What's Better?

[noodles355]

I'm betting that instead of adding new 'Magian' weapons they'll just expand and add more trials to make the current ones better. Plus, with all that crap they're spouting about not making our current gear outdated, I'm quite sure they wouldn't make something they JUST released worthless. Less useful maybe, but not worthless.

*shrugs* It'll depend on how long it takes me to get these things completed.

I don't doubt they'll expand upon them, what I'm worried about is that they'll add different options at each stage, but not increase the cap past 7 trials, meaning you won't be able to upgade one you've already finished now any further (unless they let you knock it down a stage).

I know I'm being pessimistic, but based on SE's past record with Augments, and moreso with Evolith, I feel justified in it.

[Andradi]

Finishing DRK soon, need some help.

Is there anything I could improve here other than e.body/ares?
thanks

Homam Feet > Aurum always. Make more guillotine sets, check out some AF+1 and the media section. Blitz Ring for capped ACC TP, Cuch for when you're not. VBelt etc etc.

Unless one of the new magian scythes turns out to be amazing (I'll wait until we actually know what the OAT rate is) Perdu is your best /SAM 6-hit Scythe. Moliones's (set or not) is the best AH scythe and very close to Perdu.

If can 6-hit a 528 /NIN (Rajas + Rose + lolAskar or Aurum) Tredecim or possibly the new high base D magian scythe is a good bet.

[mdkuser]

the best AH scythe is death+1 ( combine with sword strap). Well there is also orichalcum+1 but GL with that.

edit: sword strap yes!

[Raen Ryong]

Why would Death Scythe +1 beat Moliones'?

If you use anygripbutSword, 501 delay > 513 delay + 3D (2.25D if you consider the 3STR on Moli).

If you use Sword Strap on Death+1, 497~ delay + 3D (2.25D~) < 501 delay + 2% DA.

EDIT: Also Moliones' Ring is a very nice Guillotine ring etc.

[Andradi]

Do you mean sword strap? Rose Strap doesn't change the X-Hit of that weapon.

With sword it's minutely quicker to gain TP than Moli, wouldn't the STR + DA beat that?

Edit: NM, Raen to the rescue.

[Raen Ryong]

Sword + Death+1 is going to be practically identical to Pole + Moli, talking within about 0.25% of each other depending on buffs and such. Pole + Moli is considerably cheaper though and gives you a solid ring on the side!

[mdkuser]

Yes I meant sword strap .

Death+1 versus meliones:

501>498=501/498=+0.6% damage.

7%DA>5%DA=1.05/1.07=-1.8% melee and a bit less ( ~-1.5%) weapon skill.

D95 str+3 > D98 , with 10 fstr, assuming 3str give +0.75D, is 108/105.75=+2.1% melee damage. if you WS with say ~30 more str for a total of 120 STR, and total MND of 50. That's 17 fSTR and 34 WSC for death+1 and ~17.75 fSTR ~34.5 WSC for meliones. so globally (98+17+34)/(95+17.75+34.5)=+1.2% weaponskill.


with approx 40% melee 60% weaponskill damage the balance is

meliones > death+1= (501/498 )*(1.05/1.07)*(108/105.75)*0.4+(501/498 )*(1/1.015)*(98+17+34)/(95+17.75+34.5)*0.6=+0.5% damage.

Now in the best case for meliones, where 3 STR gives +1 fstr, +1 wsc it becomes

meliones > death+1= (501/498 )*(1.05/1.07)*(108/106)*0.4+(501/498 )*(1.015)*(98+17+34)/(95+18+35)*0.6=+0.1% damage.

In the worse case where 3 str doesn't add WSC nor fSTR:
meliones > death+1= (501/498 )*(1.05/1.07)*(108/106)*0.4+(501/498 )*(1.015)*(98+17+34)/(95+17+34)*0.6=+0.9% damage.

[Shinryuu]

Sword + Death+1 is going to be practically identical to Pole + Moli, talking within about 0.25% of each other depending on buffs and such. Pole + Moli is considerably cheaper though and gives you a solid ring on the side!

Blitz. I use Moli + Rajas/Blitz since the scythe itself is actually decent pre-Perdu.

[Raen Ryong]

Oh, I agree entirely. I meant mainly for the WS side of things.

[Shinryuu]

Oya saw your edit, agree.

[Avinor]

I'd like some input on where to dump the 10 merit points I'm sitting on at the moment. They need to go somewhere because by the time I'm finished with Trial #2 of my Amano, they'll have all been replenished. I'm mostly on SAM, with PLD as the only other job I really play these days. Options:

- Dump all 10 into tier2 merits for some of the jobs I almost never use (2 more levels of WarCharge recast, for example)

- Convert my 4 +Enmity merits into 4 -Enemy Crit merits. I'm not particularly concerned about having excess enmity on my SAM, but I bet my PLD could still live without it. Of course, I'm not sure if the -crits will have a noticeable effect either.

- Pump up some trivial magic skill. I have no true mage jobs and I'm not planning on leveling one, especially with new level caps coming, so I currently have 0/16 in magic merits. It would be between various PLD skills (enhancing seems the only one remotely worthwhile) or Ninjutsu (I don't really use my NIN, but I sub it all the time!)

