Approximating Damage over Time

[Dreynamil]

As an Empyrean Weapon is currently not an option for me, I try to figure out the best choice available (via Drop or Trial). The Wiki provides a lot of the underlying Game Mechanics (or at least justified Approximations) for Damage Calculation. However, there are two things that really hinder the decision making process.

• What are good assumptions for an Enemy's Stats? This is important as a foe's VIT, Defense, Evasion and AGI are necessary to calculate the values of pDIF, Hit Rate etc. Of course, one could always assume the same VIT as one's own STR, but this is very inaccurate if some of the weapons considered may have an impact on that.
• How is Weapon Skill Hit Rate calculated? Hit Rate for normal swings is capped at 95%. AFAIK, there is an Accuracy Bonus on Weapon Skills. Does this apply before the cap, so is it impossible for a WS hit to break the 95% cap? I also heard that for multi-hit WS, the Hit Rate decreases after each hit. Is this true, and if it is, by what amount?

[Byrth]

1) Enemy stats obviously vary by enemy. If you look at the Wiki page for Greater Colibri and Mamool Ja Blusterer, you can find the stats you've requested. MMJ Blusterer is a pretty good approximation of a Dynamis monster, as far as I can tell (obviously barring job-specific variations). Abyssea is a different beast, as you have to deal with monsters leveling up and down, but fortunately dDEX becomes irrelevant quickly. I figured out that a level 90 monster had . . . I want to say 77 VIT one time, by adding and subtracting STR from my TP gear on Dancer without a STR Atma in La Theine.
In general, if you assume Stat=.85*Level and Defense/Evasion = Level*4 (before monster job traits), you aren't that far off.

2) The first hit of weaponskills gets a significant Accuracy bonus. The rest of the hits do not, but have the hit rate you would predict just by comparing your accuracy in your weaponskill gear against the target's evasion. It is not possible for any individual swing of the weaponskill to break the 95% hit rate cap, though your odds of connecting with at least one hit of a multi-hit weaponskill can be substantially better than 95%.