The official "rate my gear" threadFollow

considering you say "close to no acc gear", any boost to +acc would be more significant to your DoT than if you were already near the acc cap. so i think GKL is your clear winner.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/profile.xml?178437

I could really use some help on equipment. I've provided a link to my gear above. After a few months off due to family and work-related obligations, I'm jumping back in, and I have some worries over my equipment that I'd LOVE some input on.

I've read Lucinus' stuff (which has been a great boon to maximizing my play time to exp ratio), but think I could still use some help in regards to my gear.

I'm level 40. I'm subbing BLU. Since play time is limited, I'm always soloing. I seem to be able to chain 2 or 3 EMs without too much difficulty on Purgonorgo Isle, and can usually take on a T with little to no anxiety. But I'm STILL wearing Centurion's Scale armor on Head, Body, Legs and Feet. I just don't know what are some better options for my present level, or if what I'm working with right now is fine.

I also wanted to add that I alternate between a Lizard Strap +1 and a Brass Grip

Last month I picked up the Walkure Mask and Brigandine in anticipation of the next few levels. I don't have a lot of cash on my DRG or my mules (maybe 20k altogether), but am considering picking up an Earth Doublet at 42. But is there any other equipment (reasonably priced is preferable) to help cover the defense deficit I'm feeling from the Leg, Head, and Feet slots? I think I've kept the centurion stuff around because of the stat bonuses, but I'm not really sure if they make much of a difference at this level.

Any help would be MOST appreciated! Thanks!



Edited, Jun 9th 2008 4:20pm by JohnnySixString

Actually, Johnny, your solo gear's not that bad at all for your level. I'd try swapping into a Cuir Bouilli (yes, I know, only two levels 'til Earth Doublet... you could also get by in Centurion's at a pinch) and getting Iron Cuisses, and upgrading your back to something like High Breath Mantle. As for your Centurion's Greaves, short of the synthed upgrades and Volans Greaves (Mountain Gaiters too, but they're expensive), I really think you're good to go 'til AF feet. Apart from upgrading your earrings, the rest of your gear's fine - you seem to have upgrades lined up, which is good.

Can you quest a Venerer Ring to replace your Balance?

Just HQ those Beetle Earrings and you'll be set for a while. You could look at a Pigeon Earring if you're worried about your HP, but from the sound of it you're also rather worried about your wallet. To be honest, though (and in what seems like contradicting my upgrade suggestion*) what you have isn't terrible and arguably the HQ is a minor upgrade, so you may not feel it's worth shelling out a load of extra cash for another Attack+2. It's why, at those levels, I just stuck with a Bone+1 instead of a second Beetle+1, though admittedly, I'd synthed and signed myself.

*I really need to stop that...

Sushi is bad. Use Rice Dumplings full-time until Life Belt at the very least.
Why would we laugh? It's the best you'll get 'til 48.
Good. Use Brass+1 in parties.
Good.
This is fine.
This is fine.
Good.
Terrible, get Beetle+1 or another Pigeon.
Hands and feet are fine, but if you're soloing then your legs are questionable and your body's atrocious. Get some harder-wearing armour.
You're a Taru, you don't need a dedicated MP ring. Use your Venerer.
Atrocious, use your Jaeger.
Fine. Upgrade to Jaguar at 47.
Fine, replace with Life Belt at 48.
Edited, Jun 12th 2008 3:12am by Lucinus

Edited, Jun 12th 2008 3:13am by Lucinus

I didn't mean use a Republic Subligar solo - I meant slap on the Defense in the shape of Iron Cuisses or something (I used Bastokan Cuisses, personally), unless the stats on Wonder Braccae really do make all the difference.

I hope you're being sarcastic, because that's just retarded. Yes, Scorpion Harness is good, yes, bits of AF do have situational use (head and legs are fine for solo, hands seem fair if nothing better's going), but by no means should SH + 4/5 AF be considered "good" - even I saw it as little more than a stopgap measure before getting the money for, as an example, Tabin Boots +1...

