[DarkDreamer]

First off, yeah I know another damn Kikoku/WS topic. Most of the topics I've looked at revolve a lot around Jin lately and Metsu really hasn't been looked at in ahwile. I'm getting close to a Kikoku to call my own and I wanted to get some fresh eyes others thoughts and ideas I may not be thinking of.

I'm currently sitting at 32/70 to finish off my Kikoku once and for all. While I considered doing a relic that is "more useful" and has a better damage output or more widely acceptable to the general population (Apoc/Amano/Aegis) I personally have a passion for Ninja and I've self funded/sponsored Dynamis to get this far so to hell with everyone else this is for me not everyone else. I'm not doing the weapon for Metsu alone, I would however like to make the most out of it when it is a viable WS to use. I'm looking for ideal setups for Metsu. I have the gear in mind for it, I just don't have it all yet.

Yes, I know lol at me for finishing a relic before getting every single piece of OMG orgasmic piece of gear for it. It just so happens that getting the relic completed has been easier for me. rather than not getting drops on gear I've been trying to get or Salvage groups falling apart, etc, etc.

Now I'm looking at Dex builds here mainly, after talking with a small handful of Kikoku holders they told me to focus on the Dex when using Metsu. The setup I'm looking at is:

Kikoku
Perdu Blade
Fire Bomblet
Maat's Cap (Voyager Sallet)
Breeze Gorget
Brutal Earring
Pixie Earring (Androit Earring)
Usukane Haramaki (Haubergeon +1)
Hachiryu Kote (AF1+1)
Rajas Ring
Thunder Ring
Cuchulain's Mantle
Warwolf Belt (not 100% here)
Byakko's Haidate
Pln. Crackows (unsure here)

My current gear/easier to obtain hear is in the parenthesis.

There's probably gear I'm just not thinking of, any thoughts or ideas are welcomed.

[Symbios]

Looks pretty good- an alternative to Pahluwan for feet would be Gothic Sabatons or whatever from the treasure Caskets. It comes from Behemoth's Dominion, if I'm not mistaken. If you're a fan of night-time setups, Koga Kyahan give DEX+7.

As I recall, don't relic WSs have the problem of not given attack bonus like other single-hit weapon skills do? How important would attack factor into the overall picture- I recall many SAMs preferring to use attack+ gear for Tachi: Kaiten despite the 60% STR mod.

[DarkDreamer]

Ah yeah I should have made that note AF2 feet at night time, yeah I have night and day sets already.

Yeah the Gothics are also an option, and they're free if I could just get them out of the caskets.

None of the Kikoku holders I've talked to have said anything about boosting Attack but I only talked to a small handful so I could very well be mistaken on that.

[Symbios]

I don't own Kikoku or any relics myself- anything I'm saying is based on hearsay alone. But from what I've seen of SAMs (Because I don't see Metsu threads very often, but Kaiten pops up pretty often on SAM forums), they use things like Byrnie +1 and stuff because Kaiten does not give the huge attack bonus that YGK does.

But one thing to keep in mind is that Metsu is a one-hit weapon skill, and most NINs prefer to gear accuracy on their WS because our big WS numbers will come from multi-hits like Jin. If Metsu doesn't give any attack bonus, gearing attack might be a good idea. I guess the easiest thing to do would be to test how Haubergeon (NQ) stacks up against Kirin's Osode or something. Haubergeon has always been the obvious choice on multi-hits, but gotta see how it does on a single-hit like Metsu.

[Konda]

soem things which you didnt mention:

gnagbad helm, if no maats cap
cuch belt (6dex/10 attack)
bounding boots, save yourself 20k AP
lightening bow+1 (although i'm pretty sure you'd benefit from the bomblet more.)
Bomb core instead of bomblet if not using bow.

[Ark33]

lightening bow+1 (although i'm pretty sure you'd benefit from the bomblet more.)

Are you suggesting to tp in lightening bow +1 ?
Or to loose tp when you swap it for ws ?

[Konda]

(although i'm pretty sure you'd benefit from the bomblet more.)

implying that you cant swap between them.

and the next line does say:

Bomb core instead of bomblet if not using bow.

[Cynthya]

My metsu build is pretty close to what you posted, i use:

Kikoku
Perdu Blade
Fire Bomblet
Gnadbhod's Helm
Kubira Beads or Breeze Gorget
Brutal Earring
Minuet Earring (trying to get my hands on a Pixie)
Usukane Haramaki
Ninja Tekko+1 (will buy Hachiryu Kote as soon as i find for reasonable price)
Rajas Ring
Thunder Ring
Cuchulain's Mantle
Warwolf Belt (i've considered Cuchulain's Belt, wont bother trying it until i have Pixie/Hachiryu though)
Byakko's Haidate
Marine F Boots & Koga Kyahan+1 (from 17:00 to 7:00)

Hope this helps~

[DarkDreamer]

Thanks for the input.

Yeah I forgot about that helmet, good catch.

Well hopefully I'll be able to finish my katana soon. I have a really sweet deal set up to buy the rest of the Bynes I need, the LS just needs to get them all. Then beat down my Fragment and start begging people/LS's for the 30 Byne loan. Hopefully I'll be done by the mid-end summer giving me time to hopefully finish some Usukane gear, I'll probably be going for feet first then Body. ^^

[Striker]

I've had my kikoku for a bit now, and while there are some things I should get to make my metsu build better I haven't had the time to play to be able to get the drops lately.

But my current build is:

Kikoku/Perdu
Bomblet
Voyager Sallet
Breeze Gorget
Brutal/Ardoit (+2 dex earring)
Haub+1
AF+1 hands
Rajas/Thunder
Cerberus(hopeing for the HQ one of these days)
Warwolf ( been meaning to get a cuch belt to try it out )
Byakko's
Rutter/Relic feet depending on time

I have tried Kubira Beads in multiple merit parties, and frankly I got about the same numbers when I hit, but my acc on ws was only around 80%. Where I since have changed to the breeze gorget and rarely miss now. As for numbers my metsu's generally are pretty equal to my jins where I get a consistant 700-800 with the occasional 1k+ however you'll get more of the 1k+ if you go with jin.