MRD Builds

I'm interested to see what people are doing for builds since it seems like every MRD I know does it different.

Also if anyone wants feel free to say what your main secondary class you find yourself borrowing skills from is.

Build I'm thinking of Re-statting to (as close as possible):
STR - 120
VIT - 120
DEX - 90
INT - 15
MND - 60
PIE - 60

Previous Build:
Before

STR - 109
VIT - 106
DEX - 100
INT - 40
MND - 40
PIE - 70

Right now I'm working on CON (40), ARC (32), and PUG (28), everything else is 23-24.

I find myself with

For magic: stoneskin, cure II, sacrifice II, chainspell, raise, sleep, stygian spikes, and siphon mp.

So a nice little mix between THM and CON.

For War: broad swing, heavy swing, trammel, skull sunder II, quickstride, Defender II, Forsight II, Disorient II, Storm's Path, Warmonger (or provoke/taunt), chameleon, comrade in arms, second wind, presence of mind, and feather foot.


My current MND is at 40 so I think the additional points will help a lot, since my mp is only at 340 which is not enough to spam heals and chain spell raise to keep people alive.


But meh, hopefully it'll work out. I like my current build because it makes it easy to grind on other classes, but I think it's time for a change.

Very interested in seeing how this thread develops :)

What are you trying to do? Solo? Tank? DD?

Ah.... Just play however I want. Not aiming for anything just showing people what I'm deciding to do with my build is all. Since people keep changing their minds about how useful certain classes are or aren't ^^;;

My build is:

STR 135
VIT 80
DEX 82
INT 17
MND 80
PIE 80

Like i said in another topic here, i use a balanced allotment, with spike in STR and convertion traits depending of the class.

As actions, i had the basic attacks, maim, skull sunder and brutal swing equipped for single target, brandish and storm path for AoE combat and both foresight retaliation set, defender, bloodbath and warmonger for tanking.

From cross-class i use ARC boosts for Maim, absorb spells for better performance, siphon TP and MP, Sac3 and cure2. Also have second wind and barbs.

But this build was prior 1.18 so i can asure you its not really working properly anymore. Right now i believe low TP cost WSs, feint and invigorate might be needed for improved TP generation due its current obscene long delay, also adding featherfoot retaliation set for better defense and another extra cheap WS is good too.

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Originally Posted by Valor

Ah.... Just play however I want. Not aiming for anything just showing people what I'm deciding to do with my build is all. Since people keep changing their minds about how useful certain classes are or aren't ^^;;

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You said, "I'm interested to see what people are doing for builds since it seems like every MRD I know does it different."

The reason why they're different is because they're filling different roles: solo, tank, or DD. My recommended loadout is gonna change depending on what you want to do.

110 str
144 vit
110 dex
12 int
16 mnd
10 pie

Usually I keep vit @ 100 and spread points equally over str and dex. Focusing more on tanking atm so trying out this build. I tried increasing mnd for magic defense for a while but don't notice a difference so ignoring that stat again.

1. Foresight 2
2. Featherfoot 2
3. Fracture 2
4. Jarring Strike 2
5. Heavy Swing
6. Full Swing
7. Broad Swing
8. Storm's Path
9. Contagion / Bandish 2 / Barrage
10. Emulate
11. -
12. Cure 2
13. Second Wind 2
14. Sacrifice 3
15. Siphon Mp 2
16. Provoke 2
17. Taunt 2
18. Warmonger
19. Defender 2
20. -
21. -
22. -
23. Accomplice / Resurrect
24. Quickstride
25. Obsess 2
26. Sentinel
27. Rampart 2
28. Tempered Will
29. -
30. -

How much Piety is needed to use Absorb spells? Would Drain be beneficial? (Trying to make my MRD into a FFXI DRK XD)

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Originally Posted by Akashi

How much Piety is needed to use Absorb spells? Would Drain be beneficial? (Trying to make my MRD into a FFXI DRK XD)

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Hardly worth it now because of increased MP costs.

Ah I see. I should just wait for a DRK class then I take it.

