Bard Novus / What does Determination do? ._.

I am basically looking for information for my friend who will get her Novus before me but I will also later get one. We both play bard.

I was totally thinking it will be a Crit.Hit/DET combo but then Mr. Happy video told her she should go Crit.Hit/ACC and I'm like uuugh.. I don't even know if he's always right.

Plus, to this day I haven't figured out how awesome or not awesome DET is. I know it affects..everything? But HOW MUCH? :/ Any ideas?

PS. Sorry for being a n00b.

Unless you have accuracy issues, Crit+Det is always gonna win out over Acc+anything.

The following dates back to 2.0, and may have changed. But in general, it's been said that:

1 DET is equivalent to 0.22 base stat (STR/DEX/INT/MND)
1 Crit is equivalent to 0.16 base stat (there is a catch here)
1 SS is equivalent to 0.146 base stat

Assuming stats and weapon damage are the same, total DPS comes down "only slightly" to how you stack these 3.

Melee/brd tends to focus on DET because of auto-attack to make every attack hits for more.

SMN/BLM however need Crit more because of DoTs stacking and no auto-attacks. Every DoT tick has a chance to proc a critical hit and it happens more often than auto-attacks, so the difference between DET and Crit pays off.

So like others have said, unless you are missing your targets, for BRDs probably definitely go DET/CRIT.

But keep in mind these are quite negligible, really...
base stat + weapon is more important than everything else

if it means anything to you, you can put more than just two stats on the scroll.

the reason he said crit/acc is because with more acc it will allow you to prepare for upcoming acc caps on content. also the fact that you have higher acc on your wep you can change up your build to include non acc items and more det/dex/crit.

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Originally Posted by UNSF

1 DET is equivalent to 0.22 base stat (STR/DEX/INT/MND)
1 Crit is equivalent to 0.16 base stat (there is a catch here)
1 SS is equivalent to 0.146 base stat

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They're different for all classes but for the most part for Bard:

1 Det = .318 Dex
1 Crit = .315 Dex
1 SkS = .146 Dex

Then for Monk/Dragoon (in this order) as a comparison:

1 Det = .332 STR
1 Crit = .187 STR
1 SkS = .187 STR

1 Det = .325 STR
1 Crit = .204 STR
1 SkS = .178 STR

May as well go the rest of the mile with BLM and SMN

1 Det = .2 INT
1 Crit = .26 INT
1 SpS = .258 INT

1 Det = .283 INT
1 Crit = .211 INT
1 SpS = .094 INT

MyHappy is pretty terrible at playing BRD, so I wouldn't really listen to what he has to say. I try to avoid his videos whenever possible b/c it's hard not to cringe while watching them. As with every patch... there will be new accuracy gear, so his argument really makes no sense. You can easily cap accuracy with melds on the new crafted gear that will be released with every patch (if nothing else).

You can upgrade more than 2 stats, it just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it. You could get your novus with a single materia on it so far as I understand the process, you'll just have crap secondary stats. Maxing out more stats = that many more alexandrites and materia you will need, but that much more powerful a weapon when you're done. You can go up to 75 melds and you can spend them in any allocation that you want. I would assume with 75 available melds you could max out 4-5 stats completely. So do DET/CRIT/ACC/SS and whatever the heck else you want to put onto it. No need to lock yourself in a corner with just two.

May be those data about det crit compare to main stat need to change now. From estimate test, it doesn't seem to work like that anymore. Look like crit is way more weight than det in all class now.

I'll just be the one to say it.. One persons "How To" video isn't the end all, be all. It simply is THEIR OWN version of what they feel you should do. Your character, your weapon, your decision what you do. Add different gear together, maybe that outcome is better for you. Following a slate laid out for you is just a bit of a mindless reaction when someone says "Hey, I did this, so everyone else in the game should too!"

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Originally Posted by Truefaith87

I'll just be the one to say it.. One persons "How To" video isn't the end all, be all. It simply is THEIR OWN version of what they feel you should do. Your character, your weapon, your decision what you do. Add different gear together, maybe that outcome is better for you. Following a slate laid out for you is just a bit of a mindless reaction when someone says "Hey, I did this, so everyone else in the game should too!"

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Yeah it's annoying how so many people think what comes from Mr Happy's mouth is the law.

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Originally Posted by Alise

May be those data about det crit compare to main stat need to change now. From estimate test, it doesn't seem to work like that anymore. Look like crit is way more weight than det in all class now.

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Umm. . .do you have some math to back this up? Because everything I've seen since they finally hammered out the details on DET says that DET is better point-for-point.

No need to slander Mr. Happy. OP misunderstand what he said.

MrHappy said he already has the turn 9 weapon so he doesn't care much for his novus. So he's gonna put this and that on it. He never said "you should do this" or "these are the best stats to put on it"

It's pretty obvious 44 crit and 31 determination is best. But... that requires literally millions of gil to buy the tier IVs. So unless you're super rich, it ain't happening.

