Math and FFXI

Recently I've been reading posts on http://robonosto.blogspot.com, which is a blog full of math caculations ('_'b), and there are 2 articles about COR that seems interesting.
(Then again, I'm pretty much only interested in COR stuff and nothing else \o/)


When to use snake eye?


Fighter's roll versus Samurai roll

Basically, I'm very, very, VERY bad at math, period. I have problem calculating even the most basic math formulas. Therefore I'm very happy and thankful that someone else is doing the work and calculating all the stuff, so I can use it as future references when playing FFXI.....wait.

Can we really play FFXI effectively using math calculations?

Are there really a way to calculate the most effective way to use snake eye on certain roll? The article used EXP roll, what about other rolls? Can they be calculated?(P.S using EXP roll 75+ is not practical because ppl now mostly EXP in Abyssea) What if you EXP on different mobs? For other rolls, what if it's a COR with only 1/5 SE merit in 30 min Einherjar(2 charges total)? Or COR with 5/5 SE merit? That makes a difference for a 30 min event? Which way is more effective in a 30 min event, using SE on a No.4 DRK roll? Or wait until a No.11 for 10 min duration? What about zerging situations? What if the time is running out and I can't afford another bust? What if time is running out and if I don't land a No.11 we won't clear? What if I just fking need 2 buffs and can not afford to bust? What if I choose to bust and reroll ASAP? What if it's a LS lacking healing power facing mobs with AoE and WHMs running out of MP? Should I save SE for MP rolls instead? Does PR recast-, fold merit and ASA pants with PR recast- makes a difference? Fighters roll really more effective than Samurai roll? For other jobs? What if mobs weak against 1 hit WS or magical WS popped after you roll? Err, does "most effective way" or "most optimal way" of using Snake eye even exist, even if the math calculations can be done? What about the player difference, pt setup difference and situation difference? Can they all be calculated?


I used to search for the most optimal gear set and the most effective play style for jobs I'm playing from forums/wiki/copy and paste sets/math done by others. Like a good student studying from textbook, looking for "correct" answers. Then I was outperformed by players not using the most optimal gear set or "correct" ways to play. Apparently, there isn't really a "correct" way of playing this game, as experience, player skills and pt organizations determine the outcome of the events most of the time.

Yes, I hope I can be lazy, just read info online, follow a guide and I can play FFXI in the most effective way, like a pro. Too bad it's not the only thing that's affecting the player performance in this game. Math may still be useful, as a reference, which may leads to good result, but it doesn't beat individual differences really.

Courser's Roll and Blitzer's Roll, "Support" COR and "DD" COR

Courser's Roll (COR Lv.81)
Enhances "Snapshot" effect for party members within area of effect. Lucky number: 3. Unlucky number: 9.

Haste for ranged attackers!



Blitzer's Roll (COR Lv.83)
Reduces melee attack delay for party members within area of effect. Lucky number: 4. Unlucky number: 9.

Looks like a new zerging buff for KC DRKs??
Or maybe good for 1 hand weapon users?

There is a discussion going on about using COR for zerging situations. COR is not as efficient as BRD when doing rotations(P.S you can have a bust effect on you, roll-> Random deal-> roll switch pt-> 2hr-> roll-> Random deal-> roll if you want to buff many pts as fast as possible), therefore it's usually not used when zerging. With this new roll, hopefully I'll get a pt invite when DRKs zerging.

I used to suggest ppl don't merit Winning streak and put them in fold instead because No.11 now stays for 10 min, if ppl use CORs in zerging situations more often in the future, this may change again.

Yeah, I'm the victim of putting merit in Winning streak and loved it, then new No.11 rule came out, and now I'm finding Winning Streak less and less useful because of the new rule.

Oh and by the way,

Job Traits:
COR Lv.85 True Shot

Sounds like a new DD JT SE promised earlier?
Err....to be precise, SE promised COR will contribute more dmg output in the pt in future updates.
I don't know if this JT will make COR more "DD" or not. IMO, DD COR's biggest problem is:

1.Low combat skill

My acc/racc can't cap(Marksmanship and sword all 8/8) in most of the endgame events without /RNG + food, forcing myself to gear for acc/racc instead of haste/rattk. And /RNG in endgame events lowers the survivability, so I ended up /WHM most of the time because it's safe.

