Adoulin: Scrolls of Instant Protect

[Babekeke]

Reaction: goes to nearest field manual and gets Protect V for 10 tabs.

Field Manuals only give Protect IV. However, when doing Dynamis, I always get pro/shell 4 from FM before entering, which easily lasts long enough to get the TEs done, as that's when you're most likely to get links, particularly the TE5 in the DC mobs.

This scroll is nice to have around as a backup though, for if you get a bad pull after pro 4 has dropped off. I imagine that this will work with sheltered ring too, for an extra few def.

[Muras]

Field Manuals only give Protect IV. However, when doing Dynamis, I always get pro/shell 4 from FM before entering, which easily lasts long enough to get the TEs done, as that's when you're most likely to get links, particularly the TE5 in the DC mobs.

This scroll is nice to have around as a backup though, for if you get a bad pull after pro 4 has dropped off. I imagine that this will work with sheltered ring too, for an extra few def.

It's actually Protect V. I tested it on my SCH; 175 DEF from Pro V the spell, 175 DEF from field manual Protect. I'm pretty sure Field Manual Shell is Shell V too (Although a bit harder to test of course).

I believe at one point it was stuck at Protect IV when they cap increased from 75 to 80, but it's been Protect V for quite a while. Was only an update or two after the 80 cap increase when they fixed it (Of course was only 60 DEF back then).

[Umichi]

I wonder if players could just start offering to pay Scholars in town for Perpetuance-ProtV/ShellV. Kind of like the way Jeuno Taxi used to work.

i do that occasionally... not scholars per-se but ive payed for buffs before

[Umichi]

Unfortunately FFXI is simply number crunching in the end. Hence why drg no matter how well geared, well played, etc. will always do less dmg than a similarly geared/skilled person. It is because it was designed that way. I love the job to death which is why I made a gungnir despite I KNEW it was inferior to other "legendary" weapons and that it would ultimately change NOTHING about how I played drg at all. Because of love my job I gear myself fairly well barring salvage 2.0 and delve boss win stuff. Back on topic.

I'm curious as friend of a game designer whom we frequently chat about all levels of game design, what went through the thoughts of the Devs when they made this item and whether or not they actually intended us to even use it.

It's only number crunching because a mojority of people have defined it as so. Drg from the get go wasn't designed as a full DD otherwise it would've been on par with war sam and man y other jobs with specialities for damage.... How does someone similarly geared and skilled as me do more than me? unless your implying other jobs in which case please look to my second sentence

[OmnysValefor]

Doesn't matter how DRG was designed, it's still mathable.

Suppose combat-gear-swapping wasn't allowed and ninja's nukes hit hard enough, and weren't resisted, so that by casting ninjutsu, they were a competitive DD (not asking for this, not at all--could make the same scenario with DRK but it's even more laughable). There would always be a mathed out build for how much melee stats this poor ninja wanted, how much MAB he wanted. For simplicity's sake, an MAB:Accuracy:Crit:Haste ratio going in all four directions would be mathed just so people knew before the math people went so far as to post best builds.

Point is, doesn't matter if drg started to be a 2h'er that was a bit-more special snowflake, special snowflakes still will always have best in slot builds.

As in all things, either the choice matters, and there's a best choice, or it doesn't matter and there's no choice at all (some merit categories have unbeatable choices, while others don't matter further than 5/10).

[Godofgods]

I hadn't even bothered checking for the scrolls they mentioned a while back. But to hear they are selling pro3 scrolls for 1k bayld is utterly hysterical. I doubt i would even pay 100 for it, much less 1k lol

[Umichi]

hf not paying then

[Umichi]

Literally have the cap, which is not good, that lowers your damage by a large amount. So far as SAM sub goes, no, it has nothing to do with subbing SAM, WAR, or anything else. Enhances effects are not influenced by having the stat already. You can wear Brutal Earring on any job with any sub and still get full benefits of +5% Double Attack even though it says 'Enhances Double Attack' and the same goes for these legs, so long as you wear them, you get the effects that the 'Enhances Zanshin' effect gives, the exact % however, I do not know. The only stat that 'Enhances blah' does not still grant is Dual Wield, so far as I know any other stat is given with or without already having said stat.

