Random Question Thread IV: ROCKY WINS

[Kirschy]

Bunch of DRK questions, very close to 75 now.

I'm planning to merit:

6 Scythe
6 Greatsword
3/4 more critical hit

5 Last Resort recast
5 Last Resort effect

5 Diabolic Eye
5 Desperate Blows

Is there anything horribly wrong with those, and more importantly, what order should I get them in? I honestly have no idea where to start.

Is an AMK hat with:
4str/4agi/15WS Acc/2% WS Damage an acceptable general WS piece for DRK (Guillotine and Spinning slash, mainly), or would I be better off getting the extra ACC augment and using something else for Spiral Hell/Spinning Slash/Ground Strike?

Presumably (as a fresh 75 with uh, AH gear) I'll need to eat sushi meriting on colibri, crab sushi is still acceptable to spam on birds at 75?

Part of your merit choices are going to depend on what you use your DRK for, and how you'll be able to use it. LR Effect is fine, but if you have a strong support team, lower SE Recast can help a lot more. It turns your mages extra MP into pure damage.

I also notice you plan on using GSD. Unless you have a particular purpose for GSD(or just think it looks fun), you're probably better off with the 8/8 Scythe. Scythe is going to be your best damage majority of the time and can make better use of the extra accuracy/attack during the weaponskill part of your damage.

5/5 Last Resort and 5/5 DE sound great, although I strongly recommend dropping 1 of those merits and tossing it Dark Seal if you plan on doing any zergs. Being able to pop DS and Drain II before a zerg makes a fairly big difference.

Just a reminder, but JA Haste is capped at 25%. If you'll find yourself using /SAM and riding hasso majority of your DRK playing time, then only 3 of LR merits are being used to their full potency. Dropping one for a DS wouldn't be a bad idea. If you plan to spend a good deal of time under Seigan or as /nin, I'd suggest dropping 1 DE to unlock Dark Seal~

[Drace]

Question after taking a long ass break at Salvage and not being quite up to date on the latest strategies: How exactly would a 6man group attempt Citadel Chelonian? My original group got cockblocked on Powderkeg so many times that we rarely had time to ever attempt routine runs at the turtle.

There's a couple of good threads on SSR, but a quick run down of CC with 6:

2 Pullers + THF head for CC room the second you hit the floor. (Try to get the THF fanatic's before this floor, but it's doable w/o as well - also make sure the THF has Reraise). Ideally you want the pullers to have 2 quick claiming options each (Melee jobs bring Trollbane etc. for 1 /ra pull, chi blast/ voke the other).

Have the THF PD/Fanatics and gather the entire CC room together as quickly as possible. 1 Claimer grab the 2 West ramparts, the other grab the 2 East ramparts. Pull them back to the room where you ported up (where others should be waiting - also, don't outrun them, they are slow with terrible pathing and will drop aggro if you don't keep them close) Sleep/ kill all 4 back at porter room.

THF should have reraised by now and can pull CC to the main room (alternately, if you are pressed for time you can fight CC in the corner of the first hall outside of his room - just make sure everyone is crammed in the corner and no mages cast when the gear train goes by).

The key to the first pull is getting it done as quickly as possible - hit the floor ready to set up for that pull so you can get it in before the gear train reaches CC room. You will have enough time to check the chests for some meds, but dont spend more than 60-90 seconds on this before you start the sac pull.

Try to keep someone watching for the gear train while you kill the ramparts in preparation for the CC pull as well.

Thats a pretty standard/safe way to run that floor and shouldn't take more than 15-18 minutes depending on the quality of your melee. You can shave off several minutes by having 1 person manipulate the gear train while everyone kills ramparts in the first hall etc, but that takes some practice and has a higher chance of wipe.

[Raen Ryong]

5/5 Last Resort and 5/5 DE sound great, although I strongly recommend dropping 1 of those merits and tossing it Dark Seal if you plan on doing any zergs. Being able to pop DS and Drain II before a zerg makes a fairly big difference.