STR - 160
VIT - 130
DEX - 59
INT - 14
MND - 18
PIE - 17

I'm doing fine with that, i tried lowering my dexterity to see if it changed my damage output, but didn't notice any big difference really. So I increased me vitality a lill~ :3

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Originally Posted by Akashi

How much Piety is needed to use Absorb spells? Would Drain be beneficial? (Trying to make my MRD into a FFXI DRK XD)

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I never really used drain in this game...but in other FF games it often were considered nuke, being under nuke rules (affected by INT and magic potency and not PIE). But by its very heavy MP cost i don't really see it being isable by non-THM anymore.

My DEX is at 82 for optimal effect of stuffed cabbage...and also because DEX id good for PGL. My elemental affinity is alradt messed up tho so i'm not receiving divine message anymore.

MRD Tank:

STATS
134 STR
174 VIT

No points on Elements since they are broken and make no difference.
(Anyone who says otherwise has not tested it)

Gear
Lominsan Bhuj
Iron Plate set +1
Paladin Trousers / Leather Skirt / Tarred Trousers
Bucc Sash / Tarred Voyager's Belt
Mythril Wristlet
In Full Party 3000+ HP, 500 Defense

Abilities
Provoke II
Disorient II
Warmonger
Foresight II
Featherfoot II
Sentinel
Rampart II
Defender II
Tempered Will
Diversion
Decoy
Second Wind II
Sacrifice III
Invigorate II
Raging Strike II
Hawk's Eye
Ferocity II
Still Precision II
Barrage
Storm's Path
Twisting Vice
Fracture II
Jarring Strike II
Broad Swing
Brutal Swing
Full Swing

Traits
Intimidation
Prime Conditioning
Swordmanship
Bowmanship
Pikemanship
Seasoned Veteran
Transcendence

Some other abilities I may swap in may be Emulate, Obsess II, Feint, Leg Sweep, Bloodbath II, Maim, Accomplice, Taunt II

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Originally Posted by Holyomen

MRD Tank:

STATS
134 STR
174 VIT

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This guy knows what he's talking about.

Quote:

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My DEX is at 82 for optimal effect of stuffed cabbage...and also because DEX id good for PGL

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I like parry :x

I've noticed that a lot of MRDs and even GLAs are actually doing DEX at 15 now since it doesn't seem to really improve accuracy... or anything else for that matter.

I haven't actually tried completely re-statting to see yet... But what's the Forum MRD community opinion on this?

My stats right now are pretty even and will stay that way until I finish ranking up all my additional classes. I hate re-statting just to grind up something. (It's going to die eventually anyway right?)


Also in terms of MND I noticed that my MP only goes up at about 2mp per point I put in over 40. That's just terrible...

Seems like SE really doesn't want MRDs using much mp, whereas LNCs seem to have more bang for their buck/points...

Do you have any proof that dex doesn't enhance accuracy, evasion, critical hit & damage and parry?

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...6d9d2609e27e19

I parry and evade a lot even without Feather Foot and Foresight. If that's just because of gear or because of allocated dex as well I don't know.

It is correct. DEX actually is more of a defensive attrubute right now, increasing your parry and evade rate alongside with critical hits. About increasing accuracy, its relative...because it increases accuracy "only", which will make you have less "misses", but it does not affect the amount of "evades" the monster do since its related to them...i once had 120 DEX for tests...once your DEX reaches crazy values you will notice you barely miss...but at same time the monster will start evading much more often since evade can only be triggered when you actually hit it...so there will be no real increase accuracy wise...would be much better leave accuracy to food and actions and thinking that DEX is purely defensive.

But as defensive attribute DEX rocks...when i played MRD as DD i always liked much more using light armor (cloth/leather) instead of heavy armor...with high eva and decent DEX nothing can touch you. Very often, if monsters were good enough to make fight last until steadfast trigger, it was over. While in light armor i have over 180 eva (because for some reason SE still didn't add r40+ versions of some of my armor pieces...or i'd be beating 200 eva already), with steadfast i have also the defensiveside covered for when monsters actually hit. Its very hard i take a full damage attack in this setup, which also means i have optimal TP usage since i can beat the dude basically with only retaliation WSs while storing TP for maim.

