Accuracy? Evasion? Attack?

[Zempten]

Hi guys

I wanted to ask how you would place the importance of accuracy, evasion, and attack when soloing the following...

1) Incredibly Tough
2) Very Tough
3) Tough
4) Even
5) Decent and under

Now, I also know that the monser types come in mind as well, but what I'm asking for is generally monsters that check as those stated above.

Also, do not worry. I'm in no means going to start meeleing in my exp PT, this is just a question to satisfy my soloing needs.

Another question, can there ever be too much evasion? Like to the point where you have so much evasion that it barely makes a difference in your battles? I tried to read about this question, but I didn't get a specific enough answer.

[cnick]

Anything at Tough and below requires little to no accuracy. I've been soloing tough Robber Crabs at 65 with no acc bonus, and I hit 90% of the time.

I assume evasion is similar to accuracy, where you actually see some signs of it working on Tough and lower mobs.

[Ruic]

I know I'm going to be a bit off topic, but since you're talking solo, and my personal speciality is defense, I thought I'd give you some defensive insight on soloing heavy mobs. IMHO, it is easier to take less damage than do more damage. Since your DEF is mostly linear, but your ATK is still related to your weapon's Damage Rating.

1) Incredibly Tough
- You are either going to have too little ATK, or too little DEF. The only way to really solo ITs effectively is through kiting, in which case you want MP, DEF, Evasion, Damage Absorption etc.

2) Very Tough
- If kiting, see above. If not, eat defense food, equip some +ACC and +ATK gear, and I don't think evasion will help. Debuff, and be prepared to sleep/bind and then convert mid battle.

3) Tough
- Eat ATK food, set up with DEF and ATK, apply debuffs liberally. May need to convert, depending on the mob.

4) Even
Take a balanced approach. Or to minimize downtime, use DEF gear.

5) Decent and under
DEF and ATK. Minimize your downtime.

Personally, I find a good formula for "neutrality" in terms of soloing is to have your DEF at least your level * 4 before buffs, and to eat attack food. I always "tank" during solo, or during XP PTs with Phalanx Rings on. 20 DEF makes a world of difference. I've never really jacked my evasion. I don't see how much it will help a RDM to jack this up. Accuracy isn't a big help either, unfortunately. Though the Merman Gorget at 56 is a great way to raise DEF and ACC. Look for combos like that.

But here's some fresh info from me tanking a few VTs and a lot of ITs - Tanking Knight Crawlers in CN as RDM/WAR from 53-55. (Yes, I tanked as RDM/WAR, and yes we got 4-4.5k XP an hour, PT was RDM/WAR 2xRNG 2xWHM 1xBLM.) I was being hit for 40-70 normal, 120 critical. My DEF was 393 after defender and crab or fish food. Phalanx made a big difference in damage taken. And barwater and barpoison made a huge difference in poison spray damage, from upwards of 300 down to 70 or ZERO (!!!) at some points, where I fully resisted. If you really plan on tanking ITs for solo, you're going to need something like your level * 7 in DEF or something similarly insane. And know the elemental associations of your opponent's techniques, it can save you tremendous amounts of pain. 200-300 to 0-70 is a tremendous improvement in damage taken for 6 MP.

Oh, and no, holding hate wasn't too bad. Even with 2 RNGs, and a BLM. Though the huge sidewinders ripped hate off me pretty damn fast.

But on the flip side... In order to even attempt to tank those mobs effectively, I had to sacrifice all of my offensive capabilities. I was keeping up: Phalanx, Stoneskin, Enblizzard, Blaze Spikes, Aquaveil, Barwater, Barpoison, Refresh on myself, curing for hate and receiving haste and additional cures from the WHMs. I needed all of that to mitigate the onslaught of a mob 8-10 levels above me, while doing pitiful damage due to defender, and my food choice. (160 ATK for 393 DEF)

I hope that helps, even if it is a bit off topic!

[Apple Pie]

1) Incredibly Tough

There's no way red mages below LV74 without NIN sub can solo ITs. Even with Utsusemi:I and II, it is hard to keep evading with shadows unless enfeebling spells such as Paralyze, Slow, and Sleep (for emergency) always land. It takes more than 20 minutes to beat each one of them.

