I perfer the spike necklace cause of the balance and I mainly use it on my THF so the +DEX is a MUST for my great and wonderful SA'a well theres my 2/8264826482 cents {Take Care}
I prefer the Tiger Stole to the Spike necklace for melee jobs. See that? it was a period. As in no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
1: I hit a lot more often. Sure, the spike necklace's +3 bonuses are nice and add damage and crit rate, but I've found that in the end, I do a lot more damage wearing the Tiger Stole, since I actually HIT the target MUCH more often. (Yes, I'm talking about ITs) 2: the mnd down lowers defense and spell resistance. And it seems to take longer to recover or heal with -mnd, but I haven't actually verified this.
So . . . you HIT ITs MUCH more often with something that would reduce your accuracy versus the Spike Necklace? I mean, you do understand that Attack+ has nothing to do with accuracy, right?
Yes, I hit more often. And I do know that atk+ is not acc+ It seemed a little odd to me as well, but I'm just reporting my findings by the numbers.
I tested the two in a pt once (allbeit it has been a while) And I hit more often, for slightly less damage. Fluke? maybe. But that's my experience, anyway, take it or leave it. /shrug
[edit] Unless I got my results crossed, it has been a while. >.< Dangit! Now I have to do my experiment again! I hate it when I second guess myself. [/edit]
No one can say this is better than the Spike Necklace really. 2 Str = 1 Atk; With 2 handed weapons though it goes to 4 Str = 3 Atk. Dex has the same ratios to Accuracy, not sure exactly how it affects Crit, other than the more Dex you have the higher the chance to Crit.
So the Spike Necklace gives 1.5 Atk and 1.5 Acc.
However, if I remember correctly, Str increases the max damage done, and Attack increses the average damage done.
Example: so If you see yourself hitting for 20-40 with an occasional 10 or 50, then you need more Attack to bridge the gap. More Attack will raise it to more like 35-45 with the occasional 30 or 50.
For these Items, I would say the Tiger Stole alone is probably going to increase your average damage by 2 or 3 points. In the long run, that's more than the extra Crit Hit Rate you'll get from the 3 Dex (assuming you have plenty of Acc).
I say, if you are low on Acc, then Spike, but if you have plenty of Acc, Go with the Tiger Stole.
For Monks, (pre Tiger Stole acquisition) I always kept the Justice Badge with me, and macroed that in for Chi Blast (from -6 to +3 MND worked just fine for me)
I personally use this over the Spike Necklass because of the - MND for Chi Blast. I've never noticed a difference in damage or accuracy but i wasn't really looking for it.
I do not know about the Spike Necklass, but Tiger stole let's me do critical hits in a row. It's just funny sometimes seeing: Licoge scores a critical hit... <mob> misses Licoge... Licoge scores a critical hit... <mob> misses Licoge... and so on (my evasion is pretty high). I had even a fight when a mob didn't hit me a single time and i was scoring only critial hits 5 time in a row as a thf (the mob died after that). Of course this is probably not possible with IT mobs unless they have low evasion.
Attack bonus let's you score much often critial hits. Dex bonus from the Spike Necklass decreases the chance of missing the mob. I'd say it depends on your status values and skills what to use fighting which mob.
lmao~ not trying to be mean but what are you talking about. Dex increases crit hit rate, not attack. And about a mob missing you, ummmmmmm attack does not increase eva lmao~.
>> Can you read? EVA was a side note, not related at all to the item's stats, they were just commenting to help you understand the "mob mises char" bit. Although, yeah, it's true, DEX is Crit hit RATE, but ATK will add to the damage done on those hits. -shrug-
:D Either way, I ain't no melee, so I don't give a rat's *** about attk. I'm just trying to find out about these items so I can quest them for gil >< WHM cannot farm worth sh*t.
How do you normally compare strength bonuses vs. attack bonuses? Would the attack +5 on this item be better than the str+2 or str+3 on the fang/spike necklace (ignoring the +DEX)?