While I have not really gotten any new items of note, it has been really cool to utilize the new AG Burtgang both in tanking situations and for individual CPing on my Paladin.
The main purpose of this article is to give you some insight into my two Paladin sets for damage dealing - before Aftermath Level 3, and with Aftermath Level 3.
My pre-aftermath set is as follows. For when I am dual wielding as /nin, The Cessance earring is replaced by Suppanomimi. When solo, I have King or Koru-Moru out for Haste II which makes a huge difference in my DPS.
Ammo: Ginsen
Head: Valorous Mask (Acc+30, Att+23, Dex+6, Crit rate +1%)
Neck: Asperity Necklace
Left Ear: Brutal Earring
Right Ear: Cessance Earring
Body: Odyssean Chestplate (Acc+29, Att+11, Dex+5, Double Attack +5%)
Hands: Sulevia's Gauntlets +1
Left Ring: Petrov Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Rudianos's Mantle (Dex+20, Att/Acc+20, Store TP+10)
Waist: Sailfi Belt +1
Legs: Sulevia's Cuisses +1
Feet: Loyalist Sabatons (Str+10, Att+15, PDT-3%, Haste+3%)
This set features the following melee extra stats:
Regain +3 (amounts to +60 TP per minute)
Double Attack + 25% (+35% with /war)
Triple Attack + 5%
Store TP + 35
Accuracy +197
Attack + 223
With the afterglowed Burtgang, I am gaining 91 TP per hit in this set. Considering the extra expectation from Double Attack and Triple Attack, I am gaining 167 TP per attack round (91 + (182*.35) + (273*.05). Since I usually have Haste II on and I have capped gear haste, My actual delay is 45% of 264, or 119, which means I am attacking every 2 seconds. It takes me about 6 attack rounds to gain 1000 TP. Since my goal is 3000 TP to trigger AM3, it takes me 36 seconds of TPing to achieve this number. This does not account, however, for missed attacks or the TP I get from blocking with my shield. I will make the assumption these will pretty much cancel each other out, or maybe swing a bit in my favor to reduce the time needed. Let's also not forget the regain I have from the Valorous Mask, which makes a tiny but helpful contribution of 36 TP during this window of time.
I know I can reduce this further by having double march on as well, but for CP purposes I enjoy the combination of Yoran-Oran, Qultada, Kupofried, Koru-Moru, and Zeid II. I use Zeid II because he stuns things like Death Prophet from the ascended NMs in Reisenjima.
Now with Aftermath Level 3 on, I switch to this gear set.
Ammo: Ginsen
Head: Valorous Mask (Acc+22, Dex+6, Store TP+5)
Neck: Asperity Necklace
Left Ear: Brutal Earring
Right Ear: Cessance Earring
Body: Odyssean Chestplate (Acc+29, Att+11, Dex+5, Double Attack +5%)
Hands: Valorous Mitts (Acc+30, Att+9, STR+15, Store TP+3)
Left Ring: Petrov Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Rudianos's Mantle (Att/Acc+20, Dex+20, Store TP+10)
Waist: Kentarch Belt +1
Legs: Odyssean Cuisses (Accuracy+15, Attack+28, Store TP+5)
Feet: Loyalist Sabatons (Str+10, Att+15, PDT-3%, Haste+3%)
The strongest change here is the additional Store TP. This set puts another 23 Store TP (ideally, assuming Unity rank #1). Combined with the 40% Double Attack rate and 20% Triple Attack rate from AM3 (and a smaller but still significant amount of Double Attack from gear and traits), my tp gain per attack round is:
Single Hit: 68 + (68*.58) = 107 TP/hit
Aftermath Expectation: (214*.4) + (321*.2) = 149
Double Attack Expectation: (214*.14) = 30
Total Attack Round TP gain: 286 TP/attack round
This means I can achieve 1000 TP in 4 attack rounds, or 8 seconds. And since I will gain TP from weapon skilling, this makes it possible for me to create a light skillchain by myself.
Now, considerations to be made are as follows. You will notice I do not have maximum Store TP augments on my Reisen gear, and you will also notice I am still using the Loyalist Sabatons even in this set. I have been advised to procure some Valorous Greaves and use my Goading belt on the waist. This will give me more Store TP from the feet base and the augment. Also, getting another Odyssean body or Valorous body and augmenting that with Store TP. Also, continuing to try to increase the augments on the head, hands, and legs since I could theoretically get another 11 on these. I could also swap in my Carmine Greaves and the Goading belt right now which would yield a +7 Store TP.
However, consider this. If I were to get these, it would amount to about 28 extra Store TP. This would increase my TP per hit to 126 TP/hit. My total gain per attack round would be 337. This would reduce the attack rounds to get to 1000 TP by 1. I would need to hit 28 on the dot - anything less will keep me at 4 attack rounds. I will work slowly at this, but since the goal is to weapon skill fast enough to self-skillchain, this goal is not urgent for me.
I am sitting at 210 CP on Paladin and 213 CP on Black Mage. I continue to use my 3 Trizek rings when I can as well as gathering stones from ascended mobs in Reisenjima. I will work towards these ideal augments as well as the aforementioned gear pieces.
I hope you enjoyed some insight into my current Paladin melee sets!
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
I be glowin' (to the east...)
In what I probably view as a "That's enough Tenzen let's just finish this already" series of purchases, I finally finished upgrading my Burtgang this morning.
We had Tenzen pretty much down to a science. It was always made easier when we went with a bard to sleep the tarus instead of me, but all we really needed was at least two people (or in a few instances just one) who knew what to do and it went well.
I ended up needing 963 more to turn in this morning after another set of runs and decided to go ahead and just purchase the rest. This is mainly because any money I have made for the most part was due to selling the other upgrade items from the bazillion Tenzen runs I have done in the past two months. The 14 million gil I spent on these final pieces of Beitetsu were my own present and I feel well deserved.
So what does that give me? It gives me the most powerful Paladin sword not only for defense, but now at the same time one of the strongest offensive swords in the game - probably the strongest considering the aftermath potential.
I also now have two after glowed swords that I can use on Paladin - dual wielding Burtgang and Almace opens up the potential for an actual DD Paladin considering how much work I have put into my DD gear.
Let's review the gear acquisitions since my last post.
Merlinic Shalwar (x2)
I got these pretty soon after I wrote my last post. The augments I ended up with on the first pair were ideal for bursting but lacking magic accuracy. Those augments are INT+15, MAB+30, Burst damage +7%. These augments are pretty tough to beat for bursting. I ended up getting a 2nd pair two days ago and those have Macc+24 and MAB+37. I'm a little mad though there is no INT and no supplemental attribute on them though. I will likely throw more stones at these eventually.
Mujin Band, Locus Ring, Barkarole Earring
Black mage gear. The earring is perfect right next to a Friomisi earring for nuking and bursting.
Odyssean Chestplate
I finally got a Maju clear last week and this item dropped during it. While most were hoping for a Merlinic Jubbah drop (I kind of was too), I was happy to back into this and only have two people lotting against me for it. I won the lot and am very happy with the final augments I got on it. DEX+5, Acc+29, Attack+11, and Double Attack +5. This piece is now a permanent fixture in my DD and Hybrid sets. It also is now in my fast cast gear as well.
It also eliminates the need for an Emicho Haubert as far as I am concerned.
Zwazo Earring +1
Accumulated enough beaks during Gain XP to upgrade this piece. It is in my accuracy sets for pld and blu as well as my nm tank set on pld.
Niobid Strap
Backed into this piece while trying to acquire a 2nd Merlinic Hood (for bursting). A small upgrade over the Willpower grip I had been using. Also more MP for death when I get it.
Archon Ring
Shura and I finally said "Let's get this ADL thing done". We spent some time building two pop sets for Arch Dynamis Lord the other morning. It took longer to build the pops than it took to actually fight him.
By the way, the fight with Arch Dynamis Lord with two blus hacking at him was...easy. Like seriously, a light skill chain and a couple of WS did him in. He did split on the 2nd pop and that was confusing at first because you end up disengaging when he splits. We threw a spectral floe at them and found the regular one and he went down quick.
We ended up getting Archon rings on both pops, and 3 umbral marrows. Which were used on...
Aegis (99)
...my Aegis! I purchased two more marrows off the AH and turned these in for the last upgrade to my Aegis. More shield bash damage, and more MDT. No argument there!
So now that I have finished the Burtgang after glowing, what now?
My BLM and PLD need a LOT of CP and I will continue to get those done either solo or in parties. I have a viable set of swords for dding now with on Paladin, and I am about 207 CP in to black mage. My tier VI spells are hitting for about 12k right now in my current nuke gear. I will continue to do this in Reisenjima for more stones.
I also need to build an aftermath set for my Paladin with lots of Store TP. when I have aftermath level 3 active. I have Odyssean hands, Valorous head, and Valorous Legs I will try to augment with Str/Dex, Att, Acc, and Store TP. I will also swap in Kentarch Belt +1, and another PLD cape with Store TP, Att, Acc, and Dex.
Other stones will go to the 2nd Merlinic Hood I eventually will get and hope for solid Burst augments.
And I of course will help out with a variety of nms, battles, and whatnot. I also have about 160 CP to go for BLU Master.
Thanks for reading!
We had Tenzen pretty much down to a science. It was always made easier when we went with a bard to sleep the tarus instead of me, but all we really needed was at least two people (or in a few instances just one) who knew what to do and it went well.
I ended up needing 963 more to turn in this morning after another set of runs and decided to go ahead and just purchase the rest. This is mainly because any money I have made for the most part was due to selling the other upgrade items from the bazillion Tenzen runs I have done in the past two months. The 14 million gil I spent on these final pieces of Beitetsu were my own present and I feel well deserved.
So what does that give me? It gives me the most powerful Paladin sword not only for defense, but now at the same time one of the strongest offensive swords in the game - probably the strongest considering the aftermath potential.
I also now have two after glowed swords that I can use on Paladin - dual wielding Burtgang and Almace opens up the potential for an actual DD Paladin considering how much work I have put into my DD gear.
Let's review the gear acquisitions since my last post.
