The Problem with Red Mage . . .

[Demon6324236]

The benefit of Ephemeron is you get 3% Haste which allows for a looser build for TPing as you are not limited so much on TP gear. The advantage becomes very useful when stacking alot of Attack, STR, and Double Attack, with the extra space provided. Such as if you are using Ephemeron you can cut out 3% Haste from your build, meaning Eurus' can be taken out, removing -STP and instead you can put in something like Dusk+1, or Ghadhab for the Attack. You can also use Kudzu more comfortably because though it does not give haste it still becomes more easily worked around. As it stands without Phos you are forced into a build of Phasmida/Ninurta's, Zelus, Brego/Alucin, Calmecac/Rubeus, Eurus', which puts you at 25% Haste. With Ephemeron's 3% Haste you are able to use a few more varied pieces with stats that surpass Shikargar's stats in the end, which just like Saeval said, "The stats on any particular slot doesn't matter, it's the total stats of the build that are important" and that is why Ephemeron is good, it helps the overall build rather than just being a good item on own.

STR Shikargar is good for the attack & STR, however if you can make this up with the gear you are able to use thanks to the 3% haste than it loses its effect for the most part and becomes much less useful. The benefit that Ephemeron can not mimic however is in WSs, as you would already be stacking stats as high as you can regardless of the AGI, DMG, TP Drain, or Haste that Ephemeron gives, thus for WSs STR Shikargar is massively better. In TPing however its effects can be mimiced by gear you would use thanks to the 3% Haste on Ephemeron that you would need not worry about any longer.

I would argue that if anything STR Shikargar might be better off with Excalibur and Ephemeron better with Almace simply for the fact that Shikargar with the STR & Attack play more to the benefit of Req & KoR thanks to mods & Req's attack penalty. However both weapons have their merit, and to think either one is the be all end all of offhands seems like a flawed perspective to me because you can not ignore the 3% Haste Ephemeron gives to a TP build, nor the STR/Attack Shikargar gives to a WS build.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Str Shikargar is better for most situations regardless of your main hand (the attack penalty is the only reason req sees a larger benefit, both ws benefit from fstr/attack boost from it). Eurus are unnecessary in the first place even at 25% (visible) haste.

The rest is just :/ There are very few pieces (in terms of equipment slots not main/sub) which even equal the benefits of Shikargar much less surpass it. You can't say fstr/attack provides a benefit to one and then downplay the benefit it gives the other.

EDIT: Eurus is better if you gain a full 1% haste from it, but not if you only get the partial percent from going from 25 (visible) to cap

[saevel]

My head hurts...

Almace beats out Excal in general by a pretty large margin due to ODD. Req barely beats out CDC on weaker targets but loses to bigger things due to it's stupid 20% attack penalty on a job that doesn't have high attack to begin with. Also you can do Req with Almace, you can't do CDC with Xcal.

Eph is a bad weapon, the damage loss from not using STR Sword isn't replaced by any piece of gear RDM currently has access to.

STR Shikagar is 22 Attack 11 STR for 27.5 total Attack and +2.75 fSTR on top of it being 61 DMG 230 Delay.

Ephemeron is just 3% Haste and 58 DMG 213 Delay. The Add TP Drain is fairly decent on low end stuff but sucks on anything worth a damn, thanks SE. And anyway enspells will over right it.

[Demon6324236]

The battle between Ephemeron & STR Shikargar is not one I wish to get into again, I gave my views on it and explained what I see in both weapons, take it or leave it.

[Neisan_Quetz]

The benefits of the 3% are much less than you think they are, and if you're at 22% haste before feet slot Eurus isn't any better than Dusk+1 and arguably worse if you're benefiting from the attack. Kudzu/Zelus beat Kthnoios/Shedir in every setup I tried unless accuracy was uncapped.

[ManaKing]

Ephemeron is a terrible offhand. This does not change based on what main hand you use.

Excal loses the +attack and hidden effect in offhand. Regardless of whether you use Excal or Almace in main hand, Str Shikargar is still your best offhand in most situations.

The difference between 90 Almace and 95 Excal is not as large as you are making it out to be (adding in new Vara Brigande, I have them pretty much even /nin on DC, and Excal 2-5% ahead /dnc). If both are 99 they're pretty close with my sets (Zelus/Kudzu/PhosNQ). If using Vara Brigande for TP Excal pulls ahead by a small amount.

If you're talking about Dynamis farming, then excal pulls ahead since you can't keep up AM, but I don't farm on Rdm in the first place.

Any place where an Almace would be competitive, you should probably put away your sword and act like a mage.

In small skirmishes like:
Dynamis
Salvage
Assault
Limbus
general farming
(presumably) Meeble Burrows

The AM will not outweigh the 5% x2.5 damage and 10% additional affect.


In events like VW and Legion, you should play like a mage and actually help your party do things like proc or disable NMs, which does not require a sword. If you want to DD in those situations, I would strongly urge you to pick up a job that uses a 2H weapon and do work.

When Afania made a statement about Legion a couple pages back, she was dead on.

So, if you'll kindly realize that Excalibur > Almace for RDM, then you can realize that you can get better total stats off an Ephemeron Build than a Shikagar build, because you are wasting slots on Haste Equipment that you could use better if you had an extra 3% Haste.

I was not ever suggesting that you should offhand an Excalibur. That would be a total waste, since it wouldn't be in your main hand.

If you don't know that you can have your cake and eat it to with enspell 2s so that you can get both the additional affect from Excalibur and Ephemeron, CAKE IS SERVED.

[Demon6324236]

As stupid as it sounds Ill play RDM as a Front Line Job in VW upto T3s of Jeuno & Zilart, past that I will agree your better off playing as a mage because Acc becomes to much of a problem for a RDM to be worth trying to be effective in the fight. I still see good numbers & damage as RDM, or did with Almace at least, in VW up to that point however. Since my obtaining Excalibur I have not done VW as RDM because I have been kinda lazy with doing the NM trials in Dynamis, so I cant speak off of that but I would think its about the same.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Any place where an Almace would be competitive, you should probably put away your sword and act like a mage.

In small skirmishes like:
Dynamis
Salvage
Assault
Limbus
general farming
(presumably) Meeble Burrows

The AM will not outweigh the 5% x2.5 damage and 10% additional affect.


In events like VW and Legion, you should play like a mage and actually help your party do things like proc or disable NMs, which does not require a sword. If you want to DD in those situations, I would strongly urge you to pick up a job that uses a 2H weapon and do work.

When Afania made a statement about Legion a couple pages back, she was dead on.

So, if you'll kindly realize that Excalibur > Almace for RDM, then you can realize that you can get better total stats off an Ephemeron Build than a Shikagar build, because you are wasting slots on Haste Equipment that you could use better if you had an extra 3% Haste.

I was not ever suggesting that you should offhand an Excalibur. That would be a total waste, since it wouldn't be in your main hand.

If you don't know that you can have your cake and eat it to with enspell 2s so that you can get both the additional affect from Excalibur and Ephemeron, CAKE IS SERVED.

No, Ephemeron is still not a good offhand, get over it

You would have to not have AM up at all for Excal to win by a large amount. Almace is still in the top 3 swords for Rdm.

Please post these slots being 'wasted' on haste, because Zelus/Kudzu > Kthonois/Shedir in the very events you're proposing for melee Rdm.

[ManaKing]

You're delusional

[Neisan_Quetz]

Come back when you can back up your statements with more than feelings, concession accepted