Tuesday 27 May 2014

Mage job players, and DD mind set

I have to agree, recently I've been quite mean to mages when they don't have boost STR on WHM, or parse low in yorcia. However, after I cool down I kinda regret my attitude toward them.

Most of the FFXI player should already know, finding a BRD WHM SCH for delve run is the hardest. There are several reasons:

1. Players tend to play DD more.....idk why. But I'm also a DD job only player in every MMO, so maybe I don't have the right to complain.

2. Support jobs are the least recognized job in FFXI. There are measurable number to determine who is good at their job on DD, by parsing. But you can't really determine who is good at BRD WHM SCH unless you actually pt with them.

And even if you pt with them, you can only determine how good they're at the job by making assumptions based on personal experience.

If you pt with awesome mage A, and pt with another awesome mage B, you can only say "Both A and B is awesome", but you can't tell who is more awesome without a measurable number.

3. It's a lot easier to make mistake on mage jobs, and when they do, it's usually make or break.

The result is, mage jobs require more work and in the end, and it's usually the first to blame when things went wrong.

Therefore, ppl who plays mage because the LS needs them should deserve some credit regardless how they perform, IMO.

Speaking of support, recently Sogomi challenged me with the "DD mind set". He claimed we shouldn't only look at the dmg dealt when determining whether a DD is good or not, but also the amount of cure the DD needs.

Although it may make sense, in practice it's hard to judge DD with the amount of cures required too. That's because, in a short zerg fight like delve NM, the NM tend to stick on the DD generating most hate.

For example, if me and a MNK engaged the same NM on the same time, according to my experience, the NM tend to stick on the MNK most of the time because MNK can deal dmg faster than me, thus generating hate faster than me too.

I may be just eyeballing, but my experience is, I don't get hit as much as the other DDs in same pt, even if the hate bounce around, NM tend to pay attention to other DD first.

Therefore, it's not exactly accurate to judge DD hierarchy based on the dmg taken either.

I guess in the end, "who is good and who is bad" is just personal experience thing.

Yorcia 1337

After a few more yorcia delve 6 NM run I finally collected a bit more data I need for this zone.

Ideal 6 man setup is probably DDx3 WHM BRD GEO. However, for ppl like me without other useful job and have to come COR, 7 is probably better than 6.

That is because, COR's output on T4, T5 and Wopket dropped significantly, to a point that it may not worth 3rd DD slot anymore. T4 is the same classic "If you get madrigal you can't get prelude" issue. Although it's still possible to land it with full racc build, the lack of Minuet makes LS quite weak, I ended up using WF all the time on T4.

Until WF can do 5~7k dmg like LS, the output on Mandy will drop a lot.

On T5 it's the same amnesia over and over and over. For a job that heavily rely on JA+WS for dmg, amnesia sucked. I've thought about melee right after NM TP move, then /ra when it's about to do TP move to dodge amnesia, but in practice it's not worth the effort to walk back and forth like that.

On Wopket, everyone and their mother knows piercing job sucked.

Therefore, the ideal setup with a COR in pt should be 7, that way the extra dmg from buffing 3 person should be able to make the job worth a spot. However, 6 person 2 DD yorcia is certainly doable. One advantage for 6 person pt is that COR can toss a wizard's roll for the nuker.

Ideal SJ should be /DNC again, because 13% def down from steps easily outweight w/e /WHM can offer. With 3 mages in pt it's not hard to haste 4 melee. Just bring Meds if mages can't -na fast enough.

In fact I'm going to advocate /DNC most of the time, just for 13% def down from steps, unless it's not realistic to run in and step stuff. In that case it'd be /DRG and /ra or /NIN.

Personally I /ra on T5 instead of melee, so 3 DDs can still form triangle formation. Thanks to recent Mog wardrobe, it is now possible to /ra and melee in same event depending on situation, without the need to spend time to move the gears around.

QD acc set is required on T4 mandy unless your mage is pro enough to dispel all the time. In my case no mage ever dispel fast enough on mandy so I had to do it myself. With QD acc set I had nearly 100% land rate on dispel, without a proper set it's quite hard to land.

On Wopket I just focus on Windshot most of the time, I made a high dmg no recast QD set to chain windshot with RD/WC.

Now that I got the data I want from yorcia, hopefully I can get some data for other delve2 zone too.

