PvP -- BRD or ARC?

So as I've been messing around w/ stats and skills, it seems the major differences are as follows:

BRD:

• +20 dex (~2.5 weapon damage)
• Foe Requiem (specific application -- good w/ Holy, SCH DOTs)

ARC:

• MRD cross skills
  - Mercy Stroke (great finishing blow w/ Misery's End.. often denies saving cure)
  - Fracture (3rd DOT... kind of incredible when stacked)

So.. despite the dex loss, I'm actually leaning towards ARC as the preferred class at the moment, as I've dueled with comparably geared BRDs and won due to the DOTs paired with the distance damage debuff on BRD skills (i.e. DOT potency not affected).

I'd like to hear everyones feed back though. Any thoughts?

Be versatile. Know when, and with what team, you would unequip crystal. I know if any of my BRD friends went arc, I'd givem a swift boot to the ass and tellem to get requiem back up... But with all physical comps, I'd think ARC would do well.

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Originally Posted by Youmu

Be versatile. Know when, and with what team, you would unequip crystal. I know if any of my BRD friends went arc, I'd givem a swift boot to the ass and tellem to get requiem back up... But with all physical comps, I'd think ARC would do well.

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Yeah, I could see that. Unfortunately I can't find a group of PvPers to play with, so I'm trying to make the best overall decision...I'm awash in a sea of carebears.. T_T

You can remove your job crystal inside Arena. There is no reason to make an "overall decision", when you can just react to what teammates you have at the time.

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Originally Posted by Youmu

You can remove your job crystal inside Arena. There is no reason to make an "overall decision", when you can just react to what teammates you have at the time.

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No. you can't unequip your soul stone in Arena. Did you just make that up?

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Originally Posted by Hulk_Smash

No. you can't unequip your soul stone in Arena. Did you just make that up?

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You could at some point.
I think they took it away when they reduced the timer to 1 minute wait. :/

I'm not sure if the damage gain from crossclass stuff would outweigh the Dex loss.
For burst, another execute would be amazing though.

I'm on mah way to 50 bard cause BLM is boring in pve, so I'll do some experimenting when I cap.
Maybe it'll work. :D

No. Mercy Stroke doesn't make up for the lost of those Dex over the period of a fight, I'm talking even binding it where the chance of using it is 100% upon reaching 20% HP. Fracture damage is only 20 potency for 18 seconds which is very very weak. Archer's main burst power comes from Bloodletter and Barrage and it would do you better to have them hit harder.

It's the same case for THM vs BLM. Is getting Internal Release + Blood for Blood worth giving up your mitigation? In the first place using B4B is a deathwish.

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Originally Posted by TaneshimaPopura

No. Mercy Stroke doesn't make up for the lost of those Dex over the period of a fight, I'm talking even binding it where the chance of using it is 100% upon reaching 20% HP. Fracture damage is only 20 potency for 18 seconds which is very very weak. Archer's main burst power comes from Bloodletter and Barrage and it would do you better to have them hit harder.

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Not sure what you are basing this on, but it's wrong. Mercy Stroke is one of the strongest PVP abilities in the game, and being able to chain it with Misery's End within one second is devastating. Also, Fracture does 100 potency on it's initial hit, and will do more overall damage than Heavy Shot or Straight Shot.

There's also a ton of utility not even mentioned. Stoneskin is just as effective on an Archer as it is in the hands of a healer. And you can Swiftcast it every minute. Virus is great against other Bards/Melee, especially at the start where Bards pop most of their cooldowns. Eye for an Eye on the healer is pretty obvious. Even Cure can be a game changer in games where both healers are dead.

Having some extra Dexterity and HP is great and all, but it does not trump Archer utility.

You know, the update made it so smn can't raise in fights, did they do that for all classes? Having raise on Archer would be kinda broken for when the healer dies.

I have been wanting to test out archer for forever, but I don't have enough pvp pieces yet.

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Originally Posted by Allyra

You know, the update made it so smn can't raise in fights, did they do that for all classes? Having raise on Archer would be kinda broken for when the healer dies.

I have been wanting to test out archer for forever, but I don't have enough pvp pieces yet.

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You can raise but how hard it is get out from the combat.

@omniwaink

I'm basing it off experience. Sure if you have a very dependable strong burst comp go ahead and go Archer. But if you depend on whittling people down 200 potency which rarely comes by to use at a long CD doesn't serve it's purpose. Fracture sure it is strong when paired but don't forget that with every Heavy shot you don't use there is lesser chance to get Straight shot proc.

Next comes the biggest problem that is 20 + 1 Dex cause of Party bonus and the amount of Vit loss. They have so little HP that they get rolled over too quick. Sure utility side you're strong but if you don't start killing things or pressure you are going to lose no doubt about that. Also starting off the game with Paeon sprint and turn it off on engagement you can save that invigorate on everyone on your party.