Drakesbane Help

ok so i want to focus on drg and make it good, so obviously a big part is drakesbane, i have been having slighlty low numbers compared to what im reading from a lot of others on the forum, usually from 2k-4k tops. the atmas i used are VV apoc and RR, i also tried with GH instead of apoc and i was getting more consistant 3-4k banes, but still never reaching 5k+

this is a link to my WS set
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/242279

any advice on equipment i could change to make for better numbers?

Im thinking you should add a light gorget and drop the str earring for an aesir earring

rancor collar, Cuchulain's belt are 2 big improvements. Aesir earring over str earring, red curry buns, and GH instead of VV not apoc.

Also you should try out Smiting Blow instead of GH, Just for one run of Drakesbanes. It boosted me up from 2-3k to 3.5-5k.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/238151
This is what I use, I average somewhere around 5k with this.

rancor collar, Cuchulain's belt are 2 big improvements. Aesir earring over str earring, red curry buns, and GH instead of VV not apoc.[/quote]
I honestly never thought about switching out VV. Will try this soon :3.

Use Stardiver. Attack penalties are lame.

O_______________________________________________O;
don't listen to this person ever

what attack penalty? also can you explain why i should not use gorget or aesir earring? also why Cuchulain's belt? the stats dont seem as good as some of the other gear out there.

and im not saying anyone is wrong but if it IS better, id like to understand exactly why

Rancor collar is amazing for drakes, anguinus belt, try to get some heca feet +1 and get some str/polearm skill augments on them. Use claymore grip outside abyssea, aesir for ear or kemas if you dont have that. Pyrosoul/rajas outside of abyssea. RR/apoc/SS or RR/apoc/GH are best options. Dont use Stardiver in abyssea.

Because of this


havent played DRG in forever, been away for 3 months and gettin everyhing 90-99 lol, but WARs raging rush has same "chance of crit varies with TP" and a STR35% mod yet i ws in mostly DEX/Crit+ gear and av 4kish with no buffs, 5k+ with


feet+2 = 10% crit
BH = 4% crit (synergy)
head+2 = 3% crit
collar = 5%

Drakesbane has a -19% attack penalty or so, which is why it's damage is never what you'd really think.

As far as why not gorget, simple. It's a crit based WS, therefore proper neck should be Rancor Collar. If you lack Rancor Collar for whatever reason your options fall on: Love Torque, which beats out Gorget a good % of the time, excluding abyssea.

If you lack that, then resort to gorget.

Earrings, I personally use Light Earring with +1 Critical Hit Rate. I saw some information that was posted regarding Vulcan's but that was for Ukko's Fury so I'm not sure if the same applies to this scenario since Drakesbane is only 50%, whereas Ukko's Fury is: 60%.

As for Aesir Ear Pendant, it's a decent earring. I don't know what the ratio is for ATK:STR on Drakesbane since it has that nasty penalty, it possibly does value attack a bit more than STR at that point, but I'd need to see some math on that.

I can't say I care for Chuchulain's Belt at all. It sounds like a bad choice in my opinion considering we get access to Pipilaka Belt which is +6 str and dex.

If you're fighting something in which you know you're over the ddex cap and or are in abyssea then an Elemental belt will beat out all other options in this case.

I like to play with atma combos and drakes, nothing has beaten VV SS RR. Tried GH SS RR, while this made the WS more consistant, they remained close to 3k, otherwise the first set, mine do 3-6k very rarely dropping under 3k.

SB will kill your TP phase or shows little improvement to the WS itself. If your playing with Stardiver in abyssea, SB is a must, but again, Drakes > Stardiver in abyssea.

These are the sets I'm currently using for TP and WS, OAT weapon, 5 hit, which means I need to use some weirder gear in my WS to ensure I can still 5hit (Considering I DRG more in Voidwatch than Abyssea I dont like to assume I'll hit all 4 hits on Drakes/Stardiver).

Need to get the new Haste 4 gloves for TP, the new bomblet for ws, possibly thinking of changing light belt to anguinus, and not sure about earrings.

TP Set	Drakesbane Set
Item Set	Item Set

I was under the impression that the elemental belts only apply to the first hit of the WS (except for merit WSs which get the bonus applied to each hit). For Drakes I'd say anguinus or something > light belt. But for Stardiver, if you use it, then the light belt.

Edit: and macro out the Tyrant's ring to a pyrosoul maybe? (for WS)
Rancor would be better suited for Drakes, also. For the time being I feel safe saying that the justicier's neck will be fine too.

Yeah, Light only applies to the first, hence I said I'll probably change it to Anguinus. Tyrant's Ring is there to ensure I only require 4 hits post WS, and my back is the Rancor Mantle ;).

I've been had.

You're right, didn't see the back xD

You're still with the +3 OAT too? These Riftsands are killing me D:

@56 so far, luckily everyone in my ls gives them me during our Voidwatch runs so I'm getting 10-20 per run so I should have it done pretty soon. Can't wait for 110 DMG OAT :D.

Why are we still discussing Abyssea when you can just bring your local crappy WHM, afk to eat lunch, and then come back to drops? :<

As I won't be logging in for a long long time today, I'll do this here bud.

Might do for using Aesir earring over pearl for harder stuff, due to attack requirements. Another idea would be Prosilio Belt for harder stuff, and lose brutal - its a hit I'm fully aware but total of 31 attack and 4~5 WSC could easily pull ahead on top VW.

I wonder if 4 STR 15 ATK > 3% DA wonder how close that'll be over time.

Rancor Collar + Atheling vs. Rancor Mantle + Justiciar's Torque.

If so, at that point... wouldn't light gorgets measly 2% increase be better anyways assuming first hit lands?

2% is still a 2% increase overall, which would beat 4 str even on all 4 hits of a ws. So then it comes down to is attack capped? But how close is that bridge?

Remember that drakesbane gets an attack penalty aswell, so it takes way more to cap attack with this.

Yes, but crits push your damage. That's the main thing, that's why a Drakesbane that crits is always great and one that doesn't is horrible.

So in reality on a Drakes that crits how valuable is that attack at that point? That's my question.

3% DA vs 4 STR 15 Attack vs 10% WS Damage increase on first hit, and or 2.5% - 2% - 1.5% lowest considering DA etc on Drakesbane.

Stardiver > Drakesbane </thread>

>_>



That's my IDEAL Drakesbane set. Granted I don't have the mythic (unless I get rank 1 gobbie prize). :/
Everything else I do have though. And since Drgg mentioned Stardiver,



And TP set



As others have mentioned before, Drakesbane does have a 19% attack penalty. So, unless you have Mythic, best to save Drakesbane for abyssea. :/

Ideal feet would be auged Huginn Gambieras. Although not entirely realistic.

Oh, right. Missed that lol :x

i could be wrong, but id like clarification. TP multiplier on drakes is just 1.0, so light gorget and belt both add .1, so each of those add 10% to overall damage in my thinking. seems odd that str and att items could ever boost the WS by 20% (including neck and belt). Same with stardiver, that has a multiplier of less then 1.0, seems logical that light belt/gorget would be best for those, adding more then 10% to total damage each.

That's a gross (and inaccurate) oversimplification of how WS damage is calculated. fTP is only one piece of a multi-step formula, and STR has the capacity to be calculated simultaneously on several of these steps.

I don't mean that to be rude, I just don't know how else to put it.

If you want to learn how to calculate WS damage, start here. The formula in that link assumes that you already understand how fTP, WSC, fSTR(2, if applicable), weapon rank, cRatio, and pDIF work. Considering I'm rather certain that's not the case, you can use it as a means to learning how each individual branch works.