If it is about meleeing in XP PT, accuracy is most important - no need to argue.

2) Very Tough

Well, I rather use elemental magic spells if I solo VTs, the same way to beat Ma'at at Genkai 5.

Again, NIN sub is necessary when soloing VTs. Stoneskin is easily taken away after we get hit two or three times even though we have phalanx up and our enhancing magic skill is capped.

3) Tough
4) Even
These are what I often solo to cap my skills. I always eat def+ foods because without them, Stoneskin is still weak.

Then, accuracy is still most important here. You may wanna check this.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/tough.gif

This is what I took when I was training my sword skill (232 -> 236) with Flamingos (LV72 - 74) at Tu'Lia. I had +21 accuracy bonus from my equipments but my sword still miss a lot (100 - 69.7 = 30.3%).

5) Decent and under
Against DCs, some (+5 - +10) accuracy boost is still necessary if we want 90+% accuracy. We know the skill gap between A+ and B gets larger as we go farther.

We don't need to eat def+ foods anymore. Maxmizing melee damage is most important. Have as many attack+ gears as possible.

As for evasion, it is nice to boost it when I face with hard punchers. Zempten, you may wanna come to Castle Zvahl to see how DRK/WAR-type demons are hard. Although they (dropping coffer keys) are EPs (LV64 - 66) from me, Stoneskin is easily broken after I take two critical hits (160 - 180 damage). I need at least 50+% evasion to farm them more effecitvely. Subbing THF30+ is the best solution to boost accuracy by the way.

[Shiia]

The Drk type in Castle Zvahl using 74 monk, they are easy pray. They hit between 85~110 (90+ are usually crits). They have absurdly high attack for some reason and without good evation gear, my mnk with 1500 hp will be getting a dirtnap fast...

[Ruic]

Something I realized after reading Apple Pie's post.

If I am soloing VT, I am going to be /NIN no matter what. I wouldn't even try this with /WAR, unless the VT was a mandragora.

T it depends on mob type. Probably /NIN to decrease downtime with utsusemi.

EM and lower, I think /WAR probably has more to offer in increased baseline defense, double attack, better WS, etc.

Of course everything changes depending on your level. /WAR gains a huge boost from double attack, etc.

Pre 40 I would say /WAR is your best choice for soloing. After that, Ninja, Warrior and Dark Knight should be swapped in and out depending on the situation. Or Ranger, if fighting worms. :D

[Apple Pie]

It's off topic but yeah, I really hate Arch Demons, the dark ones. I was already killed two times by them. I've never thought that I lost to EPs. They are tougher than LV72 orcs.

Their physical attacks are very hard. I recored a movie to show how hard it was. You see I took 182 damage (although phalanx is up) from his critical hit.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/demons.wmv

Thier Bio II and Bio III are also very annoying because the slip damage of all Bio spells is strengthened with the latest update. Bio III takes 9HP away per tick. When I take Bio III and Poison II at the same time, I have to recast Stoneskin 5 or more times in a single battle...

Well, there's the reason I hang around this place...

[Zempten]

I asked about the Evasion thing cause I can notice a big difference when I take off my Drone Earrings while fighting Evens. I'll look into alot of your advice.

So I guess alot of you are saying Envasion is worthless on VTs and ITs?

[ForumWhore]

Depending on mob, even even match can be hard for the unprepared.

I was trying to solo Goobbues in Boyahda for Humus for one of the Windurst missions as rdm75/thf37. Ate Meat instead of Fish because the goobbues were like lvl 74-76. Big mistake; the third goobbue I fought did a 300+ dmg WS + stun, then double attacked, followed by a critical, and from full hp I was dead within literally a matter of seconds ;3

[Apple Pie]

So I guess alot of you are saying Envasion is worthless on VTs and ITs?

Check the difference between A+ and D (our evasion skill) at LV70...

Unless we're able to get 80+ accuracy bonus, it's just going to be in vain...

However, against EP or weaker ones, it makes a difference.