How to do a good roll in VW

Recently I'm stuck in the debate between COR merit choice again. Usually I wouldn't care about how others merit, as long as others respect my choice. But when being called "lazy" "useless choice" or even "retarded" regarding to my merit choice, it turned me into augmentative mode. However since there are also a chance that others can be right and I'm wrong, I decided to give myself a homework, the homework is to land No.11 or lucky roll in all VW runs. After a while of practice and changing my roll frequency, I'd say the result is good and I'm confident to say that there are 0 needs to change my merit of choice at all. Those who calling others "lazy" and "retarded" regarding fold merit is overlooking the deeper layer of the complexity of Phantom roll, which is main reason why majority of COR players just do 2 rolls and gtfo.

I have to agree, I often have different POV from other CORs regarding many aspect of this job. Long time ago when every COR and their mother merit QD acc+recast in G1(and called others retarded if not doing this), I was trying to convince everyone that PR recast+QD recast is the most beneficial choice for this job unless you only use this job for soloing(where majority of dmg will be came from QD). QD dmg is just way too low and not main source of dmg to worry about it's acc, and COR is never the main sleeper in event anyways. Then I got into that Desultor tassets augment between mattk+macc augment v.s mattk+PR recast augment. I heard ppl telling me PR recast merit is useless and would rather want macc on pants for QD.

The thing is, PR recast merit+pants augment pushes PR recast to 45 sec, which greatly outweigh the benefit of a JA that's already incredibly accurate and not main source of damage. I used to have 2/5 QD acc merit as well, after I change to PR recast 5/5 I never look back. QD acc merit is pointless, even if my QD got resist to death and only deal 1 dmg every shot, PR recast 5/5+augment still offers greater benefit by having higher chance of rolling a No.11 for entire pt.

Why is that?

The reason is simple, lower recast on PR means you can do more PR in set amount of time frame, and the more PR you do, the higher chance you can land a No.11 and started a No.11 chain. A good COR should keep rolling during down time. You should be rolling while walking, rolling while waiting for afk ppl, rolling while waiting for ppl to relog, rolling while waiting for unweak, you should be keep rolling and rolling as long as you're not DDing and not doing anything else, everytime you roll you have 1/11 chance of landing No.11 and another 1/11 chance of landing No.10 which can turn into No.11 if Snake eye is up. There are no reason NOT to be doing PR repeatedly over and over for a chance of No.11 when you're not doing anything else. And when you get a No.11? Keep rolling for 2nd No.11, 3rd No.11, so No.11 is up forever.

Now that community is starting to ditch QD acc merit and go for PR recast merit, and "QD acc merit is pointless" POV started to become a trend. I hope everyone can start making the best use out of it. I just recently start to push myself to roll this much after I started my homework as well, so it does take time to get use to.

Now to the Fold 1/5 Winning streak 3/5 v.s Fold 4/5(or 5/5 even) and 0 Winning streak.

A lot of players liked Fold 4/5 or even 5/5 so they can "roll aggressively", I have no problem with their choice(doesn't mean I agree that it's optimal choice), but when they started calling others "lazy" or even "retarded", I ended up facing the difficult choice of defend for it or not. If I don't defend for it, then I feel I'm admitting that I'm lazy and retard that picked a useless choice, but if I defend for it, it usually ended up as a massive and endless argument. So I usually stay silent to avoid the trouble, on the same time not wanting to stay silent.

One of the player who plays COR once said he chose Fold 5/5 Snake eye 4/5 and called anyone who merit winning streak "lazy" because "higher chance to roll a bad roll with lower fold merit and bad roll just stays longer with winning streak merit".

Whether having Fold 5/5 by sacrificing snake eye will give higher chance to roll a good roll or not is another 10 pages long debate, but "bad roll just stays longer with winning streak merit" is a false statement. If you roll a bad roll, you should overwrite it. If meriting winning streak is "lazy", then same argument can be used on not to overwrite a bad roll(you're being lazy if you're not overwriting bad roll as well no?). With PR recast 45 sec, overwriting a bad roll should be fast. In that aspect, Fold is just a convenient tool to overwrite a bad roll, but fundamentally it's the same as straight overwrite.

For example, you rolled a No. 8 chaos, double-up, bust, fold, wait for 45 sec, roll again, got No. 11 with fold up, takes 45 sec to do.

You roll No.8 chaos, and fold+snake eye not up. You do another roll to overwrite it, it just take 2 extra roll longer to do.

