Put relics first

[Malthar]

Hello SE,

Question, why doesn't the occ. does x.y damage on relics apply to weaponskills?

May I suggest applying the occ. does x.y damage to the relic weaponskills as well? The +40% damage boost does help the relic weaponskills @99, but it still can't compare to the merited weaponskills. If the occ. does x.y damage apply to relic weaponskills as well I'm willing to bet everyone will be using the relic weaponskills with more frequency.

Well, that's what I think. What do you think, SE?

[Ophannus]

Relic WS already get a larger boost than Mythic Weapon Skills(40% vs 30%) also Relic WS are generally stronger than Mythic WS save for a couple. It's all about barance.

[Taint2]

I don't agree with the OP at all. Relics are in a solid position at the moment. The only alteration I would want is the x2,x2.5,x3 to proc on multi hit rounds like Emps do.

[Byrth]

Given infinite license to meddle, I'd change more than just making the hidden effect proc on multi-attacks, but I'd change a lot less than I proposed at the 90 cap:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...-balancing-act




Building off that, I'd recommend this now (for both relics and mythics):
General/weapon stat solutions:
* Remove the offhand limitation from Relics and Mythics. (These weapons currently lose all their stats besides damage and delay when offhanded)
* Increase all relic aftermath durations by 100%. (100TP=40sec, 200TP=80sec, 300TP=120sec).
* Allow TP Bonus (like Moonshade earring) to affect aftermath duration.


Some Relic-specific changes could still stand to be made, because even if the weapons are currently useful they are rarely useful for the role they were initially designed for. For instance, Guttler is a great weapon to spam Ruinator with. That's fab, but it's just a high base damage weapon with OD2.5 and high attack. There's plenty of room to adjust Onslaught without overpowering it.

Weapon specific changes
Spharai - This weapon is the best defensive option for Monk. In order to facilitate it in that role, adjustments mostly must be made to Final Heaven and its Aftermath.
* Make the Subtle Blow granted by Final Heaven aftermath stack with current Subtle Blow, but surpass the cap. (Subtle Blow caps at 50%).
* Make Final Heaven ignore some Defense like Howling Fist.

Mandau - This is still a very competitive dagger for Thief, especially with the damage boost to Mercy Stroke. It still lacks a little though, because Mercy Stroke should be used with SA/TA only and this can be worn by 3 different jobs (only one of which gets SA/TA).
* Allow Mercy Stroke to critical hit even when not forced with SA/TA.

Excalibur - This weapon is currently very very situational. If you want to do better damage while keeping your shield, you use Almace. If you want to be more defensive, you use Burtgang. Excalibur is useful in situations where Almace does bad damage due to level correction and defense. Also, Knights of the Round is worthless as it currently stands. To increase its niche while not overpowering it, I recommend the following changes:
* Increase the Additional Effect: Damage proportional to HP proc rate to 20% and let it generate Enmity for the Paladin
* Give "Knights of Round" an Attack boost (like Steel Cyclone) and have it ignore some level correction so that it does regular physical damage.
* Make "Knights of Round" give a 20HP/5MP Regen/Refresh aftermath (200HP/50 MP per 100TP and 400HP/100MP max per minute).

Ragnarok - This Great Sword has probably improved the most of any relic weapon in the trials from 75 to 99. It still has some fundamental flaws though, mostly with the weaponskill Scourge.
* Scourge must be allowed to critical hit.
* Change Scourge's modifiers to 40% STR / 40% INT.

Guttler - This is the best Ruinator spamming Axe for Beastmaster, so it still has the same niche that it has occupied since its inception. Some changes that wouldn't hurt though:
* Increase Onslaught's fTP to 4.0.
* Increase Onslaught's aftermath to Attack+25%.

Bravura - As Spharai is Monk's defensive option, Bravura is Warrior's defensive option. Still, some changes must be made to give incentive for using it this way and make it a desirable option. Increasing the duration as recommended above is definitely a start, but it needs a little more.
* Metatron Torment is listed as lowering the target's Defense. This effect has been shown to be notoriously inaccurate. Please increase its magical accuracy, and make sure it procs before damage is calculated.
* Give Metatron torment "Ignores Defense" or "Increased Attack" equal to Steel Cyclone.

Apocalypse - This relic has taken the hardest fall on the route to 99, mostly because Haste became much more readily available through equipment and Resolution is so strong compared to Entropy. Increasing aftermath duration would help this weapon, but I have another proposal that should help:
* Make the 10% Haste from Catastrophe's Aftermath count as a new kind of haste (not magic or JA) instead of gear Haste, but leave it subject to the 80% delay reduction cap.

