Explorer's Tabard (Why?)

[Silvano]

Explorer's Tabard
DEF: 163
HP +40
Str +7
Acc +7
Crit Attack Power +50
Poison Resist +10

Drachen Mail
DEF: 165
Attack Power +7
Str +7
Pie +7
Enhances Invigorate

My question: Is the Crit Power and Accuracy that much of a game changer to lose the 7 pie and attack power, and the extra tp from Invigorate? I would test this myself, but the prices on the Tabards shot back up so I can't afford one at the moment...I would think the AF would be better, especially if you had some Stuffed Cabbage to eat.

Found this too from Crit Damage Testing thread:

"This graph specifically shows how much increase you get by adding +50, +100, +150, and +200 critical potency (as compared to someone with +0 potency or the baseline). Because the "return" or "effectiveness" of the potency stat varies significantly with dLVL, this graph charts the effectiveness of each of the 4 cases across the spectrum of "useful" enemy ranks (dLVL=-20 to +10). To give a sample read of the graph - if fighting an R52 enemy and your critical at +0 potency does 500 damage, it would do +15% or 575 damage if you had had +100 potency (purple line)."

Looking at that graph, +200 potency at R52 mobs would add ~27%, so it would do 635...if you crit. Another graph on his testing says (basically) that each point to crit potency (power) is .1729% for dLvl0 mobs.

:3

[GinTama]

definitly stick to drachenmail

[Elexia]

Yes. Explorer's Tabard is the better choice than Drachenmail end-game wise. While the enhance invigorate is nice, without gearswap you're only hurting yourself unless you have a triple melded acc hart guisarme laying around somewhere. Unless you're hitting the 460+ without food and buffs I would definitely pick explorer's or a double-triple melded cobalt hauby (red).

[Frein]

Personally, I think the Drachenmail is likely superior at the moment. Oh wait, I completely forgot about the Poison Resistance on the tabard! Yeah, tabard wins easily.

I actually don't play DRG much nowadays, but I find people's obsession with ACC way overblown. Sure, Impulse Drive sucks but in trying to make it 99% accurate you significantly overshoot on everything else.

[Elexia]

Personally, I think the Drachenmail is likely superior at the moment. Oh wait, I completely forgot about the Poison Resistance on the tabard! Yeah, tabard wins easily.

I actually don't play DRG much nowadays, but I find people's obsession with ACC way overblown.

It's not overblown, it's been proven time and time again you need a ton of accuracy on certain end-game mobs, especially the newer mobs like Chimera and Garuda.

Impulse Drive sucks but in trying to make it 99% accurate you significantly overshoot on everything else.

You're definitely right in not playing DRG much, you forgot the combo Impulse Drive links and the fact this is a combo based job for it's damage lol. This is why the AF body is nice for more tp, however you're only hurting yourself by losing out on a combo by not even attempting to land Impulse Drive. So it's not an obsession, much like WHMs need to focus on healing magic potency and - enmity, DRGs need acc above all because natively all WS's are lower accuracy than even Gladiator's.

[Lux_Rayna]

Personally, I think the Drachenmail is likely superior at the moment. Oh wait, I completely forgot about the Poison Resistance on the tabard! Yeah, tabard wins easily.

I actually don't play DRG much nowadays, but I find people's obsession with ACC way overblown. Sure, Impulse Drive sucks but in trying to make it 99% accurate you significantly overshoot on everything else.

If impulse drive misses your dps is trash. If you played DRG nowadays on things like Garuda, you'd find that you can almost never have enough acc. You need to make Impulse drive as accurate as the dps skills of other classes like monk, arc, and war. If you don't, then your dps will never be able to compete with their combos, because you wont be completing combos at all..in some cases wont even be able to start them.

Yes. Explorer's Tabard is the better choice than Drachenmail end-game wise. While the enhance invigorate is nice, without gearswap you're only hurting yourself unless you have a triple melded acc hart guisarme laying around somewhere. Unless you're hitting the 460+ without food and buffs I would definitely pick explorer's or a double-triple melded cobalt hauby (red).

^ that. Acc is way more important than a measly 7 pie and enhanced invigorate. TP is pointless if you waste it missing impulse drive. Plus Drachen Mail is a pretty sub par piece of gear, almost anything is better than it these days.

[Frein]

Yes, I know it's an important combo, but you also have the frontal combo, so it's not like you just lose all sources of damage when you whiff. Also, you can salvage some of it with Feint > Disembowel.

