Blade: Hi setup

[Nattack]

i am far from a kannagi, however, i would like to know how kannagi owners gear for blade hi, include atma, preferrably an inside and outside if abyssea sets

[Faule]

My own sets are pretty straightforward. I do not go as far as some might. I do not change sets based on buffs from bards/corsairs etc.

In Abyssea with Apoc/GH/RR

Offhand: Kamome
Ranged: Qirmiz
Head: MKE Head with STR4 WSAcc15 AGI4 WSDamage +2%
Neck: Soil Gorget (I would use a hope torque in place of this, as I know I can stand to use the attack, but I do not own one)
LEar: Brutal
Rear: Centaurus
Body: Loki's Kaftan
Hands: Seiryu's Kote
LRing: Breeze Ring (I would change these rings to more AGI if I cared to pay overpriced amounts for AGI7 rings)
RRing: Breeze Ring
Back: Atheling Mantle
Waist: Anguinus Belt
Legs: Usukane Hizayoroi (I would use Ambusher's Hose here but I haven't bothered going after the horse. It called me fat last time I fought it.)
Feet: Hachiryu Sune-Ate

I could probably stand to make a few changes in that set, but I believe they'd be fairly marginal at the moment so for now that's where I stand inside Abyssea.

Outside of Abyssea the only thing that changes...

LRing: Rajas
Rring: Strigoi Ring

I've considered toying around with a dab of more STR and DEX outside of abyssea. But for now this works for me.

[Mojo]

I've been putting some thought into this recently. I'm inclined to think that the following is the best, outside Abyssea.

Main	Kannagi
Sub	Kamome
Head	Maat's Cap
Body	Iga Ningi +2
Hands	Iga Tekko +2
Legs	Usukane Hizayoroi
Feet	Lithe Boots
Neck	Hope Torque
Waist	Warwolf Belt
Back	Atheling Mantle
Ear1	Centaurus Earring
Ear2	Brutal Earring
Ring1	Epona's Ring
Ring2	Rajas Ring

There are a few reasons why I choose this build. To begin with, mobs outside of Abyssea, the higher level ones you'd be fighting at least, are going to have a defense of between 350~400. This means you'll need 700~800 attack to cap your cRatio. It takes +52 STR over the mobs VIT to cap fSTR and +50 DEX over the mobs AGI to cap dDEX. Here's some more data regarding attributes/stats with the different gear.

Slot	STR	DEX	AGI	DA	TA	Attack	Accuracy
Base	87	81	81	10	0	388	353
Main	0	0	15	0	0	0	0
Sub	0	0	0	0	0	8	8
Ammo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Back	0	0	0	3	0	20	0
Ear1	0	0	0	0	0	10	0
Ear2	0	0	0	5	0	0	0
Neck	0	0	5	0	0	7	6.3
Head	7	7	7	0	0	0	0
Body	12	12	0	0	0	17	17
Hands	0	10	10	0	0	0	8
Legs	5	5	0	0	0	10	0
Feet	0	6	6	0	0	0	0
Waist	5	5	0	0	0	0	0
Ring1	0	0	0	3	3	0	0
Ring2	5	5	0	0	0	0	0
Food	7	0	0	0	0	23%	0
Total	128	121	124	21	3	524	452

This is for a 90 Hume NIN/WAR with 5 STR merits and 8 Katana merits. The total attack did not take food or Berserk effects into consideration. With food up, you're at 644 attack. With food and Berserk up, you're at 805 Attack. So you're just barely hitting the cRatio max in a lot of cases (with Berserk up) rendering more Attack useless. Accuracy is also going to be capped, it caps much more easily than Attack. Mobs would need at least 77 VIT to uncap fSTR and 71 DEX to uncap dDEX, which is just above what Limbus and Dynamis mobs have (I think, might be wrong.)

I've a little bit divided over the waist, to be honest. Anguinus Belt is a great piece, 15 Attack and 1 DA is quite a bit, although I'm not sure if it's worth it because dDEX is close to uncapping and losing those first few points of dDEX results in a considerable critical hit rate loss.

