Hey everyone, I'm back from a long hiatus, I've been busy in-game to get ym WHM and THF geared up in new content, and you can watch videos of me healing the high-tier battlefields and stuff with my commentary on my Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpY7v6pCkTkByzfnboSCXqw
I wanted to kick off my return to blogwriting talking about the two jobs I play, THF and WHM, but I'll talk about WHM because I simply can't attend any events on THF as I don't have 119 pimped out DD sets, in particular 119 daggers like Iz or Mandau. but I may do another post for THF soon!
But since coming back, some newer pieces of equipment have came out, and instead of what I've done in the past with listing off what to get for each set, I'm just going to break down WHM relevent gear from current endgame and where I think they fit in my sets.
I'm going to break these down by events.
WHM Reforged Artifact Armor:
You get these by upgrading your normal AF with Rem's Tales and materials you get from SKCNMs or the high-tier battlefields (Ark Angels, the other high-tier mission battlefields that cost merits.) etc. I'll cover the actual drops from the high-tier battlefields in a bit.
Link to Theophany Attire Set
Link to Theophany Attire set +1
Let's start looking at it from head to toe:
Head: before being +1ed this is honestly not all that impressive, I'd only really use the 109 cap in a lolDD set to replace Walahra Turban . at +1 though it's a higher ilvl version of a Gendewitha Caubeen, but you could probably just do Outer Ra'Kaznar skirmish and try to +1 you Gendewitha head and get augs for it and not feel too bad about it, they both seem similar, Gendewitha head +1 probably has it beat with good augments. don't really see a niche for RF head +1 if you get the +1 skirmish head.
Body: the base 109 piece is a decent macro piece for an enfeebling setup if you don't have a magic accuracy body. at +1 it becomes a strong idle piece that beats the otherwise amazing Vanir body off of Eald'narche II simply because RF body +1 has refresh and Vanir body does not. This does not mean to any fathomable degree that you don't want to shoot for Vanir body if you have RF body +1, simply that RF body +1 might work a bit better for idle. I'll explain why when I talk about Vanir body later. I have no idea why they put Potency +7 on this, that's not enough to replace Orison +2 for curing SE, you'll have to try harder. It could be used as a Curaga macro piece, though, if you need extra potency.
Hands: The hands are kind of odd. at +1 you can use them for idle (or use Gendewitha hands +1 for idle if you get those off of Skirmish III, same defensive stats.) the interesting part of the +1 RF hands comes from the MND of 38 and the +healing magic skill, which makes it decent curing hands if you don't need potency in the hands slot, if you need potency in the hand slot, you'd be better off with Delve potency gloves or just stick to some bayld gloves. the 38 MND would imply them being decent for an enhancing set as well, but that ignores the Enhancing hands elephant in the room, Dynasty mitts off AA EV.
Legs: the legs is where things start getting really exciting for this set. SE could have put potency or something on this to try (and fail) to replace Orison legs +2, they actually gave this piece an interesting niche! not only is it as good as any 119 piece for idle, it's a suitable macro piece for not only Divine Magic, but ESPECIALLY Cursna! the Regen thing is kind of whatever, could be useful for that.
Feet: With 24 MND and + enhancing magic skil it's clear these are pretty good boots to buff in and that's what they get macroed in for. at +1 they're fine for idle, but the +enfeebling Magic Skill means they could be used in an enfeebling set, but it's a tossup between these or some feet with +macc
Overall, mostly a good set just for macro pieces really, at 119 they're fine for idle and the 119 body is really strong for idle with 119 defensive stats backed up by refresh. Head's the only iffy piece, it just comes down to where you get it or Gende +1 first whether you're gonna use it or not.
Reforged AF2 armor:
These pieces are upgraded much in the same way as the AF, with two.... catches. first, you need to get the base AF2 from Dynamis (Xarcabard I think?) and then, the upgrading process is a bit more...... costly since it requires dynamis currency. A third catch is you need items off Delve bosses to +1 them. But let's look past that little problem and give it an honest look to see if it's worth it.
Link to reforged AF2
Head: This piece is mostly a macro piece for -Cure Cast Time but the "Enhances Devotion Effect" gives it an interesting niche if you need to Devotion another MP user, getting more MP out of the Devotion I'm guessing. for other things better options exist, but the Devotion thing might be unique and cool enough to go for.
Body: I'm assuming it has the same refresh value as the RF AF1 body, so it seems this piece would be used for the Regen potency if you wanted to do a Regen set. The real reason you build this is for the "Enhances Benediction Effect". now you might be thinking "But a Benediction macro piece is an oxymoron because it generates too much hate for us to actually use it!" except the enhancement DECREASES THE ENMINTY BY -50! if any piece is worth the dyna funmoney, it's this.
Hands: the hands are kinda...... Ehhhhhhhh. the Divine and Enfeebling parts are likely better done by other pieces in this slot, the "Banish damage v.s. Undead" is incredibly situational in today's endgame to warrant for macroing in, but I guess you can macro this in for Divine/Enfeeble I guess if you want to spend Dynamis currency for that. Also the Martyr thing is lol to me as a taru who can only say "who the f*ck merits Martyr" but I suppose that would be good if you're a lolGalkaWHM who loves using their extra HP for something.
Legs: These are pretty cool Enhancing pants witht he +enhancing and the Shellra V and barspell enhancement. however, that's their main use. Nice try again with the +Healing magic skill, but new WHM are still going to have to try to get groups to kill Sobek to finish their Orison +2 pants still.
Feet: Feet are kinda useful for curing/enhancing kinds of sets. 10 potency in a feet slot item, better enhancing boots than RF AF1 +1, due to the Protectra bonus. can be used to Enfeeble if you'd prefer skill/don't have +macc feet.
Overall mostly useful, but are kind of very......specific macro pieces, and with the cost of Dyna currency to make, it's not for the feint of heart, but some of them are extremely good macro pieces!
High Tier Battlefield Drops:
-The Lurid Mitts drop off of Ark Angel GK. these gloves have pretty good +macc AND enfeebling skill, so are good for a divine/Enfeebling set. It has outright more +Macc than Gendewitha Hands +1 and the enfeeble skill is just gravy. Keep in mind though all of these drops are pretty rare, unless you can beat the fights on the harder difficulties, so it may be hard to get a pair. that being said, I am not sure if there are better +macc/enfeeble gloves WHM can wear.
-AA EV has two big drops of note for WHM. first is a club, Cagliostro Rod. the idea with this club is since a WHM shoud be using Tamaxchi and appropriate shields (Genbu's for idle, Sors for curing) you'd switch in this club for the +macc for Divine/Enfeebles. might be hard to get, so you could always use a paragon and augment Tamaxchi with a bit of +macc, but this definitely has more and would be fantastic for Enfeebles/Divine landing.
-AA EV's second drop we're looking at is the previously mentioned Dynasty Mitts. With high MND, +enhancing skill, and an INCREASE TO ENHANCING MAGIC DURATION, it's safe to say these are perfect for Enhancing magic. there might be better gloves for enhancing SOMEWHERE, but they'd have to try really, really hard to be better than these.
--Divine Might II drops the Sanare Earring which is a nice little magical defense earring with some potential in a clubbin' DD set. Though it is a little dissappoint this is the best WHM drop in a fight as "elite onry" as DM II. Though I guess you do DM II for a better shot at weapons.
-Our good old friend the Archduke has two drops for us, he drops a club very similar to AA EV's club, except with +divine on it, and less magic accuracy I think, He also drops Mes'yohi Slacks which are pretty dang good +macc pants for your Divine/Enfeeble sets, and honestly the defensive idle stats are just absurdly high.
-And now we come to the very exciting one, Eald'Narche II. who drops what is most likely the best mage body in the game for certain setups, the Vanir body. +18 Magic Accuracy, + 5 percent Fast Cast, and good defensive stats, this piece is fantastic for no doubt a great many mage sets. It falls short on idle due to lack of Refresh, but for everything else it's amazing. a WHM will only macro other pieces in for curing, MAYBE for buffs, and to wear a refresh body possibly, other mages who aren't healing could probably full time this thing if they found a way to make something up with the refresh issue, considering this also packs MAB + 18.
-the Perdition Slops off Shadow Lord II would serve kind of the same kinda role as the pants off Archduke for WHM.
-the Ischemia Chasuble is an okay body that drops off Ouryu II. it's not really different than a RF AF +1 body for a WHM, except it's a drop rather than is built.
-- Tenzen drops Battlecast Gaiters which would be right at home in a WHM clubbin' set with the +acc and the store TP! In all seriousness though if you play WHM the traditional way, the -PDT might be nice for idle.
-Puppet in Peril II drops Sifahir Slacks ....................Could it be? Could Orison +2 pants finally be replaced? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z. In all seriousness though, the answer is a resounding "Maybe, not sure." It's kind of a kick in the teeth this is WHM specific, it'd probably be good for a RDM or SCH curing set if they could wear!
-Gessho II drops the Kandza Crackows which are pretty good +macc feet for Divine and Enfeeble stuff, and pretty good defensive stats for idle feet.