Why? Because they give a nice amount of Haste, you have to ask yourself how much damage you gain from using the legs you currently do to TP in vs how much you gain with that Haste. The Haste would mean faster attack, thus faster WSs, and overall more damage in the end because of that reason. The Fast Cast is never a necessity, but it is helpful, you point out the spells you cast are either super fast or you can have the mob attack your wyvern, but what about recast? What about spells that take longer? What if Aquaveil wears during a fight because you got hit while casting to often? Things can happen here which make those helpful.

This makes no sense, you do not like getting rid of accuracy, something you have an overly high abundance of since you have +60 from traits alone. That's not counting the accuracy on your gear, the fact you get to main a A+ ranked weapon as your primary weapon(unlike DRK), and the fact you are probably not fighting to hard of NMs I would assume. All in all, this -10 Accuracy should be nothing to worry about, the only time you should ever care about it is a case in which Accuracy truly becomes an issue for DRG, at which time, there are 3 other options here I gave you which have no Accuracy penalties.

What? They give you 3% Haste, which is nice, about the same as all of the other options I gave you, on top of that, they have 2% Double Attack as well as 2% Triple Attack. These stats are basically saying you get 2 more attacks for every 100 attacks you do, and 4 more attacks for every 100 attacks you do, why? Simple, 2% Double Attack means 2% of the time you will hit twice, as such, 2 out of every 100 attacks you get an extra attack, meaning, 2 extra hits every 100 attacks, the same goes for Triple Attacks except its 2 extra hits instead of 1.

Simply put, it is because they give 4% Haste as well as some potential other stats like Accuracy, STR, DEX, and so on, all of which are great stats. Now, do they win for WS? No, like every single option here except the 1 I have yet to cover, they have no real WS stats at all, in fact, this is why you should swap them out when WSing. I assumed you would be doing this, in which case, the Haste easily pushes the rest of these options to the top because the more hits you do in less time means faster WSs and higher overall damage in the end.

If you would need another piece take the hands, they are great too, but in the end you do not need the set bonus, its nice, yes, but in the end it is just what it says, a bonus. It is another one of the many things which are not necessities to use the gear, and again, yes, these are not good for WSing, but in the end the damage would be higher even if you WSed in these. The reason why the damage would be higher if you WSed in these even is because on top of the dDEX potentially effecting your crit rate from the 8DEX these give your getting roughly 2fSTR from the 8STR, 6 Attack from the 8STR, and STR is the modifier on your WS. If you use Drakesbane then you get a boost on crits from the DEX just like on normal hits which makes it even better. On top of all of that, the Triple Attack can proc on the WS, meaning you get a chance at your WS spiking quite high on damage if that kicks in, but since it most of the time wont its not really a primary selling point. Besides all of this which is already meaning they are fairly good legs, they have the largest amount of Haste a DRG can get on legs, and would make your Attack Speed much higher!

I hope I accurately explained why each of these are better choices for TPing. While you do get some more damage per hit from those legs you use now, they are much slower, which means larger gaps between WSs and also slower attacks overall. Think of it this way, if you attack for 100 damage every 6 seconds, but I attack for 80 every 4 seconds. You might hit for more per hit, but in overall damage you are doing less, that is basically what the difference is between what you are using now, and what I am saying are better options.