Just a reminder, but JA Haste is capped at 25%. If you'll find yourself using /SAM and riding hasso majority of your DRK playing time, then only 3 of LR merits are being used to their full potency. Dropping one for a DS wouldn't be a bad idea. If you plan to spend a good deal of time under Seigan or as /nin, I'd suggest dropping 1 DE to unlock Dark Seal~

I would disagree on two points;

I think Dark Seal is very overrated. The extra HP is nice but in most zergs you're better off just getting in there asap than DS + Drain II'ing it... only exceptions would be if the mob is going to live a long time or has a long pull distance. I always found I did less with Dark Seal...

Also I'd drop a DB rather than a DE. The extra accuracy over time is potentially more useful than 5% haste which won't always be helpful anyway in my opinion.

[Siniroth]

With Archery merits, and slightly above average gear (not average being retarded, average being decent), Soboro + Sidewindering or Polearm for Pentathrust on Lesser Colibri? (Not there yet, but curious as I'm about to be leveling SAM)

Edit: that's actually better for the 'What's Better' thread, but I'll check both

[Khajit]

Really? o.Oa
I thought they did stack. I remember a few years back running around sandy in Ninja boots and a Kingdom Aketon and I remember going faster than an LS mate with just Ninja boots on, but like I said, years back and it wasn't really a scientific test.

That being said, not sure I want to wait through a Red Legs list in a Sky shell just for those, as I don't really want/need anything else from sky right now. Really the only thing I use RDM for is Dynamis right now. Red legs would be nice, but not worth the time to me.

Aketon+ nin boots do stack. it's just the wlegs and movement feet that dont stack generally unless it's nin af as far as I know.

[evilpaul]

Has anyone determined if Ascetic's Fury has some Attack multiplier or something like Mandalic Stab? The damage seems to spike higher than it should even with crits (and no DA proc).

[Kirschy]

I would disagree on two points;

I think Dark Seal is very overrated. The extra HP is nice but in most zergs you're better off just getting in there asap than DS + Drain II'ing it... only exceptions would be if the mob is going to live a long time or has a long pull distance. I always found I did less with Dark Seal...

Also I'd drop a DB rather than a DE. The extra accuracy over time is potentially more useful than 5% haste which won't always be helpful anyway in my opinion.

If you have a full crew everytime you zerg, then using DS might hamper your parse cause the mob will die before BW is even over. But if you zerg in situations where you get the full use of SE (and BW), the extra HP Drain II from DS will help your damage output. I guess that depends on your LS/Zerging situations.

I personalli dropped DE rather than DB, since I use Seigan and /nin a lot. But the OP seemed to be lvling DRK as a merit job, and would probably be riding hasso majority of the time. I'd imagine being able to keep the +acc up more often would help more. But all depends on playstyle and situations I guess~

[Fwahm]

When gearing for the right accuracy/haste/attack blend on mobs with known evasion (going capped accuracy ---> as much haste as possible ----> rest filled with attack), is it better to gear for 95% on the average mob you're facing, or 95% on the highest level mob you're facing?

For example, the average Greater Colibri effective evasion at level 75 is 362.5, while the maximum effective evasion is 367. Which is better to gear for cap?

[Tulun]

95% of the highest mob you are facing. But being 90-95% acc is still solid.... really:

Cap haste as much as possible >> acc >>> attack.

Only real time to diverge from this is like... Turban vs Ace's helm, Blitz ring vs Toreador, when you will get full use of those 7 acc points.

[Tulun]

If you have a full crew everytime you zerg, then using DS might hamper your parse cause the mob will die before BW is even over. But if you zerg in situations where you get the full use of SE (and BW), the extra HP Drain II from DS will help your damage output. I guess that depends on your LS/Zerging situations.

I personalli dropped DE rather than DB, since I use Seigan and /nin a lot. But the OP seemed to be lvling DRK as a merit job, and would probably be riding hasso majority of the time. I'd imagine being able to keep the +acc up more often would help more. But all depends on playstyle and situations I guess~

It is important to note, tho, that you don't necessarily resist without using Dark Seal (especially if you macro in a Pluto's Staff before hand, decent drk magic set, etc...), so I can see the argument for just forgetting it and riding on good drk magic set. Drk can push 320+ skill with a little effort and merits.

I'd never drop Eye, though! Aggressor equivalent is always useful. Going from 5 to 7.5 mins is a huge reduction in potency (up 60% of the time vs up 40% of the time...)

