Good Vorpal Blades surprise people =/Follow

Honestly I'm more surprised that people expect PLDs to do any lower than 100 damage each time.

I've just been in a party for 15 hours as a 70-72 PLD, cycling through a few members (only 3 original members stayed the entire time). My SAM friend and I skillchain Darkness, which means I've been using Swift Blade. Majority of the time, Swift Blade has been doing 300+ damage each time. Whenever I did Vorpals, they always ranged from 250-460, depending if I have berserk and the mob is Dia'd. As you can see, Swift Blade for me has been giving me better returns as it seems that Vorpal is too reliant on crits and berserk.

Either way, the majority of the members I cycle through were pretty psyched to see the mob dying so quick (by quick, I mean under 20 seconds) due to Darkness Skillchain, as it usually did over 300 damage granted that both the SAM and I weaponskilled for a high amount of damage. What surprised them most though was the fact that I never did under 150 damage.

This was never anything new to me, but it seems to be fairly new on my server. Oh well, at least I know that the people that been in my party will now sigh at PLDs doing 12 damage Vorpal Blades.

I counter your Darkness with:

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2650/pldsavagebladexj2.jpg

Pretty sad when i am keeping up with the actual DD's at one point. With no brd or cor, the drg landed a penta for 582 on a Puk, and i followed with a vorpal for 576.

And yeah, i know what you mean. Whenever i party with PLDs i am disgusted by their WS's. vorpal blades for 42 dmg, 150ish tops... since i ding 60 i've been turning heads and getting examined a LOT by my parties. Honestly, should see what i can do with my sidewinders on rng. this is nothing, but for now, on PLD, it will do.

Nice savage btw. 300 tp i take it?

Not to sound like a dick, but why do you keep turtle gear on for TP but bust out the DD gear for WS?

well i do vorpal blade on campign mob, in average it is about 250 to 450 mark.

But there is this 1 times, i fighting the same orc mob in campign and i did this vorpal blade as /nin, and atm i was still puzzle how i did that, either i am very luck that all hit landed and critcal.

I just can't believe my eyes for a sec during that time. lol, it just suddently done a vorpal blade of 1076 damage on the orc. :P (btw the weapon is joy/justice, wear full haste + Acc gear)

After that, i never see that number again on vorpal blade.

As far as haste/store TP goes, I have a Euphoria Ring that gives me +1 Store TP (working on Chivarous). I usually ask the healer for Haste to speed up my attacks since I'm using Joyeuse. If I double-attack every swing, which happened alot, then I do get 100 TP in under 20 seconds, in which the SAM friend and I do Darkness SC as fast as possible to avoid Amniesa from the Imps. Of course, it happened sometimes, so not every fight was under 20 seconds.

I would've expected alot more exp from my party, but not everything was perfect. There were some problems, such as competition which didn't allow us to pull as quickly, and when I hit 71, we moved to Puks and Mamools, which turned out to be a bad idea since Imps gave more EXP and Mamools are asses, which caused me to die twice there. Also, at a point we had a JP bard, who wasn't a very good puller, and often worried about our WHM's MP. It wasn't until we eventually repped our brd (had to leave) with RDM, then repped our WHM (disconnected) with a SCH, then moved to Nyzul Isle's Caedevra Mire for Imps, that we were really getting quick and fast EXP, and that was when we were at the 13 hour mark. So basically our pulls were too slow, and we just never had the chance to get into a groove.

Drac said:


Only thing I can think of is he's overcamping a bit or his healer's putting up a sh*tstorm. If you're overcamping and have to wear turtle gear, swapping out for WS is at least better than nothing. If neither of these, then yar, leave it on! Macro the turtle (i'm assuming it's a lot of af) for JA's and go back to kickin ass!

~Cwell

To everyone asking me why i am turtling, the simple reason is that i think my parties as of late have been overcamping a little. Even with defender up, IN TURTLE GEAR I've been getting smacked for 120-160 a hit when shield doesn't proc, and some TP moves have been shaving 25-40% my HP off in a single hit. Furthermore, my healers have been kinda lax (I've hit my Invincible a few times just cause i was not getting cured,) and my pullers lately have it in their heads that we're in a merit party, pulling the next mob before the last one dies, meaning me and the healer don't get to recover MP. The only enfeeble that's been used on the mob is my own flash. I won't even go into how many times i've had to party without any refresh. =/ Maybe it's just me, but i don't even remember getting my ass kicked this much on my ninja. If this is the norm from here on out on PLD let me know now and I'll just suck it up and deal with it. No one in my parties has been complaining. Hell, my DRK last night was overjoyed at being able to fire off souleater guillotines for 1kish without taking a beating for it, and i'm not talking about covering him either

Edited, May 28th 2009 12:43pm by Aluus

Dropped a few DD jaws with this one XD


http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7313/pol2009052820442050.jpg

This was at level 60. It's really fun having people in party who HAVE 75 PLD asking me to give em gear swap pointers

Edited, May 29th 2009 1:55am by Aluus

Lol part of that is his "YO SLAPNUTS" provoke macro

Well, here's what i was sporting for that vorpal, tp set/ws set. Keep in mind the tp set is turtlish gear

Main: T.M. Espadon+2 (AH has been out of bastard swords)
Sub: Sentinel Shield
Ammo: Bibiki Seashell
Head: AF/Sipahi Turban
Neck: Parade Gorget/Chivy Chain
Body: AF/Hauby
Hands: AF/Fourth Gauntlets
Legs: AF/Royal Knight's Breeches
Feet: AF/Sipahi Boots
Waist: Swift Belt/Potent Belt
Back: Royal Army Mantle (Swapped to Amemet+1 at 61)
L.Ring: Rajas
R.Ring: Ecphoria
R.Ear: Hospitaler Earring/Spike Earring
L.Ear: Buckler Earring/Spike Earring

