[KittyFatale]

ive got great advice from this forum. especially on going the GA route. My tp build is fine(missing byakko still) but for WS i get mixed info as to whether STR or ATTK is better for RR/KJ/Rampage
Currently i have 8/8 GA merits and 4/4 Axe merits 4/4 Crit

currently for RR i use the following WS setup

Erkings or Perdu depends on the mob Pole Grip
Champion's Galea
WS ACC & +10 ACC +5ATTK
Peacock charm*
Fowling earing
Minuet Earing (still trying to get sea access)
Fire Bomblet
Hauberk
Alky Bracelets*
Flame Ringx2
Foragers Mantle
Warwolf Belt*
Exorcist Hose
Unicorn Leggings*

war is my 1st dd so still trying to get points for sky gear(heca and haidate). but im really confused where i left the asterisks if there are any other AH options that would increase my WS dmg for multi-hit. any recommendations would be appreciated

[Solare]

KittyFatale, on 02 December 2009 - 10:37 PM, said:

ive got great advice from this forum. especially on going the GA route. My tp build is fine but for WS i get mixed info as to whether STR or ATTK is better for RR/KJ/Rampage
***(RR, and Rampage both have STR modifiers. So, would be better to stack on the STR. Rule of thumb is, If you can get more STR then ATK in the same slot, go with STR)(I'm not so sure on KJ, but I think STR is a modifier as well)****

Currently i have 8/8 GA merits and 4/4 Axe merits 4/4 Crit

currently for RR i use the following WS setup

Erkings or Perdu depends on the mob Pole Grip
Champion's Galea
WS ACC & +10 ACC +5ATTK
Peacock charm* ***(Keep this, is good to keep that much ACC there, and remove it from other places)***
Fowling earing
Minuet Earing ****(still trying to get sea access)(Get rid of this crap, Get an Assault Earing)****
Fire Bomblet ***(Bomb Core)***
Hauberk ***(Haubergeon +1 FTW)***
Alky Bracelets* ***(IMO, nothing better)***
Flame Ringx2
Foragers Mantle
Warwolf Belt* ***(Id only use this to WS with Steel Cyclone. I WS in Potent for RR)***
Exorcist Hose ***(I WS in Barone, they are better IMO)***
Unicorn Leggings* ***(Ewww, you WS in these? These should be for TP only. Rutters at the very least. Pee boots would be best.)***

war is my 1st dd so still trying to get points for sky gear(heca and haidate). but im really confused where i left the asterisks if there are any other AH options that would increase my WS dmg for multi-hit. any recommendations would be appreciated

[KittyFatale]

I've been trying to get Rutter Sabatons im like 0/30 on the pop-item drop in bibiki bay. But what are Pee Boots?

also i have Fenrir's earring would that be another option instead of Assault? or should i stick to assault cause of the accuracy


ty for the advice

[Solare]

Stick with an Assault earring. The ACC in that slot is awesome. Is worth it IMO.

Pee boots are, the Aurum Sabatons. Drops from T2 ZNM. If you can get ahold of em, that would be cool. But, Rutters are easier to get ahold of.

[Byrthnoth]

"Pee boots" are Aurum Sabatons, which drop from Armed Gears and Achamoth T3 ZNMs.

Your build is probably fine for what you have to work with, but when you get Byakko's Haidate and some Heca you'll want to use that instead for Raging Rush. For now, you should probably stick to King's Justice everywhere if you have access to it. Your Accuracy is generally fine-looking, but I would use Potent Belt for KJ.

Edit reminder: Minuet Earring is STR/DEX+1 with Acc+3 when you have a Minuet on. So it has more Accuracy than Assault earring.

[Solare]

Byrthnoth, on 03 December 2009 - 12:17 AM, said:

"Pee boots" are Aurum Sabatons, which drop from Armed Gears and Achamoth T3 ZNMs.

Your build is probably fine for what you have to work with, but when you get Byakko's Haidate and some Heca you'll want to use that instead for Raging Rush. For now, you should probably stick to King's Justice everywhere if you have access to it. Your Accuracy is generally fine-looking, but I would use Potent Belt for KJ.

Edit reminder: Minuet Earring is STR/DEX+1 with Acc+3 when you have a Minuet on. So it has more Accuracy than Assault earring.

