Daily Salvage!

I've been doing daily salvage since it came out, personally I think it's the best event SE released in past 2 years.

Compare with other events, this event is incredibly accessible to everyone with most jobs, doesn't require a static, and reward isn't as bad as VW, but still require some time, and it's just right....old +1 can take a while to get, new armor depend on luck.

I hate Abby, because it's MNK NIN WAR WHM only, so every time when I want to do abby, I have to  find a WAR NIN to proc red for me, or else prepare to lost 200k a pop if I can't proc red.(Or spend 3x  more time to farm pop than it should be)

I hate legion, because it's too job/gear specific, and you need at least 2 pt for regular hall and 3 pt for Mul. You can't just go ask random friend "do you want to do legion"? Unless they have useful jobs. There's also limited spot, so if you get a friend wanted to do legion, but no useful job, you can't just get them to come and experience it too.

And for VW, things I want never drop and /shout to fill up an ally takes forever depending on time.

And meeble.....considering there are countless times 1 person in static didn't pop and have to delay meeble progress, I don't really have a good impression on meeble ._. Same thing applies to Nyzul ._.

The only problem I had with salvage 2 is that ppl with Nyzul static probably won't be able to do it, otherwise it's incredibly accessible to most job/gear. There are better jobs for salvage 2, but the difference isn't like Abby without WAR NIN for red, since you will always get at least 1 paper from NM and at least 1 45 from boss.

Otherwise it's fairly easy event for 3 person, and it's not very hard to find 3 person to do salvage with. The difference between a well geared 3 person pt and avg 3 person pt isn't very high: It's not hit or miss, but well geared players have higher farming efficiency. Also some of the boss can be tricky if not prepared. Although I feel SE should add more tricky part to increase difficulty.

So far I found MNK to be best tank/DD in salvage2(of course ._.), since they can deal dmg while being defensive(counter), and able to do that to multiple mobs for faster killing speed. They also have formless strikes for certain NM. MNK BRD WHM is probably the best setup for salvage 2. But other jobs can do just fine since salvage 2 isn't hit or miss, nor making 3x difference like Abyssea. In many other FFXI events, not using best setup sometimes makes huge difference, but in the case of salvage 2, the difference isn't too big to ended up as X job or gtfo.

Sadly this event doesn't have good gear for every job, otherwise it'd be perfect D;

Clearing the Myth

Long time ago on AH I put an argument that COR+3 DD could be decent pt set after embrava regain nerf, so you get to WS faster every time you engage. Some ppl jump up and disagree because you lost dmg(and that's when Peldin started to follow me on forum call me idiot every time I post an opinion on AH), but nobody can really come up with a conclusive proof to prove that adding a COR in low man pt increases pt output when you don't need attack(since you won't have problem with attack in lowman content like NNI/salvage 1&2).

I was eager to prove it, but due to how complex Nyzul is, it's extremely hard to test anything. The only way I can think of, is to run NNI 100 times with BLU+3 DD and record avg floor clear, then do 100 more NNI with COR+3 DD or BLU COR+2 DD then record avg floor clear with same ppl, then compare the result. Obviously that's too much work to do and I couldn't afford such test like this.

However, recent discussion about COR's use in salvage 2 with Zirael, he argued that you shouldn't use chaos, and should use DA+SAM roll for better result. He also argued that if DD output increase by 18% with rolls, 3 DD getting roll you're looking at 54% increase, and COR just need to make up the rest 46% to beat a 4th DD.

So I guess, time to clear the myth about COR or no COR in lower lv content when you don't need attack.

First of all, according to spreadsheet, with RCB and such, DA+SAM does offer higher increase than using chaos on dyna DC, thus chaos(biggest game changing roll COR has) is useless and shouldn't be used.

SAM roll is a lot more debatable  you have to roll a number to shave 1 hit off, otherwise SAM roll does nothing. Depending on situation and down time, regain roll may be better. But if you engage a lot, or have double march etc, SAM roll may be decent choice.

To take most advantage of SAM roll, COR have to prioritize SAM roll and save snake eye for it, since it's hit or miss. And ideally your 2h DD would have different TP set based on the number of the roll.

Using Taint's Rag DRK 99 TP/WS set, with /SAM and RCB, and double march(all dmg are floored cuz I'm lazy):

DRK with no LR up, no buff DPS= 665
With DA and No.10 SAM roll=784

With LR up, no buff DPS=729
DA+SAM roll=857

As for COR, I use my avg set but changed dagger to qilin HQ(which is slightly better than my current set), I picked /DNC over /WAR cuz I found COR/WAR last stand spam not so useful in lowman content....I can't self cure, can't stun, I lost offhand melee DPS(which isn't bad on dynamis DC), and once berserk/warcry wears my last stand does shit dmg. It's a lot of sacrifice for very little benefit except some epeen LS dmg. I'd say it's only useful for endgame event zergs on higher lv NM.