Hell...this is why i'm so pissed/annoyed/frustrated with 1.18 >< i already feel like Yahiko taking about how Kenshin fight when i talk about old and new MRD. :/

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No points on Elements since they are broken and make no difference.
(Anyone who says otherwise has not tested it)

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sure they do. Nothing monumental of course but it's a little silly to not put any points into any of them. What harm are you doing if you put points in them? Not very smart to say something just for the sake of saying something and then hoping that no one else knows what you are talking about. There are lots of tests that have been done and that are floating around on these forums that show that they actually do work. I notice it personally on things like my elemental weapon skills, crafting, and being able to control which shards/crystals I farm up while gathering. It supposedly works for defensive matters as well. Even if the difference is tiny, a tiny difference is better then none.

elements help food work better.

My current build is balanced. There's not much demand for Marauders, and my other two rank 50 classes are Conj/Thm. If I want to participate in a dungeon, I've got to be able to quickly switch to Conj/Thm.

That means I can't stack points into physical attributes. So I keep everything relatively balanced, use traits to swing my attributes, and use food to supplement. That means I can't min-max anything. Which is a bummer. But that's what I get for leveling Conj/Thm and not Arc. :)

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Originally Posted by Lienn

It is correct. DEX actually is more of a defensive attrubute right now, increasing your parry and evade rate alongside with critical hits. About increasing accuracy, its relative...because it increases accuracy "only", which will make you have less "misses", but it does not affect the amount of "evades" the monster do since its related to them...i once had 120 DEX for tests...once your DEX reaches crazy values you will notice you barely miss...but at same time the monster will start evading much more often since evade can only be triggered when you actually hit it...so there will be no real increase accuracy wise...would be much better leave accuracy to food and actions and thinking that DEX is purely defensive.

But as defensive attribute DEX rocks...when i played MRD as DD i always liked much more using light armor (cloth/leather) instead of heavy armor...with high eva and decent DEX nothing can touch you. Very often, if monsters were good enough to make fight last until steadfast trigger, it was over.

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This.

Dex seems to help a little with hit rate, but not nearly as much as getting an HQ Engraved Bhuj. But as you increase Dex, there seems to be a noticeable difference in evasion/parrying.

When I had my Dex at 110, I was a parry-->Fracture machine. I even started putting Haymaker/Jarring Strike on my bar.

The problem for Marauder, of course, is getting Steadfast to pop. You've basically got to make a choice. You can hold still to get Steadfast to pop, or you can re-position yourself to take advantage of Marauder's conal AoE, like Broad Swing, which creates an awesome amount of TP. But you can't do both.

But with Dex that high, I didn't need Steadfast to parry. If it did pop, it was usually an instant parry. But if it didn't, I still parried like crazy (even while wearing a hauby). And I also got to move around and build TP.

People seem to think of Marauder as a fat dude with lots of HP who hits hard. But a high Dex Marauder is a completely different animal. You're not going to get as much damage mitigation as a Glad using a shield, but you're going to do more DPS, and your innate counters will stop the mob from using its WS. If Marauder had a Heavy Shot type attack that depleted the mob's TP, we'd be an anti-WS tank.

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Originally Posted by Rentahamster

elements help food work better.

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True.

This is pure speculation on my part, but I'm willing to bet 1 moko grass that the elemental link for food goes away soon. They're simplifying things, and food attributes right now are so confusing that you can only figure out how they work if you have a chart open in another window. In my opinion, elemental affinity seems like a pretty good bet to get dropped.

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Originally Posted by VydarrTyr

True.

This is pure speculation on my part, but I'm willing to bet 1 moko grass that the elemental link for food goes away soon. They're simplifying things, and food attributes right now are so confusing that you can only figure out how they work if you have a chart open in another window. In my opinion, elemental affinity seems like a pretty good bet to get dropped.

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I hope so. Having food be dependent on stats that take forever to switch around is unnecessarily complicated and inconvenient.

Totally agree.

And as I said above, I'm having trouble just switching my stats around to be useful as a DoM, and also level my DoW. That doesn't even take into consideration food effects. :)

Indeed. I like the idea behind this food system...but i'd rather it not only showing the optimal requeriments but, instead of optimal rank it having optimal attribute...like instead of a r10, r20, r30, r40 and r50 food for STR + HP, we having one optimal for 10 STR, 20 STR, 30 STR, 40 STR...this way the player could see the optimal attributes of the food and pick the one that match his allotment to be able to always have a food with optimal effect for him.

