The Problem with Red Mage . . .

[saevel]

You're delusional

That's kinda the wrong way to go about this. Ad hominem isn't good for any debate. And as much as I can't stand NQ he is correct here, Almace > Xcal for RDM the vast majority of the time due to ODD and CDD's crits. If you want a relic for RDM look into Mandau. Now if SE would go out and remove the 20% attack penalty off Req then this might not be valid.

In either case you'd want the STR sword in your off hand if going for maximum damage. fSTR and that much attack are nothing to scoff at, ESPECIALLY if your using Xcal which would be forcing you to use Req and it's -20% attack on a job without access to DWIII and Berserk simultaneously. There is no item you could switch haste out for attack that 3% would cover, the closest is either the body (Kudzu vs Shahir) or the feet (radgar feet maybe).

Now the wild card is that salvage gear is going to be upgraded here shortly. Morrigans has always been a hybrid melee / mage set that both RDM and BLU could use. SE said they would be doing something similar to what they did with Limbus drops so we can assume two paths, one that keeps the original piece and upgrades the stats, and a 2nd different piece with different stats. Now I hold out little hope for the 2nd piece but the current morrigans isn't bad at all, up the stats and toss on some haste and what not and you may yet be able to justify Eph sword. These could also alter the balance between CDC vs Req, the ONLY reason Req beats out CDC is due to RDM's limited access to DEX vs the ridiculous amounts of MND we can get. You see the exact opposite on BLU which has ridiculous amounts of DEX yet rather limited MND options, I was kinda disappointed when I was making my BLU Req setup for NNI. The moment SE releases more gear with DEX on it that RDM can use (new Meeble body for example) the balance between those two will chance and CDC might end up the dominate WS even without ODD AM.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Welp, now I have to admit I'm agreeing with Saevel

Everyone else can go home now

[ManaKing]

Come back when you can back up your statements with more than feelings, concession accepted

respond to a statement with more than STR SHIKAGAR IS BETTER and maybe ill care to respond to you. The only concession you've gotten is to your own ignorance and your lack of actual RDM play in the current game. If you don't understand why an AM on a job that isn't a DD is a bad idea, then I'm not going to get started on optimalizing dual wield, why RDM damage is still situational, or why arguing about statistics without actual applications is useless.

Have fun playing with your Almace with all that critical hit and critical damage that RDM has to make it good. BLU gets double damage out of Almace for Blue magic. What are you actually getting out of it, besides the convenient crutch that it will work for both BLU and RDM, and that's good enough for you?

[Neisan_Quetz]

I did, you failed reading comprehension, game mechanics, and how damage works in FFXI

what the lol... I can't even respond to you seriously anymore, you clearly don't know wtf you're talking about when it comes to meleeing

[Demon6324236]

Excalibur(99) has HP proc which outside of aby will average about 350ish at Max HP, on top of this it has Attack+40 and higher DMG than Almace(90). Almace has a Crit WS and ODD which has a much higher proc rate & procs on WSs. Excalibur's HP Proc & 2.5 Damage proc about balances out the ODD of Almace on normal hits, however does not come close on WSs.

This is the place where Excalibur starts to fall, in normal attacks its likely better thanks to HP & ODD not relying on the use of WS like Almace does, and the extra DMG/Attack it has over an Almace. However once you hit WSs, just like Ephemeron it starts to take a dive, its a high DMG weapon with a great attack bonus but the Double Damage can not proc on WSs, the HP proc doesn't effect anything in WS, and the best WS for Excalibur has a killer Attack Penalty. Where as with Almace you have a Crit WS which can be hit with Double Damage making it even more powerful and ends up being good overall. Even with less DMG & Attack the Crits & ODD procs on the WS put it ahead alot of the time.

[ManaKing]

ESPECIALLY if your using Xcal which would be forcing you to use Req and it's -20% attack on a job without access to DWIII and Berserk simultaneously.

You guys just aren't getting the picture. You keep pointing out that RDM has this and BLU has this, but you aren't seeing what you are saying. It's rather infuriating.

RDM HAS THE BEST REQ SET

BLU HAS THE BEST CDC SET

And both are by a long shot, COMPARATIVELY. RDMs aren't Forced to use Req, they should be more than happy to use it. RDM shouldn't be trying to use CDC because it doesn't have the gear for it. It doesn't have gear like Athos with access to Crit and Crit Damage.

You will always be lack luster outside of scenerios that don't give you Atmas or Atmacites, or something like Potency Potions. In areas unsupported by outside buffs, you will do bad, inconsistent damage. You will only be using the Almace for the ODD, because you could be doing better, more consistent damage with Req.

The TP set i've put up has +122 Atk (5 from sword skill and 10 from +20 STR) and +42.5 Acc, which is higher than whatever you put together. My delay is lower than yours and my Store TP builds are higher than yours so I can do 15 hits. The larger contribution of my delay favors my main hand, meaning that my offhand is actually quickening my main hand instead of slowing down yours with a 230 delay weapon. Dual Wield is working in favor of my main hand aka my damage hand, aka the thing with not 1, but 2 additional procs. The 25% of HP damage can proc on both hits in a Double Attack.

ALSO my off hand steals TP. AND I have flexibility to change out my neck and ammo if I so desire and not lose my Haste cap and my 15 Hit Build.

I can even wear a fancy body that doesn't have Haste on it without dropping my hit build.

Whatever you think your fancy STR sword is doing for you, well it's not. And your Almace. It needs more support than you can give it, because you don't have the gear for it. That's why you can wiff for like 900 damage. You aren't a faux THF, like BLU, so you can just take everyone's gimmicks. Zelus Tiaras are bad and you should feel bad for wearing them on a job that can't afford to give up an entire slot worth of stats.

