DRK Post Update (8/27)

[Aeni]

Now things have just become lively in the game. I'm quite excited. I quit playing my DRK mostly because I abhor being forced to /NIN and dual wield in order to parse out gewd damage. I was always - ALWAYS - a big fan of subbing WAR and going to town with meat dishes and a nice, sexy, 2-hander (GSword, GAxe and Scythe were my favorite toys)

So, looks like SE finally decides to throw all 2-hand users a bone (long overdue, the meat has long dried and the flavor gone out) and adjusted many things.

The changes to Cross-Reaper also got me jumping up and down. If they could make it consistent and less random (like it always was in my own experience) then it might have a chance to pull ahead of Guillotine in my list of favored Scythe WS.

Anyone else excited about the changes? I just ... maybe ... you know ... will go back to playing my DRK a bit more than my other toon (RDM) ... well ... maybe.

:P

[Malacite]

I can tell you right now I creamed my pants when I tried out the updates on my SAM.

My WS damage with Yukki/Gekko/Kasha with Soboro on EP Colibri has jumped up by 200-250 points on average. This update ROCKS!

[Armando]

Speaking of SAM, according to BG, Yuki/Gekko/Kasha now have 2.5 fTP at 100. WTF.

I'm also pretty happy to see DRK and DRG shining all of a sudden. Though the DEX thing still had me going like "wtf?" But oh well. I'm sure in a week we'll know if the changes are permanent.

[Celeal]

I am also very excited and sad with the update at this moment. I was LFG as a WAR/SAM and just got a /tell for party invite (15 min before this post) .... request me to /nin and dual axe.... { I'm sorry, but I have to pass. }
I guess i am nutz to turn down the invite... but come on, the party leader was DRK/WAR when he send the invite....
Well, i will form my own party on this weekend, just to see how Great Axe improved.

[Aeni]

Armando, this probably isn't the thread to post it, but I am on my DRK atm :P

So far, there's been some interesting observation on my part.

I'm doing some "testing" on mobs in Eastern Altepa Desert (near outpost, i'm just lazy to run)

With Berserk on I'm noticing that my "per swing" dmg remains the same, no matter if a crit happens or not (It doesn't even differ by more than 0-3 points between every swing). However, Berserk off, the dmg varies widely, as how it used to be on a per hit basis.

Example:

Hitting a Manticore with Berserk on, I hit it for 309, 304, 306, 306, 306. There was a crit there too (One of the 306 dmg)

Berserk came off and the next few hits were like 232, 277, 216. As you can see, it is wide ranging.

I don't have any good gear to really do testing, because my stuffs been cannibalized for my RDM. 434 Attack at level 72, with WAR sub and no buffs (no food, JA on, no songs, etc)

I suppose with a STR gear set, one can keep their damage over time consistent per swing, but I do not know how it is off Incredibly Tough monsters.

I tried out a fully buffed out Guillotine on a Dhalmel but I should've tried that on the Manti instead ... poor sod dropped after the 3rd hit (4th didn't count apparently) but I managed a 1,500 without that 4th hit.

>_> Gonna go try fooling around with Spiral Hell and Cross Reaper and then Ground Strike and other stuff WSs.

[Armando]

When your Attack is capped, your PDIF (the number that multiplies your DMG + fSTR) is always 3.0. Well, for two-handers at least. For one-handers, it's always 2.0 now (whereas before it would vary between 1.6 and 2.4 for all non-ranged weapons.) So yeah, with Berserk up you're capping your Attack.

Celeal: Sorry to hear you got such a stupid party leader, but I'm behind your decision all the way. People really need to get the hint. Seriously, what the hell, half the things on FFXI just got turned upside down and two-handers teeter dangerously close to broken and someone still has the audacity to say "dual axes plz?"

[Aeni]

Armando ... Cross Reaper sucks (Or I'm missing something here)

Souleater
Berserk
Last Resort
Warcry
Absorb-STR
300% TP

Did Cross Reaper on the Manticore right away (after engaging him - I only used Absorb-STR as the first "hit")

545 damage. W ... T ... F.

So, the changes they made to Cross Reaper ... was a nerf?!@?


