STR/PIE/ATK Testing

[JamesAlgrensan]

Another poor man's choice for the waist slot is "Penance" (+2 STR). Also, I think you forgot to factor in bracelets into your setups?

[JusticeReborn]

I will try to make a “poor man’s” and a “rich man’s” gear layout for DRG. Assuming you have my base stats of 255 STR, 244 PIE, 532 Attack with Ifrit Harpoon, you would need +95 STR and +66 PIE to cap.

Poor Man
Weapon: Ifrit Harpoon
Head: Paragon Crown (+10 STR/PIE)
Body: Cobalt Habergeon with 2x PIE (+6 STR, +32 PIE, +6 ATK)
Hands: Felt Braces + 2x STR material (+32 STR, +3 PIE)
Waist: HP belt
Legs: Felt Trousers + 8/8 STR/VIT (+ 12 STR)
Feet: Cobalt Sollerets (+3 STR)
Rings: 2x STR (+30 STR)
Neck: Electrum Gorget (+25 ATK)
Net: 348 STR, 289 PIE, 563 Attack (no food)

Rich Man
Weapon: Ifrit Harpoon
Head: Darklight Helm (+20 ATK, +15 STR)
Body: Cobalt Habergeon + 3x PIE (+6 STR, +6 ATK, +48 PIE)
Hands: Felt Bracers + 3x STR (+48 STR, +3 PIE)
Waist: Veteran’s Field Bets (+2 STR)
Legs: Felt Trousers + 3x STR/DEX (+25 STR)
Feet: Darklight Caligae (+15 PIE)
Rings: Flex position for Accuracy or ATK
Neck: Electrum Gorget+1 (+30 ATK)

Net: 351 STR, 310 PIE, 588 ATK, (+ 22-58 Acc)
*I only mention Acc since 1.21 has shown considerably lower Acc for melee, and
Dragoon skills have inherent lower Acc.

Side Notes:

Power Surge: Adds +39/39/40 or +118 ATK total to Dragoon.

Invigorate Bonus from AF: It’s only about ~300 more TP total for invigorate.

Fist of Wind AF Bonus: +10% cooldown reduction for +30% total. Note, you can equip the AF boots, activate Fist of Wind, switch boots and still have the bonus.

For a while I'd used the above as my gear guide for DRG. But now, with the addition of a the GC weapons with their bonus, I've been rolling out on DRG like this for a bit:

Weapon: Storm Lieutenant's Trident (Accuracy : +20, Crit Rate : +5, Storm gear set (5): Attack Power +30)
Head: Drachen Armet (Crit Attack Power : +40, Str : +2, Pty : +2)
Body: Storm Sergeant's Tabard (HP : +60, Str : +10, Accuracy : +5, Attack Power : +10, Storm gear set (3): Enmity : -20)
Hands: Felt Bracers (Accuracy : +5, Magic Evasion : +11, Pty : +3waiting to find one with +32 STR as recommended above)
Waist: Veteran's Field Belt (Accuracy : +5, Str : +2)
Legs: Storm Sergeant's Hose (HP : +80, Str : +10, Storm gear set (3): Accuracy +10)
Feet: Cobalt Sollerets (Accuracy : +3, Str : +3)
Earrings: Storm Sergeant's Earrings (Attack Power : +4, Storm gear set (4): Crit Attack Power +7)
Necklace: Electrum Gorget +1 (Attack Power +30)
Bracelets: Storm Sergeant's Bracelets (Attack Power : +3, Storm gear set (3): Str +7)
Rings: Rubellite Ring +1 x2 (STR+ 18 x2 = +36 total)

My base stats (with only the above weapon equipped) are STR 258/PIE 241
While wearing this, without food, my stats are at STR 328/PIE 246. I also end up with Attack Power of 579, Accuracy of 389

I'm not sure if or how the bonuses from the GC weapon and gear affect the "primo" gear a DRG should be wearing. But I am definitely open to recommendations on how to best improve overall.

Obviously, I need a bunch more PIE, and I see above that most of it comes from the Body piece, but doing that means I'd be losing the GC bonuses (in addition to the innate bonuses of the gear)...

So what's the overall recommendation? Should I still shoot for Poor Man/Rich Man above, or is there a new gear set to shoot for?

PS - I don't have any of the Primal weapons, and doubt I'd be able to pull one in before Nov 1...


EDIT: I was looking at the above again... it looks like, given my current gear stated above (stats at STR 328/PIE 246), I have a shortage of 22 STR and 69 PIE. So I thought about it and it looks like, if I remove one of my +18 STR rings and replace it with an +18 PIE ring, I now need 40 STR and 51 PIE to hit cap. This would mean, taking the Felt Bracers and Cobalt Sollerets I have, I just need two +20 STR materia melds in one, and a +25/26 PIE double-meld in the other. THen, I keep the current gear I've already got and still hit cap with it. Make sense to anyone else?

EDIT2: Well, the above edit was good in theory, but per this handy materia table I found, PIE materia can only go in Body slots, which completely ruins the entire premise I just laid out. I could still max STR via the Hands slot, but my PIE will be lacking. So, back to square one then. Suggestions welcome!

[carraway]

Thanks for the detailed retesting, Seiken. Looking forward to dLVL results. On DRG, I've noticed I need ~440-450 ACC to stay above 98% hitrate on Myrmidon Princess.

