Catastrophe WS Build?

[Leroy]

Yeah... Took Catastrophe for a test spin in Xarc. Went with:

Bec de Faucon
Pole
Bomblet
AF+1 head
Justice
Brutal
Abyssal
Hecatomb harness
AF+1 hands
Flame
Flame
Foragers
Potent
Black legs
Hecatomb leggings

Consistently did 300-400, DAs pushing me into the 500-600 range, for the most part. Had Dual Minuet/Madrigal, and Marches, used pizza because I didn't know I was going to have a third BRD and it was my first time ever being melee in Xarc. When we got SV Minuet bcause the minuet BRD was gonna eave, Catastrophe damage was pushed to around 700-800 with no DA, didn't proc a single on it DA while SV was up though. So I'm just going to go full ATK aside from something like Alky's. I figure this is because unlike single hits from GK and GS there isn't an attack bonus, making attack a huge factor here, as previously said.

I was thinking of something like:

AF+1 Hands > Black
Hectomb Harness > Hauby
Potent > Sword Belt+1 (may go for a nq augment with 2STR though)
Hecatomb Leggings > Black

Someone suggested I go with Abyss Burgeonet over AF+1 Helm since it's a bigger atk boost than Alky VS Black, though I thinking Black Sallet would be better. 1 less ATK for 5 ACC.

Obviously I need to upgrade my food as well, I was thinking of Bison steak at the very least, but was leaning to Hydra Kofte since it's half the cost of Red Curry, and potentially just as good.

Also, I was trying on some numbers, and it looks like, barring fSTR, my D value on Catastrophe would be 390 without fSTR/Gorget figured in. To compare I found the D value for a SAM doing Gekko at 100tp with Hagun and 175 STR to be 393 with fSTR figured in and the proper gorget. So, on mobs where pDIF can approach cap with the right combo of buffs/debuffs/food, shouldn't Catastrophe reach 200tp value Gekko numbers before Overwhelm is factored in? Or does the Y/G/K type bonuses exceed the pDIF cap?

On a final note, how much does catastrophe drain back? Last night I was noticing some really weird numbers. I was always told Catastrophe drained 20% damage dealt back into hp, but I saw numbers that looked like they ranged from 25-100%, it was weird, but I figured it was lag and my screen not loading cures or something. But someone also suggested that maybe the Drain from the WS is boosted by day and weather?


Sorry for all the questions, just trying to find out as much as I can about my new toy. Really wish I could test it more than twice a week though ~_~;

[Arthars]

it drains somehere between 30-80% of damage

0% if your hitting undead or fomors

and its stackable with souleater, making you take 0 damage from the WS, but its only 1 hit....so its at most 100-150 damage boost and very unnoticable

as for food, just go meat or higher food IF you need

because after you get apoc, you will die more often because you will tank more........its ok for meripo XD but when comes to kings or maybe gods, or even einherjar, you will die often w/o /nin

and /nin for 2 hander sucks

[Leroy]

I went DRK/SAM to Xarc, and I can see what you mean by it getting you killed. Despite the lack of anything approaching respectable ws damage, I took more than my share of hate, and got through nearly 2 RR earrings from that shit...

The extra Damage is worth the extra exp loss imo though.

[Arthars]

some mobs can go drk/sam all out ^^ like dynamis etc is not an issue

but for einherjar, in a 30 min event that need everyone to be at their best, and not dying to potentially -1 good DD, /nin is a must

you can die over and over from wtf AOEs or 1 shotted when 3rd eye gets sucky

[Faris]

I refuse to accept relic discussions are standard discussions....gtfo

[Aragon of Odin]

Obviously I need to upgrade my food as well, I was thinking of Bison steak at the very least, but was leaning to Hydra Kofte since it's half the cost of Red Curry, and potentially just as good.

Not sure what server you're on but Red Curry cheaper or same price as Hydra Kofte from what I've been seeing.

[Leroy]

My group is only about 16 strong for eiherjar atm, and we're only on the first floors because of this sadly...so we just all go /SAM or /WAR and beat the shit our of everything that moves. I'm pretty sure that won't work on higher floors, but we keep timing out at 1-5% compared to 50% on the bosses when we used to all /NIN for some reason. Our last one was a heart breaker too. We wiped when when we got a nasty link from logis and one just decided to Self Destruct at 100% hp and no one stunned the right one lol. Got up, cleared the last 3,and zerged the boss to 2% before we timed out. If we hadn't wiped or if our DRG hadn't fallen asleep and missed out, we'd have had our fisrt win.

I'm really starting to hate how einherjar is just 960 amps to us. Trying to get more members in just for it since it's not all about skill with this one, it's about throwing bodies at shit.

As for relic discussion being standard, standard is probably the best place to get info on this...

Also, on my server Hydra Kofte is half the cost, I can also make it with a better success rate than red curry, and I make them for gil anyway, I could just cut the middle man out and make my own lol.

[Indalecia]

Hellsteak isnt too expensive over here, could try that.

[Yugl]

I'm really starting to hate how einherjar is just 960 amps to us. Trying to get more members in just for it since it's not all about skill with this one, it's about throwing bodies at shit.

If your LS is concerned about having too many members for the sake for Einherjar, you could always create a separate shell and mass recruit through that shell.