Thursday 22 May 2014

Dagger job competition

Because someone brought up the topic of COR v.s DNC as 3rd pt slot/support DD on the forum, I decided to play spreadsheet and find out the real king of dagger job/support DD in FFXI.


Target: Tojil, SV march x2 mad min. On DNC I have sabre dance/berserk/aggressor/boost STR/haste samba as buff, 23% def down as debuff(that means dia+ full step). On COR I have Boost STR/chaos/fighter/haste samba as buff, 15% def down as debuff(dia+ light shot). Since I'm assuming the other 2 slot is real DD so DNC and COR isn't in same pt, so DNC doesn't receive COR buff and vice versa.

My DNC TP/WS set:




Gimpfania reserves the right to gear wrong because I don't play DNC ^^;

P.S: That gorget/belt seems gear wrong for exen, but in reality it gives better number than other stuff I can think of.





QD dmg is 1098, that means + 27 DPS= 482 DPS total. I can't find vanir on the list and I'm too lazy to add it, so I just use Laksamana feet in WS set.

The difference is very small, basically nearly the same since there are room for me to gear wrong too. However, in practice the DPS can favor COR for a bit, due to several reasons:

1. COR can get even more def down by using step, if it lands. I just didn't calculate it.

2. AFAIK, Spreadsheet doesn't calculate TP gain via QD so the actual COR DPS can get higher. although it can also go lower if I use light shot over dmg shot, or facing a high MDB mob.

3. There's downtime on berserk.

4. COR gets bigger increase than DNC if the BRD is singing 2 min instead of 1 min 1 mad. Attack song is just that good for ranged WS.

5. Steps still needs time and AM3 needs time. Unless COR is rolling mid fight and slow down, or unless COR is getting shit number on buffs, it's faster for a COR to reach max DPS stat.

I'm not exactly sure how DNC works so maybe there's certain advantage DNC has that doesn't list on the spreadsheet and secretly adds some extra DPS to DNC too. Also, there IS a chance that COR gets shit buff on rolls and ended up having lower DPS than DNC. Although the chance of getting shit buff on both rolls is quite low.



Obviously DNC/WAR would rape the shit out of COR if both sitting in same pt and both getting phantom rolls. I've been wanting to make a dagger DD job only pt for ceizak for ages.

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Playing with DP

I wanted to use "Having sex with DP" as title but it's inappropriate :X



First of all, special thanks to Zeig/Relapse/Cruunch/Shockin/Vaba/Fizzle for helping me kill all that PW. 119 DP complete!

I've been doing quite a bit of /ra only event to play with it, unfortunately I failed to make DP love me enough to do good dmg with it D:



Despite DP is suppose to /ra faster with better WS frequency on paper, in practice it isn't THAT much faster, due to gimpfania gimping it up. Further more, the WS avg drop is quite noticeable. Most of the /ra event magic doesn't work very well too, so QD avg increase is minimal.

Not just the gun itself has no racc unless aftermath 2 up, but you also need to sacrifice certain slot(ear or legs) for STP when using a delay 480 gun too, making it even harder to use in VD level of event where racc is an issue. That being said, AM3+ triple shot dmg is quite satisfying. Sometimes 1 triple shot triple dmg proc can do equal dmg to RNG's 1 WS.

I recently got my /DRG up too for high jump as well, I have to say /DRG rocks!

After tons of VD event to play with my DP:



Celestial Nexus VD cleared! Took about 23 min, but we had 3 deaths(including myself). It can be sub 20 min run if BRD has 4 songs and no death. Didn't cap racc on 2nd form but it's doable with right gear I believe. Got all the items I want(knife/dagger) from this BC unless I'm going after body.


GK VD cleared too! Took about 21 min, but one RNG had no KI when we enter so we had to waste 5 min to wait for him, and no 4 songs too. 15 min GK seems doable if everything went right. I got capped racc with DP STP build in this BC at least.

SJ was intentionally cut off in the SS to hide my uncapped /DRG D:

Also did a D EV and finished 2 pieces of 119 relic in 1 day.

I'm still practicing the timing of /DRG JA, IMO the JA must be used as often as possible. At first I use it after I pull hate but then it'd end up pulling hate again before JA up, forcing me to stop DD until JA up again. At least I no longer die in AA BC with /DRG!

I've been wondering why DP doesn't parse exceptionally high. Maybe it has something to do with QD instant TP gain lower the gap between delay 600 and delay 480. Oh well, keep parsing.


Friday 16 May 2014

Here is why everyone would rather play with their mules....