2.Lack of gears

Ok,oberon's Bullets are nice, and one bullet costs 5k now and most of the time not on AH, therefore I'm still using steel bullets while RNGs rock with Dweomer Bullets. Hell I want to WS in Osode tooooo

3.Lonnnnnnggg delay of guns

During higher lv NM fight, especially NM with AoE and deadly TP moves, DD with ranged attack is better than meleeing. However, the delay of guns are just wayyy tooo longgg. I need to give 2 buffs to melees and 2 buffs to mages, also assist sleeping and using QD, there is really only a little time to shoot stuff. In fact, even if I'm meleeing, I still have little time to DD.

4.Doing support is just more beneficial to the pt than DD sometimes.....

There are times I /WHM as asked, and found /WHM totally useless and just gimp my already gimp dmg output. And there are times I decide to DD, then regretted it later , because I can help the pt more if I spend less time DD and spend more time doing support. Yeah, sometimes not doing dmg is actually more beneficial to the pt. I can just engage the mobs and do dmg, use all my QD charges for more dmg, and keep DD buffs on myself most of the time. However, I also know that I can help the pt a bit more if I don't engage the enemy, pay attention to which mob is awake and sleep them ASAP, spend more time on rolls for better buffs(this includes doing double-up on 6 30~40 sec after using PR, bust while getting far away from pt member on purpose so I can redo the rolls for better buffs as soon as possible, all very time consuming), or removing status ailment with /WHM or /SCH. The only situations I found COR spending more time to DD is useful is in merit/EXP pt, limbus, Dyna and Nyzul really.

Yes, I regret doing dmg on JoL, Odin and Salvage boss. I can help the pt a bit more if I don't DD on those. And I doubt one job trait is going to make "DD" COR better than "Support" COR.

So quite

I noticed this game is dying kinda, some of my friends told me they're quitting, and I often afk in WG for hrs and no usual Nyzul (or anything else) /shout for long time. My old limbus group is dead(guess no one is interested in doing limbus anymore), and I'm too lazy to find a new group because I have no idea if new gears 80+ will replace old limbus gears or not. And my dyna LS is only active on Xarc run kinda(again, no one is really interested in none-xarc dyna drop)......

I guess the power of SCII is just too great, many players I know told me they're quitting because of it. With new lv cap coming up and new gears, it may not be worth the time to grind old gears also, probably another reason why this game so quite now.
Right now I'm waiting for SE to release more info about the new AF3 armor coming up. If it's a set of customizable armor it may be fun. In fact, I hope the new armors can replace the gears from old content, so I can do new events instead of the old ones.

The new abyssea EXP pt and magian trials is probably another reason why this game is so quite now. No one is really interested in doing group events with a well organized group anymore. Magian weapons are decent, but you can solo most of the trials without a well organized group(besides 10x VNM items trial and 50 Abyssea NM trials of course)

I may take a break myself, my school is about to start, and can't really find anything fun to do when I get on. I'll just wait and see what's the new stuff and AF3 armor will be like.

Death and rebirth

I mentioned I was working on BLU months ago, and it ended up my BLU now have
more merits and better gears than my COR, which is supposed to be my main focus- -
I noticed I use COR less and less, due to lack of gears and merits to play it properly.
I don't bother to unlock Nyzul WS and cap my skill level after new lv cap, now it's
totally in dead mode. Maybe it's time to work on it a bit more if I still play after school start.


5-hit build for ranged, and QD setup:
I need to do more research and learn a bit more about
building a proper ranged TP set for COR, I never really figure out what's the best
ranged TP set for COR(or maybe because I don't range TP often enough
to figure it out). I usually copy and paste other ppl's gear set when building my
other gear sets, but so far I haven't found any COR with proper ranged TP set for me to copy ._.There are a couple of RNGs I can learn from, but RNG is a bit different from COR.
There is a player named Mytoy on FFXIAH posted a lot of gear sets for COR, including
a 5 hit build TP set with max snapshot gears, it's probably beast for RNG, for COR,
that's a shit load of racc sacrifice, therefore it's kinda not pratical. Tbh, I never really find the balance between racc and other offensive stats such as STR/rattk and snapshot. Sometimes my racc and acc seems fine, able to land all WSs, and sometimes it gets BS low(usually when I /WHM). IMO, low acc/racc is the main reason why COR's DD ability is so lame, I was often forced to give up some STP/snapshot/rattk and gear for racc. Not to mention the lack of offensive JA and JT, and lol skill level.