Again, elemental stats don't mean anything when it comes to tanking.
If you're a tank you want HP and DEF, so the food you would eat is Knight's Bread.
However it would be counter productive to lower your VIT under 90 so that you could get the "special effect".

In all my tanking, soloing, and testing, I have not see any significant difference in DEX increasing my ability to land hits, evade attacks, or parry. So for now I say it is broken and a waste of points beyond your base.

When it comes to Accuracy and Evasion the greatest factor is your level vs the mob's level.
Beyond that it will be your weapon, armor and your abilities that enhance your ability to deal damage and take it.

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Originally Posted by Holyomen

Again, elemental stats don't mean anything when it comes to tanking.
If you're a tank you want HP and DEF, so the food you would eat is Knight's Bread.
However it would be counter productive to lower your VIT under 90 so that you could get the "special effect".

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Well, yeah. But would it be counter-productive to set your elemental affinity so that you get a "special effect"? I mean, you haven't allocated any points into any elements. Why not put some of those unused points into Wind so that you more benefit from Knight's Bread?

I totally understand the not caring because the stats, for the most part, don't do very much.. or anything at all. But, it seems a bit silly to not even allot any at all just because of that. We can speculate all want on how useless they are, but we do not know 100% for sure they they really do absolutely nothing. I would rather just throw them wherever and at least hope it does something lol. It does no harm at least, and if anything actually will help you in one way or another.

has anyone done testing to see if it helps with magic resistance? I thought I read somewhere that they will raise the resistance of the opposing element. Like having a high Earth elemental property would lower your damage to Water attacks or something. Lots of enemies also have elemental properties to their regular attacks too.

Interesting, so far both of the (full) builds displayed are tanking MRDs. Any DD ones out there? :)

I've seen a couple STR MRDs, their hits are pretty amazing. Usually Lots of STR, DEX, and then whatever in VIT.

I keep my MRD build for everything else when I rank up, because I find that if I adjust my play-style a little bit, then I don't really have a problem with MP for my caster classes.

I personal just think of myself as an Off-tank/Crowd Control player. Because nothing makes me happier than saving the mages by popping warmonger than doing a quick chainspell and res on the tank.

Now that I think about it, I probably don't play my MRD 'right'. But I'll be damned if it isn't fun! Kamikaze Build!

Those who question why I don't allot any points into elements must not be aware of the secret.

Not putting any points into your elements gives you an advantage. ;)





Ok I won't keep you in suspense. By not assigning your points on elemental stats, it doubles the amount of points you are allowed to reassign on your physical stats. If I remember correctly, instead of having 137 points to reassign, with elements left at base you now have 274 points you can reassign.

So If I want to switch from MRD tank to MRD DD or just another DD job like ARC or LNC in just one reassignment I could switch my STR to 174 and my VIT to 134.

If you're a straight warrior like myself, you'll find it very beneficial. But if you take your crafting seriously, then leaving your elements at base would not be wise.

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Originally Posted by Scape

has anyone done testing to see if it helps with magic resistance? I thought I read somewhere that they will raise the resistance of the opposing element. Like having a high Earth elemental property would lower your damage to Water attacks or something. Lots of enemies also have elemental properties to their regular attacks too.

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I have tested elemental point stats and armor stats on sundrakes.
I left my stats at base, I then raised by Wind stat and gathered all the +wind armor I could find.
Lastly I raised my fire stat as well as buying up all the +fire gear I could find.

The results: There was no significant statistical variation on the damage I received fighting sundrakes and specifically their fire attack when I adjusted my elemental stats or left it alone.

The only consistent change in the damage amount I saw was when I was fighting either a rank 61, 62, 63, or 64 sundrake or by using defense abilities like Sentinel, Rampart, Tempered Will, or Defender. Rampart II being the clear winner with reducing damage down to 25%, while the rest did considerably less. Emulate ain't that great, unless you are fighting a NM with high elemental stats that are through the roof and they are using ranged or magic attacks on you. That's right, if you're tanking Batraal or Deepvoid Slave, forget about using Emulate unless you plan on tanking them at range.

