What's you method of play?

[arlee]

I Don't really evade that much, so I dont use Light Strike at all.

hence why you are not evading that much, light strike increases your chance to evade. and for pugs its pretty much spamming featherfoot and using light strikes to boost our evade rate.

stats are pretty much broken right now, 174 str is not gonna be a big dmg boost to say a person who has 130 str. I agree with Ichi for now its best to go with a more balanced stat distribution.

I think I'm sitting on 15x (with gear) for all 3 Str,Vit & Dex

[Pseudopsia]

My DPS Setup:
STR: 174
VIT: 81
DEX: 174
MND: 0
INT: 0
PIE: 15 (Will be 0 when I get more CON marks)
My Stats Screenshot


Weapon Choice: Boarskin Himantes because the 10% more blunt damage is greater then the att and acc you get with rank 49/50 weapons. If mob is resistant to blunt then 49/50 weapons are probably better. I'm finding rank 49/50 weapons are better for nms.

Heavy Strike then Repeat Flurry until party does BR. Use att up and acc ablilities with Victimize II. Repeat.


Flurry is where your damage is, it's greater then every other melee's normal attack.

[Akuun]

Weapon Choice: Boarskin Himantes because the 10% more blunt damage is greater then the att and acc you get with rank 49/50 weapons. If mob is resistant to blunt then 49/50 weapons are probably better. I'm finding rank 49/50 weapons are better for nms.

Sorry to burst your bubble but I've tested these as i have a set for farming (because i can repair myself) and a pair of jade hora, the jade hora consistently deals more damage on both weaker mobs and the world nms

From what i can tell is the weapon % simply converts the base damage type to another
So if you use an attack from gladiator that says slashing, it still deals blunt if you're a pug using boarskin himantes
Now, if you were to use bahnaks, then you should see some of that slashing type damage
Why they specify a damage type for the attacks, and the weapons is beyond me, unless it was another planned but unimplemented feature

[Pseudopsia]

When you equip Boarskin Himantes the damage difference is very apparent. Following test is against a tough mob first using Jade Hora then running away letting very same mob heal to full and attacking with Boarskin Himantes.

Pair of jade hora +1 equipped in Main Hand slot.
The roadrunner is engaged.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner from the rear for 104 points of damage.
Critical! Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner from the rear for 137 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 82 points of damage.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 292 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 75 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 81 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 82 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 76 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 78 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 74 points of damage.
Critical! The roadrunner's attack hits you for 321 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 78 points of damage.
Your Flurry misses the roadrunner.
Critical! Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 92 points of damage.
Critical! Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 90 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 71 points of damage.
The roadrunner readies Rancid Belch.
Your Hawk's Eye grants you the effect of Hawk's Eye.
Your Victimize II removes your Hawk's Eye effect.
The roadrunner evades your Victimize II.
That command cannot be performed.
The roadrunner's Rancid Belch inflicts you with the effect of Sleep.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 294 points of damage.
You are no longer asleep.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 105 points of damage.
Your Heavy Strike misses the roadrunner.
The roadrunner evades your Flurry.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 78 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Flurry.
Readying Flurry...
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 80 points of damage.
The roadrunner readies Regurgitate.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 82 points of damage.
Critical! Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 102 points of damage.
Readying Flurry...
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 75 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Flurry.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 76 points of damage.
The roadrunner's Regurgitate fails.
You use Second Wind II. You recover 586 HP.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 291 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Heavy Strike.
Your Heavy Strike misses the roadrunner.
Your Heavy Strike misses the roadrunner.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 328 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Heavy Strike.
Your Heavy Strike misses the roadrunner.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 111 points of damage.
Readying Flurry...
Your Flurry misses the roadrunner.
The roadrunner readies Regurgitate.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 83 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 76 points of damage.
Readying Flurry...
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 76 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 80 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 81 points of damage.
The roadrunner's Regurgitate places 3 statuses on you.
The roadrunner readies Rancid Belch.
The roadrunner's Rancid Belch inflicts you with the effect of Sleep.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 316 points of damage.
You are no longer asleep.
Your Victimize II misses the roadrunner.
Target will be disengaged in 20 seconds.
The roadrunner readies Rancid Belch.
The roadrunner's Rancid Belch inflicts you with the effect of Blind.
You are no longer slowed.
The roadrunner leaves combat.
You are no longer blinded.
Heavy Strike set.