unfortunately you didn't sell me on these I don't have a "WS" set, I don't have a "TP" set, I have my gear which i play in that uses some pieces as a switch in for things like healing breath, or angon, or smiting breathand yes some pieces for ws'ing..but really that's only a belt. IDK my acc but i know i have alot in my gear and even with all the gear I have I'm still missing Transcendental scorpion; with carbonara even and it was still to much and that was my first run in with delve NMs.... so shedding more in exchange for more hits is a no thanks for me period because I shudder at my ability to even hit higher up NM's once I aquire more suitable gear, as far as other mobs go I try to keep my targets in the tough+ range when soloing, so you'll often find me in such zones toraimorai is a good example or audolin... audolin has been so fun... been trying to take on VT mobs solo lately It's been pretty fun and good experience.

as far as drakesbane, I use it but out of all my ws's I'd say I punch it probably 60-80% of the time,

anI hit for more and i take less hate for it inbetween attacks.... I like that style.... this game isn't all about damage damage damage.. i mean sure it is to an extent but cmon.......... why does everything have to be about maximising damage potential especially when drg isn't even considered a Full fledged DD, such as sam or war, or drk... I like my utility ty

[Umichi]

Firstly math is not hypothetical. math is a fact. Like many things in life, MMO's boil down to mathmatical formula. in FFXI, there are known equations and formulas for devising the best possible sets. This includes TP and WS for maximizing white damage and WS damage. These are not elitist opinions, these are truths with you cannot avoid anymore so than you can avoid your own death.

Yes it is, quantum physics wishes to speak with you. and players use mathmatics in the game to make hypothetical assumptions, I never mentioned anywhere where you quoted me that I was attacking mathmatics

When I give someone gear advice, I always try to make it a note to say, Do it for yourself. Don't do it cause i said so, Don't do it cause someone called you gimp... Do it for yourself. Take pride in being a DRG, be the best GD DRG you can. You think i made a Mandau because I wanted to look cool? Hell no, If i wanted to Bandwagon a free ride to mediocrity with false sense of superiority I'd jump on a RNG or PLD Relic and act hot... No, I made Mandau because I love THF, and I wanted it for myself, I wanted to improve my favorite job... I mean, Mandau sucks now and THF is dead so I quit FFXI like a bad habit, But thats not here nor there.

I take pride in my job as it is and I honestly think I am a great Drg.... are you implying I don't and am not because my gear is not on par with what the Mainstrem thought process is as to how a damage dealer should be.... who says drg has to focus on DD... the have acess to refresh pieces, a really nice cheap high potentcy cure, decent gear for damage and can stay OOR and drop jump on the target until they see a chance to move in for a WS

Honestly, When it comes to gearing... I don't mind if people want to play for fun, Its their right and its their choice... But what it comes down to is Gear sets aren't optional to be a good player, Capping Haste/Acc, and having a good WS Set aren't optional either. If you want to forego those and you can still enjoy that, gear... You can make their own beds, all I ask is you sleep in it. When i see people complaining about elitists to me its just a warning sign of someone whos too lazy to take the initiative or to the effort to be better, and just look for more reasons and excuses to push off realizing the problem is themselves.

I don't complain about elitests.... I detest their mindframe and the way they've distorted the game, and from that fact I base my ideals off of them, and use that as my basis for complaint... IDC if they are gettin epic lewtz, I do care about how they use spreadsheets and mathatical assumptions to base the games entire endgame off of it... I admit I am lazy....

But I'm never mad at an elitest for who they are I'm mad at them for what they've shaped this world to be with no responsible acknowledgement to normal or casual players ( and sometimes rule abiding players, I'm looking at you third party tools)

Now, He has more than fullfilled this for you. When you deny his answer it fuels his reasoning for writing you off. You're appearing as someone who's just been unequivically proven wrong and just goes into a Shameful Hate/Denial Spiral thats really akin to watching a train wreck, I mean, You're unable to believe that you're watching it happen... but ya can't look away cause you don't know if you'll ever see it happen again... morbid yes but the point is clear, its attracting negative attention and I don't want that for you as you at least seem to have some reason inside of you, which is why I'm bothering to type this.

so what he says is fact and I should follow him blindly; because aparantly IDK better by your standards..... And i don't deny his answers I provide my own to retort his comments.

