High End Sets Advice/Suggestions/Ideas/LUA

Not haste capped, the shame...(is mine ^^;)

Theres still time to delete that

IDK if he changed it since you posted this, but it is haste capped.

Alabaster earring 5
Sulevia 3
Sakpata hands 4
Volte tights 9
Valorous feet 3
Sweord 4

I've brought this up 40000 times before but if this is a real question...

-Triple damage procs instead of double damage procs
-More TA/DA/STP/acc/atk/macc/etc
-Do you really hit 99,999 every time you ever use the WS, on every target, at 1k TP? No. So...hitting higher damage on *all of those things*

...Whether or not those benefits are "worth it" or comparing them against getting another St4 is a judgment call, but let's not be out here pretending that St4 = St5 because you can hit 99,999 with St4 sometimes.

Taint would know better, but you're not realizing that Alabaster Earring and Sweordfaetels +1 accounts for 9% haste. The set overcaps by 3%. Please don't make me defend it.

I swear I counted it twice and came up 4 short both times (must have missed it on Sakpata hands?)

Edited my post, but leaving so people can see it's ok to be wrong and own it :)

Deny, deflect and straw man is the XIAh way, Clint.

hi

Using Torcleaver, ML pt Chaos/Corsair rolls no samurai roll
when do you guys use TP, as soon as you hit 1k or wait to 1750 with moonshade earring?ty

Eff 2k~2250 iirc is the sweet spot for much of drks dmg varies line iirc

If you are going to drop a roll for corsair, drop chaos and keep samurai roll FYI.

HELLO EDGELORDS

Without SAM roll ideal time to use Torcleaver would be NEVER, you just go back into your MH to face a corner and think about the crime you would have committed by DDing without SAM roll XDXD


Jokes aside, i wanna bring into the DRK discussion (and 2h DDs in general) a topic which has probably been discussed already (i hope) but maybe not enough, since many ppl still never considered it in the first place (and since if it has been discussed, ffxiah sucks when it comes to gathering old/buried knowledge into accessible and quickly ready formats):


I'mma about to say it, don't @ me, don't doxx me, don't /slap me in game:

E P H R A M A D ring for Calad/Rede AM3 (or prime S5) TP SET *dodgingpitchforks*

I know what you're thinking, i'm a StoreTP traitor and yadayada.. maybe it's true. But hear me out, we often cater our tp sets for quickest WS frequency (time to WS), while rarely (at least for me) accounting for OVERALL DPS.


For jobs like Fencer WAR having a dps distribution of 90-91% WS dmg vs 9-10% tp dmg, Ephramad just sucks and it's not a huge mistery. Things change however when we are Japanese Batman cosplayers in disguise calling ourselves Dark Knights, since we swing huge 2h weapons with either Empyrean Aftermath or Prime double/triple dmg procs.


I wanna share something i noticed while running many dps simulations with different gearsets:

Under SAM roll specifically (didn't test it for solo scenario, u won't be riding full pdl solo that often anyway XD), while using 2h weapons such as Calad or Redemption in particular with AM3 up, Ephramad in TP SET > its StoreTP alternative if you have enough atk to use the 10% pdl on it, while also being the best accuracy ring in the game (nice for DRK being prob the most accuracy starved heavyDD).

Needless to say, optimizing AM3 sets is worth it for such reasons, since damage distribution for buffed Calad DRK AM3 is more or less 30-40 % to 70-60% WS dmg distribution, depending at what TP threshold you WS. With Samurai roll, and you already reach your desired X-Hit, so adding extra StoreTP on top of it effectively "only" adds some minimal TP overflow, which for Torcleaver is still pretty strong since it scales well with TP, but when compared to Ephramad PDL for 30-35% of your entire dps, results in giving a lower overall number.

For these reasons, under proper party buffs, Sakpata R30 helm in a proper AM3 TP set for example will outdps Empy+3 head or pieces focusing instead on StoreTP without any PDL nor defensive stats.
JSE Neck+2 > ShitTorque+1 (vim), Sortie earring is also pretty damn good in this scenario and Brutal Earring for non-Hoxne ampulla builds (Schere if you have Foenaria and can drain MP)


Basically when your autoatk dmg is 35% of your DPS, Ephramad value in TP set is much higher than +5/6 storeTP.

In general, if you never did it yet, i'd suggest anyone to run their own simulations to figure out such things. Take the lowest amount of SAM roll you're willing to take as a baseline for events, and start checking if adding extra STP in tp set beyond a certain point surpasses PDL+MA+Crit etc.for 2h DDs, You might end up surprised sometimes :p

WS frequency is a nice stat to follow, but it doesn't always automatically means highest dps, at least for 2h weapon jobs with relevant whitedmg from autoatks! In the same way, there might be situations where using Epaminondas actually reduces your dps compared to a decent alternative, when factoring in the StoreTP-10, in particular on WAR savage blade for example using Epa instead of Sroda Ring gave me overall lower dps (apart from STR mod, that -10storeTP is still an indirect dps loss which you just harely notice cause it gets applied AFTER your WS by reducing tp return from it, which means less tp over time, thus less dps.Not saying Epaminondas is always bad cause it'd be false, but sometimes it can be worth it to check the actual gain from a DPS perspective rather than just according to "quicklook WS" and "Quicklook TP" buttons :P



p.s. if you wanna know the ideal threshold for your WS, you can and should run simulations within Kastra to find that out easily! With Torcleaver holding TP without wasting them is still viable and not too far behind WSing at ideal thresholds

I recently got Foenaria done and Hoxne Ampulla, so I ran a ton of simulations and tests to figure out nice ampulla sets, ideal situational tp ranges to ws n whatnot.