Merlinic Shalwar (x2)
I got these pretty soon after I wrote my last post. The augments I ended up with on the first pair were ideal for bursting but lacking magic accuracy. Those augments are INT+15, MAB+30, Burst damage +7%. These augments are pretty tough to beat for bursting. I ended up getting a 2nd pair two days ago and those have Macc+24 and MAB+37. I'm a little mad though there is no INT and no supplemental attribute on them though. I will likely throw more stones at these eventually.
Mujin Band, Locus Ring, Barkarole Earring
Black mage gear. The earring is perfect right next to a Friomisi earring for nuking and bursting.
Odyssean Chestplate
I finally got a Maju clear last week and this item dropped during it. While most were hoping for a Merlinic Jubbah drop (I kind of was too), I was happy to back into this and only have two people lotting against me for it. I won the lot and am very happy with the final augments I got on it. DEX+5, Acc+29, Attack+11, and Double Attack +5. This piece is now a permanent fixture in my DD and Hybrid sets. It also is now in my fast cast gear as well.
It also eliminates the need for an Emicho Haubert as far as I am concerned.
Zwazo Earring +1
Accumulated enough beaks during Gain XP to upgrade this piece. It is in my accuracy sets for pld and blu as well as my nm tank set on pld.
Niobid Strap
Backed into this piece while trying to acquire a 2nd Merlinic Hood (for bursting). A small upgrade over the Willpower grip I had been using. Also more MP for death when I get it.
Archon Ring
Shura and I finally said "Let's get this ADL thing done". We spent some time building two pop sets for Arch Dynamis Lord the other morning. It took longer to build the pops than it took to actually fight him.
By the way, the fight with Arch Dynamis Lord with two blus hacking at him was...easy. Like seriously, a light skill chain and a couple of WS did him in. He did split on the 2nd pop and that was confusing at first because you end up disengaging when he splits. We threw a spectral floe at them and found the regular one and he went down quick.
We ended up getting Archon rings on both pops, and 3 umbral marrows. Which were used on...
Aegis (99)
...my Aegis! I purchased two more marrows off the AH and turned these in for the last upgrade to my Aegis. More shield bash damage, and more MDT. No argument there!
So now that I have finished the Burtgang after glowing, what now?
My BLM and PLD need a LOT of CP and I will continue to get those done either solo or in parties. I have a viable set of swords for dding now with on Paladin, and I am about 207 CP in to black mage. My tier VI spells are hitting for about 12k right now in my current nuke gear. I will continue to do this in Reisenjima for more stones.
I also need to build an aftermath set for my Paladin with lots of Store TP. when I have aftermath level 3 active. I have Odyssean hands, Valorous head, and Valorous Legs I will try to augment with Str/Dex, Att, Acc, and Store TP. I will also swap in Kentarch Belt +1, and another PLD cape with Store TP, Att, Acc, and Dex.
Other stones will go to the 2nd Merlinic Hood I eventually will get and hope for solid Burst augments.
And I of course will help out with a variety of nms, battles, and whatnot. I also have about 160 CP to go for BLU Master.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Gear gear and more gear! (and an examination of my PLD main gear sets)
I don't like going two weeks between posts. Lots of things can happen in that time span these days.
And well, a lot has happened on those two weeks!
First off, I am still working on getting Beitetsu for the Burtgang afterglow. I'm at 6135 turned in now. So far, this is ALL from farming Tenzen and trading plutons with people I do Tenzen with. I have sold a few stacks of plutons and boulders, but have not yet purchased any stacks from the AH.
Now with that said, onto the gear and the usual stuff. There's two weeks worth here, so I had to dig into the Guildwork history in order to see what I have acquired since I last wrote.
In order from "since right after last post" to "this morning".
Herculean Vest
I swear I was very happy when I finally received this item after lots and lots of Neak fights. I was less thrilled to continually get substandard augments that did not beat Adhemar B for weapon skills. I ended up throwing lots of stones at this but to no avail. I have not found an exact use for this just yet to be honest. I kind of feel bad about it considering how many Neaks we had to fight to get vests.
Vatic Byrnie
I went ahead and farmed this piece and got it on the first kill. I like it for CDC on Paladin due to the critical hit rate and double attack that goes with it. It also has 40 attack and a good amount of dex (21) for a body piece. Ultimately I would like to replace this with something better like Valorous Mail, but this is a fine choice for the time being.
Kentarch Belt +1
Got this from Centurio's coffer - no need to spend more time at it getting armors to upgrade the NQ. Still an accuracy swap, and a good one at that.
Lathi
Lots and lots of Yilan kills (and a couple of fails) were required to get this staff. This will be my primary staff on black mage and I have no current plans to acquire too many different staves. It's a great overall piece for my almost ready to go black mage.
Thureous Earring
I am using this in my NM tanking set currently due to the +2 to block rate. I ultimately would rather use the Odnowa Earring +1 that I don't have just yet, but this will provide a nice slot filler for now.
Defending Ring (!!)
After 17 overall kills of King Behemoth (and other kills back in my HNMLS days), I finally saw this drop and was very happy to get it. I had gotten 2 savory shanks from login points during this two week period and both times were bust. I then saw a shank in bazaar for 380k and purchased it. That was the one that ended up producing this ring. It now has a part in my idle sets as well as my PLD tanking sets. It increases my MDT and BDT especially, and gives me more room to play around with in other slots. I just regret not taking a screen shot when this finally dropped.
Mephitas Ring
For eventual death set on my black mage. I will +1 this eventually, but killing Mephitas solo does pose risk due to his stupid poison. The priority on +1ing it is a bit smaller than the other things I can do right now.
Abnoba Kaftan
On the morning I finally got a clear on Vir'ava, we continued to use pops and get wins (almost all were wins - we did wipe once) and ended up getting 2 Abnoba Kaftans to drop. I was fortunate to receive the 2nd one on the condition I "Become Shurakai's pocket BLU (and, well, PLD and BLM too)", as it was his pop item. Naturally, since I kind of already am, I said absolutely!
This piece pretty much relegated my Herc Vest "quest for the ultimate augments" to the bottom of the list. This piece boosted my set DPS by 55 points alone, and increased my average weapon skill damage by almost 200 points. I did consider switching my Adhemar Jacket to path A now that I had a weapon skill piece, but I have not done so just yet.
Xucau Mantle
I helped out on some Pakecet kills the other morning and ended up getting this mantle. I am pleased with the extra HP and MP it provides, as well as a damage taken -3% stat. I now use this instead of Philidor Mantle for NM tanking due to the fact that defending ring bumped me over the PDT cap. So basically, I am trading 2% BDT for 100 extra HP. That's a nice trade as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and it has 5 accuracy...yay?
Zwazo Earring
One of my PLD earring goals was this item (and soon its +1 cousin). When duo or trio, we have the Mhuufya mob down to a pretty solid science. If we get unlucky with firespit or that kick move, we may die, but so far in lots of kills that's only happened once. The fight goes quickly with me on BLU and Shura on COR. We do more damage to it than the Mamool can keep up with.
Taranus's Cape
Another step in the right direction for my BLM's return. I augmented it with INT+20, Macc/Mdmg+20, and MAB+10. This will be on for most if not all spells, except for perhaps Death when I get the JP for it.
Merlinic Hood
Thanks to Finneramos, our pretty awesome LS Summoner, I got this piece yesterday morning. He made short work of Dolores, and we also got a few Crom kills in (no Shalwar yet, though). We also got Finn some Merlinic Dastanas during this session which was cool.
The best part? I used exactly 3 pellucid stones, and I have INT+9, Macc+23, Matt+33, and magic crit damage +4% for augments on this piece.
Refoccilation Stone
This morning while getting merits for a Tenzen run, we fought Phuabos in Escha Ru'aun in hopes of popping Warder of Hope. We finally got him to pop after a half hour and he dropped this on the first kill. This is a great nuking waist piece and will be good enough to use on my black mage.
Short term to-do list
There's still a few pieces I want to get for my PLD and my BLM in particular. I am working on getting a lua tailored for my black mage, as I do want to be able to have a "burst" mode, a "death" mode, and a standard "nuke" mode. I'm also making sure to have solid sets for each of those categories. Already having the main 5 slots covered with Merlinic and Amalric is very helpful.
The gear I would like to acquire for my black mage is:
- Merlinic Shalwar
- Mujin Band
- Locus Ring (that's easy - got plasm for it)
- Barkarole Earring (I THINK I have all the prerequisites done for the quest series - just gotta do 'em)
- Niobid Strap (Finn!!!)
Gear for PLD is:
- Emicho Haubert (eventual - not a huge priority)
- Zwazo Earring +1
- Odnowa Earring +1
- Burtgang AG
Currently, I am quite content with my blue mage gear and not in need of improving it much.
Paladin Gear sets
I was asked about my PLD gear by a lsmate who just got his Aegis, and wanted to share it with you here in this blog.
I have three main sets - a "DD" set (I always put that in quotes because let's face it, it's not a whole lot of damage), a CDC set, and an NM tanking set.
"DD" gear
Main: Burtgang or Almace AG
Sub: Aegis/Ochain/Priwen
Ammo: Ginsen
Head; Valorous Mask (dex, att, acc, and double attack)
Neck :Asperity Necklace
Ear1: Cessance Earring
Ear2: Brutal Earring
Body: Despair Mail
Hands: Valorous Gauntlets (dex, att, acc, double attack)
Ring1: Petrov Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Rudianos' mantle (dex, att/acc, and crit rate)
Waist: Kentarch Belt +1 or Windbuffet Belt
Legs: Valorous Hose (dex, att, acc, double attack)
Feet: Loyalist Sabatons (max augments)
CDC gear
Ammo: Falcon's Eye
Head: Valorous Mask (dex, att, acc, crit rate)
Neck: Light Gorget
Ear1: Moonshade Earring
Ear2: Brutal Earring
Body: Vatic Byrnie
Hands: Valorous Gauntlets (dex, att, acc, crit rate)
Ring1: Begrudging Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Rudianos's Mantle
Waist: Fotia Belt
Legs: Lustratio Subligar B
Feet: Thereoid Greaves
Tanking set
Main: Burtgang
Sub: Aegis or Priwen
Ammo: Ginsen (soon hopefully something else)
Head: Souveran Schallar D
Neck: Homeric Gorget
Ear1: Zwazo Earring
Ear2: Thureous Earring
Body: Souveran Cuirass C
Hands: Souveran Handschuhs D
Ring1: Defending Ring
Ring2: Dark Ring
Back: Xucau Mantle
Waist: Flume Belt
Legs; Souveran Diechlings C
Feet: Souveran Schuhs D
Of course, I also have enmity, healing, flash, and job action gear as well.