For example, A is Misers, B is chaos, you tried to land a good Chaos+Misers for DD pt.

With Fold up: AB(bust and fold)  A (45 sec) AB

Without Fold up: AB (45 sec) BC(45 sec) CA(45 sec) AB

Without fold up, it does take 1.5 extra min to achieve the same result, but is it a big deal?

There are 5 factors that will make that 1.5 min extra time not such a big impact.

1. Huge down time waiting for ppl to organize/gather/relog/depop gold chest in VW and ADL runs, 2 main event you'd bring COR to. More time intensive events like Nyzul/salvage/dyna you usually don't use COR anyways. You have plenty of time to overwrite most of the time.

2. "The more you roll the higher chance to land a No.11 and start No.11 chain" rule.

3. After you land your 1st No.11, fold is entirely pointless and you can just keep busting and reroll.

4. COR has more different type of rolls available compare with BRD, that overwrite existing rolls with 3rd roll is just as beneficial even if you're fighting. For example, if A is Misers, B is chaos, when you do C roll to overwrite you can do a fighter, that way DDs still has 2 DD roll up full time while you get rid of unlucky Chaos. On the other hand with fold up, your DDs will have 45 sec with just 1 DD roll if you bust that chaos and intend to redo chaos.

5. And tbh, both snake-eye+fold not up(even with fold 1/5 merit) rarely happen. If it happen that means it's super bad luck today, and if it's super bad luck, fold 4/5 or 5/5 isn't going to save you.

Spend 1.5 min to overwrite during down time, and overwrite bad roll with another beneficial roll, is IMO, makes fold not so significant. Especially if you land a No.11 in the process, which gives unlimited fold and lower recast time.

Fold 4/5 or even 5/5 is overrated. Sacrificing snake eye merit(which should be 5/5 or gtfo) for fold is even more ridiculous. And those who suggesting others to sacrifice Snake eye for Fold merit, you're leading others to the wrong way and affecting everyone else who pt with them because they're getting less chance to get a No.11 with less Snake eye, please leave.(BG elitist mode on >:( )

And yes, I've been recording my roll numbers recently in VW, just to make sure that I didn't argue about this for the sake of wanting to argue. Note: Only roll number that's on ppl after pop counts, rolls during downtime doesn't.

My recent runs on COR result:

ADL:Double No.11
Kaggen:Double No.11 on 2 pops
B.rex x4:double No.11 in my pt and lucky no in BLM pt for 3 pops, only landed 1 No.6 in BLM pt once, but it has nothing to do with fold merit 1/5, since my fold was up when I landed a No.6, I entered selfish mode was saving fold for myself cuz I was parsing against Ganu's COR and want to win ;< (you can slap me kick me tell me to stop playing COR now for entering selfish mode, doesn't make my argument invalid)
CoP VW T1 clear run, double No.11 on at least 7~8 pop NMs, rolled a No.8 chaos once but rewrite soon after, busted a No.9 regain with no fold nor 2hr but I brain farted on that one.

I can safely say that after a bit of practice after my homework, I have at least 90%+ of chance to have ppl on No.11 or lucky roll, unless I'm extremely unlucky that good number just won't come. And if I'm unlucky, Fold 4/5 or 5/5 isn't going to save me since I still can't bust a roll back to back with fold, and it'd still be unlucky number after reroll anyways.

Now that someone is going to argue, even if fold is just convenient, what's so wrong to have it more?

The real question is, does fold merit outweigh winning steak merit, which, when used properly, is far from just a lazy tool?

Some of the benefit of Winning Streak merit including:
1.Your No.11 stays longer, thus more chance to do No.11 chain.
2.Spend less time to roll and have more time to DD(where the "lazy" statement came from)
3.Your roll last longer on everyone else when you're just in a situation you can't reroll(like running to different area, d/c, dead with no R and so on....)
4.Better use for Roll rotation, especially when you're doing multiple rolls/pt.

Note that long time ago when I talked about COR roll rotation for different pt, some ppl replied "COR roll rotation? We playing the same game?"Implying that ppl doesn't use COR roll rotation in this game.

But there are no reason not to. Others doesn't use it doesn't mean it's not a good idea. I often rotate buffs if I'm pt lead, just so that one buffer can do the work of 2 buffers and get extra spot open. And considering ppl been doing BRD rotation forever, there are no reason for COR not to do rotation when PR stays even longer than BRD songs. With a No.11 roll up, the recast time for COR buff should be short enough to rebuff   all 3 pt in alliance fairly quickly. A good COR if knowing that buff rotation is coming, should struggle to keep  a No.11 up on him/herself.