Do you go everywhere with Minuet up all the time? Every Event you goto, do you have Minuet up?

[Dazd]

Nowadays you should have a brd for everything unless you're solo.

[Byrthnoth]

Solare, on 03 December 2009 - 12:32 AM, said:

Do you go everywhere with Minuet up all the time? Every Event you goto, do you have Minuet up?

Yeah? Well, much more often than not anyway. Assuming we're talking about a merit build, do you really want to be in a merit party that doesn't have a Bard?

[Linear]

Don't really need a brd for meriting (was in a pt without BRD/RDM/WHM today and was getting 30k/hr easily), and if you have one, dual march or gtfo.

[Arcsol]

Linear, on 03 December 2009 - 07:41 PM, said:

Don't really need a brd for meriting (was in a pt without BRD/RDM/WHM today and was getting 30k/hr easily), and if you have one, dual march or gtfo.

Sorry for the derail, but I find this statement incredibly hard to believe.

[Linear]

DRG/WHM(me): averaging ~1100 Drakesbanes I was also casting Dia II every fight when MP permitted. I also mainhealed because I have Wyrm Armet.

DRG/WHM: averaging ~850 Penta Thrusts, used angon often. Sorta backup healed.

COR/NIN: pulled and gave Corsairs and Chaos roll. doing ~800 damage Detonators.

DNC/NIN: had mythic weapon, used haste samba and spammed Pyrric Kleos for 800~900. Didn't heal much. Didn't need the DNC for cures, Purely for haste samba and some damage.

SAM/NIN: was doing pretty crappily, but contributed nonetheless. Gekko's weren't breaking 600 damage often. Used Hagun.

MNK/NIN: did a little better than the SAM. Howling Fist was doing ~750.

Bottom colibri camp. Didn't need to pull wivres. Got to chain 80 something before a death due to linking or horribly timed pecking flurries occured. did this ~ 4 times before we split.

[Solare]

Linear, on 03 December 2009 - 11:20 PM, said:

DRG/WHM(me): averaging ~1100 Drakesbanes I was also casting Dia II every fight when MP permitted. I also mainhealed because I have Wyrm Armet.

DRG/WHM: averaging ~850 Penta Thrusts, used angon often. Sorta backup healed.

COR/NIN: pulled and gave Corsairs and Chaos roll. doing ~800 damage Detonators.

DNC/NIN: had mythic weapon, used haste samba and spammed Pyrric Kleos for 800~900. Didn't heal much. Didn't need the DNC for cures, Purely for haste samba and some damage.

SAM/NIN: was doing pretty crappily, but contributed nonetheless. Gekko's weren't breaking 600 damage often. Used Hagun.

MNK/NIN: did a little better than the SAM. Howling Fist was doing ~750.

Bottom colibri camp. Didn't need to pull wivres. Got to chain 80 something before a death due to linking or horribly timed pecking flurries occured. did this ~ 4 times before we split.

30k/hr with two DD's doing badly? Im with Arcsol here, I dont believe it.

[Corrderio]

Solare, on 04 December 2009 - 01:04 AM, said:

30k/hr with two DD's doing badly? Im with Arcsol here, I dont believe it.

Corsair's Roll probably

[Dazd]

Still won't get you 30k/hr 20-25 yes but not 30. Surprised people haven't realized yet that saying "I got 30k/hr in a merit pty" doesn't make them cool.

[Linear]

Byrthnoth, on 03 December 2009 - 06:55 AM, said:

Yeah? Well, much more often than not anyway. Assuming we're talking about a merit build, do you really want to be in a merit party that doesn't have a Bard?

It was a response to the bolded. I wasn't trying to sound cool. You don't need a BRD to have a good merit party.

Thank you, try again next time.

[Byrthnoth]

I'm not saying that you can't merit without a bard. I just personally don't feel like meritting when I don't see a Bard. Bards are common enough now and offer a large enough benefit that I don't see any real reason to go without them. Perhaps that's my just my perspective as a Bard.

For instance, do you know how you make your merit party better? Drop one of your two shitty DDs and get a Bard instead for 20% Haste.
33% increase in damage (assuming 10% Haste in gear + Haste Samba) * four DDs = +1.333x your average DD, so you replace the DD and your party gets more damage even assuming that he was average and the Bard does nothing but follow you around and sing Marches.

