BLM Esoteric Tomes

I'm in absolute two minds with what to make my first purchase. I have the I190 Hive weapon and will have everything I190 but one ring (obviously) and the chest piece (180).

Should I go with the chest piece (two weeks) or the weapon (three weeks?). Or better yet, what are some of you other BLM's doing if in a similar situation?

I did some research earlier. Weapon damage is far better than any other stat. The ratio for power is 8:1 (or is it 7?) for damage to int.

Yeah.. I know. But the dilemma lies in the 10 level weapon increase (3 weeks) vs. 20 level chest piece increase (2 weeks). Seems to me to be a really close call.

I really wish that SE would make the weekly cap 500 instead.

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Originally Posted by Bigcat9715

I really wish that SE would make the weekly cap 500 instead.

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There is a reason they do not, and that reason is pretty much specifically that it will take you 3 weeks for your weapon. Dumb, I know.

Will you not be able to get your Alex Normal chestpiece in 2 weeks? If you had been doing shafts since week 1 you should have it done by next week.

Unfortunately, did not plan out my progress that way. Went the springs route instead. I'm prob just splitting hairs at this point. May just get the chest piece and not look back. Maybe a small part of me just wants to enjoy the hive wep a bit longer.

Always weapon. It's not close. Weapon damage is huge.

I agree weapon should always by #1, then i usually go chest> pants or boots
Honestly i did not look at the new gear all too much yet

Ok... I understand that weapon trumps chest piece every time. However the jump from an 190 to 200 wep vs the jump from an 180 to 200 chest piece seems pretty equal. I'll crunch the stat weights this week.

If it matters, you'll also dump a buttload of accuracy when going from Asuran > esoterics.

Haha... yeah, I thought of this. Can't wait until acc caps for Savage are sorted out.

My guess is a 20 IL increase to Int from the body still won't make up for the increased weapon damage from a weapon 10 IL higher. I'd go with the weapon, then legs or body next depending on whether you are collecting springs or shafts from Alex normal each week.

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

There is a reason they do not, and that reason is pretty much specifically that it will take you 3 weeks for your weapon. Dumb, I know.

Will you not be able to get your Alex Normal chestpiece in 2 weeks? If you had been doing shafts since week 1 you should have it done by next week.

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See that I'm trying to get gear for both my dps and my healer it's going to take alot longer, because I try to keep them both leveled at the same time.

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Originally Posted by Bigcat9715

See that I'm trying to get gear for both my dps and my healer it's going to take alot longer, because I try to keep them both leveled at the same time.

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Maybe SE should just remove the cap or do away with tombstones entirely and just let us buy the gear for 1 gil each /s

BLM's weapon damage should be roughly 6 int for 1 WD right now. Counting the 2 WD + int on the weapon, you end up with 21 int's worth. If you use 3 week's tomes to get chest + accessory, you will get 22 int if they are both upgraded from 180 to 200.. So if you want the chest, go get it.

What's the point in even getting the il200 weapons. Because when 3.1 comes out new relic weapons come with it to.

The point is that some people are looking to progress through Savage or even just make their character the best it can be. Some people like to do that with min-maxing their character progression so they get the biggest improvements as soon as possible.

Besides that, we have no idea when 3.1 will be nor what the relic weapons themselves will be like, either stat wise or to obtain. I think it is very reasonable for people to be thinking about the weapons that are currently available to them.

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Originally Posted by Kogasan

What's the point in even getting the il200 weapons. Because when 3.1 comes out new relic weapons come with it to.

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Maybe you don't want to do the relic? I know I won't, if it's anything like ARR past Zenith.

It is a good point though. If you were to buy all of the esoteric stuff, it would take you something like 15 weeks.

I sure hope relic weapon comes out before that >.<

Anyone have any info on the updated stat weights for WD in 3.0? Of if they were even updated? I'm reading in places that BLM/SMN WD went from around 6.5 to 10.0....

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Originally Posted by Mercutial

Anyone have any info on the updated stat weights for WD in 3.0? Of if they were even updated? I'm reading in places that BLM/SMN WD went from around 6.5 to 10.0....

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No one's crunched the specific weights for blm yet afaik, but value from secondaries are reduced across the board for all classes, so WD and Int are more heavily weighted than they were before.