Pair of boarskin himantes +1 equipped in Main Hand slot.
Your Featherfoot II grants you the effect of Featherfoot.
The roadrunner is engaged.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 131 points of damage.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 129 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 90 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Flurry.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 84 points of damage.
Your Flurry misses the roadrunner.
The roadrunner's attack misses you.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 83 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 84 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Flurry.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 76 points of damage.
The roadrunner evades your Flurry.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 90 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 89 points of damage.
Critical! Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 111 points of damage.
You partially parry the roadrunner's attack, taking 191 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 88 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 82 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 88 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 95 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 92 points of damage.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 87 points of damage.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 222 points of damage.
Your Hawk's Eye grants you the effect of Hawk's Eye.
Your Victimize II removes your Hawk's Eye effect.
Your Victimize II hits the roadrunner for 758 points of damage.
The roadrunner readies Rancid Belch.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 122 points of damage.
Your Heavy Strike misses the roadrunner.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 89 points of damage.
You are no longer under the effect of Featherfoot.
Your Flurry hits the roadrunner for 83 points of damage.
Your Flurry misses the roadrunner.
That command cannot be performed.
The roadrunner's Rancid Belch inflicts you with the effect of Sleep.
That command cannot be performed.
The roadrunner's attack hits you for 335 points of damage.
You are no longer asleep.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 122 points of damage.
Your Heavy Strike hits the roadrunner for 123 points of damage.

[arlee]

Sorry to burst your bubble but I've tested these as i have a set for farming (because i can repair myself) and a pair of jade hora, the jade hora consistently deals more damage on both weaker mobs and the world nms

From what i can tell is the weapon % simply converts the base damage type to another
So if you use an attack from gladiator that says slashing, it still deals blunt if you're a pug using boarskin himantes
Now, if you were to use bahnaks, then you should see some of that slashing type damage
Why they specify a damage type for the attacks, and the weapons is beyond me, unless it was another planned but unimplemented feature

sorry to say but Pseudo is right, from my testing on reg mobs my boarskin+1 will out dmg any other knuckle in game
but as said already the peiste or jade will do more dmg on NMs

not sure if you are correct about the weapon% from what I;ve been told the weaponskill dmg type is constant. So using your example a pug with boarskins doing a glad weaponskill that says slashing will do slashing dmg even though he is using a blunt weapon.

[bobbygunz]

With my build im tanking and dpsing pritty easly. i just change my attacks but use the same point distrubition and gear for both tanking and dps.

Health: 1,810
175 str, 109 vit, 169 dex. 182 evasion 353 defence. (i have all +1/2/3 armor on)

DPS Weapon useing a Peiste Chelsti +2 (currently, working on making a +3)
Tanking i use Jade hora +1

[Gimmecat]

I have 3 different ways of playing PUG:

Utility (Hate control, Spike Damage, Thief)
Tank (Evasion, Nin)
DD (Pure Damage)

My stats carry across all styles, increasing them with gear accordingly.
Main Base stats:
STR 128
VIT 95
DEX 130

Utility
My main play style is pretty much similar to Thief in FFXI. I use abilities like Blindside, Victimize and Attack Buffs for some huge spike damage. Collusion, Accomplice, Chameleon Out of Sight for hate control. Mixed with TP gaining abilities like Invigorate and signature Thief-like actions such as Feint. Most of my actions come from Lnc, Pug and Arc but I use actions from all Dow. With gear and guild marks I can cap my DEX at 174 and STR at like 152 or something.
Good Buffs for Victimize include Ferocity 2, Hawk's Eye and Murderous Intent. I always use Weapons with the highest crit rate to maximize damage on Victimize, Jade Hora at 50.
Playing with this style is really fun because it is always fun to see a ton of damage in one hit while also helping the party out with TP gain (Comrade in Arms) and Hate control actions. Using Pummel is a great way to get the TP needed for 2k Victimize.
Only used in pt play

Tank
I've had a lot of people skeptical about PUG tanking, but have proved them all wrong. With a blink tank I can put guildleves on harder difficulties and tank mobs that a glad would otherwise take too much damage from. The way it works, since I don't really have blink, is it combines evasive actions with stunning actions to allow for my evasive actions to cooldown and recast. Abilities include Featherfoot, Diversion, Leg sweep, jarring strike and light strike. My main attack is light strike to keep the evasion boost going, I also keep defender up since i'm looking to minimize damage. I try to keep an eye on evading so i can counter with jarring strike which hopefully stuns the mob and allows me to recast featherfoot. Diversion is an emergency ability incase i'm caught without shadows, since it is a 1:30 recast.
My main weaponskills are Jarring strike and Feint, which allows me to keep hate pretty easily. I use only Provoke Taunt and Accomplice.
The only downside to Nin tank is the inability to tank more than 2 mobs, therefore, I don't bother with abilities like Warmonger. I stack evasion like mad, using earrings, DEX, and anything that offers high Evasion.
Mainly used in pt play.

