Endeavoring To Awaken --A Guide To Rune Fencer

Spot on what I was going to say.

Since I can't seem to find a convenient equation somewhere, is the weather boost that much better than the Magic Attack Bonus you can get by subbing Black or Red Mage? Or even Blue Mage, I suppose, to pick up a couple other Job Traits along the way?

Thunderstorm isn't subbable. So you wouldn't be able to activate Ukudyoni's latent without a SCH main present in any case.

Ouch, didn't realize it was SCH51... /sigh

For those of you wanting to try tanking delve on RUN it is absolutely possible, and in my opinion easier for the WHM. Recently cleared Marjami MULTIPLE TIMES with a set up of RUN/WAR WHM BRD RNG RNG RNG(Cor works for 3rd slot also). I used the set below to tank and had 0 issues. I suppose it could be important to note that on T4 I asked for Minnex2 + Ballad and back tanked (TP move spam is annoying and w one of them being a hate reset I decided Id rather not chance losing hate if I got hit) and on T5 asked for Minne + Wind Carol II + Scherzo (must be kept up at all times and HP capped or you will die). On all other NMs I had Marchx2 + Mad. On the boss I asked the Brd to just reapply scherzo after Static Prison just on the off chance I had no runes up and or lost all MDB JA buffs. You can take off the aura easily with a MB Lunge, which is rather helpful in speeding up the fight but at not time did I ever dip into yellow on the boss.

Hope this helps and encourages people to try this and end the PLD ONRY responses, atleast for 1 instance anyway!

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You might want to try out /DRK for pure tanking. Provoke is 1 CE 1800 VE which becomes useless after the very beginning of the fight. Stun has the same enmity as Flash (1280VE 180CE) along with getting a few VE tools like SE and LR is actually somewhat useful if your not in danger of dieing.

I'd actually recommend /BLU in this instance. /BLU has a surprising number of good enmity spells that can be cycled.

Enmity actions.On PLD, the cast time for some of these are a bit annoying. But on RUN they'd all be nearly flash fast. Also, Blank gaze only has a 10 second base recast. With buffs and RUN fast cast you can just spam it non stop. A enmity spell cycle would probably be like, Flash, Foil, jettatura(when up), and blank gaze spam till flash/foil are back up.

And if you felt you needed minnnes, then cocoon would be pretty impressive. +50% def, for 1:30. Unlike defender, it's a spell. So even if it gets dispelled you can reapply it pretty quickly. It's also twice as potent as defender, and doesn't have an atk penalty.

Unlike /WAR or /DRK, /BLU doesn't have much to add offensively. MAB I(MAB+20) for lunge/swipe is about all. But it's defensively stronger, and has a wide selection of enmity spells.

Can set attack bonus too, for what it's worth.

Defender is mighty useful. Also Im doing this w bow Rngs who are favoring Jishnus and never pulling hate, so there is no problems /war.

I wouldnt say its needed id say its helpful.

Well, if minnes were helpful, then cocoon would be more helpful. And it's not like it has to be one or the other. You can have cocoon and minnes. But with cocoon you could probably get march and still have more def than before.Again, cocoon is in every way more useful than defender. Twice the potency, no atk penalty, and it's not linked to a 3 min ja timer. So if it gets dispelled, you just recast it.

Just cause you're not having issues, doesn't mean you couldn't be doing it better. But, these are just suggestions for improved tanking. Doesn't mean you can't win without them. As you clearly have been. But FFXI players(or maybe it's just me? <,< )tend towards optimization. Even if it's not strictly needed, we'll generally go for whatever is optimal.

And /BLU is definitively superior to /WAR as a tanking sub.

Yeah I didn't think about /BLU's hate spells, usually they have too long of a cast time but RUN should make that a non-issue. I usually go RUN/DRK cause I'm also smacking stuff and LR is amazing for that. If your only there to tank and hold it / survive then /BLU is definitely the way to go.

And Elbii if your arguing for defender and Minne's then Cocoon easily wins for the best. It's a +50% defense bonus, on BLU I easily hit 1000~1200 defense and the potency doesn't chance from being subbed. That single spell will put your defense higher then any amount of Minne's or defender could possibly do.

I really don't see how war could be considered the most beneficial sub..ever?
Blu does sound like a very interesting one, I like the idea.

When I did /war for RUN tanking foret delve I would always rage when the zone icespikes would trigger a paralyze right when I wanted to voke/defender JA.

/war really is the worst subjob choice if you are going to be subjected to paralyze effect/aura regularly.

I did try /drk and /blu as well and both were wins but my dps was much lower with those subs. While it may not be optimal defensively to /war it seems optimal when you consider everything time/dps/def atleast to me anyway.

Not attempting to be argumentative only poking fun. /Blu is for sure the best sub I feel if you think you are going to get stomped but its not necessary in Marjami to be so over defensive.

I have not yet tried /sam which would to me be the best offensive choice but I think that if Im the "tank" I should have more defensive/emn abilities than /sam does.

