What's Better?

[Wolfknight]

Aura Steal is nice for solo (by which I mean, just thf - no dual boxing etc.) and you may need/want to dispel something. Just one merit in it is enough for this though, I can't think of any situations where I'd want to be guaranteed to steal a buff rather than simply dispel it with stealing it being an added plus.

JoL's boost only thing that comes to mind.

[Albatross]

Yigit Crackows (3 INT 2 MAB) vs. Duelist's Boots (4 MAB) for rdm with no ele merits.

[Nevex]

JoL's boost only thing that comes to mind.

Also, pretty much any mob that uses an eva boost move if you're eva tanking it.

I'd go 1/5 Assassin Charge and 4/5 Aura Steal.

Considering it's not uncommon having a THF eva tanking Charybdis (Hard Membrane), Serket (Evasion), Roc/Simurgh (Feather Barrier) and such, it's a good investiment.

[noodles355]

Magma Hoplon too. Everytime you dispel that Stoneskin it's like doing 1000 damage. Likewise everytime you dispel the spikes, it's like curing XXX damage. You wont be able to remove both buffs at once or everytme he uses it, but it's still essentially a free big cure/damage spike every 5min (not like you're wasting an ally spot - you'll be there for TH anyway)

Aura Steal is about the dispel more than the absorb imo. If I were you I'd do 4/5 Ass Charge and 1/5 Aura Steal.

Edit: And thanks above for the MDef data. I already have lamia mantle+1 and merman's rings. I'd prefer to build my def set around Shell4 for solo purposes, but I didn't conside that some o the mdt- pieces will be bselete with shell5...

[Fredjan]

What's the accepted "Best" cape for WHM?


edit: to make this fit better in the thread

Errant vs Ixion vs Aslan vs something else? WHATS BETTER?

Figured I'd reply to this even if I'm a page late.

Errant/Mahatma for most cures/-enmity purposes.
Aslan for Cure V / slow/para/banish/holy/whatever potency.
Ixion is a waste of space on WHM if you have Errant/Aslan. It's only "ok" if you don't have either one, as the -VIT hurts the MND+5 on cures, making it in-between a Rainbow Cape and a Prism iirc...
Merciful Cape for barspells.
Altruistic Cape for enfeebling/divine accuracy.
Umbra Cape for idle/-dmg%.
Gigant Mantle for Devotion if you wish.
Invigorating Cape for hMP.
Skulker's Cape for Sneak/Invis!... *stops here*

tl;dr: There is no "best" cape for WHM, every cape has its use, but if I had to pick one, it'd probably be errant, -enmity will help in almost all actions. However, all capes I listed are useful to the job in some extent.

[nitsuj]

Yeah Mahatma and then Aslan combo. Don't want to use Ixion for cure V because the extra mnd is offset by the -vit. I used to idle in Umbra, lower cures > IV in Errant and V in Aslan. I know some people like to idle in Errant/Mahatma for the MP though.

I am no whm, but Mahatma cape if I had to guess best for non-cure V, and Aslan for cure V?

Cool, this is just what I figured. The VIT- thing has always bugged me, but I hung onto Ixion for some reason.

Thanks guys.

[mdkuser]

Looking at THF T2 merits, 5/5 Assassin's Charge vs. 5/5 Aura Steal? Could anyone give some examples where Aura Steal is particularly useful?

There is no point meriting aura 5 times; additional merits only increase the chance of absorption, not the chance of success. So do assassin's charge 4/5 and 1/5 steal; now, ambush is far more useful than ass charge.

[Cairthenn]

There is no point meriting aura 5 times; additional merits only increase the chance of absorption, not the chance of success. So do assassin's charge 4/5 and 1/5 steal; now, ambush is far more useful than ass charge.

Assassin's Charge won't affect your damage that greatly and if you're honestly trying to full DD on THF then..well..