Some, very, VERY good piece to be sure, but they're pretty rare drops, and you'd have to fight them on those harder difficulties if you really want the droprates to climb, Still, things to be on the lookout for!
Skirmish 3:
the Gendewitha +1 set is similar to the existing set, mostly just bumping up the stats a bit and makes them better in the defenses department and you can use them for the respective sets you'd use them for like the non +1 pieces, they just are easy to get 119 pieces for defense setups but usually lose to some of the above options listed. Wailing stone augments could change this, though.
Delve:
I saved Delve for last since there's a lot of drops to cover, and not everyone can just get into Delve and get the clears/ plasm, myself included, but for completeness sake, let's take a look, zone by zone.
Morimar:
-Lifestorm Earring , when paired with the Psystorm Earring from Foret Delve, gives some decent +Macc for enfeebling/divine. Probably not worth using by itself
-- Refraction Cape I guess could be used for +macc for your back slot I suppose, for your enfeeble/divine set. Better might exist for that, though.
- Yaoyotl Gloves are decent little +macc gloves, but it requires Tojil kill and AA GK hands beat it at that job, at least for enfeeble, so.......to be fair, if you have Tojil clear, it's probably more likely to plasm farm buy these than actually see and win lots on AA GK's gloves though.
Foret:
-Psystorm Earring , see Lifestorm Earring in the Morimar section.
-Bokwus Slops -MDT! kind of hard to come by for WHM!
-Eddy Necklace Nice little +macc neck! Requires shark clear though.
-Sangoma Ring +Macc ring! Also requires shark to be dead.
Ceizak:
-Bokwus Gloves good to wear for curing if you need it's potency, otherwise +healing skill or high MND gloves may very well beat it, even auged, since these have been around in T1 Ceizak for a while. Heh, I remember my first gearlisting post back when these were really top of the line healing gloves.
-Nahtirah Hat is itneresting for +macc and for fast cast, but needs bee clear.
-
Now these next 3 zones are the Delve 2 zones, so getting into here for clears is going to be even harder, but just for completeness sake....
Yorcia:
-Bolelabunga Awesome name, pretty good club for clubbin' DDing and for idle due to refresh without Owleyes nasty little drawback. Need to kill Wopket so.....most of us will never get it. *shrug*
-Sihirik pretty cool ammo slot for Idle if you somehow get Wopket kill.
-Umuthi Hat is pretty awesome for Enhancing with the skill and reducing Stoneskin's casting time. Much cooler for RDM though before of the sword elemental damage part. Again, need that Wopket kill so....
Marjami:
-Gwati Earring is nice for a bit of +macc and Conserve MP, I guess.
-Andoaa Earring is a pretty nice +enhancing earring, needs bird clear, however...
Kamihr:
-Artisieq Hose is pretty good for fast cast and stuff, and is compareable to some pants otside of Delve, but Kamihr Delve isn't really all that accessable.
-Imbodla Necklace is a good enfeeble neck, I'd say.
-Kuchekula Ring is kinda lol-worthy and underwhelming for a ring requiring a ice kitty clear. I guess if you really need the -Enminty I guess?
Overall, Delve, even the harder Delve, only offers a few things here and there for WHM, doign Delve would help my THF a lot more, honestly.
But finally, as I am about to fall asleep at the keyboard, is my thoughts on WHM gear at the current stage on endgame. things will change obviously as new events come out. But it's good to be blogging again, and I'll definitely write more soon!
-
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Friday, December 13, 2013
Here's your Skirmish update, Sogo.
So, after what happen with that shout group, Sogomi put tgether a group to do skirmish, consisting of him on BLM, me on WHM, Zseraphim how he usually comes (BLU powerhouse), Elantil on SAM, and Nynaeve on BST. before the run started, Nyn finished her Gjarlhorn, grats! (Yes, we ran with 5 people and still won, even my 333 pop)
But before we go on, we have a public service announcement:
This message provided by the Cantonment Aquaveil Awareness board.
Anyhow the pops, I forgot what order whose pops went in, I just remember mine was last. Sogomi set the "buy in" to 311 minimum, (but some of them WERE higher. so here's how the drops went
Run #1:
Yay, Iuitl vest! I was very happy to pick this up for my THF, and I got some stones and my first wing from the chest here.
Run #2:
No Iuitl or Gende head dropped here, but LOTS of stones for me!
Run #3:
Yet more stones, and Iuitl gaiters for me! Meant to highlight the Iuitl feet for this pic, but grats Nyn on the hat, and Elantil picked up the Hagondes boots for his BLU!
Run #4:
Got wing number 2 and Iuitl tights! with Sogo taking the Gende gear I already have.
Run #5:
This was my pop, and it couldn't have been much better since it put me at 3 wings.
As for what the 3 wings went to?
So this puts me with a full Gendewitha set and like 5/6 Iuitl for THF, only missing the head. I went to spend all my +1 and +2 stones, the Iuitl gear ended up with some good augments, the Body and Tights ended up with Double attack +1 and PDT, while the Iuitl hands and feet each ended up with Attack +6 to 7 ish with some PDT.
the Gendewitha Caubeen ended up with a REALLY good augment. think it was like a large amunt of -cure cast time and very good PDT, I have to double check to make sure.
Before we go, here's a final parting bit of chatlog:
I <3 you Sogomi. Thanks for taking me to skirmish.
But before we go on, we have a public service announcement:
This message provided by the Cantonment Aquaveil Awareness board.
Anyhow the pops, I forgot what order whose pops went in, I just remember mine was last. Sogomi set the "buy in" to 311 minimum, (but some of them WERE higher. so here's how the drops went
Run #1:
Yay, Iuitl vest! I was very happy to pick this up for my THF, and I got some stones and my first wing from the chest here.
Run #2:
Run #3:
Yet more stones, and Iuitl gaiters for me! Meant to highlight the Iuitl feet for this pic, but grats Nyn on the hat, and Elantil picked up the Hagondes boots for his BLU!
Run #4:
Run #5:
This was my pop, and it couldn't have been much better since it put me at 3 wings.
As for what the 3 wings went to?
So this puts me with a full Gendewitha set and like 5/6 Iuitl for THF, only missing the head. I went to spend all my +1 and +2 stones, the Iuitl gear ended up with some good augments, the Body and Tights ended up with Double attack +1 and PDT, while the Iuitl hands and feet each ended up with Attack +6 to 7 ish with some PDT.
the Gendewitha Caubeen ended up with a REALLY good augment. think it was like a large amunt of -cure cast time and very good PDT, I have to double check to make sure.
Before we go, here's a final parting bit of chatlog:
I <3 you Sogomi. Thanks for taking me to skirmish.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
the terror of /sh Skirmish in the hope of a new update.
So there's been a huge version update adding the Trust and Record of Eminisince systems to the game, along side the ilvl 199 "Reforged Artifact Armor" available, and I've actually been getting a lot done on my THF as a result, and I actually have some THF-wise updates and gear talk in this post, but first, I started a Skirmish /sh tonight to try and get my Gende head and maybe some THF gear.
It did not go well, at all.
It was really scaping to find people for this Yorcia Skirmish run, so I ended up with a party I thought might be nice, a SAM, two BLMs, myself on WHM, and a BLU and THF. however, I decided to go first with my 222 pop, and the two BLM got overwhelmed at the start, onbe of the BLM died incredibly fast before I could heal and was dealing allmost no damage to the mobs with their spells. after that the better BLM got ganged up on and still died despite my curebombing, melee got back too late and I died. and my 222 pop went completely down the drain.
Needless to say, I was angry at losing a pop because someone wasn't skilled up/otherwise unprepared. I dropped party buy the other, better BLM remade the party, with 3 BLM and two trusted melee from her LS. I went back in to find that one of those BLM was the one who caused the pain from before..hoiw ever the other two BLM were excellent and we made it through both of Joy's T2-T3 pops. everything but Cizin gear was freelot for hers, but I went 0/2 on wings, Iuitl stuff, and the Gende head. then one of the good BLMs had to leave, leaving only Joy, the gimpy BLM, me and the two melees.
because of this, Joy said all of the remaining pops would have to be 111s meaning I wasn't allowed to use my 333, after having lost my 222 earlier. so I took the D2 and made a 111 like everyone else had. first melee pops, it goes fine, no wings, a few stones, only Hagondes and Otonoif gear drps. (which the gimp BLM takes. He also got another Hagondes on the 333.) which brings me to 0/3 on wings, Iuitl, and Gende head. gimp BLM does his pop. I get something, namely the BAD piece of Gendewitha. the awful pants with RDM, SCH and BRD Stats? That a WHM will only wear for idle? Certainly better than being COMPLETELY empty handed, but still functionally 0/4 for what I came for, fact that I'm still 0/4 on wings and stones have been pretty sparse hurts even more. THF Mithra does her pop, Iuitl boots drop, but it's mainlot for her. no wings, 0/5
Lastly, my 111 pop I had to make since I didn't get to use my 333 and lost my 222 earlier. went okay and didn't die this time, but in a cruel twist of fate, two pieces of Gendewitha dropped, both pieces I allready have. so I ended up 0/6, 0/7 if you count my first failed pop.
