Random Question Thread V: But does it 6-hit

[Thorny]

What are opinions on DNC T1/2 merits? 5/5 Haste Samba is a given, I mean after that.

Tier 1: 5 merits left to play with
Step Accuracy (+3 acc per merit level) - I'm the least keen on this one
Reverse Flourish effect (+3 TP returned every level) - Okay, looks pretty hot. You already get back the same amount or more TP for each step you use, but this bumps it up further.
Building Flourish effect (+2 Acc, +1% Attack, +1% Crit rate per upgrade with the appropriate number of finishing moves) - This is the big contender vs. Reverse Flourish

Tier 2: 10 merits - I don't intend to use Dancer a lot in Campaign or for tanking and crap. I'm interested in being the best DD I can be in a merit party.
Saber Dance - +50% DA, decaying effect. Lasts 5 minutes, recast 5 minutes each additional merit level decreases recast by 30 seconds. So meritting higher than 1 level lets you reapply sooner and keep a higher potency buff up (or reapply sooner if you have to drop it to cure someone).
Fan Dance - Not interested in soloing, but it's really hard for me to look at this JA and pass it up. IDK!
No Foot Rise - + Reverse Flourish = 75TP Meditate for DNC on a 3 minute recast.
Close Position - +3 Acc and +3 Eva per merit level

So, right now I'm thinking:
5/5 Haste Samba
5/5 Building Flourish effect
5/5 Saber Dance
5/5 Closed Position

By and large, I don't think spamming Steps to use Reverse Flourish will really help damage due to the animation delay (if you're dancing you aren't swinging, ironically) and Building/Reverse Flourish being on the same timer. This merit strategy lets Steps be kind of a once-per-monster thing. I'm the least sure about choosing Closed Position over No Foot Rise.

5/5 Haste Samba
5/5 Reverse Flourish
5/5 No Foot Rise
3/5 Closed Position
1/5 Saber Dance
1/5 Fan Dance

The best DD you can be in a merit party is a healbot for a real DD fulltiming hasso. With outside healers, other setups would indeed produce more damage, but dancer is also extremely useful in Einherjar and Dynamis, in which case you'll want the extra TP for cures.

[Fottiti]

DI / SW are weird.

One theory is that, unlike every other NM in this game, if the window was open prior to maintenance, it will be open after maintenance. If window was not open, it will be 20 hours after maint. I have seen this not to be the case 3-4 times and I don't think it's correct.

I save my LS the time and just assume 20 hours post maint for camp. I'll run through the zones and /sea the areas prior to that so that if it does pop, we at least have ToD.

EDIT: When I say not like every other NM in the game, I mean that its pre-maintenance status somehow affects it post-maintenance.

Every time I camped DI after a maint when its window was open prior to servers going down it has always popped within 4 hours (or atleast picked a zone to pop in) of servers coming up. If window wasn't up when servers went down it will be 20-24 after servers go up.

SW I'd assume is the same (except longer window) but it could have popped and depopped before anyone finds it after servers go back up which then seems to make it a completely random pop time.

There was one exception when servers went down while window was up and it didn't pop at all but that was because SE messed something up during the update (there was a maint in all DI/SW zones to correct it).

[Fryte]

I can say with 99% confidence that skillchains do count towards magic dmg that can make the spikes go down. Maybe you just got lucky every time and did it at the start and gave time for flans to regain spikes.

If we have been getting lucky, it's been almost 3 years of lucky. We purposely do skillchains on the melee-resistant ones, otherwise they take all day.

[Nitrous24]

Can you do Healing Breath swaps well using Spellcast? An example of how to handle it would be nice, not sure how to make things delay properly to do HP Gear > Wyvern HP Gear > Aftercast gear.

This is how i do mine. works pretty well. i get some fluctuations sometimes because of lag i think, but never anything major.

<if Spell="Cocoon|Head Butt|Foot Kick|Power Attack|Bar*|Dia|Poisona">
			<equip when="Precast" set="HB-Pre" />
			<castdelay delay=".5" />
			<if spell="Cocoon">
				<midcastdelay delay="2.5" />
			</if>
			<else>
				<midcastdelay delay="1.5" />
			</else>
			
			<equip when="midCast" set="HB-Mid" />
			<aftercastdelay delay="5" />
			
			<if status="engaged">
				<equip when="aftercast" set="tp" />
			</if>
			<else>
				<equip when="aftercast" set="idle" />
			</else>
		</if>

[jimbobsonofgod]

5/5 Haste Samba
5/5 Reverse Flourish
5/5 No Foot Rise
3/5 Closed Position
1/5 Saber Dance
1/5 Fan Dance

I second that, exactly what I did.

[requim]

Reverse flourish + No Foot Rise = DNC meditate

While it might not be optimal you can also get ~110 TP => box step => WS => RF you're 1-2 steps for another 25/36 tp, add in 1 attack round with saber dance and you can be at 65 tp right after WS'ing, which you can do repeatedly!

With 21% haste gear, 5/5 samba, haste, and marches and only needing an average of 3-5 attack rounds to WS you could be popping a WS out every 10 seconds!

