Thank you for Stardiver!

[Transmit]

I don't know about you, but in pretty much every serious situation (e.g not in Abyssea), I've found Stardiver does more than just bridge the gap between Penta and Drakesbane. In fact unless I've just done a Stardiver, got champions tonic up, or have been hit by Blood Rage I rarely touch Drakesbane now outside of Abyssea.

I however think this is a great thing for DRG! I don't care that WAR and SAM are able to put out better numbers, back in the old days of lvl 75 SAM's ran around with polearms beating my Penta's on everything thanks to Overwhelm, but it didnt bother me. This WS has made me feel like I'm not just along for proc's now in VW. I may not be topping any parses, but I'm keeping up with the other DD's while also helping their damage by raising everyones crit hit rate.

[Transmit]

A little piece of information which has come to light is that the "Elemental weapon skill damage increases depending on day" on Mekira Oto head piece does not apply to just magical WS's. It applies to Physical WS's on the day their elements are. So Stardiver being Transfixion and Gravition, we get the boost from it on Earth / Dark / Light day (37% of the time!), along with the 25 attack, 15 str~ and the boost is 0.1ftp.... so on Stardiver 0.4.... which makes it pretty amazing. Just did some Pil on Darksday, and was hitting an easy average of 2k, with highs of 3.5k

[Ophannus]

That property was known back in 2006 with Assault Point weapons like this:

but still, good work.

[Aana]

Its gone on for a few pages, but if im not mistaken, ALL this comparison motenten is talking about started using abyssea and Apoc. Of course str lance will compete better when you give it a full 15% triple while OAT get a super watered down version.

Without free multi-hit atmas (ie anywhere but abyssea) OAT has a rather huge advantage over a non-multi hit weapon. This is also how drg pulls way ahead vs war and sam. They simply dont have access to the powerful magian weapons, namely OAT lance.

Take the comparisons outside abyssea and there is simply no contest between OAT and anything but Ryu.

Also, Drakes in perfect gear with any of the top 3 damage lances (relic/mythic/empy) will BARELY edge out stardiver with perfect gear for both (notable exception being Ryu with the 15% drakes boost, soon to be 30% at 99 turns that 'edge' into a landslide). However, the lowest damage lances (OAT) stardiver pulls ahead because of the mods making up more of the damage on lower base D weapons.

[Motenten]

Its gone on for a few pages, but if im not mistaken, ALL this comparison motenten is talking about started using abyssea and Apoc. Of course str lance will compete better when you give it a full 15% triple while OAT get a super watered down version.

Without free multi-hit atmas (ie anywhere but abyssea) OAT has a rather huge advantage over a non-multi hit weapon. This is also how drg pulls way ahead vs war and sam. They simply dont have access to the powerful magian weapons, namely OAT lance.

Take the comparisons outside abyssea and there is simply no contest between OAT and anything but Ryu.

Also, Drakes in perfect gear with any of the top 3 damage lances (relic/mythic/empy) will BARELY edge out stardiver with perfect gear for both (notable exception being Ryu with the 15% drakes boost, soon to be 30% at 99 turns that 'edge' into a landslide). However, the lowest damage lances (OAT) stardiver pulls ahead because of the mods making up more of the damage on lower base D weapons.

No, none of the comparisons are in Abyssea; I'm pretty sure that was stated early on. Crit weaponskills rule in Abyssea, so there's no real point in comparing Stardiver builds there other than academic interest (or you're on sam).

Also, feel free to provide the 'perfect' gear sets for the respective builds (including jumps) and I'll look into how they compare.

[Aana]

No, none of the comparisons are in Abyssea; I'm pretty sure that was stated early on. Crit weaponskills rule in Abyssea, so there's no real point in comparing Stardiver builds there other than academic interest (or you're on sam).

Also, feel free to provide the 'perfect' gear sets for the respective builds (including jumps) and I'll look into how they compare.

Little late, but sure. This is my current drakes build. Not quite 'perfect'. Changes left for me are the
*Aesir to 4atk/25TP bonus WOTG earring. ends up being i believe 3.75% crit rate.
*strigoi to pyrosoul IF it breaks a tier on WSC or Fstr. I cant be arsed honestly.
*Heca feet need better augs than my 2str 5atk. Obviously perfect would be str/atk/polearm.

Specific to me stuff due to Ryunohige aftermath (OA2-3). Take with grain of salt for everyone else.
*4str earring over brutal. This is a Ryunohige specific adjustment because i get stupid amounts of DA/TA diminishing the effect of brutal. I think brutal wins for everyone else.
*Lancer hands>Heca 4crit damage/6acc augment. Another Ryunohige specific adjustment. The DA gets washed out by aftermath again, though i havent run numbers on this one without aftermath, so it may be better anyway /shrug.
*Prosilio belt: Again, the massive aftermath waters down the -5%DA so much it still wins for me. Dont know if this is still best option for non-Ryu drgs or not.

Optionals: These mostly depend on situational aspects like the value of Ddex, acc or STP, but thats mob dependant and 5hit build dependant.
Rajas>Pyrosoul. (Ddex variable)
Lancer Body>Aces. (Ddex/Acc/5 or 6hit build variables).
Rose grip>Claymore 3%crit rate. (5/6hit dependant)

With those coniderations, im pretty sure this is as good as it gets right now until we get Nyzul gear (/drool!)

My Stardiver set is similar show here.

Planned upgrades to make it 'perfect':
Atheling>Cerb+1
Aesir>WotG 4atk/25TP
Raja>Pyro
Strigoi>Pyro (i cant be arsed)

Situational
Brutal>4str earring (Ryu aftermath consideration)
Lancer Body>Aces (Acc/STP consideration)
Rose grip>Anything else. But i dont know who would devote grip to Str grip.

That should just about do it unless i missed something. Fairly straightforward for stardiver. Drakes is a little more funky since you have to basically decide to make concessions for dex or not since halfassing it wont have any affect at all, but going for it and over/undershooting is bad too with teh dumb crit rates and very target specific. The only other real consideration with my builds is anything regarding DA. My aftermath diminishes additional DA so much it just doesnt compete well, but for the other 99%, it should be fine.

Again, drakes only beats stardiver with teh very, very high damage lances while stardiver wins with lower damage. I have only mathed it up for Ryu base damage and OAT lance damages and it was very clear. I dont know where the watershed damage is, though it is sure to vary based on race and minor junk like that, but its somewhere between 139 and 102 (i did orginal calcs at lv 95 OAT D102 version).

You REALLY need to have all the crit gear for Drakes to keep up. You have to have enough crit rate to beat down that -20% atk penalty otherwise stardiver just rapes drakes.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Dps 135 isn't in abyssea. If it is quit w/e dd job you're on.

[brayen]

I am curious, what would be an ideal set up for stardiver? off the top of my head i had something in mind like the following:

str/pole/_/Threw
oto+1/gorget/moonshade/brutal
ace's/af3/str/str
ath/ele belt/avant+1/heca+1

trying to think of a non-augmented feet option but nothing springs to mind(that is better) ; ;

[Transmit]

Thats pretty much exactly what Ive been aiming for, only difference is I'm using Ares's Body.

DRG really has a poor choice of WS feet, I got +3 str +3attack augment on Heca Feet+1 and decided it was good enough.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/245693 Current build I'm aiming for, STR polearm.

Edit - Fixed link!

[Neisan_Quetz]

Set is private/you linked it incorrectly. For those who can't get augmented Heca+1 you can hope Gigantes boots show up on AH.