That's enough for now. Enjoy your week and thanks for reading!
And well, a lot has happened on those two weeks!
First off, I am still working on getting Beitetsu for the Burtgang afterglow. I'm at 6135 turned in now. So far, this is ALL from farming Tenzen and trading plutons with people I do Tenzen with. I have sold a few stacks of plutons and boulders, but have not yet purchased any stacks from the AH.
Now with that said, onto the gear and the usual stuff. There's two weeks worth here, so I had to dig into the Guildwork history in order to see what I have acquired since I last wrote.
In order from "since right after last post" to "this morning".
Herculean Vest
I swear I was very happy when I finally received this item after lots and lots of Neak fights. I was less thrilled to continually get substandard augments that did not beat Adhemar B for weapon skills. I ended up throwing lots of stones at this but to no avail. I have not found an exact use for this just yet to be honest. I kind of feel bad about it considering how many Neaks we had to fight to get vests.
Vatic Byrnie
I went ahead and farmed this piece and got it on the first kill. I like it for CDC on Paladin due to the critical hit rate and double attack that goes with it. It also has 40 attack and a good amount of dex (21) for a body piece. Ultimately I would like to replace this with something better like Valorous Mail, but this is a fine choice for the time being.
Kentarch Belt +1
Got this from Centurio's coffer - no need to spend more time at it getting armors to upgrade the NQ. Still an accuracy swap, and a good one at that.
Lathi
Lots and lots of Yilan kills (and a couple of fails) were required to get this staff. This will be my primary staff on black mage and I have no current plans to acquire too many different staves. It's a great overall piece for my almost ready to go black mage.
Thureous Earring
I am using this in my NM tanking set currently due to the +2 to block rate. I ultimately would rather use the Odnowa Earring +1 that I don't have just yet, but this will provide a nice slot filler for now.
Defending Ring (!!)
After 17 overall kills of King Behemoth (and other kills back in my HNMLS days), I finally saw this drop and was very happy to get it. I had gotten 2 savory shanks from login points during this two week period and both times were bust. I then saw a shank in bazaar for 380k and purchased it. That was the one that ended up producing this ring. It now has a part in my idle sets as well as my PLD tanking sets. It increases my MDT and BDT especially, and gives me more room to play around with in other slots. I just regret not taking a screen shot when this finally dropped.
Mephitas Ring
For eventual death set on my black mage. I will +1 this eventually, but killing Mephitas solo does pose risk due to his stupid poison. The priority on +1ing it is a bit smaller than the other things I can do right now.
Abnoba Kaftan
On the morning I finally got a clear on Vir'ava, we continued to use pops and get wins (almost all were wins - we did wipe once) and ended up getting 2 Abnoba Kaftans to drop. I was fortunate to receive the 2nd one on the condition I "Become Shurakai's pocket BLU (and, well, PLD and BLM too)", as it was his pop item. Naturally, since I kind of already am, I said absolutely!
This piece pretty much relegated my Herc Vest "quest for the ultimate augments" to the bottom of the list. This piece boosted my set DPS by 55 points alone, and increased my average weapon skill damage by almost 200 points. I did consider switching my Adhemar Jacket to path A now that I had a weapon skill piece, but I have not done so just yet.
Xucau Mantle
I helped out on some Pakecet kills the other morning and ended up getting this mantle. I am pleased with the extra HP and MP it provides, as well as a damage taken -3% stat. I now use this instead of Philidor Mantle for NM tanking due to the fact that defending ring bumped me over the PDT cap. So basically, I am trading 2% BDT for 100 extra HP. That's a nice trade as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and it has 5 accuracy...yay?
Zwazo Earring
One of my PLD earring goals was this item (and soon its +1 cousin). When duo or trio, we have the Mhuufya mob down to a pretty solid science. If we get unlucky with firespit or that kick move, we may die, but so far in lots of kills that's only happened once. The fight goes quickly with me on BLU and Shura on COR. We do more damage to it than the Mamool can keep up with.
Taranus's Cape
Another step in the right direction for my BLM's return. I augmented it with INT+20, Macc/Mdmg+20, and MAB+10. This will be on for most if not all spells, except for perhaps Death when I get the JP for it.
Merlinic Hood
Thanks to Finneramos, our pretty awesome LS Summoner, I got this piece yesterday morning. He made short work of Dolores, and we also got a few Crom kills in (no Shalwar yet, though). We also got Finn some Merlinic Dastanas during this session which was cool.
The best part? I used exactly 3 pellucid stones, and I have INT+9, Macc+23, Matt+33, and magic crit damage +4% for augments on this piece.
Refoccilation Stone
This morning while getting merits for a Tenzen run, we fought Phuabos in Escha Ru'aun in hopes of popping Warder of Hope. We finally got him to pop after a half hour and he dropped this on the first kill. This is a great nuking waist piece and will be good enough to use on my black mage.
Short term to-do list
There's still a few pieces I want to get for my PLD and my BLM in particular. I am working on getting a lua tailored for my black mage, as I do want to be able to have a "burst" mode, a "death" mode, and a standard "nuke" mode. I'm also making sure to have solid sets for each of those categories. Already having the main 5 slots covered with Merlinic and Amalric is very helpful.
The gear I would like to acquire for my black mage is:
- Merlinic Shalwar
- Mujin Band
- Locus Ring (that's easy - got plasm for it)
- Barkarole Earring (I THINK I have all the prerequisites done for the quest series - just gotta do 'em)
- Niobid Strap (Finn!!!)
Gear for PLD is:
- Emicho Haubert (eventual - not a huge priority)
- Zwazo Earring +1
- Odnowa Earring +1
- Burtgang AG
Currently, I am quite content with my blue mage gear and not in need of improving it much.
Paladin Gear sets
I was asked about my PLD gear by a lsmate who just got his Aegis, and wanted to share it with you here in this blog.
I have three main sets - a "DD" set (I always put that in quotes because let's face it, it's not a whole lot of damage), a CDC set, and an NM tanking set.
"DD" gear
Main: Burtgang or Almace AG
Sub: Aegis/Ochain/Priwen
Ammo: Ginsen
Head; Valorous Mask (dex, att, acc, and double attack)
Neck :Asperity Necklace
Ear1: Cessance Earring
Ear2: Brutal Earring
Body: Despair Mail
Hands: Valorous Gauntlets (dex, att, acc, double attack)
Ring1: Petrov Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Rudianos' mantle (dex, att/acc, and crit rate)
Waist: Kentarch Belt +1 or Windbuffet Belt
Legs: Valorous Hose (dex, att, acc, double attack)
Feet: Loyalist Sabatons (max augments)
CDC gear
Ammo: Falcon's Eye
Head: Valorous Mask (dex, att, acc, crit rate)
Neck: Light Gorget
Ear1: Moonshade Earring
Ear2: Brutal Earring
Body: Vatic Byrnie
Hands: Valorous Gauntlets (dex, att, acc, crit rate)
Ring1: Begrudging Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Rudianos's Mantle
Waist: Fotia Belt
Legs: Lustratio Subligar B
Feet: Thereoid Greaves
Tanking set
Main: Burtgang
Sub: Aegis or Priwen
Ammo: Ginsen (soon hopefully something else)
Head: Souveran Schallar D
Neck: Homeric Gorget
Ear1: Zwazo Earring
Ear2: Thureous Earring
Body: Souveran Cuirass C
Hands: Souveran Handschuhs D
Ring1: Defending Ring
Ring2: Dark Ring
Back: Xucau Mantle
Waist: Flume Belt
Legs; Souveran Diechlings C
Feet: Souveran Schuhs D
Of course, I also have enmity, healing, flash, and job action gear as well.
That's enough for now. Enjoy your week and thanks for reading!
Monday, May 23, 2016
The best parts
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| Afterglow! |
Last Monday night, we did some more Tenzen and I was down to my final 600 boulders needed. One of my LS mates was kind enough to offer to purchase the remaining stacks to get me to the 10k needed, but the price wasn't right and I told him not to worry about it.
The following morning I went on another set and ended up being another 280ish short. I took out a loan with an LS mate and purchased what remained.
The result is one bad-ass sword.
I always wanted to have a reason to use this sword again, and after all that voidwatch and Tenzen, it is at my side and ready to wield.
Let's go over the amazing features of this sword.
* Ridiculous DPS: At 42.32 damage per second, this sword is the highest DPS sword that a blue mage can use. Sequence is next closest at 42.00.
* Easy to maintain Aftermath: Since blue mages' primary weapon skill is Chant du Cygne, you are almost guaranteed to have an aftermath status effect on during battle. The aftermath itself is improved with this version, causing a 30%, 40%, or 50% chance to deal triple damage. Dealing over 5k in a single attack round is not out of the realm with this piece.
* Attack and Accuracy boost: You have a sword skill increase of 269 instead of the usual 242 with this sword. This results in more base accuracy and attack. Also, you get +50 to Dexterity, resulting in even more accuracy.
* Magic damage: If I need to cast some magic attack spells while wielding this sword, I can do more damage than I used to. I still don't think it beats a Nibiru Cudgel or a max Vampirism, but still nice to know that I can mix and match this with a vampirism and do solid magic damage while still being a CDC beast.
And naturally, I have been putting this sword to use in many areas, such as Tenzen, lesser nms, unity nms, and gathering merits (for more Tenzens naturally).
Other acquisitions:
I got a few more Zi'tah clears with the linkshell on Wednesday. I managed to focus on getting Eschalixirs to complete my Souveran augments. I got to use this gear right away and tanked the T3 Escha Zi'tah NMs effectively. We had a couple of close calls and one wipe, but we were effective and efficient. We did not, however, get to clear the pixies or the evil bunny of death. Wouldn't mind getting another shot at the bunny and a chance at that nice body it drops.
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| Nicely timed terror proc |
One of my acquisitions was a Falcon Eye. It sits in my accuracy set and is also effective for CDC when accuracy is needed.