However I think I just talked myself into going /sam next time to see if its faster.

All in all Im just happy to "tank" something that is new content on RUN and feel like Im doing equal or better than PLD.

You've admitted to using defender. You do realize that that's a major cut to dps, right? Double Attack trait doesn't make up for that.

I used defender for 1 mob which was back tanked and not attacked at all and berserk/agressor everything else. I did not think anyone would think otherwise but I guess I was wrong.

if youre going to use berserk you may as well sub SAM and avoid the defense cut

Im not sure if Hasso is enough acc. When aggressor and or swordplay are down acc is pretty crappy.

Zanshin makes up for it too. There's very little benefit to /WAR in any situation, other subs are just flat out better at anything it does.

So it seems to be that (unless I forgot something):

• WAR is well-rounded for offense/defense/hate

• BLU has best defense with good hate tools

• DRK has good offense with good hate tools

• SAM has best offense

• WHM offers supplemental healing/support

• SCH offers supplemental healing/support with reduced MP costs

Considering the changing needs within a fracture, I can see /WAR being more desirable in a low-man run. Sacrificing the offense for greater defense against 2 of the 6 fight seems unnecessary. In a different zone, where you're dealing with physical attacks more frequently (or Dispels/Paralyze constantly), then I'd think /BLU would be a better choice.

Something I've been wondering but too lazy to find out: Hurkan and Kumhau's attacks are almost all magic based, so I've had great success with an Engulfer's Cape against both. I've yet to try /SAM against either, and I wanted to know whether Third Eye will (barring Dispel) remain up until they switch to using physical attacks. Anyone know?

WAR is pretty much useless unless you can't be casting or meleeing.

On this same note, does anyone happen to know off hand if the element-specific capes have a higher absorb rate than Engulfer's versus their respective elements?

Well. It's not good. Out of curiosity i just went and beat on some hecteyes with blaze spikes up for a while.

Buquwik cape
1333 spikes
15 absorb procs.
1.11% proc rate.

Engulfer proc rate is listed as 5-6%. So stick with Engulfer for the magic dmg melee. Maybe use shadow ring? It only annuls, but it's got a 13% proc rate.

I ended up getting the capes, but not because of their absorb rates, or absorb magic effect, but because, for example, Buquwik Cape is STR+8 Att/Ratt+10, which is kind of crucial for certain jobs that get screwed in that slot.

Bleh, well I suppose that's for the best.

Am I missing an obvious reason to omit /NIN? I've tanked every AA(up to VD) and Marjami with zero issues. I can't imagine how any other subjob can keep up with Utsusemi at 80% Fast Cast. And it's not as if the physical hits I take here and there are devastating. ~1k DEF, 2k HP, 50% PDT/MDT without any special buffs

Couldn't see myself using /SCH over /WHM very often. The MP costs of status removal spells is already miniscule, and you lose access to Haste and Dia II.

I think it's cause LA gives you decent healing skill so 40MP Cure III is really good for it's cost vs 88MP Cure IV. That being said, Haste is ridiculously hard to pass up along with the barra spells for party support (screwing around with friends).

Also jeanpaul, /SAM offers better offensive / defense abilities then /WAR. People are going /WAR because they see PLD's use it and think provoke is actually worth a damn. /WAR is a really bad sub for RUN as it offers nothing that can't better be acquired from /BLU, /DRK or /SAM. /SAM offers the best offense but it's primary abilities come at the cost of recast's which is bad if that is your primary way of holding hate. Both /DRK and /BLU offer better hate abilities with /BLU having the best defensive stats while /DRK offers a switch that dramatically boosts your damage for 3m. Which you chose is up to the situation, for Skirmish III I prefer /DRK but for Foret Delve I prefer /SAM.

Oh, no reason, I figured /NIN's benefit was plainly obvious, and meant only to compare the subs people were discussing for Delve. I've never used it against Delve guys cuz I figure shadows are worthless against those aoe regular hits (aren't they?). But I've had great success in AA fights with /NIN, though I do wish it offered more offensive capabilities. The Fast Cast Utsusemi makes me feel safer tanking on RUN than NIN itself.

I feel like Engulfur's Cape kicks in more often against weaponskills/Astral Flows/elemental regular attacks than than actual spells. I'm probably just paying more attention when enemies are using those though. I also equip those satchels, even though they seem to be about 2%ish, like those elemental capes. But hey, could be the 2% that saves my life (though I suppose a Vanir Battery, if I had one, could be better).


I love Light Arts just for the MP savings, though I realize that most of these situations my MP probably isn't hurting anyway. I don't have /WHM leveled but I'd probably use it more than /SCH for the Haste alone. For /WAR, yeah I never use it myself, I was just sorta listing things based on Elbii's experiences with RUN in Marjami delve and sort of organizing the effectiveness of other subs. I've never even fought those higher tier Marjami NMs so I didn't want to be like "dude, go /SAM" when /WAR is clearly working for the guy.