Alternatively, a more attack heavy build might be nice to have while Berserk isn't up (or when you don't even have access to it, i.e. DNC subjob.) I have yet to brood over what that might be though, or even do the math to see if it could be worthwhile. It's more of a gut feeling.

Also, Epona's Ring might be replaced by Stormsoul Ring. Before the ring, you'll have a base Double Attack rating of 18%. Because this can proc on both main and sub, it equates to an average of +0.36 fTP (assuming 100% accuracy, which will be done for everything else in this comparison.) Blade: Hi is going to have a base fTP of 4.0 + 1.0, thus your average fTP is 4.0+1.0+0.36=5.36. Epona's is going to bring your Double Attack rate up to 21% and introduce a 3% Triple Attack rate. Assuming that Triple Attack procs overwrite Double Attack procs (going to be a small difference either way) yields an increase of 0.53 fTP for a total of 5.53, or a 3.13% marginal gain. WD, under capped fSTR conditions and 124 AGI is equal to 144. Stormsoul Ring will bump this up to 148, which is only 2.78% marginal gain. Your WD, pre ring, would need to be around 128 before these two gains were equal (which I don't think is going to occur outside of Abyssea.) However, if your pre ring AGI total ends in a 3 or an 8, then Breezesoul will add 5 to your WD, which is at least a 3.47% marginal gain.

I don't think Loki's Kaftan is a good choice outside of Abyssea. Although the critical attack bonus yields a higher marginal outside of Abyssea (due to no Razed Ruins), a much lower base critical hit rate is going to bring the overall marginal gain down by quite a bit. It's impossible to say without knowledge of how Blade: Hi critical hit rate is affected by 100%/200%/300% TP, but the 6/7 WD increase and occasional critical attack bonus is probably surpassed by 17(23) attack, maybe 3 fSTR, and 5%+ (to dDEX) that Iga Ningi +2 provides.

[Faule]

Good call, I think I'm gonna gank that setup with a bit of a change... no maat's cap.

[Alderin]

Mojo,

You obviously know what you are talking about -

However being a single hit ws, doesn't Blade: Hi already get a crit hit and accuracy bonus? I can understand where your coming from and the math side of the game is the part I hate doing, so please do correct me if I am wrong here. I thought the general rule for what is technically "correct" in a sense is to basically do this:

Single Hit WS = Stack on loads of modifiers
Multi-hit WS = Stack on loads of attack & accuracy.

As I said, please do correct me if I am wrong about this.

*edit* Just re-read your post and saw you mention DA. I only just found out recently that DA can proc during a WS which I never knew til a few weeks ago. That's why you get those random crazy damage weapon skills. Valid point and never thought about DA.

[Faule]

The first hit of any weapon skill gains the accuracy bonus. I'm pretty sure that's what ended up as the consensus.

The stack on loads of mods came from not 'needing' accuracy. And the most popular one hit weapon skills come with an inherent attack->defense bonus. So all that's left for them is to load mods. Blade: Hi does not gain such an attack bonus as far as I can tell.

The biggest bonus is the crit hit on the main hit. And as Mojo stated with the gear choices. It's not a bad idea to gear toward that.

[Orenwald]

I notice everyone says they wear that Crit Damage Tathlum... does this mean I'm the only NIN left in the game who still uses Ungur? XD

[Alderin]

I notice everyone says they wear that Crit Damage Tathlum... does this mean I'm the only NIN left in the game who still uses Ungur? XD

I still use it :P you're not alone in this world.

[Alderin]

The first hit of any weapon skill gains the accuracy bonus. I'm pretty sure that's what ended up as the consensus.

The stack on loads of mods came from not 'needing' accuracy. And the most popular one hit weapon skills come with an inherent attack->defense bonus. So all that's left for them is to load mods. Blade: Hi does not gain such an attack bonus as far as I can tell.

The biggest bonus is the crit hit on the main hit. And as Mojo stated with the gear choices. It's not a bad idea to gear toward that.

Ah yep fair call. I have quite a bit of attk and crit hit gear from a few of my other jobs that I will test when the game goes live again.

Interesting none the less.

[Orenwald]

I still use it :P you're not alone in this world.

huzzah, I feel less bad now. I haven't even bothered to get that Tathlum because it doesn't have EVA+8 nor can I throw it @.@