LTB Aurum Cuirass

No, it doesn't cap at 50%. I've seen up to 85 on a nin w/ Inin up and I am usually at 54% myself. (capped dex and merits is 24% cirt, razed ruins is 30).

I believe gnarled horn gives +20% crit rate. It's the next atma on my list.

Assuming the kind of gear a pup with KKK should be tping in, you are at a touch over 50 attack rounds in 2 minutes (haste and marches obviously). With 15% double attack that means ~546 tp vs ~783 tp if you have level 3 aftermath up. The extra 200 tp you need to do the 300 tp pummel is gained and then some just from the aftermath itself, so you aren't losing 2 WS, you are doing about 5.5 WS either way. And you have an extra ~35 tp or so to cover for the fact that you won't get 300 TP exactly as your aftermath wears off. That is also assuming KKK for both and with only a -20 delay from enhances martial arts 3. Emp knuckles get less than 546 tp because of their higher delay, and odds are enhances martial arts 3 does more than enhances martial arts 1 did. And this isn't factoring in the fact that your automaton is getting the double attack aftermath as well. He's not a huge chunk of damage but it is still something.

The only situation you could possible argue KKK loses is if you are fighting something for a short time, then standing around doing nothing but not long enough to get 300 tp from VV regain, then fighting for a short time again over and over. And even in those cases you are talking about 20% double damage and 10 str vs -22 delay or more. You are gaining ~6% TP and WS damage from the -delay, and only 20% TP damage from the ODD so emp knuckles wouldn't win by much. If enhances martial arts 3 is -30 delay then KKK are still about even in this mythical case. Any more -delay than that and they just plain always win. And of course that assumes that both you and your automaton gain absolutely nothing from the acc aftermath, which may not always be the case given our low skill and that you want to be tping in goliard body.

Your post said the thing emp knuckles are better for is doing damage. Really they are only maybe better for doing damage, and only if you are doing a lot of start/stop fighting. The only thing they are definitively better for is being a hell of a lot easier to get.

Even less if you are using the shikkoku or equivalent gloves/body for WS. Not much info on how much +crit damage they are, but even 2-3% still makes them the best WS pieces if you are acc capped I think.

I stand corrected in my previous post, but, as I said, the person I was talking to said never any situation, and you won't always have a constant stream of mobs. You will have to wait sometimes between pulls.

Basically, if you can consistently keep up aftermath, go Kenk, any situation you can't (which isn't an unlikely situation), go Vereth.

any confirmation on how much MA+ the cirque necklace has btw? (wiki still has verification tag of -10 delay) but i thoght all MA+ was -20 standard (idk about AF3+1 legs that i have...i dont know exactly how to test their delay reduction with the 3% haste they also have)