Revisiting DEX

[Truedragon]

Ironworks gear (all left side only)
Total parry: 133
Total acc: 141

And Im talking about the i120 stuff here, not the upgraded i130. This is more parry than you can meld on the i110 crafted Wootz gear. Then there is the obvious bonus in higher vit, acc and (mag)defense that it provides over the crafted gear and the leftover crit and det.

So obviously we are missing something here. Crafted gear is usually way better than i120, some even compete for BiSi130 set ups.

My theory is that DEX has become viable, for a long time now. But the community just hasnt caught up with it yet. Now before people go apeshit and start with the "but but but crit, det"...let me assure you that crit and det are c tier stats for tanks, moreso for pld. If you want dps increase, you go strength, you don't go with c tiers.

First of all, the max caps for crit and det on the wootz gear are too high for you to ever reach, especially considering you also have to try maxing parry and some acc aswell. Second of all, no amount of crit and det can ever match 60+ strength which is a PRIMARY stat.

So this leaves the question. What do we meld on the Wootz to make it i125+. Well, strength is obviously out of the question. But DEX is a full option.

Now I know what people will say. Everytime this debate comes up, people go apeshit over it claiming how DEX is useless and how it doesnt increase effective health blah blah blah.

The problem with this is several.
1) the most obvious one that the sceptics base this claim on http://valk.dancing-mad.com/tables/block-and-parry/

This is downright the most stupid argument always used against DEX believers. The results from that website are 18 months old, based on i70 gear when i70 was the highest ilevel in game and titan hardmode was the hardest dungeon in game. We all know stat weights change with every patch. But somehow, improperly tested results based on extremely irrelevant gear from 18 months ago, is still held as the single best proof that DEX is useless. To say that this stuff is outdated is putting it softly.

2) melding DEX is not new. It has been done. Ive done it. And others have done it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...hest_question/

That is actual testing of DEX on t13. As usual, sceptics will try to argue how DEX is useless based on ancient outdated data that itself is based on i70 gear (from the website valkdancing). The problem is that there is no actual real properly tests done with real relevant gear using high DEX. So everytime this debate comes up, it is just theorycrafting.

However, just from the crafting perspective, I know one thing. Penta melded crafted gear has never been worse than any soldiery/poetics and it isnt now. The fact that ironworks of fending gives more parry, acc and vit than crafted gear doesn't make it better than crafted gear. It means we are missing something. And I think the answer is DEX.

[SirTaint]

No it's bad.

[Judge_Xero]

World firsts on FCOB used DEX melded i110 crafted gear. I think it gave around 44% Block Rate with the HA Shield.
But they were looking for every ounce of mitigation possible with the given gear.
I think it gave 2% mitigation overall vs not using it.

[SirTaint]

World firsts on FCOB used DEX melded i110 crafted gear. I think it gave around 44% Block Rate with the HA Shield.
But they were looking for every ounce of mitigation possible with the given gear.
I think it gave 2% mitigation overall vs not using it.

World 3rd PLD melded DEX and stated it was for extreme progression and he wouldn't use it otherwise. Obviously he understands its value.

World first and second did not use DEX builds.

It takes 40 points of dex to increase block/parry rate by 1%. And most consider parry stacking to be useless beyond progression.

[Truedragon]

No it's bad.

Thats your opinion.

World 3rd PLD melded DEX and stated it was for extreme progression and he wouldn't use it otherwise. Obviously he understands its value.

World first and second did not use DEX builds.

It takes 40 points of dex to increase block/parry rate by 1%. And most consider parry stacking to be useless beyond progression.

Thing is, you can quite easily get 40 DEX. Just the wootz cuirass alone probably. The cap for parry, acc, crit is 41 on the chest alone which means DEX shouldnt be too far off.
Blocking and parry are 2 different things. Increasing blocking AND parry by 1% means they both go up. Blocking is also stronger than parry and is checked first. If they both went up by 1%, then that means in total, it is 2% up. And only for 40 DEX points? You can probably meld 35 just from the chest.

Thing is, if you also meld DEX on your novus/ nexus, you can quite easily get massive boost. The alternative as I said before is using CRIT or DET, which are C tier stats for Paladin. If 40 points split between CRIT and DET will give you 2% extra dps (a big assumption) than as a paladin you went from 100-150 dps to 102-153 dps. That is hilarious by any measurement. As I said before, if you want to increase pld and war dps, you go with strength, you dont go with C tier stats like CRIT and DET. A warrior wielding full strength can do 300 dps which is quite nice. But do keep in mind that monk, drgs and ninja's can do over 550 dps now. A paladin wouldnt even get 200 dps even with full strength gear most likely, let alone a NON strength but with CRIT and DET build. Thats a paper tiger build.

People often use the claim that it makes the tank "hold hate easier". Problem with that assumption is that you have trouble holding hate in the first place. Paladin hate meter scales extremely well and gets increased every so often patch. That 2 dps increase is what you are talking about going DET and CRIT while sacrificing VIT, DEF and MAG DEF. That is a hilarious trade off. If you trade off against VIT, it has to be parry and blocking.

[Reynhart]

If they both went up by 1%, then that means in total, it is 2% up.

It's totally not how you calculate probabilities.

[Truedragon]

It's totally not how you calculate probabilities.

Understood. I just simplified it by adding it both up. I know it is less than 2% if both blocking and parry goes up by 1% which is probably an error of his account.

However, if 40 points of DEX increases both blocking and parry, than it is not as bad as he makes it out to be. 40 points is pretty easily gotten.
The chest and pants probably around 30~35. So getting 80 from the whole set isn't that hard. And if you are really freaky and want to experiment, add another 40 from the novus.

[Ruddi]

Hi my WAR is AVG 109.

I got the 6 pieces of woots, fully overmelded. Total on set is parry 555 critical hit rate 512. The parry come in nice and my WAR parry allot, the critical really helps on holding enmity, if I put on all STR I can easy hold enmity from a AVG 120 WAR (VIT) but it is hard if I go all VIT.

[Truedragon]

You know what I think. I think it might actually work.
That is IF 40 DEX increases your blocking by 1% (and possibly parry aswell). And if you get 120+, thats 3% more blocking. Now if both blocking and parry goes up by that amount, this means a total mitigation of 5.91% which by itself is already pretty huge. But what Im more excited about, is that effectively it might be worth more than even 6%. Because blocking is stronger than parrying and the health loss from blocking is lower than parrying.

So you having 5.91 mitigation total split between blocking and parrying is gonna save more health than someone with 6% total mitigation but from parrying only.

Now for the trade off. What are we missing? We are missing 27 VIT from using penta melded gear vs ironworks (i120). That is only 392 hp.

[Reynhart]

You know what I think. I think it might actually work.

You can easily test the impact of DEX.
Take your MNK, equip gear pre 2.4 and look at what a high STR and DEX do to your mitigation via parry.

This could indeed be interesting.