Useless rolls

[Greatguardian]

Eh? They changed it? Because bolters and mazurka sure as hell used to stack. Bolters XI and chocobo mazurka was +50% movement speed and it was awesome.

I never knew they stacked at all <_> that's odd, but cool if it's true. Nothing else in the game stacks higher than 1 effect + 1 gear.

[Huevriel]

I totally thought it was based on the icons you had up on the screen. I haven't tried it, but I figured Mazurka (song), Roll (die), Swift Shoes (quickening symbol), Ninja Kyahan at night (no symbol), and Drover's Belt (Costume + Pitchfork +1) would net you 112% but there's most likely a cap for movement speed.

[Anza]

People saying Dancer's Roll is skippable are crazy. Great downtime roll, great solo or lowman roll (skillup parties? even affects NPCs!). III or XI Dancer's Roll is MASSIVELY efficient healing.

Blitzer's is excellent for single-handers, including a COR/NIN or /DNC dual-wielding daggers/swords. Great for COR/DNC solo, great for Abyssea alliance exp parties with 1h/H2H DDs. As a COR PUP MNK NIN, I'd ideally want Blitzer's/Rogue's on me on any of those jobs in a normal Abyssea exp alliance.

Magus Roll is sometimes very useful in fights against strong nuking NMs. Temenos mega-boss comes to mind, I've used it on several mission fights. And it's super-cheap, no excuse not to have it even though it's situational.

Allies Roll has one powerful situational use - Meikyo Shisui. If you're ever in a fight where SAM 2hrs are a key part, you might kick yourself for not having this one. Not the first priority, as it does cost a bit and use would be rare, but it could come in handy.

Drachen is also situationally powerful for SMN Astral Flow, and is great for unusual PUP nuking situations.

Choral is highly unlikely to be used often, but it's cheap enough that you should get it anyway. Same goes for PUP and BST rolls, which do come in handy occasionally if you're in a party using pets (SMN, BST lowman NM fighting, PUP). Not commonly used, but they're so cheap you might as well have the option.

Scholar's is pretty weak, and is completely surpassed once you get Caster's - at that point you'll have two better mage rolls for any situation.

Gallant's is safe to skip for sure. Probably Courser's too, which I've never used - it's POSSIBLE that you'll run into a ranged damage fight with RNGs and CORs spamming /ra (say, Odin in Einherjar final chamber), but even then you would still be fine pairing Chaos with Hunter's or Tactician's.

[Yinnyth]

Allies Roll has one powerful situational use - Meikyo Shisui. If you're ever in a fight where SAM 2hrs are a key part, you might kick yourself for not having this one. Not the first priority, as it does cost a bit and use would be rare, but it could come in handy.

Drachen is also situationally powerful for SMN Astral Flow, and is great for unusual PUP nuking situations.

Having used Allies Roll several times on my corsair in order for me to close a powerful SC on Melo Melo by closing a darkness SC with a 5k damage wildfire, I can safely say that Allies roll does almost nothing. You'll average somewhere around a 15% increase to SC damage, and since SC damage is based on the damage of the closing WS, you're better off using rolls that will just boost BOTH the WS damage, and (by extension) the SC damage.

Drachen roll is a little bit underwhelming as well. Rolling XI with DRG job bonus will get your pets 16 MAB (and magic acc), though it's much more likely you'll roll a 7 or 8 without a DRG in the party, meaning you'll get +1 or +5 MAB for the pet. Granted, you might someday find yourself in a party with SMNs spamming magic WSs, or PUPs using the mage body, and in those situations the choice of rolls you can make is somewhat limited. But you're much more likely to find yourself in a situation with RNGs who want courser's so they can make full use of their weapon's aftermath.

To be fair though, there is untapped potential with CORs + SMNs which would require the use of DRG roll. It would be possible to have a COR in a party with 5 SMNs, have the SMNs astral flow, pop an ether, the COR uses random deal, SMNs use astral flow, pop an ether, COR uses wild card, SMNs use astral flow, pop an ether, cor uses random deal, SMNs use astral flow. It gets even more confusing with more corsairs, but 3 CORs + 3 SMNs would produce even more damage.

[Anza]

you're better off using rolls that will just boost BOTH the WS damage, and (by extension) the SC damage.

What pair of rolls would you suggest that would increase SAM WS damage? Chaos, yes, unless your SAM is already capping attack. Fighter's for a chance of double attack, versus a sure Skillchain bonus with Allies. That's it really. I'd personally probably go Chaos+Allies for a Meikyo-centered strategy, or Fighters+Allies if Atk is capped.

And yes, that doesn't much help the rest of the party. But if it was an NM or mission type fight you could certainly do Allies on the SAM only, Chaos on everyone, then Fighter's or whatever else on the other DDs.

I'll admit it's very situational, but when combined with Sekkanoki and/or Dusty Wings (and stuff like Shikikoyo from a 2nd SAM, mixing in a Meditate, Wild Card reset), a Meikyo Shisui using SAM can fire off a lot of consecutive SCs. All of them getting a COR roll boost is fairly potent stuff. It's not as if we've never seen Meikyo Shisui strats before - Nyzul bosses, Snoll, Tenzen, etc. Wouldn't surprise me to see them again on Voidwatch NMs or some other new stuff.

Does it make the Allies Die worth the price? Maybe not. But I wouldn't go so far as to call it "useless".