I think the trap when it comes to gearing for ampulla or in general for 2h DDs is ignoring total dps as a whole by focusing too much on pure STP or ws frequency alone, at all costs. This might seem like the optimal move, but i'll guarantee you it's not always the case. You WILL indeed eyeball crazy tp gains, cause technically if we consider tp/round that's true, but 2h DD like DRK with s4/s5 or empy am3 deals high enough white damage to let things like Sakpata head r25/30 outdps STP+10, even when you can't ride sakpata pdl for example.


Even without ampulla sakpata head augmented is very good both defensively and offensively with DA dmg%. Not using it when you got 50-100% DA is a dps loss, period.
From the sims, dps diff between ampulla 4/5 sakpata + carmine feet+1 vs glassy STP setups ignoring pdl/da%, is around 2-4% depending on rng variance (keeping sakpata head on tho, otherwise would get lower). Ofc in situations where atk won't be capped, full STP will win in all other slots except head, but otherwise these kind of full-glass cannon STP builds aren't worth it in the slightest imo.

S4 Foe retains aprox 20/80% dps distribution between white dmg/ws dmg and I've also noticed you actually lose dps by WSing at 1k or 1.5k compared to WSing at 1800-2000 with Foenaria.


Another important thing I noticed, as long as you are attack capped and got any SAM roll, there's basically no relevant dps difference between a chirich ring+1 and Ephramad's Ring, or Dedition vs JSE earring+1/2 in tp set for DRK (with empy aftermath they flat out win, with primes they're even or very close), so you could technically gain a ton of extra accuracy when needed by swapping them in your tp set instead of going with the full STP glassy approach.


TLDR: You'll never see me using ampulla with such glassy tp sets... the most glassy variant i'll take on my DRK with Ampulla will be using Carmine feet+1 and Volte legs (+ body too is an option with stp10, sb10 etc), or odyssean with +13STP but i like high haste% on volte legs.


EDIT: omg i didn't notice Vim Torque.. that's also a huge trap imo, JSE neck+1/2 on DRK give higher dps than Vim. +8/10% pdl and +6/7STP > +10 STP, obviously XD

Vim also has regain so it's not as simple as STP vs STP and PDL. Also if you're stacking 70% PDL on your gear hoping for better white damage, you'd better hope your target has 98% defense down.

Never said it is as simple as stp vs pdl etc, but you can have a rough estimate of how much dps 20tp every 3 seconds will give you in terms of dps, spoiler: 20 extra tp on a WS is not as much as you think when you WS every 3-4 seconds with Ampulla, specially if you give up white dmg on jobs where it makes sense to push it.

Same thing about your "-98% def" argument.. it's not that deep, you don't need to make it sound so unreasonable. We're talkin about HIGHEND which means you will definitely debuff DEF enough to cap attack (DRK has no problems reaching high attack values compared to most other jobs.)

Now, if someone wanna add actually interesting points to this discussion, i'll be glad to discuss em, lets try to keep it constructive rather than just trying to nitpick or frame things so that anyone can try to say "huh i gotchu" kind of thing, lol

Ok, how much damage will 7% PDL increase your DPS when you're WSing every 3-4 seconds?


It's not as simple as "being attack capped". If you're wearing 5 sakpata, jse earring, jse neck, and Ephramad's and you're wearing a scythe, you need to have 6.57x their defense in order for your white damage build to work.

Also...by your math your white damage is doing 1/4 of what your WSD is. How much do you think your neck swap is doing to increase your DPS? .2%?

In general, I almost never promote glassy builds for any jobs, because the value is almost never worth it, but for DRK, I make a special exception. I know I originally roasted Taint for his STP/Ampulla build because of the gear selection, but I made a version of it for DRK when I'm doing slog Limbus farming with too much HP to ever die, or on certain Sortie (upstairs) bosses. It's certainly fun. If you're kiting a boss, then you have next to no threat either. I didn't dip into Valorous/Odyssean augments for it, though. I even DSNV+Drain3 an add on the way to Sortie bosses, in Ambuscade, or during a climb to get me a big chunk of health, so I'm not vulnerable if I do choose to use it.

ItemSet 402666
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Yes, that is Ratri Cuisses +1 (don't have Volte Legs and I haven't pulled the trigger on Nyame-A legs). My Alabaster Earring is not done, so this set has a pitiful 29% -33(P)DT (-10PDT cape, miscounted Carmine feet augment). S4 Foenaria/Origin is a full heal every time, I just toggle off of it when I'm fighting something that can deal a lot of enfeeble or damage. I could drop the Ratri legs for Sakpata or something tanky and be -DT positive, but it's really just a toggle for funsies.

I view DRK as a very high risk-high reward job (with things like Diabolic Eye dropping your HP, Scarlet Delirium potentially getting you murked, and Ratr+1's DT+ shenanigans), so I enjoy taking risks for a potential high payout. Though I feel with Apocalypse/Catastrophe or Foenaria/Origin, if you are an intelligent enough player, the risk is neutralized for the most part (you can have an untimely miss, or get paralyzed/blinded etc). I have never died using such a set because I know/where exactly how to use it, but wouldn't encourage anyone else to do it because I'm sure most would get flattened in seconds. I don't think for most jobs, being glassy is smart, but for DRK, the very nature of the job almost begs you to take the risk for the reward, and I kind of enjoy that element of the job that makes it worth playing vs a job like WAR DRG SAM where I have to be defensive for my own sake.