Rank 50 Pugilist AdviceFollow

I'll be happy to give my opinion or advice to any question, ask me anything and I'll do my best.

It's pretty much the same. I prefer defense over evasion when tanking, as the evade rate is absolutely terrible without Featherfoot no matter what your gear is. I also prefer STR over DEX, even more so after the patch when weapon skill accuracy is increased. The only defensive item I don't use is the Iron Assault Sallet as I haven't found one for sale or an armorsmith to make it. The sallet would be the only piece that I swapped depending on the situation.

I like:

Skull Eyepatch (Iron Assault Sallet is unavailable, or I would use it for tanking and Eyepatch for solo/DD)
Harrier's Jacket
Leather Armguards (Spiked Armguards are not available on my server yet)
Tarred Leather Trousers (I DO still keep a pair of Velveteen Kecks with me, but rarely use them)
Armored Caligae
And whatever the is best belt available on the server.

1. Follow Through, when Blindside is ready. Tail attacks are devastating, striking from the rear usually isn't a good option. Follow Through also has significantly better accuracy.

2. Low, if not lowest. Only Gladiator and Thaumaturge do less.
Hopefully the patch will fix this with the accuracy increase. We gain TP exceptionally fast, and Victimize II is very, very good damage -- just very unreliable. I hope I'll at least be able to say "mid tier" with a straight face after today.

Edited, Nov 25th 2010 12:56pm by Shijou

Archer and Lance are the kings, assuming the patch doesn't change anything. People will argue about which is better, but they're both certainly leagues ahead of our class. Lancer skills cross-class over to archer better, arguably making them better; but if you're to add skills such as Invigorate II for example, you could even argue that Thaumaturge is ahead of pugilist because of Chainspell->Shadowsear.
I try not to dwell on it. Thankfully there is no looming elitist endgame right now to shun us out of everything.

Would like to add this post is not really concrete or to scare anyone away. Things are changing, I expect pugilist to be very good once accuracy is increased. I like this class!

Edited, Nov 25th 2010 2:07pm by Shijou

I'm a lvl 50 Pug and I have to disagree about Pug DPS. We don't get an Archer's burst damage or the Lancers 50 skill, but we do get versatility in our weapon types. Having the correct weapon type, i.e. slashing, blunt, piercing has a huge effect on damage, so much that brass knuckles can outdamage many higher tier weapons on raptors because it is 100% blunt. At current endgame, we have slashing and blunt damage.

hmm that is true, quick question though. Any reason blunt works good on raptors and say not some other mob? I'd figure that slashing or piercing would be good for a mob like raptors. Or say a mob like dobylns or crabs with hard shells what would work best for those?

How much playtime did it take you guys to hit cap? Im planning to get to it by at least PS3 launch since I have a feeling they might raise the level cap.

Any advice on must have skills on your skill bar? I'm R25 PUG now with several other DoW classes up there and wandering what I should ditch and what I should utilize.

Brandon

I notice you don't have pummel listed. Is it because you feel PUGS gather TP fast enough? I like to open with it because most of the time I'll get over 1K TP on initial strike which allows me to bust out a concussive blow right away. Opening with heavy or light I'd have to go another round to gather enough TP.

Thanks so much for the awesome advice. I plan on incorporating it shortly.

Brandon

Being that we utilize light/medium armor it's safe to say we're meant for an evasion built. I feel our abilities need more refinement before we can truly call ourselves "evasion tanks"

Shijou, would you edit your post with your second action bar and order too please?

Love the set up you have to far.

Brandon

Hey! Great questions and answers up there!

I got two questions myself.
Right now I'm PUG28 and confused on which weapon is the best one for me. I am thinking about Spiked Knuckles and Brass Knuckles. So what do you guys suggest? Earlier I saw a PUG24 in my party using Brass Knuckles and did almost same damage as me when I'm 4 ranks higher than him. My attributes are now: 83STR, 78VIT and 102DEX. Should I focus on DEX or STR as main attribute?

Archer is dps king, because rank 50 ones in my server all use good arrows now.
Lancer is second or first depend on what arrow archer use.
MRD. is the third if they are using malm.
4th place from 5 DOW is where we are sadly. We only beat gla on dps with uncomparable defend ability they have.

The previous post talk about pug WS r50 is strong, but actually it is very bad DPS wise. Next is discussing about how you need to use correct weapon on enemy type. Well, from the test peiste cesti is the best on every mob.

Let say all-hi end pt already know this fact by now. Only last reason that NM pt still demand us in is because of our victimize as tool to break buffalo horn.


Pug only specialist I can see until now is how well our rapid punchs can aggro mob. We dont need better dps, but SE somehow give us extra hate build and make people misunderstand thinking pug is strong.

