Carraway's Guide to the New Archer: 1.18 and Beyond

[Mockingjay]

I'd like some advice on my gear set if anyone could help me out.

Weapon: Giantsgall Longbow (+16 DEX, though thinking of changing to PIE and double melded hands with DEX)
Head: Choral Chapeau
Body: Rainmaker's Tunic (aiming for +16 PIE)
Waist: Scarlet Sash
Hands: Felt Bracers (+16 DEX)
Legs: Felt Trousers (aiming for Swordsman's Cry)
Feet: Choral Sandals

Accessories:
Peach Blossom
Electrum Gorget
Tourmaline Bracelets
Tourmaline Ring x2

~Planning on buying +1 accessories.

Stats with this setup: 298 PIE, 285 DEX, 501 ATK, 386 ACC

I'd just like to know how I can improve it, since I'm not particularly close to caps- is any of the Gridania GC gear any good? Also, I've been using Finger Sandwiches but wasn't sure if there was anything better to use?

[Doctor_Jekyll]

I have a question.

I thought DPS was a calculation of the weapon's overall Damage Per Second potential, namely when used perfectly, in a stationary, controlled fashion (ie using the weapon's skills in the "perfect" sequence in tandem with class abilities, never being interrupted by AOE's, never missing, etc) the weapon can potentially produce X amount of Damage Per Second on a mob of roughly equal level to you.

But Damage doesn't happen in a vacuum, we aren't just standing there in a line slamming a mob with damage racing to the biggest number. We are running away from Eruptions and Sweeps, we are healing ourselves and others, raising, stoneskinning, singing songs, etc etc.

So my question is a two parter:

1. Is DPS a combination of everything I mentioned above, or is it some sort of separate value that dictates the potential power of weapon skills?

2. Considering the sporadic nature of a Bard's attacks (less so for archers, but still) compared to WAR/DRG/MNK, shouldn't we focus on being able to do the most damage during our shorter Attack Windows? ie High Damage/High Delay/High Critical?

Highest DPS in this case wouldn't really translate to most damage done in a battle, potentially speaking?

Also, thanks for the awesome thread everyone who has contributed, I'm learning a ton!

[Doctor_Jekyll]

Oh, and if anyone has Caps for the Giantsgall Longbow I would really appreciate it!

I melded Crit Attack to it already as I'm stacking that for my set, but now I'm thinking I jumped the gun... Someone make me feel better about my choice!

[Raldo]

I have a question.

1) The DPS on any weapon is just a magic number that represents how much damage you'd be doing if all you did was Light Shot every time the skill was available (or just auto-attack, for other classes/jobs). No additional stats taken into account, no buffs, no delays, no weaponskills, nothing.

2) Yes, in some cases, ARC/BRD in particular (due to Barrage and the manual nature of Light Shot), sometimes higher-damage lower-DPS can win out. Ifrit's Bow vs Crab Bow +1 (36.74 vs 37.00) is one such example. Ifrit's Bow technically has a lower DPS listed on it, but it'll generally produce more damage than a Crab Bow +1.

That said, weaponskill damage is based off of the DPS number, not the weapon damage, so you can't totally neglect DPS.

[Doctor_Jekyll]

1) The DPS on any weapon is just a magic number that represents how much damage you'd be doing if all you did was Light Shot every time the skill was available (or just auto-attack, for other classes/jobs). No additional stats taken into account, no buffs, no delays, no weaponskills, nothing.

2) Yes, in some cases, ARC/BRD in particular (due to Barrage and the manual nature of Light Shot), sometimes higher-damage lower-DPS can win out. Ifrit's Bow vs Crab Bow +1 (36.74 vs 37.00) is one such example. Ifrit's Bow technically has a lower DPS listed on it, but it'll generally produce more damage than a Crab Bow +1.

That said, weaponskill damage is based off of the DPS number, not the weapon damage, so you can't totally neglect DPS.

So the base Damage of a weapon has nothing at all to do with how hard the weapon skills will hit? DPS is a calculation only of your non-stop Light Shots AND that number is the ONLY base calculator for WS damage?

That seems so counter-intuitive.

[Raldo]

Yep .

In case anyone is curious whether it’s a weapon’s damage value or DPS value that puts the punch in a WS, I’d like to give a brief explanation of the system.

As you all know, with our Armoury system it is possible for actions to be used on different classes.

With that said, in the case that we made only the damage value affect a WS’s power, those classes that are able to equip themselves with weapons that have high damage values would become more powerful than the classes that could originally use those abilities.

In order to avoid this situation, we set the DPS value to dictate a WS’s power and we have no plans on changing this in version 2.0.

[Doctor_Jekyll]

Ahhh.

Thanks.

