merit wsFollow

It depends on what jobs you have. Most all of the new merit weapon skills are really good, though there are some that are subpar in comparison to earlier, non-merit weapon skills that players could obtain. What all jobs do you have?

While some are definitely better than others, the choice ultimately depends on your job spread. If you find you're on SAM a lot, get Shoha, no question. Extenerator is pretty much the best non-stacked Dagger WS outside of Abyssea. Resolution pretty much made GS a viable weapon again without the old reliance of SA. Shattersoul is certainly the best staff WS, but the big problem there is the INT mod doesn't really the favor the melee jobs who can use it, while unsurprisingly its use as a mage job will be on fodder. Realmrazer isn't really an upgrade for WHM, but it does give a Hexa-like WS to other jobs. Their problem, however, is having high damage clubs to put it to use. Shijin won't really beat Emp WS for H2H short of niche scenarios. Shun is something I'd probably never touch since it's one job only (NIN) and it's not a job I'll never consider a main as long as access restrictions persist. Its performance seems to mirror dagger in that inside Abyssea, other things will beat it. Requiescat falls between Vorpal and CDC on average for Sword, so something to consider if you have good MND builds for PLD/RDM/BLU. I don't think I've seen very many DRKs say they're happy with Entropy for Scythe. Bow/Gun are no Wildfire, but the latter can be decent if properly buffed. Stardriver seems more like a SAM option for polearms than DRG since Drakesbane is just that good for them.

Think I touched on them all, but really, it comes down to favoring your preferred jobs and going 5/5 of the 3 you choose. I hate the 3 WS limit, but for now, SE seems to have no interest in budging.

Edit: Derp, Axe and Great Axe. Former gives BST a solid WS, latter is basically for WARs without Ukko's.

Edited, Apr 9th 2012 2:47am by Seriha

Shijin is superior to Ascetic's Fury when your dDEX for crit rate is insignificant, best I know. VSmite tends to err on the side of 'Keep your ODD up', but is marginally better.

Nobody mentioned proper Belt/Gorget yet? Somebody should mention Belt/Gorget and other +fTP pieces, because I think I've made my career quota.

Edited, Apr 9th 2012 12:39am by Raelix

Don't forget the attack penalty.

Shattersoul (Staff) (Don't laugh) For Sch I like this. Ja spell JA spell. Shattersoul = darkness. Can one shot most mobs in abby and I only have MM atma. It also makes Sch/drk fun to exp due to LR, absorb tp, INT, stun and such."I use this weaponskill on a mule due to the 15 merit ap for this catagory."

Realmrazer: Ths bringsback /thf. Blu/thf can Sneak attack Heavy strike and light SC. Thiss has been very usefull in legion and abby, some vw. It is mnd stat same as sword. As for strong clubs, they just made one on update. 55 base dmg.

Requiescat: for blu QC owns as it makes a strong darkness.

Resolution: Makes drk so much fun. Try for the 2-4x attack gs.





Edited, Apr 9th 2012 10:32am by kimjongil76

Stardiver has Replicating ftp, so you use elegorget/belt for it. This also applies to Requiescat Resolution Ruinator Entropy Blade: Shun and Last Stand.




Ruinator easily beats Rampage outside. Exent was already mentioned. If you don't have Vereth merit Shijin if you care about Mnk. Ninja is probably screwed.





Edited, Apr 9th 2012 11:50am by Neisan

cool thanks thats what i was kinda thinking but wasnt really sure.

First, 5/5 a merit WS or don't bother. At lower levels, the existing WS will beat or equal the merit WS. So you only have room to do 3 full 5/5 merit WS. If you're focused on the five jobs you listed, I'd say 5/5 dagger for sure and then pick the other two based on the jobs you plan to use more often out of NIN, BST, and outside-Abyssea MNK.

1) Get Exenterator unless you plan to get an empy dagger. It's really good for THF (plus you can get some use out of it on your other jobs, particularly as a good COR melee WS)

2) Blade: Shun - clearly the best katana WS if you aren't going to get Blade: Hi. Downside is that you need to use 5/5 merits for a WS that's only usable on one job. I'd personally say go for it given your priorities, and if you end up doing a Kannagi (one of the easier Empyrean weapons) you can switch to fulltime Blade: Hi and drop your Shun merits to free them up for a different merit WS.

3) Shijin Spiral... I also have MNK and PUP as a couple of my key concerns (for me it's PUP MNK DNC THF NIN COR). For PUP Shijin is not really that big of a deal. Stringing Pummel is superior to Shijin in Abyssea, and generally no worse than a sidegrade outside. However, Shijin is the best non-Empy/Relic WS for MNK outside of Abyssea. Your call on how often you use non-Abyssea MNK.

4) Axe... I really don't know much from personal experience. However, given that your pets will do a lot of your fighting for you, might be a consideration for sticking with Rampage from the BST.