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Originally Posted by Kat_Manx

I was totally thinking it will be a Crit.Hit/DET combo but then Mr. Happy video told her she should go Crit.Hit/ACC and I'm like uuugh.. I don't even know if he's always right.

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There is your friends problem, she is listening to Mr. Happy. While the guy knows a thing or two here or there. He isn't the end all be all when it comes to knowledge about this game. For example he has video's explaining what RACE is best for any given class, when once you get to level 50, the stats differential for each race is nearly inconsequential. This isn't Final Fantasy XI, where racial stats actually scale as you level.

Point is, if you want to live a happy life, and enjoy the game, don't listen to Mr. Happy.

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Originally Posted by UNSF

Melee/brd tends to focus on DET because of auto-attack to make every attack hits for more.

SMN/BLM however need Crit more because of DoTs stacking and no auto-attacks. Every DoT tick has a chance to proc a critical hit and it happens more often than auto-attacks, so the difference between DET and Crit pays off.

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Er... except Bard needs to maximize Crit for the simple reason of maximizing the number of Bloodletters they get off which is only possible if their DoT's are criting.

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Originally Posted by Legacy_Wolfwood

the reason he said crit/acc is because with more acc it will allow you to prepare for upcoming acc caps on content. also the fact that you have higher acc on your wep you can change up your build to include non acc items and more det/dex/crit.

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Mr. Happy is assuming by saying that, that we won't be getting new item level 115 Armor with the next content update that has accuracy on it.

Thank you all for your help, and it has indeed been helpful. ^_^

However I'd like to point out two things.

1. I have no idea what Mr. Happy really said, I didn't watch the video, my friend did.
2. As much as I bet anyone would like to do as they want in this game, if you don't follow the herd, you get verbally abused. So best know what the herd wants.

LMAO mr ****** (can't put what i really think of him lol) whined and cried and screamed because someone out there was making better video's then his and was trying to get the guy banned for ULA etc. And to be honest the guy was a lot more informative not as whiny or arrogant. but one of the best video tutorial guys on youtube was sheepheadcg !! if you never seen his stuff it would be worth checking out not sure if he is even playing anymore but u can see quality difference!

http://www.youtube.com/user/SheepheadCG

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Originally Posted by LunarEmerald

It's pretty obvious 44 crit and 31 determination is best. But... that requires literally millions of gil to buy the tier IVs. So unless you're super rich, it ain't happening.

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Or, you could do what the smart people do and actually craft gear and then spirit bond it in order to convert it into Materia. Yes it takes longer to do, but it is loads, and loads cheaper than actually wasting millions of gil to buy the Tier IV's XD

I'm personally going with crit/det on my bow. I don't currently have a coil group due to work schedule so I know my gear isn't BiS, but of what I do have I'm well past acc cap for current content, a large majority of the soldiery gear for bard has acc on it so I'd rather put the points into something else.

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Originally Posted by Kayvindra

I'm personally going with crit/det on my bow. I don't currently have a coil group due to work schedule so I know my gear isn't BiS, but of what I do have I'm well past acc cap for current content, a large majority of the soldiery gear for bard has acc on it so I'd rather put the points into something else.

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Don't forget to take into account the 40 accuracy loss if you're using animus.

Also you'll take another big accuracy loss from the pants of turn 8. The pants have amazing crit but no accuracy. Bards that use rosoenbogen have a dilemma in finding ways to keep their accuracy up while using those pants.

Eh maybe I will keep the acc on it then. I don't have a coil group and probably won't have one anytime soon because of work, unless I can find a group willing to just go on weekends, and even then I don't know if I'm willing to give up the few nights I have to do stuff with my bf to raid.

I was thinking about going 33crit 23det 19acc Im still learning things about the game, plz let me know if you think that is a good overall build for my bard novus wep.

Thanks for all the help!

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Originally Posted by vedobsu

I was thinking about going 33crit 23det 19acc Im still learning things about the game, plz let me know if you think that is a good overall build for my bard novus wep.

Thanks for all the help!

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That's the set up that doesn't require millions of gil for tier ivs. It's personally what I'm going for. Because as a bard, any extra bit of accuracy helps. 31 determination and 44 critical rate will give the most dps but you'd only see an increase of 1-2%.

awesome, thanks for the input!

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Originally Posted by vedobsu

I was thinking about going 33crit 23det 19acc Im still learning things about the game, plz let me know if you think that is a good overall build for my bard novus wep.

Thanks for all the help!

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It's a pretty nice plan. What I would go with for BRD if was still maining. On MNK i'm going 33 crit 23 det 19 skill speed. BiS for MNK is based around the ilvl 115 weapon, so with not putting acc on Novus I can gear up with BiS from second coil and not after switcharoo around when I finally get my hands on the 115 weapon :)

Thats when the rest of teh turns decide to stop dropping caster loot every week! XD

thank you for your help!

Hover over determination in your character stat menu and it tells you what it does.