The official "rate my gear" threadFollow

That whole couse arguement is just for asthetics. What you want to look for is the damage and delay. Stay away from low damage low delay, and stick with high damage high delay.

By this comparrison. Obviously colossal is king with 88dmg 492 delay. But the level 70 alternatives, engetsuto is definitely good.

Bourdonasse:
84 dmg 478 delay

Engetsuto:
85 dmg 480 delay 2 acc, 1 storeTP

Colossal Lance:
88 dmg 492 delay 3 str 5 vit.

Republigar are the best option until Feral/Tiger, sadly. Crow/Raven Hose are a decent option as well, although I stuck with the subligar.

Walkure for TP/WS.

Edited, Jul 10th 2008 8:57am by Solrain

Most of this seems to be fine. If you're not using love halberd, melee with a Smart Grenade or Tiphia Sting, Angons can always be swapped back in when you need them.

Ethereal is a stellar /mage piece, but assault earring is better if you're just in a normal DD setup.

TP in Homam hands, Pallas' isn't exactly the greatest for Penta. The DEX- hurts your accuracy and base damage, as DEX is a 20% mod. Work towards AF+1 gloves if you can, or hecatomb. Pallas' are ok for Wheeling Thrust though.



I actually just made a post about this in the BST forum (ew), but yes, 8% haste is superior than o.hat/tarasque+1 assuming you have at least 72% accuracy. Actually, it's even less, because the actual comparison was o.hat/tarasque+1 versus turban/dusk, and homam is even better than dusk.

The feet definitely need to be replaced, Amir Boots are a very solid piece, shouldn't take too long to get through assaults. Also, don't TP in Warwolf. It's ok for penta, but a Swift Belt would be a much better TP item. The NMs are not hard, a balanced pt should have no trouble with any of the races (the tarutaru was nerfed so it's much more manageable now).

Edited, Jul 23rd 2008 4:49pm by bsphil

Earring- Yes, assault is better. For WS and TP. Fowling would beat out a normal attack+5 earring though.

Belt- Awesome.

Shoes- If you can get Aurum, by all means go for it. One more accuracy and 2% haste over amir, a very solid piece.

all very good. if your ACC isn't capped (which it probably isn't if you're eating meat at that level, which i think you should be with your gear), i wouldn't change anything for penta thrust yet. also, tiphia probably better than smart grenade for now, but only if it's pretty cheap.

the only real big upgrades i can see are:

1) pole grip instead of mythril+1. should be cheap on your server now (is on mine). definitely get this asap.

2) assault earring.

3) PCC over c.chain. you'll end up with so much ACC later on that as a 1job DRG i don't think PCC is worth farming for for you.

4) SFG like you said, probably the best use of gil you can find. sell back and "downgrade" to NQ tarasque if they're significantly cheaper than HQ. 2ATT isn't worth a ton of gil, at least not to me.

GKL is better than dark mezraq, but they're close enough that i wouldn't worry about it. i've been telling people that GKL > DM on these forums for a long time (b/c the math states pretty clearly that it is), but i used DM simply b/c it looked cooler (and b/c the math also states pretty clearly that the difference is small).

Hey Milich,
I've noticed you recommend the use of Pole Strap over Mythril+1.
I am assuming this is as /war and stacked with other +DA pieces. Or will this proc with /sam as well?



Thanks,

Raff

it procs with /SAM. brutal earring is the same. they allow jobs that normally can't DA to DA.

notably, DA doesn't get more potent when stacked. it's better to stack double attack than not to, because it stays potent enough to be worth stacking (though that doesn't mean askar body is better than, say, homam--depends on your ACC--or ares--askar is never better than ares), but 1% DA doesn't get better when added to 20% instead of 0% (like haste does), it actually gets worse in terms of % DoT improvement (as explained in the thread i linked to).