Agema Cape & Luminary Sash
I got both of these during numerous Neak pops on Friday and Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, one of these was not a Herculean vest, which is what I really really want for my blue mages' CDC set. When properly augmented, it is likely the best option. I'd rather use this than Abnoba or Enforcers, but at the moment I don't have any of these.
Still for getting everything else, the luminary sash is an excellent magic accuracy piece. The Agema Cape is not really something I need as I have better options for all my jobs for each item this cape offers.
Kentarch Belt
I am able to quickly and effectively solo Centurio on blue mage with trusts providing he doesn't spam too many -aga spells. He's usually dead before that becomes a problem thankfully. This piece is in the accuracy set as well.
Coming up
* More Reisenjima NMs to round out gear I need. I am at the point where I can effectively tank Yakshi, Neak, and Maju (although I have not yet fought Maju I have an excellent idea how to do so). I have nearly 3k HP while in my "upper tier tank" set. I still want to fill in a few more pieces - specifically Odnowa Earring/+1 for another sizable boost to my HP.
* The ball is rolling on getting m black mage back in action. I sought insight on the FFXIAH boards and have targets gear-wise to obtain. Thankfully due to my work on getting my blue mage outfitted for magic damage, I already have a great head start on black mage. My first objective is to get a Lathi from Yilan (which is why I was fighting Centurio this morning in the first place). I made quick work of Yilan solo last time before Almace. I am fairly certain it will be even quicker this time.
* More Tenzen. I am sitting at just under 4k Beitetsu turned in for Burtgang. I would like to finish this for good during campaign, or at least make a sizable dent. I have been trading the Plutons to ls mates for Beitetsu and putting most of the boulders I get on the AH. I am actually at a good number of gil. My plan is to continue to accumulate gil and use it to finish Beitetsu if needed when campaign ends. Eventually I think I may want to procure some +1 Souveran pieces if my pockets get deep enough.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Owned by Kirin
Mini blog post.
After 0/2 on Kirin this morning, I am changing up my PLD turtle set - calling it "The Kirin set".
My original "tank" gear was capped on PDT and MDT, but on the low side of HP. Kirin could still practically one shot me if I was unlucky - which he did. It was a combination of Sulevia +1 pieces, souveran body, and the max loyalist sabatons. I now know the main reason Paladins don't wear these for uber difficult NMs like Kirin - good on DT, bad on HP (and not to mention haste).
Therefore, I will be making the following changes for this set.
* Wear all 5 Souveran Pieces - head path D, hands path D, rest path C. The main benefit here is HP, as this will increase my max HP by 628 alone, and account for -12% DT, -10% PDT, -4% MDT, -6% BDT.
* Acquire a Zwazo Earring +1 and an Odwona Earring +1, for another -2% MDT and -2% BDT (and a 100 MP==>HP).
* Get an Angha Gem for another -2% PDT
* Wear that Homeric Gorget I got the other morning, changing the -5% DT from Twilight Torque to just -6% PDT (and defense, attack, and enmity).
* Use Flume and Philidor (was already using both) as well as the 2x Dark Rings (another -20% PDT, -11% MDT, -6% BDT) (was already using the rings as well).
DT Totals:
-12% DT
-38% PDT (-50% PDT capped, plus -18% PDT II from Burtgang, giving me -68% PDT)
-17% MDT (-29% MDT, plus -45% MDT from Aegis, giving me -74% MDT, enough for Shell V to cap me)
-14% BDT (-26% BDT - only area of concern right now)
Long term I would like a D.ring, and will get 2 more attempts from login points this month.
This week I am looking good to finish the Almace 119-3, which will help me acquire those two earrings as well as kill a few more Escha mobs I have not gotten clears on as of yet.
7,776/10,000 Riftborn boulders turned in.
After 0/2 on Kirin this morning, I am changing up my PLD turtle set - calling it "The Kirin set".
My original "tank" gear was capped on PDT and MDT, but on the low side of HP. Kirin could still practically one shot me if I was unlucky - which he did. It was a combination of Sulevia +1 pieces, souveran body, and the max loyalist sabatons. I now know the main reason Paladins don't wear these for uber difficult NMs like Kirin - good on DT, bad on HP (and not to mention haste).
Therefore, I will be making the following changes for this set.
* Wear all 5 Souveran Pieces - head path D, hands path D, rest path C. The main benefit here is HP, as this will increase my max HP by 628 alone, and account for -12% DT, -10% PDT, -4% MDT, -6% BDT.
* Acquire a Zwazo Earring +1 and an Odwona Earring +1, for another -2% MDT and -2% BDT (and a 100 MP==>HP).
* Get an Angha Gem for another -2% PDT
* Wear that Homeric Gorget I got the other morning, changing the -5% DT from Twilight Torque to just -6% PDT (and defense, attack, and enmity).
* Use Flume and Philidor (was already using both) as well as the 2x Dark Rings (another -20% PDT, -11% MDT, -6% BDT) (was already using the rings as well).
DT Totals:
-12% DT
-38% PDT (-50% PDT capped, plus -18% PDT II from Burtgang, giving me -68% PDT)
-17% MDT (-29% MDT, plus -45% MDT from Aegis, giving me -74% MDT, enough for Shell V to cap me)
-14% BDT (-26% BDT - only area of concern right now)
Long term I would like a D.ring, and will get 2 more attempts from login points this month.
This week I am looking good to finish the Almace 119-3, which will help me acquire those two earrings as well as kill a few more Escha mobs I have not gotten clears on as of yet.
7,776/10,000 Riftborn boulders turned in.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
It's Tenzen o'clock (and blue mage gear 2.0)
Wow! What a wild past few days it has been.
I have been on quite a roll lately with things I am doing in game and acquisitions of gear. Sinister Reign has been really good to me the past few days, so i'll talk about that in this post. I will also talk about how Project Afterglow is going as well as show off the current TP and WS gear on Blue Mage.
I especially want to thank contributors on the blue mage board of FFXIAH for helping me determine what the issue was with Thereoid Greaves and why they were showing a lower DPS. The reasons were twofold - #1, my WS set did not have enough accuracy to compensate for the addition of the Thereoid Greaves and the spreadsheet was predicting a drop in my weapon skill accuracy on a 125 mob - enough that the herc feet's augments and accuracy would be a better option. Also #2, had I turned on Aggressor from /war. The answer was no, and once I did that it made the DPS change be positive just by itself.
Ok so, on to the post!
Tenzen
I have been on quite a roll lately with things I am doing in game and acquisitions of gear. Sinister Reign has been really good to me the past few days, so i'll talk about that in this post. I will also talk about how Project Afterglow is going as well as show off the current TP and WS gear on Blue Mage.
I especially want to thank contributors on the blue mage board of FFXIAH for helping me determine what the issue was with Thereoid Greaves and why they were showing a lower DPS. The reasons were twofold - #1, my WS set did not have enough accuracy to compensate for the addition of the Thereoid Greaves and the spreadsheet was predicting a drop in my weapon skill accuracy on a 125 mob - enough that the herc feet's augments and accuracy would be a better option. Also #2, had I turned on Aggressor from /war. The answer was no, and once I did that it made the DPS change be positive just by itself.
Ok so, on to the post!
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| Most of the past few mornings have been Tenzen o'clock |
I have been doing my best to get in 7 rounds of Tenzen every day since I finished bringing Almace to 119. I have been doing more runs with members of my linkshells and starting my own via shouts and yells. A few people have been added to my friends list as well and they are usually on in the morning when I am. We have a pretty solid strategy and setup that works 99 times out of 100.
My Tenzen spell set is a modification of my DD spell set with a few changes. First, I remove Subduction and a tier of Store TP and replace those three spells with Tenebral Crush, Silent Storm, and Dream Flower. I also remove magic barrier and another spell to free up the points for these three. After buffing (and calling trusts when we are going with 3-5), I hit the tarus with SS, TC, and DF. We melee and WS Tenzen until he uses his 1 hour WS immunity. We then melee him down throwing a CA+Efflux Sinker Drill at him as well. Whomever has hate then runs out of range when he invincible/meikyo shisui's and he stands in place. At that point, I have to resleep the tarus unless Cherukiki 1/2 resists DF, then I sleep her sooner. Cherukiki is also immune to SS, so it is important to keep her slept. The ranged attacks from one of the other tarus are not nearly as annoying as a shadow eating slowga.
We bring at least 3 melee to each, and if people are on with jobs like cor, geo, or whm we bring them as well. I try to bring RR when possible if we do not have someone who can raise. We fill out the party with trusts and can usually win in 3-4 minutes.
We have a High-tier mission battlefield campaign going on right now that started this morning so it was nice to get a third box/case/parcel each battle on top of the two we were already getting. This already had a significant impact on the amount of boulders I turned in just from the 7 runs this morning.
As of today, I have turned in 4288 boulders. Additionally, I have 69 Beitetsu Parcels and 16 Beitetsu Boxes in my mog house along with 121 loose Beitetsu.
Sinister Reign Acquisitions
When I wasn't doing Tenzen or capping merits (more on that later), I was participating in or starting runs in Sinister Reign.
I have been spoiled by going on runs of this event with Kaht, our resident AG-Tizona/AG-Almace blue mage. He's a bulldozer hands down. When we go with him, we're usually done with the run in around 4 minutes, give or take 30 seconds. The only tough fight we have at times is Arciela because her Naakuul's Vengeance move can be flat out unfair. When we do runs without Kaht, we average 5 or 6 minutes per run. I have gone on PLD and on BLU to this event and am pretty successful with either.
We also found out last night that August makes a pretty darn good trust tank in SR. It's also funny to watch him tank himself.
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| I'm the real August! |
So what did I win?
I have two Vampirisms with nearly maxed augments. Useful for situations where piercing damage is useful on blue mage. They also are fairly good for nuking on blue mage. I do not know if they are better than 2x Nibiru Cudgels right now, but they do seem comparable.
Brilliance (max): Whoopee. Because this is so much better than Burtgang. Oh well I had nothing else worthwhile as an option at the time, so it sits in my mog house.
Medium's Sabots (max): An improvement over the addition I got last time to my cure set on blue mage. I can almost hit 900 on magic fruit now.
Lengo Pants (max): Idle legs for blue mage. I had just said the morning before I got these that I needed to get some Rawhide Trousers so I could get more auto refresh on my blue mage. However, they are no longer needed thanks to these.
