Entropy

Made a mess up on the fTP, rest stands though.

Having 90 red, wroth and 99OAT GS, overall the deciding factors for overall dmg are 1: aftermath usage, 2: save-tp amounts and 3: what I'm doing. Wroth I pull 2.5kish average in dyna and such, up to some T2 jeuno/zilart compared to 2.3k with red. Reso with OAT GS actually averages lower than wroth on such targets, pulling ahead on the higher def T2 and T3 onwards. As for wroth vs red90, if I can keep the aftermath up and don't have save-tp up to the eyebrows, red win, otherwise wroth beats red90. Needs moar 99red!

Entropy does do more dmg than cata, so there is no reason NOT to use entropy if using apocalypse (If you can use wings to keep am up)
It does between 200-500 dmg more than cata on avarage from my parses, usually around 400.
And well, "should switch to a great sword" is'nt really correct
My 85 calad sure is'nt better than my apoc <_>
And on high-eva mobs, no way it's better :P

Currently working on OAT gs, gonna be fun to see how well it does compared to apoc :3

No no no, I was agreeing that you shouldn't switch to GS XD. I think your cata's will pull ahead at 99, though. IIRC they said the 99's give a higher boost, right?

I don't have apoc yet so I can't test any of this obv, but I appreciate you telling me that (and helping me justify the 5/5 entropy merits I got for apoc).


Yeah, I only use redemption over wroth on things I expect to be dead within 180 seconds of my first ws. The high defense mobs are when i DONT use redemption thanks to quietus being *** useless lol.

Ahh, derp, I just read it too fast I guess :< lol

Yeh 99 relics are +40% dmg, but friend of mine just finished his 99 apoc and entropy still pulls ahead, albet slightly. Apoc is still a beaut for utility as ever.

Entropy sucks *** on high def mobs -.- I usually do higher with quietus, effin int mod. Go go resolution at that point.

Not like the mod have anything to do with it beeing stronger on high-def mobs, that's just because of your ws set.
Resolution actually have an attack penalty, which Entropy does not.
And yeah, quietus ignores defence, so it'll pull ahead on mobs like that for sure.

Just be sure not to confuse high defense with pdt. I've done some pathetic quietus to bot-rex, when the "ignore special defense" of twilight actually helped me out more than the marginal difference in WS damage.

Attack penalty on Resolution is still pretty strong, and easily pushes it down to about equal with Entropy in a lot of high-end situations. Higher base damage on Scythes comes out to pretty much free WSC too. Reso scales higher on fTP, but Entropy starts higher per hit.

Hell let's just get the napkin math out of the way once and for all:

Correct for inevitable miss rate even at capped accuracy, and you come out to:

Entropy: 3.09 @100tp
Resolution: 3.55 @100tp

So only 15% stronger instead of 20% stronger just based on fTP if you consider compounded accuracy.

Then on WSC with best possible sets, you're looking at 100+80 STR vs 80+60 INT, or about 30-34 more base damage from WSC. This is countered by most scythes having about 15-25 higher base weapon damage, so after fSTR you're now looking at about ~302 base damage for Reso vs ~289 base damage for Entropy and the difference is much smaller than otherwise expected, a paltry 4.5%

If attack is uncapped, Resolution is eating a -8% penalty, not to mention lower skill giving a bit less attack and accuracy, but then fSTR being uncapped by Scythe equipping INT is probably helping in it's favor.

So with the best gear in the worst situation, I score it:

Resolution: 986
to
Entropy: 893

Resolution is ~10% stronger than Entropy. It e-peens higher, but falls a little in potential because of attack penalty, higher effect of enforced 5% miss rate per hit, and lower base weapon damage and skill. Combine this with being able to 5-hit most scythes with no practical penalties and GS vs. Scythe is closer than expected.

Wroth Scythe is easily the best DRK/MNK RR/GH/RL weapon in Abyssea.

2-4 Scythe is easily the best /DNC weapon and best for proc reads in both Abyssea and Voidwatch (I've had first call of the EX proc if it was a WS or JA in almost every Voidwatch run, and more than once just cranked it out myself in no time flat if it was Scythe).

This is even before considering that Entropy gives DRK infinite MP. Period. If SE ever gives us a decent high MP cost nuke we'll be downright scary. I'm currently working on a setup that combines Entropy with switching into Twilight Cloak and MP gear to drop Impact when practically any job closes Darkness off it.

Absolute damage output is not really relevant to DRK's performance anymore. Go play WAR if you want to be a Meathead DD-Onry.

are you considering the fact that you can add 3 pieces gear for 0.1ftp per hit for resolution? thats like a 30% damage increase right?

Belt/Gorget yes, Mekira no because it's dependent on day and so only works 3/8ths of the time.

And yes, Belt/Gorget affect all hits of Entropy too. FFXIAH is being more HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE than usual today it seems...

ah i wasnt aware entropy worked the same way

Ig-Alima is a good example of high def imo.


Higher def almost always means higher vit, meaning that the int mod, being more beneficial to stack 1 for 1 than str, reduces fSTR and attack from str, giving resolution a large advantage in that respect.


You make kitty cry.

It's easy enough to prove in Abyssea with Atma of Echoes by dropping a 4k+ Entropy on Earthsday (but then I drop a 6k+ Resolution XD)


You're overblowing the advantage when you're talking about maybe 4-5 base damage change on over 250-300 base damage from weapon and WSC to start with, or roughly 1.5%.