honestly, i don't know offhand how evasive colibri at that level are and how much ACC you'll have at any given moment;;; (changes as you level of course). my best guess is you're fine with meat, ie hitting above 80% (some people like 85% as a meat/sushi cut-off). notably, 85% hit rate means 44% chance of hitting all 5 hits. 85% is still fine, but multihit WS don't usually land all hits. that's just how probability works:), 85% chance of a hit means .85*.85 = 72.25% of hitting 2 hits in a row, .85*.85*.85 = 61.4% chance of hitting 3 hits in a row, etc--which is why an 85% chance of landing a hit plays out as an 85% hit rate, in fact (because the chances of it not doing so over time become very very small).

sorry for the probability tutorial, but i see a lot of people saying "i need more ACC for multihit WS because with X% (say 85%) hit rate, i only have Y% (say 44%) chance of landing all 5 penta thrust hits." i agree that ACC should be added to multihit WS to make sure you land as many hits as you can (though i think gear should be chosen for whether or not it provides the largest DoT% bonus, which ACC might, might not). however, some people take the quoted sentence to mean: "i have 95% ACC (capped), but a 77.3% chance of landing all hits of pentathrust--not good enough, MUST HAVE MORE ACC!!!" but you CAN'T have more ACC. 77.3% just is as good as you can do regarding landing all hits of penta. capped ACC yields that; it doesn't make you "need more ACC", it just limits how many 5-hit pentas you can get.

anyway, back on topic;;. i use coeurl subs for non-special occasions (and would @ 60), but use red curry (or rabbit pie, which i haven't had a chance to use yet but would) for special occasions.

hedgehog pie is weird. its 5ACC is definitely nice, but if your ATT is below 400, you end up getting less ATT from it than coeurl sub (coeurl sub raises ATT by 20%, capping at +80ATT @ 400ATT, while h.pie gives ATT+18%, capping at 90 @ 500ATT). so, say you start @400ATT. you get 80ATT from coeurl sub, 72ATT 5ACC from h.pie. h.pie is still actually better (unless you cap ACC), but its betterness gets cut into.

another weird thing about h.pie is that no matter how much ATT or ACC you have (even at low hit rates), red curry is always better than hedgehog pie. red curry is probably twice as expensive, but if you're worried about cost, why not eat coeurl subs? there's just no place for hedgehog pie (unless you craft a lot of it for yourself, cheap).

ironically, the last thing i bought off AH was hedgehog pie;;;;. they were out of coeurl subs, so i decided to eat a sanction-enhanced 6-hour hedgehog pie for assaults.

wow this post takes a lot of words to say "coeurl subs [oh, and meat mithkabobs if the mob is going to take your food], red curry/rabbit pie, no reason to eat hedgehog pie unless you have a source for it cheap". ah well.

Edited, Jul 24th 2008 3:53pm by milich

EDIT: Derp, was just reading the SAM forum before, and I've been drinking a tad, so this quote was actually in reference to you leveling DRG/SAM once you get SAM leveled, and not about leveling SAM33. orz Well this still applies to people so I'll leave it there.

The sushi/meat 80% rule generally doesn't work at lower levels. You probably won't even hit 80% accuracy WITH sushi. It's just the nature of the game, accuracy sucks at low levels. Go with meat.

Better yet, go with Rice Dumplings.

Note:

SAM33 has a cap of 102 GKT skill. I'll assume say, 36 DEX. It's somewhere around there, the chart I usually look up is down right now.

Accuracy = floor(102 + floor(36 * .75) + (+10 [PCC, I'll be generous]) + (+10 [Hasso])) = 149 Accuracy

Sole sushi would add

DEX+6 = +4 acc.
Accuracy+15% = +22 acc.
----------------------
Acc+26

Hit rate +13%

Which is about a 20% boost (assume a sh*tty hit rate around 60%, which is actually pretty decent for that level), however, the attack alone from rice dumplings is also a 20% boost, and that's not counting the 2.5% hit rate increase as well.



Edited, Jul 25th 2008 10:38pm by bsphil

****** signed.

This is why Optical Earring is trash, why legionnaire's mittens are superior to Battle Gloves, why Mighty Rings own so much face, and so on at low levels.