DD
This is probably the easiest and most casual form of playing Pug. Main attacks are Heavy Strike and Flurry for a constant barrage of damage. Abilities include anything and everything that buffs weapon skills using a wide range of weapon skills but mainly from PUG actions to maximize effectiveness.
Good for soloing or pt play.

I have a lot of fun building these classes and switching according to what events are happening. Do not neglect the guild mark abilities from the magic classes such as: Complete control and will to power these take attributes from otherwise useless stats and puts them into the main ones. These are invaluable because they give you 5-10 points no questions asked. What do I mean? Example: Say you have 127 points in DEX and want to add another 5 points, that would cost you 20 Skill points, where as if you got Complete control, it takes 5 points away from MND and adds it into DEX. You effectively just increased your DEX by 5 without using SP.

[Zenaku]

PUGs would never use Mind reason for it because it's not a monk. I would like for SE to change all the class name back to FFXI titles like PUG becoming monk then we could use kick attack and more magic attacks second wind is ok but monk chakra and added some MND could give us more then 500hp per use.

By the looks of few interviews they there thinking of doing a tree base system or unlock jobs within your class. So level up Pug to 50 you can now become a Monk or other class. I think i would like the idea of unlocking class it would brig more storyline then just a tree.

[Akuun]

PUGs would never use Mind reason for it because it's not a monk. I would like for SE to change all the class name back to FFXI titles like PUG becoming monk then we could use kick attack and more magic attacks second wind is ok but monk chakra and added some MND could give us more then 500hp per use.

By the looks of few interviews they there thinking of doing a tree base system or unlock jobs within your class. So level up Pug to 50 you can now become a Monk or other class. I think i would like the idea of unlocking class it would brig more storyline then just a tree.

When you start fighting the world NMs you'll likely want MND for additional magic defense,
and will give more mp for seismic shock for dropping the Great buffalo
Prior to NMs ya, better off focusing on dex and str (not many magic using mobs)

Setup I use for NMs
Head: Silver tricorn or elemental crown
Body: Buccaneers shirt or Toad harness
Waist: Buccaneers or tarred sash
Legs: Kecks or Tarred
Feet: Buccaneer or Armored caligae
Hands: Reinforced mitt or Wrist spikes (reinforced is better but leather is more common craft for pug)
Neck: Mythril choker
Rings: Brass x4 or 2 elemental earrings (brass rings give best acc to slot cost ration)

Traits: Prime conditioning, Fleet of foot, Out of sight OR Intimidation (depending on if i'm tank or dps)

Stats (these vary as i'm always trying different combinations)
Str: 50-174 (damage might increase by one on flurry (per hit))
Vit: 140-174 (probably your best stat, for surviving)
Dex: 50-174 (if you want to evade an attack, use featherfoot)
Int: Base-50 (small change in seismic shock, but larger than str to attacks)
Mnd: Base-100 (doesn't help with peiste breath but can save you on gobby nm)
Pie: Base-100 (just doesn't help resist enough to be of any real use)

Elements: just leave them at 84, they don't seem to really do anything when
increased, but you will know when they are too low

Skills I don't use when tanking and whys
Taunt: doesn't generate enough enmity, mob goes back after casters and archers
(better to use accomplice, steal hate from the person with the most)
Light strike: Boost to def and eva is not worth the loss of enmity that flurry generates
Pummel: This base attack is just horrible, I don't even use this on normal mobs unless i'm farming.
(it's likely to improve if they change the way the tp system works)
Evasion first skills: the only exception is simian thrash, one it looks hella cool, second, it generates a ton of enmity
(I can tank with flurry featherfoot and simian thrash with no one pulling hate)
Discerning eye: meh, i'll take Raging strike, hawk's eye, ferocity (no stamina cost, more enmity, recover stamina)
(I should probably test this one a bit before i count it completely out)
Everything else is pretty much dependent on which nm

Everyone plays differently, all that really matters is that you have fun doing it ^^
These reflect my opinions, and are in no way the only, or set way of setting up or doing anything

[Minzara]

I currently don't have a real dead set goal. I am preparing for more solo play though. I did A LOT of parting in FF11. Okay I lied. All I did was party in FF11. I am changing it up a little in this game. Especially since I am now married, have work, and go to college. It's hard to juggle everything and play FF14. I have set my character up so he can solo. I also have gladiator leveled for the same reason. I don't know my stats right now. However, I do know my skill setup. I use Heavy Strike, Pummel, Second Wind, Victimize, Ferocity, Bloodbath, Rampart, Cure, and Sacrifice. With this setup I have been able to solo quite easily. While I used a little different skills, I was soloing Rank 20 missions at Rank 13 pug, and Rank 12 gladiator with this setup. I can generally complete a Rank 20 mission on Troop now as well with Rank 22 Pug. So I think it works quite well.