How to choose materia for each class?

[Llus]

I might have to rethink my build, but no promises on a crit build. The OCD control freak in me cringes at the idea of building on such an RNG-based stat.

Do run a crit build, because not only does crit affect the frequency of critical hits but also damage done when you do crit which is HUGE. Over a long fight it will be MUCH better than det.

Think of it like this:
if you max out your det and it gives you an increase of 500 every hit, then you max out your crit and you crit 50% of the time between 800 and 1200 extra your median increase is going to be around 600 with crit vs det
these numbers are pulled directly out of my ... um, well - but crit will give you a much better bang for your buck. SE's RNG algorithm is pretty close to a true random and over a long fight this does even out to better numbers with higher crit; my advice is to follow those guides and you will see your DPS improve quite a bit

[SeriousxSarcasm]

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But hear me out (I will also be pulling numbers out of my butt, because I haven't done the proper testing, but here is my reasoning). SMN damage isn't like BLM (or most other DPS Jobs). I will never see a 20K Fire IV crit. XD The best I can hope for is a 5K Ruin III LOL.

I believe the average crit rate is around 20%. So if I use Ruin III as an example, say I cast that 5 times when dreadwyrm comes up (base of 2000 would give me around a 3500 crit). Assuming RNG doesn't hate me, I should get one crit from that. 3.5+2+2+2+2 = 11.5K total. Now, lets say I load up on Det. Even if all it gives me is 2400 on Ruin III (maybe more, like I said, I haven't tested the numbers correctly), that is 11.5K, same amount as crit, and is a guaranteed number every time . And with the amount of little DPS ticks everywhere (all my DoTs, my pet damage, Ruin 1/2/3), it seems more reliable in the end, because what do I do with a bad run when nothing wants to crit?

Also what if I equal Crit/Det? If it give me a base attack of 2100, I assume crit would come out at 3675 instead of 3500. Perhaps it drops to a 15% hit rate, but with the amount of DoTs and everything else, it likely won't be a noticeable loss.

Like I said, I'm not ruling out Crit, because I'm sure Det doesn't give that high of a dmg boost, but I just need to test the evidence for myself. XD If/when I see a significant difference in damage output, I'm not going to purposely gimp myself just because I'm allergic to RNG. XD One point in favour of crit is that apparently my SpS buff from my pet comes when the pet Crits (didn't know that before reading the updated guides), so that was interesting.

Edit: also sorry OP, I sorta took over your thread. You probably know more about SMN stats than you ever wanted to LOL.

[mosaicex]

But hear me out (I will also be pulling numbers out of my butt, because I haven't done the proper testing, but here is my reasoning). SMN damage isn't like BLM (or most other DPS Jobs). I will neI believe the average crit rate is around 20%. So if I use Ruin III as an example, say I cast that 5 times when dreadwyrm comes up (base of 2000 would give me around a 3500 crit). Assuming RNG doesn't hate me, I should get one crit from that. 3.5+2+2+2+2 = 11.5K total. Now, lets say I load up on Det. Even if all it gives me is 2400 on Ruin III (maybe more, like I said, I haven't tested the numbers correctly), that is 11.5K, same amount as crit, and is a guaranteed number every time . And with the amount of little DPS ticks everywhere (all my DoTs, my pet damage, Ruin 1/2/3), it seems more reliable in the end, because what do I do with a bad run when nothing wants to crit?

Like I said, I'm not ruling out Crit, but I need to test the evidence for myself. My goal isn't exactly server-top numbers, lol, too busy with irl to ever hope to get that good, so I thought the "safer" stats might work better for me.

Thing is, Det doesn't affect your damage THAT much. Also you're forgetting skills like Deathflare, Painflare, Fester. A critical hit from these skills DO boost your damage significantly.

Also Spell speed has higher effect on DoTs damage than Det, by the way.

[SeriousxSarcasm]

Thing is, Det doesn't affect your damage THAT much. Also you're forgetting skills like Deathflare, Painflare, Fester. A critical hit from these skills DO boost your damage significantly.

Also Spell speed has higher effect on DoTs damage than Det, by the way.

I know, but ty! In an earlier post I was musing about a SpS/Crit build to maximize DoTs. :3 Lol sorry, I edited in after, probably right before you posted your reply (how I doubted Det gave that big of a dmg boost, so I'd have to look at it more).

Either way, I think so long as I know not to put Skill Speed on anything (I've seen it. D: Don't even laugh, I have seen casters do this), I'm not doing too badly lmao.

[Urthdigger]

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Crit doesn't JUST help your huge hits. It helps all your damage equally, including your DoT ticks. So, even if you don't have a single big WTF burst attack that you can crit for epic numbers doesn't mean it doesn't help. Also, it DOES even out to more damage over time if you boost crit over determination. Part of the reason is that crit not only boosts your rate, it also boosts how much a crit helps. You're essentially double dipping in a way.