Current mood:

tired

SAM Update
As requested like 500 times now (I don't even think that number is exaggerated by much), going to try to put together a quick update! 

This update is mostly going to be focused on SAM... A lot of people have asked me to make a NIN-like update/guide equivalent for my other jobs (SAM and WAR mostly), but the real big news now is in the SAM department so I'm going to focus on that. :)



Just last week I obtained Amanomurakumo with a great deal of help and thanks towards members of BtL and BtD (thanks again everyone!). Over the past few days in some of my free time I've been testing its potential and quite honestly it's better than I even imagined. Originally I didn't want to get over-hyped and was pretty sure it'd be a disappointment if I did, but so far it's been everything and more than I ever expected.

Anyway, I'll get more into that stuff later... I'm going to start this off similar to the format of my NIN updates, and review my macros, gear changes, and the different sets of gear I use first in that order. After that I'll go into Amanomurakumo and tests/results thus far.

__________________________________________________________________

Macros:
Almost everything is self-explanatory here, but I'll try to put in some extra details. However, as a quick reminder, if you haven't taken the time to check out windower macros I highly recommend setting them up. They're by far one of the single most helpful things to have in this game IMO, and worth the time. More about those and how to set them up here: http://rukenshin.livejournal.com/14854.html#cutid1

Below is the single macro pallet I have for SAM:


Not much that doesn't look like what it really is. 

Starting at CTRL+1 for pulling and/or calling mobs, moving right are Third Eye and Mediate macros*, along with a TP report macro, Berserk, Defense gear, Kasha WS gear, Gekko/Yukikaze WS gear (now replaced with Kaiten WS gear**), melee gear, and Provoke. Then, ALT+1 is the Kasha WS macro, followed by Gekko, Kaiten, Sneak Attack***, Trick Attack***, a blank macro, 2h, Accuracy gear, Night time****, and an old macro I don't use anymore.

* These two are basically the only macros that have a little more than what they may see in them, as seen here:


**Kasha, Gekko/Yukikaze, and Kaiten WS gear are all basically the same exact gear minus a different neck piece. For Kasha I use a Flame Gorget, for Gekko and Yukikaze I use a Snow Gorget, and for Kaiten I use a Breeze Gorget (more about that later). I haven't had any need to use anything other than Kaiten and occasionally Kasha since getting Amanomurakumo, so I don't really have a reason to make another macro for Gekko yet. 

But quick while on that topic, a reminder that Tachi: Gekko = Tachi: Kasha = Tachi: Yukikaze in damage. A common misconception is that Gekko > Kasha > Yukikaze, but they all do in fact have the same WS mods and do the same damage. Any other observations are truly just placebo effects often based on the fact people use Gekko the most, Kasha occasionally, and Yukikaze the least by far.

*** A lot of people have differing opinions on how to setup SA and TA macros, and I've played around with a few different setups myself... But the easiest and most reliable by far IMO is having two separate macros for SA and TA (with a /recast in each). Unlike having it in one macro it won't fail or lag, and it's also much faster.

**** My WS macros and TP macros all have a line with /clock in them, so I always know what time of the day it is. When it's night, I'll hit my WS macro and also hit the Night macro to add in a Vampire Earring (+4 STR at night) in place of Triumph. All of my jobs have this macro minus RNG, and for others it's a little more complicated, like for NIN I equip the Vampire Earring and Koga Tekko.
__________________________________________________________________

Equipment Sets:
This won't be nearly as long as it was for my NIN update, as I don't have 18 million different sets of situational HNM gear to go through. But, I still do have quite a few gear sets in even my melee jobs. In this order for each set I'll go over when I use it (and maybe some stats), post a picture, list the actual gear, and my explanation for the gear combinations and/or results. I still have Red Curry on from a Limbus run in I think all of these screen shots, as it lasts like 6 hours with Sanction, and Hasso is still on as well. All my +Accuracy values count the +Accuracy from +DEX (2 DEX = 1 Acc), and likewise all my +Attack values count the +Attack from +STR (2 STR = 1 Att).

I also often adjust my macros and gear changes slightly for different/abnormal situations that I probably won't account for here, but generally my gear I use most often is as follows:


-TP
Simple, this is the gear I use for TP gain in nearly all situations. It gives +19% Haste (24% /DRG) along with about +41 Accuracy (about +55 counting merits, +65 counting Hasso, and +85 counting relic) and +71 Attack (about +87 counting merits).

