Need some advice on Melds

I got my first Alex Normal upgrade today and now that melds are a thing, I have no clue how I should meld this thing.

Any help would be appreciated, more so if you're running PLD as that is my main job.

Vitality in all open slots, and if overmelding is allowed, go Parry if you want to feel slightly safer (some would argue it's useless), or Crit if you want to do moar deeps.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

Vitality in all open slots, and if overmelding is allowed, go Parry if you want to feel slightly safer (some would argue it's useless), or Crit if you want to do moar deeps.

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If it's left side gear or Fending accessories, you can't meld VIT (it gives +0), so meld whatever it isn't. Slaying accessory - Meld VIT, Fending - Meld STR. Left side gear Meld whatever secondaries you want, most people will say Crit, unless you're trying to meet a SkS cap or Acc cap.

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Originally Posted by Ironos

If it's left side gear or Fending accessories, you can't meld VIT (it gives +0), so meld whatever it isn't. Slaying accessory - Meld VIT, Fending - Meld STR. Left side gear Meld whatever secondaries you want, most people will say Crit, unless you're trying to meet a SkS cap or Acc cap.

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This is what I was going to do left side crit, right side str seems like the most sensible direction for materia.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

go Parry if you want to feel slightly safer (some would argue it's useless)

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I don't think you seriously get how Parry works, you want to rely on something as RNG that MAY or not block hits, more often big hits we are talking about (because CDs are there for a reason), horrible scaling, 20% flat even if you have 1k Parry IF attacked, gets checks from BLOCK first if you are PLD, Not any useful when you become OT due to some tank swap mechanics. Times to times again, Parry is just underwhelming to get if you can have other alternatives.

I appreciate it guys! Looks like most of you are going crit for left hand side (my upgrade happens to be boots).

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Originally Posted by Aedair_The_Righteous

I appreciate it guys! Looks like most of you are going crit for left hand side (my upgrade happens to be boots).

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STR is now pretty much a secondary for us weighing at .45 after reading the forums, where crit is 2nd and det is 3rd(?) could be wrong on the det feel free to correct me.

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Originally Posted by Ironos

If it's left side gear or Fending accessories, you can't meld VIT (it gives +0), so meld whatever it isn't. Slaying accessory - Meld VIT, Fending - Meld STR. Left side gear Meld whatever secondaries you want, most people will say Crit, unless you're trying to meet a SkS cap or Acc cap.

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Well that's just silly. Why put a slot on an item that is already capped on its main stats? Sigh. I guess this means multi-set tanking isn't quite as dead as I'd hoped.

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Originally Posted by Sarcatica

I don't think you seriously get how Parry works, you want to rely on something as RNG that MAY or not block hits, more often big hits we are talking about (because CDs are there for a reason), horrible scaling, 20% flat even if you have 1k Parry IF attacked, gets checks from BLOCK first if you are PLD, Not any useful when you become OT due to some tank swap mechanics. Times to times again, Parry is just underwhelming to get if you can have other alternatives.

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You must be new here. I'm the forum's resident crazy parry advocate. I was very careful with my wording (note how I said "feel" - it's very subjective). I'm very well aware of how Parry works on the combat table, and how "poorly" it scales (you're probably using the 35p:1% conversion that was determined back in 2.1/2.2, which has been largely shown inaccurate in Heavensward). HOWEVER: over the course of an encounter, tanks will often take damage amounts adding up to the millions. Some parses of Alexander Gordias bosses put the number in at 2.5M damage to tanks. Even if you only parry 10% of that, it adds up to 50,000 damage mitigated. That's nothing to scoff at, and nothing to ignore, and will save the healers quite a few GCDs--and evidence suggests that 3.1 full fending parry came in at ~35%. Assuming they adjusted damage in Midas, Antitower, and LCoAH to account for the new boosted HP (I'm hearing they did), and assuming they're true to their word and making more physical damage in encounters, let's crunch some numbers. With how much harder things are hitting, I'm guessing we'll see encounters that deal 4M damage, 90% physical. Let's also assume a 15% crit rate on the boss. So 4,000,000 * 90% (percent physical) * 85% (percent parryable) * 35% (parry rate) * 20% (parry mitigation) = 214,200 total damage mitigated by parry. That's eight times your max HP, when geared, ten if you're walking in with your upgraded Esoteric set. Your healers won't be planning on a parry, but it can mean the difference between needing two Cures to top off and a Cure + Cure II.