And yeah, and I even tried armor that cuts breath attack damage, and still saw no reduction against the sundrake's fire/breath attacks.

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Originally Posted by Holyomen

I have tested elemental point stats and armor stats on sundrakes.
I left my stats at base, I then raised by Wind stat and gathered all the +wind armor I could find.
Lastly I raised my fire stat as well as buying up all the +fire gear I could find.

The results: There was no significant statistical variation on the damage I received fighting sundrakes and specifically their fire attack when I adjusted my elemental stats or left it alone.

The only consistent change in the damage amount I saw was when I was fighting either a rank 61, 62, 63, or 64 sundrake or by using defense abilities like Sentinel, Rampart, Tempered Will, or Defender. Rampart II being the clear winner with reducing damage down to 25%, while the rest did considerably less. Emulate ain't that great, unless you are fighting a NM with high elemental stats that are through the roof and they are using ranged or magic attacks on you. That's right, if you're tanking Batraal or Deepvoid Slave, forget about using Emulate unless you plan on tanking them at range.

And yeah, and I even tried armor that cuts breath attack damage, and still saw no reduction against the sundrake's fire/breath attacks.

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The thing is...neither wind or fire affects. Here the element is resisted by the one stronger to it. If you want fire resistance you actually need to raise Water. It was explained somewhere on these dev posts...Give Water a try...it might be interesting at Dzemael ^^

yep, you have to raise the opposite element. Kind of odd system but it does make sense in twisted way lol.

So let me get this straight,
If you are fighting fire, you use wind?
If you are defending against fire you use water?
Then, if you want to use fire, you raise fire?

I'll go along with that, but honestly I've kept my elements at base for months now and haven't notice myself taking anymore damage than the other people in my party. If not assigning points to my elements puts me at a disadvantage then the healers would be struggling to keep me alive on raids. Not only is that not the case, but I'm always the last man standing on a wipe out.

But like someone has mentioned, they make a difference, just a very small one. So perhaps raising your elements for magic defense is like DEX increasing your Accuracy. That's how it's supposed to work, but that's not what I see happening. Maybe when SE gets rid of Physical Levels and makes stats connected to your job level we'll see a more significant impact.

Until then, I'll stick with HP gear, Shell, Rampart, Defender, Tempered Will, Decoy, and Emulate when it comes to staying alive against magic.

Wind isn't related to fire. The rest is correct tho.

If you will use fire, boost fire.
If you will attack fire you use water (and boost water)
If you will defend from fire, you boost water.

Defensively talking, boosting fire gives you resistance against ice and boosting wind gives you resistance against earth

The elemental wheel is (with ">" meaning "stronger against"):
fire > ice > wind > earth > lightning > water > fire

So against fire you have water as the strong side, ice as weak side and all the rest is neutral. This might only change a bit if you're dealing with astral and umbral since astral = fire + wind + lightning and umbral = ice + water + earth, which means they will always be "neutral" to each other and to self due elemental composition.

All well and good except that's XI's elemental wheel, not XIV's.

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Originally Posted by GreyJorildyn

All well and good except that's XI's elemental wheel, not XIV's.

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This is the "final fantasy" elemental wheel. I already sent SE my concerns regarding the current elemental wheel people assume is correct here...hopefully they will post something regarding it soon. After all its much easier it being a typo, where wind and water were just misplaced than they being using a completely different elemental wheel than any other FF game.

This typo also explains the hatred regarding it and how the elemental affinity is broken and stuff...because people "think" they're doing the stuff correctly based on the ingame info, which also is supposed to be correct. But if the ingame info fails, all the rest based on it also fails.

I also asked them to, just like we got the text, we also having the image of elemental wheel ingame...exactly like FFXI had. Its much easier to understand an image than trying to find gameplay info mixed to lore text.

XIV wheel is now 2 wheels.
Fire > Ice > Wind > Fire >
and
Lightning > Water > Earth > Lightning >

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Originally Posted by CTSwiftheal

XIV wheel is now 2 wheels.
Fire > Ice > Wind > Fire >
and
Lightning > Water > Earth > Lightning >

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Something was telling me Wind beat Fire, thanks for confirming.