Random Question Thread VI: I'm No Mathologist, But...

[McGoonagle]

Did you personally land the killing blow on 5 mobs?

Is that's what's necessary to get a coffer?

I'm fairly sure I got a killing blow in on one, but the attacks were small and the NPC population so large, that I rarely got more than one swing on each mob before they went down.

[McGoonagle]

How do you pull the crabs in Korroloka Tunnel for SMN burns? I know you can't /heal near them or make them link, yet I saw someone run through with a crap ton of crabs and leeches last night. Methinks I am being trolled, but if there's a way I'd like to know.

I don't do SMN burns, but usually you chain using a quick-casting attention getter like Poison or Dia. You can chain them by casting on individual mobs as you run past. If you have a bunch, cast on the one furthest away from you. That should do it.

Otherwise, if nothing else is around, you can use a -ga spell. I suspect a -ga managed to get a mixed crowd of crabs and leeches.

[Taint]

Whats the best mob to fight for getting 230 or 240 dagger skill for a lv 75 brd only character? I feel it would be nice for me to be able to use evisceration during campaign instead of being dependent on spirits within for wsdamage. I already tried kuftal crabs and they didn't give any skillups at all.

The best place to skill up is on Ramparts in BR. Nobody cares if you are using a gimp weapon and everyone gets to melee. I get about 30 skill lvls per run and its easy to organize a group.

[hypnotizd]

Is that's what's necessary to get a coffer?

I'm fairly sure I got a killing blow in on one, but the attacks were small and the NPC population so large, that I rarely got more than one swing on each mob before they went down.

To get a coffer your Union has to have a total of 1500 exp or more combined between all participants (IIRC). In order to gain a share in the spoils you personally need to get 300 exp. I'm not sure if landing the killing blow grants 1 item per kill, but I do know that if a union member kills a NM then one of those Fey weapons can load in the pool.

[Deader2818]

If no one recovers the Astral Candescence, will it return when conquest update or stay till soemone goes and gets it?

[JigglyJam]

What do I need in order to change the name of a monster which happens to be a placeholder for an NM?

[Gosyac]

What do I need in order to change the name of a monster which happens to be a placeholder for an NM?

You'll need a hex editor to open the .dats, know which zone .dat holds the spawn of the mob, and which place it appears in widescan (corresponds to it's place in the .dat).
This thread, 6th post down, lists the zones .dats locations.
Atleast, this is how I've done it.

[FailureMidgard]

This is a question that's mainly directed at Failure, but anyone else should feel free to answer as well.

I just would like to know what a, "Proper" Polearm TP build on SAM/WAR at birds would be. I went through the SAM polearm debate thread, the WAR polearm debate thread and the penta thrust thread, but what I found there really wasn't anything substantial (not to mention Konda's WS gear sets seem much more thought out than anything mentioned there as well).

The obvious changes to his TP set would be Swift Belt -> Velocious, but I wanted to hear/see your opinions on a mixed gear set v.s. Full Usu. This is also obviously utilizing Tomoe unless there is a better Polearm for SAM that I am unaware of.

If you would also please touch on spamming crab sushi vs getting Pianissimo Madrigal and the advantages / disadvantages of both I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for any answers ahead of time!

To begin with, some factors will change based on buffs/etc. Also, double march+haste is assumed. There is really no excuse to not have it. Meriting without at least 1 bard is a huge waste of time in my personal opinion. I personally don't even go without 2 buff type people, but I'll give in that not everyone can get that whenever they want, so I'm only assuming 1 as a given, and 2x march will without question, outdo March+Minuet, though you won't get as many epeen Pentas.

Ok, first goal on your gear is hit build. I'm personally a huge fan of a true 5hit, meaning whenever I get feather tickled, it's exactly 5 hits to get back to 100tp. A multihit 5hit means that you have a 5hit, but you rely on ~2-3 additional hits on your Penta to land (and you get >20 tp return from Penta) in order to hit 100 TP in 5 hits. It goes without saying that feather tickle ruins this, as 5 swings from your TP set won't net 100 TP (though, sometimes getting hit can change this). If you have the damage/support to fulltime Hasso, a true 5hit is less important. If you are expected to use Seigan, then I wouldn't count on getting hit for TP.

