Explain to me how Hume is not statistically the worst race.

[TAsunder]

Humes have higher VIT too.

A 30 hume paladin has 2 more strength, vitality, and mind than a 30 mithra. I'd take the hume, but it's close.

A 30 hume bard or beastmaster has 4 more charisma and 2 more mind than a 30 mithra. That is a significant difference. It's like having 2 more hope rings.

A 30 hume red mage has 2 more mind. Mind is not 'worthless', it helps land debuffs, one of the red mage's primary roles.

Don't overrate agility. Agility won't do much at all for many jobs. As a mage of any type, I'll take 2 mind over 4 agility any time.

[Karinya]

I also think humes make the best PLD, but it's close. Galka and elvaan can't keep curing to hold hate without causing more downtime and shorter chains (unless they have a lot of +mp equip, but a lot neglect it in my experience - and a tank can't afford to wear RSE). Taru get oneshotted by screwdriver, death scissors etc.

CHR - I've played bard and I don't think CHR is that much of an issue. 90% of a bard's time is spent on enhancing songs (can't be resisted) and backup/between battle healing (not CHR dependent). I've never seen Finale fail. Threnodies? Not that important in my experience. And CHR gear is by far the easiest to get and gives the largest boosts.

Also, to be realistic, a mithra bard might get chosen after a bard of another race - at the one time in 99 years two bards of vaguely similar levels are LFP at the same time. As long as the bard shortage continues, race is irrelevant for bards. WHM too, for that matter. Go Mithra!

There are two reasons I'm still wearing justice badge at level 35:
1. I'm a mithra and need the mind to help with some enfeebles (some are INT dependent, some are MND).
2. I can't afford holy phial. :p

But seriously - mnd rings are cheaper than any other stat (even CHR, although there are a ton of other ways to raise CHR), justice badge is easy to get and one of the largest stat boosts for its level, wands increase your mind, white cape increases mind (although personally I use black cape, I find justice badge RSE and wand to be enough +mnd).

Hume isn't the worst race at anything. No other race can say that (although I don't think race is a big deal for bards or white mages, Mithra probably are the worst beastmasters).

Ultimately, though, race doesn't matter as much as level, subjob and sj level, equipment, spells and player skill (not necessarily in that order of importance). I usually don't look at race in forming parties unless I have to choose between 2 equally good prospective members.

[Abriael]

I also agree on the fact that humes make the best pld, balanced stats doesn't for sure mean you're average. It means you're good for jobs that require balanced usage of melee and magic, like paladin.
But this has discussed countless times on the paladin forum, so i won't go in detail here, the discussions are still available there.
Moreover humes make best bards, best rdm (after getting refresh and convert) and best bst.
Moreover hume is an at least viable choice for every job.

'nuff said

[Asharu]

Each race specializes well in certain jobs. Humes do not specialize in any job (aside from the CHR), but can still play any job decently. And as for the hume making the best PLD, it makes the best balanced Paladin... this does not mean it is the best race for PLD. Being a PLD is all about tanking, and you need all the VIT you can get. Galkans will completely dominate the job because of this fact. Galkans are limited in MP, but a good party would have people with MP recovery, making this not an issue. And if you're planning to fight HNMs, Galkan PLDs are a must. There is a reason you only see Galkan PLDs in HNM Linkshells.

[Abriael]

Only galka paladins in HNM LSs?Yeah sure, maybe on Asura, lol.
Paladin is NOT only about tanking, it's about aggro control too.
Having a refresher in the party doesn't mean that a galka (or even an elvaan) will have enough mana to hold the mob on himself all the time (unless you have a RDM AND a BRD, but this is a rare occurrence), expecially because the BRD cannot keep ballads up on the melees all the time and the RDM won't concentrate giving refresh mainly to the paladin expecially if there's an high number of casters in the party.
Anyway an hume can heal himself much more (252 vs 99 MP at 60, and after that the difference increases even more), balancing easily (and going over) the defence and HP difference. Once you have enough defence and hp not to be oneshotted (and hume do) it's all about mana (and your ability to cast between hits) and aggro control.
Having 400000 HP and 200 VIT is worth nothing is the mob is beating someone else.

[Asharu]

Like I said, MP is not an issue. The only way a PLD isn't gonna hold aggro is if the BLM is nuking out of control or WHM does a Cure V. A Galkan PLD will only work if the PT works as well. And typically, I think you'd want your PT to work like... hmm... 100% of the time?