Weapon damage scales with main stat so yeah, if SE didn't change the formula on WD, it is higher just because of that. If we take a look the only available weights at this time (dervy's drg weights) this is true, drg WD jumped from below 10 to over 12.

Basically until we know the exact new weights on BLM no one can tell you if chest + accessory or weapon will be the better choice for the first 3 weeks, but I think WD is the safe bet. Just buy the wep and glamour your Hive over it. ;P

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Originally Posted by MrCookTM

Just buy the wep and glamour your Hive over it. ;P

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The BLM hive weapon is ugly. Hmph.

Get the weapon, farm Alex for i190 chest. Then buy pieces that get you close to accuracy cap. From what I've seen as a SMN in i190 gear we are way over accuracy. Unless it's a huge accuracy burden, either to much or below cap, I go ring first. It's cheap and usually biggest upgrade that can't be gained easily somewhere else.

BTW who knows what relic weapons will take. It could be a huge grind and/or huge hill sink. Do we even know what the stats are?

Generally I'd agree, weapon > all even if expensive... but there's one thing that makes me wonder.

There's been talk that 3.1 is not that far off and it seems that patch will include new relic weapons which will eventually render ilv 200 weapons obsolete, or else the relics wouldn't be worth the additional work they surely require. Which in turn means that buying esoterics weapon first could result in losing more than 2 weeks worth of esoterics tomes for literally no benefit in a few weeks.

Not saying it will happen like this but it might.

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Originally Posted by Kona_Nightwind

Get the weapon, farm Alex for i190 chest.

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I thought about this for a sec, then realized I'm trying to dump acc - not take more on. Appears 530 is safe for A2 sav. Ultimately, I need the ESO chest, but the wep is prob where I'm heading with the first purchase (Ilevel considerations aside).

Though the uncertainty of the relic line continuing soon is a tad bothersome.

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Originally Posted by Mercutial

I thought about this for a sec, then realized I'm trying to dump acc - not take more on. Appears 530 is safe for A2 sav. Ultimately, I need the ESO chest, but the wep is prob where I'm heading with the first purchase (Ilevel considerations aside).

Though the uncertainty of the relic line continuing soon is a tad bothersome.

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I'm in the same boat. I'm way over Acc cap. But let's assume 8 secondary stats = 1 int and 8 int = 1 WD, in reality I think this over values secondary stats. No matter what piece you get you increase int, WD is so good even if you gain 1 WD and are 64 Acc over it's a push. Using these numbers the int increase from I180 to i190 makes each piece with Acc either slightly better or a push.

Get the weapon. Secondary stat weights are abysmal now.

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Originally Posted by Dante_V

Get the weapon. Secondary stat weights are abysmal now.

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Yeah.. I understand that. But the I180 to I120 chest vs the I190 to I120 weapon is apparently a source of consternation for not only myself, but others on different forums. Future of relic weapon aside, think I'll still go weapon and not look back.

As a SMN, I'll be going weapon, ring (no acc), chest (no acc), then legs (no acc). This is all subject to change depending on drops. I don't gear for BiS. I gear for whats the best upgrade for my current gear.

I agree the hive weapon is rather ugly, but the eso ... so purty :)
Goes well with my outfit also, haha
I am going weapon> chest> and then not sure
Relic who knows when it is out so may as well get something that will work for you for sometime.
Myself i was rather late when i got my blm Zeta, and i got to enjoy for like... 1 month, lol

I'll go for chest\ring, then idk.

I want to delay i200-weapon as long as possible, i don't care for the 10 int (around +1,x% of my Int) difference for few weeks.

Oh yeah, and lately i survived an attack with 125hp left, due to my new armor. :D New weapon wouldn't have helped. ^^

And don't forget that offstats might be tiered, so i just wanted to have 820 CHR instead of 730(?).

And so i can give my healer i190 pants instead another 4 weeks for a chest >180 for my SMN.

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Originally Posted by Kona_Nightwind

let's assume 8 int = 1 WD

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I just tested out 160 vs 180 weapons:
97 WD - 861 INT - 319 DET
89 WD - 921 INT - 311 DET

I hit 602 lows and 662 highs for each of the sets with Scathe doing a small sample of each, which puts them within about 0.5% of each other. That puts it around 1 WD = 7.5 INT for that stat range, so 8 INT per WD sounds reasonable at around ilvl200.