Monk weapon question

[Ryouken]

I've been lvling my MNK lately and I've been using my Legionares Knuckles (level 10, +3 damage, +3 attack, +2 accuracy) and been told constantly to upgrade it to a higher lvl weapon (I'm currently lvl 32)

However, when I bought a pair of Impact Knuckles (level 32, +8 damage, +1 strength, +3 accuracy), I found out that when I equipped it, my attack was lower (by at least 2 points) when compared to when I had my Legionares equipped.

So I wanted to ask you guys your opinions on these kinds of situations, when you have to make a choice between upgrading your gear. Also, can I get another weapon that should improve my attack far above what Legionares is giving me.

[Lmnop]

things to know about FFXI:

when you're looking to deal damage, there are 3 stats: weapon DMG (the +number on your knuckles), your Attack, AND your Strength. Note that every 2 STR ups your attack by 1, but STR also affects damage seperately. So it's something like:

DMG part + STR part + Attack part (modified by STR).

Also, of these stats, the one that's hardest to see changes in is attack. +10 STR and definately +10 DMG will do more for you than +20 attack, in most cases. Attack is still quite important, but you're going to need a hefty amount before you see results.


With all this in mind: your knuckles are outdated. Stick with the Impact Knuckles.

By the way, the main modifier for Attack is your Skill level. For instance, at level 32, your Hand-to-Hand skill is probably 99. That's +99 attack. Makes the +2 attack advantage from Legionare's Knuckles look kinda small, huh? Most jobs also derive weapon DMG from whatever's on their weapon, but MNK gets it a bit differently. If you're skill 99, that's *(99/10 = ) 9 DMG +3 from Legionare's for 12 DMG total*. Whereas you'd have 17 with Impact.

EDIT: *the italicized section isn't exactly accurate! refer to Bside's post below for actual formula! Should be closer to 13 + 3 = 16, whereas Impact Knuckles would have a DMG of 13 + 8 = 21.

[bside]

However, when I bought a pair of Impact Knuckles (level 32, +8 damage, +1 strength, +3 accuracy), I found out that when I equipped it, my attack was lower (by at least 2 points) when compared to when I had my Legionares equipped.

The reason why your ATK decreased is ATK has nothing to do w/ the weapons' DMG rating, but it's purely a combination of STR and your combat skills, as determined by the following formula;

floor( (STR / 2) + Combat Skills + 8 )

In addition to this base ATK, any ATK-increasing or decreasing effects such as foods and abilities get counted into to deliver the final ATK number.

Therefore, switching weapons of the same category will NOT change your ATK, while any bonus factors on each weapons will affect it. So in your case, it was simply Impact Knuckles' STR+1 vs. Legionares Knuckles' ATK+3, nothing more or less, and difference of 2 seems to be the right number.


Nevertheless, like Lmnop pointed out, it's way outdated. Difference of 5 in DMG does a lot more than difference of 2 in ATK does. For the time being, try updating your weapons based on DMG/Delay ratio, not ATK.


And if you wanna know more about how the damages are calculated, look here; http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Calcula...hysical_Damage

If you're skill 99, that's (99/10 = ) 9 DMG +3 from Legionare's for 12 DMG total. Whereas you'd have 17 with Impact.

Just so you know, H2H bare fists' DMG is now considered to be;

floor( H2H Skill * 0.11 ) + 3

[Ryouken]

Thanks for the help you two.

With this I can go ahead and sell my Legionares Knuckles (sell for a good 20k on my server) and go ahead and start lvl grinding with my new pair of Impact Knuckles.

And your right, my hand-to-hand skill is capped at 99, so the calculations you told me are correct. Thanks for the heads up on that, at least now I know how to calculate which weapons will better increase my stats.