Ammo: Tiphea Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Justice Torque
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Merman's Earring (Wyvern Earring /DRG)
Body: Haubergeon +1
Hands: Hachi Kote +1
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Mars' Ring
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Speed Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Fuma Sune-Ate

I basically shoot for as much Haste as I can while maintaining a 6 hit setup (or 5 hits after a WS) to maximize how fast I build TP, in addition to DoT. Attempting to go any lower on the hits to 100 TP isn't worth it as you'd lose almost all of the Acc/Att/STR/DEX for Store TP gear, and in effect you'll get to 100 TP slower in the end because of the longer GK delay (from losing Haste gear) and the lower hit-rate (from losing Acc gear).

Many people seem (or used)  to think that stacking Haste is only effective for Dual Wielding, but I really don't agree. In parses I'll post later you'll see my DoT is really very high for a 2h weapon (even before relic it was) and I'm still confident a good amount of Haste will do much more than any amounts of other stats. Either way, it's pretty easy to see that on average an additional attack round for 180 damage a fight would outweigh hitting for even 200 instead (in reality, the higher attack from all attack gear would result in an average of like 185-190). Not to mention the higher number of WS. 

Currently in a normal exp PT situation with as SAM/WAR with Hasso, Marchx1, and Haste, GK delay is brought down to 198 using Hagun and 192 using Amanomurakumo. It's as fast as some daggers, and it's really noticeable. I'll overlap my attacks Kraken Club style when Zanshin/Double Attack activate.

As for the results, the TP gain is very very fast. It'll beat Ridills and MNKs and NINs for most situations without trouble as long as you have the same songs/spells as they do. Accuracy wise it's usually around 80-95% depending on the mobs you fight (assuming Hagun, merits, and attack food), and you hit pretty hard as well. It's also possible to self-skillchain each Meditate with some luck, I usually do it with around a 50% success rate when I don't mess up.


-WS
I use the following WS gear any time I'm /WAR or /DRG or /NIN, aka when I don't have SA. I wear about +37 Acc with it (about +52 counting merits, +62 Hasso, and +82 counting relic), and the rest is focused on mostly STR/Attack.

Ammo: Olibanum Sachet
Head: Shura Zunari Kabuto (Cursed-1 waiting for Abj)
Neck: _____  Gorget (depends on WS)
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Triumph Earring (Vampire at night)
Body: Haubergeon +1
Hands: Alky Bracelets
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Mars' Ring
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Shura Haidate (working on HQ!)
Feet: Rutter Sabatons

I try to get a nice balance of Accuracy/Attack/STR in WS gear. Acc is often looked over by many in WS gear but it's very important, as in reality it'll add up to more damage when you have a WS that lands 95% of the time for 900 damage versus 85% of the time for 1000 damage. Just loading up all the STR you can isn't a good idea! Before relic I also used Potent Belt in my waist slot, and before Mars' I usually would switch between Sniper+1 and Flame on and off in that slot. 

Also, high attack really helps for consistency (more so than STR) as well. With that in mind I really prefer Haub+1 over Osode regardless of the situation for both the Attack and Acc, I've switched back and forth a lot and I've had the best results with Haub as well.

I've tweaked it a lot and I'm happy with the results of the above, with Hagun in a standard PT I average about 800-900 a WS throughout the duration of a party and would land maybe around 85-90% of the time with attack food, and now with relic I'm averaging 1000-1.2k in the same conditions.


-WS#2
This is for /THF, basically the same as above with a few minor changes since there's no need for the +Acc and more need for +STR.

Ammo: Olibanum Sachet
Head: Shura Zunari Kabuto (Cursed-1 waiting for Abj)
Neck: _____  Gorget (depends on WS)
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Triumph Earring (Vampire at night)
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Alky Bracelets
Ring1: Rajas Ring
Ring2: Flame Ring
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Shura Haidate (working on HQ!)
Feet: Rutter Sabatons

Not much explanation needed, this is what I macro for when I know I'll land a SA, otherwise I use the gear before this for anything else (including TA).