Using the same buffs I got a 1923 Guillotine ... go figure >_>


(sans 300% TP for Guillotine .. obviously)




SECOND CROSS REAPER: 1667 ... sigh.

So, Cross Reaper still has that nasty tendancy to ... miss on a swing. Ewwww.

[Armando]

That's funny, all the DRKs on Allakhazam were celebrating the fact that their Cross Reapers actually do good damage now. Maybe the miss was a fluke?

[Aeni]

That's funny, all the DRKs on Allakhazam were celebrating the fact that their Cross Reapers actually do good damage now. Maybe the miss was a fluke?

Apparently it was a miss, but it's very strange because on the 2nd attempt, the dmg is well over 1,500 ... yet on the first attempt I only got 500sh dmg.

Not sure which missed ... first swing or second. But to think the difference between either is a whopping 200% doesn't bode well with me....

[Armando]

Should've been the first hit, as it now has a juicy 2.5 fTP multiplier. All subsequent hits have a fixed 1.0 fTP. You can tell with your TP gain anyways.

[Aeni]

Should've been the first hit, as it now has a juicy 2.5 fTP multiplier. All subsequent hits have a fixed 1.0 fTP. You can tell with your TP gain anyways.


I find ironic that I actually missed on the first hit. Off a Too Weak to Even Bother monster. Remember the post (several up) in which I indicated I sold most of my gear? That was my STR/Attack set. I actually have accuracy gear on. -_-;

Seriously ... a real pain.

[Armando]

Eh, stuff happens. Even with capped Accuracy only 90% of your Cross Reapers will land both hits. It's just how it works. SAMs have the same problem with Jinpu/Enpi, DRGs with Double Thrust, WARs with Sturmwind, etc. But I bet when you get a Double Double Attack you'll remember it ;o

[Aeni]

Eh, stuff happens. Even with capped Accuracy only 90% of your Cross Reapers will land both hits. But I bet when you get a Double Double Attack you'll remember it ;o

Ehh ... I use /WAR when and whenever possible so that double attacks are expected :P Call me spoilt ... ;) I think it was fun seeing my SAM swing twice on mobs (albeit, for very, very different reasons)

The fun and magic with (double attack) kind of wore off a long time ago ; ; ... But maybe (triple attack) on the other hand o.o

[Armando]

I've have Double Attack for a long time and I still giggle like a schoolgirl every time I see my WS get 2 more hits than it should >_>

[Aaramis]

Only a young DRK here, but I've noticed some wonderful improvements with regular damage, as well as WS damage too. Loving it.

As far as crits go, at 50, I still see a noticeable difference in damage when a crit lands, but a 75 SAM friend noticed the same as above - his crits weren't doing anything more than a regular hit. So perhaps you're reaching the ATK or STR cap ceiling now?
Unsure about that.

In other news, ABS-STR before a WS is godly; and Spike Necklace just became healthy competition to Chivalrous Chain.

I find myself not needing to macro out too much gear these days, as some items (Spike Necklace, Hume RSE gloves) now provide both ACC and ATK.

How many of you had had to completely re-do their templates? :)

[Aeni]

Spike Necklace was always godly back in my day. This was pre-CoP. Somewhere along the line, leading up to CoP/ToAU, there were some updates and changes which greatly affected certain mechanics.

When food got adjusted, so did the mechanics of the fight. Back when Mith/Chiefkabobs had uncapped +Atk % (worked for ranged too) +STR items were very much popular with DRKs, MNKs, DRGs and WARs. +DEX was something that THFs were into more though.

Since then, SE moved away from +base stats to direct improvements to specific skills.

In a way, I can draw parallels to the changes that occured in WoW from the expansion and subsequent changes when the level cap got lifted to 70. Many of the new items there steered away from heavy +base stats to direct improvements to specific skill sets.

What we are seeing now is SE re-shifting much of their focus away from specific skill improvements when figuring out point distribution of stats on new equipment. Base stats will always be a favored option on equipment which can be used by multiple job classes. The more job classes that can use a particular item, the less specific the bonus can be. So rather than finding a bonus like +Divine Skill on a piece which ultimately a MNK can equip, they'll add +MND or something like that (that's just a rough example)

(Note: the term is called itemization)

[Aaramis]

^^ True enough.