[Abriael]

This definately make me think you never partied with a RNG, or a DRK/SAM or some other high damaging combinations, they can easilty hit for 1200+.
Moreover with an hume paladin damagers do not need to hold back, this means faster killing = party working better.
With a galka paladin you get into the same issue you get with a ninja, damagers need to hold back, this means less damage (and more damage dealt to the pld btw, because fights last longer), and a party working worse.You're the one that talks about BLM nuking out of control: there's a BIG difference between what it takes to go "out of control" with a galka and an hume paladin tanking.

[Asharu]

In those kinds of situations, you want to set it up so that the skillchain is timed while the mob is down to half hp and more. Starting it at any other time will pretty much guarantee you aggro if someone like a RNG does a hit for 1200+.

[Abriael]

Wrong, even if i loose aggro to a RNG i normally get it back easily with a flash and a Cure IV (unlikely a galka would even have enough mana for thatif not at the VERY beginning of the fight) even before the RNG gets a pair of hits on him (normally blocked by utsusemi if he has ninja sub).
That's the advantage of hume PLD, no one needs to hold back or to waste time waiting for the mob to be under half it's HP, people can just express their abilities to the fullest and still being safe.
More damage -> Faster kills -> Better Party.
Actually my favourite party to compete against for a camp while exping is exactly a party with a galka paladin tanking for them, their pulling rate is so slow that we can always find some mob to pull, almost like we were alone.

[Asharu]

It's not wasting time or holding back, it's common strategy. As you get higher in level, you will notice timing becomes much more important in parties. And let's say a Galkan PLD did lose aggro, with a well-balanced party, as I have said numerous times already, Galkan would have no worries with a BRD and/or RDM.

[Asharu]

And you may also want to think about it this way: PLDs aren't typically gonna rest after battle (to conserve their TP) so they're gonna rely on how much mp restoration they can get from a RDM or BRD. That extra MP you get is what you use into your next battle and it won't be capped. A Hume will only get about 190 extra MP (at level 75) to use at the very beginning of your chains at the expense for its defense. That's like one extra Cure IV for two mobs each in a chain? The difference is notable, and ultimately you'd go for the defense.

[Abriael]

I'm already high level enough to know how holding aggro is.
I always play with well balanced parties, there would be no reason going out without one.
Strategy has to be made according to what you have. If you have a tall wall with bad foundations that will crumble if too many cannons fire from the top of it you'll have to make a defensive strategy in wich you have only a few cannons firing at a time,l hoping your wall will hold the enemy long enough.
If you have a lower but sturdy wall that can withstand all your cannons firing at once the fact that your wall is lower doesn't matter, because the enemy won't even manage to come close to it.
Going full damage is not lack of strategy, it's simply an offensive strategy based on the fact that you have someone that will keep the enemy away from you more efficently.


PS: 180 is much more than a galka average max MP, this means that with a galka all the mana regen beyond is max mp is wasted, this does not happen with an hume pld.
Moreover with a good RDM refresh does not work only after the battle, but even during it.

[Asharu]

I didn't say Galkans have 180MP. At level 75, their base MP is 112. And with all their +MP items, they're probably averaging somewhere between 160~200MP. Their MP regen isn't gonna excede their max MP if they play correctly.

Your argument is basically "Go all out because the Hume PLD can keep the aggro better with +180 more MP".

Whereas my argument is "Galkan PLDs will take less damage and can hold aggro as long as the party's timing is right for skillchains."

The latter sounds more effective to me.

[Abriael]

Try to get a rdm and 2 paladins, one galka and one hume (possibly both good ones), put yourself near a zone and pull an IT mob, look how long and hard you can nuke before both paladins loosing aggro to you and you'll notice the difference.

[TAsunder]

You say you've played bard but I'm not convinced you understand the importance of charisma. Yes, it does affect threnody and similar 'nice to have' songs. But more importantly, it affects lullaby. Even if you throw away the usefulness in BCNM, as a bard one of your primary duties is crowd control. You can never have enouch charisma for this. I have +13 charisma (basically, everything except the monster signa) at ~30 and I still have foe lullaby fail frequently. If I were to gain or lose another 4 points the impact would be noticeable.

Some charisma gear is cheap, but not all. hope rings are still in line with balance rings. a noble ribbon is 10,000+. supposing a mithra needs +13 charisma gear, then a hume only needs +9 charisma gear, meaning they can just scrap hope rings and equip astral rings or physical rings.

Anyway...

If a ranger or dark knight is going all out, you'd have to be quite a miraculous paladin to stick the enemy to you.