How2LNC the Carraway Way

I don't save my stronghold parses because lol, strongholds, but:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1...111020kill.jpg

This is by no means representative of the best we can do, but it's an average Ifrit kill with an average amount of Crimson Cyclones. Blindside is the predominant factor in determining overall crit rate because you can force crits on all of your Chaos Thrust hits. The Harpoon that placed lower than Hart +2 is due to player error, not the weapon. I'm using this parse simply to demonstrate that Hart +2 does not magically have insanely higher crit rate or overall damage output just because it has materia in it. Going from zero Savage Might to one Savage Might III/IV does not boost crit rate by an observable amount, nor does going from one to two.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by carraway

I don't save my stronghold parses because lol, strongholds, but:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1...111020kill.jpg

This is by no means representative of the best we can do, but it's an average Ifrit kill with an average amount of Crimson Cyclones. Blindside is the predominant factor in determining overall crit rate because you can force crits on all of your Chaos Thrust hits. The Harpoon that placed lower than Hart +2 is due to player error, not the weapon. I'm using this parse simply to demonstrate that Hart +2 does not magically have insanely higher crit rate or overall damage output just because it has materia in it. Going from zero Savage Might to one Savage Might III/IV does not boost crit rate by an observable amount, nor does going from one to two.

---

Question, but when you reference Blindside, I assume you mean the II version? I've noticed lackluster impact with just regular Blindside (Mind you this was 1.18 Darkhold runs rockin' an ARC), or has the ability changed much in 1.19?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Belial

Question, but when you reference Blindside, I assume you mean the II version? I've noticed lackluster impact with just regular Blindside (Mind you this was 1.18 Darkhold runs rockin' an ARC), or has the ability changed much in 1.19?

---

After 1.19, Blindside I and II both force a crit on your next active attack. For Chaos Thrust, it affects all hits of Chaos Thrust.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by carraway

After 1.19, Blindside I and II both force a crit on your next active attack. For Chaos Thrust, it affects all hits of Chaos Thrust.

---

See that little tidbit wasn't post in patch notes so I was oblivious. Thanks though, I assume that the second tier has a higher crit strength? Time to level PGL.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by carraway

We've parsed strongholds and hundreds of Ifrit fights with melded Hart NQs, +1s, and a +2 vs. Ifrit's Harpoon. Base damage far outweighs any benefit from one Savage Might materia. Inflated crit rates during Ifrit fights occur due to player choice as to which WS they apply Blindside to; regular variance also applies. Savage Might definitely does not boost crit rate by 20%.

---

If all that Savage Might does is boost your crit% (not power) then how do the Sipahi Gloves hold up?

If Savage Might is a marginal gain, a what point would you consider wearing the Gloves over say Cobalt Mitt with +atk or +str?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meatdawg

If all that Savage Might does is boost your crit% (not power) then how do the Sipahi Gloves hold up?

If Savage Might is a marginal gain, a what point would you consider wearing the Gloves over say Cobalt Mitt with +atk or +str?

---

The crit materia available is for +Crit Attack, the Sipahi Gloves are for +Crit Rating. Personally I choose the Sipahi Gloves because they're currently the only option that provides Crit Rating. Whether or not that stacks well against gloves with +STR/+Attack isn't known to me. I'm sure it's similar to other situations where it's better than some, but 2, 3, 4 materia slotted may be better?

Extremely preliminary and inconclusive testing on L53 watchwolves in Natalan:

Without Sipahi Gloves: 7 out of 100 autoattacks were crits (7%)
With Sipahi Gloves: 8 out of 112 autoattacks were crits (7.1%)

No other changes in gear, stats, etc. No buffs used.

What this tells me is that 15 Crit Rate is not significant enough to be immediately observable with a small sample size. I'll do further testing with hundreds of attacks on L50 Amalj'aa Drubbers later.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by carraway

Extremely preliminary and inconclusive testing on L53 watchwolves in Natalan:

Without Sipahi Gloves: 7 out of 100 autoattacks were crits (7%)
With Sipahi Gloves: 8 out of 112 autoattacks were crits (7.1%)

No other changes in gear, stats, etc. No buffs used.

What this tells me is that 15 Crit Rate is not significant enough to be immediately observable with a small sample size. I'll do further testing with hundreds of attacks on L50 Amalj'aa Drubbers later.

---

I wonder if they are just not designed for a Lancer. To me the gloves seem more for Archer/Pug
We don't know what the innate crit rates are, but I have to assume they are not the same per class.

We do know that Mrd and Pug have weapons that have a crit rate bonus on them like the gloves, but I would hope they are better then your first test results have shown.

Updated the guide with slightly detailed notes on a few things, like various abilities and how stats work.

Still don't have any hard damage/stat formulae, and I haven't had a chance to do further testing on crit rate and STR vs. ATK, but for now, valuing STR:ATK at a 2:3 ratio seems sound based on limited parsing, testing, and just looking at the materia boosts.

Someone posted on ffxivpro that Hart Guisarme +3 is 145 base damage, falling in line with the boost from +1 to +2. With that being the case, I feel even more confident in stating that Ifrit's Harpoon is the better choice. My conjecture is that Hart +3 would need at least 3 materia to be on par with Ifrit's Harpoon, not counting the additional effect of fire damage.

This guide helped me out a lot! ^^