-Defense
This set will look familiar from NIN, but on the other hand it's what me and people in my LS deemed as my "ohshit!" gear. All of my jobs have some macro somewhere that throws on a bunch of damage reduction/Defense/VIT/HP gear as a last resort for times I pull hate or other dire situations (IE, tanking an NM/HNM when needed, a Dynamis pull, etc). This set in particular is almost exactly like my NIN gear. It gives about -30% damage taken along with a little more VIT/DEF and HP over my normal gear.

Ammo: Misc
Head: Arhat Jinpachi+1
Neck: Fortitude Torque
Ear1: Cassie Earring
Ear2: Pigeon Earring +1
Body: Arhat's Gi +1
Hands: Seiryu's Kote
Ring1: Defending Ring
Ring2: Jelly Ring
Back: Boxer's Mantle
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Fuma Sune-Ate

I've thought about trying to find some of the non-existent Hydra gear to add a potential -11% damage taken (with HQs, or -7% with NQs), but really doubt I'd find much of anything and it probably wouldn't even be worth the trouble in the end. I don't think I'd seriously try to pursue SAM tanking on purpose as fun as it may be, even though I did tank Charybdis for fun the other day!

For the most part I just use this set of gear to fall back on in exp or other situations when Seigan decides to suck on tougher mobs (Skoffins, Mamool, etc), but it does do well. I'll usually get hit for 90-150 on those mobs with this gear on vs 200+... It pretty much does what it says it does, and cuts damage down by about 1/3rd.

 
-Accuracy
I don't think I've ever used this set of gear before! But, I have it nonetheless just in case I may need it... Originally this is just for very high evasion mobs, like Fafnir or Kirin, etc. I haven't had a chance to use it though, and can't even find my Life Belt D:, so I can't really say much on the results. Total +Acc is +82 (about +97 counting merits, +107 counting Hasso, +127 counting relic, and +137 /DRG). If I used this gear I'd most likely have /DRG as well, but again that mostly depends on the situation.

Ammo: Tiphea Sting
Head: Sao. Kabuto +1
Neck: Peacock Charm
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Merman's Earring (Wyvern Earring /DRG)
Body: Haubergeon +1
Hands: Noritsune Kote
Ring1: Sniper's RIng+1
Ring2: Mars' Ring
Back: Forager's Mantle
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Fuma Sune-Ate (1k AP from Amir Boots, being lazy)

As said before, I haven't had a chance to actually try it out. But, I'm pretty sure I'd tweak it some so that I'd still have a 6 hit setup or at least a little more Haste (or some balance of that). Originally I didn't try for any Haste or a 6 hit setup in this set of gear, because the impact of each point of Accuracy is much larger on HNMs than exp mobs. So, it's safe to assume that overloading acc and achieving a 90% hitrate would outweigh sacrificing some for a 70-80% hit-rate. But, again, I can't really speak for results on SAM... Only for WAR, which basically gave the results I said above as far as accuracy and overall DoT is concerned.

__________________________________________________________________
Merits:
I'll just quickly go over my current SAM specific merits... As you may have already seen on my user info page, all my primary merits are capped (HP, STR, GK skill, etc) along with most of my job specific.

For SAM in particular I capped Store TP and Meditate, and really there's no better way to go. The other options are admittedly nice in their own ways, but nothing beats a 2:30 Meditate and +10 Store TP IMO. As far as secondary merits go, capped Overwhelm is a must and probably one of the best merits period. After that it's more preference, personally I have 1 in Shikikoyo and 1 in Ikishoten, and debating which of those I'll bump up to level 2 with my last merit.

I think that about covers everything about how my SAM works, but feel free to ask if you have any additional questions or information you want to see.

With all that stuff aside, I'll go onto Amanomurakumo. :)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

I'll separate this into four sections, first will be about getting the GK and pictures of the WS animation (Muteki's actually since the screens of his came out better), second will be a quick sea gorget test I took, third will be the damage results, and lastly will be some actual parse results.

First of all, again I'd like to thank BtD and BtL for their help on the final upgrades of the GK! This technically makes the 8th relic for the LS to upgrade, and working on more in the future as well. 

I obtained it last Tuesday night after an 'emergency Dynamis-Xarcabard' to get the stupid Necropsyche... We beat the Animated Great Katana the Saturday before with a new strategy that worked really well, and completely buried it. Only downside is I forgot I needed the Necropsyche! I've tossed like 5 of them thinking I wouldn't get a relic, and we haven't done DL in so long with all the Animated Weapon fights, so I never had a chance to get it again. But, we went off schedule and got a free Xarcabard on the following Tuesday to finish it. Everyone had a good laugh :(, as I was probably one of the only people to end up missing one of the easiest items to obtain in the upgrade process.