Long and short is that mitigation is mitigation. Killing something faster is not mitigation, because it does nothing to make the healers' jobs easier while the encounter is going on. Does Parry need adjusting to be more valuable? Yes. It doesn't feel very strong right now. But it is still worth taking, in this crazy parry advocate's opinion.

Jpec on parry =

https://media.giphy.com/media/sHV6YMsVFTQD6/giphy.gif

- probably

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Originally Posted by AlexiIvaniskavich

Jpec on parry =

https://media.giphy.com/media/sHV6YMsVFTQD6/giphy.gif

- probably

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I'm dying xD #Busey

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Originally Posted by AlexiIvaniskavich

Jpec on parry =

https://media.giphy.com/media/sHV6YMsVFTQD6/giphy.gif

- probably

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My God, what is this from? XD

just google "Gary Busey crazy" and lose the rest of your afternoon.... I think that is from the line of commercials he did a few years back for the TV stick thing - but don't quote me on that.

I'm doing determination armor side, strength accs side. Crit might be slightly better, but I prefer a reliably bigger number to a chance to get that big number. Especially with how weak self heals have gotten...

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

I'm doing determination armor side, strength accs side. Crit might be slightly better, but I prefer a reliably bigger number to a chance to get that big number. Especially with how weak self heals have gotten...

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On that thought, I would still meld crit, a chance on that 1.5 multiplier would still be bigger numbers, and we still have access to IR to modify the rolls.

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

I'm doing determination armor side, strength accs side. Crit might be slightly better, but I prefer a reliably bigger number to a chance to get that big number. Especially with how weak self heals have gotten...

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Not to forget that Det also strengthens your own heals (for those that can cast them). Might not be a massive boost, but it's a stat that feeds more than one thing, kind of double value in a way.

STR or VIT right side.
Crit left side.

What do they mean by advanced materia melding is forbidden? I have 0 crafting skills and have also never worked with materia until now so I'm a bit confused with what materia works.

As a tank, will melding VIT into the left side count and the points go into my stats?

As DRK, would it be better to Min/Max my stats such as DET and Crit? Because maximizing on just 1 stat is never a good idea...

Also, why would melding STR be a viable option? I thought they nerfed scaling Strength on all tanks if I'm not mistaken.

Strength scales at a rate of .45 on tanks, making it equal to vit in that regard. While using strength accs is no longer 'good', melding strength onto accessories remains viable.

As for the rest of your questions, it means you can't overmeld materia into gear beyond the two slots available. On left pieces and weapon, you won't be able to meld vit or str as those are already capped. You can however meld materia th at boosts noncapped secondaries like Parry(why), det or crit.

VIT gear is capped on VIT so you can only meld STR to it.

Everything I'm hearing from groups in A5-6S is that full VIT is unquestionably ideal even if you lose a bit of det/crit/sks etc. to parry, because the damage is so high that the teensy bit of lost raid dps is far more easily covered for than the lost HP on the tank.

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

As for the rest of your questions, it means you can't overmeld materia into gear beyond the two slots available. On left pieces and weapon, you won't be able to meld vit or str as those are already capped. You can however meld materia th at boosts noncapped secondaries like Parry(why), det or crit.

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I want to believe it...I really do...I almost melded Parry onto an accessory for my DRK because Dark Dance...but now I'm deciding to go full DET on accessories. I feel that stacking Parry as DRK would make Dark Dance a better CD if you were to stack full Parry, taking less out of the RNG factor. I could be wrong but, DRK feels squishy enough as it is without a shield.