......Look, Yorcia Weald (U). I know I shouldn't have a right to complain because my party was not good, and we had to do 111s, but couldn't you have given me SOMETHING for wasting my time tonight, all the time having to wait to get people, have to kick a THF that was constantly badgering me for directions to Yorcia and didn't listen when I said to read BGWiki, and then LOSE my first pop to an unprepared BLM that couldn't actually kill anything? You know, other than an awful pair of pants with MAB and -song cast time and pieces I got last time? Is this punishment for my first run going so well? I want to be able to shout sucessfully instead of rely on my LS.... but Sogomi told me to be online tomorrow, so it looks like I'll have to be saved by the power of LS static.
With that off my chest:
THF is shaping up nicely, with Record of Eminice and Trust it's really easy for me to merit in Ceizak by building huge limit chains on Madragoras, and I've even got some gear for the sparks I've been getting, as well as some gil from the R/E/M upgrade items. (I sold some RIft Bouders and have Beitetsu sitting in bazaar still.)
So, THF Record/Sparks gear:
first off
Eminent Dagger (7000 sparks)
this dagger is a pretty awesome mainhand! it's compares pretty favorably to a Leisilonu +1. Leisilonu might still be a tad better with like, perfect stone augments, but the Eminent Dagger is so easy to get. I picked that up and went to Peacekeepers for a Forefront Dagger and weapon wise I just feel ready to rock and roll. Sure' there are better daggers out there, Aphotic Kukri from Delve, 119 Mandau or Twashtar, or Delve mega-boss or Wildskeeper Rieve daggers, but I think Eminent Dagger is definitely worth taking the time to do some records for if you're a THF with none of the above better options.
There is also a armor set for THF that's also avalable for sparks! Let's talk about it!
Espial Cap
Espial Gambison
Espial Hose
Espial Bracers
Espial Socks
Each of these pieces are avalable for between 3000 and 5000 record sparks. Now you might be thinking, "Iuitl is better than these". and for TP? Absolutely. Espial has good Haste, but that's all it has going for it, and a bit of Accuracy. Iuitl i believe has better TP stuff on it like Store TP and Double/Triple attack and the like. in addition to a little bit of accuracy and good survivability stats. How ever, at least three pieces of Espial, (the head, body, and legs.) have more STR/DEX/AGI than Iuitl, meaning those pieces would certianly be good weapon skill switch ins! At least until you get Wildskeeper Reive gear or Delve gear. Maybe THF RF, but I dunno how those will pan out. I'd like to prioritize my Sacred Kindred's Crasts toward WHM RF.
Anyway I'll talk more about THF stuff and THF gear in another post, as well as a thorycraft post about the RF for the two jobs I play in the near future! this is getting long, so see you soon!
It did not go well, at all.
It was really scaping to find people for this Yorcia Skirmish run, so I ended up with a party I thought might be nice, a SAM, two BLMs, myself on WHM, and a BLU and THF. however, I decided to go first with my 222 pop, and the two BLM got overwhelmed at the start, onbe of the BLM died incredibly fast before I could heal and was dealing allmost no damage to the mobs with their spells. after that the better BLM got ganged up on and still died despite my curebombing, melee got back too late and I died. and my 222 pop went completely down the drain.
Needless to say, I was angry at losing a pop because someone wasn't skilled up/otherwise unprepared. I dropped party buy the other, better BLM remade the party, with 3 BLM and two trusted melee from her LS. I went back in to find that one of those BLM was the one who caused the pain from before..hoiw ever the other two BLM were excellent and we made it through both of Joy's T2-T3 pops. everything but Cizin gear was freelot for hers, but I went 0/2 on wings, Iuitl stuff, and the Gende head. then one of the good BLMs had to leave, leaving only Joy, the gimpy BLM, me and the two melees.
because of this, Joy said all of the remaining pops would have to be 111s meaning I wasn't allowed to use my 333, after having lost my 222 earlier. so I took the D2 and made a 111 like everyone else had. first melee pops, it goes fine, no wings, a few stones, only Hagondes and Otonoif gear drps. (which the gimp BLM takes. He also got another Hagondes on the 333.) which brings me to 0/3 on wings, Iuitl, and Gende head. gimp BLM does his pop. I get something, namely the BAD piece of Gendewitha. the awful pants with RDM, SCH and BRD Stats? That a WHM will only wear for idle? Certainly better than being COMPLETELY empty handed, but still functionally 0/4 for what I came for, fact that I'm still 0/4 on wings and stones have been pretty sparse hurts even more. THF Mithra does her pop, Iuitl boots drop, but it's mainlot for her. no wings, 0/5
Lastly, my 111 pop I had to make since I didn't get to use my 333 and lost my 222 earlier. went okay and didn't die this time, but in a cruel twist of fate, two pieces of Gendewitha dropped, both pieces I allready have. so I ended up 0/6, 0/7 if you count my first failed pop.
......Look, Yorcia Weald (U). I know I shouldn't have a right to complain because my party was not good, and we had to do 111s, but couldn't you have given me SOMETHING for wasting my time tonight, all the time having to wait to get people, have to kick a THF that was constantly badgering me for directions to Yorcia and didn't listen when I said to read BGWiki, and then LOSE my first pop to an unprepared BLM that couldn't actually kill anything? You know, other than an awful pair of pants with MAB and -song cast time and pieces I got last time? Is this punishment for my first run going so well? I want to be able to shout sucessfully instead of rely on my LS.... but Sogomi told me to be online tomorrow, so it looks like I'll have to be saved by the power of LS static.
With that off my chest:
THF is shaping up nicely, with Record of Eminice and Trust it's really easy for me to merit in Ceizak by building huge limit chains on Madragoras, and I've even got some gear for the sparks I've been getting, as well as some gil from the R/E/M upgrade items. (I sold some RIft Bouders and have Beitetsu sitting in bazaar still.)
So, THF Record/Sparks gear:
first off
Eminent Dagger (7000 sparks)
this dagger is a pretty awesome mainhand! it's compares pretty favorably to a Leisilonu +1. Leisilonu might still be a tad better with like, perfect stone augments, but the Eminent Dagger is so easy to get. I picked that up and went to Peacekeepers for a Forefront Dagger and weapon wise I just feel ready to rock and roll. Sure' there are better daggers out there, Aphotic Kukri from Delve, 119 Mandau or Twashtar, or Delve mega-boss or Wildskeeper Rieve daggers, but I think Eminent Dagger is definitely worth taking the time to do some records for if you're a THF with none of the above better options.
There is also a armor set for THF that's also avalable for sparks! Let's talk about it!
Espial Cap
Espial Gambison
Espial Hose
Espial Bracers
Espial Socks
Each of these pieces are avalable for between 3000 and 5000 record sparks. Now you might be thinking, "Iuitl is better than these". and for TP? Absolutely. Espial has good Haste, but that's all it has going for it, and a bit of Accuracy. Iuitl i believe has better TP stuff on it like Store TP and Double/Triple attack and the like. in addition to a little bit of accuracy and good survivability stats. How ever, at least three pieces of Espial, (the head, body, and legs.) have more STR/DEX/AGI than Iuitl, meaning those pieces would certianly be good weapon skill switch ins! At least until you get Wildskeeper Reive gear or Delve gear. Maybe THF RF, but I dunno how those will pan out. I'd like to prioritize my Sacred Kindred's Crasts toward WHM RF.
Anyway I'll talk more about THF stuff and THF gear in another post, as well as a thorycraft post about the RF for the two jobs I play in the near future! this is getting long, so see you soon!
Monday, December 9, 2013
My first Skirmish!
So last night Sogo and Nyn took me along to a Skirmish run after I had decided to buy a Simulacrum pop, even though my poor ass who sucks at making gil could only afford cheap segments and I could only manage a 221...but it turns out that if you're running with your LS having to settle for low-end Simulacrums can still work out okay, even thugh to be fair we did have one 333 pop as well.
But now, onto the group!
(as a side note, poor Drag :( )
I was obviously on WHM but in the group there was Dragulia who was nuking stuff on BLM like a bawws.
We also had an Onyxmoon, too! On some job that uses daggers, but I think THF?
Nynaeve was leading us on BST, which was cool despite a few jokes about her labor-camp like XP party from a prior night where Nyn was laying down the law on afkers and pulling pretty good XP/hr. (that I would have been to if I wasn't trying to get climbing KI. /cry that sounded funny as hell.)
Also there was master of the ways of BLU, Zseraphim.
And lastly, we have the king of the ((Troll Mercenaries)) , Sogomi, also on BLM.
so we did our 6 pops, ranging from 111 to 333, and the 333 did get rough towards the end and Nyn went down, but we still won. To be fair, Sogomi did tell us to be prepared for a rougher time for the 333.