[carraway]

I have a couple questions here actually.

1) How exactly does Raging Strike work with barrage? Does each hit increase the buff, or just the first one? I ask because I know they patched multi-hit skills a while ago so I was wondering if that affected the raging strike barrage combo. I looked around but couldn't find a definitive answer.

I want to say that each hit increases the buff but I'd need to double-check first. Should be easy to test.

2) Is it really worth adding any crit attack power at all if your gear set isnt designed around it? Even triple melding +120 crit attack power to a body seems like it would offer pretty underwhelming results. I ask because, obviously, the guide is a bit outdated. I remember someone did some testing with crit attack power a bit ago, and it looked like it had to be stacked quite a bit. Idk if any more recent testing has been done.

Crit atk is one of the most powerful stats for physical DPS if you have ways of artificially forcing crits, either through Blindside or increased crit chance % weaponskills, a la DRG/MNK in particular. For BRD, we don't have those same options, unfortunately, so I would personally stay away from weighting crit atk heavily.

3) HQ arrows...worth the effort? Especially for Bard since its like a hybrid support/dps class. HQ arrows aren't that terribly hard to get, but are a bit time-consuming considering how quickly arrows deplete. Is the dmg increase significant, or minor?

Everyone's valuations are going to probably differ slightly based on time/money, but I do think that if you have the mats lying around or a lot of gil, HQ arrows are certainly worth it. 3 base damage is not insignificant, especially if you have a fast bow like Garuda's Spine.

[Catapult]

Now this is what I read elsewhere, but I'd like to know if it is actually bullocks or not...

The DPS determines your base damage range between an upper and lower limit. Attack Power increases the upper limit. Stats (dex/pie) increase the lower limit. So with attack power you can do more damage and dex/pie make your damage more reliable.

When I was told this, I decided to compare my existing Crab Bow +1 (DPS=37, +15 Attack power, +18 dexterity materia) to a new giantsgall longbow (DPS=38.5, dexterity +5) by using light shot on some L1 coblyns outside the Ul'dah main gates. All other gear being equal, I was always doing more damage with the giantsgall in spite of lower dex and attack power, convincing me that the weapon's core DPS remains the most important statistic no matter what else you do.

/want relic
/ulterior motive of wanting to reliably 1-shot Garuda's plumes

[Mihana]

I'd like some advice on my gear set if anyone could help me out.

Weapon: Giantsgall Longbow (+16 DEX, though thinking of changing to PIE and double melded hands with DEX)
Head: Choral Chapeau
Body: Rainmaker's Tunic (aiming for +16 PIE)
Waist: Scarlet Sash
Hands: Felt Bracers (+16 DEX)
Legs: Felt Trousers (aiming for Swordsman's Cry)
Feet: Choral Sandals

Accessories:
Peach Blossom
Electrum Gorget
Tourmaline Bracelets
Tourmaline Ring x2

~Planning on buying +1 accessories.

Stats with this setup: 298 PIE, 285 DEX, 501 ATK, 386 ACC

I'd just like to know how I can improve it, since I'm not particularly close to caps- is any of the Gridania GC gear any good? Also, I've been using Finger Sandwiches but wasn't sure if there was anything better to use?

There's a plethora of decent GC gear you can use for Bard, much I strongly recommend.

Head: Gridanian Officer's Cap (+30 HP, +30 MP, +15 PIE +10 Crit Hit Rating, Sanction: +15 ATK. Better than the default AF hat.)
Body: Gridanian Officer's Overcoat (+10 STR, +10 DEX, +10 PIE, +10 INT. The DEX/PIE alone make this great. Add in the +120 Crit Attack bonus from Sanction effect and it's a no brainer. Great too if you happen to be leveling MNK in addition.)
Neck: Serpent Sergeant's Choker (Better than a NQ Electrum Choker and with added effects from gear grants you +15 Crit Attack. +27 ATK +15 Crit Attack)

Food I recommend either Jerked Beef (PIE/ATK) or Salt Cod Puffs (DEX/ACC) depending on which is needed most for your situations.

My Setup

Bow: Serpent Lieutenant's Bow / Giantsgall Longbow (+18 DEX)
Head: Gridanian Officer's Cap
Body: Choral Shirt / Gridanian Officer's Overcoat
Hands: Choral Ringbands / Felt Bracers (Blue) (+32 DEX)
Legs: Felt Kecks (Blue) (+10 INT/PIE) / Coliseum Subligar (+9 STR/DEX)
Waist: Veteran's Field Belt / Scarlet Sash
Feet: Choral Sandals
Neck: Serpent Sergeant's Choker
Earrings: Serpent Sergeant's Earrings
Bracelet: Serpent Sergeant's Bracelets / Tourmaline Bracelets
Rings: 2x Tourmaline Rings +1 / 1x Tourmaline Ring +1 and 1x Spinel Ring +1

My setup can vary on just what role I'm going to be doing. I almost always leave my Choral Shirt equipped for the bonus to Ballad songs. If I may be doing Minuet instead I switch my setup to fit that exchanging the ringbands for my bracers. So if I'm doing Minuet it might look like this...

