The Ninja Superthread

[Leonus]

wondering what people's thoughts are in this situation to clip or not to clip:

Fresh DE just applied, SF and M both have 9 seconds left.

a. AE combo, then put up SF then M?
b. clip SF then M?

I ran into this situation a couple of times, just wondering what people would do if you were in that situation, clipping too early will result in dps loss...

use AE, the rotation sometimes lines itself back up again after time. Don't clip your dots that early.

[Viridiana]

You're the man, Derv! Much appreciated!


NEW BiS:

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/OX05 beats your Flint Caviar set by ~6.363 DEX weight. Naturally, it's also really expensive.

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/OX09 technically beats the other one by ~0.044 DEX weight, but that's at the cost of having 40 more Skill Speed, which is not really preferable.

[hellmach]

Hello, new Ninja here. Why do you use those openers and apply your DoTs in the later stages of the opener as opposed to the beginning stages (M>SE>SF>Other combos)?
This sounds noob of me but this is my first time interested in gearing for end game content for an MMO so bear with me please: What do the stat weights mean?
When should I apply the B4B, Internal Release buffs? In the beginning of the rotation or just before I apply my DoTs?

[Zamii]

it was missed when putting the opener in the main post but their should be a gust slash between b4b and IR in the first opener.
Thanks for the credit for the opener, much appreciated.

Hello, new Ninja here. Why do you use those openers and apply your DoTs in the later stages of the opener as opposed to the beginning stages (M>SE>SF>Other combos)?
This sounds noob of me but this is my first time interested in gearing for end game content for an MMO so bear with me please: What do the stat weights mean

applying the dots at later stages of the openers allows for more buffs and debuff to be in effect, therefore making the dots stronger overall.
as for the stat weights, they are a way of measuring the stats against one another for a particular class, for example a class with a stat weight of 0.3 on det and 0.15 on crit gets twice the effective dps increase from det compared to crit per 1 point.

[Best-MNK-NA]

Best-in-Slot Equipment

Post-T13 - 535 Accuracy:

Flint Caviar - http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/OWL4
Black Truffle - http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/OWL6

Not quite, the BIS I listed before (http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/OTEF) beats the first one by 2.028 dex and the second one by 2.239 dex. Do the math before you declare a gearset BIS. Virdiana's are even better though significantly more expensive.

Of course, Flint Caviar is essentially impossible to get in decent quantities unless you're fishing them yourself, so any gearset that includes them (for now) is really kind of unrealistic, at least on my server.

My gearset loses out to Virdiana's both by ~5 dex I think (though it's odd my math doesn't line up with her's in comparison to your BIS lists), so that's the way to go, but for my budget I think I can handle the dps loss.

I think having a "Budget" option that doesn't have any crafted gear (your black truffle set for now, though I bet a better set could be made since yours doesn't use the amazing pants), a "Medium cost' option like mine, and an "Expensive/True BIS" list with Virdania's would be a good representation of the truth.

edit: i have OX05 as 6.363 dex stronger than your flint list and 4.335 dex stronger than my list, so at least the math I'm doing is consistent. Not sure what i did wrong the first time.

[Dervy]

Let's be realistic here, even though using crafted gear has always been part of the BiS, not everyone can afford to get their perfect penta-melds. If anything, they should be in their own seperate list and be an option for those who do desperately want the absolute highest DPS, regardless of cash.

[Viridiana]

I think having a "Budget" option that doesn't have any crafted gear (your black truffle set for now, though I bet a better set could be made since yours doesn't use the amazing pants), a "Medium cost' option like mine, and an "Expensive/True BIS" list with Virdania's would be a good representation of the truth.

Yeah, this is probably the best way to handle it, if we can get people on board. I'm just tired of seeing BIS lists that completely ignore crafted gear. I get that it's not a feasible option for most people; heck, I have it listed as a "someday" goal, myself. But I'm sure some people coming to this thread can afford it and might want to give it a shot.

Of course, then it starts getting wonky once you start adding in stuff like Pre-T13 variations and such, but I'm not really sure you can do anything for that. . .

[Best-MNK-NA]

Let's be realistic here, even though using crafted gear has always been part of the BiS, not everyone can afford to get their perfect penta-melds. If anything, they should be in their own seperate list and be an option for those who do desperately want the absolute highest DPS, regardless of cash.

I suppose that's true, but as a newbie I had no idea and never saw crafted items mentioned in any BIS lists. Had I known that certain crafted pieces were things I could (or should) have been seeking out, I would absolutely have done so. Now I know how to figure things out myself, but if there had ever been a MNK guide or post anywhere that made it clear that the Saurian Belt could indeed be BIS (for instance) then that would have been extremely helpful information for a min/maxer like myself.

As I said in my previous post, the idea of having separate tiers of BIS list based on the amount of gil you're willing to spend seems ideal to me. I have the one crafted belt and a less than ideal crafted hat (I loaded it with skillspeed since the materia's so cheap, item cost about 800k total for me and I needed to drop accuracy to accommodate the poetics weapon) and that's all I'll probably buy (especially since no other crafted pieces is that much superior to 130 drops), but they're once again on my radar for possible upgrades thanks to Virdania.

I also don't think a "pre-t13 BIS list" has any relevance since it isn't actually BIS at all and you'd be foolish to spend your poetics catering to that list as opposed to actual BIS, but hey if people think it's useful then by all means go for it. You progress by getting random drops in coil, supplementing by buying poetics gear that is true BIS first and making up accuracy with food or shifting around your outdated gear (110s in this patch), not by shooting for a theoretical "almost BIS but not really" and then having to aim for a whole different gearset when you finally get your BIS weapon drop.

[treuhavik]

I'm just tired of seeing BIS lists that completely ignore crafted gear.

The reason this happens is because the Ariyalas' calulator ignores crafted gear for some reason, even when ideally melded. So, while I normally do compare a few pieces before posting, it would take far too much time to work out every possible combination (I take care of this and my FC site while at work, I'd rather play when I'm home). Thanks for sharing these sets though. Should work nicely for me since I have Head, Belt and Feet penta-melded already.

You guys are probably right about the Pre-"final raid" sets, they do tend to stray pretty far from actual BiS, just thought it'd be nice for those looking to optimize for that encounter or those settling with the vendor weapon.

What I'll do is add a True BiS and Budget BiS using drops/tome gear only.

[Viridiana]

The reason this happens is because the Ariyalas' calulator ignores crafted gear for some reason, even when ideally melded.

Make sure the "ilvl range" setting in the solver is set to 25 or higher. Otherwise, once it settles on the i135 weapon it only drops down to i120 gear for consideration.