Clubbing It~

[Synria]

I have this strong urge to be a Noggin' Bopper with my WHM/nin or /dnc and I was wondering which of the Magian Clubs and what kind of gear I should be going after to melee it up. Nothing that's gonna break the bank or is too difficult to get solo or duo with a non-uber BST MNK THF.

[MDenham]

Club: If you don't feel a relic weapon is in your future, then go for a Gamba. Offhand should be an OA2 Naboot if you don't want to bother trying to get a KClub. (OA2 Naboot at 95 lands behind lv85+ Mjollnir and Gamba, and ahead of every other club, so it's also a good third option as your main club. Not sure what you'd want to offhand to it, though; probably a STR Hoeroa +3 would be worth looking at there.)

As far as "not massively expensive and/or possible to get in a duo" gear for other slots... to be honest, that kind of restricts you somewhat. If you've got the haste pieces for Blessed, you could do Nyzul (you'll need a third person and some luck as far as what floors you get) and try for a Goliard Saio to help with a haste build, but you're not really going to be able to go for a good attack build without either dropping a lot of cash or getting help from several other people (Khthonios Mask, I'm looking at you in particular). (Accuracy isn't as much of a problem - at this point, a BST who doesn't really know what they're doing could probably solo you an O-Hat if you don't already have one. Between that and a couple of accuracy rings, you're pretty well set.)

[Economizer]

While the WHM melee thread would be a better place to ask about this, I'll give you an answer.

Your single best choices for damage from the empyrean weapons will be the Empyrean club and offhanding either the 2-4 hit multihitter, or the double attack one. If the either of these are too much work, the strength clubs are good candidates. Outside of this you have the Molva Maul, and the Moepapa Mace. The Molva Maul is really simple to get, since it comes from a zone boss in Abyssea. The Moepapa Mace is fairly new and comes from Dynamis, so I'm not sure how hard it is yet.

If you live and die by the auction house, something like a Robur Mace is probably going to be your best bet for a cheap club, but ultimately, any of the things I mentioned earlier will be better.

For gear, your two most important pieces will be the Rajas Ring and the Suppanomi Earring. Fortunately, they are free.

For a haste belt, you will want to get at least a Swift Belt, but if you can, get a Goading Belt. A Walahra Turban is a good start for a TP build headpiece, but a Zelus Tiara is the best piece you can get for haste in the slot. For Hands/Legs/Feet, Blessed gear is the way to go, and the NQ is cheap. If you can, go for the HQ, and you might even be able to hit the haste cap (if you get all three pieces +2, a Goading Belt and a Zelus Tiara you will!). If you still haven't hit the Haste cap, get a Goliard Siao if you can, otherwise get the ACP body with some relevant augments. If you have hit haste cap, the ACP body will help. Keen Ring will help, as will filling your other slots with accuracy gear.

For TP, you will want to stack as much accuracy as possible without sacrificing Mind or Strength. This means peacock charm, virtuoso belt, and either an ohat, or the club headband, or best yet, the AMK cap with accuracy buffs (but this means you won't be able to get the haste/damage reduction hat for BST). After this you will want to stack as much STR and MND. STR also boosts attack, so it is slightly more important.

As a bit of a side note, if you plan on doing melee in Abyssea, made getting Atma of the Razed Ruins your priority if you don't already have it. Razed Ruins and Hexa Strike were a match made in heaven.

There are more gear pieces I probably missed and whatnot, and stuff I excluded because it costs a lot, but being a melee White Mage can be tough, since you have to put more effort out there to get the same results as top tier DDs. Getting something basic like capped haste for example, will take you more work and gil then other damage dealing classes.

[Synria]

Thanks for the responses, doesn't sound like it will take too long to gear up my WHM for some Hammer Time ^^

[MDenham]

You know, now I'm hoping that the upgrade at 99 separates the names for the three different Naboot +3s, because while the "occasionally attacks twice" one is really good on its own... the DA+10 one ends up making whatever your main hand weapon is even better. Ridiculously so. (With a main-hand Mjollnir (95), it's roughly equivalent to having a DMG:91 club in your off hand.)

We'll see, I guess.

[Economizer]

You know, now I'm hoping that the upgrade at 99 separates the names for the three different Naboot +3s

I doubt they would do this due to the double attack clubs. Having two of them could be very powerful. Still, being able to get the multihitter and the occasionally attacks twice one would be a nice change.

[Synria]

Just wondering but would the Makhila trials be worth doing for an easy/quick main-hand with OA2-4 as offhand? If so.. which would be best to get? Store TP, TP Bonus or WS Damage?

[MDenham]

I doubt they would do this due to the double attack clubs. Having two of them could be very powerful. Still, being able to get the multihitter and the occasionally attacks twice one would be a nice change.

They could keep each individual one marked as rare, but you'd still have the fairly ridiculous pairing of DA+occasionally attacks twice. (Though to be honest, you probably end up putting in about equal amounts of work between a relic and the occasionally attacks twice club.)

[Alkimi]

For TP, you will want to stack as much accuracy as possible without sacrificing Mind or Strength. This means peacock charm, virtuoso belt, and either an ohat, or the club headband, or best yet, the AMK cap with accuracy buffs (but this means you won't be able to get the haste/damage reduction hat for BST). After this you will want to stack as much STR and MND. STR also boosts attack, so it is slightly more important.

While this was probably the case at 75 cap, in the current times of abyssea and melee-unfriendy voidwatch mobs you don't need to go overboard on accuracy. My general rule is if you need accuracy to melee on WHM then you probably shouldn't be meleeing it in the first place. In abyssea you'll more than likely be at capped accuracy with just cruor and atma buffs.

Linked to my gear sets if interested:

TP: http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/139081
Hexa: http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/139083
Mystic Boon: http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/139087

[Economizer]

While this was probably the case at 75 cap

I worded that poorly. What I mean by "For TP" is that for when you are doing Hexa Strike, which is basically what you will be doing for most TP moves. I had the TP build when I started mentioning Haste. Looking at your Hexa Strike build, you have a fair amount of accuracy for it, so I can only assume that this contributes to my theory that my wording was bad.

On your set, if you could swap out for Blessed Pants +1 and a Goading Belt, wouldn't that be slightly better, since you could afford to lose a hit?