a time. But it’s a very necessary and important task. The average FFXI player supports killing mobs and getting loot, whether or not they chooses to attend events. He supports maximizing return to effort, whether or not he’s ever been in a paladin. He likewise needs to understand that blinking is an essential part of playing, whether or not he chooses to own or carry enough equipment to gearswap.

Spoiler: show

My apologies to Sarah Thompson, M.D. - thanks for the lulz.

[Eurell]

I stated mdb, ja's, are irrelevant because I blink into them.

Wait.. So what don't you gear swap for? Spells are done in the gear you are idling anyway... And neo isn't swapping for cure cheats either. So wtf are you two even arguing about? You both blink, you just do it one what, 1 spell less?

And btw, normally if its everyone vs. just you... everyone isn't wrong.

[Colenzo]

How often have you heard these statements from misguided advocates of keeping all your visible gear the same, or even woefully uninformed BLMs and PUPs? Why do people cling so tightly to these beliefs, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong? Why do they get so furiously angry when smart people point out that their arguments are factually and logically incorrect?

How can you communicate with these people who seem to be out of touch with reality and rational thought?

One approach to help you deal with anti-blinking people is to understand their psychological processes. Once you understand why these people behave so irrationally, you can communicate more effectively with them.

Defense Mechanisms: Projection, Denial, Reaction Formation

Spoiler: show

Reading this thread, we often see that anti-blinkers accuse blinkers of being stupid, lazy, illiterate, and even bad at their job. This is an example of what mental health professionals call projection – unconsciously projecting one’s own unacceptable feelings onto other people, so that one doesn’t have to own them. In some cases, the intolerable feelings are projected not onto a person, but onto an inanimate object, such as a Hydra Haubert, so that the projector believes the item itself will make one a bad tank.

Projection is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological mechanisms that protect us from feelings that we cannot consciously accept. They operate without our awareness, so that we don’t have to deal consciously with “forbidden” feelings and impulses. Thus, if you asked an anti-blinker if they really wanted to blink, he would vehemently deny it, and insist that other people want to make him blink.

Projection is a particularly insidious defense mechanism, because it not only prevents a person from dealing with his own feelings, it also creates a world where he perceives everyone else as directing his own hostile feelings back at him.

All people have lazy, and even lackadaisical, impulses. For example, it’s common to hear people say “It’s easier to not blink”, or “If you blink any more I’m not going to heal you.” They don’t actually mean that they’re going to, or even would, stop healing anyone; they’re simply acknowledging anger and frustration. All of us suffer from fear and feelings of helplessness and vulnerability. Most people can acknowledge feelings of rage, fear, frustration, jealousy, etc. without having to act on them in inappropriate and destructive ways, such as not blinking.

Some people, however, are unable consciously to admit that they have such “unacceptable” emotions. They may have higher than average levels of laziness and sloth, or fear of blinking. Perhaps they fear that if they acknowledge their desire to blink, they will lose control and carry 70/70 inventory items. They may believe that “good people” never have such desires to blink, when in fact all people have them.

This is especially true now that FFXI “experts” commonly prohibit tanks from blinking. Instead of learning that such gearswaps are normal, and that laziness needs to be curtailed, children now learn that blinking is evil, dangerous and subject to severe punishment, such as your HP reaching zero. To protect themselves from “not being healed”, they are forced to use defense mechanisms to avoid blinking. Unfortunately, using such defense mechanisms inappropriately can endanger their mental health; tanks need to learn how to deal appropriately with the reality of blinking, not how to avoid it.

Another defense mechanism commonly utilized by opponents of blinking is denial. Denial is simply refusing to accept the reality of a given situation. For example, consider a paladin who idles in enmity gear. She may get extremely angry at a well-meaning friend who suggests that there are other, better stats, to idle in. The reality is obvious, but the enmity-idle paladin is so threatened by her mistake that she is unable to accept it, and so denies its existence.

Anti-blink people do this all the time. It’s obvious that we play a game that requires gearswaps, where sidegrades and situational gear is added in every update. Just about everyone has, or knows someone who has, situational gear. It’s equally obvious that without using this gear, you can’t perform to your full potential. Extensive scholarly research demonstrates that mages can learn to target properly and that blinking is the most effective way to cast spells such as Flash, Utsusemi, and also spam Atonement. There is irrefutable evidence that refusing to blink nearly always precedes losing HP and wiping to Bubbly Bernie. Nonetheless, the anti-blink folks insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that “they are just as efficient and definitely not on the sidelines”, “I probably keep hate better than you do” and “I don't look like an idiot while doing it”, where “it” is everything from tanking a single mob to kiting twenty monsters.