Want to make it better yet? Replace the other shitty DD with a RDM for +15% Haste.
33% increase in damage (assuming 10% Haste in gear, Haste Samba, and 20% from the Marches) * three DDs = +1x your average DD, so you replace the shitty DD and your party gets more damage assuming he was worse than average and you don't change your Dragoon's subs to Samurai.

Remember, this is assuming you're rolling with a meager 10% Haste in gear. The tradeoffs are even better with a more reasonable amount (18% in gear for a DRG make it 38% benefit from Marches and then 40% from Haste).

I find the claim that you got 30k/hr with Chain 80s rather silly. Chain 80 is less than 20k xp at Birds even with Corsair's Roll, and if you had a death every Chain 80 then you can hardly call it 30k/hr if you don't even go an hour between deaths. Furthermore, you only had +10% Haste from buffs and apparently were rolling with 4 gimped DDs, a Dancer, and a COR. Yeah, I went ahead and called DRG/WHM gimped, and it is compared to DRG/SAM. Surely you can look at the above math and see how inefficient that is.

I agree that you won't be using Minuet in a situation with a COR and a Bard, but Bards are still much more common than CORs at least on my server. I also agree that the OP should get an Assault Earring. It's a pretty pro earring, but I wouldn't sell the Minuet.

[Linear]

Yes, gimped... We lose... Hasso in exchange for everybody being capable of going all out, because 480+ (depending on wyverns TP) cures for 7 MP can go on nigh indefinately. Much better than a RDM/WHM/SCH at healing in a merit pt IMO. Besides, have you ever partied with a GOOD DRG/mage?

Now, funny thing about the deaths, it was always the COR who died from a link. We've got a DNC who can pull with a ranged weapon, a MNK who can pull with Chi Blast, and a DRG with dia who can pull. I'd say two, but the other tended to be busy raising. We keep pulling, but we loose the chain because one of the DD's is busy raising. You lose all of, what.. ~400 xp going from chain 0 -> 5?

I'm well aware of the effects of stacked haste. But you underestimate the ability to go all out for the entire duration of the party, which you can rarely do with any other healer.

All that said, a BRD would have been nice. I'd have prefered it over the SAM or the MNK, but they made the pt, so there wasn't anything I could do about it.

[Hyriu]

If you disregard everything that's been said in the second post of this topic you should be fine. gl!

[Byrthnoth]

I don't really know what you mean by "all out." You end up holding TP or something with RDM healers? I main healed 2x MNK/WAR + Yoichi SAM on Birds (which meant the MNK/WARs were tanking full time) on RDM and I don't remember having more MP issues than I could deal with. Admittedly, I had to work a little and rest when possible between Curing and my Haste rotation, but it wasn't impossible. The more buffers you have, the faster things die, the more spend you time pulling, the less time monsters spend attacking your melee, the less damage you take. In a fast enough party, it actually saves you MP to cast Dia II on every bird, because the time the bird spends casting it back on you represents a significant fraction of its time alive. I know what melees going all out looks like, and I don't see how anything you do as DRG/WHM with 10% Haste from buffs could be considered "going all out."

I'm aware of how MP efficient DRG/mage is. Unfortunately, /WHM doesn't give you Haste. If you're bringing someone into the party to cast it on you anyway then you might as well make them work a little harder for their XP. Birds hit like little girls and any good RDM or WHM/SCH getting at least one form of Refresh from BRD or COR can keep a party of Seigan-riding 2H DDs going full-time without losing anything. As we've already established Haste does more for the party than a sub-average DD and DRG/SAM does more damage than DRG/WHM, I just don't see how RDM + 2 DRG/SAM can be worse than sub-par DD + 2 DRG/WHMs.

If your choice is to have a Scholar and a DRG/SAM or two DRG/WHMs, the answer is to take two DRG/WHMs. Haste changes the game in a lot of ways though.

Whatever, I've admitted DRG/WHM has its uses (I soloed DRG/BLU to 40+ for Healing Breath III and fun) and you've admitted you didn't make the party. I'm done at least.

[XyonBlade]

If your acc is fine, warwolf belt is good for steel scyclone. Potent is good for raging rush/kings justice. If you can get a warrior's stone, use that instead of potent.