Dispelling buffs is nice utility so look into that, stealing them is just additional fun, can be really helpful sometimes. :s

[noodles355]

Don't forget that TA and DA procs have 100% accuracy when stacked with SA or TA. They don't with SA/TA+WS, but that's what's great about having feint on a 2min timer.

I'd leave ambush, it's got a few problems:
Mobs move. You wont be behind it 100% and I doubt people will line up so they are all infront of it.
If it's colibri, unless you have an equally geared drg in the party, normal dagger DoT will probably hold the mobs attention untill someone WSs anyway.
It's only 9Acc if you get 1/5 AC and 1/5 Aura.
Building a gearset around a buff that depends on the mob's position is pretty sketchy anyway - sort of like building your set around the Evasion down add proc on a Thalassocrat.
You move around enough as it is with SA/TA.

I just mainly don't like the idea of having to base my acc gear chocies around a buff that will essentially randomly be up. If it was a damage boost instead I'd be all over it.

[mdkuser]

the real reason in merited ambush is so that i can actually remove 15 accuracy from my SA WS macro in favor of STR/DEX/ATT.

[noodles355]

WS Acc shouldn't be a huge problem considering most of the best damage pieces have acc on them anway (heactomb/skadi/cuchu/dex shit) with pizza.

As for colibri, you rarely actually have a JA and WS stacked. TAWS is weaker damage than TA+WS separately, SAWS is only good if 100%TP and the SA timer match up within a few seconds, and then obvioulsy only if it's facing away from you or hide is up.
I generally only stack SA and WS if theres 2-3 seconds on the JA when at 100%TP, or if I have over 85-90%TP when the JA is up. Gimps your damage to wait on one or the other.

[mdkuser]

life belt > warwolf, cuchu > cerb+1

[noodles355]

You actually need to use life belt...?

Considering how easy it is to get Acc when building for damage on thief, any time where your acc is bad enough that you'll need shit like life belt will probably mean you should be using Mandallic Stab anyway.

Edit: Exceptions being shit like Lurkers. But that's what feint is for!

[Azriell]

I've seen a rough formula used to compare the impact of accuracy and haste to one's hit rate, but I don't remember where, or exactly how it was broken down. I'm interested in comparing Virtuoso Belt to Swift Belt under a few different circumstances. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Xno Kappa]

Dropped Suppa for an Abyssal Earring. Should I swap out PCC for a Chiv Chain?

EDIT: For DRK obviously.

[Darlantan]

Dropped Suppa for an Abyssal Earring. Should I swap out PCC for a Chiv Chain?

Fighting what target, with what buffs and what gear/merits? If the new earring makes you go over the cap, you could do that change, but generally there are always better trades to do in those cases.

[Arximiro]

10 Acc Vs 24 Atk for KJ, assuming your acc is 10 from the cap.

[Thorny]

I've seen a rough formula used to compare the impact of accuracy and haste to one's hit rate, but I don't remember where, or exactly how it was broken down. I'm interested in comparing Virtuoso Belt to Swift Belt under a few different circumstances. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

relative benefits of haste;
(1-oldhaste) / (1-newhaste)
Example: 50% + Swift = (1-.5)-(1-.54) = .5/.46 = 8.6% more attacks landed over time(don't need to think about accuracy because it's a relative comparison)

relative benefits of accuracy;
Flr95(hitrate + accuracy Gain/2) / Flr95(hitrate)
Example: 80% hitrate + virtuoso over swift = Flr95(80 + 9/2) / Flr95(80) = Flr95(80 + 4.5) / Flr95(80) = Flr95(84.5) / Flr95(80) = 84.5 / 80 = 5.6% more attacks landed over time

really, swift about always wins if you have buffs though

[Gustaf the Voidbringer]

Got a Nagelring and I'm sure I got the build to put it to decent use. Any other great swords for DRK I should keep an eye out for?

[Yugl]

Got a Nagelring and I'm sure I got the build to put it to decent use. Any other great swords for DRK I should keep an eye out for?

Shinryuu did some calculation a while back that demonstrated Martial Sword to be better for Spinning Slash I believe?