Edited, Jul 26th 2008 9:58am by bsphil

Don't use those STR rings on WS. Stick to accuracy.

Also, you need a lot of haste to make dusk ledelsens worth using. Specifically, more than 38%. If not, Amir Boots are better.

Edited, Jul 27th 2008 2:47pm by bsphil

I didn't know if he had them or not already. Should still be getting them regardless.

Weapon- Dreizack
Grip- Pole Grip
Ammo- Tiphia Sting
Head: O-Hat
Neck: Chiv Chain
Earrings: Fowling/Assault Earring
Body- AJ
Hands- Duskgloves /Tarasque+1
Rings- Ruby/Ulthalam's
Legs- Barone Cosiacles
Feet- Barone gambieras
Back- Psilos
Waist- Warwolf Belt

Currently I don't have sea access or beat DM. This was originally ATK set with the use of sushi. Most of these gears were originally posted in guides and things of that matter (not including the one on the front page.

Currently working on getting dusk ledsens/Amir boots and forgers' mantle


Edited, Jul 28th 2008 1:13am by Keitaroux

I have been looking everywhere and asking everyone I know, and can't seem to find an answer. So here I am, asking the experts.

I was in a party in Caedarva Mire yesterday (Level 66), and I seem to be having a lot of trouble hitting the numbers that are expected of Dragoon. Everyone tells me that Imps are weak to piercing, and DRG pwns them. So why am I not hitting these numbers? Below I have a list of what I wear in a pt. Most of the DRG I see xp in AF hands, helm, and feet, but I have what I "thought" was better gear in those slots. Could you guys take a look at my setup and tell me what I am doing wrong?



3 Polearm Merits
1 STR Merit
1 DEX Merit

(I know, I could spend more time meriting this stuff, but I spent my merits on WHM and PLD abilities instead, and really wanted to level drg after falling in love with it)

Grand Knight's Lance
Mithril Grip +1
Walkure Mask
Chivalrous Chain
Spike Earring
Spike Earring
Jaridah Peti
Custom F Gloves
Garrolous Ring (spelling?)
Ecphoria Ring
Amemet Mantle
Life Belt
Drachen Brais (Have had a hard time getting Feral Trousers on my server)
Marine F boots


Now last night a friend of mine loaned me a SH and a Woodsman ring to see if that would help me, and it really didn't. I did Three WS with the gear listed above, and three wearing the gear that he loaned me, and all of them were under 200 damage. I have been using Wheeling Thrust instead because my Penta numbers are so laughable.

Please, please please tell me what I need to change to hit the numbers I should be hitting. I feel terrible that I can't do the damage that others do, and after looking at all the gear guides I am thoroughly confused because some are outdated, and almost all of the ones I have found have conflicting information.

Really? My party was laughing at me because they said that I should be doing higher numbers on penta. My wheelings were doing 400 and up on them, which admittedly wasn't much either.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for me on boosting this number?

EDIT: the reason I am asking that is not because I disagree or think GalkaBST was incorrect in his assessment. I actually read in one other place during my research that 66 is just on the cusp, and is overcamping (but when I told my party that they all laughed). But if there is anything I can do to improve this number I want to do it. Like I said, the SH and the woodsman ring didn't help, so maybe there is something else?



Edited, Aug 4th 2008 11:02am by TerrainFFXI

Skill is capped, plus three merits. I use sole Sushi.

The TP return is something that confuses me. I read somewhere that it's helpful to put an /echo <tp> in my macro so that I can see what TP I get back, but my tp return is all over the place. I sub /sam, I don't know if that helps. But sometimes it was 17, sometimes it was 19, once it was 28 (didn't look like I took a hit, but I guess I could have). I read somewhere that my regular hits with a 492 weapon returned 14 tp, so I tested that on some TW mobs and one hit gave me 15 TP, the next, 16, because I was then left with 31 total TP after two hits. Very confusing, and I am guessing that my /sam sub + the store TP I have on the neck piece and ring were the reason for it?

