[Malacite]

So while browsing the WS mod testing thread over at BG Fredjan posted this.

I got Mordant Rime recently for Bard and for those Bards that like meleeing sometimes on stuff (disclaimer: I only do ths for fun, never in an exp PT/end-game situation)... it, least in my eyes so far, owns Evisceration, so I'm going to post relating to my personal experience with it.

SC stuff that I can vouch for:
It can open and close Light with a Fusion-attribute WS.
It can only open Darkness. Closing results in Fragmentation.
Did this by helping other people unlock WS's and the like.

Damage randomness:
As far as I can tell, it is a very potent WS for BRD, mainly due to how much CHR we already have and I'd personally rank it above Evisceration. The subjob of choice so far, for me, has been /NIN only. I've been inclined to test /THF damage, and have been recommended to do so and I probably will eventually. I like /NIN's guaranteed offhand hit though, least so far.

These damage testings were all on the same mob (Lesser Colibri), of course there'll be level variations and the like.

When I first got it:


It felt good to have a decent weaponskill on Bard; I didn't even have Evisceration yet. I grew tired of spamming Viper Bite (offhand hit, more chances at skillups) / Gust Slash (damage) when I was trying to cap dagger skill.

On those mobs, that turned out to be my average. ~1100-1400, with +26 DEX and +46 CHR or so roughly.

A couple weaponskills later I had a lucky brutal earring proc:



And after having CHR etudes up and having another brutal earring proc:


That one just flat out amazed me for some reason.

Needless to say, I was surprised. Gravity effect worked regardless of the mob, can't refuse some extra accuracy (due to lower mob evasion) in situations where a bard'd melee something. I know a few BRDs that like to BRD burn once in a while and I'll probably get into one of those sometime and see how it works out.

I was pretty amazed with Mystic Boon on WHM because how awesome it was to regain MP like that, but I'm also amazed at this. This is a fun weaponskill; least it has been to me.

Good lord that's insane. Might we start seeing BRD whip out Blau Dolch + Joyeuse and jump into the fray? And so I proclaim FACE to everyone who's been bashing secondary modifiers >_>

That's a retarded amount of damage from just piling on more CHR. It actually makes the BRD dagger very much worth it considering song length is extended, allowing said BRD to build TP for Mordant Rime and just go nuts.

As much as I hate playing BRD, I think this would actually be enough to warrant my coming back to the job since I largely hate it for being uninvolved in fights.

[Armando]

And so I proclaim FACE to everyone who's been bashing secondary modifiers >_>

We don't bash them, we say the truth about them.

The damage jump is insane because DAs are awesome like that, not necessarily because CHR is the secret recipe to tearing shit up with Mordant Rime. The CHR mod isn't even that enormous, if the testing is correct, it's only 50%. Savage Blade has the same secondary mod pattern (30% and 50% to two stats PLD has a lot of), and Savage is a 2-hitter just like Mordant Rime, yet it sucks. The difference is that 3.0 fTP which makes Mordant Rime very similar to having 300 TP on Savage Blade all the time. That and obviously Colibris are piercing-weak. EDIT: Oh yeah, and he's /NIN, so he's getting an extra hit in that WS at the cost of almost nothing since he's likely to have capped Acc and Attack on those mobs anyways.

You're lucky to get more than 100 damage out of etudes on a totally e-peeny near-2000-damage WS. Without them, that 1839 damage Mordant Rime would probably've done 1700-something.

As for Mordant Rime vs Evisceration, it's a really tough call. Depends on what's the +crit on Evi at 100 TP.

[Malacite]

Yeah I did wonder to myself what that number would have looked like with say Minuet IV and III rather than the two etudes.

Still, that's a crazy number for a BARD WS >_>

The guy didn't list his gear at all though (other than Brutal) which pisses me off. I'd like to know what dagger he was using.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Lesser Colibri: The Other Boreal Hound Meat.

[Callisto]

Originally Posted by Malacite

Yeah I did wonder to myself what that number would have looked like with say Minuet IV and III rather than the two etudes.

Still, that's a crazy number for a BARD WS >_>

The guy didn't list his gear at all though (other than Brutal) which pisses me off. I'd like to know what dagger he was using.

Oh was just a Mandau, I was going to pick one up rq myself once I finish unlocking MR!

[Malacite]

Originally Posted by Callisto

Oh was just a Mandau, I was going to pick one up rq myself once I finish unlocking MR!

