Warrior Merits

[Arcon]

he also left out any form of tping time with zerk / warcry up and down during the issuing tp phase's. you would have to take the same math you just used and apply it to a 5hit war with 25% haste, or a 6 hit war with 25 % haste ,then factor in the damage and durrations of all melee hits and ws's with stacked and without stacked. so until you do all of the above your math is still wroung.

My math isn't wrong, it's incomplete. Yes, I didn't consider Warcry during the TP phase, because I was only looking at the Berserk part. I said how Berserk alone affected the result, and for that it's 100% accurate. The funny thing is (and if you paid attention to my post, you would have noticed, because that was the core statement I made in that long post) that considering Warcry, Berserk merits matter even less during the TP phase. Why? Because it reduces the Attack bonus you would receive from using merited Berserk alone from 3% to 2.2%, making it even less significant (as I calculated above).

And Haste and x-hit setups have no effect whatsoever on the results, since I was going by evenly distributed number of attacks/WSs, and neither Haste nor x-hit builds change that distribution. You'd still do x% of WS during Berserk, y% during Warcry, z% during both and t% during neither. So the relations are all the same, thus the math doesn't change at all. If anything, you'll strive to do most WS during a highly buffed phase (as in, you'll try to get as many WS in during the Mighty Strikes phase as possible), which would count in favor of synchronised abilities, and hence against meriting Berserk.

Also, I was always under the impression its not best to stack them, but to use warcry when berserk is down.

If you look at the boost WS receive, you wanna go with higher Attack at once, it will beat spreading lower Attack out over longer periods (especially if you stack more abilities that profit from each other). The actual Attack bonus they receive over time (average Attack) is exactly the same, since Warcry and Berserk simple add up the percentage they give. Berserk being 25% bonus, Warcry being ~9% bonus, together they simply add up to a ~34% bonus. Here's a detailed example showing the results (500 base Attack).

Berserk + Warcry
40s Berserk + Warcry = 669
140s Berserk only = 625
120s nothing = 500
Total time: 300s
Average Attack: 40/300 * 669 + 140/300 * 625 + 120/300 * 500 = 580.87

Berserk > Warcry
180s Berserk only = 625
40s Warcry only = 544
80s nothing = 500
Total time: 300s
Average Attack: 180/300 * 625 + 40/300 * 544 + 80/300 * 500 = 580.87

So the average attack you receive is the same over any number of cycles. If you're zerging, you obviously want to stack them regardless, since it likely won't even exceed the three minutes of Berserk. Otherwise you receive the same average Attack boost either way. However, as I mentioned before, if you stack them, your WS will increase more in numbers, especially if you stack them with more abilities. Here's the simple example I gave before, 400 damage vs 600 damage receiving a 20% boost:

400*1.2 = 480 (80 extra damage)
600*1.2 = 720 (120 extra damage)

While it was the same boost, the latter example received a higher bonus, 40 more damage than the other version (that's not counting the already higher damage due to higher base, simply the extra damage the second option gets).

[hiko]

My math isn't wrong, it's incomplete.[...]

So the average attack you receive is the same over any number of cycles. If you're zerging, you obviously want to stack them regardless, since it likely won't even exceed the three minutes of Berserk. Otherwise you receive the same average Attack boost either way. However, as I mentioned before, if you stack them, your WS will increase more in numbers, especially if you stack them with more abilities. Here's the simple example I gave before, 400 damage vs 600 damage receiving a 20% boost:

400*1.2 = 480 (80 extra damage)
600*1.2 = 720 (120 extra damage)

but in situation where stacking put you over pdiff cap not stacking is better

[Babekeke]

If anything, you'll strive to do most WS during a highly buffed phase (as in, you'll try to get as many WS in during the Mighty Strikes phase as possible), which would count in favor of synchronised abilities, and hence against meriting Berserk.

Surely by this statement, what you're saying is that we should try to get berserk timer as close as possible to meditate timer?

Let's face it, there is no 1 best way to do this. If you stack all of your war 5 min timers up, you lose out on meditate, either using it during the non-buffed phase, or by waiting the extra 50s until next buffed phase so you can use it.

I personally went 5/5 aggressor, but that's ONLY because I levelled war as a skill up job, so reducing eva to let EP mandies hit me easier so I can retalliate them means I get more skill ups

Other factors for deciding are... if you're in a zerg/battlefield that might last 5 mins, surely it's better to get the extra 50s of berserk before you finish?

It's all situational for what you're doing and where you are. I always find myself in a situation where I wish I had merited differently (on all my jobs) and for now, we just live with it.

[Arcon]

Or if you really believe I am wrong, then go ahead and tell me how.

Why should I tell you, when you already told yourself:

No matter what anyone says, there is no point to ever using aggressor in the first place [..]

Like I said, I've fought everything in Abyssea and always had capped accuracy [..] except on the Ladybug NM in Altep and a handful of other seal NMs that have particularly high evasion.

And Byrth told you as well:

[..] Aggressor [..] doesn't improve your damage at all on 99% of the monsters in Abyssea. [..] I can think of [monsters] where it probably helps.

Also, Babekeke told you before you even replied:

I personally went 5/5 aggressor, [..] reducing eva to let EP mandies hit me easier so I can retalliate them

[Leonlionheart]

@ Arcon:

So I should merit Aggressor for the 3 situations that it helps? Rather than merit Berserk for the EVERY situation that it helps?

Now you just sound silly.