Anti-blink people who refuse to accept the reality of the proven and very serious dangers of keeping all visible gear the same are using denial to protect themselves from the anxiety of feeling helpless and vulnerable.

Reaction formation is yet another defense mechanism common among the anti-blink folks. Reaction formation occurs when a person’s mind turns an unacceptable feeling or desire into its complete opposite. For example, a tank who is jealous of a more powerful tank sibling may exhibit a desire to learn from the hated paladin.

Likewise, a person who is being an idiot and not blinking may claim to be a devoted paladin and an expert on all manner of tanking. Often such people take refuge in various spurious rhetorical trends and believe that they are “superior” to “less civilized” folks who engage in “problematic behavior” such as blinking gearswaps. They may devote themselves to “proving” that blinking is not efficient. This not only allows the anti-blinker person to avoid dealing with his shortcomings, it allows him actually to harm the tanks he hates without having to acknowledge he hates them.

Contrast the sincere newbie or mage-only player with the strident, angry person who wants to ban blinking and believes tanks have the obligation to not blink for the good of healers who don’t know how to type in <p#> or <a##>. The truly uninformed, newbie player refrains from forcing others to do what he believes, and is generally driven by a desire to improve, while the angry anti-blinker spews harmful rhetoric and ignores all evidence which shows their opinions wrong.

In the case of anti-blink people, reaction formation keeps any knowledge of their hatred for their fellow tanks out of consciousness, while allowing them to feel superior to “idiot blinking paladins”. At the same time, it also allows them to cause serious harm, and even loss of HP, to other tanks by denying them the tools (blinking) necessary to tank well. This makes reaction formation very attractive from a psychological point of view, and therefore very difficult to counteract.

Defense Mechanisms Are Not Mental Illnesses

Spoiler: show

Defense mechanisms are normal. All of us use them to some extent, and their use does not imply mental illness. Advocates of non-blinking may be misguided or uninformed, they may be stupid, or they may be consciously intent on being bad tanks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are “mentally ill”.

Some defense mechanisms, however, are healthier than others. A safe general rule is that a defense is healthy if it helps you to function better in your role in-game, and unhealthy if it interferes with your FFXI job, your linkshell, or the well-being of other players. Young 10-year old gamers utilize projection and denial much more commonly than do healthy adults. On the other hand, “if projection is used as a defense mechanism to a very great extent in adult life, the user’s perception of external reality will be seriously distorted.”

Defense mechanisms are also frequently combined, so that an anti-blink person may use several defense mechanisms simultaneously. For example, the unfortunate “kandiekane” uses projection to create a world in which all his mages refuse to cure him if he blinks. As a result, he becomes more angry and fearful towards blinkers, and needs to employ even more defense mechanisms to cope. So he uses projection to attribute his own inability and foolishness to others, he uses denial that there is any need to blink to play FFXI better, to protect himself from those mages who he believes will not heal, and he uses reaction formation to try to control everyone else’s playstyle because his own is so horrible.

Also, it’s important to remember that not all anti-blink beliefs are the result of defense mechanisms. Some people suffer from blink phobia, an excessive and completely irrational fear of blinking, usually caused by a traumatic childhood experience with Christmas decorations. But with all due respect to the epileptics among us, most anti-blink people do not have true phobias. Interestingly, a person with a true phobia of blinking realizes his fear is excessive or unreasonable, something most anti-blinkers will never admit.

Defense mechanisms distort reality

Spoiler: show

Because defense mechanisms distort reality in order to avoid unpleasant emotions, the person who uses them has an impaired ability to recognize and accept reality. This explains why anti-blink people persist in believing that their mages will not heal them if they blink.

People who carry lots of excellent gear and swap it around in a skilled fashion are actually less likely to require cures and less prone to losing hate in all kinds of events than is the non-blinker.

Say NO to being a non-blinker!

Spoiler: show

But no one needs to be a non-blinker! Quite simply, it’s not very easy for a mob to kill a tank who owns good gear and knows how to use it. If most tanks gearswapped properly, wipes would decrease.