Anyway, this is what the WS looks like... I took these screens when Muteki finished his second relic about a month ago, and I don't have any good ones of my own yet. 



It's kinda a 2.5-fold WS animation... First, you raise the GK above your head as more and more light gradually collects at the point of it, then you bring it down vertically all the way to the ground in a wave of light that shoots at the enemy and bursts, after this the GK is slowly moved back up into an attack stance with the GK beside your head, and then from there it goes back to normal stance. It's a pretty long animation, but in the end it's still a one-hit WS. 

Also, these are the final four scenes before obtaining the GK if anyone wants to see. I'm linking them in case no one wants it spoiled.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9855/s1co8.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/5734/s2do3.jpg
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2904/s3kw6.jpg
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6736/s4cj3.jpg
__________________________________________________________________

One of the main questions that no one had a definite answer to about the relic weapons was if the relic WS really worked with the Sea Gorgets. 

I came to ask this question because I'm pretty certain that all the gorgets are based on level 1 properties. IE, there's no Fragmentation Gorget that covers both Wind and Thunder, each gorget corresponds with a level 1 element. With that in mind, every normal WS does have level 1 elements, as all weapons skills can be chained with level one properties and/or make level one skillchains.

However, from what I've read Relic WS will not chain with any non Dark/Light making weapon skill. It can only make level 2 SCs and level 3 SCs, no level 1. This made me wonder if it would really work with sea gorgets, since technically it has no level 1 properties.

So, same as always in my past LJ entries... I whipped out THF sub along with a good deal of STR gear and attack food to make sure I was capped to get consistant numbers, and annihilated some bunnies. These are the results:

First, the base WS. It was 1611 consistently with few exceptions; I used it 10 times before moving on.


Second, I equipped my Breeze Gorget knowing that it should work with the fact in mind that Kaiten is Fragmentation (Wind+Thunder). 1662 was the result, consistantly with few exceptions for all the 10 weapon skills. This proves it does in fact work, much to my surprise. D:


Lastly, I wanted to see if Flame Gorget would work. Seeing as the WS elements of Kaiten are Light and Fragmentation, technically I should be able to use any Light element gorget as well and get the same effect. But, results proved that to be wrong, as I went back down to 1611.


So, the gorgets do work with the relic weapon skills, but only the level 2 SC elements.
__________________________________________________________________

Now for the numbers!

As I said before, the results so far with this GK have been absolutely amazing. I'll go over some of the different aspects of it like melee damage, the 2.5x damage, criticals, 2.5x criticals, and WS numbers. All of these numbers are for the most part based on the actual parse results from 2h or longer PTs, with SAM/WAR in an average exp PT situation (BRD singing Minuet IV) and eating attack food.

- First, Attack Down seems to proc around 5-10% of the time varying on the difficulty of the mob. On average I see it proc like once every 2-3 mobs, and it seems to be around a -20% decrease in the mobs attack based on how much it reduced the damage they hit for. I'll try some Ballista tests once I get a chance to in the near future for more concrete results.

- The GK hits very hard in itself as it is. Regular melee damage with the GK is 175-190 on average. With buffs it normally ranges between 150 to 240 depending on the mob.

- 2x Melee damage follows basically the patterns in numbers as above, except 2.5 times the number. The range I've seen so far from this is about 350-600 damage, again depending on the mob. Four examples of the activation are below, along with something I was just amused with (DA proc, a 2.5x proc on one of the DAs, and 2 counters for 1014 damage to finish off a Puk [no Berserk]). I agree with the current theory however, that the activation rate is about 3%, which ends up being not as rare as it may seem when you swing so fast.


- Regular criticals hit very hard and rather often, averaging at around a 9-12% critical hit-rate. I did some tests on my own time and found the critical cap for this weapon is 315, so that's about as hard as a hit gets. I've hit 315 a few times and 306 a lot on normal exp mobs, average is around 290.

- 2.5x Criticals usually are massive and like mini-weapon skills, I love it. The range I've seen so far is from 600-786, the max possible being 786. As rare as they should be, I've seen quite a lot of them so far.


