What should I be doing with my TP?

[Raitox]

Use a WS, of course, however, as of late in a party in Altep I have been told to stop spamming Tachi: Enpi, thats what I've been always doing with Meditate and my TP, am I doing something wrong? Is there really anything bad with WS spamming? The tank was holding hate fine, so I felt comfortable doing so..

[kuu]

Skill chaining.

get 100% tp. skill chain with melee1 mediate, skillchain with melee 2.

[Raitox]

but most if not all melee's I've partied with so far, (except for other sam's) don't want to skillchain. Just WS spamming.

[tdh]

See I don't understand this stuff. People invite a SAM, but don't set up a Skillchain. They invite two BLMs, but don't set up a Skillchain? Just baffles me. I'm fortunate that I static with a THF. So I have a Skillchain built in already. Just have to find a NIN, and I can Skillchain #2 with them. You can WS Spam when you get to Lv.60 if you don't have any options, and then again when you do TP Burns in the 70's.

Now, if you don't have any MBs, you can just WS Spam, but generally speaking you can find somebody to Skillchain with. A good closer has a chance of getting a big Skillchain effect, and more damage is more damage.

[Lmnop]

"meleeburn" is getting out of control. >.> seriously. Why are some of you playing this game when you hate most of its unique elements (Skillchains and Magic Bursts)? I know horrible Samurai who get to level 70+ and still think they should meditate to 250+ tp and then Weapon Skill.

You are right. I found, for samurai, that only being involved in one skillchain made put me at my highest potential. Just because it's easier, I guess. Basically, you Meditate every 3 minutes under most circumstances. So you gain tp and SC with your partner, like normal. But whenever Meditate is up, you use it's 100% tp for one extra WS. What's nice about meditate coming in 20%tp chunks is how this works with my general strategy. Basically, if Meditate is up and you only have like 62% tp, you hit meditate while you're swinging, start mashing WS macro, get over 100% and WS and by the time Meditate is done, you end up with 1-2 more swings worth of tp than you started with. I never took Sam past 38, so I don't know about timing with AF Helm, but I get the feeling I'd try to make it so I can squeeze in 2 extra WSs.

[raidenn]

Yeah I get a pretty good feeling of satisfaction when I make 2 skillchains in one fight and sometimes an additional solo WS if I have the timing. However I do have a problem sometimes with hate control. Especially in the new areas. I dont like to pull hate from the tank so I take off at least 1 or 2 items.

[Raitox]

So I guess I'll keep on spamming my WS's, unless the melee's feel like skillchaining.

[tdh]

So I guess I'll keep on spamming my WS's, unless the melee's feel like skillchaining.Setting up the Skillchain falls on your shoulders. If you can build a Skillchain with their best WS then do so. If your only options are doing Reverberation against Crabs then doing a Skillchain might not be worth it. But find yourself a Skillchain tool, or print out something that has most of the Skillchain options you'll be using and keep it handy.

[Karinya]

I'm disappointed every time I see a samurai who doesn't know the skillchain system. What do you think the job is *for*? What distinguishes it from the 385627862 other DDs? More TP and more skillchain options.

A samurai should be able to see what weapons the rest of the party is using and come up with the most appropriate skillchain for the monsters you are fighting. (Yes, this includes knowing the weaknesses of common exp mobs at your level.) IMO, a samurai who can't do that is not doing their job any more than a tank who can't hold hate or a RNG who can't pull.

Ideally, any DD should be able to figure this out, but especially a SAM whose job is defined by its mastery of TP.

You shouldn't be asking the party what to do with your TP any more than a RDM should be asking what to do when the monster uses Cocoon. You should already know, because it's your job.

[Raitox]

I CAN come up with a skillchain with other DD's, that was never the problem, my problem is, when I ask a Warrior to close an SC with Raging Axe, he replies "Its better to just spam ws at this level", and that usually was said with my other parties, so I just started to spam, and then occasionally a melee would agree to SC with me. And then in a recent party, I got told off by the THF who wanted to stop my WS spamming, when I was pretty much the only DD in the party (BRD, THF, WHM, BLM, SAM, RDM)

[Drive]

The thief probably wanted you to skillchain with him. Tachi: Enpi > SATA Viper Bite = Distortion , which will get abused for a long time.

[ikkleste]

as a rdm i love skillchains, it's just about the only time i really get to kick out some damage!

[Raydeus]

I CAN come up with a skillchain with other DD's, that was never the problem, my problem is, when I ask a Warrior to close an SC with Raging Axe, he replies "Its better to just spam ws at this level", and that usually was said with my other parties, so I just started to spam, and then occasionally a melee would agree to SC with me. And then in a recent party, I got told off by the THF who wanted to stop my WS spamming, when I was pretty much the only DD in the party (BRD, THF, WHM, BLM, SAM, RDM)

I've seen this happen a lot lately, no one wants to bother setting up a SC anymore, even if it kills a mob in 3 seconds with a good MB. That's at higher lvls though.