[Silvano]

Would double or triple melded Hart Guisarmes not surpass the Harpoon now, especially with the more stress placed on stats? Also, a Tort Scale Mail with the materia(s) as opposed to the cobalt? I would test myself but I'm poor ;;

Edit: Also, what Parser are you using? I am trying to test the assorted weps and jewelry I have, but sometimes the Parser I use (BG's) doesn't capture all the data...

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

Would double or triple melded Hart Guisarmes not surpass the Harpoon now, especially with the more stress placed on stats? Also, a Tort Scale Mail with the materia(s) as opposed to the cobalt? I would test myself but I'm poor ;;

Edit: Also, what Parser are you using? I am trying to test the assorted weps and jewelry I have, but sometimes the Parser I use (BG's) doesn't capture all the data...

It never could surpass ifrit's harpoon because of how big a difference the base dmg is.

[Silvano]

It never could surpass ifrit's harpoon because of how big a difference the base dmg is.

Does anyone have parse data for this? This just means I need Ifrit's Harpoon more than ever to test it meself :3

[Peptaru]

Does anyone have parse data for this? This just means I need Ifrit's Harpoon more than ever to test it meself :3

You could do a poor man's version of it, get a polearm that has dmg = to what you're missing from the hart to the ifrits, the numbers will be askew, but it will give you a good view of the difference DMG rating has. (hart and vintage guisarme have 16 point difference, hart and ifrits have 16 point difference) It won't be perfect but it can serve as an illustration i would think.

[Silvano]

You could do a poor man's version of it, get a polearm that has dmg = to what you're missing from the hart to the ifrits, the numbers will be askew, but it will give you a good view of the difference DMG rating has. (hart and vintage guisarme have 16 point difference, hart and ifrits have 16 point difference) It won't be perfect but it can serve as an illustration i would think.

But then I would have to double meld the lower lance and get a NQ version of the Hart to reflect the difference, wouldn't I? lol I probably won't try another double meld for awhillllle.

Speaking of poor man's version though; why wouldn't you just take the AFs 10STR and 7PIE over the Double Melded Felt's 12STR?

Edit: If I'm bugging anyone with the questions, especially you Sekien, please let me know. I enjoy debating and discussing various ways of doing/testing things, as well as numbers ^^;

[Seiken]

Good suggestion Silvano. I honestly hadn't considered the AF armor, and I hadn't put too much thought into the poor man's gear set. I focused more of my attention on the more expensive version.

Also, if you guys really want to test the difference in weapon Base Damage, I would suggest using a naked Archer and firing different kinds of Arrows. That should be a cheap way to get the data. I've been meaning to do that myself for a long time now >.>

Another tidbit of data that me and my LS mate kaeko have been trying to analyze is that the "cap" for all the classes is not a fixed value. It has various factors that influence the caps. For example, If you parse on an Ifrit's Axe versus a Mog Axe you will find that the stats cap 3-5 points lower. If you wear a really low base damage weapon (I tested on a weapon with 59 base damage) you will find you have already capped your stats without wearing any gear. The frustrating part of the testing is that different Jobs/Classes have different Base Damage values for Ifrit Weapons, yet they all cap pretty much at the same values. Also, the base damage difference (as far I can tell) seems to be non-linear in stat cap influence. Most of this testing was pre-1.21 so once the game quiets down again I'll go back and revisit the data.

Just know that part of the reason why low base damage weapons do much less damage is because stats are capped earlier.

[Silvano]

Good suggestion Silvano. I honestly hadn't considered the AF armor, and I hadn't put too much thought into the poor man's gear set. I focused more of my attention on the more expensive version.

Also, if you guys really want to test the difference in weapon Base Damage, I would suggest using a naked Archer and firing different kinds of Arrows. That should be a cheap way to get the data. I've been meaning to do that myself for a long time now >.>

Another tidbit of data that me and my LS mate kaeko have been trying to analyze is that the "cap" for all the classes is not a fixed value. It has various factors that influence the caps. For example, If you parse on an Ifrit's Axe versus a Mog Axe you will find that the stats cap 3-5 points lower. If you wear a really low base damage weapon (I tested on a weapon with 59 base damage) you will find you have already capped your stats without wearing any gear. The frustrating part of the testing is that different Jobs/Classes have different Base Damage values for Ifrit Weapons, yet they all cap pretty much at the same values. Also, the base damage difference (as far I can tell) seems to be non-linear in stat cap influence. Most of this testing was pre-1.21 so once the game quiets down again I'll go back and revisit the data.

Just know that part of the reason why low base damage weapons do much less damage is because stats are capped earlier.

That is interesting, and I guess kind of makes sense; each weapon's base damage is a form of limiter on how much power you can pump into it's attack. You can try and stab really really hard with a toothpick, but at the end of the day, it's still a toothpick (horrible analogy, I know). Maybe it's linear in terms of going from that specific class's weakest weapon to Ifrit's weapon (assuming it's the highest damage weapon), explaining why the stats cap the same for the Ifrit weapons with different base damages. I may have to test the ARC theory; this stuff seems pretty complex (and rather awesome lol).

(What parser do you use? And how long do you wait after killing the last mob before stopping it to ensure you have all the data? ^^)