Learn to play RDM if you're going to tell people about RDM, because all this theoretical math from parses in situations that you shouldn't be meleeing in to being with, is getting old. Your ASSUMPTIONS reek of someone who hasn't taken RDM seriously in a long time. Get off you BLU or w/e you're playing because RDM is hard and actually go do some stuff.

[ManaKing]

This is the place where Excalibur starts to fall, in normal attacks its likely better thanks to HP & ODD not relying on the use of WS like Almace does, and the extra DMG/Attack it has over an Almace. However once you hit WSs, just like Ephemeron it starts to take a dive, its a high DMG weapon with a great attack bonus but the Double Damage can not proc on WSs, the HP proc doesn't effect anything in WS, and the best WS for Excalibur has a killer Attack Penalty. Where as with Almace you have a Crit WS which can be hit with Double Damage making it even more powerful and ends up being good overall. Even with less DMG & Attack the Crits & ODD procs on the WS put it ahead alot of the time.

Lol Req has a killer attack penalty, but no one talks about CDCs killer lack-of-gear penalty. CDC is in the same boat if not worse for RDM without event based buffs to put it back in the game. At least Req has a ton of MND to fall back on and 5+1 hits at bare minimum with belt and gorget support. It's consistency is high and it goes through special defense so it hits everything the same. It fails against high defense mobs, but i guess we don't have a % based debuff that can't miss to help with that..................

Excalibur(99) has HP proc which outside of aby will average about 350ish at Max HP, on top of this it has Attack+40 and higher DMG than Almace(90). Almace has a Crit WS and ODD which has a much higher proc rate & procs on WSs. Excalibur's HP Proc & 2.5 Damage proc about balances out the ODD of Almace on normal hits, however does not come close on WSs.

LOL? check yourself, you're stepping in shit.

You seem to be mixing up Mythics and Empys.

Almace is only that cool to BLU because it can double spell damage for phsyical blu spells. Thus why Saeval and NQ has such a overzealous fondness for broken things, even though they don't apply to RDM. This is why BLU + ALMACE is so good and RDM + Almace is a pail comparison.

[Demon6324236]

Gear is a problem RDM faces with CDC, I agree, however you can not ignore the ODD procs on CDC, the fact Dia still helps CDC just like it helps Req, and the fact that in some events CDC gets a massive boost. If CDC does not get the boost it really goes down to gear, so far as I know about BLU gear which admittedly is lacking in compare to nearly any other job in the game, to my knowledge BLU's main advantage over RDM with CDC would seem to be Athos. Outside of that it seems to have roughly the same crit gear, meaning Rancor Back & Nef Neck. So our lack of gear mainly extends to DEX, where we have a massive boost from Gain-DEX, and some subpar gear. I would put them on the same level probably.

As I said the ODD is a big player. It may not be as consistent but if it is more powerful on average than it is overall better. This is the only reason I say Almace is possibly better as they say, I just recently got Excalibur and so far as I know, you just recently got yours as well, so neither of us should be able to say for 100% certain we are correct as we likely neither one have the experience, numbers, testing, or facts to back it up in the end.

I myself plan to take both Excalibur & Almace to 99, and if I have my way I will have the Mythic as well even though it seems highly lackluster and possibly not worth the bother. In the end I will definitely inform everyone of my findings by parsing them in a number of situations and let everyone know my perceived use of them, though I doubt I will be anywhere near noticed and someone else will do it before I do. In the end I will also be parsing between 2 sets, 1 set which uses a more Zelus/Kudzu build with the focus being more on Double Attack, and another with the focus being on Attack itself, the current Khth/Shedir build. In either case I plan to attempt to find the optimum use of RDM DDing and use, as even though it may be inferior to BLU and other jobs I have chosen to be a RDM at heart and my goal is to do all I can to make it good.

I think with a total of roughly 6 basic different parse for RDM & its weapons I would be able to determine the most potent in situations & build upon them. I gave you my opinions on how these weapons & WSs work with or against each other, both in the case of Excalibur/Almace & Shikargar/Ephemeron, take it or leave it. I'm tired and going to sleep you can continue to bicker or fight with each other over your ideas or what you think as facts on how useful these weapons are however I think it is best to label them as all things are in this game and say they are each situational to the moment and you can not say 1 is a be all end all as almost nothing in this game is ever a be all end all for anything.

[ManaKing]

read edited post ^

Also, Murgleis is awesome. I'm getting it. It's too pretty to pass up.

[Demon6324236]

LOL? check yourself, you're stepping in shit.

You seem to be mixing up Mythics and Empys.

Almace is only that cool to BLU because it can double spell damage for phsyical blu spells. Thus why Saeval and NQ has such a overzealous foundness for broken things, even though they don't apply to RDM.

No~ Last I knew it proced on WSs as well as normal strikes. I was led to believe the main reason for most emps these days such as Masa or Calad was to use the WS to have an active aftermath of which you then spam the corresponding Merit WS with a chance to get the ODD effect to proc thus creating more overall damage, I may have been mistaken however, this is only going off of what I have been told, never looked into it much myself. If I'm wrong then so be it, but in either case I still think neither of us have had an Excalibur long enough to say with 100% certainty which one is better than the other. Because so far as I gather from the thread asking for a loan that you have had yours about a week, and I doubt that is enough time to get any definitive info on which is better and in which situations without going simply off another's testimony of which I can not see it as a good idea to defend another's ideals or opinions so adamantly.