Although I'm wondering if they're regretting that shift back.
It seems an "adjustment" is on the way...

Under SE's Information -> Known General Issues, is :

- Amount of damage is not corrected properly when characters are equipped with two-handed weapons.

Link = http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news11190.shtml

No eta on when they're going to handle this, but it's interesting of all the things they want to fix, it's the damage.
No mention of the 1 DEX : 1 ACC thing at all.
Interesting...

[Olorin401]

I've been working on DRK lately as a sub for my RDM.. so I intended to stop at 37.

I might keep this job going a bit longer though. My damage output has nearly doubled in the past few days thanks to the increased weapon speed, accuracy, and seemingly increased critical hit rate. Something tells me there's a bunch of hidden effects built into the grips, but I haven't tried out not using one yet.

Weapon Bash is the star too. I haven't missed a single stun proc since the update, and it lasts on average 4 seconds. That's just insane.

[Callisto]

In line with the Spike Necklace deal...assuming the new 2h STR/DEX rations stay, Warwolf Belt may have just become a hell of a piece for costing less than 5k gil, although there is still the emn+ to deal with. Just a thought... >.>

[WishMaster3K]

Well yeah, for 2hders, of course.

5STR 5ATK 5DEX 5ACC 5VIT 3 Enmity..

If there was a huge incentive for Spinning Slash, I'd do that as a PLD. We'll see how much my Acc jumps on the EPs I skill up on.

[tdh]

If there was a huge incentive for Spinning Slash, I'd do that as a PLD. We'll see how much my Acc jumps on the EPs I skill up on.Friend went as PLD/WAR DD in Dynamis last night. Now he has a number of Lv.75 jobs, and some of the /drool gear most people want, but he kept me up to date with some of his numbers. With a COR who was dropping Chaos & Fighter's roll, he was pulling 1500+ Spinning & Ground Strikes. Now he does have Nearly full Homam, Brutal Earring, and I loaned him my Pole Strap so he did have a decent chance at a Double or Triple to proc per WS, but 1500 from a PLD is pretty impressive.

I guess we'll see how this emergency "oh shit" update will handle this.

1:1 ratio between STR & Atk isn't so horrid, but 1:1 ratio between DEX & Acc is over doing it it. I knew there would be a "fix" so I didn't jump up quick and sell my Acc rings. Sniper's dropped 50% and Woodmans dropped down to 100K. Time to get a second Sniper's for when I level NIN and cash in on the bandwagon.

Sadly, I didn't get a chance to Merit as super uber DRK before they change things, but at the same time it's probably good. So I don't get used to it, but doing a full clear of Dynamis - Windurst last night with just under 30 people was awesome. We even meleed the Mega Boss - 3 SAMs took ~60% of it's HP before the BLMs could get half way through Burst II.

[Aeni]

Well yeah, for 2hders, of course.

5STR 5ATK 5DEX 5ACC 5VIT 3 Enmity..

If there was a huge incentive for Spinning Slash, I'd do that as a PLD. We'll see how much my Acc jumps on the EPs I skill up on.

WishMaster, you probably didn't know this but ...

A Paladin that used to post here on these forums (He created the first PLD FAQ here) completed Genkai 5 against Maat as PLD/THF.

Opened up with a 300% SATA Spinning Slash.

Let's just say from that point, the fight went rather quickly and rather successfully for him. I thought that was an ingenious way of defeating Maat as a PLD.

:eek:

1:1 ratio between STR & Atk isn't so horrid, but 1:1 ratio between DEX & Acc is over doing it it. I knew there would be a "fix" so I didn't jump up quick and sell my Acc rings. Sniper's dropped 50% and Woodmans dropped down to 100K. Time to get a second Sniper's for when I level NIN and cash in on the bandwagon.

The only change posted today was with regards to scaling damage against a monster's level. Right now, the formula is taking a constant that never changed from TW mobs to IT mobs (or the wrong constant is being pulled into the calculation)

[WishMaster3K]

How'd he sub THF if it was Genkai!!! >.<

I'm so confused!

[Callisto]

How'd he sub THF if it was Genkai!!! >.<

I'm so confused!

Yeah, gotta call shennaners on that one...maybe it was for some other fight, but it wouldn't have been Maat.