And not all DRG WS have low accuracy, it's only Impulse Drive, though I have to admit that WS would struggle to strike the wide side of a barn. Still, it seems counterintuitive to sacrifice so much just to make one of your combos reliable. It could very well be that it's the best way, but since DRG is pretty bad for most things, I only really played it at Ifrit and there I didn't find much use for the CT combo as it has super long animation locks and you can just as well dart in and out for the DS combo the few times it's actually safe to combo at all.

[Lux_Rayna]

Yes, I know it's an important combo, but you also have the frontal combo, so it's not like you just lose all sources of damage when you whiff. Also, you can salvage some of it with Feint > Disembowel.

And not all DRG WS have low accuracy, it's only Impulse Drive, though I have to admit that WS would struggle to strike the wide side of a barn. Still, it seems counterintuitive to sacrifice so much just to make one of your combos reliable. It could very well be that it's the best way, but since DRG is pretty bad for most things, I only really played it at Ifrit and there I didn't find much use for the CT combo as it has super long animation locks and you can just as well dart in and out for the DS combo the few times it's actually safe to combo at all.

I think you've forgotten how important it is. Let me remind you.

True Thrust -> Leg Sweep -> Doom spike: True Thrust does crap damage, Leg sweep does crap damage, and doom spike is the only good skill. Problem with this combo is that its executed from the front, meaning it is very dangerous to do against bosses.

Feint -> Disembowel: Great damage, but Disembowel has a pretty lengthy cooldown. So if you miss a lot, you spend more time using Feint than anything else, and it just doesn't do good dmg.

Vorpal Thrust -> Impulse Drive -> Chaos Thrust: Awesome damage, but both Vorpal Thrust AND Impulse Drive have very low accuracy. I have about 398 acc total so far, and even with "hawks eye" i still can't hit the broad side of a barn with these skills against higher level bosses.

Vorpal Thrust -> Impulsve Drive -> Ring of Talons: Another awesome damage combo, but this one is aoe..and a high damage aoe on top of that. You miss either of those low-acc skills you aren't aoe'ing anything.


If you take out those two combos you are left with very sub-par dps. At that point someone might as well take a bard, a monk, or even a war over you because you aren't doing enough damage to justify taking up a party slot. On top of that your aoe reliability is almost 0, as leg sweep does loldamage...and you're likely to die many many many times on bosses due to trying to execute frontal combos. All in all acc is a DRG's bread and butter, without it he is pretty gimp.

[Velhart]

I think you've forgotten how important it is. Let me remind you.

True Thrust -> Leg Sweep -> Doom spike: True Thrust does crap damage, Leg sweep does crap damage, and doom spike is the only good skill. Problem with this combo is that its executed from the front, meaning it is very dangerous to do against bosses.



Feint -> Disembowel: Great damage, but Disembowel has a pretty lengthy cooldown. So if you miss a lot, you spend more time using Feint than anything else, and it just doesn't do good dmg.

Vorpal Thrust -> Impulse Drive -> Chaos Thrust: Awesome damage, but both Vorpal Thrust AND Impulse Drive have very low accuracy. I have about 398 acc total so far, and even with "hawks eye" i still can't hit the broad side of a barn with these skills against higher level bosses.

Vorpal Thrust -> Impulsve Drive -> Ring of Talons: Another awesome damage combo, but this one is aoe..and a high damage aoe on top of that. You miss either of those low-acc skills you aren't aoe'ing anything.


If you take out those two combos you are left with very sub-par dps. At that point someone might as well take a bard, a monk, or even a war over you because you aren't doing enough damage to justify taking up a party slot. On top of that your aoe reliability is almost 0, as leg sweep does loldamage...and you're likely to die many many many times on bosses due to trying to execute frontal combos. All in all acc is a DRG's bread and butter, without it he is pretty gimp.

This, very much this.

Devs have said DRG is getting a damage increase. What it will be is still a mystery. Our original intent was to be consistent in weapon skills and critical hits. But a lot of people (and I am on the same boat) is to worry about hitting in the first place, then stacking STR/PIE/ATK afterwards. I say if your combos miss, you're a poor DRG. Will take accuracy over a little more potency as it is right now.

[Zyph]

Is there a gear set I should be going for ideally (short of Darklight)? Right now I've replaced my Drachen Mail with an Explorer's Tabard and my Drachen Greaves with Explorer's Moccasins. I was thinking of getting an Explorer's belt but I'm curious if there's a better melded option? Haven't really thought about replacing my legs, I like the Jump recast reduction cause it's free DPS/TP.

Already these gear choices put me on the path towards high crit rate and high crit damage, and if I get the Garuda lance then that's just icing on the cake. Hopefully the DRG balances will push it down the road to being a crit based job, in which case, I'm set.

I was looking at that new GC gear, looks pretty sweet.