Jumalik Mail (max): And I had also expressed the need for a refresh body on Paladin that same morning. This also works as a cure potency piece for Paladin and allows me to change the augment path on my Souveran Cuirass to path A. Because of the max Loyalist Sabatons I received last week, I can now keep capped haste wearing Souveran Body as well as the three Sulevia +1 pieces I have been using (head, hands, legs). Those three pieces are terrific in a Hybrid set, allowing me to easily go past 1200 accuracy with just sushi.
Funny story about this is when I had this as a choice, I also had near max Samnuha Tights as well I could have chosen. Kaht told me at the time that the bigger need was having refresh on my PLD and that I would see the tights again. If they were max, however, Kaht said picking the tights would have been better.
Funny story about this is when I had this as a choice, I also had near max Samnuha Tights as well I could have chosen. Kaht told me at the time that the bigger need was having refresh on my PLD and that I would see the tights again. If they were max, however, Kaht said picking the tights would have been better.
Words of wisdom for sure!
Leyline Gloves (almost max): This allows me to put the Thaumas Gloves away, as they have a total of 7% fast cast. I can also use them on Paladin, and this puts my Reprisal timer a little lower. It was 1:20, so I imagine I can get it closer to the 1:00 goal.
And my favorite...
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| Max Tights! |
Samnuha Tights (max): I wish I could have shown you my celebration when I saw these. This was literally the 8th pair of tights I had seen in the past few days. I did one run two nights ago where we had Teodor 4 times in a row, and all 4 times I had the option for Tights, and the augments were bad. Since I saw the nearly max tights (when I picked the Jumalik Mail max), I had not seen anything close. Getting these tights makes all of SR worth it. They are amazing for TP, CDC, and for just in general awesomeness.
Samnuha Coat (max): In the very next run, we saw Teodor again and my choice was a Samnuha Coat with max augments. I have a lot of options for melee and magic on BLU so unfortunately this won't see action in all likelihood. Still it's a cool piece so I will keep it in my mog house.
So to say I had a good streak in Sinister Reign is an understatement. We had completed many battles for sure, but when each one takes 3-5 minutes it is easy to get 15 battles in an hour.
Other acquisitions
Cessance Earring: I finally got this to drop this morning in the One to be Feared High Tier Mission Battlefield. I needed to use TH4 (blu/thf) and the trusts August, Apururu, Arciela I, Selh'teus, and Joachim to get the win. I stun-locked Ultima and CDC'd it down and outlasted Proto-Omega and his pile pitch. It took me a total of 10 wins at this BC and I have now seen 2 Cessance Earrings (a friend had won the lot on the 1st one).
Early indicators on my BLU spreadsheet are that this earring will add a staggering amount of DPS to my current TP set. I switched this in for Suppanomimi and adjusted my spell set to include DW IV instead of III. The increase was a 55 point DPS increase. That's a lot for one single item being swapped in, but it makes sense. I'm trading 5 attack for 1 more accuracy, 3 more store TP, and 3% more double attack.
What's coming up
What's coming up
I am continuing to do Tenzen runs and getting more boulders for the Almace Afterglow and will follow that up with beitetsu for Burtgang Afterglow. To cap merits, I am fighting Mosquitos and Beetles in Reisenjima (melee or cleave - whichever I am in the mood for) and also farming stones from the ascended NMs that do pop when I am there. The ferns and taupes are going into trying to perfect my Valorous head, hands, and legs for my PLD CDC set. I am also throwing some at my Herculean Hands to try for superior WS hands, but right now my focus is the Valorous gear. I eventually am going to farm a Vatic Byrnie to play around with to see if I can get it to work with my CDC set on Paladin.
Thanks for reading. What a long post!
Current BLU TP gear
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| DPSssssss |
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Blue Mage gear
Ok I'm finally ready to write and publish this post.
Believe it or not, I get questions from people in game regarding my gear. Some have even asked me because of this blog - which means, yay outreach!
So here you go.
I will do this post in two parts. The first part is my current up to date TP set and numbers, a discussion on dual wield, what spells I set, my CDC set, and where I am hoping to make improvements.
Here is my current TP gear for standard situations. With sushi alone, my accuracy with this set is around 1200.
For purposes of this post, I removed all buffs that you can activate on the spreadsheet but kept Haste II (Erratic Flutter) and Mighty Guard related haste buffs, as I almost always have those active when on blue mage.
You can also see the current set of augments I have on my four Herculean pieces. Most notably is the +14% extra triple attack I have.
Why triple attack?
This seems to have an obvious answer. The more frequently you swing per attack round, the more TP you get, and the more CDCs you can get in. But from a DPS and attack round stand point, the extra augments on my Herculean actually account for a significant amount of DPS.
Here's my TP set without the extra augments from the Herculean set. I am fully aware that anybody who owns a herculean piece is gonna have it augmented with something, but still this is rather enlightening.
This means the Herculean gear amounts for a 900 DPS when augmented with my current augments. My 4 pieces' augments account for +14% TA, +17 DEX, +43 attack, and +90 acc.
Oh, and my rounds per WS with the augmented Herculean gear is 3.77, which means I am ready to weapon skill on average every 6 to 8 real life seconds.
Compare that to 6.38 without the augments.
Triple attack makes a HUGE difference in your TP set, and the only reason you should not go for it is if you own a Tizona and keep AM3 up all the time. In that case, Store TP is likely where it is at (although I have not investigated that as I do not have or plan to have a Tizona).
Why Adhemar path B?
The content I tend to do right now does not require significant accuracy. For those situations where more accuracy is needed and my BLU is, I do switch my three Adhemar pieces to path A for the extra +45 accuracy. I have a handful of accuracy swaps in other slots as well, such as Cacoethic Ring +1 and Sanctity Necklace. I currently lack a waist acc piece and do need to pick up one at some point.
Why only +10 dual wield?
I will discuss this at a later point.
Why are you TPing in your Ambuscade mantle?
After analysis, the extra critical hit rate, accuracy, and DEX you get with a typical CDC Ambuscade mantle is superior to the boost you get from the other typical back piece option Bleating Mantle (both have +20 attack). Using the CDC Ambuscade mantle increases your DPS by 80 points over Bleating Mantle.
My spell set
My standard DD spell set consists of the following spells.
Important DD traits are all included here and for the most part the spells that are set I do use, save the DW and most of the Store TP spells. I keep Subduction mostly for crowd control or when I am completing records of eminence tasks for magic damage kills, but I do swap this out when it is not going to be needed. I sometimes also remove one tier of Store TP if I need to say set Dream Flower or Tenebral Crush.
This spell set gives me a sufficient boost in many offensive areas, including +5% extra Triple Attack (I can get +10% Double Attack from /war), +35 accuracy, a +11% boost to critical damage, +28 MAB, and +30 Store TP. Attack bonus is not necessary almost all the time because Nature's Meditation and Berserk are significant enough boosts. Also note - only DWIII.
Ok now what gives - only 25% dual wield and +10 from your TP Gear?
The below is a post I posted on Guildwork (where virtually nobody saw it) regarding Dual Wield.
DWIII reduces delay by 25%, but this is after all forms of haste have been taken into account.
Gear haste reduces delay by 25% (capped), or 256/1024
Erratic Flutter reduces delay by 30%, or 300/1024
Mighty Guard would reduce this by 15%, but the cap on magic haste is 43.75%, so that would make the haste reduction 448/1024. (The same would happen if you have two marches on you)…
This leaves you with 704/1024, or 68.75% delay reduction.
DWIII would reduce this number, which is now 320, by another 80 (25% of 320), giving you 784/1024 = 76.5% delay reduction.
If you have Suppanomimi and Adhemar Jacket, that's another 10% of DW.
DWIII + 10 DW from above stated gear would reduce the 704/1024 number by 112, giving you 79.7% delay reduction.
Believe it or not, I get questions from people in game regarding my gear. Some have even asked me because of this blog - which means, yay outreach!
So here you go.
I will do this post in two parts. The first part is my current up to date TP set and numbers, a discussion on dual wield, what spells I set, my CDC set, and where I am hoping to make improvements.
Here is my current TP gear for standard situations. With sushi alone, my accuracy with this set is around 1200.
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| My current BLU TP gear |
For purposes of this post, I removed all buffs that you can activate on the spreadsheet but kept Haste II (Erratic Flutter) and Mighty Guard related haste buffs, as I almost always have those active when on blue mage.
You can also see the current set of augments I have on my four Herculean pieces. Most notably is the +14% extra triple attack I have.
Why triple attack?
This seems to have an obvious answer. The more frequently you swing per attack round, the more TP you get, and the more CDCs you can get in. But from a DPS and attack round stand point, the extra augments on my Herculean actually account for a significant amount of DPS.
Here's my TP set without the extra augments from the Herculean set. I am fully aware that anybody who owns a herculean piece is gonna have it augmented with something, but still this is rather enlightening.
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| Same set with unaugmented Herculean gear |
Oh, and my rounds per WS with the augmented Herculean gear is 3.77, which means I am ready to weapon skill on average every 6 to 8 real life seconds.
Compare that to 6.38 without the augments.
Triple attack makes a HUGE difference in your TP set, and the only reason you should not go for it is if you own a Tizona and keep AM3 up all the time. In that case, Store TP is likely where it is at (although I have not investigated that as I do not have or plan to have a Tizona).
Why Adhemar path B?
The content I tend to do right now does not require significant accuracy. For those situations where more accuracy is needed and my BLU is, I do switch my three Adhemar pieces to path A for the extra +45 accuracy. I have a handful of accuracy swaps in other slots as well, such as Cacoethic Ring +1 and Sanctity Necklace. I currently lack a waist acc piece and do need to pick up one at some point.
Why only +10 dual wield?
I will discuss this at a later point.
Why are you TPing in your Ambuscade mantle?
After analysis, the extra critical hit rate, accuracy, and DEX you get with a typical CDC Ambuscade mantle is superior to the boost you get from the other typical back piece option Bleating Mantle (both have +20 attack). Using the CDC Ambuscade mantle increases your DPS by 80 points over Bleating Mantle.
My spell set
My standard DD spell set consists of the following spells.