Your second goal is to cap accuracy, with as narrow a margin as possible. It turns out that Crab Sushi with full haste gear does this pretty well if you have top gear. Alternatively, if you have all the available accuracy options, a riceball build may very well keep up (but I don't think a meat build will).

Tomoe-Pole-BTath
Turban-PCC-Fowling-Brutal
Usu-Dusk(+1)-Rajas-Sniper
Forager's-VBelt-Byakko-Usu

Acc Bonus: 5+4+10+3+12+5+7=+46
Dex Bonus: 1+8+5+15=+29
Base Dex for a Hume Sam/War is 68. 68+29=97, 97*.75=72
240 skill = 236 acc.
236+46+72=354
354*1.13 (crab sushi)=400. This is 7 accuracy short of cap, which you really should try to make up somewhere. Best options are a Hasso party, Cuch Mantle (8 acc), merits, or try to squeeze some out with things like Hollow Earring, dusk glove augment, HQ Sniper, Ancient Torque, Turban+1 w/ 2 dex, etc. If you can't squeeze the gil for any of those, and you can't use Hasso, Ace's helm is acceptable, as 7 accuracy does beat 1 haste when uncapped accuracy. Please please don't keep Ace's on if you can get that 8 accuracy -anywhere- else though.
The best would be merits, obviously, as then you could ideally swap to a Love Torque for more attack and crit even if it's 1 acc loss, keep an attack back on, etc. Really, I can't give a best setup for you, because I don't know what you have available. Personally, I had no jobs I cared about Ethereal on, so I took a Hollow Earring. I also don't care about combat merits for any job but sam (I don't see a point to multiple DD), so I put merits into pole.
As far as Penta goes, with sushi up, you really can almost ignore accuracy on other pieces. If you don't have the Turban +1, but have the 15wsac, 4str, 2% WSdmg helm, then you definitely can ignore accuracy elsewhere, and use full attack/mod gear for WS. Ignore Virtuoso Belt, use a warwolf (which is a -very- good augment option, mine has +4 attack personally), drop Usu feet and use Rutters, use a STR ring, etc/etc.

This is just general guidelines. If you want specifics, feel free to PM me with what you currently use, what type of stuff you have/don't have access to, and I'd be glad to give you more specific advice to your current situation. Try to include as much as you can (is Hasso ok, what helm augment you have/plan to get/can't get, etc). but ya, get your hit build>cap accuracy with as high haste as possible>increase attack as much as possible is the general guideline to every 2h DD.

[JigglyJam]

You'll need a hex editor to open the .dats, know which zone .dat holds the spawn of the mob, and which place it appears in widescan (corresponds to it's place in the .dat).
This thread, 6th post down, lists the zones .dats locations.
Atleast, this is how I've done it.

Thanks for this; in the hex editor, I'm assuming the list appears as it does as if you used widescan in game? XVI32

EDIT: Appears so, killed NM, quickly logged and changed name of PH and on PH repop it had the name I changed it to. Thanks for the help!

[Yubar]

To get a coffer your Union has to have a total of 1500 exp or more combined between all participants (IIRC). In order to gain a share in the spoils you personally need to get 300 exp. I'm not sure if landing the killing blow grants 1 item per kill, but I do know that if a union member kills a NM then one of those Fey weapons can load in the pool.

I'm not really sure about if a union member has to kill the NM to get a Fey weapon. A few days go I was doing campaign, and I was the only one in my union. NM nin Yagudo shows up and kills everyone, but me and a couple of NPCs. One of the NPC gets the killing blow and the Fey weapon still showed up in my union coffer.

[Chen]

whats the best way for dealing with the demon boss in T3 einherjar? he's the one who gives us the most difficulty?

also.

war/nin w/ sword merits from pld, capped acc IF using sushi

organics/ridill or man/ridill? (in einherjar, at least haste/marchx2/minx2, maybe some cor rolls in there) I'm sure GA is better, but would like an answer to this.

[Talisien]

Likes his poles hasty with high accuracy

What's a turban+1?

