Impulse Drive?

[EasymodeX]

Ah thanks, easy mode. Guess I screwed up each time I tried a 'solo side attack', which is part of the reason I asked, I wasn't certain if I was doing it right.

You can easily tell with Heavy Thrust because you will see the floating text "+Heavy Thrust" (the damage buff) when you are successful. In addition, the buff will appear/refresh on your buff panel.

The main issue when flanking while soloing is that the mob positions and directions on-screen are delayed from the server by a significant chunk of lag. What is on-screen is around ~1.0 seconds behind the server.

In order to consistently hit a target from the side, solo, you need to jacknife to the side almost behind the target (say, 140 degrees if your starting position is 0). In the 0.1 seconds it takes for you to move, the target will usually rotate like 40 degrees, but the turn won't show on your screen until after you attack.

There was a good diagram in one of the Monk threads on this forum, but I don't remember which.

or get it's combo abilities sooner.

Yes you acquire DE and CT obnoxiously late. It's a ridiculous span of levels where it's nothing but TTT spam.

[ChaozK]

Well, I got my answers, but to avoid making extra topics, I got a quickie. What exactly is the XP bonus for having higher level classes? I like to move around on all my classes (all combat classes are at least 15, at this point), and I want to know what I'm getting for focusing on one class. Having reached level 30, and gotten the chocobo as an ally, I believe I've gained all the 'discrete' things that can benefit lower level classes. If it's a 1% bonus to XP per level the highest level class is ahead of me, I'm not too worried, but bigger bonuses might make me focus on beating the game as one class, then trying everything else.

Its a 50% exp bonus, so definitely pretty huge.

[Dreiko]

The only time where going for Vorpal Thrust combo before lvl 26 is worth it is when you wanna set up the biggest crit you can with life surge. So once every 90 seconds you should do one rotation of that to maximize damage. Otherwise, yes, ID spam ftw. I just got Full Thrust recently though and that blows everything out of the water indeed.



On the matter of flanking when solo, just use Leg Sweep to stun the enemy in place then walk to their side and do Heavy Thrust while they remain stunned (you have 2 seconds) and you should have the buff.

[Sines]

Yah, the Leg Sweep + Heavy Thrust combo I figured out, and it's pretty handy for soloing. Getting in the Heavy Thrust to start the fight off isn't too hard either.

I'd disagree about using the Vorpal Thrust combo before level 26. Each hit of ID does 5 more damage compared to the average damage of the combo. However, if for whatever reason you fail to do it, you've lost 75 damage. That means if you miss it as often as 1 in 15 times, you're coming out behind. Even assuming a perfect tank, there's still AoE dodging that can throw you off. And that's assuming a perfect tank.

Just not worth the risk, in my opinion. It's biggest selling point is not so much the extra damage, but the ability to 'interrupt' your combos to place in a non-combo move. Once you use True Thrust, you're kinda locked in on what your next attack is, and can't drop a Straight Shot or Heavy Thrust. Sadly, ID will sit on the sideline until I get it's follow up moves, even without Full Thrust.

Oh, and I tried to mention this in an edit because of the posting limit, but I guess it wasn't seen. What is the exact condition for gaining the 50% "Higher level class" bonus? Is it merely enough that you have a single combat class at a higher level than your current one, and you get the full 50%?

[PessimiStick]

Oh, and I tried to mention this in an edit because of the posting limit, but I guess it wasn't seen. What is the exact condition for gaining the 50% "Higher level class" bonus? Is it merely enough that you have a single combat class at a higher level than your current one, and you get the full 50%?

I believe your highest class needs to be 2 levels above, so If you have a 50, you get 50% bonus on any others until you hit 48. I could be mistaken and it's any time you're lower though, not 100% sure.

[EasymodeX]

I'd disagree about using the Vorpal Thrust combo before level 26. [...] if you miss it as often as 1 in 15 times, you're coming out behind. Even assuming a perfect tank, there's still AoE dodging that can throw you off. And that's assuming a perfect tank.

I look at it from a strategic perspective: it's a good opportunity to practice l2attackfrombehind (and l2 compensate for the poor FF14 positional latency) while you're at a level where nothing matters.

Not really super concerned about min-maxing dps at level 20 or w/e.