[Aeni]

How'd he sub THF if it was Genkai!!! >.<

I'm so confused!

/facepalm

I got it all mixed up. Sorry for the confusion

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/paladin/27146-paladin-guide-faq.html

It's buried somewhere in here, I just don't remember what he was doing, just that it had something to do with Spinning Slash >_<

That one year hiatus is getting to me ... sigh.

[Armando]

The Spinning Slash PLD was imac2much. Aeni's right in that it was a 300 TP Spinning Slash.

[Celeal]

Finally I have a chance to use WAR/SAM in exp. party last night. :biggrin:

The party setup was 67 pld/war, 65 whm, 65 brd, 67 thf/nin, 64 war/nin (2k tnl), 66 war/sam (me).

The camp is at Mount Z. fighting fire crawlers.

I was using Coeurl Sub -> Sole Sushi -> Coeurl Sub, under Sanction food duration bonus.

Raging Rush with WAR/SAM is like NIN's Blade: Jin now, should we call it Blade: Raging Rush? LOL :rofl: . My best Raging Rush broke 1k dmg with a little over 100 TP with BRD and attack food, and after Full Break. Speaking about Full Break, now its dmg is decent and worthwhile to use. With my WAR/SAM in my last party, I have enough TP for using both Full Break and Raging Rush. (spamming Raging Rush means MP sink anyway....)

Back to the topic:
With this update, it must be very fun for DRK or other 2-hander DD to ride the hate in parties. I can imagine the fun and excitement every time the DRK using those insane WS and huge hate-spike abilities.

[WishMaster3K]

No. It's not fun at all. To tank, no it's not!

I just want my melee to be 60 so that they can bounce around all the frikkin hate they want granted they sub THF first.

THF do some nice things with SA TA Hide (Puks usually. not sure if it works on Colibri) when the partner melee can't peel hate off of me (read: always).

[Brayden]

Have the modifiers for CR changes? or is it still str/mnd? Im still getting higher #s with guillotine over CR.

[Aeni]

Have the modifiers for CR changes? or is it still str/mnd? Im still getting higher #s with guillotine over CR.

This has been on my mind as well. Guillotine has way better and consistent numbers than Cross Reaper, nevermind the accuracy portion of Cross Reaper (CR just blows period)

[tdh]

I've actually been noticing higher numbers from Cross Reaper than Guillotine. I started out with Guillotine in a Meripo and had a few really nice ones, but average was just under 1k. I couldn't tell what the TP return was because of SAM Roll, so I was getting anywhere from like 20% TP to 26% TP per Guillotine. My per hit damage was insane, but my WS damage on Guillotine was nothing to excited about.

We were fighting Greater Colibri, and I had already had two stacks of Mithkabobs stolen from my belly, so I figured I'd go with Spiral Hell. I'd know what my accuracy was with that, and after STR75+52 I still wasn't doing the kinda numbers I was doing pre-update with /THF and Martial Scythe.

So I decided to switch to Death Scythe and start trying Cross Reaper and suddenly find myself dropping 1200+ at a pretty steady pace. I've only tested this in one Meripo with a Chaos & SAM Rolls though, since nobody wanted to invite my butt last night. I may try to merit tonight and check the differences as well, maybe at a different camp and sans Chaos Roll. (750 Atk exceeds insane.)

[Brayden]

Well after a nice 4 hour merit party on Sunday, I can easily say that Guillotine>Cross Reaper. Camp was in Thickets, the usual puk/mamool/etc. Im quite interested to know what everyone else is doing for the higher CR returns. Im also finding I really like GS and SS, but i need to merit GS in order for it to really be worthwhile I think.

[Tipsy]

I havn't played this in awhile, but, I read something and it said for 2handed weapons 1str=1attk now? Does that mean our base attack went up alot? And I someone in this post said something about +5STR+5DEX+5ACC+5ATTK or something like that on Spike Necklace? Can you explain that to me? lol thanks

[Malacite]

>_ > try +3 STR +3 DEX +3 attack and +3 accuracy. idk where this tool got +5 from.


And it basically means your attack bonus from STR (and acc from DEX) just doubled.

[Tipsy]

That's included in base STR/DEX too?

[Malacite]

yes