Where'd you get that? It wasn't listed anywhere in the guy's post.

[Callisto]

Originally Posted by Malacite

Where'd you get that? It wasn't listed anywhere in the guy's post.

Oh I was being fecetious there, I have no idea what he used. At the moment my own dagger selection is bad enough that I'll probably keep Dancing Dagger as my mainhand until I have spare gil for a Jambiya, lol.

[Sylvane]

Originally Posted by Callisto

Oh I was being fecetious there, I have no idea what he used. At the moment my own dagger selection is bad enough that I'll probably keep Dancing Dagger as my mainhand until I have spare gil for a Jambiya, lol.

pretty sure you mean facetious. I hope. the alternative is kinda disgusting.

[Callisto]

Well technically I was full of shit so I stand by my statement.

[Lmnop]

I love you guys.

[Callisto]

Originally Posted by Armando

As for Mordant Rime vs Evisceration, it's a really tough call. Depends on what's the +crit on Evi at 100 TP.

Granted I only have anectdotal/eyeballed evidence to support this, but it's really not a tough call, Evisceration honestly kinda sucks as BRD. MR at the very least will be much more consistent since there's less hits to miss and it won't be flat out gimped by lack of crits, has a minor added bonus in the Gravity effect, and is more flexible in terms of skillchain possibilities. Being able to at worst make Fragmentation or Distortion is pretty sweet. I'm focing LS mates to help me unlock it this week, hopefully I can get it by the end of tonight if Dynamis doesn't take absurdly long.

[Solymir]

Originally Posted by Callisto

if Dynamis doesn't take absurdly long.

Just use it in Dynamis to help get you some points.

I can only imagine the shit you would catch from your sacks for that.

[Callisto]

Being one of the main officers I technically could, but we have a history of failing when I try to go something other than RDM to Dynamis, lol. We usually do our Nyzul WS' while duoing Despot PHs, which always leads to us duoing Despot with some funky setup like SAM + COR or PLD + DRK.

[Armando]

Granted I only have anectdotal/eyeballed evidence to support this, but it's really not a tough call, Evisceration honestly kinda sucks as BRD. MR at the very least will be much more consistent since there's less hits to miss and it won't be flat out gimped by lack of crits, has a minor added bonus in the Gravity effect, and is more flexible in terms of skillchain possibilities. Being able to at worst make Fragmentation or Distortion is pretty sweet. I'm focing LS mates to help me unlock it this week, hopefully I can get it by the end of tonight if Dynamis doesn't take absurdly long.

You got me curious and I just ran the numbers, it's pretty safe to say Mordant Rime will average better damage than Evisceration except when PDIF is very low (but a BRD probably wouldn't be meleeing that mob.)

Although I question the bit about Mordant Rime being more consistent since if you miss the first hit, your damage is boned. The higher number of hits on Evisceration may cause it to have a wider damage variance but it wouldn't have have as many outlying weak-ass numbers like Mordant Rime.

[Callisto]

Originally Posted by Armando

You got me curious and I just ran the numbers, it's pretty safe to say Mordant Rime will average better damage than Evisceration except when PDIF is very low (but a BRD probably wouldn't be meleeing that mob.)

Although I question the bit about Mordant Rime being more consistent since if you miss the first hit, your damage is boned. The higher number of hits on Evisceration may cause it to have a wider damage variance but it wouldn't have have as many outlying weak-ass numbers like Mordant Rime.

Yeah there is that, though even then one Mordant Rime hit should be roughly equivalent to 3 non-crit Evisceration hits if I'm not mistaken, and I believe you're about as likely to miss 2 of 5 hits as you are 1 of 2 hits with the same accuracy(not officially maffed so I might be wrong, but that's a guesstimate I feel is relatively accurate), so it would pretty much even out. And even then you're probably more likely to land both MR hits than land a full Evisc with 3+ crits.

Edit: My main pooptastic point at the moment is the large CHR mod kind of makes it a pain in terms of picking a good body piece, you basically have Heca Harness vs. Bard's Justaucorps vs. Osode(and possibly Assault Jerkin). The CHR loss on AF2 body pretty much overwrites most of what you'd get from the STR and DEX, though there's still a healthy chunk of attack and 4~ Acc. The Heca has much more acc and a few points of fSTR, but no attack, which is sort of an issue for BRD. Osode seems to be the best all around option, especially since a career BRD is likely to have one anyways, but it again is kinda skimping on Atk.