- Tachi: Kaiten is of course the highlight of Amanomurakumo, it allows you to spam a WS at 100 TP that has power comparable to a 300 TP Gekko/Kasha/Yukikaze. Currently, my WS average with Kaiten over the course of an exp PT hovers around 1 to 1.2k. Without DA and landing the primary hit, the damage normally has a range between 900-1.4k on all exp mobs with little variation based on difficulty. With a DA and landing both hits, the damage jumps to a range of 1.4k to 1.9k. The highest I've seen so far is 1828 followed by a few more 18xxs, several 17xxs, and a lot of 16xxs. Keep in mind those are all SAM/WAR. I've only used SAM/THF once with it, and in exp the average SA+WS was about 1.5k almost consistently. But, in the time it takes for SA to be ready I'll usually WS 2-3 more times, so it's not really worth it. These are some of the misc results, again all SAM/WAR:


And, had some fun in Dynamis-Beaucidine this past Saturday. >:D


Just a few BLMs on my revenge list! (Blurmage and Simo going down!)

That about covers all the damage aspects.
__________________________________________________________________

Now, lastly, some of the results.

I usually try to avoid throwing up parses on my LJ as evidence of anything other than some personal tests, but I've been asked to post (as well as email/PM) them by several people now so I'm just taking the lazy way out and posting it here. I seriously have like a library of parses including nearly all my exp PTs on all of my jobs and such, and for the most part I don't think I've really posted any of them... I suppose I will more often though, if people really want me to? (I'm keeping names blocked though)

Anyway, here are some of the parses from the exp PTs I've had over the last week. The two top PTs are pretty top notch, and the bottom two PTs are average pickup PTs (aka painful). It's my price for being desperate enough to seek for merits. :(

In order from top to bottom, the PT setup was NIN, WAR/NIN, WAR/NIN, myself, RDM, and a BRD. MinuetIV + March, Haste all around, Bhaflau Thickets camp. Used Hasso maybe 60% of the time, Seigan 40%. About an 18k/h PT.
- http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/8095/samgkvninwarwardk6.jpg

I also had another PT with a decked out WAR/NIN, but clipper must've crashed on me before screening the results :(... It was a 21k/h PT that gave results similar to the above (BRD, BRD, RDM other slots), something like WAR1 22%, WAR2 37%, myself 41%. I'll see if one of them saved the parse. D:  EDIT: Got it from one of them. :)
In order from top to bottom, the PT setup was WAR, WAR, myself, BRD, RDM, BRD. Minuetx2, March, and Madrigal were the songs, Haste all around, Bhalfau Thickets. Used Hasso around 70% of the time, and Seigan 30%. About a 21k/h PT.
- http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/448/samgkvwarwarlv1.jpg

In order from top to bottom, the PT setup was MNK, myself, WAR, WAR, RDM, BLM. Haste only on WAR/NIN as far as I saw, Bhaflau Thickets. Used Seigan 100% of the time (do in just about all pickup PTs). I think it was a 13k/h PT.
- http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8945/samgkvmnkwarwarninmt2.jpg

In order from top to bottom, the PT setup was NIN, WHM, myself, COR, BLM. Haste around half the time on me and what seemed to be 100% of the time on the NIN, Seigan 100% of the time, in Caedire Mire. Something like an 8k/h PT.
- http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/8533/samgkvnincorblmtn5.jpg

I'm really not one to jump to bold statements like this, and honestly I probably couldn't be anymore against making them most of the time.. But I have to say, I think a well equipped and merited SAM might just be the most powerful DD in exp with this GK (albeit maybe not the most MP efficient unless using Seigan 100% of the time). On average I usually get off one WS a fight (sometimes 2-3) along with a good deal of melee damage while holding back, and I don't see how any job (including my DDs) could match that with Kaiten hitting so hard. I'm pretty sure if I just didn't care about eating MP and went nuts and WS every 100 TP and kept Hasso up it'd be even more crazy. But, for the sake of MP I usually hold back and use mostly Seigen.


But yeah, that's all of it! 

This literally took almost all of my day (something like 5-7 hours doing things in between), and kind of put me behind on some work D:... I'm pretty certain I won't be able to do any major updates again until December when the semester ends as it's the most stressful one so far, so enjoy this! If you read a sentence a day it'll last you until like 2008.