Ferine Gausape +2 & Killer effects Merits

First let me say thank you to the dev team for this very clever, and interesting augmentation to the Killer effects trait on Ferine Gausape. Its alot of fun to use it.

Testing has been done by players showing a physical damage reduction from the effect of 5% and an increase in damage also of 5% while equiping Ferine Gausape +2. Tamer's ring, Tatami shield, Panther Mask, Killer Shortbow, and Beast Trausers +1 have all shown to improve this.

However, there appears some buggy behavior. The "enhances killer effects" from beast trousers does not appear to consistently work synergistically with this effect.

Also it appears the "killer effects" merits do not work with it at all. Shouldn't the behavior be consistent?

Hey Xilk,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. If you can please provide some additional information that can help us determine the cause of this issue:

Platform:
Date & Time:
Frequency:
Character Name:
Race:
World:
Job Level:
Support Job:
Area and Monsters tested:

Any equipment set up & damage numbers that you may have that helped you confirm this?

Thank you,
SQUARE ENIX Moderator

Platform: Windows 7
Date & Time: 2011-04-03 aprox 5 AM EST
Frequency: The behavior was consistent, each time.
Character Name: Xilk
Race: Galka
World: Ramuh
Job Level: Beastmaster level 90
Support Job: Scholar
Area and Monsters tested: Cactuar - Western Altepa

Wearing only Ferine Gausape and tamer's ring I charmed a desert beetle and fought a cactuar: (I also reduced my hp to just below 1050 to try for tamer's ring latent effect.
Cactuar performed 1000 needles.
I took 465 damage, the beetle receive 466. 7% reduction for main, 6.7% reduction on pet (stout servant)
When I removed the tamer's ring, I received 475 damage.
I had 3/5 Killer effects merits at the time.
this test was done in comparison to the testing done by another player, which I quote below and it is documented at this link.

Quote:

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Just got Ferine Gausape +1 and went out to Rolanberry Fields on Thundersday with BLM sub naked against Death Wasps. The same spells were done on the same mob.

w/ Ferine Gausape +1
Stone II 182 damage

w/o Ferine Gausape +1
Stone II 179 damage

w/ Ferine Gausape +1
Blizzard 137 damage

w/o Ferine Gausape +1
Blizzard 135 damage

w/ Ferine Gausape +1
Stonega II 338 damage

w/o Ferine Gausape +1
Stonega II 332 damage

Then changed subs to SAM, got exactly 103 TP, Thundersday.

w/ Ferine Gausape +1
Primal Rend 653

w/o Ferine Gausape +1
Primal Rend 641

So it works out to do about 1.5%-2.0% nothing too spectacular, but I guess it adds up over time.

Haven't tested intimidation rate yet, but will do that soon. I'm also half way done getting the +2 items so I'll test that too ASAP. Also will test out full set bonus!

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Testing Acc/Eva/Def might be a bit hard with such a low %, but I'll try fighting cactuars for 1000 needles to see if we get any -DT.

Also, I got some killer affects to test on lizards, icecday, naked, all with Ferine Gausape +1:
w/ Panther Mask, Tatami Shield, Killer Shortbow, Beast Trousers +1
Stonega II 348 damage


w/ Panther Mask, Killer Shortbow, Beast Trousers +1
Stonega II 345 damage

w/ Panther Mask, Tatami Shield, Killer Shortbow
Stonega II 345 damage

w/ Tatami Shield, Killer Shortbow, Beast Trousers +1
Stonega II 341 damage

w/ Panther Mask, Tatami Shield, Beast Trousers +1
Stonega II 345 damage

w/ Tatami Shield, Beast Trousers +1
Stonega II 341 damage

w/ Beast Trousers +1
Stonega II 338 damage

w/ Killer Shortbow
Stonega II 341 damage

w/ Tatami Shield
Stonega II 341 damage

w/ Panther Mask
Stonega II 341 damage

With just Ferine Gausape +1
Stonega II 338 damage

Total nude
Stonega II 332 damage


Panther Mask's "Enhance Lizard Killer Effect", the rest are all "Enhance Killer Effect".

Beast Trousers +1 seem to give a bonus with certain pieces, not quite sure, but I repeated Beast Trousers +1 with Ferine Gausape +1 several times and got the same damage so I don't think its randomly activated.

So Killer Effect from equipment does increase damage, though Beast Trousers +1 still confuses me...

Edit#1: Added more tests.