I think there's only one thing you should look into getting if you want to boost those numbers:

Bard ;)

Or... this is what I would do-

Get some acc gear (borrow a SH, an acc ring, w/e) and run out to the staging point. Keep putting stuff on until the imps con low evasion. When you reach that point you know the acc+ you should be aiming for in your gear. Once you get that gear for yourself, party again and eat meat. I'm guessing you'll do much better. As a rule, you should never ever have to eat sushi on dragoon for xp. If you do you either need more acc gear or you're just overcamping (maybe a bit of both in your case, although I still think your level is a bit low for epeen numbers). The two most important things you can do for penta are boost acc and then att. A suitable acc build + meat will do both :).

Don't be discouraged with doing only three WS's in the gear you borrowed, it will (should) do significantly better with meat.

Remember that even with CAPPED accuracy (95%), you're only going to land a full penta (.95^5) around 78% of the time. If you're only at 90% accuracy, you're going to land a full penta 59% of the time. This is a pretty substantial decrease in the ability to get those numbers you're talking about. To go from 90 to 95% accuracy, you need around +15 accuracy (assuming 3 acc for each 1% of hit ratio, although the number at 75 is probably closer to 4 acc for every 1%).

So yeah, a little bit of accuracy can go a long way. Also, get a pole grip- it's easily the best dps grip that exists atm.



Seriously though- I think the most important thing is that the people you're leveling with are full of sh*t :P If they think you should be averaging 1K+ WSs because of a 25% piercing bonus they've been playing around in the merit bird camp too long. Don't feel bad, just tough it out for a few levels and you'll be making them all eat it once you're not forced to overcamp. You could always try setting up a skillchain and working light with wheeling thrust- that's an easy way to double your damage output :)

Edit: Ps. Those imps are level 78-81. It doesn't matter that they have low HP, those imps are 12-15 level above you :). At 75 drg will make mince meat out of birds, imps, etc... at your level you can hold your own, but you're not going to break 1k averages. Anyone who says you will is either:

A) Lying
B) Doesn't know what an average is (no, your warrior with a polearm using aggressor/berserk/mighty strikes penta-thrust is not an average)
C) Ignorant

Edited, Aug 4th 2008 2:01pm by galkaBST

You should really stay away from the Mire until you're 69-70 at least. Its been forever and a day since I leveled that range but I think I ended up doing Erucas and then some Bibiki Bay for those levels. I ended up at Mamool Ja Staging point at 10Kexp to 70 and leveled someways into 70 there.

However, at that point I did have a very acc heavy build with 5 Polearm merits so it's not something I would recommend to everyone.

Yeah, it's commonly believed that 2 acc = 1% hit rate, but from what I've seen on parse it seems like 3-4 acc is more accurate. One of the guys who is responsible for a lot of this math floating around is RKenshin (has a popular LJ, posts a lot on BG, etc) has recently posted that he feels 3-4 acc is closer to 1% as well:

http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2107380&postcount=71

In any case, it's pretty much splitting hairs, but the more accuracy the better.

I think I ended up in Bibiki too... man, I hated those levels ahaha. I'm done doing jobs to 75 :/

Maybe by defoliators he means 'boreal hound.' And by 60, he means 75.

I'd love to hear what he says his drg does / a gear listing :). So many people blow hot smoke lol. That said, I certainly understand not saying anything and just staying in the XP party since lfp sucks... but I think I'd just leave and solo if people were acting like that XD. Campaign go!

It's also hilarious to me that this guy is saying this to you when you have a 75 drk... he must just have that 2500+ cheat code eh? ;)

Edited, Aug 4th 2008 4:34pm by galkaBST

Yea I wasn't sure if he was expecting me to argue, or just worship and be in awe of him. DRK only came up because I told him that it was my only DD job 75 and alot of my gear was inherited from it. He didn't say what numbers he was pulling on DRG at my level. I wasn't impressed with his 2500 in aydeewa, but again, I wasn't really in a position to argue.

