Regearing COR(1): Manibozho augments

Because I got bored with this game and kinda want to try DD COR in delve boss runs, so I've been doing research with spreadsheet about gearing it post delve boss era.

I always found DDing on COR a bit complicated, and it got even more complicated due to able to choose which path to augment on Manibozo. Because different path to augment really affected DD play style. Pure /ra COR gets the most out from path B augment, but knowing that I liked melee TP COR way more than /ra spammy, my question is path A or path B?

Body: Best TP body is still Thaumas. Path A is kinda exenerator only. And obviously exenerator isn't an option in delve boss runs with attack buffs.

Path B body is also a good /ra body, and the best last stand body when your WS dmg in mid 4k range:

As your dmg goes up with more attack buffs, Khepri pulls ahead:

Both sets only changed body slot when comparing numbers.

So basically it's Augment path A for exen and LS in Khepri, /ra TP in saio or w/e worse than path B mani, or Augment path B for LS, TP in mani and just gimp exen and save gil on Khepri.

The choice is obvious, exen shouldn't be used in delve boss runs, and no gil for Khepri. Path B for body all the way.

Head: Path A head is fairly useless for melee DD. Lower haste makes it extremely hard to cap haste without using haste belt. Ideally it's better to cap haste on other slots and use windbuffet for TP. For path B it's inferior to Uk'uxkaj for LS.

For shooting, path B has lower max dmg than Uk'uxkaj or Thaumas(assuming fSTR2 capped I mean), but it has higher acc with AGI+racc combined together.

Personally I'd go for path B for ranged acc TP, but it's certainly low priority atm.

Legs: Because bee legs exists, so the choice is obvious, path A or bust.

Now come to the hardest choice, path A or B for hands and feet? Both are very good ranged WS/TP options and melee options.

Path A augment increases melee DPS but lowers LS dmg, path B vice versa. So let's see how much difference they make!

Setup: Not capped attack, I used delve fodder as target cuz I can't use Tojil as target and do it right. So I just come up with a situation without capped attack but no acc issue.

Note that this question also kinda related to "should I use Thurandaut+twilight for DW, or should I use Uk'uxkaj+ windbuffet?" Because whether Thurandaut set is better or Uk'uxkaj is better for /DNC, also depend on which manibozho augment you have.

Hands+feet all augment path A, pimp melee dmg and gimp LS dmg:

LS set:

P.S, Sigyn over Mani hands because path A mani hands @ lv 15 is worse than Sigyn, but path B at max rank pulls ahead.


Melee set1:

Combined DPS 461.162

Combined DPS 455.668

Hands feet all augment path B, gimp melee dmg and pimp LS dmg:

LS set:

Melee set 1:

Combined DPS 451.654

Combined DPS 449.947

Basically, if melee for TP and use LS, higher melee DPS gimp LS dmg> higher WS dmg gimp melee DPS. For melee TP COR using last stand, it's better to do path A. However if you /ra, then it's better to path B all the way.

Another interesting note is that Uk'uxkaj combo comes closer if Mani both going STR path.

According to spreadsheet, R15 path A mani hands/feet are best melee TP pieces. Path B mani hands are best LS hands that beats sigyn, path B mani feet are best LS feet.

However, Itiul feet is even better LS feet than mani feet unless racc is an issue, and Itiul hands also beats Mani hands STR path....idk how it happened as the stat seems meh, but it did.

So ideally, anyone going for super max performance should do hands= path B and melee in Itiul, feet=path A and LS in Itiul. For some reason usinig Itiul hands makes Uk'uxkaj head combo pulls ahead again.

I guess, time to wait for Itiul  :( I've been waiting....waiting....and waiting seems SoA come out and never invest anything in any gear cuz I don't want to gimp next month, and now time to wait more :(.

But knowing Itiul body kinda meh for LS already, maybe I can rank 15 body first.....SE better don't fuck me up after 300k plasm grind done >.>

Next probably need to do more research about /WAR v.s /DNC, and which weapon for melee TP set.

Tojil PUG rant

So, since delve plasm rant last time, now I have to deal with Tojil PUG rant as ppl started doing Tojil PUGs!

Rant 1:
Afania: Anyone wanna Tojil+5NM?