Reversing Irrational thoughts

Spoiler: show

One approach that can be helpful is simply to feed back what the anti-blink person is telling you, in a neutral, inquisitive way. So, when replying to arguments against blinking, you might say: “So you think blinking will mess up your magic timing. What makes you think that?” When you simply repeat what the person has said, and ask questions, you are not directly challenging his defenses. You are holding up a mirror to let him see his own views. If he has very strong defenses, he can continue to insist that blinking causes problems (that it does not actually cause). However, if his defenses are less rigid, he may start to question his position.

Another example might be, “Why do you think that you are continually capped on Enmity without swapping in Enmity+ gear?” You might follow this up with something like, “Why do you idle in a mix of damage-down, Enmity, and Haste gear?” Again, you are merely asking questions, and not directly attacking the person or his defenses.

It’s important to ask “open-ended” questions that require a response other than “yes” or “no”. Such questions require the anti-blink person actually to think about what he is saying. This will help him to re-examine his beliefs. It may also encourage him to ask you questions about gearswap use and blinking in general.

Of course the anti-blink person might continue to insist that you are “blinking like an idiot”.

Why these techniques do not always work

Spoiler: show

You should remember that you will not be successful with all anti-blink people. Some people are so terrified and have such strong defenses, that it’s not possible for someone without professional psychological training to get through. Some people have their minds made up and refuse to consider opening them. Others may concede that what you say “makes sense,” but are unwilling to change their misguided actions. A few may have had traumatic experiences with blinking and losing all their HP, from which they have not recovered.

You will also not be successful with the anti-blink ideologues. These people have made a conscious choice to oppose proper tanking behavior. They are not interested in the facts or in playing FFXI properly. They know the facts and understand the consequences of their actions, and will happily wipe to weak monsters repeatedly out of some masochistic agenda. Do not use these techniques on such people. They are beyond the realm of help.

Conclusion
By better understanding advocates of keeping all your visible gear the same, and by learning and practicing some simple techniques to deal with their psychological defenses, you will be much more effective in your efforts to communicate with anti-blink people. This will enable you to be more successful at educating them about the realities of tanking and enmity, and their importance to gaming efficiency and effectiveness.

Educating others about blinking is hard work. It’s not glamorous, and it generally needs to be done one person at a time. But it’s a very necessary and important task. The average FFXI player supports killing mobs and getting loot, whether or not they chooses to attend events. He supports maximizing return to effort, whether or not he’s ever been in a paladin. He likewise needs to understand that blinking is an essential part of playing, whether or not he chooses to own or carry enough equipment to gearswap.

Spoiler: show

My apologies to Sarah Thompson, M.D. - thanks for the lulz.

holy psychological blinking tanks batman!

@ Failure his setup would be nice if he had a gjallerhorn bard to ballad/march him and he was actually using gear swaps correctly

also whats your IGN/server name kandiekane ?

[kandiekane]

I have plenty of bards, but even you arent guarenteed a double brd rotation at every event. And even if you are, you can wear more haste in your actions to allow for other song combinations (march/mad istead of march/march for better TP rate). Dont be so dense.

At the very least, drop your Ballad and pick up a Madrigal

Drop a march for madrigal. . . ARE YOU GUYS NUTs?

marchx2 is WAY better for tp than march/mad if your gear, food, and merits can support it. Not only that, I have 20% haste in my tp setup, 60+ acc, IN ADDITION to marchx2. I would NEVER gimp myself with a madrigal instead of another march song. You're the dense one. You have any melee jobs leveled at all? If I'm already capped at spell recast, and have a high hitrate, I would much rather prefer double march to march/mad for a better TP rate.

What you're basically saying is instead of equiping all the acc you can to achieve high hitrate with double march, wear a little bit more haste (which is impossible because I already wear all possible gear with haste) and replace my acc gear so I hit slower because of the missing march song being replaced with a madrigal that equals the amount of acc I take off in gear?

[Colenzo]

I see you reading the thread, who the fuck are you and what server are you on?

[Araelus]

Drop a march for madrigal. . . ARE YOU GUYS NUTs?

What they are saying is to use proper gearswaps, which include visible gear.
Most of these later ideas are with the caveat

his setup would be nice if ... he was actually using gear swaps correctly

Go on, though, keep projecting. It's delightful to watch.

[Colenzo]

meh i dont feel like writing an essay

[kandiekane]

What they are saying is to use proper gearswaps, which include visible gear.
Most of these later ideas are with the caveat

With what caveat?