[Byrthnoth]

I would recommend not using Alkys on the basis that AGI is a 40% Mod for the WS. If you have +2.75 base damage from +STR and -2.4 from -AGI then you haven't really gotten anywhere. Maybe you got 2 base damage if all the rounding was in your favor, but that's not something you should rely on. You be better off wearing Tarasque Mitts +1 or Barbarian's Gloves than those. Onyx Hands would probably be best.

PS. Always sub NIN to Einherjar tier 3.
PPS. Arrows are ->, I wrote a whole paragraph responding to your >s before I realized you meant them to be arrows!
PPPS. Go make an "Arrapago Bhoot-way onry" Salvage group and get Ares body/head.

[Asgon]

I always thought INT played a very minor role over STR. just me though =/

[Leroy]

Well, I'm in a salvage group. I was focusing on Morrigan's for my BLM and RDM. I had Macha's slops as priority so we could take a shot at the gears for Ares legs. Though since getting my attestation happened faster than expected, I was thinking of focusing on Ares instead, but idk just yet.

As for the mods on Catastrophe, the INT/AGI mods are 40% so if you had 60INT you get 19 base damage, whereas if you had 60STR you'd get ~15 base damage I believe. Stacking AGI or INT would give you a higher base damage than stacking STR, but since Catastrophe doesn't come out of the box with a huge atk bonus like GS and GK, stacking ATK should do more for your Catastrophe numbers than building for such shitty mods on anything bigger than a merit mob.

What are the stats on hellsteak anyway?

Btw, completely failed to remember that my alkys have -AGI on them, making them weaker, thanks for the heads up.

[Byrthnoth]

Yeah, you can assume that you have around ~150 base damage without stacking mods at all, and a 2.75 fTP. (~410*pDIF for WS damage) So, if your damage sucks really pDIF is to blame. Like, in Xarc your pDIF value must have been 1 or less the whole time.

Also, as far as Ares legs go you have to ask if DA+2% is going to be better than the ~13 Atk you could get from Black or the ~15 from Onyx. Ares's is STR+6, INT-3 and Black is STR+4, so they're at least equal or Black is better in terms of base damage. I assume if you're going for a relic you have the necessary resources to eventually get Onyx.

[Valyana]

[fSTR is like a] 25% mod.

30% considering WSC alpha: 25/0.83 = 30

[Leroy]

Yeah, I was going to go with Black/Onyx till I completed the Ares set for Catastrophe, but for just about every single other DRK WS Ares are best. Just sucks that once you get Catastrophe you only use Catastrophe, since SE seems to have made it so you need to continuously to keep the effect up instead of alternating Catastrophe and Guillotine.

[Vryali]

Similar vein, but with Maat's Cap, Adaberk, and HQ heca bits (which I have/almost have, damn you RDM), would full ares still likely be the winner for WS setup (which I'm nowhere near...) was planning adaberk/heca+1/maat/gorget + accessories, just want to know if I should be heavily reevaluating my gear options or whatnot.

Edit: Was expecting setup to look like this

Also for DRK/NIN would it be such a terrible option to just gear it for 6 hit, so it plays more or less the same as DRK/SAM? I had the following (or some variation) in mind that I was planning to have ready when I turned in apoc.

5 Rajas Ring
7 Aurum Cuirass
2 White Tathlum
2 Almah Torque / 1 Attala Earring
5 Arrabbiata / 6 Carbonara

Would the above gear swaps not be worth it for DRK/NINing a 6 hit? I was leaning towards Aurum/Tathlum/CrapEarring/Carb for DRK/NIN, but hadn't really discussed it with anyone that actually had an apoc. Figured this would be good mainly in Ein, where DRK/NIN tends to heavily outvalue being dead as DRK/SAM (for us, anyway).

[Nameless]

As far as I can tell, none of the relic WS has y/k/g or SS and GS type of cratio bonus. Thus attack becomes more important as most of the time you won't be at cap. Not to mention the fact that attack serves well when facing higher lvl mobs due to how cratio works.

[nsx]

Sorry for bumping this back up. Had a question on Cata.

I had talked to a few other apoc owners who felt that putting on heca stuff was a no-no as the +slow had an effect on that swing during/after ws. And that they WS'd in alot of their haste gears.

I don't have full ares, only body and dont' really have time for salvage right now but I digress...

Thoughts on stacking attack/str (w/o -haste%) vs. keeping haste gears on in some places to get the max swings possible?

I have +1 hecas onyx legs ebody etc. but never seem to parse a whole lot higher in ws average using that stuff compared to not. Melee DoT really carries the day it seems.

[Therin]

I wouldn't stack Heca just because there are better options anyway (namely in JSE). Onyx gear will produce the best results except for the head. I plan to use the following set:

FFXIGEAR.com

Maybe using Hecatomb Cap, instead of Ares's Mask. I haven't decided yet. Maat's Cap would probably outperform both of the previously mentioned options, but I'm only 6/15 for Maat jobs.

I already have all of that gear minus the Onyx hands/feet and the relic itself.

[Taint]

I've played with just about every set I could think of from huge STR builds to AGI/INT builds and everything in between.

Focusing on ATT and DA is where its at. For the biggest WS returns I use Full Ares but for the most part I'm running in my Haste set and just swap in Gorget+Ares legs for WS. The legs are nice for the DA boost during the WS and I also keep them on as long as the AM effect is active.