Random ppl: Yeah! I need clear! I have all T1~T5 KI just missing Tojil!

Afania: Job?

Random ppl: Need a WHM, NIN or empy SAM?


Btw, that was before SoA weapon skill update, so NIN was totally a leech job in Tojil runs.

The fact that ppl actually asked to join on NIN and empy SAM, means absolutely 0 research before joining the runs that I have to waste 10 min replying him and explain why I wasn't gonna invite his SAM and NIN.


Rant 2:
MNK: My MNK has good gear, may I join?

/shows up in awesome MNK with full attack/multi-hit build.

Again, that was before SoA weapon skill update, when you do need full acc set for TP.

Rant 3:
Afania: Go read forums!

Ppl: Fuck reading forums, I just play how I want to play, and I don't care about what others said.


Then don't do Tojil >.>

Rant 4:
And after those ppl get rejected, they go Q.Q in /tell, /l or forums about how they can't get an invite.


The moment you apply for a Tojil PUG, you SHOULD read forum, and uses same gear set/merit as suggested. Any time you're not doing so, you're making 17 other ppl's life harder.

If you rely on pt lead to tell you exactly what setup you need for Tojil, then you're making pt lead's life unnecessarily harder. Because no PUG lead can baby sit every single aspect in a run, unless you enjoy 3 hr gather time.

And if you're going to Q.Q when not getting invite for Tojil due to lack of X, then you may as well don't play MMO. Because you're making 17 other ppl's life harder.

I only ever have 2 suggestions for anyone wanting to join delve boss PUG.

1. Go_read_forum and do as what ppl suggest. Go_watch_clear video, go read bg-wiki. I can't stress this enough. If you're not reading forum because you want to play what you want, then you're making everyone's life harder because you won't know how to do it properly and won't be prepared.

No, don't you dare telling me "I have awesome play skill, I don't suck at this game, I don't need to read forum and I can play fine". This isn't a skill based game, you won't know what's coming if you're not prepared for it.

2. Don't Q.Q if you can't get invite due to lack of X. This is an MMO, MMO is about min maxing and don't waste other ppl's time. If you want 17 other ppl to wipe for you go play another game.

I'm not sure how read forum about gearing, which TP move does what and how to deal with it before doing an event is hard. I also never understand why ppl always go "I don't read forum, because fuck community and screw them". If ppl have such mentality, it is better not play an MMO.

Mid-term exam

I'd like to share how I usually COR/WHM in delve boss runs, although it's really nothing special if you play WHM.

I can hit over 840+ MP on COR/WHM atm, and my MP set isn't complete, nor have capped MP merit(I keep some of my HP merit cuz I don't want to get 1 shotted by boss). I did math wrong posts back, COR/WHM can hit over 1k MP on hume easy without using MP+99 head.

I almost never run out of MP with ballad/refresh/evoker, like, ever. So I started going more aggressive when it comes to cure/curaga to help DDs cap HP. Since I won't run out of MP anyways! Sometimes I tossed a lol dmg QD shot, if I already light shotted dia and have more charge again, but it makes little to no difference.

My 2nd roll is usually fast cast roll, since WHM doesn't need conserve MP nor have MP issue. A well geared WHM doesn't need fast cast roll, but COR has slow casting speed, little access to FC gears, and using FC gears on every slot kills MP, so having fast cast roll on myself helps my casting speed.

Able to hit -na quickly requires studying and memorizing mob TP moves, which I still have plenty of work to do.

IMO winning streak 5/5 snake eye 3/5 is better choice than WS 3/5 SE 5/5. It's easier to keep 4 rolls rotation up, if your ally do COR swap your roll stick longer, most important of all, you ended up risking your life to run in and reroll on DD less. I don't see how higher SE auto-11 proc rate worth it, since proc rate is low with 5/5 anyways, and if you do a bad number on DD you can always overwrite it later.

If I'm going to run in, I almost always stoneskin myself, and swap to earth staff. Ideally you can cap PDT- and have roll gears on head/hands/legs/ring, plus mextli if you don't care about MP/TP. Since I'm gimp, I can't cap PDT- and still use mextli+roll gear yet.


Current goal: Get fucking better at COR/WHM and out cure real WHMs :)

Current most efficient way to farm gil?

Probably delve boss runs.