Edit#2: Just tested in Desert against cactuars using a charmed pet for TP gain and lowered 1000 needle damage so I don't die.

w/ Ferine Gausape +1
1000 needles did 490 damage

w/o Ferine Gausape +1
1000 needles did 500 damage

490/500 = 2.00% -DT!

Edit#3: No merits. Tested intimidation rate. Vs. Mandragora in Saruta with Ferine Gausape +1.
Intimidation 4.23 %
253 intimidates out of 6239 hits.

Tested intimidation rate. Vs. Mandragora in Saruta naked.
Intimidation 4.06 %
222 intimidates out of 5688 hits.


Seems to be an increase in intimidation rate, hopefully this is a large enough sample. Fits with the (almost) 2.00% from the other bonuses.

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Just got Ferine Gausape +2 and its a 5% increase. Killer effects still give 1% for each increment.

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I also cast aero 2 on the cactuars to test damage done. I did not record the numbers, i only performed a few calculations. It was clear to see a 2% improvement from Tamer's Ring and a 5% improvement with only Gausape +2 equipped. I will happily repeat a the tests later today (US, it will be tomorrow in Japan when I can post results) to make a clear and concise test results. Especially comparing with and without killer effects merits.

I've repeated the testing more thoroughly. It appears to be working better than I previously thought. the base value for damage reduction is not as high as I expected. the other player tests indicated a start point of 5% pdt for the gausape +2 armor. My numbers do not exactly line up with that. these additional tests still show a bit of inconsistency in gear performance, but it is better than I thought I saw before.

I repeated the black magic damage test by casting fire 2 as /sch on ba in batallia downs on wind day.

It seems that killer effects + gear adds aprox 1% improvement to the damage.
tamer's ring gives aprox +2% damage

I was only able to compare w/ 0 merits vs 4 merits. it seems 4 merits adds 2% damage as well.

I then repeated the test with physical damage reduction on cactuars in western altepa. I saw a 6% physical damage reduction with 4 merits, as opposed to the 5% reduction with 3 merits.

I also confirmed that with both damage dealt and damage received reduction that the beast trousers do not appear to have an effect UNLESS you have about 4% worth of gear bonuses already.

My data is in the linked google docs spreadsheet. I'll have to clean up the labeling in a few hours.

The killer effects merits state that it improve the trait by 1%, which is what the equipment appears to do but the merits now appear to be 0.5%. I can continue testing each decremented level of the merits tomorrow.

The tamer's ring says killer traits +3, but it appears to be only 2%. Other gear appears to be 1%

However beast trousers have no effect unless you have several other gear pieces equiped already.

Greetings, Xilk!
Thank you for taking the time to both fill out the report on your concerns with the Ferine Gausape +2 and continuing your experimentations with the item. I am glad to hear the item is working better than you first thought. I can understand concerns with the consistency of its performance, though, so I have made sure to report this matter for you to the development team. I recommend checking both this thread and www.PlayOnline.com for any news about this investigation. Thanks again for your report and your research!

Greetings again, Xillk!
Thank you for your patience with waiting for a response. Unfortunately, it seems that the development team requested further information regarding this matter, so it would be a great help to us if you further elaborated on the information that you have provided. Any and all details that you can give us would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for your participation!

He is basically saying "Beast Trousers" will not add any bonus to pdt or dmg or anything when used in conjunction with Ferine body +2 until 4 killer trait enhancing gear pieces are worn.

Example: Ferine body 5% damage bonus Body + Beast trousers= 5%

Body + Killer Shortbow= 6% Body+bow+trousers= 6%

Body + bow + tatami shield= 7% Body bow shield trousers= 7%

Body + Bow + shield + flawless ribbon= 8% Body + bow + shield + ribbon + trousers= 8%

Body + bow + shield + ribbon + tamer's ring with latent active= 10%

Body+bow+shield+ribbon + ring w/ latent + trousers = 11%

For some glitchy reason the AF1 PANTS do not want to work until massive amount of killer trait + gear is stacked on. Xilk wants to report this.


Hes also asking, "Why does tamer's ring say +3 killer but only adds 2% damage bonus instead of 3% damage bonus."

It has been tested thoroughly by the bst community. Its also a pretty easy test to perform yourself and only requires the gear and a subjob with spells and a tiny monster to cast on. The pants arent working right. The ring is giving the wrong values. Please look into it.

Thank you for the additional information Gotterdammerung. I'll update the bug report with that information. Should there be any updates or fixes regarding this issue, it will be announced on www.PlayOnline.com, so keep an eye out!