So nothing particularly groundbreaking, but if anyone has experience with or has run the numbers on some of these, particularly the effectiveness of -crit, I'd love to hear about it.

[Thorny]

Are you a good player? Do you have arhats+1/darksteel+1/etc for when you have hate? If so, scrap the idea of deleting enm+ merits.. having hate on a good player is almost universally preferable to a poor one.

Could level a new job and have merits to put into something useful as soon as it dings.

[Darriken]

People are speculating about the OAT vs High DMG weapons atm but
I'm also wondering:

Ultimatum DMG:105 Delay:528 Vs.
Severence DMG:97 Delay 513 STR+4 Attack+15

any ideas?

[Byrthnoth]

I was 4 Enmity, 4 Crit + rate on Byrthnoth (the original). But I went 4 Crit+ Rate, 4 Enemy Crit rate -% on Byrth (the return of), and I have to say that I'm pretty happy with it. I am moderately sure that it takes the ~5% rate EP monsters have on you and reduces it to ~1% (no real numbers, just an example). This improves my survivability on RDM vastly against anything that has a low crit rate (which is actually most things in my experience). Also, I'm not sure if this has been proven (if someone has dissociated damage taken from whether or not it's a crit hit), but in my experience Crits interrupt with a much greater frequency than normal hits, and the reduced interruption rate is nice as well.

Also, I like how it improves my BLM survivability. I live in sea, so Aw'Aerns are a good subject mob for this. It takes 2 Crits + 1 hit to floor me if they catch me without shadows and out of my -PDT gear. Generally if they interrupt me with bracers on, they get two free attack rounds (hit me and interrupt, can't cast Sleep due to interruption delay, get hit again before I start to cast), which means I'm going to take at least three hits.

Realistically, they probably have a ~10% Crit hit rate on my BLM.
3*.9*.1*.1 = 2.7% of the time I'm unavoidably dead.
With Merits:
3*.94*.06*.06 = 1% of the time I'm unavoidably dead.

My gameplay is all about minimizing the number of times FFXI makes me want to bang my head on the wall, so Enemy Critical Hit rate -% merits are for me. They're the only merit category that make you more durable, and they really compliment Phalanx usage.

Think about tanking Byakko. Could you survive Diaga + Triple Attack + TP move if two of the hits in the Triple Attack were crits? How about if three were crits? That's the probability distribution you're shifting with Enemy Critical Hit Rate -% merits.

[Thorny]

Think about tanking Byakko. Could you survive Diaga + Triple Attack + TP move if two of the hits in the Triple Attack were crits? How about if three were crits? That's the probability distribution you're shifting with Enemy Critical Hit Rate -% merits.

on rdm, sure

on nin or pld it's coming down to evasion or shield rolls not just crit rolls

Byakko is pretty cuntly regardless though, and will always come down to your support. -50% PDT RDM, capped eva rate NIN, aegis PLD.. all can be floored pretty quickly if elegy is down and it decides to be an asshole. Keeping fight length to a minimum and bringing stunners that watch your hp and don't fall asleep is going to be much more relevant than whether he crits or not.

Enemy critrate- certainly is more useful than i previously gave it credit for if it reduces critrate from say 10% to 6% though, as opposed to a 4% chance of negating enemy's crit(which would be 10% -> 9.6%).

[Bikpik]

IF the OAT turns out to be 45% (or better) on the new magian weapons, would it be worth while to use a 5hit on Drk given this setup?

Weapon - 528 scythe Occ att twice
Sub - Rose Strap
Ammo - Bomblet
Head - Turban or Ace's
Neck - Peacock or Justice
Ears - Brutal/Abyssal or Brutal/Any Acc
Body - Aurum
Hands - Homam
Rings - Rajas/Blitz or Rajas/Any Acc
Back - Cuch
Waist - Velo/speed or Swift
Legs - Homam or Asa with +haste/acc
Feet - Homam

Capped scythe merits, eating carbonara and /sam to get 39 stp for a true 5 hit build. With Deye active, using turban/blitz and capped Scythe merits. Swithing to Ace's and +7 Acc ring (and maybe swift belt)when Deye is down.

And if so, what would be the ideal guillotine set for each?

[Byrthnoth]

Enemy critrate- certainly is more useful than i previously gave it credit for if it reduces critrate from say 10% to 6% though, as opposed to a 4% chance of negating enemy's crit(which would be 10% -> 9.6%).

I'm fairly sure this is the case. I'm still planning to do the obvious test (throw on Van Pendant and round up a bunch of TWs) to see if I can get it to be 0%. I can't seem to get the damned thing to spawn though. Going to go try a spawn or two again after Maintenance probably, otw to sea.

[Khajit]

for when lv 80 hits. whm/nin
Magians Calucla (fred perry?) club/octave
Or magians OAT(the good one)/octave
Is there a different combo that would be better than those?

[Chen]

you'll want to be using the high dmg club (Calucla?) if you're offhanding KC/OC

[Fwahm]

Is anyone else currently having trouble logging back onto Sylph? Whenever I try, I get an error message saying I am unable to connect with the server, error message 3001.

Any way to fix this?