I tried to run event for 1 LS, apparently ppl wants to start drama about how I run it and talk shit behind my back. Tried to run event for another LS, I got 100x hate tell about different players before I even make the pt. I can't imagine what kind of drama would happen if I do gear check or keep people away to limit the pt to 6 person. Obviously I've made a lot of enemy in the past by selectively inviting ppl to the run for max efficiency.

Whenever I tried to make a pt with different players, 90% of the time I got ppl that either won't cooperate, or talk shit about another player in /p chat.

Ragnarok English endgame scene: Drama, trash talk and more drama and more trash talk. The fact that delve isn't LS event anymore and more like a lowman content with friends made this worse. Ppl start to side with friends, ignore their flaws/mistakes and talk shit behind "outsider" all the time. You either join their trash talk or get no ally. The trust between each players are non-existent if they aren't friends.

For past 1 month, I had to deal with A player hating B player, or C player hating D player, or E player start drama right on my face because I want to run event with specific job/gear to make my life easier, of F player pissed at me for not inviting him and have his friends talk shit behind my back. Ppl can openly praise 1 player, and turn back then talk shit about that player.

Andddd, when I decided to resolve the drama issue in /tell in a very nice way I got cold shoulders.

I wish I can have 6 Afania so I can just play with myself, that I don't have to deal with politics in FFXI D:






Wednesday 14 May 2014

GEO RUN Ergon weapons

Apparently it's very OP and game changing, inc RUN GEO Ergon weapon only /shout.

I never understand the logic behind SE's gear stat. They wanted to get rid of REM then they make RUN GEO Ergon weapon game changing, while other REM remain kinda minor upgrade/sidegrade.

What's next? After waves and waves of "My GEO RUN doesn't get invite without Ergon weapon" complain on OF they'd make new weapon with same function again to please another group of player. Like what they've done in the past.

SE I know your trick, after this update 2 of my reforge AF(which I spent 3M to make, mind you) is going to storge, I can already see this coming ;/. Afania knows best.

(And I must be a masochist to play "let's toss gear every month" FFXI)

Tuesday 13 May 2014

I miss my BLU D:

/Continue to play with spreadsheet to find DD hierarchy.

Honestly though, I haven't get a chance to play BLU for ages, even though I did play BLU in all 3 delve1 zonee back in 2013/Aug and sept.

Although BLU wasn't as strong as MNK back then, it is still quite a viable DD and delve1 was clear-able with BLU in ally. Besides Ceizak, which COR just pwns, I was pretty sure my BLU could parse higher than my COR in zones like Foret in 2013.

However, last Tojil run I tried to bring my BLU to the pt for spells, I've noticed that my BLU falls way behind my COR in terms of total kill speed in 6 man setup, in fact I feel it's weaker than 18 man era. That's when I finally realized that there's absolute 0 reason to bring my BLU to delve anymore.

One of the main reason and the biggest change, is the lack of COR in usual 6 man setup.

Req avg dropped a lot without chaos+enhanced dia. Even though my BLU has double ILV 119 sword now, instead of ILV 119/113 combo back in Aug/Sept 2013, the gap between BLU and MNK is bigger due to the lack of attack from Req.

FUCK REQ D:

According to spreadsheet, using same setup as last time, /WAR, DW3, TA, STP job trait, R15 path A Usonmunku and Bura. BLU has 371 DPS using AH guide sets. Mythic AM3 doesn't seem to work on BLU spreadsheet so I didn't use Tizona.

Add def down from F. Roar, 405. However I can get over 430 on COR with just chaos + DA+ 15% def down dia. With chaos+ DA roll from COR, BLU has 439 with 15%(dia+light shot) def down, 491 with 25%(dia+light shot+ F.roar) def down. In most ideal situation, BLU has 590 DPS with haste samba, 25% def down and COR buff. Obviously the most ideal situation barely exist due to only 3 DD spot available.

Oh, I also had attack boost, berserk and aggressor all activated too. In real world none of the JA can be up entire time.

Which is quite unfortunate. BLU/WAR's output is about the same as COR/DNC even in AH guide gears, but without party buff. On lower lv NM Last stand downright avg higher than req.

Time to bug SE to fix other WS such as CDC :( Or else this blog is no longer "An empty vessel" :X

Btw, ever since I discover the awesomeness of Riverfin Soup, I've been using it and getting addicted D: The difference it made in zones like Ceizak is quite noticeable, further more, it allows DW head TP build in lower evasion area such as Tojil.

