[Armando]

You make it sound like the drop rate is good, and like you can do it more than once a week. If it were that easy, more people would have X's Knives.

Even if it gave 10% more damage to crits it would still be inferior to 2% DA.

[Yellow Mage]

Malacite, if you really have it bad for crits, go get yourself a Ragnarok or something. Nobody else wants one. >.>

[Malacite]

Originally Posted by Armando

Even if it gave 10% more damage to crits it would still be inferior to 2% DA.

I think not, given it's 4 hits particularly if you're /SAM. An extra 2% to land another hit or a nice fat damage boost. Also, this thing is apparently very good for SAM/THF's adding a few hundred points.

[Armando]

I think not, given it's 4 hits particularly if you're /SAM. An extra 2% to land another hit or a nice fat damage boost. Also, this thing is apparently very good for SAM/THF's adding a few hundred points.

Yes, because we all know Pole Strap only helps during WS, and not on normal hits as well.

[Vyuru]

You have to ask yourself a couple of things Malacite.

1) What is the normal rate that you get critical hits?

2) What is the damage difference between a normal hit and a critical hit?

Taking that info, apply it to +2% DA. To make things easier assume that you get your exact percentage boost and use a base test size of 100. That way for your DA data you have exactly 102 hits, not counting WS, X of them are critical. I think it'd be fair to just assume the two extra hits weren't critical. Your critical hit data will also have X amount of critical hits, toss in the boost to damage that the +critical damage strap gives.

You may want to toss in however many WS that you'd get in 100 hits, I'm not touching that though since some WS have a better chance to critical than others, so choice of WS will have to be the same for both tests. You may or may not want to include Jump and High Jump, I hear that the AF boots are supposed to give a better chance to critical on Jumps, but I don't know if that's true or not. Pick and list gear and keep it consistent between the two tests with the exception of the grips that you are testing. You'll also want to gather just base data with the gear on and no grips to find out your average critical hit rate and all that before finding out how the grips affect you.

Anywho, run through those tests if you really want to find out which is better. Reality and our impressions of it are ofttimes misleading, the numbers will set you free.

[Lmnop]

I'm a crit-monger too, Mal. I'm with ya.

Some day, I might be able to put together my set and maybe proven even Armando wrong.

But in the meantime, it's still true that most crit stuff is terrible (particularly on its own).

[Armando]

To expand more on my previous post:
Crits are less effective the higher you Attack is, because they add a fixed amount to your PDIF. Double Attacks, on the other hand, always hit just as hard as a normal hit. The damage from a 2A will exceed the extra damage of a crit if your Attack isn't so low that your average PDIF is less than 1. Also, Double Attacks give TP (thus increasing your WS rate) and can crit. This holds true for WS as well; a Double Attack in a WS is better than a random crit.

I've done the math. Gondo-Shizunori or not, low Attack or not, 2% 2A beats a 10% damage boost to your crits, which'll only be like 15% of your hits with a Gondo anyways. Even if the 10% damage boost to crits were better than 2% 2A, Thalassocrat/Mezraq would still be better than Gondo because the Evasion Down will beat whatever marginal improvement Gondo offers and crit rate doesn't get better the more you add.

The only way Gondo-Shizunori and Brave Grip to be better is if you're hitting for close to 0 due to the mob's Defense or Level. But then, what are you doing meleeing that?

[Tek(Selphiie)]

Im using the Warwolf belt right now, but there are Dragoons who insist I use Life belt for Penta thrust to land all my hits, what do you think?

[eticket109]

I use Warwolf for Penta, but I'm pretty well merited in polearm and have a lot of accuracy gear. If you typically get 5 hits out of it with Warwolf then there's no reason to change.

[Armando]

Unless you have 95% hit rate, Lifebelt is the way to go.

[Tek(Selphiie)]

At 73 Dragoon my Penta thrust gear is this: (Seen by Omgwtfbbqkitten/Foobar)

Head: Optical Hat
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Body: Hecatomb Harness
Hands: Hecatomb Mitts
Grip: Pole Grip
Ear1: Fowling
Ear2: Minuet
Ring1: Rajas
Ring2: Ecphoria
Legs: Barone
Feet: Marine F Boots
Waist: Warwolf
Back: Psilos

I'm trying to buy a Neptunal Abj. Head (Hecatomb) from a HNM shell since i have no time due to family/fulltime job to actually join a HNM Shell. I get too home too late to join a Salvage/Nyzul static either so that gear is out of the question until i can free up some time. So any suggestions on buyable gear for now would be great. (Buyable including those i can buy from Linkshells who will sell it)

[Callisto]

Forager's Mantle or Amemet +1.
______________________________
Also Dark Gorget if you have friends who can help you do Yovras, farming the rest the organs is relatively easy at 75 as DRG/mage.

[Tek(Selphiie)]

I actually have a Cerberus mantle waiting for me in my inventory, so ive been using Psilos to hold me over until then. However people have been telling me left and right to sell it for a Forager's and take the extra gil I make from selling it. Not sure though, because I also use Cerberus on THF and PLD. What do you think?

[Callisto]

It depends on what other options you have as PLD, I personally have a Resentment Cape as my Enmity swap option, and 1 Enmity isn't worth an extra mil to me. If you have the time to get that I would go that route, unload the Cerb for a Forager's, and pocket the extra gil towards something like N.Feet abjuration.

Edit: Unless you actively use Cerb for a Fire Resist set on HNMs, but it doesn't seem like you do judging from your other posts.

[Lmnop]

And damnit, get that Brutal earring into your Penta swap pronto! (Or rather, stop macroing it out to begin with. It should pretty much never leave your ear.)