An efficient group can gather together in 20 min, do 3 runs in 3hr~3.5hr total(include gather time, WC time etc).

3 clear run=210k plasm. 1 stack of airlixir+1=1.1M=30k plasm, that's 7.7M worth of airlixirs in 3.5hr.

Run also drops random +1 and +2s, plus expensive item such as boss craft items(around 8M+). That's extra 600k+ per person avg. So around 8M profit a run for everyone in 3hr.

Note that if your group sells clears, atm market price is around 25M~40M a clear, so that's another 1.4M~2.3M profit for everyone, if the buyer also pay for drop, profit goes higher.

In the end you can make about 8M~10M in 3hr run dependinig on whether your group sells clear or not.

Furthermore, if you DB a GEO or COR in delve boss group, your plasm gain doubled. That's like 15M in 3hr!

Compare with ADL, delve boss doesn't need mules, while the efficiency of ADL gil farm really depend on amount of mules everyone has, which is kinda like converting your real life money to FFXI gil.

And obviously if you do have mules, you can make double or triple the amount. Even without mules, 8M~10M in 3hr is still decent.


So, time to delve more :)

Skill boost in August

According to info on test server, next update SoA weapons would get a skill boost.

That means delve boss would be even easier, and super evasive bee may be more clear-able.

Macc gun may ended up not worth so much unless you really want that MP+100. I'd imagine QD gets much less resist after update that macc gear/merit may not be a requirement to land light shot on boss. (And DP gets even more worthless unless it also gets skill boost due to resist)

That also means maybe current SoA weapon path B won't be worth doing.

And maybe COR DDing in delve become viable again? Lol. Personally I think with perfect stun and heal, WHM+BRD/WHM is enough to deal with all the support.

NTL

Shark boss +5NM cleared!

Honestly, this is one of the most intense fight I had in my FFXI career. My heart almost explode ._. Part of the reason is because I tried my best not to make any mistake and fail the run, so I felt like a rubber band D; But overall I'd say I probably didn't make major mistake besides haste wore a few sec a couple of times and I couldn't reapply fast enough. I also had almost 0 MP issue, that made me question whether it's necessary to even build COR MP refresh set, just because I had way more MP than I can handle.

I also noticed it's much easier to land sleeps on all NMs here, compare with morimar.

Every NM took slightly longer to die compare with Tojil runs, that means even less room for error. However, the entire run in the end was perfect, when I said perfect, I mean perfect heal, no death, and perfect strat execution. And I kinda doubt I can ever lead a perfect run like this.

Maybe I can't, considering I've never really lead a perfect run in an event if I remember correctly :< And honestly I have no idea how ppl just automatically know what to do when it's not a "static"(different members on different job role everytime)

After I start leading Tojil run, I finally understand how 1 mistake can fail entire run, even though I already guessed and tried to prevent every situation that would fuck up the run.

Yeah, I didn't know that even pulling NM, and walking to next NM after 1 NM killed can be main reason to fail a run.

And even worse part is, if 1 thing fail, ppl start drama. Hell ppl even start drama when they can't get in, when they bailed in the first place! Or even spread false rumor about many aspect.

Anyways, enough rant and drama. I should be happy with 2nd boss clear :)

Tojil run

I haven't been playing much FFXI recently due to connection issues, broken PC, and general lack of motivation.

Then LS did a Tojil+5NM run so I joined for KI, also to learn how to organize a proper Tojil run. Thank god I didn't d/c this time!

Tbh, I didn't have any of the pieces I intend to get 1 month ago :p I haven't finish merit, haven't get any refresh pieces, and haven't even start MP/Macc gun.

I guess those aren't required to get win after all, so I just gimped through it, while failing 1hr reset  in the run(Starting to feel guilty D;)

I managed to hit around 630MP with what I have now. But I had np managing MP on 4 NM+Tojil while casting -na/erase/haste none stop. Only NM I had MP issue is turtle, due to full dispel I rarely have ballad. I also couldn't keep evoker up due to DD reroll. In fact WHM kinda had MP issue on turtle and had to convert too(this pt kinda kill slow, so turtle fight dragged on for a while).

I'd say it's probably better to do it with refresh pieces and med, unless your group is very good.

Anyways, Buramenk'ah got! MAY I DD ON BLU NOW?