Sigurd's Descendants: The Art Of Dragon Slaying.

No Wyverns=No Mijin Gakures. I'd say it helps a great deal.

The only places I never bring my DRG to are Yorcia Delve, Yorcia Alluvion, Vagary -- all because of damage type penalties and anti-wyvern reasons. I generally prefer it to my BLU for physical damage in most situations.

Melee in general face two actual issues:
A) We're always in AoE range of everything sans Marine Mayhem and we have less Magic Evasion than mages do, so we always need defensive support.
B) Enemy physical evasion seems to scale much higher than enemy magical evasion as your target's level goes up. It ends up being nearly (or entirely) impossible to hurt certain NMs with physical damage just because you can't even hit them.

End result is we end up needing considerably more support in general compared to mages to match them in damage and survivability. That's really the only major imbalance right now in terms of damage dealers.

Melee DD of the month (MNK > SAM > THF > BST > BLU > etc.) usually doesn't matter unless you're dealing with dumb shout groups or some such thing.

Looking for a little gear help myself, and thoughts on how I can upgrade it. I wanna start with the immediate non-abjuration jumps and then move up from there.

ItemSet 338996

This s my current DRG gear. Obviously needing some improvements, +1ing things, etc. Gets me a solid 5-hit build (4 + WS) with some TP overflow, though I'm not sure how much those hit-builds matter in today's game of capped delay reduction.

Augments:
Acro Helm - Acc/Atk+15, STP+5, Crit Dmg+2%
Acro Gauntlets - STR/DEX+6, Acc+19, Haste+3% (Needed to cap haste)
Taeon Tights - Acc/Atk+14, TA+2%, Crit Dmg +2%
Acro Leggings - Attack+16, DA+3, WSD+2%


ItemSet 338998

This is my current goal, and I'm already partway towards it. To explain some of the changes; first, I didn't need Bloodrain Strap anymore because the extra STP wasn't needed and I still kept a very comfortable X-hit build (214 TP/Hit). I probably could have left my old earrings but this gave me extra DA. Despair Greaves (Path B) over well-augmented Acro Greaves because of a combination of RNG frustration and the extra pet: acc which gives my flying TP battery a little better chance to hit and build TP/do white damage. Oh, and Acro hands will no longer have Haste, but will have DA, as thanks to the Despair Greaves Path B augment, I have capped haste without.

Now, a couple questions on this:

1) Is there a better Grip than Duplus? I'm well aware it's the highest DA strap (and thus in acc-capped situations your best DPS), but in situations where you could use every bit of accuracy, would things like Rigorous Grip +1 be more useful? I imagine not as it's only 10 Accuracy in your unchangeable grip slot but even so.

2) Is there a better earring pairing than Cessance/Brutal? Aside from the Warder of Courage Earring possibly popping up in there.

3) What are good abjuration sets to consider for DRG? I know the Lustratio set looks good in terms of high stats, but does it beat out Despair gear in WS?

If you didn't have Ryu, I'd have looked at this, thought, "looks pretty decent", then moved on. But with Ryu, gearing priorities change. While your sets would make for good normal TP gear, they need to re-prioritize for AM3 up.

Double attack. It sucks with AM3 up. It is still a DPS gain, just, a small one. A very good clear explanation of AM3+Multi-hit interaction can be found here

Store TP is more potent under AM3. And don't think you should stop stacking it just because you have your hit build.

Additional TP past your hit build basically functions as TP bonus. Since after X hits, you have more TP than usual when you WS. And we know how effective TP bonus is on Stardiver.

I've updated my AM3 TP set. Which isn't perfect, just very good.(mind, most of my other sets are at least slightly out of date.)
ItemSet 204963
Acro augs(All pieces.) STP+6, acc/atk, str/dex
Could use a Sweordfaetels +1.

1)Bloodrain. The second AM3 goes up, duplus turns to crap.
2)Tripudio/Cessance. Again, DA under AM3 does not impress.

As an example in this case, going from my previous AM3 TP earring, Neritic earring(+4stp), to Cessance was only a 0.5 dps gain

This means that 3% DA was just barely worth more than that 1 stp. Although I must note that the comparison already assumed capped acc, so the +6 on cessance didn't really come into play.

