BST ATMA Discussion

[Superchicken]

guess it depends on what you are doing. Ducal guard really on a factor when you pets under 50% health. So this could be useful in solo situations but if i was with a group i wouldnt be using it or Mounted Champion, i'd be using DD atmas raised run, voracious violent, Gnarled horn, Apoc, alpha omega, Stout arm, harvester, etc etc. So situation and pet would matter in atma choice. Do i want evasion well i'd use Dipper and probably something like Siren Shadow, RR, and either another kind of tank atma or dd atma depending on what i'm fighting.

If i'm out just fighting regular mobs by myself for things like farming or what not i'd just go DD setup, if i'm soling NMs then more tank based, PDT, Evasion, etc.

[jstchill]

It really depends, if your using Dipper I would go for

Cloak and dagger
Razed Ruin
Mounted Champion
2 pet eva axes.

With this setup almost nothing will hurt dipper except magic attacks.

If your using NN then I would go

Razed Ruin
Mounted Champion
Ducal Guard
2 Pet -dmg axes.

NN has alot of HP and Ducal Guard really shines with her imo.

I don't list alot of other gear because not everyone has the time/means to get them. If you don't have +eva or -dmg axes then your really not trying imo >.>

When I use bst (I use it alot for farming seals in abyssea) I almost always use dipper for NM's and NN for everything else since dippers to expensive to be running around meriting with.

Edit: Just wanted to say Hi and First post for me!

[Xilk]

BST has a lot of options for atma.

I find the most use out of Razed Ruins. Especially in Heroes zones, if you don't have Raged Ruins, your damage is going to be very poor, and the fight is going to take a LONG time. I think our pets get alot more out of this than players do. Pet pdif is significantly higher than players (4.2 cap vs 2.0 or 3.15 for crit on players). I also suspect the crit bonus to pdif might be higher for our pets. By stacking attack+ atma and Razed ruins, I was hitting around 650 for max crits from a level 90 pet (broncha). I expect max possible to be around 700/hit in abyssea using RR (Sanguine Scythe would take this higher though) if you can cap pdif on pet w/ attack+ gear/atma.

Its very hard to say what best DD combos for bst atma would be. This is where you see a big contrast between you and your pet. This is where further pet testing will be very helpful. Pet Pdif is higher on pets than players, you can get much higher melee damage from them. However, its much harder to cap pdif on bst pets on similar or higher level mobs.
If you have pet attack+ axes and stack the best attack + atma w/ Razed Ruins you might be able to get close. However, pets can't get much haste (Anwig or spurrer's and atma only maxing at perhaps 25~30% if using all haste atma). Double and Triple attack will probably be much more helpful than haste atma for a pet. I'm pretty sure its the best way to increase the number of hits you do.
For a player pdif can be capped with food and temp items in abyssea. For pet, neither of these are options.
So Its a bit of a question mark for DD atma for bst. If you have a high crit rate, you can probably do around 700~ 1000 damage/attack round between pet and master if you are trying to dd.

Voracous Violet is probably the next choice with a great option with the STR+, regain, AND double attack.
The 3rd choice is always the most difficult. Other str/attack + atma are very good, and so are multi attack atma like Apocalypse. There will be some variation from pet. yuly is a thf, merle is a mnk. and you probably want to TP alot more w/ Louise, but the rest should be pretty similar.

Our atma is often determined by what we want on our pet. We often tank on our pets in solo/low man situations.

I don't think the combination including Winged Gloom is very practical in Solo Situations. It can certainly be done, and certainly be effective.. but its going to be expensive, and there is probably a cheaper/equally effective alternative. The only practical application I see for a DG + WG combination is when holding top-tier NM's for brewing in a low man. This combination allows you to hold any for pretty much as long as you like. Adding Mounted Champion just makes it easier and less expensive.


For tanking in most other fights Ducal Guard and Razed Ruins are the staples.
There are several very effective and useful options for the 3rd atma:
Lion (triple attack and 10% more -pdt to complete100% pdt)
Zenith 10% dt for 100% pdt and 80% mdt reduction
Mounted Champin, Vicissitude, or Stronghold for Regen and def/mdef/attack+ depending on which is most important for the fight.

For evasion tanking on Yuly: usually at least one of the following and axes
Siren's Shadow
Cloak And Dagger

I've been toying with the idea of using Gnarled Horn and Roaring laughter with Merle to see how well he tanks this way. That could be alot of fun.