However, it is not very easy to do unless COR is pt lead(or if pt lead understand the job thoroughly). And probably easiest if I'm pt lead and also on COR, so I have a big picture of the timing and tempo of the run. Since getting up a No.11 or bust effect for rotation needs time.

IMO using 2 CORs for events like ADL run is a waste when 1 COR can buff all 3 pts, unless you want to reset 2hr twice(may as well add extra SMN for 100% extra PD). And even if you have extra COR for extra 2hr reset, no reason to have 1 COR buffing each pt when 2 COR can buff both pt with extra rolls.

The reason why ppl doesn't use it as much, is because ppl have the narrow mindset about how to use the job properly IMO, thus not pushing the limit of what a job can do as it requires too much subtle detail needs to take care of. At 75 era it IS harder to use this efficiently, but with more and more roll duration gear added, and new No.11 update, this should be take advantage of IMO. Just because majority of community doesn't utilize it properly, doesn't mean it's not a proper strat.

Long time ago when the entire community was against PR recast merit and PR augment on pants, and only accepts QD acc merit+macc augment on pants and calls anyone not doing the same "doing it wrong", I was one of the few that fought and defend for PR recast, now that PR recast is more of a commonly accept choice.

Long time ago when new No.11 rule came, which allows ppl to do PR faster with unlimited fold, community /rage without thinking and says that they want old No.11 rule(which makes No.11 has 10 min duration) back. I was the one who looked through the depth and complexity hide under the new No.11 rule and defended for the new rule. That new No.11 rule, when properly used, will benefit the entire pt way more than 10 min duration and allows extra room for decision making and more different possible way to use the job. Now that whoever plays the job bothers to think more than roll twice and gtfo will realize that this update(alone with QD STP update) is one of the few update that brings more depth into this game that allows player to think. And I also found out about the impact of regain regarding this matter, that CORs can DD with regain even when trying to land good roll most of the time(thus I still defend for regain augment on moonshade over TP bonus as well), when many CORs complained about no time to DD while spending time to roll.

Now I'm going to defend for the proper use of COR roll rotation, and to a lesser extend, Winning streak merit as well. Even if the community often didn't utilize it. Maybe one day this will become a widely accepted   POV.

You don't always benefit from lower fold recast, my 90%~95% hit rate on double No.11 or lucky No in VW proves it.

But you almost always benefit from winning streak.

And hopefully one day, winning streak, 45 sec PR recast, and roll rotation will be more of a commonly used way of doing things, instead of just do 2 rolls and gtfo(and carry bad number roll for entire time)

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Anyways, since the title is "How to do a good roll in VW", I guess I will share some experience about how to land that many No.11 in VW. I'm still in the trial and error process, so maybe I can discover some more tips and tricks later. But currently the tips and tricks I discovered:

1.Take advantage of bust only lasts for 5 min, and ppl often spend longer than 5 min to gather/relog after fight. Double weak(which you can't do anything offensively) also lasts as long, so it's perfectly fine to carry 1 bust effect during those time with 0 penalty.

2.When I run to rift for pt to gather, I'd do a bolters roll and roll aggressively, but I don't waste fold if I bust. Since my bust will wear after NM pop anyways.

3.When pt still gathering and reforming, I redo/overwrites rolls over and over, for a chance at No.11.

4. After rolled a No.11, roll aggressively for rest of the rolls.

5. Pay attention to the tempo and timing of the run. Do they relog in VW? How long does it take? Did someone said they gonna afk for 5 min? Did someone just d/c? Did ppl mega death after certain TP move that you need to be ready to rebuff?

Rest is really just the timing of the downtime, and make use of the down time to try for a No.11. If I landed a lucky No. on one roll I often play safe and double-up away from everyone else that way pt member don't lose lucky No. It's personal preference though, you can take risk on pt member too, just that I don't like to take risk as much ;p

I hope after even more practice, everyone, including myself, can land double No.11 100% of time in a VW(and ADL maybe) run!

So if you happen to play COR, next time when you log on, give yourself a homework.

Land double No.11 for every VW run, and tell yourself that you have to land double 11 for everyone.

Now try it, don't be lazy, keep rolling whenever you can!