Bow: Giantsgall Longbow (+18 DEX)
Hands: Choral Ringbands
Waist: Veteran's Field Belt
Legs: Coliseum Subligar (+9 STR/DEX)
Bracelet: Tourmaline Bracelet

Typically in this setup I will then use Salt Cod Puffs to negate the ACC loss. It's especially important if being a lone bard I will be playing songs on separate party members. During this time it's best I leave my choral shirt on too so I maximize my Ballad potential. You might notice I use those earrings which by all right have no use really, they've got no benefits for a Bard. I use these to count for the required gear to gain the bonus from my choker. There's few gear choices in this slot that help a Bard so it's not much of a loss.

Typical Ballad Setup

Bow: Serpent Lieutenant's Bow
Head: Gridanian Officer's Cap
Body: Choral Shirt
Hands: Felt Bracers (Blue) (+32 DEX)
Legs: Felt Kecks (Blue) (+10 INT/PIE)
Waist: Veteran's Field Belt
Feet: Choral Sandals
Neck: Serpent Sergeant's Choker
Earrings: Serpent Sergeant's Earrings
Bracelet: Serpent Sergeant's Bracelets
Rings: 1x Tourmaline Ring +1 and 1x Spinel Ring +1
Food: Jerked Beef

Base Stats: 304 DEX, 314 PIE 524 ATK, 396 ACC
Final Stats: 304 DEX, 321 PIE, 577 ATK, 396 ACC (With Food/Sanction.)

Typical Minuet Setup

Bow: Giantsgall Longbow (+18 DEX)
Head: Gridanian Officer's Cap
Body: Gridanian Officer's Overcoat
Hands: Choral Ringbands
Legs: Coliseum Subligar (+9 STR/DEX)
Waist: Scarlet Sash
Feet: Choral Sandals
Neck: Serpent Sergeant's Choker
Earrings: Serpent Sergeant's Earrings
Bracelet: Tourmaline Bracelets
Rings: 2x Tourmaline Ring +1
Food: Jerked Beef

Base Stats: 296 DEX, 328 PIE, 504 ATK, 371 ACC
Final Stats: 296 DEX, 335 PIE, 556 ATK, 414 ACC (With Food/Sanction/Song)

Typical Dual Song Setup

Bow: Giantsgall Longbow (+18 DEX)
Head: Gridanian Officer's Cap
Body: Gridanian Officer's Overcoat
Hands: Choral Ringbands
Legs: Coliseum Subligar (+9 STR/DEX)
Waist: Scarlet Sash
Feet: Choral Sandals
Neck: Serpent Sergeant's Choker
Earrings: Serpent Sergeant's Earrings
Bracelet: Tourmaline Bracelets
Rings: 2x Tourmaline Ring +1
Food: Jerked Beef / Salt Cod Puffs

Base Stats: 293 DEX, 335 PIE, 504 ATK, 371 ACC
Final Stats 1: 293 DEX, 335 PIE, 556 ATK, 371 ACC (With Jerked Beef/Sanction)
Final Stats 2: 300 DEX, 328 PIE, 519 ATK, 397 ACC (With Salt Cod/Sanction)

These are just typical setups I may use. Often I'll swap out pieces to try balancing out my stats. And just for fun...

Archer Setup (Specifically used for Solo purposes.)


Bow: Serpent Lieutenant's Bow
Head: Gridanian Officer's Cap
Body: Gryphonskin Jerkin (Black) (+20 PIE)
Hands: Felt Bracers (Blue) (+32 DEX)
Legs: Felt Kecks (Blue) (+10 INT/PIE)
Waist: Veteran's Field Belt
Feet: Gryphonskin Thighboots (Black) (+22 M.Evasion)
Neck: Serpent Sergeant's Choker
Earrings: Serpent Sergeant's Earrings
Bracelet: Serpent Sergeant's Bracelets
Rings: 2x Tourmaline Ring +1
Food: Jerked Beef / Salt Cod Puffs

Base Stats: 291 DEX, 334 PIE, 548 ATK, 394 ACC (With Sanction)

Not going to bother including the stats with food since I usually skip using any. It's seldom I'll ever fight anything so strong that it'll take my head off. Sometimes I switch to the Giantsgall Longbow because I think its color matches my scheme, and at that time I swap some stuff out like I do for my Minuet setup.