[Celenios]

Can the first floor of Apollyon SE (Metalloid Amoebas) drop NIN item >.>?

[stewie]

Can the first floor of Apollyon SE (Metalloid Amoebas) drop NIN item >.>?

Yes.

[Cream Soda]

I only have no footrise lv 3 simply for the fact that reverse flourish's timer is too low to get the full benefit from it (if you're constantly using steps and flourishing @ 4). I prefer to lv 3, step once, flourish, and by the next time I have 4 finishing moves, flourish will be up again. Otherwise, I'd have to wait anyways to use again.

[Ezhno]

I only have no footrise lv 3 simply for the fact that reverse flourish's timer is too low to get the full benefit from it (if you're constantly using steps and flourishing @ 4). I prefer to lv 3, step once, flourish, and by the next time I have 4 finishing moves, flourish will be up again. Otherwise, I'd have to wait anyways to use again.

^^

The only major benefit you really gain from full No Foot Rise is from situations where you are sitting idle before a fight and generating TP from nothing.

I'd argue for 5/5 Closed Position 3/5 No Foot Rise 1/5 Fan Dance 1/5 Saber Dance if you wanted to keep 1 point in the 5 minute abilities.

+15 free accuracy (and evasion) is hard to pass up.

[Cream Soda]

It's what I have, I went for 5/5 closed position.

[Marcicus]

Suggestions for PLD60?

Main: Bastard Sword
Sub: Sentinel Shield / Iron Ram Shield (I have no idea here)
Ranged:-----
Ammo: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walkure Mask
Neck: Peacock Charm
L.Ear: Assault Earring
R.Ear: Buckler Earring
Body: Haubergeon
Hands: Fourth Division Gauntlets
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Ulthalam's Ring
Back: Exactw/e Mantle+1 (Acc+2) or Jaeger Mantle? Don't know about this slot either.
Waist: Swift Belt
Legs: Sipahi Zerehs
Feet: AF1 Feet

[Benevolentone]

What are the exact stats on Pot-au-Feu? I looked on wiki but there is a bit of a difference between 10 and 25% R ATK and R ACC so I was wondering if anyone knew closer stats.

[Wolfknight]

Suggestions for PLD60?

Main: Bastard Sword
Sub: Sentinel Shield / Iron Ram Shield (I have no idea here)
Ranged:-----
Ammo: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walkure Mask
Neck: Peacock Charm
L.Ear: Assault Earring
R.Ear: Buckler Earring
Body: Haubergeon
Hands: Fourth Division Gauntlets
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Ulthalam's Ring
Back: Exactw/e Mantle+1 (Acc+2) or Jaeger Mantle? Don't know about this slot either.
Waist: Swift Belt
Legs: Sipahi Zerehs
Feet: AF1 Feet

I'd use the following R.K. Legs, T.M. Sword +2 better since you'll sync a lot to colibiri, and I am pretty sure -delay and attack would beat the damage, +acc mantle til AM/+1, Sentinel Shield, and parade gorget depending on how much refresh you getting.

[6souls]

Has anyone done any testing with their base Aern/Synergy weapons? I just got Concordia and had been using Beast Slayer main hand and I'm noticing a sizable damage increase on WS between the two C 46 BS 42. It seems natural, but I've been noticing it being a 1/3+ more damage. There is no change between Spirits Within, but a single hit like Flat Blade is doing 40 more and multi-hits doing 200-300 more naked w/ no spells.

[Marcicus]

I'd use the following R.K. Legs, T.M. Sword +2 better since you'll sync a lot to colibiri, and I am pretty sure -delay and attack would beat the damage, +acc mantle til AM/+1, Sentinel Shield, and parade gorget depending on how much refresh you getting.

tbh i was planning on just using parade gorget between fights since most of the time i'll have sanction refresh+auto refresh+ballad/refresh/evokers anyway.

Choice for food is Crab Sushi or Dorado Sushi right? I have 6 Sword merits.

[Martinius]

go with crab sushi on colibri. at least on alexander, crab sushi is 20k less than dorado.

[requim]

T. M. +2 is your best sword, and it would not be synced for any bird party. Wize Wizard's Anelace is prolly better than T. M. Espadon +1, also 55 so it would also not be synced. Bastard sword, while it has a higher DPS, would prolly be gimped while synced, though worth keeping for campaign or FOV I guess.

Basically if you have any gear that is about the same, like sentinel shield vs iron ram, always lean towards the piece that won't be synced.

[Wolfknight]

tbh i was planning on just using parade gorget between fights since most of the time i'll have sanction refresh+auto refresh+ballad/refresh/evokers anyway.

Choice for food is Crab Sushi or Dorado Sushi right? I have 6 Sword merits.

Crab, and even with refresh+auto-refresh+Sanction I still was able to make good use of gorget's MP ussually, since I could opt for just taking another DD buffs then from brd, or cor which should be better than PCC ussually. Though I had the lower mp pool of elvaan, if your taru wouldn't be as much of an issue.

[Yugl]

What do /b/ and /v/ mean?