For food i had marinara pizza+1 since the stuff's nearly as cheap as the NQ. I have no sword merits whatsoever (capped archery/marksmanship and 4 katana,) STR merits are only 1/5 atm, and crits are 3/4. I don't think i've merited since last year. I was zerked, and sporting a 7 Hunter's Roll and 6 Chaos Roll I believe. TP was less than 150. Now, my best vorpal so far without buffs/zerk has been 643, also at level 60 for comparison. Regarding the turtle gear i am wearing, i've been finding myself very dependant on curing myself, hence the hospitaler, and like i said in a previous post, my parties tend to over camp a little, and i don't get refresh too often, making the AF and parade gorget necessary. last night we were having to stop and let the whm get her mp back every 4-5 fights, even with evoker's roll on her due to the mobs playing rough and being hookers with that aoe knockback move. she couldn't even haste us she was hurting for mp so bad =/

Oh and regarding my voke macro? I've been using that line for 5 years now. I still can't think of a better way to pick a fight. XD

EDIT: Stub, this is gonna sound blasphemous here in the PLD forums and all, but here's my advice as a 75 Ninja. If your DD's wanna tank? Let em. Merit situations there's not a single tank on all the servers that will keep hate fulltime unless his DD's are really sh*tty. Case in point? I can break 3k with Sidewinder on the sea puks at mamool ja staging point with a brd backing me. At that point if it ain't dead yet, all you can do is cover me and wait for me to finish killing it.

Edited, May 29th 2009 10:16am by Aluus

ftfy
Full time that and macro in your enmity pieces into your job abilities.

Aluus if the whm scream about blinking, scream back at them to learn to use macros/or how to macro.

blinking doesnt effect those that have their macros setup properly.

Highest vorpal blade these days is somewhere around 1600, that really got peoples attention. I do have full ares from my Dark Knight though, which is out of most peoples reach. Pre-Ares, I think my highest was an 870 vorpal vs crawlers on Mount Zhayolm at level 66.

I slightly disagree with this statement only because in the majority of the parties I've been in there has been cases of overcamping, as well as "oh sh*t" situations.

As much as I advocate DD gear in my parties and surprised people with my hate holding through damage, there has been times where I had to pull up turtle gear to lessen my damage. Not because I was losing hate, but it was because I was bleeding all over the place and becoming an mp sink (case in point, Mamool Ja Staging Point... too many close calls with firespit).

Overcamping is a simple case of "GTFO", but there are times when going the old school route is better if just to keep the party on their feet.

Edited, May 31st 2009 2:19am by CarthRDM

You want to go the old school route? Take off your shield so you get used to constant, consistent damage taken from each and every hit. Strap on every last bit of +VIT gear you can, swap out to Dark Staff and rest MP after using Spirits Within every 3rd fight. You might just be able to get enough ticks of MP to make it to that elusive chain 5! Oh wow, you hit a chain 6! Must be in a JP party. Eat Tavnazian Tacos (Steamed Crab if you're going back far enough) in every possible tanking situation.

The old school route is never a good way to go. Here's the rule for tanking in XP parties as far as I'm concerned- wear the most damaging gear you can and get everything else you need from food, whether it's ACC, ATK, or DEF. I prefer avoiding overcamping situations rather than eating DEF foods, and if DEF foods aren't enough, it's an extreme overcamping situation.

As far as Firespit goes, it's not always a physical attack. I think you'd do your party more favors by eating Carbonara for the HP boost and swapping in some Magic Defense/Magic Damage Reduction% on the mage Mamools if you're that worried about it(Leave Hauby on at all times though). High HP foods makes Regen II/III more efficient as well.

P.S. If you're bloodtanking Mamools, you're going to be an MP sink even at 75. If you've got a pro backline, you can be an MP sink, because you're the pro frontline using Utsusemi or Hasso/Seigan/Third Eye effectively or your party's got so much high end gear, you're obliterating the mobs faster than you can bleed HP. And in the best of these parties, people go down to Firespit from time to time, and the BRD keeps pulling.

I "cheated" and made warburns a some of the way to 75 on PLD. I had conventional parties most of the time, but once I got to 60-61 and that next sword merit kicked in, plus haub and amemet +1, I started being able to put up some really solid DPS /nin. I'd usually invite a ninja to "tank" and a couple of war/nins. This was, of course, before the 2hand buff.

From 60 on my vorpals were probably averaging 400-450 /nin, and spiking 500-600. Sadly the harddive with the parses on it crashed... anyway, point is, once you hit 60, pld really does get quite a bit of DD potential.

At 75 in mire my vorpals probably average 500-600, and spike 800-1100 with a bard. Ironically my best vorpal was on WAR @71 on a sea puk at mamoolja staging point. (1100 even) I've done better on PLD, but it was against a jnun, and they take bonus slashing damage.

Yes and no.

Technically yes more DD gear would allow you to deal better damage, especially once LCF is taken into account.

No, because the monster is higher level then you it gets a greater LCF ~against~ your defense. Yes LCF works both ways (at least for monsters). This means you need greater defense to at least floor pDiff (mobs cheat buy ignoring defense after their pDiff hits a lower limit). Usually this is just a few pieces of gear, and possibly involved ... defender /shudders.

Really shouldn't be overcamping....

He won't. This is called BS. 20s deaths also means no mobs to continue chains consistently, much less gain enough TP to do a WS each fight.