3) From comparisons I did when the abj sets came out, and we were first getting augment data, I recall that Lustratio+1 beats the snot out of despair in 4/5 slots(the exception being the legs since they have no str)

I think some Despair was better than NQ Lustratio pieces, but I can't recall which, and I'm not inclined to go back and do it again atm.

Btw, last I checked the best acc caped stardiver legs were maxed Founders.
Also, While Lustratio hands+1 are better than maxed founders hands, Lustratio are only about 18 points of dmg higher. And only because of the set bonus(4/5 Lustratio+1.)

All of the above are under the assumption you have capped acc. If you don't, select pieces of Lustratio would fall behind despair. I never did finish doing comparison for high acc sets on new gear though.

Thank you for the in-depth explanation; I've been out of the loop on the "best of best" for DRG of late, and though I've been trying to improve my sets I'm still stuck in my pre-Mythic mindset. That being said, I wasn't aware how potent STP was for a Mythic, so I can definitely work to improve that. Fortunately all I really need to do is get a pair of Acro legs and fix up my augments on my set and I can meet that TP set you posted above.

Now for Lustratio, only because I'm still unsure on how to look at atk vs. multihit vs. mod on WS. How much precedence does stat mod take over attack on current content? It's not to say that there's an exact ratio of 10 Attack = 1 Mod or something, but where does each weigh in considering WS options? My Stardiver/Drakesbanes have felt sort of weak on more modern content (though the latter has that attack penalty still so...), so I'm looking to understand more why stacking one or the other is more important rather than just "Which gear pieces should I use."

Does that mean Taeon tights aren't ideal for dragoon with Ryu? Trying to figure out if I bother spending the gil on augmenting them or just improve my acro legs

Pretty much.

Taeon are good TP legs... right until AM3 goes up. then they get crushed by STP+ acro.

So technically, a perfectly geared DRG would have both. Note that I'm not counting new gear in this comparison, just Taeon and Acro legs. I haven't looked into the new stuff enough to say if either has been displaced by new items.

I'd say that Valorous Greaves should easily beat out Acro. STP+5 base and I've seen augs up to STP+6 on other Valorous pieces. Get a good STP/Acc/Atk (STR or DEX if possible too) and you're trashing Acro. Ideally a good aug'd Valorous Greaves would look like:
6 STP, 25+ ATK, 25+ Acc, 5~10 STR or DEX.

So that'd give 11 STP, 37ish Acc/Atk, 4% Crit hit dmg... overall very nice feet. Downside? Comes from the stupid Mimic T1... x.x;

that's also considering the trading of potentially hundreds upon hundreds of stones to get 'perfect' augments. as it stands, just getting something 'decent' takes a lot of trades. it really makes one miss the Alluvian Armor system.

Perhaps, but you don't need "perfect" augments either. With base 12 Acc/Atk, you're pretty solid even with a middling acc/atk augment, and you really only need to focus on getting that STP+. You can just improve from there.

Not only that but stones rain from the sky in that zone if you don't grab Mollifiers, so I'm willing to throw hundreds of stones, preferably Fern, at these things. :P

that's kinda my point though, you are likely TO be throwing hundreds. I have a pair of Valorous Mitts I have been trying to force something good onto, and the best I have managed so far is Accuracy +21, Attack +8, and sTP +3.

The bluegartr augments thread lists the cap for STP and DA at 8 and 5%, making ideal sets pretty much 5/5 Valorous with 4/5 STP augments (if you could actually hang in there to get them).

Have 't played in 9 months, shocked to see my tp set before quitting is still BiS, save for that new stp ring. Did any new breath gear come out? Is it worth it to reforge my HQ C.Feet--i'd be losing a 1-2% crit damage right? Care to post stardiver/jump/high jump sets? Might return after the new year

hope everyone is rich and ready to throw Dark Matter at their gear!

Despair gear from escha kinda owns the acro gear, been testing my self and by far is better than acro or taeon

do you have a Ryunohige, because the entire reason that Acro is still relevant is all that delicious Store TP to get to 1k faster/all dat overflow for Stardiver spam once AM3 is up and running. Despair is nice if you are not concerned with needing a lot of sTP (or hell, Double Attack for that matter) as Despair lacks anything beyond core stats and Acc./Att. (augmented specifically for those stats, and wearing the entire set nets you a whopping 3 Store TP and 5 whole Double Attack, the latter is great for Aftermath except you're not getting that aforementioned Store TP) it's probably the best set to get if you are just settling into DRG 99 and don't have anything else. additionally, I think you are severely underestimating the value of a total 12 Triple Attack on a well augmented Taeon set for anyone not focusing on Store TP. that's a lot of multi-attack on top of things like Gifts and potentially using WAR as a Sub.