As for how it went, a lot of stuff dropped! lots of Cizin, Iuattl, and Otonof stuff dropped, even a bit of Hagondes and even a shield! also a decent number of stones, more than a few +2s and a lot of +1s. Didn't gear a lot of drops pictures, except for my haul, but there is this:
As for me, one piece of Gendewitha dropped, the hands. however this was my non-armor haul:
So before I logged off I went to go spend my wings and go use my stones to augment, for first, the armor I got pre-augment:
I know I wasn't really feeling this body in my therycraft post, but now that I'm looking at it better...... this could actually sort of work really well for curing if you just macro it in for Curaga/Cura. and use +2 Orison body for other stuff like single target cures. Also helps that it's amazing for idle, still really curious how good it's refresh is. I REALLY wanted to buy the head because I want the head bad, but I decided to get the body to get it out of the way.
I had a wing left over to pick up the boots, which is certainly better than the boots I was using and the "Enhance Cursna Effect" was definitely worth using my last wing for.
Then we have the hands I actually got as an armor drop. Weatherspoon still has more potency, even with the 3% augment this ended up getting, but it's so much more MND, and these gloves have an absolutely stellar fast cast value and are pretty cool to wear idle. I'll still wear serpentes sometimes for regen/refresh, but only if I'm resting.
Speaking of augments, here's how they went after I spent down my stones:
Body: 2% -PDT 3% -cure cast time
I'm pretty happy with this, the PDT makes it even better for idle, and the -cure cast time mean I can use it as a sort of stand in for an actual fast cast body when casting cure spells.
Hands: 1% -PDT, 3% Cure Potency
Hmm, pretty good. I used my +2 stone on the body so it's unfortunate that Weatherspoon gloves still beat it on Potency, but that IS a lot of MND, and it's only 5 potency worse than Weatherspoon. Once I have head things are going to REALLY start evening out on the potency front anyway.
Feet: 1% -PDT
Eh, better than nothing, I was down to NQ stones when I got to this so it's kinda expected. my last +1 stone gave this a songs augment so I used an NQ.
Overall Skirmish was really fun, I need to find a way to make Simulacrum money so I can do it again, we'll see how it goes.
But now, onto the group!
(as a side note, poor Drag :( )
I was obviously on WHM but in the group there was Dragulia who was nuking stuff on BLM like a bawws.
We also had an Onyxmoon, too! On some job that uses daggers, but I think THF?
Nynaeve was leading us on BST, which was cool despite a few jokes about her labor-camp like XP party from a prior night where Nyn was laying down the law on afkers and pulling pretty good XP/hr. (that I would have been to if I wasn't trying to get climbing KI. /cry that sounded funny as hell.)
Also there was master of the ways of BLU, Zseraphim.
And lastly, we have the king of the ((Troll Mercenaries)) , Sogomi, also on BLM.
so we did our 6 pops, ranging from 111 to 333, and the 333 did get rough towards the end and Nyn went down, but we still won. To be fair, Sogomi did tell us to be prepared for a rougher time for the 333.
As for how it went, a lot of stuff dropped! lots of Cizin, Iuattl, and Otonof stuff dropped, even a bit of Hagondes and even a shield! also a decent number of stones, more than a few +2s and a lot of +1s. Didn't gear a lot of drops pictures, except for my haul, but there is this:
As for me, one piece of Gendewitha dropped, the hands. however this was my non-armor haul:
So before I logged off I went to go spend my wings and go use my stones to augment, for first, the armor I got pre-augment:
I know I wasn't really feeling this body in my therycraft post, but now that I'm looking at it better...... this could actually sort of work really well for curing if you just macro it in for Curaga/Cura. and use +2 Orison body for other stuff like single target cures. Also helps that it's amazing for idle, still really curious how good it's refresh is. I REALLY wanted to buy the head because I want the head bad, but I decided to get the body to get it out of the way.
I had a wing left over to pick up the boots, which is certainly better than the boots I was using and the "Enhance Cursna Effect" was definitely worth using my last wing for.
Then we have the hands I actually got as an armor drop. Weatherspoon still has more potency, even with the 3% augment this ended up getting, but it's so much more MND, and these gloves have an absolutely stellar fast cast value and are pretty cool to wear idle. I'll still wear serpentes sometimes for regen/refresh, but only if I'm resting.
Speaking of augments, here's how they went after I spent down my stones:
Body: 2% -PDT 3% -cure cast time
I'm pretty happy with this, the PDT makes it even better for idle, and the -cure cast time mean I can use it as a sort of stand in for an actual fast cast body when casting cure spells.
Hands: 1% -PDT, 3% Cure Potency
Hmm, pretty good. I used my +2 stone on the body so it's unfortunate that Weatherspoon gloves still beat it on Potency, but that IS a lot of MND, and it's only 5 potency worse than Weatherspoon. Once I have head things are going to REALLY start evening out on the potency front anyway.
Feet: 1% -PDT
Eh, better than nothing, I was down to NQ stones when I got to this so it's kinda expected. my last +1 stone gave this a songs augment so I used an NQ.
Overall Skirmish was really fun, I need to find a way to make Simulacrum money so I can do it again, we'll see how it goes.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
A return! Also a look at new equips: Yorcia Skirmish gear!
Hi eeryone, sorry for not posting any blog entries but I've been away from the game for a while. Some thing have changed, Moghat has went to a sister shell, TribalEtiquette, Tibs quit FFXI, and I took my break.
While I've been away there's been some new content, people do Delve bosses as opposed to plasm farming, there's new zones, a new Skirmish (while with be the topic of this post.) and a new patch is coming with some exciting changes to assault/salvage!
So Since I've came back, I got access to Yorcia to get access to Skirmish, and while I haven't done it yet, I think going over the gear for WHM might be a good idea, even if it's just from a WHM theorycraft perspective.
So we will be looking at the Gendewitha set, which is wore by WHM/RDM/BRD/SCH. the Yorcia Skirmish items are either dropped at the end chest or purchased with Lebondopt Wings and each pieces can also be augmented with Verdigris Stones, that come in NQ, +1 and +2. each having a different rate of giving the different augments.
The augments are seperated into two groups, the first group comes on all of the Yorcia Skirmish armor as a possibility which is -PDT as one of the possible augments for each set. the other group contains augments specific to the set.
for the Gendewitha set, the specific augments can be:
-Cure Spellcasting time, between 1-3% and 3-5 % depending on stone quality
Cure Potency, between 1-5% and 4-8% depending on stone quality
And for BRDs you can get a -Song Spellcating Time or -Song Recast Delay augment.
The Curing augments for WHM are very nice, though specifically the -Cure cast time being the best augment in my opinion since it'd allow you to use the piece as potential fast cast gear specifically for cures. However, don't discount the -PDT augment!
now for the set:
Head:
For head we have the Gendewitha Caubeen, This is a pretty great head-piece even un-augmented just for all the raw stats this thing gives. This does beat +2 Orison Cap for curing for sure, just due to it matching it's potency while offering so much more MND and MP, with some great -Enmity on top of that. Marduk's Tiara +1 from Salvage II does have more potency, but Gendewitha head has more MND, and offers Enmity down in exchange for the +Divine Magic skill, but there are still applications for the Tiara still if you need to Divine skill or the extra point of Potency, but a potency augment on Gendewitha head could make that moot.
This is also potentially AMAZING Idle gear due to the MDB, Magic Evasion and Evasion slapped on it. Especially if you get one of those PDT augments.
It falls short of "FULL TIME THIS!" because for fast-cast this is way more un-exiciting because all it offers is some Haste (maybe RDM or BRD would be more excited for that?) in any case a Marduk's Tiara +1 would be more desirable to combine with more Marduk +1 for Fastcast, or a Nares hat or whatever. That said, being able to be great curing gear and an idle powerhouse makes this piece incredibly strong. If that Haste was Fast Cast or Quicken Cast this piece would probably be too good/broken. I guess if it has a -Cure cast time augment you could FC with it specifically for those.
Body:
The Gendewitha Bliaut is what we're looking at now. This is a piece I feel that's going to cause WHM's like myself a little bit of confusion and puts us in a tough spot. You see, for the longest time the +2 Orison body has been a WHM curing staple, simply for the Afflatus Solace "cureskin" bonus. however Gendewitha body offers a huge load of MND and potency along with slightly more MP in exchange for the +"cureskin" effect and the + healing skill. I donno which will be the real winner here, it's a really hard call, maybe I should contact other WHMs about this. I think RDM might like this quite a lot for curing though.
for Idle though it's potentially amazing! MDB, Magic Evasion, Evasion, VIT, HP, and it's got Refresh. I'm curious how strong it's refresh is. If it's more than 2 MP/tick that is absolutely stunning, as that is more refresh than either Orison body or Marduk +1 body.
Again, nothing really for precast, not even Haste, though again, you could end up with a -cure cast time augment.
Hands:
So, the Gendewitha Gages. Curing-wise, I'm sort of underwhelmed, as before augments it only offers MND, though it does have quite a lot of it. It has more mind than Bokwus Gloves from Delve does pre-augment, but after the +10 augment on the Delve gloves, Bokwus gloves will only have a few MND points less while also offering a whopping 13% potency in addition to some -Enmity. Certainly beats bayld gloves if you get even a halfway passable potency augment, though. the Magic Accuracy is..... interesting, though, may be good for your enfeebles and stuff. I'm betting BRD and RDM are going to be all over these gloves just for the Magic Acc.+
For idle it's still got some of that MDB and magic evasion and stuff lying around on it, which is cool.
but the most notable thing is these have a really nice +7% fast cast! This definitely beats other gloves like Marduk Dastanas +1 or Repartie Gloves for precast! This could be a great precast piece if you wind up with a -cure cast time augment which I think may be the best application for this piece from a WHM perspective.
