Warrior Material

[Molly_Millions]

I'm fairly certain I can make up .6% of my overall DPS by putting an Ironman's Will I single meld on my pants, c'mon now.

My point was really that it's probably better just to use pants with Ironman's Will on war than switch to MRD. I was kinda thinking out loud. In that scenario, the reduction of damage by not wearing the af pants is only .3% (because you'd still have the hat), and you would definitely gain that back with Ironman's will. You'd also not lose out on AOE damage that you would by going MRD.

[Hachi-Roku]

Going MRD, in addition to Keen Flurry, Blood for Blood, and Invigorate, you can also slot Leg Sweep for a not-as-good-but-still-there AoE that has 30s cooldown and 1000 TP cost. Granted, it's not comboable, but MRD/WAR only has so many ways to spend their TP as it is. The best way to get AoEs going nuts on WAR is Overpower spam provided you have enough enemies procing parry and feeding you enough TP to do so, anyway, and then it's just a matter of positioning.

I'm not saying a cross-class Leg Sweep is as good as a raw Steel Cyclone, nor that SC is bad and can be completely replaced by Overpower in even certain circumstances, but that the sacrifices involved will give substantial boost to ST damage. You basically become a LNC with two more AoEs (Overpower, Whirlwind), less attack power, and 2k more HP, hahaha.

Honestly, now I'm genuinely curious on how this will work out in the field. I'll give it a shot over a week or two.

[Molly_Millions]

What do you guys think about going this route for DD?

Weapon

VIT


Head

WAR AF (no good materia for war head)


Body

Savage Might (Crit Attack)


Hands

STR


Waist

*Sanguinary Might Materia


Legs

Ironman's Will (+ STR/VIT)


Feet

Explorer's Moccasins (attk power +5, Crit rate +30)


*Without the expensive materia on the belt, you can gain a bit more crit rate with an explorer's belt.




With this, I'd recommend focusing as much as possible on crit rate. Use the Explorer's Choker, Imperial Operative Wristlets, an Electrum Ring +1, an Amber ring +1. If possible, triple meld STR to your hands, and triple meld VIT to a demilune buhj (for the +12 crit rate). You can either go with a darksteel hauby or if that's too expensive, a cobalt hauby for the chest piece.

I'm working on getting some more gear for the above build, I don't have an axe with VIT on it yet, but I think VIT is the way to go with this build. Currently without the axe or amber ring +1 (I have a rubellite ring +1 instead atm), I'm sitting on 327 STR and 279 VIT. My pants could also be improved quite a bit to allow me to to swap my rubellite ring for the amber one. Ideally, I want 320ish STR and 320ish VIT, and will have a staggering amount of crit rate boost (+87 to be exact, or roughly a 13.4% boost in crit rate.) That much of a boost to crits should put me at around 1 crit per every 5 swings, which is not insignificant at all, especially given crit attack power on the chest piece/belt.

[GreyJorildyn]

You need to take stat caps into account. If you're not hitting ~345 STR and ~305 VIT, then you need to work on that first (why are you settling for 320 each? do you not know that's irrelevant?). Double meld VIT in body slot. The critical hit potency garbage isn't getting you anywhere (placebo effects actually don't count btw). Imperial Operative Bracelets = garbage too. Get a Rubellite Bracelet/+1. Triple meld STR on your hands as suggested (shoot for around +40) and wear STR rings (hence the VIT melds on body: Cobalt Hauby). In your waist slot, keep it simple and get a veteran's field belt.

Axe with VIT is unecessary. Build a good enough group to get a moogle or garuda weapon. Accuracy is your best bet in the weapon slot since you don't want to waste time and money putting it on hands. Electrum rings are good to have on hand for swaps but keep in mind you can eat food that provides +34 accuracy (just 2 short of 2 HQ electrum rings), while you cannot get more than like 9 strength from food (and even if it's higher than that, it's nowhere near +36 you get from using 2 rubellite rings+1).

You can't look at gear as slot-for-slot. It must be considered as a complete set. Plan ahead and play to a jobs' strengths, but don't sacrifice to get something you only think is better, like crit power on warrior, unless bonuses like that come attached to others that help (ie. garuda weapons).

Here's my DPS loadout if that helps [useful stats]...

