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As most people who've read my posts know, I used to be a firm "hater" of the Great Sword. In all honesty, I knew there was only one good WS (Spinning Slash) and that PLD couldn't get it til 69. I saw some PLD's using GS in xp PTs, sacrificing some defense, shield blocking, and shield bashing for a laughable Power Slash that would miss or a 50 damage Sickle Moon.
This all changes when you get Spinning Slash :sweat:
Last night I was invited to this PT config :
BRD, RDM, PLD, RNG, WAR, BLM
At the time we were trying to think of a viable skillchain... there aren't many good skillchains available between those 3 melees, so best the RNG could think fo was Sidewinder > Rampage > Swift Blade, which would really be pure crap honestly. All good RNG will gain TP faster than other melees (except SAM), so in my opinion, unless they are skillchaining with a THF or /THF, they should always go solo (if you are confident in your hate holding abilities).
Thus we were left with Full Break > Swift Blade, which as most of you know is mediocre at best. So 2-300 damage Full Break -> 50-150 damage Swift -> 50-150 damage Darkness? Oh boy, call the press now!
So this is where I got the funky idea of trying GS out... of course I asked my PT first if they were ok with it... as long as I could keep aggro with GS they were fine with it. So I busted it out, and here are some vague numbers I can recall:
Normal hits from Espadon : 10-25 damage
Swift Blade : 50-150 damage
Normal hits from Flamberge : 60-80 damage
Spinning Slash : 250-650 (!!!) damage
These were on IT bark spiders in Dragon's Aery. I was using Fish Chiefkabobs (thanks Icemage
) and pretty much standard equipment. I had some +ATK gear (Byrnie +20, RG Collar +4, Behemoth +5) and the occasional Minuet + Madrigal (although it was usually Ballad2 + Madrigal). I didn't stack Berserk with any WS because I feeeeeeeeear Sickle Slash... even with 1hs+shield it can do me hit me for 780 if it crits >_< I don't even want to think what it would be if I used berserk.
So anyway, I was gaining TP fine, even the occasional times when I had double Ballad instead of Madrigal. I kept up TP nicely with the WAR, and our new skillchain was as follows:
Mistral Axe (3-400) > Spinning Slash (250-650) > Light (50-450)
Low damage on Light was due to the fact we didn't always get a Light Threnody on time. Even with the RNG spamming Slugshots and Heavyshots and the BLM MB'ing with Firaga III and such, I did not have trouble holding aggro. The loss of defense from the Shield, the enmity from general's shield, and enmity from shield bash were thus negligible. However, the loss of shield blocking was very noticeable. I kind of felt more like a WAR tank now... takes more damage, but deals more damage... but it was an interesting experience.
I think this could work even better on other monsters (hopefully ones that don't have crit moves like Sickle Slash, Jet Stream, Screwdriver, etc) and with a good WHM main healer (we had no main healer, I was close to dying several times :sweat: ) I'm not trying to say that GS can totally replace 1hs+shield in XP PT... definitely not. For example, 70+ xp pt if I had a RNG and a THF, or other two melees that don't need me in skillchain, I'd just use Joyeuse for the fast TP building and solo Spirits Within. But in certain PT configurations, I feel that GS may be a means for better and faster xp.
It was just a rush dealing so much damage against IT+ monsters yet still doing my job. Only other time I can do 600+ damage to a monster is with a 300% spirits , which takes 2-3 battles to build up anyways. Doing a cumulative 400-1000 damage with Spin slash and Light finisher also guarantees I don't lose aggro from the subsequent 1k+ Firaga III MB.
Questions? Comments? Criticism? Bring it on
This all changes when you get Spinning Slash :sweat:
Last night I was invited to this PT config :
BRD, RDM, PLD, RNG, WAR, BLM
At the time we were trying to think of a viable skillchain... there aren't many good skillchains available between those 3 melees, so best the RNG could think fo was Sidewinder > Rampage > Swift Blade, which would really be pure crap honestly. All good RNG will gain TP faster than other melees (except SAM), so in my opinion, unless they are skillchaining with a THF or /THF, they should always go solo (if you are confident in your hate holding abilities).
Thus we were left with Full Break > Swift Blade, which as most of you know is mediocre at best. So 2-300 damage Full Break -> 50-150 damage Swift -> 50-150 damage Darkness? Oh boy, call the press now!
So this is where I got the funky idea of trying GS out... of course I asked my PT first if they were ok with it... as long as I could keep aggro with GS they were fine with it. So I busted it out, and here are some vague numbers I can recall:
Normal hits from Espadon : 10-25 damage
Swift Blade : 50-150 damage
Normal hits from Flamberge : 60-80 damage
Spinning Slash : 250-650 (!!!) damage
These were on IT bark spiders in Dragon's Aery. I was using Fish Chiefkabobs (thanks Icemage
) and pretty much standard equipment. I had some +ATK gear (Byrnie +20, RG Collar +4, Behemoth +5) and the occasional Minuet + Madrigal (although it was usually Ballad2 + Madrigal). I didn't stack Berserk with any WS because I feeeeeeeeear Sickle Slash... even with 1hs+shield it can do me hit me for 780 if it crits >_< I don't even want to think what it would be if I used berserk.So anyway, I was gaining TP fine, even the occasional times when I had double Ballad instead of Madrigal. I kept up TP nicely with the WAR, and our new skillchain was as follows:
Mistral Axe (3-400) > Spinning Slash (250-650) > Light (50-450)
Low damage on Light was due to the fact we didn't always get a Light Threnody on time. Even with the RNG spamming Slugshots and Heavyshots and the BLM MB'ing with Firaga III and such, I did not have trouble holding aggro. The loss of defense from the Shield, the enmity from general's shield, and enmity from shield bash were thus negligible. However, the loss of shield blocking was very noticeable. I kind of felt more like a WAR tank now... takes more damage, but deals more damage... but it was an interesting experience.
I think this could work even better on other monsters (hopefully ones that don't have crit moves like Sickle Slash, Jet Stream, Screwdriver, etc) and with a good WHM main healer (we had no main healer, I was close to dying several times :sweat: ) I'm not trying to say that GS can totally replace 1hs+shield in XP PT... definitely not. For example, 70+ xp pt if I had a RNG and a THF, or other two melees that don't need me in skillchain, I'd just use Joyeuse for the fast TP building and solo Spirits Within. But in certain PT configurations, I feel that GS may be a means for better and faster xp.
It was just a rush dealing so much damage against IT+ monsters yet still doing my job. Only other time I can do 600+ damage to a monster is with a 300% spirits , which takes 2-3 battles to build up anyways. Doing a cumulative 400-1000 damage with Spin slash and Light finisher also guarantees I don't lose aggro from the subsequent 1k+ Firaga III MB.
Questions? Comments? Criticism? Bring it on
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