[Bakthi]

Question after taking a long ass break at Salvage and not being quite up to date on the latest strategies: How exactly would a 6man group attempt Citadel Chelonian? My original group got cockblocked on Powderkeg so many times that we rarely had time to ever attempt routine runs at the turtle.

Basically the strategy that was already listed is what we use, except I assign one person per rampart, and anyone left over follows behind just in case. That leaves almost no room for error. Each person just has to track one rampart, so it's very easy. Generally, we have 3 melee and a BRD on them, but if you only have 2 melee, whoever your 6th is (COR, SCH, RDM) should be able to pull one just fine. Just don't grav it! They're so slow already. The distance plugin is a huge help. I stay 15-19.5' at all times; if I notice it stop, I stop.

While you are killing the ramparts, sleep power might become an issue depending on how lucky you are and how quickly you can kill. I almost always use Soul Voice here, because it's not so effective on LAC due to Brainjack. If you only have a WHM and a BRD, and the first rampart spits out 3 adds, you might want to pause to take them out, because if the next one spits out 2-3 you will start to have issues.

Also, we frequently go in with the 7-person setup I described (WAR SAM DRG WHM RDM BRD THF) and do Hammerblow > Powderkeg > Gyroscopic Gears > Citadel > LAC. We don't have relics or anything, but people know this zone pretty well. So doing Powderkeg should hopefully not mean skipping CC, once your group gets up to speed, depending on how much you care about LAC. I realize that's 7 people and not 6, but I'm positive a group of 6 reasonably good players could at least work up to a full clear of that path minus LAC. My old static managed it with 5 once, but barely.

Speaking of LAC, if you want to go for both the turtle and boss, that changes the strat a bit. We generally have the RDM pull the chariot and 3 DD+BRD pull ramparts, although if you're comfortable with 1 person per 2 ramparts, that should work too. RDM holds the chariot at the start until the slow-ass ramparts get there (chariot has +12% movement IIRC), then sleep all the ramparts and take out the chariot quickly. This can definitely be chaotic, and I don't think I'd try it until you have the non-chariot CC pull down.

[Esvedium]

Aketon+ nin boots do stack. it's just the wlegs and movement feet that dont stack generally unless it's nin af as far as I know.

AFAIK, Corsair is one of the only jobs that gets 2 +movement pieces (not counting Aketons), so is it just that WLegs and HSandals don't stack? Anyone out there care to test it?

[Tahona]

trotter boots and w legs don't stack, i'd assume other combinations would yield the same result.

[Valisk]

AFAIK, Corsair is one of the only jobs that gets 2 +movement pieces (not counting Aketons), so is it just that WLegs and HSandals don't stack? Anyone out there care to test it?

RNG - WLegs + Strider/Trotter/Skadi

And no, none of it stacks.

[Khajit]

Does the acp final boss resist SE+BW? I'm wondering if it does so that i know whether sam or drk is the better job to use when zerging it.

[Antithesis]

Does the acp final boss resist SE+BW? I'm wondering if it does so that i know whether sam or drk is the better job to use when zerging it.

I have never heard of the Seed Crystal resisting Soul Eater. Would probably be wiser to go Samurai if you are going to burn it due to the amount of Weapon Skills you can pump out. Could be a close call though.

[Khajit]

Is this assuming a zerg weapon?(mercurial kris)
The idea of a sam being better than a drk for a zerg just sounds.... weird to me.

[Korremar]

From a strict PLD-only standpoint (that is, assuming no other jobs get benefit from either), which is superior: Suppa, or Knight's?

[BerenTebogo]

Knight's imo

[Martinius]

after three blown tags and several unsuccessful searches...

any advice/walkthrough for the Ilrusi Atoll, SM assault "Lost and Found?"

our group is only three people most days, and with that, we've blown through every assault prior to this with some difficulty at times, but never this bad. if we're lucky, we get the first hint within the first 10 minutes, normally 15, and after that, it's a clusterfuck to finding the eye of zahak. any advice is greatly appreciated. we've been going blm blm rdm to easily dispose of either crabs or the inconvenient kraken, but we've got our rdm, and then i also have mnk, sam and rng available, and the other blm has thf and sam available (but we don't think our job selections are the issue with our winning).

many thanks in helping get us past this terrible waste of programming code.