WEAPON: Garuda's Scream
HEAD: Paragon's Crown (work on this, it's an amazing piece of gear)
BODY: Cobalt Haubergeon [VIT+25 total]
HANDS: Cobalt Mitt Gauntlets [STR+40 total]
LEGS: Felt Trousers [STR+18/VIT+20 total]
FEET: Cobalt Sollerets [HP+100, optional tbh]
WAIST: Veteran's Field Belt
EARS: Explorer's Earring
NECK: Electrum Gorget +1 / Explorer's Choker (swap by situation)
WRISTS: Rubellite Bracelets +1
L.RING: Rubellite Ring +1
R.RING: Explorer's Ring / Electrum Ring +1 (see below)

Foods: Smoked Raptor (attack+41) / Mugwort Carp (accuracy+24)

Relevant stat totals: STR 345 / VIT 312 / Attack 536 / Accuracy 380 (while solo)

As you can see, no easy feat to get some of these melds, but well worth it in the end (plus I have stuff to sell as I replace it with Darklight). I am stat capped for my weapon and that is the first priority. You'll want to have an explorer's choker and at least one electrum ring +1 on hand for high-accuracy situations such as Garuda. The advantage to the way I melded stuff is that I was able to utilize an explorer's ring for extra attack in my build. This also has the secondary advantage of allowing me to swap out that slot for another +18 accuracy without changing my stats around. Similar logic is used in neck slot.

I'm not sure what got lost in translation after stat cap information was posted, but it seems many people are unaware how to gear themselves properly. I didn't really find the information confusing and thought it was rather straightforward.

[Molly_Millions]

I have triple melded STR on my hands for 41 STR already. I've got Paragon's crown, but am less than impressed with it, tbh. I've got a Cobalt Cuirass +1 with 31 VIT on it, as well. For a DD build the HP on the Cobalt Sollerets doesn't buy me anything at all, so it's not even going to be considered. I have double melded sentinel's sabatons with 18 magic evasion and 87 HP, they are fine for tanking, but not so great for a crit build. Let me be clear, that's what I want out of this, a crit based armor set.

I want to put the VIT on my axe to make room for crit attk on my chest. (All I'm doing there is making room for another stat that will up my total damage output.) If you take that into account, you'll notice that I have considered all my gear as a set. I have the moogle axe currently, but I think I can get more damage output with the setup I listed above. I think the only real take away for me from your suggestions is to possibly try using another electrum ring +1 instead of a STR or VIT ring to make up for not using the moogle axe. With my suggested setup, what I'm basically doing is trading +3 crit rate and the self healing from the moogle axe for (currently) 56 crit attack power on my chest piece, and eventually some crit attack power on my belt. I'm also attempting to support the crit attack power by adding crit rate everywhere I can, effectively raising my crit rate to 20%. The reason I want to focus on crits is to, for one, prove to myself if it's viable or not to do so. I think with a 20% crit rate, it very well may be.

[GreyJorildyn]

I can prove it to you -- it's not. Don't gear for something that is meaningless on end game mobs. If you want to double-VIT an axe to get crit on body, and that can maintain stat caps, go for it. I guess the logic there would be "better to have it than not have it", but the numbers don't really show it being all that great of an improvement. The trade off is rather poor too. To pull off VIT melds you'll be dealing with a crafted axe, all of which are vastly inferior to primal/GC weapons available. Will your crits hit hard? Yes. Will you increase your DPS by doing so? No, for the reason I just stated. Check it:

Best axe available is Barbarian's Bardiche, and hey it already has VIT+5 on it! Leg-up there... but it's DMG is 151 and 35.95 DPS (LOL). Or you get Garuda's Scream, which not only has 8 more base damage (and DPS: 40.76), but also has Accuracy, and Critical Hit Attack Power +40 (you wanted this, right?). Look at the math and ask yourself if that is worth it. I don't think it is.

Gearing in this game is actually a lot simpler than people think.

[Molly_Millions]

Like Garuda's axe is something I can just walk into the wards and buy... anyway, now that I've got that out of the way;

Frankly, I'm not convinced that a primal axe is always better than a melded axe, especially when it's a triple melded axe we're talking about. I understand that some caps are based on the DPS stat on your weapon, but I think I'm gonna go for it anyway. Essentially, I'll end up with very similar STR and VIT numbers, with vastly higher crit attack power and a huge boost in crit rate to support it. I'm not convinced that the lower base DPS cannot be overcome with crits.

[GreyJorildyn]

Like Garuda's axe is something I can just walk into the wards and buy... anyway, now that I've got that out of the way;

Curious that by now you haven't gotten at least enough totems to buy one. Abaddon is event LS no?

Frankly, I'm not convinced that a primal axe is always better than a melded axe, especially when it's a triple melded axe we're talking about.

I can't help you with that then. There is a very good reason primal weapons are used as often as they are and it doesn't have much to do with them being "free".

[Frein]

I can't help you with that then. There is a very good reason primal weapons are used as often as they are and it doesn't have much to do with them being "free".

Yes, this.

[Junktap]

Like Garuda's axe is something I can just walk into the wards and buy...

You've got a point here, but with addition of the new GC axe's you've also got no excuse. instead of spamming primals to maybe get a drop now we all have the option of farming seals to eventually reach a very obtainable goal of 25k to grab these sexy Mofos which have a higher dps rating and in most cases base dmg than ifrits or moogle.