What's Better?

[aspekt]

I don't have problem getting tp on staff or club. I am just saying.

It will help on any weapon that needs to be used for proc it's a better way to say it.

[Classikmage]

I'm not quite sure I understand your response to his question well, but I'm guessing you're saying no way Loki's is a good choice. A lot of your statements are... incredibly flawed.

First, snapshot doesn't work like haste. It's still useful, but it's not end-all-be-all. It only shortens the first part of the ranged attack sequence and doesn't affect the delay of shooting phase. There's also the inherent nature of having input the shoot command every time you want to shoot, unlike just auto-attacking as a melee. Timing your shots to max your efficiency isn't hard, but it's human to be off by fractions of a second from time to time, which is important when this is all put into practice vs. calculating things under best outcomes. Store TP -is- easy to get in other spots, however, you're correct on that. 5-hit bow is incredibly easy to get nowadays.

Second, no, he's not asking whether a 35% boost to a ws is going to beat out a 400% boost to ws damage. There's a few things wrong here. Sidewinder's description says 'Quadruple damage' but it's 5.00 ftp, not 4.00. This would actually strengthen your argument, but it still irks me because being incorrect about something so well-known to most players out there makes what you say not hold as much water. Next, the comparison you're trying to make is wrong as it fails to take into account a few things. First and most important, the option you're trying to discourage (Arching Arrow) is 3.50. You're comparing 3.50 to 5.00, not 1.0(boosted by 35% crit damage with RR and Loki's) to 4.0 like you said. Not only that, but the 35% crit damage bonus is applied after the critical hit increase. Therefore, it's closer to (3.50 x 1.25pDIF increase x 1.35) versus... 5.00. With RR and Gnarled Horn you should have over 50% Crit hit rate easy(and an additional 50 AGI), and critical WSs tend to have higher crit chance than normal. Arching Arrow's is currently unknown.

All this said, I would not be surprised at all if it ended up being better than Sidewinder spam with VV+other DD atma setups. Remember a WS like Ascetic's Fury with 1.00 fTP(albeit having better mods and the nature of hand-to-hand granting you 2 hits) became better than Asuran Fists in abyssea, which is 8.0 total. Perhaps someone more used to crunching the numbers can chime in and provide better math, mine is admittedly not complete.

I was playing around with RR + SA a few days before I got Loki's after a friend gave me the idea. Only really got to try it on one mob before I went to bed. Sidewinder was doing about 1300+ on Amhuluk, while Arching Arrow(when it crit) was doing 1900+, the few times Arching Arrow didn't crit it still pulled off 1100+.

I want to test it a bit more, but I need more chances to come RNG to do that, lol. I was just curious if there was a chance it could be better than Kirin's Osode for Arching Arrow assuming those 2 atmas.

EDIT: I could try w/ GH next time too. I just feel funny taking off another 40 STR and 30 R Attack. Though, taking off the 30 R Attack from Difter didn't really make a noticeable difference in my shots. I guess I would just have to do more playing around.

[MaachaQ]

The Wiki page is woefully out of date regarding Abyssea gear, so I was wondering what other options existed for Redmage hands. I have Morrigan hands and the abjurations for Z. Mitts and Shadow Cuffs (Which I plan to HQ if I uncurse them at all). I don't get to play Redmage very often anymore and haven't kept track of what new gear there is for the job ^^; I know there should still be situations where Morrigan, Z Mitts, and Valk Cuffs should be useful, but how much trouble should I put into getting them, or is there other gear already that surpasses them and should I not even bother?

I also have the abjuration for Shadow Coat, and am trying for the HQ, since for Bard AFAIK it is still the best for songs that need pure MAcc. Of course, come the Dec. update that might change... >.>

[Clave]

I was playing around with RR + SA a few days before I got Loki's after a friend gave me the idea. Only really got to try it on one mob before I went to bed. Sidewinder was doing about 1300+ on Amhuluk, while Arching Arrow(when it crit) was doing 1900+, the few times Arching Arrow didn't crit it still pulled off 1100+.