[Yinnyth]

It's a bit strange to cater 2 rolls to one strategy which will end in less than a minute when doing so will take you 2 minutes to apply rolls, and 2 minutes to fix them afterwards. Although I have done stranger things in my career as a COR, it's usually because I'm not thinking straight about it. Yes, my general tendancy would be to use DRK+WAR roll for someone specifically using meikyo shisui, especially if the group is larger than just 1 person. With more than 1 SAM, unless they coordinate a very specific SC to use and stagger their meikyos to do it, they're just going to be stepping on each others toes.

The one situation I actually find allies roll to be useful is during a brew. Please don't get me wrong, I don't think any roll completely useless. There is always some bizarre situation you might find yourself in where any roll could be useful. But the original post is regarding which rolls this guy can get away with not buying in order to be a budget corsair. Obviously he's hurting his job by skipping any of them since someday even PLD roll might be exactly what's needed, but he values the gil more than the versatility. So my objective in these posts has been explaining which rolls will be less useful over a corsair's lifetime and why they're less useful so everyone could decide for themselves whether or not they agree.

Granted, the OP already got the answer he came here for, and now it's mostly just becoming a debate over which rolls are acceptable to skip over. In my honest opinion, the answer is "none", but I can understand the need to cut corners for a player without the means to make gil that I have. After all, corsair is fantastic at spending money, but terrible at making it.

[Habiki]

Scholar's is pretty weak, and is completely surpassed once you get Caster's - at that point you'll have two better mage rolls for any situation.

Scholars roll is great for blms since their set bonus is based off conserve mp, making it way better then caster's roll in the long run, who wouldn't want to do better dmg over having a shorter casting time and recast. All the rolls are dependant on whos in the party.

[Anza]

Scholars roll is great for blms since their set bonus is based off conserve mp, making it way better then caster's roll in the long run, who wouldn't want to do better dmg over having a shorter casting time and recast. All the rolls are dependant on whos in the party.

Still not better than Wizard's/Warlock's. You're basing your argument on Scholar's beating Caster's, but I wouldn't use Caster's either for BLMs. In any situation Scholar's is good for (healer with refresh), Caster's is probably better.

Also, if you need MP (and with atma or /RDM, that may not even be a concern), Evoker's is generally more MP-efficient than Scholar's - it certainly is before factoring in BLM AF3 set effect, and even then would depend on the random nature of Conserve MP kicking in plus the rate at which the BLM is casting spells.

Evoker's/Caster's on a healer.
Wizard's and either Warlock's/Evoker's on nukers.
SCH roll has some utility, but not enough to ever be in the top 2 in any situation I find myself in.

I haven't had a single reason to use Scholar's since 75cap world, in lv64 to pre-merit level parties. After Evoker's, nothing else really did anything for a healer with refresh who wasn't resting. Evoker's/Scholar's on the healer, two melee rolls on the melees. Even once you hit 75 merits that went away - 1 melee roll, 1 mage roll, Corsair's roll for everyone.

[Anza]

It's a bit strange to cater 2 rolls to one strategy which will end in less than a minute when doing so will take you 2 minutes to apply rolls, and 2 minutes to fix them afterwards.

You shouldn't need to fix them afterwards. Any fight you're basing on a SAM or SMN 2hr strategy should end in fast victory or equally fast defeat. As for your other comment, you also don't want any SAM stepping on each other's toes - if you have multiple SAMs, they should be taking turns 2hring regardless of what buffs the COR is putting on them. Part of the strategy is NOT interrupting the self-SCs, which add significant damage to the entire 2hr. This was common practice in Nyzul Isle back in 75cap days.

Don't need 2min to apply rolls either. Allies Roll on SAM, Random Deal, DD Roll #1 on everyone, wait 60 sec if you want and then DD Roll #2 on the non-SAM DDs. Besides, it's not at all hard to stand and get buffs correct at the start prior to engaging for something like a mission fight, pop NM, buffing at a Nyzul boss floor, etc. - waiting a short time to set proper buffs up shouldn't be that unusual.

Yes, my general tendancy would be to use DRK+WAR roll for someone specifically using meikyo shisui

Certainly a reasonable choice that gives some benefit. I'm not sure I agree that a chance of Double Attack proc that might not happen outweighs a guaranteed SC damage boost though.

And of course, if attack is capped (as may be the case in Abyssea), Chaos isn't doing anything for you.

I certainly think Allies is HIGHLY situational, and I completely understand if someone doesn't think it's worth the money. But there is a conceivable situation where it is the best option. That might never happen for you, and it's a pricey die, so I get skipping it. But it's not "useless".

Gallant's Roll is USELESS. There's NEVER a situation where you'd not be able to find two better rolls. Courser's is bordering on useless for the same reason - even if you did have a RNG-burn setup, something like Chaos/Tactician's will probably win regardless. Scholar's to me is useless other than some situations that will only come up in level 64-78.

It's ultimately a cost/benefit analysis on the situational ones though. Allies, Drachen... they're pretty darn situational (not useless though) AND they do cost a bit, so I see why people would skip them. Some of the other situational rolls (Magus, Monk's, Choral, Beast, Puppet) are also not too common, but the cheap cost of getting them weights in their favor.

[Nacht]

Courser's is bordering on useless for the same reason - even if you did have a RNG-burn setup, something like Chaos/Tactician's will probably win regardless.

If you do have a rng burn setup, most likely the rngs will have some sort of x-hit build set up, so tactician's is not helping. If they need ACC, hunter/chaos, if they don't courser/chaos.