Pet PDT, EVA, or MDT axes???Follow

sorry if this has been posted before but i need help ; ;

my questions are the following: is it better to use PET pdt axes or PET eva axes?
what about those NMs like Battlerigged Chariot that always casting Fire5 on my pet and also hits hard as hell?
i know that for single attakin mobs like Seps dipper yuly is the best, but it is impossible for me to solo a NM that casts magic, yeah you might say "make madic defense bonus axes" but its not just that, they B Chariot hits for like 280 something to my sheep o.o

anyways, please help me choose my pet axes and when to use them ; ;

-PDT is probably best for general use if you only want to make one type for now. People like THFs, NINs, and DNCs go for evasion, because not only do they have decent evasion scores, they also have Utsusemi to support it.

DipperYuly has decent evasion, but still lacks Utsusemi. Because of this, it is not really as ideal for tanking all the sorts of things you might try to have a THF/NIN/DNC/etc tank. Yuly *will* still get hit because of no Utsusemi, so it's not like -PDT would hurt in this case, either.

MDB isn't as potent as -MDT, by the way. MDB weapons will probably not put as much of a dent in the amount of magic damage your pet takes as you would like.

I've also read about fights where the NM has en-drain on normal attacks, so an evasive pet with pet evasion gear is recommended (since taking damage not only hurts your pet, but heals the NM). I had forgotten about that.

The magic evasion axes cause your pet to inflict the "Magic Evasion Down" status effect on enemies they hit. They don't do anything to reduce magic used against your pet. So for damage reduction you'll be wanting "pet: magic defence bonus" axes.

Edited, Jan 28th 2011 10:26am by Gii

Although this is strictly true, it's important to note that MDB +X is not the same as (Magic) Damage Taken -X%. As far as I am aware Ducal Guard does not give MDB+50, it gives -50% DT (If I am wrong on this then please correct me).

Each point of MDB reduces the magical damage taken in the base calculation formular by 1%. Damage Taken -X% reduces all damage you take from magic sources by a flat X%, which as a seperate calculation does not directly stack with MDB. The two are applied to magic damage as seperate factors.

Adding 10 MDB to 80 MDB does indeed reduce remaining damage taken by 50% for a grand total of 90%, but damage reduction atmas are not the same as MDB atmas. So a more practical example is that you are adding MDB+10 to -80% MDT. What actually should therefore happen is this:

1) MDB+10 alters the damage calculation formular by 0.9 (1-(0.01*MDB)) - Damage reduced to 90% base.
2) -80% MDT reduces remaining damage to 20%, so that's 90%*0.2 = 18% of base.

So adding a MDB+10 axe to a high MDT build will have only a minimal impact.

This is not to say that MDB axes are useless, but they do not factor into a damage reduction build as well as the -PDT axes do into a PDT build, and more specifically 80% MDT plus MDB +20 wont give you 100% MDT, it'll give you 84% MDT.

In a pure MDB build they are great addition though; if you have no DT to factor in then every 1 point of MDB is a flat 1% of total magic damage reduced. As such, to maximise the effectiveness of your axes you want to pop on some MDB Atmas instead of damage reduction atmas (unless you can reach a higher total MDT than MBD, in which case you should do that and maybe consider switching the axes for something more useful). Atma of the Future Fabulous is the only high MDB Atma I'm aware of though, so overall you're almost always going to be better stacking MDT on top of Ducal Guard, as you'll get 50% PDT from that too.

Again, without Utsusemi, there is no real way to prevent Yuly from eventually being hit anyway.

I'm not saying it isn't. Saying that an evasion build will help you "not be hit" is wrong though. Without Utsusemi, you *will* be hit. Evasion caps and all that jazz.

It's not possible at this time to make macroes for EVA, PDT and MDB axes. I also just use EVA or PDT at the moment and keep the other set in the mog sack.

But interesting thoughts about a mixed PDT/MDB axe set.

Ah thats a good idea, I didnt think of that. I think I might just keep a set of +1 MDT axes, for ease of macroing, and keep one of the other sets, either the PDT or the EVA set in my Mog Sack depending on what I'm doing.

There isnt a great deal of difference between the +1 & +2 at the moment for it to make much difference (Though whether thats still the case by the time the lv.99 versions are released is another matter ><).

Anyway thanks! You just stopped me from giving in on the MDT axes ^^