I want to test it a bit more, but I need more chances to come RNG to do that, lol. I was just curious if there was a chance it could be better than Kirin's Osode for Arching Arrow assuming those 2 atmas.

EDIT: I could try w/ GH next time too. I just feel funny taking off another 40 STR and 30 R Attack. Though, taking off the 30 R Attack from Difter didn't really make a noticeable difference in my shots. I guess I would just have to do more playing around.

I thought as much, nice. For Loki's vs Osode, it's Loki's hands down for when you're going for crit atmas. Like you said it's basically a matter of the 10 STR vs the 5% Critical hit damage, so Loki's easily wins seeing as you've likely got capped fSTR in abyssea and so you're only going to see benefit from the 16% mod on WS, which isn't much to begin with.

[Alkimi]

The Wiki page is woefully out of date regarding Abyssea gear, so I was wondering what other options existed for Redmage hands. I have Morrigan hands and the abjurations for Z. Mitts and Shadow Cuffs (Which I plan to HQ if I uncurse them at all). I don't get to play Redmage very often anymore and haven't kept track of what new gear there is for the job ^^; I know there should still be situations where Morrigan, Z Mitts, and Valk Cuffs should be useful, but how much trouble should I put into getting them, or is there other gear already that surpasses them and should I not even bother?

I also have the abjuration for Shadow Coat, and am trying for the HQ, since for Bard AFAIK it is still the best for songs that need pure MAcc. Of course, come the Dec. update that might change... >.>

Morri hands and Augur's Gloves (Drops from Chloris, an easy NM in Abyssea-Tahrongi) should cover everything rdm-wise. Maybe AF2 gloves aswell if it breaks a tier and Darksteel+1 if you want an optimum PDT set.

If you want the best possible nukes then Eradico mitts (MAB+7) are 100% drop from Ulhuadshi, a mildly more annoying version of Glavoid.

Regarding Shadow Coat, tbh I wouldn't bother with it. I'd imagine Augur's Jaseran (Drops from Ovni) is hitting the floor for most people farming it and it's probably a better option, especially for lullaby.

[shepardG]

What are the two best Atma's for Blue mage currently? I'm leveling it in my spare time (it's 64) so i'll probably be capped by next weekend, and i'm curious what i should be going in with, i'll be my small group of friends blue proc on NM's, so i'll be spending a few days collecting my spells and was just curious as to how a blue typically gears for which spells. thanks in advance

[aspekt]

Minikin Monstrosity for one.

Depends on your play style

VV, RR, baying moon, haven.

[shepardG]

K, I'll do some more research into the specific spells that are currently the "go-to-spells" I had a feeling it would be MM but was unsure on the 2nd

[Kidnoftle]

If you want the best possible nukes then Eradico mitts (MAB+7) are 100% drop from Ulhuadshi, a mildly more annoying version of Glavoid.

25-40min rdm/nin 2x duo, 2KI pop nm, and I'm sure you could find people that want the synth mats. This would be probably the second easiest piece for you to get (the first being augur's jaseran).

[danthebk]

Okay, Warrior TP set. Assume /sam, outside of abyssea. Accuracy is well over the cap against almost all mobs.

Maschu+1|PoleGrip | |FireBomb
Walmart |PCC |Brutal |Ethereal
Adaberk |NQDusk |Rajas |Toreador's
Belenos' |Velocious |Ravagers+2|Ravagers+2

PCC vs. Ravager's
FireBomb vs Ravager's
Belenos' vs Forager's vs Cuch
Ethereal Alternative?
Other Alternatives?

[Neisan]

I'm confused, judging by Nightfyre's post in another thread his crit rate probably isn't capped on ranged attacks, and it's doing less damage than side when it doesn't crit, so he's probably not critting even half the time, and I was told for damage calculation on RNG add weapon and ammo dmg, so fSTR would probably be uncapped as well, or am I supposed to ignore the ammo? if you switch to GH your STR goes down even further and Ratk as well if it matters.