Gungnir - Dragoon is a hard one. They really only have two roles, DD and soloer. Drakesbane and Ryunohige are so good that it's not possible to modify Gungnir to be the best DD polearm while maintaining game balance. Because of that, we have to turn to solo. Fortunately, the weaponskill (as it stands) is horrendous in every way and I feel no regret totally remaking it to my specifications:
* Change the mods from 60% AGI to 40% DEX / 40% STR, in keeping with other DRG WSs.
* Instead of Shock Spikes, make the aftermath +20% Parrying rate and make the weapon restore HP to your Wyvern as Catastrophe restores it to the player.
* Make the "Additional Effect: Weakens Defense" on the relic its own category of debuff, so it stacks with Angon.

Kikoku - Ninja can do almost everything. If anything, this is the best tanking/soloing katana.
* Make Blade: Metsu a 4-hit attack, as the animation already shows.
* Like with Final Heaven/Spharai, make Blade: Metsu's aftermath surpass the Subtle Blow cap.
* Increase the proc rate and potency of "Additional Effect: Paralyze."

Amanomurakumo - At the moment, SAM has three very powerful offensive GKT options. Mythic is the best by far, followed by an aftermath-activated Masamune, and further followed by Amano. My suggestions for Amano would be to focus on situations that Hagun used to beat Amano in before, where Attack boost vs. really high Defense trumps superior mods/fTP:
* Make the STP from the Aftermath +15 instead of +7.
* Give Kaiten +100% Attack, like Tachi: Gekko and Tachi: Kasha.

Mjollnir - Now we're getting in to mage weapons, which present something of a dilemma. Mages can play a lot of different roles, some of which are independent of their weapon. Mjollnir has long been seen as WHM's prime DD mainhand, which is a role they can play in tolerant parties. In order to be a better DD main hand, Mjollnir would have to make that role more desirable or viable. Also, Randgrith will never out-do Hexa Strike but we can give it a niche anyway. Here are some adjustments to help with that:
* Make the Recover MP from Mjollnir proc for a static fraction of the WHM's club skill. Say (MP recovered = Skill/10)
* Make the Recover MP en-effect take priority over all other en-effects, like Auspice and Haste Samba.
* Increase Randgrith's fTP to 4.0 and give it a 100% hit rate.
* Make Randgrith's Shield Break effect very accurate.

Claustrum - This is both a hard and an easy weapon to save. By making it so you never have to take it off and increasing GoT so it regains more MP than SA-Spirit Taker, this weapon becomes much more viable.
* Add +40% magic damage, +40 Magic Accuracy, and Avatar Perpetuation Cost -7 to the level 99 weapon, scaling up from +20%/+20 and -3 on the level 75 weapon.
* Change Gate of Tartarus' modifier from 60% CHR to 60% INT.
* Make Gate of Tartarus' give 40MP/tick as its Aftermath instead of 8MP/tick (400MP per 100TP, or 800MP/minute max).

Annihilator - I still feel that Ranger is strategically underused due to balance issues that need to be addressed outside of relic weapon adjustments, but that said Last Stand has really saved Annihilator as a desirable weapon.
* Allow Coronach to ignore some measure of Defense (like 20%).

Yoichinoyumi - My only suggestion would be:
* Remove the distance effects from Namas Arrow.

Gjallarhorn/Aegis - Don't need further updates, but:
* Make Gjallarhorn's afterglow (activated with songs) +5% song duration.

[Unctgtg]

I have to agree with Byrth. I agree there is still room for improvement, but right now, I would like for them to get the expansion out.

[Monchat]

even if the WS could triple proc, they would still be terribly underwhelming. For example, despite the lv 99 boost, final heaven is still inferior to asuran fist. With triple proc it would be slightly ahead. However shijin spiral is at least twice better than asuran fists. Makre the relic WS multi hit with good attributes, then give them a non garbage aftermath, and people will use it.

[Direct]

Gungnir is around 40% less dps than the mythic counterpart this really needs adressing, the same with Brvaura and Ukon, people will say Bravua is defensive but come on with the amount of -dt gear and hybrid sets with haste its really nothing at all special and could do with some kind of dps boost, Excalibur is another one what really suffers i would love to see these relics get adjusted first and foremost.