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| Current spell set |
This spell set gives me a sufficient boost in many offensive areas, including +5% extra Triple Attack (I can get +10% Double Attack from /war), +35 accuracy, a +11% boost to critical damage, +28 MAB, and +30 Store TP. Attack bonus is not necessary almost all the time because Nature's Meditation and Berserk are significant enough boosts. Also note - only DWIII.
Ok now what gives - only 25% dual wield and +10 from your TP Gear?
The below is a post I posted on Guildwork (where virtually nobody saw it) regarding Dual Wield.
DWIII reduces delay by 25%, but this is after all forms of haste have been taken into account.
Gear haste reduces delay by 25% (capped), or 256/1024
Erratic Flutter reduces delay by 30%, or 300/1024
Mighty Guard would reduce this by 15%, but the cap on magic haste is 43.75%, so that would make the haste reduction 448/1024. (The same would happen if you have two marches on you)…
This leaves you with 704/1024, or 68.75% delay reduction.
DWIII would reduce this number, which is now 320, by another 80 (25% of 320), giving you 784/1024 = 76.5% delay reduction.
If you have Suppanomimi and Adhemar Jacket, that's another 10% of DW.
DWIII + 10 DW from above stated gear would reduce the 704/1024 number by 112, giving you 79.7% delay reduction.
The cap is 80% no matter what. Further dual wield would reduce your TP/hit without giving you faster attack speed.
Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. More is not necessarily better.
Weapon skill set
My current CDC set is as follows.
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| Surprising results |
I am posting both of these sets to compare what I thought regarding Thereoid Greaves and Herculean Boots. I actually just made a post on the FFXIAH forums regarding this result.
Areas of improvement
I would like to get better augments on my Herculean Helm for the melee version. It only has +10 acc, but +4% Triple Attack. It will be a lot of stones before I see TA +4% again and hopefully it'll come with more accuracy when I do see it.
Obviously the work is still going on to afterglow the 119 Almace. That is going smoothly and I am about 16% done with that trial after 3 days. At this rate I should be done by next weekend.
Do you see improvements that could be made? Let me know!
Sunday, May 1, 2016
The song of Roland will play
Just in time for the conclusion of this months' campaign...
...which saw me doing lots and lots of what you see above. So much so that I was waking up earlier than usual so I could have a solid amount of time to farm as many pouches and cinders as I could.
After procuring 76 pouches on Friday morning, I popped them all in hopes of having enough to beat the statistical average by 33 and finish the trial.
Unfortunately, after popping the pouches, I still had 41 plates remaining to finish the trial. With 24 hours to go in campaign, I was not really looking to do another session of Qilin, still needing 4 more riftcinders. My LS came through, however, with one guy selling me the 14 plates he had for 75k each, and another member coming through with a loan so I could purchase the remaining 27.
So with that, the most difficult stage of Empryean Weapons was complete! I have no regrets - I know this sword is going to be amazing when finished!
With metal plates out of the way, I proceeded to one more Voidwatch session the following morning (yesterday, during the last hours of campaign). I only wanted to kill 30-40 Morta in hopes of getting any of the remaining 4 riftcinders. I lucked out and got 3, planning to use Ambuscade to buy the remaining riftcinder. I also lucked out and was able to sell the loose 14 plates I received to a LS mate along with 2 riftdross for a good gil haul. All the Belladonna Sap I had received has also sold as of this writing, although a friend has 3 stacks still on him that I can begin selling as well.
After some solid Ambuscade, I had 60 riftcinders and completed the final upgrade for Magian Trial Almace!
(Ok, not final, but seriously who on any server has turned in 3,000 riftcinders for Afterglow?)
I want to thank Yzzerdd in particular for allowing me to use one of his alternate accounts to make this trial actually doable. Without the extra chest pop each battle, I definitely would not have had enough time to farm Voidwatch during campaign to get all the materials I needed. It went by efficiently enough to not drive me completely insane.
So now that campaign is over, what's next for me?
Well as expected, time to make Tenzen my...dispenser.
I have enough experience with Tenzen that I have a spellset dedicated specifically to fighting him. On D with a Vile Elixir +1, I can definitely solo him. However, I have already joined two pick up groups that fought him on VD and three members were the same both times. One guy controls the PLD and the BRD and the BRD does a great job of sleeping the tarus, and the PLD has a full +1 Souveran set and an afterglowed Burtgang. We have fairly efficient runs and it is always good to walk away with two cases/boxes/parcels each fight. Also, one guy is working on a relic AG and is trading me his boulders for my plutons.
Between those two runs and some purchases, I have 600 boulders already. I am saving the Beitetsu cases/boxes/parcels for the eventual AG of my Burtgang - I haven't forgotten that! - and trading in the boulders.
Of course, 300 of those boulders had to go for the 119 upgrade on Almace. Unfortunately after lots of playing with the DPS spreadsheet, the closest I could get to my current TP set and one including a mainhand Almace (with AM3) was -140 DPS. This means I have to last a while longer with Tanmo +1/Nibiru A as my go to for BLU. It is looking like when I do finish the AG upgrade for Almace that Tanmo +1 will be the better offhand sword. I do not have any current plans to make a Tizona. I'm not counting it out right now, but it seems very unlikely.
So until that upgrade process is done, my playtime will likely look like this:
1) Farm merit points - currently I am farming them while camping Warder of Dignity.
2) Join or make Tenzen PUG or go with LS mates.
3) Trade Plutons for Boulders and purchases Boulders with gil (currently about a million gil per stack on Cerb)
4) Rinse and repeat.
While doing this, I am slowly getting more JP for BLU. I am at 1350 right now.
I am of course hoping for another campaign like the rainbow campaign to make my AG farming a bit more efficient, but I am not counting on it. Still, after only two rounds of Tenzen I have already 3% done with the AG trial. That's promising!
Almace 119 AG Progress
291/10,000 Boulders
Sorry I did not get a chance to do my BLU post I promised last week. I will get on that soon!
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| Pouches upon pouches upon pouches... |
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| Turning pouches to plates, and depositing into what appears to be a not so sturdy crate. |
After procuring 76 pouches on Friday morning, I popped them all in hopes of having enough to beat the statistical average by 33 and finish the trial.
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| Press Your Luck... |
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| The trial is finished! |
With metal plates out of the way, I proceeded to one more Voidwatch session the following morning (yesterday, during the last hours of campaign). I only wanted to kill 30-40 Morta in hopes of getting any of the remaining 4 riftcinders. I lucked out and got 3, planning to use Ambuscade to buy the remaining riftcinder. I also lucked out and was able to sell the loose 14 plates I received to a LS mate along with 2 riftdross for a good gil haul. All the Belladonna Sap I had received has also sold as of this writing, although a friend has 3 stacks still on him that I can begin selling as well.
After some solid Ambuscade, I had 60 riftcinders and completed the final upgrade for Magian Trial Almace!
(Ok, not final, but seriously who on any server has turned in 3,000 riftcinders for Afterglow?)
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| Thanks VW! It's been real! |
So now that campaign is over, what's next for me?
Well as expected, time to make Tenzen my...dispenser.
I have enough experience with Tenzen that I have a spellset dedicated specifically to fighting him. On D with a Vile Elixir +1, I can definitely solo him. However, I have already joined two pick up groups that fought him on VD and three members were the same both times. One guy controls the PLD and the BRD and the BRD does a great job of sleeping the tarus, and the PLD has a full +1 Souveran set and an afterglowed Burtgang. We have fairly efficient runs and it is always good to walk away with two cases/boxes/parcels each fight. Also, one guy is working on a relic AG and is trading me his boulders for my plutons.
Between those two runs and some purchases, I have 600 boulders already. I am saving the Beitetsu cases/boxes/parcels for the eventual AG of my Burtgang - I haven't forgotten that! - and trading in the boulders.
Of course, 300 of those boulders had to go for the 119 upgrade on Almace. Unfortunately after lots of playing with the DPS spreadsheet, the closest I could get to my current TP set and one including a mainhand Almace (with AM3) was -140 DPS. This means I have to last a while longer with Tanmo +1/Nibiru A as my go to for BLU. It is looking like when I do finish the AG upgrade for Almace that Tanmo +1 will be the better offhand sword. I do not have any current plans to make a Tizona. I'm not counting it out right now, but it seems very unlikely.
So until that upgrade process is done, my playtime will likely look like this:
1) Farm merit points - currently I am farming them while camping Warder of Dignity.
2) Join or make Tenzen PUG or go with LS mates.
3) Trade Plutons for Boulders and purchases Boulders with gil (currently about a million gil per stack on Cerb)
4) Rinse and repeat.
While doing this, I am slowly getting more JP for BLU. I am at 1350 right now.
I am of course hoping for another campaign like the rainbow campaign to make my AG farming a bit more efficient, but I am not counting on it. Still, after only two rounds of Tenzen I have already 3% done with the AG trial. That's promising!
Almace 119 AG Progress
291/10,000 Boulders
Sorry I did not get a chance to do my BLU post I promised last week. I will get on that soon!
Friday, April 22, 2016
Not on my watch!
After writing my most recent post, I decided to enter the foray and attempt to finish off my long forgotten, mog house slot eating level 90 Almace.
The poor thing saw so much action once I received it and then I took my extended 2013-2015 break. Unfortunately, I logged back in to notice it was outclassed and no longer relevant as it was.
But after seeing the third tier of 119 possibilities, and the ridiculous damage my friend does with his afterglowed Tizona and Almace combination, I decided to restore it to its former glory.
And that would require Voidwatch....lots and lots of Voidwatch...
More Voidwatch...
And yes, still more of it.
So I spent some time on Saturday and Sunday splitting time between Ambuscade, Qilin, and Morta. I still had a few paths to finish off as well for an eventual encounter with Provenance Watcher.
After a pretty solid and efficient few sessions on the aforementioned VW mobs in three days, I had only 3 riftcinders and 189 plates. Despite the fact I was killing Qilin at a rate of 45-50 Qilins per hour and about 40 Mortas per hour, I was well under the "finish before campaign ends" rate.
But thanks to a friend, I am temporarily dualboxing in order to pop more chests.
I am happy to report that as of this morning, I have 633 metal plates, and 26 riftcinders.
My cycle is pretty much as follows:
1) Purchase rubicund cells on both characters - 8 stacks on each.