Legs:
Oh dear, the Gendewitha Spats.... It's not..... completely terrible for curing? 19 MND doesn't count for nothing, certainly, Could be cool for other raw MND-based stuff? but like with the body, the +2 Orison legs were (and probably still will be.) a strong gold standard in curing gear for a long time for VERY good reason. getting 5 percent of your MP back based on how much you Cure is incredibly powerful, and I don't know about you, but 19 MND is not enough to convince me to give that up. It also has stuff like MAB and -song cast time leading me to believe this piece will just be far stronger for RDM or BRD than WHM.
However it's still a strong Idle piece for any job due to the MDB, evasion, magic evasion etc. These are the reason a WHM will wear these. Which...... brings us to precast.
Orison pants +2 also beat it for fast cast even if you get a -cure cast time augment. because Orison +2 has -HEALING cast time 12%, meaning it works for more than just Cure spells and 12 is quite a bit!
Feet:
Lastly we have the Gendewitha Galoshes. For curing, well it does have more MND than bayld boots. Orvail does have that -Enmity, but you know how many hoots I give, ZERO HOOTS! Why? Three words. "Enhances Cursna Effect". Feet pieces usually are just kinda "whatever" but putting a good utility thing like that on feet and also giving it some more magic evasion?. Sure, I'll wear those most of the time, only situation where i'd not wear them is when I'm switching in fast cast or resting.
There we have it, bit of a weird set, but it's mostly good, even the "worst piece for WHM" is still good for an idle set. I can't wait to start skirmish! I still wanna do other events too, though,, like more Salvage 2 because it was fun. and some of the Marduk pieces are still situationally good. We'll see how it goes.
While I've been away there's been some new content, people do Delve bosses as opposed to plasm farming, there's new zones, a new Skirmish (while with be the topic of this post.) and a new patch is coming with some exciting changes to assault/salvage!
So Since I've came back, I got access to Yorcia to get access to Skirmish, and while I haven't done it yet, I think going over the gear for WHM might be a good idea, even if it's just from a WHM theorycraft perspective.
So we will be looking at the Gendewitha set, which is wore by WHM/RDM/BRD/SCH. the Yorcia Skirmish items are either dropped at the end chest or purchased with Lebondopt Wings and each pieces can also be augmented with Verdigris Stones, that come in NQ, +1 and +2. each having a different rate of giving the different augments.
The augments are seperated into two groups, the first group comes on all of the Yorcia Skirmish armor as a possibility which is -PDT as one of the possible augments for each set. the other group contains augments specific to the set.
for the Gendewitha set, the specific augments can be:
-Cure Spellcasting time, between 1-3% and 3-5 % depending on stone quality
Cure Potency, between 1-5% and 4-8% depending on stone quality
And for BRDs you can get a -Song Spellcating Time or -Song Recast Delay augment.
The Curing augments for WHM are very nice, though specifically the -Cure cast time being the best augment in my opinion since it'd allow you to use the piece as potential fast cast gear specifically for cures. However, don't discount the -PDT augment!
now for the set:
Head:
For head we have the Gendewitha Caubeen, This is a pretty great head-piece even un-augmented just for all the raw stats this thing gives. This does beat +2 Orison Cap for curing for sure, just due to it matching it's potency while offering so much more MND and MP, with some great -Enmity on top of that. Marduk's Tiara +1 from Salvage II does have more potency, but Gendewitha head has more MND, and offers Enmity down in exchange for the +Divine Magic skill, but there are still applications for the Tiara still if you need to Divine skill or the extra point of Potency, but a potency augment on Gendewitha head could make that moot.
This is also potentially AMAZING Idle gear due to the MDB, Magic Evasion and Evasion slapped on it. Especially if you get one of those PDT augments.
It falls short of "FULL TIME THIS!" because for fast-cast this is way more un-exiciting because all it offers is some Haste (maybe RDM or BRD would be more excited for that?) in any case a Marduk's Tiara +1 would be more desirable to combine with more Marduk +1 for Fastcast, or a Nares hat or whatever. That said, being able to be great curing gear and an idle powerhouse makes this piece incredibly strong. If that Haste was Fast Cast or Quicken Cast this piece would probably be too good/broken. I guess if it has a -Cure cast time augment you could FC with it specifically for those.
Body:
The Gendewitha Bliaut is what we're looking at now. This is a piece I feel that's going to cause WHM's like myself a little bit of confusion and puts us in a tough spot. You see, for the longest time the +2 Orison body has been a WHM curing staple, simply for the Afflatus Solace "cureskin" bonus. however Gendewitha body offers a huge load of MND and potency along with slightly more MP in exchange for the +"cureskin" effect and the + healing skill. I donno which will be the real winner here, it's a really hard call, maybe I should contact other WHMs about this. I think RDM might like this quite a lot for curing though.
for Idle though it's potentially amazing! MDB, Magic Evasion, Evasion, VIT, HP, and it's got Refresh. I'm curious how strong it's refresh is. If it's more than 2 MP/tick that is absolutely stunning, as that is more refresh than either Orison body or Marduk +1 body.
Again, nothing really for precast, not even Haste, though again, you could end up with a -cure cast time augment.
Hands:
So, the Gendewitha Gages. Curing-wise, I'm sort of underwhelmed, as before augments it only offers MND, though it does have quite a lot of it. It has more mind than Bokwus Gloves from Delve does pre-augment, but after the +10 augment on the Delve gloves, Bokwus gloves will only have a few MND points less while also offering a whopping 13% potency in addition to some -Enmity. Certainly beats bayld gloves if you get even a halfway passable potency augment, though. the Magic Accuracy is..... interesting, though, may be good for your enfeebles and stuff. I'm betting BRD and RDM are going to be all over these gloves just for the Magic Acc.+
For idle it's still got some of that MDB and magic evasion and stuff lying around on it, which is cool.
but the most notable thing is these have a really nice +7% fast cast! This definitely beats other gloves like Marduk Dastanas +1 or Repartie Gloves for precast! This could be a great precast piece if you wind up with a -cure cast time augment which I think may be the best application for this piece from a WHM perspective.
Legs:
Oh dear, the Gendewitha Spats.... It's not..... completely terrible for curing? 19 MND doesn't count for nothing, certainly, Could be cool for other raw MND-based stuff? but like with the body, the +2 Orison legs were (and probably still will be.) a strong gold standard in curing gear for a long time for VERY good reason. getting 5 percent of your MP back based on how much you Cure is incredibly powerful, and I don't know about you, but 19 MND is not enough to convince me to give that up. It also has stuff like MAB and -song cast time leading me to believe this piece will just be far stronger for RDM or BRD than WHM.
However it's still a strong Idle piece for any job due to the MDB, evasion, magic evasion etc. These are the reason a WHM will wear these. Which...... brings us to precast.
Orison pants +2 also beat it for fast cast even if you get a -cure cast time augment. because Orison +2 has -HEALING cast time 12%, meaning it works for more than just Cure spells and 12 is quite a bit!
Feet:
Lastly we have the Gendewitha Galoshes. For curing, well it does have more MND than bayld boots. Orvail does have that -Enmity, but you know how many hoots I give, ZERO HOOTS! Why? Three words. "Enhances Cursna Effect". Feet pieces usually are just kinda "whatever" but putting a good utility thing like that on feet and also giving it some more magic evasion?. Sure, I'll wear those most of the time, only situation where i'd not wear them is when I'm switching in fast cast or resting.
There we have it, bit of a weird set, but it's mostly good, even the "worst piece for WHM" is still good for an idle set. I can't wait to start skirmish! I still wanna do other events too, though,, like more Salvage 2 because it was fun. and some of the Marduk pieces are still situationally good. We'll see how it goes.
Monday, June 17, 2013
A sudden change of fortune.
So, over the past few weeks, things have not been going well for me in-game. many of my shouts have not gone so well, and while there were little things like some clears and some THF leveling, I felt stuck in a rut on WHM because of how the hunt for a certain item from Abyssea was going, and how me and Milyardo's moneymaking excursions into Dynamis hit a snag or two. But I think today marks things finally starting to turn around.