Edited, Jun 12th 2008 4:30pm by Lucinus

Sad thing, that's 99% of the dragoons on Ragnarok.

best cheap upgrade that springs to mind is amir boots. 2x ACC rings would be nice, as would HQing the back and replacing bushinomimi with a spike/coral/merman (or fowling) earring. NQ tarasque mitts not a bad idea either.

other more significant stuff would require more time/money, and is mainly outlined in previous posts in this thread by various people.

if that's party gear, it would be good to try to get that AF off. if i were you, i'd put on crow gear in the head, legs, and feet slots. republic subligar and any +DD stat for feet would be okay as well (neither slot really shines regardless though). pole strap over myth+1 when you can. other than that, nothing jumps out at me. maybe i'm missing something though.

This is what I have on my DRG right now. Any helpful comments or suggestions would be great.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/profile.xml?147170

OK, looking for advise now that I have money (yay for a lucky KS30's!)

TP Setup
WS Setup

A few pieces I have that aren't being used right now:
Askar hands and feet
Assault Jerkin
Pahluwan hat
AF2 Hands and Body (I use body in my call wyvern macro though)
Full AF1

Things I can easily buy if proven useful:
Pieces of Barone
Dusk Legs
Flame Ring
Etc.

basically wondering if I should take out any ACC from my TP set (I parsed 94.3% on bird camp with madrigal/minuet combo yesterday)... ie, shoudl I just use Chivalrous Chain full time instead of PCA for the extra STR and the +1 Store TP.

My other issue is pants... DRG has a sucktastic selection it seems. I will be doing salvage right away, and since I am not a rich Taru I told them my priority to start was Ares's legs for DRG and Skadi feet/legs for THF and I would be a happy camper. Homam Body and Legs will probably happen over the next couple month with any sort of luck as well. Also, should I create different WS macros for WT vs PT? right now I just use the single macro as it pretty much puts all my STR and fills in the rest with dex on both. Coming from THF where I have different equip setups for DE, SB, and Evis... I am still relatively new to DRG WS's and what to build for.

I am also focusing on Swift Belt over the next month and seeing if I can get myself one finally to work towards my haste cap on THF and hopefully cross it over to DRG as well.

Thanks for any input!

first, sell your flame and triumph rings and put the money toward useful stuff with ACC and ATT on it. beyond that, consult earlier posts.

as per tests run before (me need to be updated)


lifebelt>potent belt

drg70
for party (squid sushi+1)meat
Colossal lance
Pole strap
---
Bibiki seashelltiphia sting or RSE
Walkure Mask
Chivalrous Chain
Coral earring x2assualt earring or fowling
Scorpion harnessAssualt jerkin
Feral gloves
Assailant ring acc ring
ecphoria ring
Amenet mantle (+1)
life belt
barone cosciales
Tiger ledsends Amir

Bibiki seashell
Drachen armet (can macro in another helm)
Chivalrous Chain
Coral earring x2
Scorpion harness (I like hydra or barone body but not needed)
Drachen finger gaunlets(for the +10 parry and the wyv acc) use attack hands more attack = dead mob faster
Electrum ring
ecphoria ring
Amenet mantle
life belt
Drachen brais (for the wyvern hp, increases about 30hp/hb) macro these in
Drachen greaves ( for the +5 eva) barone or amir, amir would be best.

Edited, Jun 24th 2008 2:36pm by ketrel

yeah, the black tathlum seems to will be expensive too.. maybe ill get a tiphia while i cant get the black.
and the amir boots are my dream :D, but people dont want do assault with a lvl 70.. someday ill get it.
and i want hydra gaunlets and amenet +1 too but i think that for 70 to 75 tarasque and amenet are passable no?
for the other acc ring what is better? sniper or woodsmans?
last thing, when you say that i have to eat meat, coeurl sub is ok? or what?
thank you guys :P

can I ask why Lifebelt>Potent Belt if you are parsing 94% ACC? I have the items for AF+1 (but just bought L.Earring for my brd so coinless for a bit). I completely overlooked the Wyvern HP on this piece, so it might fill the void nicely until Homam.

Thank you for the suggestion. I did have an assault earring, but I tried parsing with it vs Fowling (I was swapping in for WS before) and barely saw a dent in my melee attacks and my WS damage was still the same... so I decided to sell it and put that towards some BLM gear.