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Originally Posted by Aaliyahrose

I want to believe it...I really do...I almost melded Parry onto an accessory for my DRK because Dark Dance...but now I'm deciding to go full DET on accessories. I feel that stacking Parry as DRK would make Dark Dance a better CD if you were to stack full Parry, taking less out of the RNG factor. I could be wrong but, DRK feels squishy enough as it is without a shield.

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Parry isn't worth it as it takes more parry to get anything out of that stat compared to det/crit even with the nerfs to det from 2.x it's still better than Parry stacking. In itself Dark Dance isn't as powerful as you think it is, yes it's a 60 second CD but it's unreliable. You're better off melding Crit/Det left and Str right side.

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Originally Posted by Aaliyahrose

I want to believe it...I really do...I almost melded Parry onto an accessory for my DRK because Dark Dance...but now I'm deciding to go full DET on accessories. I feel that stacking Parry as DRK would make Dark Dance a better CD if you were to stack full Parry, taking less out of the RNG factor. I could be wrong but, DRK feels squishy enough as it is without a shield.

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Eh, DRK isn't squishy.

Anyway, I wouldn't *stack* parry, but I definitely don't feel bad for not going out of my way to avoid it as much.

Reprisal is a huge mitigation tool if you can keep it up a large chunk of the time. Parry helps with that on highly physical fights with a lot of AAs. In SephEx right now I'm really feeling Reprisal's uptime. It makes a difference. I believe this is a large part of why they made Shadow Wall weaker, is because you have a high (albeit not 100%) uptime Storm's Path clone that is off-GCD, not combo locked, and never a DPS loss. Bearing in mind that about 50% of the time DRK takes 10% less damage than the other two tanks at no cost to DPS, its obvious why SW is 30% and not 40% or on a 120s recast.

I feel like tanks being stuck with Parry on their gear is so much less of an actual issue now that we can meld everything. Yet people seem more mad than ever about it. You can now make Parry pieces good. There's also the issue of diminishing returns on SkS for certain jobs, and of course Accuracy over the cap for the content is even more useless than Parry. So a Det/Parry or Crit/Parry piece, for example, assuming you've got all the accuracy and SkS you need elsewhere, isn't really that bad. Just meld it with det or crit depending on what it doesn't have.

I rely on Parry not so much for the fact that I need it against a tank buster, (when it works its a huge mitgation) but to parry potential cleave damage that hurts more than an AA. DRK has the best parry rating out of all tanks and I find it quite useful against rapid successive attacks. (i.e. Holy Bladedance or Uplander Doom? Is that physical?)

The occasional dodge on adds is nice to see as well, but that doesn't explain the extra addition of Parry melds. The Reprisal debuff + the % of damage parry offers is pretty much up there with the block % that PLD offers. I wouldn't necessarily go full Parry, but in longer battles healers appreciate the less damage over time anyway.

I'll take advantage of this thread and ask what other PLD mains think is a good "cap" for Skill Speed.


Soo...


What do you think is a good cap for Skill Speed on PLD? :P

(I know too much SkS will make TP go faster, but with all the tank swaps and mechanics the new content seems to have I don't think that's gonna be too big of a problem??)

Was about to make a thread asking this exact question but now I know from reading all your comments what I'm doing with war, left side crit & right side str.

Acc (if you need), Crit >Deter >skillspeed
Force V on the first slot of your accesories (it's obvious force still give some attack power)

there not cap in skillspeed, i would say there a 450 skillspeed (minimal) to get able to put a other skill in their burst rotation.
in pld i don't think you need a lot skillspeed you can get every dot, debuff up all times if you want

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Originally Posted by kensatsu

Acc (if you need)

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While this is true...

lol

With the amount of accuracy crammed on everything as a Tank, I really doubt you need to worry about it if you're appropriately geared for the place.