COR/DNC spamming exen with qilin HQ dagger and RCB+marches:
No buff:441
Buff:514

Numbers may not be entirely accurate cuz there are other factors such as DW tiers I didn't fix. But it seems that COR/DNC with exen spam still do well over 50% of a Rag 99 DRK with duplus on dyna DC, despite I really hated COR/DNC's melee DPS, it is higher than I expected.....it may be actually higher than BLU/WAR with almace 99 just TP/WSing and not casting any spells and not getting COR buff.

A pt of DRKx3 would do 1995~2187
A pt of DRK x2+ COR would do 2082~2228, not counting dmg boost to upgrade dia2 to 3.

Thus safe to say DRK DRK COR> DRK DRK DRK, pure dmg wise and survive-ability isn't an issue(may have a bit of problem in NNI if everyone solos 1 mob and less regen than used to be). Even if you really want a BLU for AoE sleep in NNI, DRK DRK COR BLU still > DRK DRK DRK BLU. Although it IS a little bit more work(such as different TP set for different number SAM roll) to fully take advantage of it.

Zirael is right, and those on AH forum calling others idiot cuz they don't do math, or just eyeballed pt output without numbers and jumping on conclusion are fascinating.

 A little bit of side note:

DD x3+BRD(that's not DDing) still > DDx3+ COR(that's DDing), since double march gives 100%+ increase for output if LR not up. If BRD is DDing with mandau or something, the gap is even bigger. BRD also doesn't need weapon slot to contribute fully, making it one of the best job to have in salvage 2.

I hope that cleared some myth for anyone completely refusing to bring COR to lowman content like NNI/meeble/limbus/salvage2 just because everyone on AH starts calling others idiot when this job is mentioned in NNI discussion. You may need someone else to tank the mob, or have a healer if you don't want to swap to evasion set and gimp dmg or use TP to waltz, lack of defensive JAs kinda hurt this job for lowman content depending on strat.

Time to buy a qilin HQ dagger, god damn it D;

Salvage 2

Recently did a bit of Salvage 2, honestly I kinda liked this event. It has good balance of challenge: more output/better gears means more efficient run, and the event is fairly friendly to majority of players. Although the fact not every job gains good gear from it means some ppl won't be interested.

Anyways, looking at new salvage set and possible interesting pieces:

Sigyn's visors: According to spreadsheet, when acc uncapped T. abj head HQ and Oce+1 still wins, but  on stuff like dyna DC Sigyn has higher TP DPS.

(Verdict: gonna work on it cuz I just love inv -1)


Sigyn's bazubands:

Last stand acc swap probably, and ranged TP.

Another inv-1 damn it!(since I'm currently TP in AF3+2 hands to save space)

Skadi pants +1:

Side grade to current alternatives unless you need STP.

(last priority atm)

Skadi body +1: Seems like an upgrade to Gunman gambison if I TP/WS in right spot(which is rarely).

Considering how shit it is to pop Skadi body 35 NM, it's very likely to be "Items I can never get D;" piece D;


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A bit of derail, thanks to Zeig's help I finally collected some more data for prov zerg, this time with Aluh instead of MK:

Afania                   35039    10.87 %        3273           0        1101       30665           0          0            


Afania                      30665          0     30665    87.52 %      10/0   100.00 %   1756/4101  3066.50
 - Last Stand               30665          0     30665   100.00 %      10/0   100.00 %   1756/4101  3066.50


Melee Damage
Player            Melee Dmg  Abs'd.Dmg   Net Dmg   Melee %   Hit/Miss    M.HR %   M.Acc %  M.Low/Hi  M+0.Avg  M-0.Avg
Afania                 3273          0      3273    9.34 %       62/2   96.88 %   96.88 %     24/81    49.46    49.46




Compare with last zerg with MK, this fight lasts a lot longer, thus my total output was a bit higher. However, 3.2k melee dmg(which is only 2k higher than MK's melee dmg in shorter amount of time) was kinda not acceptable for a build focus on more melee DPS ;< Although it's partially fetter's fault. Considering MK can very possible squeeze out 1 more WS and deal 3k more dmg.

Even though I QDd and popped wings this time, melee dmg was still lower than I expected D; Obviously didn't use DA roll on myself.

Pretty safe to say MK>Aluh unless your ally really proc alot.