Go on, though, keep projecting. It's delightful to watch.

Projection can be said about blinkers in the same way. Get your frosh ass psych major back to class! Your book report is due on friday

[Colenzo]

what server are you on and whats your name?

[FailureMidgard]

So you're advocating Paladins full-time Homam Body?

At the very least, drop your Ballad and pick up a Madrigal, then drop your Homam Body and full-time Ares. End up with the same refresh, and more of everything else.

Drop a march for madrigal. . . ARE YOU GUYS NUTs?

marchx2 is WAY better for tp than march/mad if your gear, food, and merits can support it. Not only that, I have 20% haste in my tp setup, 60+ acc, IN ADDITION to marchx2. I would NEVER gimp myself with a madrigal instead of another march song. You're the dense one. You have any melee jobs leveled at all? If I'm already capped at spell recast, and have a high hitrate, I would much rather prefer double march to march/mad for a better TP rate.

What you're basically saying is instead of equiping all the acc you can to achieve high hitrate with double march, wear a little bit more haste (which is impossible because I already wear all possible gear with haste) and replace my acc gear so I hit slower because of the missing march song being replaced with a madrigal that equals the amount of acc I take off in gear?

Let's take this 1 step at a time.

...drop your Ballad and ...

Drop a march for madrigal. . . ARE YOU GUYS NUTs?...

Okay, so now that we're clear, I never once mentioned March.

You are saying right now you have Marchx2+Balladx2
I am saying you should use Marchx2+Balladx1+Madrigalx1

Let's go ahead and cancel out the parts that are the same, we're comparing Balladx1 to Madrigalx1.
But wait, there's more. There's your gear.

Your situation of song+Body armor:
Refresh (1/tick)
DEF: 49 HP +28 MP +28 Accuracy +15
Enhances "Triple Attack" Effect

I am saying instead you should use:
Refresh (1/tick)
DEF: 55 HP +3% MP +3% Accuracy +34
STR +12 VIT +12 Attack +24

So, to put this in simple terms for you, I am saying you should get Madrigal and gain:
+6 defense, +19 accuracy, +12 STR, +12 VIT, +24 attack, some indeterminate amount of HP (I'd guess 15-20)

And you will lose:
1% Triple Attack, some indeterminate amount of MP (10-20)


Do you truly feel that would be a bad tradeoff for you? Ares+Madrigal is far far Superior to Ballad1+Homam.

[Araelus]

With what caveat?

Did you read my post, or do you skip quoted text? :D

This thread really isn't going anywhere since Neo threw his hands up in disgust and walked away,
or so long as Failure's posts get ignored or misinterpreted. The maths have it over the emotional responses.

To answer the OP (Rugazanami?) I think it's been conclusively shown that you are better off blinking on PLD.

Have we seen any concrete evidence to the contrary?

This has got to be a troll attempt lol.

Perhaps, perhaps.

[FailureMidgard]

Did you read my post, or do you skip quoted text? :D

This thread really isn't going anywhere since Neo threw his hands up in disgust and walked away,
or so long as Failure's posts get ignored or misinterpreted. The maths have it over the emotional responses.

To answer the OP (Rugazanami?) I think it's been conclusively shown that you are better off blinking on PLD.

Have we seen any concrete evidence to the contrary?


Perhaps, perhaps.

Sad part is, I'm not even arguing about blinking...it's a pointless discussion. I'd do math and show that Neo is doing a more efficient job, by some margin, but he did it fine himself...I don't understand how someone can argue they are doing something just as efficiently when the math says they aren't...as for blinking, I blink, I always will...it's really hard to use any sort of math to argue against it though. Before stpt/etc, I even think the noblink people had a semi-decent argument. Now, there really is no benefit to it, but even when there was, it was such a hard thing to quantify...

In any case, I'm merely saying that if you are gonna fulltime a body, Homam is an awful choice when you're getting a Ballad1.

[Furionstormrage]

what server are you on and whats your name?

He's been asked this countless times, and he won't answer.

I'm assuming he doesn't do any endgame, has none of the gear he claims to have, and just trolls PLD threads.

kandiekane, prove me wrong.

[Colenzo]

Last time he said who he was he said he was Demetrios and that cant even be a serious answer lol <_>

[antihero]

hi

[Colenzo]

whats up dood