Some 50+ questions.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

I've had the Gaudy Harness forever and never really triggered the latent on BRD, but found out how to do so on BST, I'm aware that later the Refresh effects do play into triggering the DMG latent on Rune Axes. So that considered, what would be the best way to make that aspect remain active? I'm thinking some kind of MP > HP gear.

I can see that with how these latents trigger, meritting my MP beyond the 40 MP I have gained might be detrimental to BST/NIN in getting that effect to work, so I've decided to leave my merits as is on MP. As BST/WHM I generally keep it below the 49 MP since I don't usually need more than Blink and Regen for healing myself and MP conservation.

I guess the other question would be does the Rune Axe latent trigger activate off of Sanction refresh, if so, that's might make it easier to work around and I could use a Hauby more often instead of Gaudy in an EXP PT.

Also what gear should I be considering 55+, for solo, seems like BST AF and JSE later on look pretty good. Assault gear doesn't seem to offer BST much, though. So melee gear for EXP PTs and to macro out is what I'm seriously considering now.

I have noticed some Aht'Urghan Quests give you gear for Resist Charm and Aquan Killer, are there any more of those quests with similar items? Seems like some stuff I should keep around for solo.

[Omni]

the thing about bst is, no one cares what you use. use what you like. if you want to wear bst af full time, go for it. i do that at times. u can put on gaudy full time if you want too.

u can get a sh or a haub even. doesnt really matter. jsut as long as you can get 100 tp before the mob dies so you can 1shot it after you release, you're set w/ anything.

with rune axe/gaudy, you just need to have any mp available and gaudy on. once it drains you to below 39 mp, your gaudy will keep the affect alive even at 0-1 mp.



thats the joy of bst. no one is going to tell you, hey! that equip sux. so im sure you can figure out which gears are best for dd at that level.

[Aether]

Theres no reason that if you decide to DD in a normal party setup, that you would be expected to have any less effective gear than any other DD. Other wise your just telling the community that we bsts will solo when we want, and if we decide we want to party, we can do it gimped. Which isn't good for our invite rate as a whole.

If your by yourself, or maybe even duoing with other bsts, thats different. But im sure other bsts don't like to party with less efficient members any more than other jobs do.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Yeah I'm not exactly a fan of the ignorance toward BST as it is, I'd prefer to avoid increasing the perception that we're weak DDs, because we're not. PTs aren't something I plan on doing until I have DD gear I'm happy with. God knows I got the beastmen seals to blow toward some good stuff.

I guess my main questions in regards to gear are the axes. I have pair of viking axes right now and I'm wondering what else to look for in that department. I'm not terribly well-versed in what NMs to go after for BST gear, either. I know there is the Francisca but that seems more like RNG stuff and I do have one for my mithra RNG.

Something else that springs to mind is Light Staff on solo, I already have issues with using it, particularly during EXP chains. Should I be reserving the use of Light Staff to mobs that are harder to charm? Because losing that TP from weapon swappin hurts a little.

I was able to charm an IT++ using it, but only did so to help a THF who had aggro from a Robber Crab, wasn't pressing my luck on keeping it :P

[LyonheartLakshmi]

For soloing, I've read that Tamer's Ring (http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/2849) can be quite useful. Some say that it increases the proc rate enough to make it worth having on hand, and it's cheap. If there are none on the AH, you could do the lvl 50 Treasure Chest BCNM in the hopes of getting one.

I tend to melee in SH +1 (or Gaudy if my MP drops below 49) and a few pieces of Crow gear. For axes, I went from DS +1 to Kabraken's Axe around your level range.

As far as Light/Apollo Staff, I'd suggest swapping it in after fights where you finish off the mob with Rampage. If you use your TP to finish the mob, then you'll only be losing a little bit of TP when swapping weapons. If you end a fight with significant amount of TP left, then just stick with your axes.

To help with this, I suggest setting up a pair of macros to switch between Staff and Axes set up, and a separate pair of macros to swap the majority of your +CHR/+charm gear. That way, you can swap in a decent amount of +CHR and +charm stuff for times when you want to keep TP. With two macro swaps, you can get in the Staff and the rest of your +CHR/+charm gear for difficult charms.

[seq]

Light/apollo staff can save you a misscharm, which will eventually save HP & MP.
Fransisca is a good axe, but Tungi is always better off hand, i'm always main handing a Wrath tabar though (Tungi for solo because of wrath's high delay x.x).
Gigas bracelets (enk.bracelets,Pallas and Alky. Bracelets) are the best for Rampage.

I guess the other question would be does the Rune Axe latent trigger activate off of Sanction refresh, if so, that's might make it easier to work around and I could use a Hauby more often instead of Gaudy in an EXP PT.
it does and costs 1MP to activate it.

[Idun_Midgardsormr]

One thing to bear in mind with the rune axes and sanction refresh: sanction refresh only works on native MP (from your job, which as bst/nin is none) and from mp+ gear. It does NOT work with gear that converts HP to MP!

I tested this fairly extensively when I became curious as to why my mp did not refresh to full. If you are using astral rings, those will not get the benefit of refresh (converts 25HP to MP), whereas electrum rings will get the refresh (HP-20 MP+20), so whatever piece of MP gear you decide to go with, make sure it says MP+ and not "convert".

Hope that helps!

[TaruBST]

One thing to bear in mind with the rune axes and sanction refresh: sanction refresh only works on native MP (from your job, which as bst/nin is none) and from mp+ gear. It does NOT work with gear that converts HP to MP!

I tested this fairly extensively when I became curious as to why my mp did not refresh to full. If you are using astral rings, those will not get the benefit of refresh (converts 25HP to MP), whereas electrum rings will get the refresh (HP-20 MP+20), so whatever piece of MP gear you decide to go with, make sure it says MP+ and not "convert".

Hope that helps!

This is something good to know.
I always thought it refresh up to 85%.
I've never tried it naked, so I guess I happen to have 15% of my MP from the gear.