If I can find a ranged attack gear replacement for my ACP body and ASA legs,
I may be able to redo the missions and augment ACP body for QD, and ASA legs for
PR recast and MAB. This will make my COR a bit nicer than it currently is. SE is releasing more armors next update, I may as well just wait for next update to see what's coming up. Btw, new Prada...err, Praeda gear set from abyssea gives STP+5, another good choice besides usual Mekki Shakki/rose strap/skadi legs for a lower hit build maybe? Gules gear set is out of question, -racc is just a no no for TP.

Leaden Salute build:
This one is simple, MAB and AGI all the way. Easier said than done.

More Merits to work on:
Stats:
I know I should merit AGI instead of STR for more QD acc and racc, and Leaden Salute dmg.
,But that means my slug shot dmg and my BLU will be gimp. If all the new
marksmanship WS has 60% AGI modifier in the future, AGI may be worth meriting more.
Now I'll just wait and see.

G1:
Besides QD recast, I finally made up my mind to merit QD acc to 5/5. I like PR recast...a lot, it allows me to rebuff sooner for better buffs, however, if I want to bring my COR to endgame level, QD acc seems to be a must have.

G2:
Snake eye and Fold until it's full, nothing else. The new 11 rule makes me try
harder on getting to 11, so I'd need Fold, lol.

Most of the CORs in my endgame LS/events(Such as Apsalar, Endostyle, Tigerfury) seems to have better gear than me, therefore I don't use this job very often so better players can take the spot XD.

Another job 80+??

I've been considering lving another job to 80+ for a while, there are some jobs that I'm interested, and some jobs I avoid to touch at all costs. I usually decide what job to lv depends on how cool it's AF looked, and how fun it is.

NIN:
This job used to be my favorite, Ninjas are so cool in this game, they're the sneaky type, and evades/parris enemy attack a lot.The ability to DD/tank/cast spells sounds fun. Most important of all, I'm a Naruto fan! I planned to lv this job to at least 60so I can wear it's cool looking AF and get movement speed+. However, it's too expensive to lv, since I already have one expensive job COR I can't afford another one ><. After the lv cap increase COR gets movement speed+ roll, therefore I don't really need movement speed+ from NIN anymore. Most important of all, this job is rarely used in events, I may spend a lot of money and lv it to 80, and hardly get a chance to use it. Not really worth lving it to 80 IMO.

SCH:
This is probably the only mage job I have fun to play with, however, after playing melee jobs for so long(I even play COR like a melee! Unless it's against some high lv NM with high def, deadly WS and AoE then I'd do range) I'm not used to being a mage anymore. I guess I'm just melee at heart. Also, RDM WHM and BLM seems to be more important than SCH in this game for some reason -.-


DNC:
I pretty much don't know anything about this job XD. This job looks fun to play with, also a strong solo job. Too bad this job is also rarely used in events(Although some LS still let ppl come DNC). I may lv this job to 80+ for solo. Although I'm not sure having another support/DD hybrid job is a good idea or not.

It's mostly likely that DNC will be next 80+ if I'm lving more jobs. I know I probably need a real DD or a mage job, but jobs that just TP and WS never interest me, and I hate playing BLM and WHM with a passion. If I'm lving another mage job it's mostly like SMN(Also a situationally useful job) or SCH.

Quest to Death Penalty

Death Penalty status:

Salvage boss 0/4
Odin: 1/1
Beastmen leaders 2/3

Balrahn's Eyepatch about 23000/100000
Wyrmseeker Areuhat about 25000/150000

Captain: 18/50
Assault relog: 0/50

Alexandrite: 0/30000

T4 ZNM Trophies: 0/3


What a long way to go......


I'm planning to rebuild my COR gear set, so it's totally in dead mode atm, (skill lv not cap, Nyzul WS haven't unlock, gear gimp, too lazy to change all those). And yet I'm still working on a Death Penalty, LOL.

Subjob test part III....and BLU zerging possibilities? ??