EDIT: to above, aesir/merman's > ethereal, Ravager's beats PCC if your acc is still capped but not by much or consider agasaya's/sea torque, consider chivalrous chain or almah torque if you need xhit, keep Belenos also for Xhit/ otherwise forager's, consider hoard/goading for Xhit if necessary, doubtful with maschu's delay but I don't remember the numbers I had for 5 hit offhand.

[Clave]

You only take the weapon's rank into account. You don't include ammo in fSTR calculation. RNG should have capped fSTR in abyssea.

Also, GH gives 40 AGI. Generally all the used archery weapon skills have a 25% AGI mod and only a 16% STR mod. It's even more significant with marksmanship since there is no STR mod and the AGI mod is typically 30%.

That said, VV is still a very powerful atma. Regain heavily favors ranged attacks due to their nature, although they gain no benefit whatsoever from the DA... so it's basically a 2/tic Regain and 25 R.atk atma only in most cases. If you use Stalwart's and use good food you may not even need the R.attack, despite ranged pdif capping higher at 3.0.

I haven't gotten to play around with those atmas myself yet on RNG since I'm stuck on THF or SAM, but I plan to use RR+GH when I do.

The one thing I'm curious about in regards to ranged critical attacks is whether it's affected by DEX like regular melee attacks are and if so, if it's affected the same way. I don't think I've ever seen anything conclusive on it.

[Neisan]

Not seeing how you're capping fSTR for Siege Bow assuming basic gear and no STR atma, expecially on taru rng's abyssmal str rating. Siege bow is Rank 9 and upper cap of fstr2 for it would be 34, Taru Rng with merits just about has around ~70 str (stat calc is off abit, says 66, should probably be 68, with merits 73), backwards calculation on cocks had them as around 89 Vit, with no str atma you're not reaching upper cap of fSTR2 unless I'm missing something, even counting furtherance atmas.

[Clave]

Ah you're right, I see ranged fSTR takes roughly twice as much STR to cap as it does to melee, I was going by how I had calculated this for my SAM. If cockatrice are around 89 VIT, then it should take 153 STR total?

So yeah you'd be getting DMG bonus from fSTR most likely when it comes to ranged attacks, how much depends on how much you had before and how much excess you end up with after VV, since you'll likely hit the fSTR cap before all 50 STR from VV.

[Alrik]

just some random questions concerning atmas but what would be the best atma combinations for sam and cor? using RR+VV on sam and VV+Drifter on cor so far, but since sam doesnt benefit that much from RR i was questioning myself what would be a better combination with VV.

[shepardG]

On the ranger disscussion:
Trueflight, holy bolt build can't be beat currently, imho (im at work but ill post some parses tonight)
Basically GH+atma of the beyond. With stat buffs, +50agi, +60MAB, crit rate increase, /SAM, and a virtus bow/machine bow I can't see how it can be beaten short of a relic or emp weapon. Ill post gear tonight but it has worked well for me

[Mercilessturtle]

Just to clarify, it isn't 60 MAB. It is 30 mab and then +30% damage to ice and light damage calculated separately at the end.

[Nightfyre]

I'm confused, judging by Nightfyre's post in another thread his crit rate probably isn't capped on ranged attacks

I wouldn't know; that was me on DNC with a chakram outside Windurst. I don't have any true /ra jobs. That parse was to check the effect of Jupiter's Staff on ranged attacks, nothing more.

[matix]

so what if i plan to kraken for TP on rng. am i better spamming sides with str/ratk atma, or RR and use Arch. Arrows~ Or what does anyone recommend, (purely for krakening)

[Colenzo]

so what if i plan to kraken for TP on rng. am i better spamming sides with str/ratk atma, or RR and use Arch. Arrows~ Or what does anyone recommend, (purely for krakening)

voracious violet + strong arm