This style of play hasn't been reasonable in FFXI since the dawn of ToAU. Your job as a DD is to DD, your Tanks job is to not be invited or switch to a DD job, your Healers job is to make sure you stay alive long enough to DD. Thats the game. The only change to this is Delve Megabosses, at least Shark/Bee. Its just not something that's common place, and its not much smart play.

yeah that's centric MMO/rpg style thinking... FFXI has always tried breaking free of such stereotypes..

Unless you're sure your mages are terrible, then you should probably invest in a Hybrid Set (Read: Haste/DT-%).

not everything is solved by creating a new set.. and I don't want to spend 10 minutes gearing up because i need multiple sets for different occasions

Anyway, With that out of the way, I don't want this to feel like I'm ganging up on you with Demon, Know i'm acting separately and alone... I just wanted to say again, If you do something, do it for yourself. If you want to stay at your 13% Haste/HybridWS/AllAround set and continue to be mediocre and terrible, Which I'm sorry if this offends but it is entirely the truth in FFXI where there is no Skill, only cold hard mathematical formulas, Then you are welcome to do so and to hell with me and Demons opinion, Its your life, your money, and your choice...

But if you are really as reasonable as i suspect, take his advice, and mine. Make a TP set, make a WS set, and go from there, Its not much, but its acceptable enough that you'll be left out of very few events, and you'll probably be happy at how well you can do... I believe in you, take the step, and become a great DRG, for yourself.

Goodluck!

I don't see you as attacking me, but I find some of your statements flawed, like calling me medicore and terrible for choosing how i wish to play...There is skill to this game it's just been lost to zerg tactics over the years because of human ingenuity, everyday i take your guy's advice in hand the mathmatics (while i choose not to delve into the deeper parts of it) you provide for information such as what sort of attack ill get from adding this much str and etc etc and i look at the gears i can go through and I find what I want to use and use it.. I also read about how you take down monsters what sort of info you've gleaned from them etc etc... (sadly that info is starting to dwindle... I use bg but its been failing me a bit because it doesn't have discussion pages and going to the forums makes me sick x.x) I also use FFXIah, So it's not like I'm just hurrdurring my way through the game I finding viable gear choices for the style I wish to play (which sadly is very much adapted for aliance play but gets little attention because all anyone cares about is DD DD DD DD DD....... I'm a great mele party healer, add handler, and well versed in the arts of DD and what that implies in the broader spectrum of taking down an enemy monster in an MMO setting...

Until you understand that this isn't just your game it's everyones and we all play under the same roof and as such we shouldn't be kicked to the ground because in your eyes we are "Terrible", you'll never understand the mind frame I have towards such things as mainly subbing whm, or trying to find that great piece of gear I always wanted *drools at gungnir*

[Umichi]

Doesn't matter how DRG was designed, it's still mathable.

Suppose combat-gear-swapping wasn't allowed and ninja's nukes hit hard enough, and weren't resisted, so that by casting ninjutsu, they were a competitive DD (not asking for this, not at all--could make the same scenario with DRK but it's even more laughable). There would always be a mathed out build for how much melee stats this poor ninja wanted, how much MAB he wanted. For simplicity's sake, an MAB:Accuracy:Crit:Haste ratio going in all four directions would be mathed just so people knew before the math people went so far as to post best builds.

Point is, doesn't matter if drg started to be a 2h'er that was a bit-more special snowflake, special snowflakes still will always have best in slot builds.

As in all things, either the choice matters, and there's a best choice, or it doesn't matter and there's no choice at all (some merit categories have unbeatable choices, while others don't matter further than 5/10).

I concur but it's how players use these mathmatics that has cause trouble.... I know I'm sure I even have mathed up my drg build but idk anything about spreadhseets or stuff like that so I just go off of experience..