After so many failed shouts, I finally have these pants. after so long feeling stuck, I feel like I'm starting to get traction. "But Granis" you might ask. "It's just one piece of gear.". Now, like when I got the +2 Bliaud, I'm not trying to say that "having certain pieces is required." And I know that people generally complete AF3+2 pieces rather quickly. (due to many reasons, having jobs that do well in Abyssea, like NIN or BLM, or they have LSmates or friends that they help with Empys a lot, and thus saw a lot of +2 items before Adoulin lauched., etc.) the +2 pantaloons are still a really major accomplishment for a few reasons:
Cards of Balance are, probably, the most annoying of the +2 items to get. this is because the NMs that you can get these from are Trisitia, Sobek, Glavoid, and Chloris. Glavoid's too much of a pain in the ass to rely on for cards, as when I got my clear, Jayhawk just brewed him and it seems like a huge pain in the butt to fight otherwise. Trisitia has the best Card of Balance droprates, but is a rather tough VNM, Alahra and I died to it because we couldn't get a stunner. Chloris needs a lot more pop items than Sobek, and as far as I can tell, the droprate is just as bad as on Sobek. Which means Sobek IS your best option for getting your +2 pants done if you're a WHM, DRG, COR, SMN, or DNC. and believe me, it took me doing a LOT of Sobek to get my cards. Anyway, it seems like WHM is the one that absolutely NEEDS them, though, as I would hazard a guess that outside of maybe the DNC and the SMN +2 pants, good alternative pants exist for those other jobs, and aren't neccecarily as "best in slot" for their purpose as WHM +2 legs. That's just the impression that I get, though.
There is no leg equips in the game that beats Orison +2 for WHM for curing. As I just explained, they are hard to get these days, with less traffic in Abyssea and less people doing the NMs you need, but unlike other jobs where newer alternative equips to AF3 gear have come out, WHM still need to get these legs. and it took me a long time to get mine, and it felt horrible as nearly every WHM in Jeuno and Adoulin probably got theirs ages ago when healing those NMs when Aby had higher traffic as many people were still trying to build Empyerans. I think total, I must have did Sobek at least 16 times before finishing.
Tonight I popped him no less than 6 times, I met up with some people who were happening to doing him when I headed over to ABy- La thiene on a whim after a shout I was trying to put together fell apart, and they were nice enough to let me in for the shot at my last few cards. (A previous bunch of pops with Alahra ended with me being 4/6) So Mr. NIN and his Taru BLM buddy invited me in, and we had 3 pops ready to go rather quickly. So we did 3 pops, and unfurtunately, we missed Grellow the first pop because they ended up being BLU proc. Then we did the two others, and only got one Balance Card total, leaving me at 5/6. The NIN and BLM had gotten what they came for, with the NIN being at 50/50 skins for Kannagi. However, as I was pretty depressed about being close and everything, I asked for a D2.
However, the NIN and BLM said "We're not leaving until you get what you came for, too." and we went and built just 1 more pop, we popped Sobek, BLM, grellowed up very early in the fight, , and I got my last card. I thanked them both for helping me overcome this, and left.
So, for WHM, this takes a huge chunk out of my Abyssea checklist, I have my Orison Locket and Earring, as well as a +2 Body and +2 Legs, and a +1 head. main thing I need from Aby now is clears, and maybe to pick up a Twilight Torque from Shinryu for my idle, and the rest of my WHM goals are outside of Abyssea. there are little things like +2ing my head, or getting +2 Orison feet and/or hands, but unlike the body and legs, alternatives exist for those slots depending on set.
So, my plans are as follows.
1. Find some people for it and become a Salvager. I have enough Assault Points for 12 permits by now. Doing V1 Salvage and Salvage 2 to get Marduk's gear is definitely something I wanna do. (the +1 Tiara would be an excellent piece to get, as would the body and hands for fastcast.) and getting a share of some Alexandrite would get some money coming in to buy stuff that would help.
2. Do other events, I definitely am dying to do some Meeble Burrows for some nice accesories, and hitting up Old Nyzul to spam floor 40 for Goliard pants. Dynamis and Limbus would be good to get into too if I can find a solid DD to duo with and split currency with in exchange for healing.
3. Missions, ToAU done and WoTG done for the good accesories they offer. Perhaps also Shantoto as well for a nice piece of idle gear and a FANTASTIC Atma.
4. Start healing Delve. Bokwus Gloves are the best healing gloves in the game, and if I can get the clear on CHapuli, should only take a little bit of Plasm farming. Delve is hard, though, well, maybe not Plasm farming, more the NMs that scare me.
So, if my plans go well and I find group, explect to /sea me in Remnants or in Fractures real soon! Or in ToAU/WoTG areas a hell of a lot in the next few weeks!
After so many failed shouts, I finally have these pants. after so long feeling stuck, I feel like I'm starting to get traction. "But Granis" you might ask. "It's just one piece of gear.". Now, like when I got the +2 Bliaud, I'm not trying to say that "having certain pieces is required." And I know that people generally complete AF3+2 pieces rather quickly. (due to many reasons, having jobs that do well in Abyssea, like NIN or BLM, or they have LSmates or friends that they help with Empys a lot, and thus saw a lot of +2 items before Adoulin lauched., etc.) the +2 pantaloons are still a really major accomplishment for a few reasons:
Cards of Balance are, probably, the most annoying of the +2 items to get. this is because the NMs that you can get these from are Trisitia, Sobek, Glavoid, and Chloris. Glavoid's too much of a pain in the ass to rely on for cards, as when I got my clear, Jayhawk just brewed him and it seems like a huge pain in the butt to fight otherwise. Trisitia has the best Card of Balance droprates, but is a rather tough VNM, Alahra and I died to it because we couldn't get a stunner. Chloris needs a lot more pop items than Sobek, and as far as I can tell, the droprate is just as bad as on Sobek. Which means Sobek IS your best option for getting your +2 pants done if you're a WHM, DRG, COR, SMN, or DNC. and believe me, it took me doing a LOT of Sobek to get my cards. Anyway, it seems like WHM is the one that absolutely NEEDS them, though, as I would hazard a guess that outside of maybe the DNC and the SMN +2 pants, good alternative pants exist for those other jobs, and aren't neccecarily as "best in slot" for their purpose as WHM +2 legs. That's just the impression that I get, though.
There is no leg equips in the game that beats Orison +2 for WHM for curing. As I just explained, they are hard to get these days, with less traffic in Abyssea and less people doing the NMs you need, but unlike other jobs where newer alternative equips to AF3 gear have come out, WHM still need to get these legs. and it took me a long time to get mine, and it felt horrible as nearly every WHM in Jeuno and Adoulin probably got theirs ages ago when healing those NMs when Aby had higher traffic as many people were still trying to build Empyerans. I think total, I must have did Sobek at least 16 times before finishing.
Tonight I popped him no less than 6 times, I met up with some people who were happening to doing him when I headed over to ABy- La thiene on a whim after a shout I was trying to put together fell apart, and they were nice enough to let me in for the shot at my last few cards. (A previous bunch of pops with Alahra ended with me being 4/6) So Mr. NIN and his Taru BLM buddy invited me in, and we had 3 pops ready to go rather quickly. So we did 3 pops, and unfurtunately, we missed Grellow the first pop because they ended up being BLU proc. Then we did the two others, and only got one Balance Card total, leaving me at 5/6. The NIN and BLM had gotten what they came for, with the NIN being at 50/50 skins for Kannagi. However, as I was pretty depressed about being close and everything, I asked for a D2.
However, the NIN and BLM said "We're not leaving until you get what you came for, too." and we went and built just 1 more pop, we popped Sobek, BLM, grellowed up very early in the fight, , and I got my last card. I thanked them both for helping me overcome this, and left.
So, for WHM, this takes a huge chunk out of my Abyssea checklist, I have my Orison Locket and Earring, as well as a +2 Body and +2 Legs, and a +1 head. main thing I need from Aby now is clears, and maybe to pick up a Twilight Torque from Shinryu for my idle, and the rest of my WHM goals are outside of Abyssea. there are little things like +2ing my head, or getting +2 Orison feet and/or hands, but unlike the body and legs, alternatives exist for those slots depending on set.
So, my plans are as follows.
1. Find some people for it and become a Salvager. I have enough Assault Points for 12 permits by now. Doing V1 Salvage and Salvage 2 to get Marduk's gear is definitely something I wanna do. (the +1 Tiara would be an excellent piece to get, as would the body and hands for fastcast.) and getting a share of some Alexandrite would get some money coming in to buy stuff that would help.
2. Do other events, I definitely am dying to do some Meeble Burrows for some nice accesories, and hitting up Old Nyzul to spam floor 40 for Goliard pants. Dynamis and Limbus would be good to get into too if I can find a solid DD to duo with and split currency with in exchange for healing.
3. Missions, ToAU done and WoTG done for the good accesories they offer. Perhaps also Shantoto as well for a nice piece of idle gear and a FANTASTIC Atma.
4. Start healing Delve. Bokwus Gloves are the best healing gloves in the game, and if I can get the clear on CHapuli, should only take a little bit of Plasm farming. Delve is hard, though, well, maybe not Plasm farming, more the NMs that scare me.
So, if my plans go well and I find group, explect to /sea me in Remnants or in Fractures real soon! Or in ToAU/WoTG areas a hell of a lot in the next few weeks!
Friday, June 7, 2013
WHM gearsets
This is something of a post about what I'm going to be shooting for for my WHM gearsetss, keep in mind I'm not an very good WHM and my opinions on some of this gear may be misinformed and better alternatives may exist.
So, before we begin, I'm going to start off by saying we are only going to be covering the "three basic sets"
- "Curing" gear. (gear you put on mid-cast)
-Fast Cast/precast (gear you wear to speed up your spellcasts at the start of the cast.)