Edited, Dec 24th 2010 4:50am by Starkaiser

Interesting, I thought Jade Hora is pretty much the same with higher crit rate and a ****ing painful repair mat? They have the same 90% Blunt 10% Piercing and ATK.

Peiste is 90% blunt and 10% piercing also, so wouldn't it be the same as jade horas?

the highest rank weapon thats 100% blunt is R39 Boarskin Himantes

Edited, Dec 24th 2010 11:22pm by arlee

hmm I wouldn;t say they are garbage but yeah I would prefer the cestis over this, guess it choice of if you favor crit or accuracy, those with high dex might want more accuracy and those with low dex but high acc. (maybe from rings) might prefer the higher crit.

any reason you say that its a good tank weapon? because of the higher crit?

I know I am only Lvl 21 So with that said I won't pretend to know everything. But I will say that it is hard to Decide which class does the most damage etc.... Unlike XI SE has made it So each individual can customize there Stats/Gear/Affinity Making It So much more interesting And next to impossible to say one thing is better then the next.................*SUPER NEAT-O* :D IMO .

I know I personally am having a Great time mixing Archer/Glad/Conj Attributes Etc Into my Pug Battle bar thingy :P I don't think Anyone should be afraid of PUG or get discouraged into trying it.... I mean Who doesn't love punching the crap out of stuff ^^b

<*PLUR*> d^^b

I Guess we will Agree to disagree then. I feel Stats,Affinity, Abilities sets ad gear Makes a huge difference from player to player. But to each his own . That was my point and what makes this game unique imo ^^

*PLUR* ^^B

exactly. i was too lazy to get into the bits about skills on the hotbar but yeah. that.

Pretty much useless unless you are tanking cause if you are DD you are not going to be evading a whole lot and when you maybe do get a lucky evade for whatever circumstances it might not be at the opportune time for BR. Not to mention its not like you can use Simian anytime after the evade you have like a few secs window to use it, now with that in mind and having to time the BRs or stacking BRs I think its very hard to pull off.

Simian is for left side incaps (not limbs though its listed as "others") luckily so far in the game only the 2 buffalos have left horns for you to incap. So either you are not part of the BRs for the left horn or if you think its worthwhile you can run and grab a nannygoat or something and pop featherfoot and get your evade so you can use Simian. Not worth it imo, just so you can be a part of the BR for that one side.

Edited, Jan 24th 2011 11:56am by arlee

I have a question.
Some skills have II (2) on next of their name. For example, Feather foot and Feather foot II
What's different between these kind of skill? I'm assuming that attack skills would have slightly higher damage than previous skills.
However, I'm not quite sure with ability: Feather Foot. How does it different? According to description, both Feather foot and Feather
foot II fade away after one successful evasion.

for featherfoot it seems I is 75% chance evade and II is more like 95%



Yeah doesn;t seem to be used liked that, its not like taunt or voke where you use it to grab hate right away. The party member has to have built up some enmity already and when you use accomplice I think it takes a portion, not all of the hate that player has generated.

Also you can't just use taunt,voke, or accomplice w/o having attacked a mob, you won't be on the enmity list until you physically hit the mob with a attack or spell.

Edited, Feb 21st 2011 10:54am by arlee

False. I use Jade Hora regularly on NM runs and am constantly pulling/keeping hate. Take the extra crit rate, supplement accuracy loss with accuracy food. EAT YOUR FOOD. Nobody does this, and as I recall in FFXI if you didn't eat, then you were gimp. Owning these and using them does require that you find the repair mat, and it's not going to be cheap. Neither is Stuffed Cabbage.

Best advice I can give is to get THM CON GLA LNC MRD ARC up to at least 20. The extra abilities you can utilize are astoundingly helpful in any situation. The combination of Light Strike, Featherfoot, Second Wind II(PGL) and Foresight(MRD) make you a very good tank - Something you might want to bear in mind when you stack Raging Strike, Bloodbath, Ferocity, Discerning Eye and Blindside against an NM and subsequently land Simian Thrash. He's not going to like you very much after that 135 spike damage.

My stats, (w/ STR/VIT/DEX+5 traits & gear), are: DEX 164; STR 126; VIT 125.

Action Bar 1: Heavy Strike; Flurry; Light Strike; Concussive Blow II; Seismic Shock II; Haymaker II; Simian Thrash; Cure II; Sacrifice II; Second Wind II.
Action Bar 2: Empty; Raging Strike; Bloodbath; Ferocity; Blindside II; Discerning Eye; Invigorate; Presence of Mind; Foresight; Featherfoot II.
Action Bar 3: Empty; Taunt II; Provoke; Empty; Absorb ACC; Empty; Empty; Empty; Obsess; Rampart.

Spamming Flurry is generally enough. But, here it comes: Then, your tanks suck! Pointless conversation.

Edited, Feb 27th 2011 11:52am by XooZQ