is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

[the_ultimate_shadow]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

I think he wants Ninja to be his main, and to sub /WAR.

Based on Thrasher's suggestion, I'd level MNK to 18, get your subjob, then level WAR/MNK to 30 (preferably 37), unlock NIN, and go NIN/WAR to 75. If you want to play around with WAR/THF, then lvl THF to 18 (or 37) after you hit 30 on WAR.

HEY someone understands me lol, thanks for the advice, i wasn't sure on the thief and/or monk thing with war. sounds good to me :D

[Thrasher]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

Ya I could not manage to get that message to come out right, I must bet getting tired. But anyways.....

You know what im going to admit something I payed war/thief 18-29 and it was a major mistake, and I used a sword. I found out to late it's after 30 where war/thf becomes a fun subjob, monk subjob levels 18-30 would of been much better.

Yes I made MAJOR mistakes as a new player and I want to give others better info then I had, and that includes debunking some of the FUD that people unwitting spread among the player population.

Part of the reason I suggested leveling thief to use as a subjob for warrior 30+, is past 30 the player population's perception that war/monk is inferior to war/ninja (war/monk far from inferior). And leveling thief is a good experience due to you will learn some skills that will come in handy.

[the_ultimate_shadow]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

oh, i did not know that, about people prefering war w/ nin sub, thanks man

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

Even if you plan on stopping WAR at 37 to do NIN for the long haul, I still suggest leveling GAxe. Why? Because you never know when you might change your mind and decide to go back to WAR.

When I started, I took WAR to about 32, using only Sword and Scythe. At that point, I thought I would go with PLD, so it really didn't seem like a big deal that my Axe was underleveled a bit and that my GAxe was at 0. When I went back to take WAR to the sub job cap of 37, I fell in love with the job.

So here I am, in the mid 30s, with severely underleveled GAxe. Soloing for skill ups becomes very dangerous, and unfeasable once you get up to EP mobs. And at those levels, you just don't find skill up parties.

If you happen to be a high level DRK (60+) when you decide to pursue WAR, then you're still in good shape, since you could skill up GAxe as DRK. But NINs certainly can't weild GAxe.

Also, tanking as WAR/MNK using GAxe is a very viable option. Countering with a GAxe is very powerful, and GAxe weapon skills will do far more to help overall (tanking or not) than Axe weapon skills -- before Rampage at level 55, that is.

[Karinya]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

So here I am, in the mid 30s, with severely underleveled GAxe. Soloing for skill ups becomes very dangerous, and unfeasable once you get up to EP mobs. And at those levels, you just don't find skill up parties.

Do the NPC fellowship quest, set your NPC to healer (or soothing healer once you have it). You should have no trouble killing EP until you can't get any more skill from them, then DC ditto. (Wear armor with good defense, and be prepared to provoke off the NPC if they get in trouble. And rest when they're low on MP, of course.) At that point you'll be either capped, or close enough that going the rest of the way in a party won't be a hardship (to you or the party).

Also, while you won't find skillup parties per se, you might know a BLU who wants to fight a monster near his (and your) level to learn blue magic from it, and could use some help...

Also, tanking as WAR/MNK using GAxe is a very viable option. Countering with a GAxe is very powerful, and GAxe weapon skills will do far more to help overall (tanking or not) than Axe weapon skills -- before Rampage at level 55, that is.

Well, great axes are certainly useful, but the problem is you can't use a shield at the same time, and shields can help quite a lot. It depends somewhat on what you're fighting, though - on very defensive mobs like beetles or crawlers, you may not notice the shield as much as the extra damage from GA and Shield Break.

I'd say it's always a good idea to have an axe and shield ready in case you find you are taking too much damage tanking with GA. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't.

[Queen Uma]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

On a side not, having thief levelled to 15 (at least) is never a bad thing to have. Treasure hunter can help greatly when farming.

[Celeal]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

To OP:

You asked: Is high or low delay good or bad?

Well, you cannot just determine which weapon is better with the weapon's delay alone.