I have used a few for WS as they are nice for that until you can begin getting Abjuration pieces from Ru'Aun and well augmented Valorous pieces from Reisenjima, but for the Ryu users, who seem to be the majority of people active in this thread, it's pretty meh. even if you only stumble into items like the Founder's Set from Sinister Reign with some middling augments, that will pull more weight than the Despair set. a fully Augmented Founder's Breastplate offers 35 Accuracy and Attack, as well as a bevy of other benefits, falling short of Despair Mail only in Haste at 3% vs 4%. even a middling +7 Acc/Attack augment puts it on par.

where Despair falls short is, much like the Emicho set, it has a lot of focus on Pet stats, which while not wholly useless for Dragoon, are better suited for Beastmasters whose pets are the majority of their damage output. Eisenzahn is mostly a TP battery for me if I mistime my Stardivers with my Aftermath dropping/I am stripped of my weapon for some reason (and if the latter is happening frequently, I got the Polearm from Reisenjima precisely for a swap out).

tl:dr - it's a good starter set that should be improved upon ASAP with items from Sinister Reign/the final two escha areas and does little for Mythic wielders.

Yeah, but not all have mythic or relic, as a general gear I been testing both and with /sam I dont need that much store TP, just sayin on stat wise acro gear kinda lags behind, again I been testing my self with normal polearms (non mythic or relic) and acro just dont add up anymore :/ >_> I dont base my self on theory stuff I do facts or test it on serval mobs of any kind possible even if I die XD

hence where I said that it is a fine starting point, but that it should be replaced by better gear from Escha (Reisenjima in particular) ASAP. even a piece here or a piece there with how readily available stones are will quickly outdo what Despair has to offer. this is further compounded by not having a Mythic weapon (Gungnir vs a standard polearm is irrelevant outside of accuracy, as they both only need Store TP for an X-hit, and focus on multi-attack gear. Geirskogul is only for skillchain use because Aftermath is lolShock Spikes), as you can pick up multi-attack which Despair is sorely lacking.

How up to date is this guide currently? If it's not up to date with the newer gear, does anyone have any sets they could share?

The last page has more recent sets. I'd think that Acro stuff is probably still worth making given how random Valorous gear is.

it really depends how you want to spend your gil and the current status of your gear. Acro is lagging behind for the non-Mythic users out there, Emicho Gauntlets are an incredibly strong Accuracy piece down Path B (or D if you REALLY wanted to...), Emicho Hose are a strong Stardiver piece. Drakes will likely do well with most of the Lustratio set. there are a lot of things that pretty much need an updated Spreadsheet to really work out, particularly since some WS mods/multipliers are likely out of date on the old sheets so you cannot just plug in new gear to get reliable numbers. all that coupled with the sad state of affairs for two handed weapon users, and it really leaves one asking if they should really bother.

What's path D? It's not on BGwiki.

What needs to be fixed in the spreadsheet? The weaponskill data seems to be up to date with BGwiki.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Emicho_Armor_Set

D:Accuracy+20, "Dual Wield"+5, Pet: Accuracy+20

I would imagine that if the WS are OK, ensuring that Abjuration Set bonuses are calculated correctly, as well as the higher tier NM than Tojil. I am not sure what the target numbers should be, however.

Anyone have a good GS for DRG?

Does anyone have a link to a current spreadsheet?

How do the top tier pole arms stack up now? Gungnir just got really good as best I can tell. Ryunohige didn't seem to improve nearly as well.

Gungnir and Ryunohige are easily #1 and #2 though Ryunohige should win with AM3 up based on TP gain still like before. That much TP and the boost to drakesbane and all the crit gear now is hard to top.

Dear gungnir owners,

How reliably does the defence down effect land on relevant content?

I wish i could tell you, but drgs arent invited to relevant content.

Lol... Anyone with the info?

On another note.. Technique augments

I just got quadruple attack +3, double attack +2 + some acc, att and chr (sigh) on valourous mask. 5/5 valorous ftw