I am very happy with the Askar performance. It is worth every hour that I have invested in Nyzul Assaults. It looks amazing as well which is always a nice change (ewww AJ...)

if you're at 94% accuracy (so if your ACC is 38 over the mob's effective DEF), life belt would outperform potent belt regardless of whether the STR raises fSTR or not.

as long as your base dmg is over 94, raising ACC% by 1 will outdo raising base dmg by 1. if you use thalassocrat, life belt is uniformly better than potent belt, unless ACC% is capped. the only uncapped ACC instance where life belt would lose would be if you use love halberd.

notably, one might not know if their ACC is just 38 over the mob's effective evasion if they're just parsing. if someone can't be bothered to find the mob's EVA and their own total ACC (which is fine, i'm not saying it's lazy), i don't really see why they would care about the 1% difference between potent belt and life belt in the first place--in which case they should get life belt, b/c it's cheaper.

swift belt beats them both of course. obviously speed/velocious as well.

---

edit:

to explain the above a bit, your DoT comes from:

# swings * dmg/hit * ACC%

so if you swing 100 times, with your strikes averaging 150 damage each, at 90% accuracy, your DoT is:

100 * 150 * .90 = 13,500

because everything here is being multiplied, if you raise ACC% by a certain %, you'll raise DoT by the exact same %. to illustrate, suppose we raise ACC% to 91%. that is a 1.11% over 90% ACC. the equation now looks like:

100 * 150 * .91 = 13,650

for a 1.11% increase in damage. notice that the increase in ACC could have been expressed like this:

100 * 150 * .90 * 1.0111111111 = 13,650

this illustrates that increasing average damage (or number of swings) by 1.11% would raise DoT exactly as much as increasing ACC% by 1.11%.

SO, we can compare increases to dmg with increases in ACC, in terms of DoT% increases.

what the 3 STR of potent belt has a chance to do is to raise your base dmg by 1. your actual damage comes from the equation:

base dmg * pDIF = actual damage

base dmg is the sum of the damage rating on your weapon (94 for thalassocrat) and your fSTR (a comparison of your STR to mob VIT, that goes up every 4 STR and is usually around 7 to 11 at merit level).

so in the potent belt vs life belt example, unless your ACC is capped, you know that life belt will raise ACC% by 1 (since ACC% goes up by 1 every 2 ACC). you know that the % increase in ACC will be at least 1.11%. the 3 STR on potent belt can raise base dmg by AT MOST 1.11% if you use thalassocrat. in actuality, it will raise your your base dmg by less than 1%, because your fSTR will likely be greater than 6. therefore, your base dmg is greater than 100, and 1 is 1% of 100.

---

since i've rambled a bit here, i want to talk a bit about "dmg equation knowledge" and why it's important. you may read what i wrote above and have the following reaction:

"HEY! why should i bother learning about pDIF and hit rate formulas and fSTR if all it gets me is the ability to quibble over 1% damage increases??"

i want to emphasize that while dmg equation math does allow for such quibbling--which is appreciated by people who have fun by "maximizing", like myself--

THAT IS NOT THE ONLY REASON TO GET A GRASP OF THE DAMAGE EQUATIONS.

the reason we never seem to be arguing or explaining gear comparisons that amount to huge dmg differences is that "rules of thumb" are usually established about the real big advantages/disadvantages. those rules of thumb are, however, based on the same equations that we use to compare meaningless sh*t like potent belt vs life belt.

since i am a fundamentally distrusting person, i think it is valuable to understand why established norms are the way they are, and to decide for yourself if such norms are valid. many a "i'm a genius snowflake with a hot new idea for ffxi-- sub /THF!!" trolls may be surprised to hear such a thing from me, since they probably feel that i and others use damage equations in an attempt to make "everyone play the same way". however, i am not pro-establishment, i am pro-individualism, and i believe actually understanding how things work helps you be an individual much more effectively than simply saying "NO UR WRONG" to the establishment.

another reason damage equation knowledge is helpful is that it lets you adapt to strange situations. if you use certain gear to merit because everyone else uses it, you'll be baffled as to how to tailor your gear to gods and HNM. if you use gear because you know what it does, you'll know how to change it when you face something with giant DEF or a giant level etc etc.

so, we don't learn and repeat these things simply to add .5% to our damage or to "inflate our epeens thru parsing". we do it because it has real utility. the "oh EVERYONE knows that hauby/o's kote/speed belt/etc is the best!" principles come from this math, and stand up to "lol i like byrnie better!" challenges because of this math.