Even with Twashtar, Exenterator is a really good weaponskill to have if you often come on Thief or Dancer, because Rudra's Storm isn't a very good weaponskill unless it's stacked with Climactic Flourish or Sneak Attack/Trick Attack. Often times you'll be building TP fast enough that you'd need to wait for the timers, so Exenterator is great to have during those cool down periods.

Indeed. Even with Twashtar I'm 5/5 Exenterator. It's a damn good WS.

Since ninja can use the dagger skill and from what I hear the dagger skill just as good for nin as shun(also gives acc down) it might be best to skip katana for axe so china can have respectable ones across the board for china's choice jobs.

Where have you been?

This is what makes half of these WSes.

If I remember correctly, the +0.1 fTP boost from gorgets carrying over into all hits of a weaponskill rather than the first one really only affects the new merit ones, and even then only about half of them. Older weaponskills still retain the older principle of it affecting the first hit.

Edited, Apr 10th 2012 1:43pm by Vlorsutes

For the attention of all Dragoon partaking in Voidwatch,
Please stop spamming Drakesbane as your only weapon skill, using Stardiver even ONCE will lower the NM's critical hit evasion. Not only will this help YOUR OWN damage by increasing the average damage that Drakesbane does but will ALSO make any Monk/Ninja/Warrior like you a whole lot more.

Respectfully,
Your Voidwatch Alliance.


Attention all Samurai partaking in Voidwatch,
The same, but replace Stardiver with Tachi: Ageha. Stop spamming Fudo like a @#%^ing tool.

This is imprecise. Ruinator is 1.0 and mirrors fTP, but Exenterator is 1.0 and doesn't. You really just have to look it up or ask.

Edited, Apr 10th 2012 9:36pm by Raelix

I'd rather have regular fTP for blade: shun.

sounds like SE messed up with Exent then, If the other similar fTP WS's work similar and only one doesn't well seems like SE oversight.

How does one even use atma of echoes?

When I look it up, it says that it enhances elemental weaponskills based on the current day. None of these are elemental, and even if they have a property which is enhanced, how would one know the day that enhances an elemental weaponskill?

Is the atma bugged to work fulltime on all weaponskills or something?

Aha. Vague descriptions from SE as usual. This seems rather fun to play with, if admittedly a bit niche..

Is it not day dependent? Having a super-strong WS available less than half the time seems pretty niche to me.

Unless you start planning your day around your weaponskill, I guess.

Yes.



Now unless you're going to tell me that every gorget applies to every weaponskill, if it functions as a 0.5 ftp 'gorget' of the current day, it's only going to work three days out of eight for Resolution, and indeed for most (all?) of the Merit WS.

Or, y'know, if the 'day' part is meaningless and it always works, which is what I was asking in the first place.

Edited, Apr 14th 2012 10:27pm by ItsAMyri

None of the merit weaponskills have level 3 properties. The only weaponskills that have them are Relic and Empyreon weaponskills. To have light or dark has a property the skill must be able to do Light-> Light or Dark->dark not just simply be able to open or close either of the two.

Resolution is Frag / Scission, so only Earth / Wind / Thunder elements are active, that's 3/8. Entropy is Gravitation / Reverberation so Earth / Dark / Water. That's only 5/8 and Entropy is crappy compared to Resolution.

Also the L3 light / dark properties are not the same as Transfixion / Compression. As far as I know of, the Light / Shadow gorgets do not always work on the Emp / Relic WS's. KoTR is L3 Light / Fusion yet only the Flame / Light gorget works and not the Breeze / Thunder gorgets. Lots of bad info has been spread regarding what "L3 light" and "light gorget" mean.

I recently forced a friend to try out Echoes for Resolution, but it didn't make any noticeable difference in damage done. Yes, it was a proper day.

Are we sure it hasn't been ninja patched somewhere down the line?

You... don't... know who you're talking to do you?

Yes, on Echoes active days Resolution will average 6k in Abyssea without a TA (Double Attack from gear and VV should be 50%+ though). You think it averages less because you're killing things in only four or even just three hits instead of landing all five; you'd be doing upwards of 7k on those mobs.

Yes, Entropy pales in comparison to Shoha/Star Diver/Resolution, but you completely skip that it utterly crushes every other Scythe WS inside or outside of Abyssea while giving DRK infinite motherf*cking MP*. That it's an INT mod is irrelevant because DRK has almost as much INT gear as STR gear, most of time time on the same item!

*Indeed it's far more MP than a DRK could ever use, but at the same time a DRK not using their MP for something (and there is plenty to use it for) should have just come WAR.

You're completely clueless to the specifics involved here, and it's a little obnoxious for you to presuppose such things as Entropy "sucks" despite still being DRK's second best WS by leaps and bounds. Specifics such as the MP return or the fact that it closes solo Darkness from Quietus while Resolution can't close a solo chain with any other respectable WS, or is amazing for Apoc DRKs and uses most of the same gear as Catastrophe. Please stop parroting the same useless sh*t I have to shoot down weekly. Next you'll be telling DRKs to build Caladbolg

Edited, Apr 15th 2012 1:25pm by Raelix