I did ask him to /check me and tell me what I was doing wrong, and he couldn't come up with an answer except "maybe SH". But, as I said, I borrowed one and it didn't make a noticable difference.

Well bummer that maintenance went on so late last night. I didn't get a chance to do any equip testing. I was reading some more threads in this forum though, and I am wondering if I should be wearing an AJ instead of the peti. I camped OSE a couple times to help friends get it, but I never bothered getting one for myself thinking that the DD jobs I would level would all be able to wear heavy armor (L.O.L.).

i think that the problem is the acc at these level, try to get an SH and a Woodsman, and use sushi, you can also try with /war, berserk and DA helps to raise the damage of pentas.
But the best that you can do to raise your damage is get a bard, parties on the mire at 66-70 w/o bard really sucks, if there is a bard in party you can try meat too.

I think I campaigned from like... 68-71 lol. Then just solo'd a lot.

As for parsers, I hear that kParser is pretty good (I've used DVSparse off of source forge for a long time). With any of them you're going to need the newest "memlock," but if you're downloading it fresh it should already be in there.

Your gear looks ok to me. I would use the /SAM gear on /WAR also tbh and use the /WAR gear for WS' and /SAM gear for TP.

As for memmets, go for 2xNIN, 2xWHM, 2xDDs. Have 1 NIN supertank all memmets from the start (NIN run in and aggro all and kite in the large arena, no voke or anything else) with 1 WHM to cure the NIN. The rest pull 1 mammet at a time and kill it.

The gear setup i use i use for everything and dont really macro any pieces because the pieces that i have that would normally be in a macro i just notice almost no difference between it and my TP gear

Main: Thalassocrat
Sub: Pole Strap
Head: Drachen Armet/Walahra Turban
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Body Assault Jerkin
Hands: Wyrm Gauntlets/Hecatomb Mitts
Leg: Barone Cosciales
Waist: Life Belt
Feet: Wyrm Greaves
Ear: Brutal/Fowling
Ammo: Smart grenade
Back: Amemet +1
Ring: Rajas/Ecphoria

i use that gear for almost all situations really just need to know if i'm overlooking anything besides Homam which i'm in the process of getting same with AF+1 if thats better than anything i already have.

What's your parrying skill? It's going to have to be phenomenal to make the parrying earring do ANYTHING at all. Fowling/assault or Fowling/Insomnia would be better for solo.

Same goes for the parrying torque.

Hydra Mail is nice for soloing with a dmg- set, but what about AJ?



For starters, you should never need to WS in Wyrm Finger Gauntlets with Hecatomb Mittens. You're losing 2 accuracy but gaining 7 STR (and 4 DEX for penta), which will easily beat the WFG every time.

I don't think you have enough accuracy to be WSing in Ruby Rings, keep the woodsmans on.

And this isn't specifically for any slot, but mainly all of them. I've noticed you give up a LOT of DD gear for a couple MP or VIT. Stop that. Losing Amemet +1 to get VIT+2 will force you to kill slower, making you take more damage due to the fact that the mob lives longer.





You **** well better be swapping gear for WSs. Eyeballing damage is a pitifully inaccurate way to judge your performance. Eyeballing is why MNKs, the essential kings of DoT melee, were shunned from parties from their inability to form a skillchain to burst the OMFGLEET damage off distortion, all the while a good MNK would be easily blowing them away damage-wise one fist at a time.

Get an optical hat or ****, every wyvern helm. STR+5 is better than NOTHING, but Optical Hat is incredibly superior on WS than... haste.

Get Dusk Gloves to TP in, get ANYTHING to replace those **** wyrm greaves, such as Amir Boots or Tabin Boots +1 (for using while you work towards amir).

Get a Swift Belt.

Work on ToAU missions.

Edited, Aug 16th 2008 2:28pm by bsphil