I tested BLU/COR in dyna-xarc, mostly for Evoker's roll refresh, to increase my MP recovered and give more MP to pt member. My friend Ager argued that /NIN allows more dmg output because of the shadows. He is probably right, although I'd say /COR CAN be used, it's not a totally useless sub.
/RDM seems to give more MP total, 10 min convert is equal to about 3 MP/tic, but you can't convert in mid-battle, and evokers roll gives MP to pt member. /NIN is still more safe than any other sub for BLU in events, but /COR is still usable in certain situations, such as duoing with a PLD or something. I wouldn't say it's completely useless.
I also noticed that /COR is harder to land a good number than COR as main job, without merit JA. But overall BLU/COR isn't as bad as COR/BLU.
Btw, in the end when we're zerging DL, after 3 BRD's buffed and rotated, I throw a Chaos roll and Diffusion+ Triumphant Roar to the DD pt. My attack was like 360ish before buffed, after buffed it was like 740+, scary. :O
We all know that BLU is not a job that's good for zerging. BLU physical spells are not affected by BRD buffs, and pretty weak against high lv high eva/def mobs. I studied my combat log after certain Kirin zerg on BLU for a while, IMO, with such a high attack and high haste buff from BRD, it's probably better to just stay in melee mode when zerging, casting spells just slow down the dmg output with all the casting time and gear swap. Also, multi-hit magian weapons may have better performance but I'm not sure. If the pt has a shit load amount of cure, maybe BLU/DRK using Souleater with multi-hit weapon? It's probably still not as effective as DRK main, but maybe it's a way to increase the dmg ouput during zerging situations.

First PvP experience

I did a bit of Brenner with peeps from Tavera's LS as a Blue mage. It's my first PvP experience in this game, and I'd say it's very fun and requires a lot of skill, strategy, and team work. In fact, it's more fun than at least 99% of stuff I do in FFXI -.-
I've heard a lot about ppl saying PvP in FFXI sucked, over and over again. I also heard ppl saying jobs like Blue mage is very powerful in PvP. Giving me an impression that FFXI's PvP system sucked and have job balance problem. However, after I tried Brenner I can safely say it's not that bad.
With it's versatile ability, it's true that Blue mage really pwn in Brenner, especially against melee only jobs, but only in 1 v.s 1 situations. In fact, melee only jobs pretty much stand no chance against jobs that can sleep, bind, and nuke. With full MP, I can take 2 melee jobs at once easily, just cast Regurgitation(bind) on one of them, and take down another one. With Headbutt and Actinic Burst, those melee jobs can hardly harm me. For those who try to run and keep a distance with me, Cannonball can take them down. I found BLM more deadly in fact, they can sleep/bind, and their nuke really hurts, with new Teal set fast cast, they may land a big spell really fast.
However, since you don't always 1 v.s 1 in Brenner, the job balance problem isn't that bad. Just have a healer in a pt, and cast Erase and cure when melee being bound and slept, have DRK or BLM throw a few stuns, there is still a chance to beat a BLU with team work. Not to mention can't win the match by just beating ppl up :>
Sadly, SE doesn't really focus on the PvP part of FFXI, and many players are not even interested in doing them. If PvP can provide some nice reward, then I guess more ppl would like it a bit more. Such a waste, FFXI is a game focus on team work, and PvP is a great place to make full use of it.

Finally

Yesterday I stopped being lazy and dragged my friend Tavera and farmed a swift belt. Finally I can say goodbye to lolheadlong. Swift belt used to be one of the item I wanted when I was a noob, now I finally have one.

Nearly one year ago when I was still a noob pirate, making a lv 40~50ish pt in Jeuno, I had following conversation in /p chat.

Player A: Joyeuse <333333333

Player A: Swift belt <333333333

Player A:Peacock charm <3333333

Me: I hate them all, they're all very hard to obtain.

Joyeuse, Swift belt, Peacock charm and Rajas ring used to be "very hard to obtain" gear for me one year ago as a noob, and thanks to everyone that helped me got the item(well, I bought the Peacock charm myself but can't afford it without ppl helping me farm 1.7M....), now I finally have them all. Well, I kinda obtain swift belt in easy way because it's soloable after the update. Those items may be "easy to obtain" for many players in this game, and kinda not all that good now, but for me those items still mean a lot. I guess it's time to aim for even harder to obtain and challenging items in this game.....mythic weapons, for example.

Subjob test moar!

Tried a bit of COR/BLU(Was about to try BLU/COR but I was told to come COR oh well :/). In Dynamis Buburimu. It sucked. This subjob used to give magic attk bouns and it's good for QD, and now /RDM has magic attk bounsII, so /BLU now sucked. Also, Headbutt stun almost never proc, and any other physical spells I have huge problem landing them even with full acc gear set and hunter's roll No.11. I have access to CA, but it sucked because the blue magic dmg is so low. Physical blue magic probably can only use on week mobs. Pretty useless subjob after the update.