Most of the time, I did notice COR+2 DD has higher kill speed than usual 3 DD setup too. The only situation COR is bad as a 3rd DD is Tojil's first 25%(because any none MNK job suck on Tojil first 25%) and Yorcia megaboss(again, any piercing DD suck on it too). I also had 1 yorcia pt with MNK MNK COR kills slightly slower than usual, but I'm pretty sure it's not COR's fault since another pt with SAM MNK COR or SAM DRK COR kills much faster ;x

Time to convince more ppl to invite me as 3rd DD :x






Sunday 4 May 2014

DD hierarchy

Got bored and start to play with spreadsheet again.

In one of the FFXIAH discussion use spreadsheet and find out that COR/DNC+MNK x2> MNK x3 in terms of total DPS. But the next question is, what if the DD is SAM? SAM is currently one of the strongest and most useful DD job, however Koga SAM usually doesn't benefit from COR buff as much.

Since I'm doing spreadsheet anyways, I may as well check out the gap between SAM and MNK, and maybe other DDs.

All the spreadsheet uses same setup: Target Tojil, SV march march min min mad. Gear sets are copy and paste from AH discussions.

I'm not familiar with DD jobs, so my MNK SAM may be gearing slightly wrong D:

COR/DNC: 411 without QD, +34 with QD.

Relic MNK DPS without COR: 638, with COR: 810. Vere MNK with COR: 828.

Koga SAM(not using ranged WS build) DPS without COR: 826, with COR(using chaos SAM roll instead of chaos DA) 1055

Tsurumaru SAM: 678, with COR: 922: But I think I may mess up Tsurumaru save TP stuff because it looks surprisingly low from my personal experience with SAM.


Pt with 3 MNK: 1914
Pt with 3 koga SAM: 2478
Pt with COR and relic MNKx2: 2031
Pt with COR and 2 Koga SAM: 2521

LOOKS LIKE COR+ 2 SAM STILL > 3 SAM \O/ \O/ /O\

Honestly though, SAM is way stronger than a MNK D:

BRB LVING SAM(and build a Koga)

Speaking of which, I've been getting a lot of ppl telling me to "lv another job" such as WHM(and I have no idea why I kept giving other ppl impression that I can play WHM well). Although I agree that my job spread is getting thin in 2014, WHM is specifically one job I'd avoid. The frustration isn't worth it IMO.

1. I'm downright bad at mage jobs. And I don't have plan to use spellcast or any 3rd pt tool to fix it.

2. PUG nowadays can be a pain to deal with.  Most of the time, DD doesn't carry DT- set, mages doesn't support, and 1 WHM has to haste 4~5 person AND -na AND cure epeen DD with no DT- set. When shit went wrong WHM is first to be blamed.

3. I'm impatient when it comes to skill up all that magic.

I guess I'm stuck on COR for a while longer :(


Friday 2 May 2014

Gear questions

I've been having all sorts of "how to gear" questions since I came back to FFXI, now time to play with spreadsheet to find out the answer!

Q1: For low lv content, I tend to use melee WS instead of LS to save bullet. Should I use Requiescat or Exenerator?

Requiescat is a stronger WS than Exenerator. However, that means I'd have to use IL117+IL119 weapon instead of 2 IL119 and the result is lower DPS.

According to spreadsheet 2x R15 Sabebus using exen> sword+dagger using requiescat, even though req avg higher.

So Sabebus x2 it is!

Q2: Thurandaut+1 or not?

Looks like Thurandaut+1 is finally worth using thanks to Cetl belt! New TP build go.

However, Iuitl +1 head/legs with DA augment + windbuffet is still better. But fuck skirmish! 

Q3: 

When doing 2 dmg QD in a row, QD in Navarch +2 feet for first shot or QD in Lanun feet +1?

According to spreadsheet, QD set with Navarch+2 feet and hands do 1000 dmg, Lanun feet+1+ mab+6 hands do 1137 dmg. So it'd be 1364 with QD boost from Navarch.

So yeah, QD in Navarch+2 feet set for first shot then Lanun feet+1 for 2nd shot is stronger than doing both QD in Lanun feet +1 set. IF the boost effect isn't eaten by other source of magic. It is not "wrong" to do both QD in Lanun feet+1 set when there are other DD/mages around that may eat the QD boost effect.