[Andradi]

2dex / 5 haste AMK hat. Monumental waste, imo.

[FailureMidgard]

2dex / 5 haste AMK hat. Monumental waste, imo.

I'm sure you have no numbers to support this, but I'll bite, why do you think that? It really depends on the rest of your gear/etc to be honest, but it's not a "monumental waste", IMO.

[BunkMonk]

For slug shot on Corsair, which would give higher numbers (let's say on birds):

STR +36, AGI +11, RATT +15
or
STR +31, AGI +16, RATT +24

I'm assuming the second set would win due to the higher AGI and RATT, but I could be wrong. I don't know how STR stacks up to RATT or how AGI (modifier in this case) compares to the STR (technically not a modifier, but still vital).

[Andradi]

I feel the benefit making into either a WS piece or some kind of mage/pet job item would be far more than the 1% (?) benefit the extra dex offers for most people.

That's just like, my opinion man. I'm sure some people with better in slot items (Maat's cap, heca etc) could get good use from a Turban +1, but most people I think will gain more from something else.

For multihit weaponskills +WSdmg and +WSacc or some similar combination allows you to drop a bunch of acc in other slots that heca does not. For SAM and other single hit weaponskills, doesn't 4STR +2% damage come out better than most available options? (For SAM I see this being pretty likely, for others Heca might be better?)

[Yugl]

I'm sure you have no numbers to support this, but I'll bite, why do you think that? It really depends on the rest of your gear/etc to be honest, but it's not a "monumental waste", IMO.

I agree simply because of the fact that it comes at the cost of benefiting another class (Whether that be now or in the future). Finding members to do the final fight becomes scarcer as more people complete the fight. Moreover, if it truly is the last piece of equipment you can use, then you should have all the *other* gear that can make up for your ACC deficit.

[matix]

For slug shot on Corsair, which would give higher numbers (let's say on birds):

STR +36, AGI +11, RATT +15
or
STR +31, AGI +16, RATT +24

I'm assuming the second set would win due to the higher AGI and RATT, but I could be wrong. I don't know how STR stacks up to RATT or how AGI (modifier in this case) compares to the STR (technically not a modifier, but still vital).

off the top of my head im gunna say the str set wins, but i dont have my spreadsheet with me as im posting from work, maybe someone else can post some more precise input

[FailureMidgard]

I agree simply because of the fact that it comes at the cost of benefiting another class (Whether that be now or in the future). Finding members to do the final fight becomes scarcer as more people complete the fight. Moreover, if it truly is the last piece of equipment you can use, then you should have all the *other* gear that can make up for your ACC deficit.

Eh? People are too stuck in the mindset of "TPing in STR rings is 100% of the time wrong". Yea, at some point you have all the acc you need, but then when you can gain small amounts in certain areas, you can drop accuracy elsewhere. Or hell, you can use the Turban+1 with STR on it.

Past that though, the counter on the helm is very nice, esp if you're talking about a Hasso situation, and is probably more damage than any other possible helm could increase it by. This isn't counting any job that may want said counter for /nin ichi cast.

In my personal opinion a lot of those helms are equally "monumental wastes". I'm just interested to see someone quantifying why the turban+1 is a waste, unless you truly have no use for the accuracy (or crit), but I'd like to see gearsets/etc before I'd even believe that.

[FailureMidgard]

I feel the benefit making into either a WS piece or some kind of mage/pet job item would be far more than the 1% (?) benefit the extra dex offers for most people.

That's just like, my opinion man. I'm sure some people with better in slot items (Maat's cap, heca etc) could get good use from a Turban +1, but most people I think will gain more from something else.

For multihit weaponskills +WSdmg and +WSacc or some similar combination allows you to drop a bunch of acc in other slots that heca does not. For SAM and other single hit weaponskills, doesn't 4STR +2% damage come out better than most available options? (For SAM I see this being pretty likely, for others Heca might be better?)

For GK WSes, that hat is about equal to Heca cap, /shrug. It's a nice piece, but it's in no way game breaking (I'm not saying Turban+1 is either). I'm saying it depends a lot on what jobs you have and what other options are available (like you said, such as Maat's cap), but none of them are -that- good is my only real point.