This fight is also my 1st time lose to a MNK(with empy 99) in PW zerg ever since I switched to melee TP for zergs, proved that MNK can DD, lol.

Semi-inactive!

Haven't update this blog for almost a month!

Mainly that's because it's almost nothing to mention.......FFXI haven't got anything new recently, and I've been thinking about quitting too.....even if they're going to release new expansion tomorrow, I wouldn't have time to play.

Recently if I log on, I just go solo dyna and that's it. I did a few melee TP setup after last post, to test my ability to deal dmg in prov/legion/meeble via melee TP method.

http://pastebin.com/5XrTPE4e
(this is done with MK btw)

I tried both MK and Aluh, but couldn't find much difference. MK certainly TP faster, but the TP phrase dmg is loooow. I also think I should start using QD during TP phrase again, a few sec JA delay for 20 TP return isn't bad....I think?

I'm still more inclined to believe Aluh pull ahead in VW with wing spam though.

However, no matter which weapon I use,  I’m still unable to break my dmg cap….I did a bit better than I used to be, but not to a point to be job changing. 

Note that for legion groups using COR in DD pt full time method, and getting BRD attack buffs, this could be decent way to deal dmg until embrava and buff lock nerf hits and you can no longer get high pDIF with less attack from BRD.

Other things happened recently are about legion. I now officially give up/admit that I failed at leading legion LS. And probably still have a lot to learn.

I started leading a group since B.rex was out, that’s when I learn to make use of connection, find most talented players with good performance, find players that parse high, find players that pays attention and good at communication. That’s when I learned to read strats online and watch videos for research, and pay attention to details when I execute them.  And that gave me confidence; as long as I have connections to the talents, have good communication and execution, and pay attention to every detail make sure they’re all covered, I can win anything in FFXI.

However, when it comes to legion, there are more things to deal with that’s more than pt swap order, finding pimps, do X and Y on Z NM etc.

I made wrong decisions several times, and I value flawless execution way more than efficiency too.  There are a lot more things to manage in a group when it comes to legion. In the end, I’m unable to create a group that stick together.

I have no idea what I miss to create a group that stick together.  Maybe it’s an area I have to study and work on, a life lesson from now on(again, would help rl with such skill too). Some ppl seems having np doing it, while I have big problem when it comes to this aspect. 

Recently SE announced that they're going to nerf buff lock finally. I've been predicting it's going to happen sometime, but when I brought it up in the LS nobody believe me wwww. Probably my 1st time FFXI prediction come true!

One of the main reason is because it's being abused to a point, and completely trashed original design for many jobs.

Most notable abuse is probably multiple embrava with 1 SCH, SV full time in legion for every song, and LR/berserk full time for DDs in legion.

So that means no more SV full time, no more embrava mule in prov etc.

Prov KI BCx3+dragon goes back to 40~50 min a round instead of 30 or less ;( Since it's an event without content adjustment.

Another minor change(although no where near as game breaking as SCH and BRD) is that COR no longer have the option to play smart on rolls. 

Before nerf there are several tricks to get double 11 or lucky or at least good rolls on COR with lock buff trick. For example, if your snake eye(a JA that increases roll potency when used on right number) recast is 1 min when you need it, you can lock double up while waiting for SE recast reaches 0. That way you get extra SE to use.

If you happened to get a No.11 while waiting for pt to gather, you can also lock it for unlimited bust/reroll when you roll.

And when you finally hit a good number, have DDs lock it until pop means you can easily get double good number at least 90% of time in VW.

Another trick is when you try to reset snake eye with random deal. If you happen to need snake eye after PR, but it's not up and you wanted to reset SE, you're most likely going to reset PR instead. By locking double-up and wait for PR recast up, you will have higher chance to reset SE. Although you can* reset SE before you use PR after nerf, but that also means you can't save RD for QD reset for extra dmg too(I use that often too, if I have nothing else to use)

Personally I'm pretty sad to see those tricks unusable  since it's one of the major difference between COR that puts effort into getting a good buff, and COR that just roll and not trying any tricks to get good number. Now it's a straight gamble, with very little decision making.

In the end all COR JA are like a deck of cards, when to use what is like playing cards and use best cards on right time for best result. Taking away lock buff is like taking half of the deck away and less cards to play with.

That also means snake eye 5/5 goes back to must have or gtfo merit, some variation such as SE 3/5 winnng streak 5/5 which has an advantage at certain situation will no longer be viable.

No fun lah! D;

SE taking away my fun with COR with nerf after nerf D;

First nerf RD, then nerf lock buff D;

Now what else I can research about improving performance of this job lah D;

D;

D;