I don't...entirely follow. What I said was that to gear entropy ideally, you sacrifice a lot of str for fSTR, greatly decreasing the damage potential of the WS compared to a WS with a pure str mod?

fSTR is pretty much a piddly 25% STR mod in function. Even if you were 40 STR behind a Reso setup that's only 10 base damage, which on ~250 base damage from weapon and WSC is 4%.

But in that situation where your Entropy set is losing that fSTR, Resolution is now eating it's -8% attack penalty, so this actually favors Entropy.

And STR doesn't magically disappear from your Entropy set just because you're stacking INT. You'll be wearing Twilight at the very least and still pushing 140+ STR

ATK penalty on resolution is more or less negligible, you should be capped atk in 95% of all situations regardless. Kind of delusional if you think drk isn't best played as another meathead DD with slightly more utility.(stun, occasionally procs) The only times you atk would be uncapped possibly would be rex or ig-alima without chaos roll, or if you have some sort of atk down. You're pretty much always going to have chaos roll on ig-alima or rex if you are with a group that is worthwhile, so I consider that to be an extremely unlikely situation.

If fighting high-def stuff like ig-alima, capping attack is'nt always the case.

DRK/WAR red curry you're pushing over 1500 atk with endark.

This, fact is it's really god damn hard to cap attack.


For the resolution attack penalty favouring entropy in high def situations....going to use my two sets for an example.

Only buff assumed in my math is last resort, endark is degrading and food will benefit each WS differently, albet only slightly, with the stat boosts as well as the attack.

All math assumes a base str of 100, base int of 80.


Resolution set:

PBody has TA+3, acc+7, zanshin +5.

Total fTP at 100tp, including DA/TA is 5.32875.


Entropy set:


Total fTP including DA is 4.125.


Resolution pure damage comes to 1587
Resolution attack comes at 859.

Entropy pure damage comes to 1254
Entropy attack comes at 857.


You are correct about fSTR being fairly minor, but for one, every little helps, and for two, losing the str also results in a loss of attack.

Add in the inherent hell of gearing entropy and bleh.

Overall reso comes out at slightly superior attack with just LR up, so while resolution isn't exactly in its element as far as attack is concerned, it by no means whatsoever favours entropy when talking attack.

What I find even more delusional is that he believes a war should be a pure DD bot, when it has like double the physical procs of drk and no greater dmg potential.

Pretty much this. Ig is level 120 anyway, so your cRatio is trashy no matter what and you're gonna be swinging in the 1.0 spike most of the time and -8% wouldn't change your damage much.

Capping attack is easy on DRK. Doing it without blowing your accuracy on the other hand...

Funny to watch Red Curry poppers swing for ~75% accuracy.

If running drk/war then you're going to be rotating diabolic eye and aggressor. With 5/5 DE merits and augmented af2+2 hands you'll be rocking 1min30/5min with both up. Acc will not be an issue if geared sensibly, and in the case of alima/rex, willing to use pizza.

Okay, now you're up to 85%...

Yes, Pizza is the solution.

I cheat a little bit, but I don't go below 95% acc on ig-alima with red curry. Ragnarok, diabolic eye, aggressor. Fights will never go more than a few seconds beyond 3 minutes, so a bad group could have a better case for having atk/acc issues. You could also consider a high acc set if you are having issues, there is an insane amount of acc gear that you could swap in and still retain capped haste, especially if you have marches/LR on.

Well yeah, you're cheating enough by having Ragnarok with +35-40 Accuracy and giving very dubious information based on that.

Looked into this a bit more, because that much level correction is frankly insane. Because on Ig you'll be always below a 1.2 cRatio you'll be hitting 1.0-1.05 spikes most of the time (a special function of low cRatio only recently studied) your average damage isn't actually affected by attack as much as normally. The slope of average pDif changes to a net effect of Attack less than half of normal. Capping accuracy is still as important and effective as ever though.

Layman's terms: Your cRatio is forced so low by level correction you're invoking a bonus to extra-low pDif hits that DRK doesn't normally see, which cuts the value of adding attack in half.

So I would probably pimp slap any non-Relic DD popping Curry instead of Pizza at Ig.

Yeah, nothing even comes close to a good DRK at ig-alima. It's kind of silly to look at parse results. I know *** all when it comes to calculating dmg, but equally geared non DRK dds with less ATK can't keep up at all in damage. As far as accuracy goes though, I'm pretty sure any non relic DRK could still pull in enough acc gear to make red curry worth using over pizza. Could even dark seal absorb acc, but I have no idea if the duration on that makes it worth using even.

Nothing comes close to a good DRK in a lot of places and situations. It's just too bad such DRKs are so rare.

Fixed for you. And what happened to spamming 2-4 atk scythe WSs to proc hunt, and leaving the mindless DDing to the war?


Absorb acc sucks donkey crap, waste of time.

Mithra have a pretty large advantage in acc, but meh we suck for str.

Nah. You could be partially braindead, blind in one eye, and playing with your tongue and still be a 90th percentile SAM. DRK takes a little work and intelligence.

I proc hunt in pickup groups because nobody else will. I like getting capped red kthx. Still outparse all but Ukko/VSmite/Shoha users (the ones who ignore every proc call you throw at them and just keep DDing) by just spamming Entropy.

If SE would get their crap together and make Absorbs not decay it'd be worth using, but until then in the future with 5/5 Dark Seal and +2aug head for 50% more duration you'd probably only get +30 accuracy for about 15 seconds and less than +20 accuracy after 30 seconds.

Mithra have advantage in INT for Entropy too, as opposed to what used to be suckage in having less MND than Elvaans.

I pity you for the crap wars/mnks/sams you know, the boosts from crits alone (and shoha being shoha) should put them clean ahead of an entropy sam.