In this case until they fix low lvl SCs so they are more powerful than soloing WS this will continue (most of the times you deal less damage with a low level SC + MB than soloing WS sadly).

The only times setting up a SC is worth it is when either the mob is weak to magic and the MB can deal massive damage or when the SC can be built using 1 or two strong WS with the SC+MB just being an added bonus, which is the case of many level 3 light/dark SCs.

Under that light lvl1 SCs are pretty useless but they do give you practice for higher lvls when you start using stronger SC.

[nazlfrag]

In your setup, Tachi: Enpi -> SA Viperbite = Distortion does great damage that the rdm and blm could burst on. Skillchains are much more important in a mage-heavy paries.

[Lmnop]

People have a reason to bash on skillchains at all reasons. I've heard every stigma addressed to every level range, now. "Skillchains aren't worth it pre-30" "after 60, skillchains just slow you down" "End-game, there is no skillchain" and then in the 40s ninjas have utsusemi: ni and think that's enough to try meleeburn -- "ok guys, normally people don't party like this until 70+ but we're gonna do it now and get awesome exp. It's great, trust me" <-- I've been in about 400 of these "unique" parties. The exp isn't that great, no one works together, no one has fun.

...at any rate, you can usually make decent skillchains at all levels. if you're working with a Dragoon, you have a potent distortion. If you're working with a Dark Knight (scythe or Gsword), you have a potent distortion. If you're working with a THF, you have a the best Distortion. IF you're working with a WAR, well he should be soloing shield break :3 but he's not. So hate warriors. They suck. Oh yea, RNGs open kick-ass distortion too. It's no wonder everyone (no one, now) loves distortion in the low-mid levels. Every melee's strong WSs can be used to make a good distortion, which everything in those levels is weak against.

Btw, Nin + sam + war/thf party 30+ can look like this: Tachi:Hobaku >> Sneak Attack Sturmwind. You will see that hobaku can't compete with Enpi, but the SA Sturmwind itself will be so potent that the massive Fragmentation can make up for it if it doesn't get resisted. But then, a half resist will often be 100 damage still. That's probably more than the difference between Hobaku and Enpi. At any rate, the Nin will get tp slower in most cases at these levels. This means that you can try to use meditate/store tp to make Distortion with your ninja. Have him open with Blade: Rin. He won't like the WS, but making ninjas close SCs is never pretty. And this gives you the opportunity to be closer (if you happen to enjoy looking at your skillchain numbers to see how they compared to your WS -- since SC damage is based off of closer's damage) and use Enpi. In any other case with a Sturmwinding warrior, you can do the hobaku and at least solo Enpi.

Well, you'll get the hang of it.

[Celeal]

If the DD in my party is not willing to do Skillchain, I would use the following trick:

If your SC partner lanches a WS when your TP is in between 80% and 99% TP, use Mediate. When your TP reach 100+% (from Mediate or from hitting the mob), "instantly" hit your WS macro. After the Skillchain is completed and Mediate is ended, you will have 80+% TP again, when your SC partner TP usually is below 30%.

Using the trick from above, combine with a decent amount of accuracy, most of the time I am ready for SC whenever my SC partner TP is ready for WS. Thus, even if the DD in my party is not willing to do Skillchain, there will always be Skillchains ^^;

[Dryhus]

If the DD in my party is not willing to do Skillchain, I would use the following trick:

If your SC partner lanches a WS when your TP is in between 80% and 99% TP, use Mediate. When your TP reach 100+% (from Mediate or from hitting the mob), "instantly" hit your WS macro. After the Skillchain is completed and Mediate is ended, you will have 80+% TP again, when your SC partner TP usually is below 30%.

Using the trick from above, combine with a decent amount of accuracy, most of the time I am ready for SC whenever my SC partner TP is ready for WS. Thus, even if the DD in my party is not willing to do Skillchain, there will always be Skillchains ^^;

Good idea. If they are too selfish to go for efficiency, and you gain TP at a much faster rate, then you may as well take advantage of their WS spam and turn it into SC spam.

Two nice ideas about this
-If you are closing the SC, then you can pretty much force a WS, whether they like it or not.
-If they are the would-be SC closers, then it's harder to do...but if you have (TParty) loaded and you're noticing they spam at 100% TP every time, then you can try to toss your WS right before theirs and they're going to get hate from their WS and from the SC effect. If the mob eats their face one too many times, they may be willing to coordinate a SC at the right time to mitigate hate to DDs.