How should I do this?

[Mirabelle]

Excuse me but how did Evisceration get better than Slug outside of Abyssea? Admittedly I've not tried it recently but I recall most of my slugs doing about 1.5-2K damage and Eviscerations doing 800-1k damage on piercing weak mobs back in the days before Aby and level cap increases. Looking at the available gear for COR it seems we've gotten a lot of RATT/RACC gear and not so much ACC/ATT/DEX gear.

Is it simply the increase in dagger skill or a change in the damage ratings of daggers that has brought Evis up?

[Zagen]

Is it simply the increase in dagger skill or a change in the damage ratings of daggers that has brought Evis up?

I'm interested in this as well because that isn't the case for my COR. Though I'm suspecting the fact Anza favors Leaden Salute means it has to do with his marksmanship skill level, gun choice, bullet choice, or a combination of the 3.

I doubt it would be the damage ratings, the best DMG dagger for COR is Verus Knife +1 atm which has a DMG of 42, so the weapon rank would be 4 compared to Jambiya +1's (best DMG at 75) 34 DMG giving it a weapon rank of 3. So there is a slightly higher fSTR cap dagger can reach for COR. As to the Skill, or extra Attack which is what it boils down to really, is giving you 76.5 Attack. So less than the difference between using Attack food and not. Again not enough to boost Evisceration to the damage of Slugshot.

On paper and my implementation doesn't show Evisceration > Slugshot so I'd love to see what I'm missing to make that a true statement.

[Anza]

I'm interested in this as well because that isn't the case for my COR. Though I'm suspecting the fact Anza favors Leaden Salute means it has to do with his marksmanship skill level, gun choice, bullet choice, or a combination of the 3.

I have capped Marksmanship and 4 merits, an Ice Mayhem+2 (DMG:51 MAB+10), and I use Steel Bullets for Slug/Det. Yes, something like a STR or AGI Mayhem +2 would be better for Slug, but I'm more inclined to stick with the MAB gun for Quick Draw. I'm not using garbage gear and gimp skills though.

And obviously, this is a moot point if you're using a Wildfire gun, since you should just be using WF anyway.

I doubt it would be the damage ratings, the best DMG dagger for COR is Verus Knife +1 atm which has a DMG of 42

Augmented Yataghan can get up to DMG:43 with DMG+8 augment.

My Evisceration set looks like this:

Main: Yataghan (DMG:43, Crit DMG+3%)
Sub: Twilight Knife
Head: Anwig Salade (WSAcc+15/STR+4, Acc+10/Atk+5)
Neck: Shadow Gorget
Ears: Brutal/Aesir
Body: Loki's Kaftan
Hands: Navarch's Gants +2
Rings: Epona's/Rajas
Back: Atheling
Waist: Shadow Belt
Legs: Tumbler Trunks
Feet: Rager Ledelsens

Perhaps the fact that I have a pretty solid amount of DA/TA/QA (Twilight Knife, Brutal, Epona, Atheling) and crit gear (Yataghan, Loki's, Nav+2 hands) makes me more positive about Evisceration than some people, because extra hits and more crits sure does help the WS. Also, when I'm using crit atma inside Abyssea as I often will be if I'm meleeing stuff (say, RR/Apoc, and one of VV/GH/Sanguine Scythe), that's obviously a huge benefit to Evisceration.

But perhaps I do need to test things outside of Abyssea again, as several people are telling me I'm wrong. I was feeling better about Evis than Slug when eyeballing some mobs while doing magian trials with friends (and it's even possible I wasn't capped Marksmanship then, but I wasn't far off), but I can't honestly say I've really been doing a lot of COR DD either ranged or melee outside of Abyssea these past several months. I could indeed be mistaken.

At any rate, perhaps it's correct that at least outside of Abyssea Slug wins. Even so, better WS numbers or not, I would still stand by my assertion that I'd work to cap Dagger before Marksmanship in today's FFXI. I simply find more utility in more situations for being able to effectively melee for fast TP than I do for shooting for TP. When it comes time to WS, even if you're not capped on Marksmanship you have other legitimate options with Evisceration, Aeolian Edge (great for amber light), Leaden Salute, and even Detonator (since it's less likely to miss).

I think we can all agree that capping both skills is the ideal solution, but if you're prioritizing, I'd just do Marksmanship as a lower priority than Dagger.