Relic Adjustments - The balancing act

[Fredjan]

Honestly, one thing I wouldn't mind seeing is the ability to have the ToAU and later jobs be given the ability use relics. As is, Blue Mages, Corsairs, Puppetmasters, Dancers, and Scholars only have mythics/empyreans. I suppose they have their reasons as to why they aren't on relics, but I digress.

Ragnarok - This Great Sword has probably improved the most of any relic weapon in the trials from 75 to 90. It still has some fundamental flaws though, mostly with the weaponskill Scourge.
* Scourge must be allowed to critical hit.
* Scourge's aftermath should be +20% Critical hit rate.
* Change Scourge's modifiers to 40% STR / 40% INT. I'm going to take this moment to admonish you for ever making them CHR and MND. Poor Dark Knights, have they not suffered enough?

I concur. I don't get why a WS can improve a critical hit rate, yet it doesn't crit on its own, not to mention the WS modifiers.

Apocalypse - This relic has taken the hardest fall on the route to 90, both because Dark Knight became less desirable and because Haste became much more readily available. I used to love having Apocalypses in my party when meritting at 75 because I barely ever had to cure them. I have two proposals that should completely reverse this:
* Make the 10% Haste from Catastrophe's Aftermath count as Job Ability haste instead of gear Haste (Sorry, Desperate Blows)
* Change Catastrophe's mods from 40%INT/40% AGI to 40%INT/40%STR.

Yet again, I concur. 40% AGI? A DRK doesn't gear for AGI, much like they don't gear for CHR (See Ragnarok). As you said, yeah, DRK can barely benefit from Catastrophe's aftermath as things are now. I'm more likely to bring INT gear than I am to ever bring MND let alone AGI or CHR. Sure, MND is a Guillotine modifier, but I just take care of that by trying to avoid MND-.

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.

Seriously, AGI mod and shock spikes made me wonder, and I'm not even a Dragoon.

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.
* Make Randgrith's Shield Break effect very accurate.

I wouldn't mind seeing this get adjusted. As is, Mjollnir is the best weapon to melee with regardless on WHM. It is better than Empyrean because the aftermath from using Dagan isn't worth taking advantage of due to Dagan doing no damage, and given Hexa Strike's potential it isn't worth giving up damage for.

I also don't think Mjollnir should be given cure potency. It isn't designed with mage like benefits in mind. Yagrush would be more likely to get it, and as things are, it really isn't necessary.

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 +60% magic damage, +60 Magic Accuracy, and Avatar Perpetuation Cost -6 to the level 90 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).

Mage stats are something we'd more likely see improvement on with the mage mythics, but I agree regardless. CHR as a mod makes me laugh... no BLM or SMN is going to gear for Charisma just like DRK wouldn't for Scourge.

Gjallarhorn - Doesn't really need an update.

Agreed. Sure, the biggest benefit of this relic isn't as beneficial in Abyssea - MP is nearly infinite and I could cure on my Bard with minimal problems, but people need to remember that endgame content won't stay in Abyssea. Anytime I gear BRD in Abyssea, it's for yellow !! triggers more than the songs. Sure, they still help, just not as much.

And when it comes to Daurdabla, answering a different poster - you only need it on when you're casting the third song. You can still use different instruments to cast the other two songs. You just won't get the 3rd song if Daurdabla isn't equipped.

[Kirschy]

Agreed. Sure, the biggest benefit of this relic isn't as beneficial in Abyssea - MP is nearly infinite and I could cure on my Bard with minimal problems, but people need to remember that endgame content won't stay in Abyssea. Anytime I gear BRD in Abyssea, it's for yellow !! triggers more than the songs. Sure, they still help, just not as much.

And when it comes to Daurdabla, answering a different poster - you only need it on when you're casting the third song. You can still use different instruments to cast the other two songs. You just won't get the 3rd song if Daurdabla isn't equipped.

I feel the biggest increase with Lv90 Gjallar atm is the extra +1 to March. The exclusiveness to Lv90 Gjallar probably won't last long, but as it stands now, it's an extra ~3% Haste if you're not using SV. (Although if you're using SV your best combo is probably March+Minuet and Lv90 Gjallar offers 1% extra haste during that SV combo.)

I'm sure many will argue that between restore chests, and the attack delay cap being relatively easy to hit on jobs like MNK, NIN, and DNC, that the extra +1 march isn't as useful as a Daurdabla. And their arguments would be completely valid. I still feel like I'm getting an exclusive relic boost when using marches on my BRD!

[Forevergogo]

"Gjallarhorn - Doesn't really need an update."

WHAT?!
We've entered the stage of +3 and +4 instruments.
I'd like a relic to surpass that a bit. Oh sure, it saves inventory space...
But I'd rather have more bang than more bag space.

When it is fully upgraded through magian is it then worth using for more than lullaby.
I'd rather use elegy+3 until the final magian upgrade (at the moment).

Seriously, when it finishes upgrading in dynamis- I'd like to see it do +3 to all songs.
Upgrades could keep adding more +singing and +wind and +Chr, and perhaps the final upgrade up to +4 to all songs.
Or instead of +4, -% song casting time.

But really, by the time we're lvl99, I'm forseeing instruments that cover 2 songs at +3 each.
All my old instruments are gonna go bye-bye in favor of these, and I still got my pwnsome requiem flute for +4 requiem!

Considering the time and work put into getting a dynamis item finished... then through all the magian upgrades,
It HAS to be more than +3. Cause in the end, all you're working so hard for is some +skill. We have AF3 and merits for that.