-Idle (stuff you wear when not casting, usually a combination of Refresh and PDT/MDT stuff to keep you alive.)
There are "other gearsets" to keep in mind too such as Enhancing skill sets, emfeebling sets, etc. But I just want to talk about the bare bones stuff.
Curing Gear:
Main Weapon:
Every WHM should do the cure potency Magian staff trials and try to build Arka IV. It takes a lot of time, and Light Geodes may not even be expensive depending on your server. Even with as shitty as I am at making gil (since I don't have things like Repartie Gloves/Magavan hands or a Roundel Earring cause I'm poor.) I bought the Geodes. Arka IV is worth the effort. HOWEVER, if you are RICH, but don't want to spend a long time doing staff trials (they can be annoying.) You can get a Tefnut wand (Or even get it for free if you do that VW NM a lot but don't hold your breath.) but it's extremely expensive and completing an Arka IV is much cheaper. Until you either can afford a Tefnut or you do your staff trials, Pick up a Light Staff or an Iridal Staff on the cheap to heal stuff till you get your Arka IV done or you can afford a Tefnut. (you can go for the HQ Apollo's Staff or Chatoyant Staff if you've got a bit of extra cash, but I'd prioritise using that money to buy a Tefnut or better, getting Geodes for Arka IV trials.)
Fast Cast/precast:
Sub Weapon:
There's Vivid Strap and it's +1 for Fast Cast for this slot if you are using a staff. Though I hear Genbu's Shield can be augmented with "Cure Cast time down" which may be something to look at if you have Genbu's Shield to use with Owleyes for idle.
Head:
Fast Cast heads... this will get pretty rough. Hyaline Hat drops from Provenance Watcher, lord know how much VW you'd have to do to reach him, let alone kill him and get the drop (we all know how annoying "logwatch" can be) the Nares Cap is from NNI floor 100, not the most accessable thing in the world. Then we have Marduk's Tiara +1 which is just Salvage/Salvage 2, but to get any Fast Cast from it you'd need more Marduk's piece to contribute to the Fast Cast set bonus. The other option is augenting up a Cleric's Cap +2 from Dynamis for Cure Cast Time Down. Yeah, head's kinda hard for precast.
So, before we begin, I'm going to start off by saying we are only going to be covering the "three basic sets"
- "Curing" gear. (gear you put on mid-cast)
-Fast Cast/precast (gear you wear to speed up your spellcasts at the start of the cast.)
-Idle (stuff you wear when not casting, usually a combination of Refresh and PDT/MDT stuff to keep you alive.)
There are "other gearsets" to keep in mind too such as Enhancing skill sets, emfeebling sets, etc. But I just want to talk about the bare bones stuff.
Curing Gear:
Main Weapon:
Every WHM should do the cure potency Magian staff trials and try to build Arka IV. It takes a lot of time, and Light Geodes may not even be expensive depending on your server. Even with as shitty as I am at making gil (since I don't have things like Repartie Gloves/Magavan hands or a Roundel Earring cause I'm poor.) I bought the Geodes. Arka IV is worth the effort. HOWEVER, if you are RICH, but don't want to spend a long time doing staff trials (they can be annoying.) You can get a Tefnut wand (Or even get it for free if you do that VW NM a lot but don't hold your breath.) but it's extremely expensive and completing an Arka IV is much cheaper. Until you either can afford a Tefnut or you do your staff trials, Pick up a Light Staff or an Iridal Staff on the cheap to heal stuff till you get your Arka IV done or you can afford a Tefnut. (you can go for the HQ Apollo's Staff or Chatoyant Staff if you've got a bit of extra cash, but I'd prioritise using that money to buy a Tefnut or better, getting Geodes for Arka IV trials.)
Sub-weapon:
If you're using Arka IV or some other staff, you'll want a grip. There are a lot of options for grips but I used a Verse Strap for a while. the +1 is also great, but It can be a bit pricey and sometimes it's just not up on the AH. However, a much better curing option would likely be the Curatio Grip off Nonno in Abyssea- Misearaux depending if you can get a group for it, but when it's on the AH it's pretty affordable. Since the Curatio is only +healing magic skill, even better options might be out there I don't know about, I know if there was cure potency on this slot I didn't know about I would be all over it. If you're using Tefnut, I don't know what shield you'd want to cure in would be, you may need to find a Tefnut WHM and ask them. But really, just save yourself the 1.5 mil and just build Arka IV.
- Verse Strap (or the +1)
- Curatio Grip
Ammo:
I'll be really honest! I don't even have one of these for curing! I only have one for Fast Cast! But this is something I should rectify. the Oreiad's Tathlum is amazing, but you'll need an Adjunct clear in Battlia Downs Meeble Burrows and 20k Marks to buy it. There's also the Mana Ampulla whch is a rare Trasure Casket drop in Sea Serpent Grotto. So it may either be pricey or have limited availability on the AH.
Head:
The obvious choice here is the Orison Cap +2 (mine's only +1 ATM :/ ) however, the Marduk's Tiara +1 from Salvage 2 is very, very attractive. Yes, while it only has a +1% potency advantage on +2 Orison head, it has a rather large amount of MND, and it can also be used as Fast Cast gear in conjunction with other Marduk +1 gear, such as the Jubbah and Dastanas, making it a "twofer" piece of gear. Though, that brings us to the awesomely amazing Iaso Mitra, which is arguably best in slot for curing, but too bad most WHM will never see this due to.... how inaccessable Legion is. Nothing quite says "unattainable" like Legion gear. I would like to have it, but honestly, it'd be too expensive to pay a Synergist for it, and I would need to actually do Legion to get the items to make it, especially with a strong augment. I stand a better chance of building a +1 Tiara honestly. I might be wearing Orison head for much of the forseeable future.
The Healing Torque is a good cheap AH option. Alternatively the Fylgja Torque is great, but expensive. (Especially the +1) However, It might be better to go beat ToAU and fight Alexander for a Colossus's Torque. Especially if you can ask a SCH for Aurorastorm during an event or party which will give you the light weather bonus.
Earrings:
The Orison Earring is great. But you need two earrings. the Beatific Earring via 20k Marks and an Assistant clear in Saromague Meeble Burrows, offers some good +healing skill. however there is a large elephant in the room, the Roundel Earring. It offers good Cure potency but is VERY EXPENSIVE and tends to get bought very quickly, and the supply is limited since there's so few people doing Campeign let alone Stronghold NMs like Plucking Wings. I still use an Aredan Earring due to it being much cheaper than a Roundel.
the Orison Bliaud +2 is the gold standard for WHM curing bodies, and I'm very happy I have mine. However, I've recieved a few comments that I shoudn't use it for curing until I have capped potency and use a Cure Potency body instead, like a Noble's Tunic. I don't know how I feel about this, since the Bliaud is the first +2 piece I have actually finished, the loss of the +10% cureskin bonus in a deperate attempt to get closer to the Potency cap really hurts. especially if I have to buy older gear like Noble's. However, I could just take my Abyssea trophies and try for a Facio Bliaut with a solid cure potency augment. So that way I could wear my +2 Orison body for Refresh and cure in this until I get more potency pieces, rather than look like an ironic retro guy pretending Abyssea was never released and the level cap is still 75 by full timing Noble's. People might assume I don't have +2 body and be mean to me more! There's also Heka's Kalsiris, but it's a VW drop so probably going to be tough to get, unless you're prepared to do a lot of Akvan.
Hands:
Hands, well..... Bokwus Gloves are easily the best... but you need to get the Impure celadon yggzi KI from Delve and farm up 15k Plasm, and probably more to augment it. Delve is currently the hardest content in the game, too, so they aren't the most accessable thing in the world, even though apparently WHM gets into Delve really easily but I'm too scared of screwing everything up. Hieros Mittens are pretty cool if you can clear every non-boss Meeble goal to goal 3 (which might be tricky.) and have 80k marks to blow, since it's got cure potency and is another anti-curse piece to go with Ephedra Ring. Augur's Gloves are nice if you can get in on a Chloris and get lucky on the drop. And then there is Serpentes Cuffs, which is a good idle piece that provides good potency if you've got the boots that go with them.... I'l talk more about that when I get to boots....
- Bokwus Gloves
- Hieros Mittens
- Augur's Gloves
- Serpentes Cuffs (don't cure in these unless you have Serpentes Sabots!
Rings
I think there are two directions you could go with rings. Either get Sirona's Ring and Ephedra Ring for around +18 healing magic, 3 MND, and some help with Cursna, or go double Aquasoul for a big MND stack. I really prefer the first option, however.
- Sirona's Ring and Ephedra Ring
- Aquasoul X2
Back
Personally, I like using Oretania's Cape for a little extra potency, but Tempered Cape would be better if I got a chance to purchase one. Also, the Orison Cape his a bit less potency, but I guess it has Enminty down, but is not as good as these other two.
I have a Cascade Belt, which has a solid MND of +7 and some Enhancing skill as a nice bonus, though Bishop's Sash may be a neat pickup if it's up on AH and if I have the money.