In general, you need to compare the base damage of the weapon against the base delay of the weapon. You also need to aware of your character's skill of that weapon. There are exception too, such as extra bonus on the weapon, skillchain option, weapon skill, mob's weakness, etc.

*side topic*
If farming is your general way of making gil, I suggest you to level THF at least to 15, for Treasure Hunter and Sneak Attack. Treasure Hunter increase the chance of the drops from mob. Sneak Attack also can speed up you time for farming as well. You can also gain benefit from THF's evasion bonus for Farming, which may work enough on "too weak" mobs. Steal --- level 5 THF's JA, helps farming as well. Flee --- level 25 THF's JA, allows you to run as fast as a Chocobo in a short amount of time, which is useful for traveling or run away from danger. Lastly, you can use THF as a subjob for farming (level 30+) and retain the Treasure Hunter bonus.

You don't need to force yourself to WAR/THF for exp. parties, if you don't have fun. However, have THF as a subjob is always useful in parties or solo.

*side topic 2*
For tanking, which weapon is better? Axe + Shield or Great Axe?

The short answer is: Both combo are good. They are more than one way to tank a mob.

The long answer:
As a Tank, you want:
1. Mob's attention (Hate).
2. Least amount of damage taken.

The logic behind Axe + Shield is very clear: the shield can reduce the amount taken.

The benefit for Great Axe tanking at is more subtle: Shield Break (weapon skill), or other "Break" weapon skills at higher level.

Shield Break can lower the evasion of the mob. As a result, it improves the accuracy for those who melee the mob.

In order to tank, you needs the mob's attention ("hate").

The major "hate" for WAR tank comes from:
1. Provoke
2. Damage output.

Shield Break from Great Axe can increase WAR's damage output by lowing the mob's evasion. Therefore, more hate for WAR. Besides, your party's mnk, drg, drk, sam, thf... can hit the mob easier thanks to Shield Break. As a result, the mob dies faster, which indirectly translated to "least amount of damage taken" on the tank.

Tanking with Shield Break is like --- you kill the mob before it kills you. The mob dies before it has time to unleash major amount of damage to your party.

Besides Shield Break, there are other weapon skills from Great Axe that is very useful.

If you have more question, please feel free to ask ^^'

[the_ultimate_shadow]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

wow, that was alot to read, lol, but very helpful, TY

[tdh]

Re: is "Delay" good or bad? imma newb...

Even if you plan on stopping WAR at 37 to do NIN for the long haul, I still suggest leveling GAxe. Why? Because you never know when you might change your mind and decide to go back to WAR.
When I started, I took WAR to about 32, using only Sword and Scythe. At that point, I thought I would go with PLD, so it really didn't seem like a big deal that my Axe was underleveled a bit and that my GAxe was at 0. When I went back to take WAR to the sub job cap of 37, I fell in love with the job.

So here I am, in the mid 30s, with severely underleveled GAxe. Soloing for skill ups becomes very dangerous, and unfeasable once you get up to EP mobs. And at those levels, you just don't find skill up parties.

If you happen to be a high level DRK (60+) when you decide to pursue WAR, then you're still in good shape, since you could skill up GAxe as DRK. But NINs certainly can't weild GAxe.

Also, tanking as WAR/MNK using GAxe is a very viable option. Countering with a GAxe is very powerful, and GAxe weapon skills will do far more to help overall (tanking or not) than Axe weapon skills -- before Rampage at level 55, that is.

LL basically said what I was going to say.

I later fell in love with WAR, so now I had all these weapons that I needed skilled up to date. Fortunately I do have a high level DRK, so I could go solo Skill Up and get my skill caught up, or even get it caped for later levels. (I went and leveled Axe to Lv.180 with DRK while my WAR is still only Lv.52. So I'll have Rampage as soon as I DING Lv.55. I'm also doing the same thing to keep my Great Axe caped for possible usage later.)

Now if you don't have that option, you may have to borrow a LS Mate to come help you do a skill up. To a certain point you can solo skill up a weapon, but once you get to a certain point you're just taking too much damage, and far too much down time to make it worth while. As RDM I've gone and tanked some Lv.30~40 skill ups so people can get their weapons to cap.