2) Purchase 1 or 2 stacks of Phase Displacers on my main. If I am doing Morta, I purchase 2 stacks (more on that in a bit)
3) Teleport to proper planar rift.
4) Call trusts Ulmia, Joachim, Qultada, and Koru-Moru for a super buffed character.
5) Use a macro to trade a cell to the rift on each character, plus 1-3 phase displacers.
6) Pop and kill.
7) Pop chests.
8) Repeat 5, 6, and 7 as time and supplies allow.
9) Warp back to town. NPC most of the drops, earning 300-600k.
10) Use the gil accrued from step 9 plus a sparks conversion to purchase more plates from bazaars or the AH.
My setup is blu/war with a dd spellset. I use the following Atmacites - Exhortation, Valiant, and Coercion. I also use Exhortation on the alternate character so I can take advantage of the regain sphere. This gives me incredible ability to WS and skillchain, and thanks to Exhortation I do 30% more skillchain damage.
On Qilin, I use Nature's Meditation and Berserk (if available) after initializing the pop (to avoid magic aggro from nearby weapons), engage, and skillchain away. I use 1 displacer per pop on Qilin.
On Morta I use Braver's drink, Stalwart's tonic, and Fanatics Drink (via macro) upon popping, then engage and skillchain away. Morta is more annoying because when her adds pop she tends to move, so I have to reposition in order to keep swinging. If solo, I use three displacers on Morta. If teamed up with another person, I use two.
I'm averaging two or three VW outings this week because I have off from my job. I want to get most of what I need to do done this week.
I did get in some more Sinister Reign earlier this week, and...
August!
I finally got this wonderful item during some SR runs. I also ended up procuring a nice Vampirism with DMG+10, some Ta'Lab trousers (with added crit rate +1%), and Medium's Sabots for BLU. Our runs were very efficient, and I got to put the Burtgang to good use once again. Sadly, this does nothing to help me survive No Quarter - no shock there though.
So what will I be doing this week? Pretty simple.
Voidwatch.
I will kill Mortas until I finish my riftcinder (unless my LS is doing Qilin). I am almost halfway done with those. They have the added benefit of dropping single plates as well as riftdross. The riftdross is being saved for a LS Mate who is also upgrading. He is giving me 300k per dross, so that gil immediately goes to plates once I get it.
After Mortas are done, Qilin will be the spot to cough up the rest of my plates.
If I do not finish in time before campaign ends, I will use Ambuscade to get maximum plates and cinders (if needed of course). I still have 1400 marks to go to finish my PLD CDC cape.
Next post
I was asked to talk about my BLU gear a bit as people notice I do quite a bit of damage. BLU is a complex job mathematically, so I will be doing another post this weekend to detail my gear setup on both jobs and why it works. Expect screenshots from my BLU and PLD DPS spreadsheets (the same ones available on BG and FFXIAH).
Until then, good luck on the 'watch!
The poor thing saw so much action once I received it and then I took my extended 2013-2015 break. Unfortunately, I logged back in to notice it was outclassed and no longer relevant as it was.
But after seeing the third tier of 119 possibilities, and the ridiculous damage my friend does with his afterglowed Tizona and Almace combination, I decided to restore it to its former glory.
And that would require Voidwatch....lots and lots of Voidwatch...
More Voidwatch...
And yes, still more of it.
So I spent some time on Saturday and Sunday splitting time between Ambuscade, Qilin, and Morta. I still had a few paths to finish off as well for an eventual encounter with Provenance Watcher.
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| Here's a bright idea...light skillchains do increased damage on Qilin. |
But thanks to a friend, I am temporarily dualboxing in order to pop more chests.
I am happy to report that as of this morning, I have 633 metal plates, and 26 riftcinders.
My cycle is pretty much as follows:
1) Purchase rubicund cells on both characters - 8 stacks on each.
2) Purchase 1 or 2 stacks of Phase Displacers on my main. If I am doing Morta, I purchase 2 stacks (more on that in a bit)
3) Teleport to proper planar rift.
4) Call trusts Ulmia, Joachim, Qultada, and Koru-Moru for a super buffed character.
5) Use a macro to trade a cell to the rift on each character, plus 1-3 phase displacers.
6) Pop and kill.
7) Pop chests.
8) Repeat 5, 6, and 7 as time and supplies allow.
9) Warp back to town. NPC most of the drops, earning 300-600k.
10) Use the gil accrued from step 9 plus a sparks conversion to purchase more plates from bazaars or the AH.
My setup is blu/war with a dd spellset. I use the following Atmacites - Exhortation, Valiant, and Coercion. I also use Exhortation on the alternate character so I can take advantage of the regain sphere. This gives me incredible ability to WS and skillchain, and thanks to Exhortation I do 30% more skillchain damage.
On Qilin, I use Nature's Meditation and Berserk (if available) after initializing the pop (to avoid magic aggro from nearby weapons), engage, and skillchain away. I use 1 displacer per pop on Qilin.
On Morta I use Braver's drink, Stalwart's tonic, and Fanatics Drink (via macro) upon popping, then engage and skillchain away. Morta is more annoying because when her adds pop she tends to move, so I have to reposition in order to keep swinging. If solo, I use three displacers on Morta. If teamed up with another person, I use two.
I'm averaging two or three VW outings this week because I have off from my job. I want to get most of what I need to do done this week.
I did get in some more Sinister Reign earlier this week, and...
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| Ready for action in the near future! |
I finally got this wonderful item during some SR runs. I also ended up procuring a nice Vampirism with DMG+10, some Ta'Lab trousers (with added crit rate +1%), and Medium's Sabots for BLU. Our runs were very efficient, and I got to put the Burtgang to good use once again. Sadly, this does nothing to help me survive No Quarter - no shock there though.
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| Always a nice little "yesss...." when seeing this in the loot pool. |
Voidwatch.
I will kill Mortas until I finish my riftcinder (unless my LS is doing Qilin). I am almost halfway done with those. They have the added benefit of dropping single plates as well as riftdross. The riftdross is being saved for a LS Mate who is also upgrading. He is giving me 300k per dross, so that gil immediately goes to plates once I get it.
After Mortas are done, Qilin will be the spot to cough up the rest of my plates.
If I do not finish in time before campaign ends, I will use Ambuscade to get maximum plates and cinders (if needed of course). I still have 1400 marks to go to finish my PLD CDC cape.
Next post
I was asked to talk about my BLU gear a bit as people notice I do quite a bit of damage. BLU is a complex job mathematically, so I will be doing another post this weekend to detail my gear setup on both jobs and why it works. Expect screenshots from my BLU and PLD DPS spreadsheets (the same ones available on BG and FFXIAH).
Until then, good luck on the 'watch!
Thursday, April 14, 2016
The aftermath
As of my last writing, I was almost done with kill shot trials for Burtgang (90). That same evening I took care of the remaining kills and upgraded it further.
Ultimately, I have made it to i119 with Burtgang and am enjoying using it to tank and kill stuff. Aftermath level 3 is a lot of fun, and I am currently trying to modify my DD and Hybrid pieces to enhance my accuracy and Store TP.
Here's what I have accomplished since my last post.
Aegis (95)
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| Farming Animated Shields pld/thf style! |
Burtgang (95)
Needing to kill Long-bowed Chariot 3 times in normal salvage was no big deal. One assault, three salvages, 1.5 hours.
Burtgang (99)
After much planning and T4 trophy hoarding, I set out to farm the three necessary Mulcibar's Scoria for the level 99 trial. To summarize the ZNM portion, I had enough pop items between T2, T3, and T4 to not even need to kill a single T1 in order to make 3 pop sets for PW. I did have to go zeni farming once, and wasn't surprised that the still-best spot is Nauls in Abyssea - Tahrongi.
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| On my way to kill PW for the first time. |
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| The PW room. |
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| Ready to pop |
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| Pff I got this! |
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| Trophies for Pop #3 |
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| Finishing off the hat trick |
Burtgang (i119)
I had stockpiled 295 Beitetsu by the time I began Burtgang trials and now that I was done with the magian portion, I was ready to turn them in. I purchased 5 more and had Oboro forge away. I got to put the new sword to use immediately afterward and farmed Gomberry in Reisenjima. I loved the aftermath and obviously made me want to re-evaluate my TP gear. Granted, Gomberry is a bit evasive but still the numbers guy wants to make him do whatever laughable damage I can!
Adhemar Jacket
After saving some gil, I purchased a Vexed Jacket from the AH and uncursed a Jovian Body abjuration I had picked up earlier in the week with a Pakecet session. I also got an Uac Jerkin for my PLD to use with CDC. It's not the best option I think, but it will do until something better comes along (perhaps the new Sulevia Mail +1 will be good for it, but I won't know until I plug it into the DPS sheet).
The new jacket nearly caps my delay down using only DWIII traits, suppanomimi, and the jacket. I have a combined -79.7% delay down when haste and MG are active. It turns me into a swinging machine.
Legion clear
Desiring the rare enemy vorseal as well as a Transitory Abjuration: Body, I set out to solo legion.
I found the initial halls no problem whatsoever. Using trusts and my blue mage, I made quick work of the first wave of the four halls and exited after getting each trophy.
Then it was Hall of Mul time. Reading up on this, I noticed that one of the big worries was the Death Prophet attack from the Mantis in wave 2. The others it was just survival and damage for the most part.
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| Entering the Hall of Mul |
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| Paramount BLU readies CDC! |
I will admit though, being able to resummon trusts while having enmity was incredibly helpful. It felt like a more challenging Wildskeeper Reive.
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| Cough up that abjuration! |
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| Cleaning up that mess in the Hall of Mul. |
Having the required abjuration, I purchased some Umbral Marrow and removed the WS damage +5% from my Khepri Jacket (a mog bonanza prize from 2012 I believe). I recursed it and received a Hexed Jacket -1. I had some eschite ore left over from Pakecet the other day and gave the two items to a LS mate. He did his best to turn it into a jinxed jacket, but sadly we only got the NQ. It is currently on the AH and will hopefully become a rebate for the vexed jacket I purchased earlier in the week.