Legs:
Orison Pantaloons +2. Every WHM should be wearing these when a cure spell finishes. (I only have the +1 cause I'm bad and it's not nearly good enough. I need to get those Balance cards and rectify this.) the MP refund on Cures is a really really big deal, the 7 MND is just icing on the cake, it would still be best in slot without the MND. The Cure refund is absolutely huge, Especially in any event not named Abyssea where you don't have refresh atma.
- I'm not making a list. getting the bastion points, leg seals and balance cards is THAT imperative.
Feet
Hoo boy. There aren't a lot of options here. You might be one of the lucky ones to get a great cure potency and/or healing skill augment on Zenith Pumps or you do Legion or pay tons of gil for Legion crafting stuff to have Iaso Boots, or do the T4 Jeuno VW pixie to get Rubeus Boots. these aren't particularly easy to get to say the least. The elephant in the room: Serpentes Sabots. the Sabots, like the Serpentes Cuffs, are a nice idle piece for regen/refresh. However if you've got both, they give you 5% cure potency. However, let me tell you a little story...
Prior to Adoulin's lauch (or a little bit after, I forget) I would hit Abyssea- La Thiene for Brooder often after getting my Cuffs from the Corse. First couple of pops I did with a few Moghat people, I went 0/3. Then I started to farm abyssites up to tier 2, than go to La Thiene and send tells to random people asking if they could help me do Brooder, and a few of them mostly NINs were nice enough to take him out. few more pops and I'm 0/7, and I was starting to feel discouraged. then I started to do shouts for VNM runs in La Theine, was hard finding people but some people did bite. first group that got together I ended up going 0/9 before people had to go. This is getting a little bit ridiculous. Next time I get a nice sized group and finally, 1/12. However, someone beat me on lots. I'm not angry at the guy for winning the boots, I was happy for the guy, I was more angry for going 0/11 previously, I would have been less angry if Brooder had not screwed me over so much previously, and if the group stayed or got back together a different time to go for more pairs.
I ultimately just got Orvail Souliers and pretended that having +14 MND in the slot is better than nothing at all.
- Serpentes Sabots (need Cuffs as well for cure potency)
- Orvail Souliers
- Zenith Pumps (if you get one with a Cure Potency/healing skill augment)
- Rubeus Boots
- Iaso Boots
Fast Cast/precast:
Sub Weapon:
There's Vivid Strap and it's +1 for Fast Cast for this slot if you are using a staff. Though I hear Genbu's Shield can be augmented with "Cure Cast time down" which may be something to look at if you have Genbu's Shield to use with Owleyes for idle.
- Vivid Strap or +1
- Genbu's Shield (Cure cast time down augment)
Ammo:
the Incantor Stone is a cheap AH Fast Cast pickup. there's also Impatiens, from T1 Windurst VW, but it's "Occ. quickens cast" gear, which make using it in part of a generic precast set incredibly risky, as when it procs, the cast will instantly finish and the recast will be set at 0:00. What this means is Quicken Cast proccing can sometimes occasionally gimp your cures or other potency based stuff (like buffs) if it procs at a bad time, because there wouldn't be time to switch in a mid-cast set. So be careful when adding Occ. Quicken cast gear in.
Head:
Fast Cast heads... this will get pretty rough. Hyaline Hat drops from Provenance Watcher, lord know how much VW you'd have to do to reach him, let alone kill him and get the drop (we all know how annoying "logwatch" can be) the Nares Cap is from NNI floor 100, not the most accessable thing in the world. Then we have Marduk's Tiara +1 which is just Salvage/Salvage 2, but to get any Fast Cast from it you'd need more Marduk's piece to contribute to the Fast Cast set bonus. The other option is augenting up a Cleric's Cap +2 from Dynamis for Cure Cast Time Down. Yeah, head's kinda hard for precast.
- Hyaline Hat
- Nares Cap
- Marduk's Tiara +1 (if you have other Marduk's +1 to contribute to set bonus.)
- Cleric's Cap +2
Neck:
Orison Locket. Pretty cut and dry.
Earrings:
Do Limbus or pay for the ABCs to get a Loq. Earring. I don't know of any more precast earrings.
Body:
Heka's Kalsiris (mentioned above for curing bodies) has Fast Cast on it, but again, VW has bad droprates, meaning a lot of Akvan runs. Or you can go to Salvage/Salvage 2 for Marduk's Jubbah +1 which has the highest Fast Cast value on a body piece, and helps other Marduk +1 pieces give you more Fast Cast via the set bonus. Other than that, there's no real accessable pre-cast bodies.
We have Magavan Mitts and Repartie Gloves. Both are from Legion but often find themselves on the AH. Magavan Mitts are a LOT more expensive than Repartie Gloves, but Magavan Mitts only have a slight Fast Cast advantage. because of this, Repartie Gloves tend to be snapped up quickly and it can be hard to find a pair on the AH when you wanna buy em :/ . Alternatively, in Salvage/Salvage 2 there's the Marduk's Dastanas +1 to build, which again, helps with your other Marduk's +1 pieces for the set-based Fast Cast.
Rings:
You have the Prolix Ring, which being an AHable VW drop, tends to go for a fortune. The Veneficium Ring is cheaper, but let the buyer beware: it's another one of those "Occ. Quickens Cast" pieces.
Back:
The Swith Cape is a nice, cheap pickup. I went for the NQ, but the +1 is good too.
Legs:
For precasting healing magic, you will want to just use the Healing Magic Cast Time Reduction on your Orison Pantaloons +2, for everything else though, go spam Courier supply runs or do Reives in Adoulin and use your bayld to get Orvail Pants.
I just got Chelona Boots because they were inexpensive. Though I suppose Cure Clogs might be better for Cure precasts.
Idle gear: (A note, I'm actually really struggling with getting together an idle set and am missing a lot of this stuff, just so you know.)
Main Weapon and Sub Weapon
Currently I use an Earth Staff (Terra's Staff is fine too.) for the PDT. Ideally I'd also want to get an Oneiros Grip for the refresh..... but I'd need to do the Arch Goblin Golem in Dynamis - Jeuno to have a shot at it. So I only have PDT in this slot. But if you really want a PDT/Refresh combo, there's the Owleyes mace off of Myrmecoleon in Abyssea- Tahrongi for the refresh, and Genbu's Shield off Genbu in Sky for the PDT. Those may take longer to get, though, depending if you can get the mace and sucessfully get a shield off Genbu. Though personally, Owleyes makes to take 10 percent more damage so all Genbu's does is nuffly the physical side of it, which is why I prefer Earth Staff, even though I don't have the refresh grip.
Main Weapon and Sub Weapon
Currently I use an Earth Staff (Terra's Staff is fine too.) for the PDT. Ideally I'd also want to get an Oneiros Grip for the refresh..... but I'd need to do the Arch Goblin Golem in Dynamis - Jeuno to have a shot at it. So I only have PDT in this slot. But if you really want a PDT/Refresh combo, there's the Owleyes mace off of Myrmecoleon in Abyssea- Tahrongi for the refresh, and Genbu's Shield off Genbu in Sky for the PDT. Those may take longer to get, though, depending if you can get the mace and sucessfully get a shield off Genbu. Though personally, Owleyes makes to take 10 percent more damage so all Genbu's does is nuffly the physical side of it, which is why I prefer Earth Staff, even though I don't have the refresh grip.
Neck:
The obvious choice here is to go for Twilight Torque off Shinryu to get some all damage taken down. Veisa Collar might be a decent-ish AH/VW alternative, but Twilight Torque is really nice.
Earring:
The big one here is the Moonshade Earring for completing Wings of the Goddess. It can be augmented with a choice of different augments and for the idle set we would want the Refresh. however, it has other augments like Regain or TP Bonus+ 25 you might want more for other jobs. the Black Earring could be good if you manage to get one with one of the PDT augments.
Body:
Orison Bliaud +2 had 2/MP a tic Refresh and is amazing and you want it anyway for your curing set, though if you have a Marduk's Jubbah +1 for fast cast you can wear that as it has the same Refresh value. If you have an unhealthy obsecession with Refresh, you can try to get a Heka's Kalsiris and combo it with a Nefer Khat head to get the 3MP/ tic Refresh if you are insane. Personally I think Oriosn +2 body is enough refresh but whatever. Buying a Noble's Tunic might be good if you don't have a Bliaud +2 yet.
Serpentes Cuffs are nice for Regen/Refresh.
Rings:
a Dark Ring mite b cool if you can get one with a bit of PDT. Possibly two! Or you can try for a Defending Ring off King Behemoth if you do lolHNMs
- Dark Ring with PDT augments. (Possibly X2!)
- Defending Ring
Back:
A Cheviot Cape or Umbra Cape could be some good PDT options for this slot.
Legs:
There's Nares Trews from Neo Nyzul for Refresh and Iaso Tights from Legion stuff for some MDT. Good luck getting either of these, though.
Feet:
Like the cuffs, the Serpentes Sabots are nice for Regen/Refresh... Screw you, Brooder. for some MDT there's Magavan Clogs but they are probably expensive.
----------------
And there you have it! I know I probably overlooked some good equips, but I tried my best anyway!
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