Gear and SJ questionsFollow

From my experience in leveling skills, you just need to start where your pup can hit things, jumping into abyssea with a melee skill equal to lvl 20 isn't going to help you. There was a guide poster down the thread a ways that told the players to use either mage or ranger frames and skill up on worms in A. Uleg. I would suggest either doing that or finding an easy Exp party and moving away from the group so you can do some solo while having some help/TE popping. The percolator attachment is suppose to help with all skill ups on the automaton so that would really help with your range and melee, although it is unclear how it effects the skill ups or if maneuvers are needed.

As far as the Elemental belt and gorget go, the elemental belt is probable the best piece for shijin from my understanding because the effect activates on all hits of the weaponskill. However the neck piece can be replaced, usually with something like moepapa or the agasaya's. The elemental belt on SP isn't bad but not to many choice are available, I'm personally trying to get a prosilio for SP.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the advice on where to skillup my automaton, though that's not what I asked.

I'm very interested in anything that will improve my weaponskill numbers (other than improving my weapon, which I know is a big part of the calculations). I have done some research, but maybe I missed an option somewhere. All set if I want to nuke on my own as PUP/BLM though >.< /sarcasm

While I'm asking questions, is there a good guide about using maneuvers? I've pretty much been figuring out what maneuvers to use when and with which frame as I go, but without a guide, it is likely I have missed something important. Some of the attachments make it fairly easy to tell they require a maneuver (like the refresh attachment), but not all. Looked at the sticky, but I didn't see that particular topic.

Is 3 the max number of maneuvers that can be active at one time? Someone mentioned 15 maneuvers, but that was with Kenkonken, something I am not going to have anytime soon.

Regarding your TP set: very good, almost the best you can get without Neo Nyzul gear. I'd only use Cirque Necklace over Faith (you're not getting to a new damage tier with just Faith), and use Pantin Cape over Vellaunus.

As for WS, this is what I use for Shijin (Weapon is Oxyuranis fire), and the improvements I could use (without counting NNI gear, unless you tell us you have access to it).

neck "Spike Necklace"; ---> Gorget is a bit better.
head "Oce. Headpiece +1";
back "Pantin Cape";
feet "Cirque Scarpe +2";
legs "Cirq. Pantaloni +2";
waist "Pipilaka Belt"; ---> Prosolio is better, which says a lot about or total lack of Att.
ring1 "Rajas Ring";
ring2 "Thundersoul Ring";
hands "Cirque Guanti +2"; ---> Mustela gloves are the new best WS hands, I quit the game before they were released, but will be my first purchase upon returning.
body "Toci's Harness";
ear1 "Thunder Pearl"; ---> Jupiter pearl is a bit better for a lot more gil, if you're rich, go for it.
ear2 "Brutal Earring";
range "Turbo Animator"; ---> Higher leveled animators are better, of course.


As for Stringing Pummel (which in my experience, and with my gear, performs a bit worse than Shijin):

back "Pantin Cape";
ring1 "Rajas Ring";
hands "Cirque Guanti +2"; ---> Athos are better, Mustela even better. Unless... (see below)
body "Toci's Harness";
ear1 "Kemas Earring";
ear2 "Brutal Earring";
neck "Soil Gorget"; ---> Tjukurrpa Medal is better if you don't have Acc problems (and on the kind of mobs you fight, you won't).
head "Oce. Headpiece +1"; ---> Outperforms Cirque +2, as it has 3% TA from pairing it with Toci's, as well as that hefty 13 Dex for the dDex bonus to crit.
range "Turbo Animator";
legs "Cirq. Pantaloni +2"; ---> Athos is better, and if you have also Athos hands, the combination beats Mustela gloves thanks to the 3% crit rate set bonus.
feet "Cirque Scarpe +2";
ring2 "Spiral Ring"; ---> Epona may be worse, equal, or better, depending on many factors. But with better gear, Epona wins, so you can save 1 inventory and be good. I need to change this upon returning, btw >_>
waist "Sentry Belt"; ---> Prosolio to the rescue! This one is not half bad, though.

Also, depending on the situation of capped/almost capped/way below cap dDex, several neck/back combinations will be better than others, often involving Tjukurrpa Medal, Pantin cape, and the two rancor items.