Rosmerta's Cape
The new Ambuscade event received multiple visits from me since its implementation. I can solo and lowman the D dragon pretty easily, and our LS has done multiple VD runs. I have done it enough to get 3 +1 pieces of Sulevia's Gear and capped augments on this cape. I decided for a CDC cape for BLU, augmenting it with Att/Acc +20, Critical Hit rate +10%, and DEX+20. It wouldn't surprised me if this was superior to Bleating Mantle for TPing, but I will have to use the DPS spreadsheet to see for sure.
Sailfi Belt
I want to use this on my PLD TP set so I can afford to use some of the Sulevia's set to TP in. I will upgrade this to +1 to afford me the most room for error.
I plan on using the Loyalist Sabatons I got for my feet since that is 6%. I will then need to get 10% more between the four slots. Sulevia's +1 can likely occupy three of the slots. If I use despair mail and the legs, hands, and head Sulevia's +1, I should have capped haste.
Plan
I am finishing up the Voidwatch quests for an eventual vorseal, but also to potentially farm materials for 99 Almace. I have not fully committed to this yet, but I did do some Aello last night and in 20 kills, I got exactly 0 heavy metal. That's a little discouraging, but we'll see if I can find some sort of equilibrium. Perhaps farming Morta and Bismark so I can get some metal as well as riftdross/riftcinder. Maybe even some sealord skin.
Oh yeah, and another 9,990 Beitetsu for Burtgang.
And a PLD cape from Ambuscade.
And some heavy metal from there as well.
So much to do!
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Save all the mobs!
Well, this thinly veiled title reference refers to the name of the weapon skill I have to use for the first 5 trials for upgrading my Burtgang.
Atonement is used 1400 total times in the upgrading process for Burtgang. I imagine the other mythic trials are similar.
You start by using Atonement 200 times on Lizards (very easy with Ochain), but then the trials become...well, a trial.
The first trial was easy enough. See my most recent post for how I did this.
The second trial you have to kill 200 dragons with Atonement being the killing blow. If this was CDC, I would have been easily done with all of the trials by now.
The puks did not take too long and I finished that trial across two play sessions.
The third kill shot trial was 300 Atonement kill shots on Vermin. I had started off on scorpions in Abyssea - Tahrongi, but remembered other easier targets exist - namely the gnats north of conflux 6.
Atonement is used 1400 total times in the upgrading process for Burtgang. I imagine the other mythic trials are similar.
You start by using Atonement 200 times on Lizards (very easy with Ochain), but then the trials become...well, a trial.
The first trial was easy enough. See my most recent post for how I did this.
The second trial you have to kill 200 dragons with Atonement being the killing blow. If this was CDC, I would have been easily done with all of the trials by now.
The puks did not take too long and I finished that trial across two play sessions.
The third kill shot trial was 300 Atonement kill shots on Vermin. I had started off on scorpions in Abyssea - Tahrongi, but remembered other easier targets exist - namely the gnats north of conflux 6.
After that was done, I went on to 300 Atonement kill shots on Undead. This time I went to Abyssea - Attohwa and killed hounds near Conflux 6. They were easy enough and more manageable once they repopped with more HP. I experimented with trust setups a little here trying to see if I can increase my overall DPS, but unfortunately could not find a trust that melees but does not use weapon skills. If you know of one, let me know!
Currently I am almost done with the final Atonement kill shot trial - 400 Amorphs. For this I am still in Abyssea - Attohwa killing the slugs near Conflux 00. The nice thing about these is they aggro sound and they are close enough together where I can pull a few at a time. I have just 50 more of these to kill as of this writing.
New Gear
I did some more Sinister Reign this past Sunday with some LS mates and pulled in a few more pieces.
Jumalik Helm
For my PLD's Divine Magic set. This is looking close to capped. Enlight II starts off doing 120ish damage unresisted now (by my own recollection).
Loyalist Sabatons
These came augmented with Haste +2%. Since they also have Haste +4%, these became my new feet TP piece thanks to this and its inherently decent DD stats on PLD. I still use the Despair mail, but I have switched to Path D on that piece for a nice boost in Double Attack.
Souveran Schuhs
I now have 5/5 Souveran pieces. These unfortunately are for Phalanx mainly. They do have PDT -4% so I may put them in to my PDT set, but I think I have it capped already.
I will finish this Amorph trial soon and then move to the 3 Tinnins I need to kill. The good news is after I finish these Tinnins, I will have either trophies, pops, or partial pops for Pandemonium Warden. I won't have to do as much ZNM as I think since I saved most of the pops I had gotten during the NNI campaign in January. I will have to build at least one Tinnin pop from scratch, however. No big deal!
I did try the new Ambuscade event this morning to see how it is. I killed the Dragon on normal and got 100 hall marks for it. The rewards seem pretty cool so I will be getting at least the BLU cape and augmenting it. I have a lot of other little things I need to do now that I can enjoy other content in the game, like finishing up VW, uncursing my Khepri Jacket, getting Adhemar Body, etc. etc.
So much to do!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Burtgang!
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| /hurray! |
I have my very own Burtgang!
On Friday morning, I finished this bad boy up and finished the "Coming Full Circle" quest. This sword is very nice looking, but obviously its full potential will not be reached until I get all the trials and other quests finished.
And yes, I do plan on fully upgrading it.
My play time since Tuesday has mostly focused on finishing this up since I was so close. I managed to get 10 more linen purses with 1 double drop in there. The 61st purse came on Thursday night.
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| CDCing that last purse like a boss. |
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| Just wanted to see what he would say if you turned in 29,999 Alexandrite. C'mon Paparoon use proper grammar! |
I ended up having 233 Alexandrite left over. The two stacks promptly went on the AH and I got a rebate in my dbox the following day.
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| Alexandrite finished! |
I was so relieved to have finished Alexandrite. I farmed all 30,000 of the Alexandrite except for 4 stacks and 21 loose. 2 of the stacks were the "Penalty stacks" I mentioned in the previous entry, 2 stacks were a gift from a friend for PLing him with my blue mage, and 21 were purchased from an LS mates bazaar, whom had recently finished Kenkonken.
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| Receiving the sealed invitation |
With Paparoon's sealed invitation in my hands, I went to finish the remainder of the tasks.
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| The real home stretch! |
Remember that Neo Nyzul Isle campaign from a few months ago? I still had those T4 pop items in my inventory. I actually lucked out with the Gobbie Box and got a Tyger's Tail one day, so I did not have to travel to kill him. I did have to go get Sarameya and Tinnin, however. They were quick and efficient kills as usual. Except with Tinnin, I had never fought him and did not know that you had to let him regenerate his two heads before you could kill him. So that fight took a bit longer than I thought it would. Don't worry, Tinnin. I'll see you for a Burtgang trial in the near future!
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| Giving Sarameya a face full of blue mage. |
With all three T4 ZNM items, I traded them to the tombstone and made my way to Nyzul for the culminating Mythic fight.
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| Ready to enter the final Burtgang battle. |
Two atonements finished off Zahak and made Balrahn show himself.
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| Ready to meet your match? |
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| I must admit, at least Atonement still looks pretty cool. |
I found Balrahn's auto regen was very high so there was no need to check my damage so to speak. I used Meditate and just regular hits to get 3000 TP and that ended the fight.
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| The final key item is now in my possession. |
With the key item in my hand, I got the second to last cutscene and then traded the initial Burtgang to the tombstone...
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| Trading the initial Burtgang. |
...and ended up with a fully unlocked level 75 Burtgang! Happy day!
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| Such nice stats already! |
I want to thank a lot of people for mostly putting up with my "Sorry i'm in salvage" for 2 1/2 months. I managed to do a lot of other things during this time of course, but most of the things I did were to help me do salvage and/or get my Burtgang. And now I have it!
Of course, it's not too useful without getting it through trials and that's what I am working on now.
Before that, I trio'd some Reisenjima NMs to get Odyssean Gauntlets and Odyssean Helm. I augmented them with a lot of Fern stones to go with the other two Odyssean pieces I had. I ended up getting +12% WS damage between all four pieces. I wanted to build a respectable Atonement set more for doing trials than anything else. I know that getting kill shots with Atonement is hard since it does such little damage. I am happy to say that with the set I am using, I am doing 1200 at this point in time with Atonement with what I imagine is capped or close to capped enmity.
This morning I also got some Despair Mail by soloing Angrboda on BLU. I used Amchuchu (so happy I got to get him finally, after all this time of saying "C'mon give us another chance to get her!"), Qultada, Arciela I, Selh'teus, and Apururu. I made sure to use Winds of Promyvion whenever he used Volcanic Wrath so we did not wipe. I had a Revetaur pop left over for some reason, but this same group failed quickly because of his doom happy personality.
Why Despair Mail? As a numbers guy, I was still frustrated by that the 5 armor pieces you typically equip on Paladin do not cap your gear haste. Despair Mail offers 4% haste on the body slot instead of the usual 3%. On top of that, path B offers another 2% haste (as well as +12 STR - hear that BLU?) so just by using this in my TP set I now have capped gear haste. Don't worry - I don't plan on using it to tank NMs in a party!
So far, I have completed 1 Burtgang trial. I used pld/sam in Escha - Zi'tah along with my Ochain, 2x bard support trusts and Apururu as well. It went fast with being able to line up some Tarichuks and Bugards and let them feed me TP. 200 of those went fairly fast.
For the 2nd trial, which is 200 atonement kill shots on dragons, I am fighting Puks at Conflux 5 in Abyssea - La Theine. I am going pld/nin and using my Nibiru Blade in the main hand and the Burtgang in the off hand. Using the same support trusts, I can get a Puk to 20% or less HP pretty fast. I flash to pull, TP on them, and Atonement kills them. I am also using Voracious Violet, Sun Eater, and Plaguebringer atmas to increase my Store TP, Regain, and Conserve TP. It's working quite well so far. I managed to get 55 kills in just about 20 minutes once I got into a groove.
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| Dual wielding Burtgangs? Thanks /lockstyle! |
It's an amazing sword and I can't wait to see it realize its full potential!
So now that I have finished the two ultimate weapons I set out to complete this past January, what now? I want to AG the Burtgang and 99 the Aegis (which by the way, is now 90 thanks to finishing up my Goublefaupe kills on Wednesday), perhaps AG my 90 Almace, and whatever else the future updates bring.
I am loving this game more than ever. There's always something to do. And it helps that I have met even more cool people than I had in the past.
Thanks for reading, and happy FFXIing to you all!
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