Edited, Jun 25th 2008 5:41pm by milich

Feet: ditch the rutters; amir/dusk/anything else w/ att or acc is better; slow is bad bad bad
Legs: barone or dusk, unless you're having acc issues
Body: camp an AJ really no excuse imo :/
rings: snipers/woodsman/rajas/toau ring/jaeger/just about anything else (although +4/5 stat rings are *ok* generally acc rings are better). +3 stat rings are definitely not ok though. Not with how cheap your other options are.

mm.. k, then this will be my equip at 70/71

Colossal lance
Pole strap
---
Tiphia Sting
Walkure Mask
Chivalrous Chain
Fowling earring
Assault earring
Scorpion harness
Tarasque Mitts
Woodmans ring
ecphoria ring
Amenet mantle
life belt
barone cosciales
barone gambieras

Food: Coeurl Sub
(and i dont know if buy barone corazza(800k :S) or wait to find help for the AJ (free :D)

Then, wearing this, what changes would be best for penta or wheeling?

2 things AlbertoM.

1. O-hat+AJ > Walkure+SH, but if you dont have the O-hat yet, Walkure+SH might be better then Walkure+AJ for Penta+meat build at your lvl, depending on camp. If you need more acc to get you reliably in the 4-5/5 penta, from your current build, I'd say DFG would be the first place I can see where you can ovbiously add acc without sacrificing the integrity of your gear (other then o-hat or pcc). If that doesnt tip you over, then stick to tarasque and compare it penta to wheeling to see which gets you better number until you lvl up. Test it out first to see.

Eventually AJ will become better as you lvl higher, but at this time it can still vary depending on mobs and camp.

2. On your earlier post re: solo set, drachen pants was advised as a macro piece for HB. Just FYI, there was a post awhile back showing that macroing drachen pants work for some ppl, and not for others, due to connection issues. I'm in between - sometimes does, sometimes doesnt for various reasons, so I keep it on full time to be safe if I need the extra HB. Might wanna check before committing yourself.

colossal lance or gae bolg. then thalassocrat at 75. the best DRG weapon outside of rare HQ synths, einherjar drops, and relic, thalassocrat, is cheap. never let yourself complain about its price (about 300k on my server) knowing you play in a world where SAMs have to buy hagun, THFs blau dolch, and DRGs used to use a price jacked mezraq.

as for the rest of the gear, it's fine. try to HQ the mantle and work on the r/ex 70+ things like amir boots, ohat, etc.

p.s. if anyone replies "SAMs DON'T have to buy hagun!" let me respond in advance, "shut up, yes they do."

edit: p.p.s. the internet is so boring. god damn it, why is it that when i go to bed before 3am i wake up at 3am. /cut.

Edited, Jul 6th 2008 3:35am by milich

Weapon: thal/Love halberd
head: turban/wyvern helm
neck: chiv/shadow gorget
earringns: brutal/ethereal
body: homam corazza
hands: homam manopolas: drachen+1
rings: flame/rajas
back: foragers
waist: swift/warwolf
legs: homam coscialas/barone
feet: homam gmabieras/hume jse
RA: angon/bibiki shell

I was gonna try and get the Colossal lance while farming the DRG testimony because ocean sahagin can drop both the test and lance, but how is Vouivre popped? is it timed, lottery etc? might get my LS down there and help me get it

Also i have no problem getting gear that i dont really need to replace ever(thala, or unless i get a gungnir or get lkucky in eijenhar with my ls and i win a free lot on V. fork), but buying stuff thats like 200k and ill use it for 2 lvls i dont see the point in

Vouivre is lottery spawn but is usually always up. It can be killed with a compitent rdm+nin duo or so, but to be safe, bring a solid group of 4-12. Wyverns have this nasty habit of dropping people...

As far as ocean sahagin is concerned, he doesn't have the greatest drop rate for the lance and is a 21-24 hour spawned mob. On top of that you need the ornate key to get to him, that's a pain in the ass.

Colossal lance is 100k and not very easy to find on valefor, an alternative at 70 is Engetsuto. It's a lot more plentiful but is also 120k~ on valefor.

Your best bet is to either try for a gae bolg until 72~ where you can try for an imperial neza(Assault points) or dreizak (8k on valefor,) then get thal at 75.