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Depending on the situation these are the subs you might need.
Keep in mind that normally meleeing gives a better dps output than shooting, but is it too dangerous to melee?
If the answer is no then nin or dnc will be your choices, if yes then there are various options for a shooting cor, so let's take a look at each of them.

Dancer:
With the new haste buffs that exist now and the chance to use trusts too when solo samba has become something not really needed from a cor sub. Right now the reason to chose dnc is the Skillchain Bonus trait(8%), so if skillchains is all you're going to do this is the best sub. You also get a +10 acc, which is not a lot, but it certainly doesn't hurt!

Ninja:
Ninja has higher dual wield than dancer(10% more) plus the defensive benefit of Utsusemi. Dual wielding daggers is a very nice addition even when you're only shooting(using two high stats weapons for ws or adding Acinaces for snapshot), but that's something you get from both subs.

Red mage:
You gain some defensive things such as Cures, Stoneskin, Phalanx and useful traits such as MDBII and FastCast, but also the ability to haste and more impotantly to Flurry yourself. This mixed with the MAB trait(QD, Leaden, WF) allows for a decent shooting sub if there isn't a main rdm to haste your ranged attacks with Flurry II. Consider this a sort of a hybrid sub, rarely recommended for high end parties.

Warrior:
If you want to shoot and spam Last Stand(and feel safe enough), this is the job you have to look at for going all out. Attack bonus, Berserk, Fencer and Warcry(do not use it if the war in your party pops Blood Rage)give a very nice boost to your physical ws damage. Best sub for zerg situations when shooting only.

Ranger:
Whenever you want to shoot as your primary form of tp gain, but the enemies are particularly evasive, then ranger is the best sub thanks to +22 Accuracy and the occasional Sharpshot(great to use with Triple Shot and Barrage). Scavenge helps you recycle a bit more too!

Dragoon:
If you are shooting and are afraid of hate then riding high jump timer can help make things easier for you. Use this whenever you feel troubled by the amount of hate you might pull. Also the +10 acc bonus doesn't hurt. If there is a tank and you're using magic ws it's normally not something you should worry about though.

White mage:
This is in no way a sub required for alliance content, however if your white mages aren't able to do their tasks on their own(and with the aid of bards too..)then with whm you can assist the party playing full support throwing hastes, erases and emergency cures as needed.

Black mage:
For Wildfire and Leaden Salute users(or QD only spam), this is the best subjob. MAB II being the main reason this is chosen, warp and warp 2 aren’t bad to have either :p Recommended only for things like magic zergs when you're not even touching the mob in between ws/ja.

Blue mage:
Unusual, but this is another very good subjob for magic ws while shooting. Setting Sound Blast and Cursed Sphere you will get MAB trait, which is 4 less than blm and rdm, however agi is higher than both by setting Foot kick, Smite of Rage, Chaotic eye, Mysterious Light, Stinking gas and Refueling. We can also get attack bonus for ranged damage setting Battle dance and Uppercut.

Scholar:
This is the subjob of choice when you want to brew something in Abyssea and don’t have a mage friend tagging along to assist, this is thanks to storm spells(bar Leaden Salute brews because you can’t voidstorm yourself). Other uses of this sub may be in pvp situations. Also, when using Chatoyant Staff and Wildfire, if for some reason you don't have a mage that can give you Firestorm, this is the best sub for self-buff, not to mention the various utility spells, all usable easily thanks to arts.

Wild Card

This is our 1 hour special ability. It’s a single roll which depending on the result can give different bonuses to your party members within range.
I: restores some JA timers.
II: restores all JA timers(except 1hours).
III: restores some JA timers and grants 100 tp.
IV: restores all JA timers(except 1hours)and grants 300 tp.
V: restores JA timers(1hours included)and 50% of MP.
VI: restores all JA timers(1hours included)and 100% MP.
Using Commodore bottes+2(or ilvl counterpart) augmented with this ability will grant an invisible re-roll if your initial Wild Card result was a 1 or 2 thus increasing your chances of success.

Phantom Roll

The bread and butter of corsair! Phantom Roll includes all our buffs, these must be bought in the form of dice and can be all found split between these 3 npc: Jajaroon(Nashmau G-7), Chayaya(Al Zahbi J-8; note: he can be kidnapped during Besieged) and Chichiroon(Nashmau G-7). Rolls last 5 minutes(base) and their potency vary depending on the result given by the dice, with 11 being the most powerful result; however all rolls have also their own lucky and unlucky numbers: lucky numbers are the best non-11 results, unlucky numbers tend to be as low as rolls of 1 or worse, so they’re best avoided(a trick to remember all unlucky for rolls of lv 1-70: the unlucky is always lucky+4, so you just need to memorize the lucky number – or if your memory is bad you can just put an /echo in your macro with the lucky and unlucky of each roll).

When you use a Phantom Roll the die will load a random number between 1 and 6, at this point you can try to Double-Up which will roll another 6-sided die. You can double-up as many times as you want until you bust(hit 12 or more)for 45 seconds to try to get a number you like.

You can have two rolls active at the same time(more if more corsairs are present and they roll different buffs)and they cannot be removed unless you roll new ones, you zone or you bust. A bust is like a status effect that blocks you one roll slot, but be aware that this only affects you and not your party members, this means that you can keep giving them 2 rolls, but only 1 will remain on you; plus some rolls busts also give the corsair a malus based on the roll’s buff. The bust effect lasts 5 minutes just like a normal roll.

On the other hand rolling a 11, other than giving the most powerful buff, also gives some bonuses to the corsair:
- When rolling a 11 Phantom Roll recast is instantly reset to 0.
- When a 11 roll is present on the cor, Phantom Roll recast is halved(this also counts merits and gear).
- When a 11 roll is present on the cor following Bust effects won't remain on the cor.

Last but not least: all rolls(except the lv 76+)can be “supercharged” if a player with a job connected to that roll is present in your party, this means that rolls – on all numbers – will give more powerful buffs.

Doing rolls is a corsair's primary role, and yet it's also the task that confuses people the most! The truth is there is no real set rule for rolling, but it mostly comes down to case by case decisions that you have to make based on the luck of the initial roll.

Keeping XI up at all times is actually not always the best decision because when you bust(even without the status)your entire party will remain buffless, so trying many times can ultimately turn out to be detrimental because your party will spend more time without any roll than with one. This means that often *gasp* you have to settle! Because a non perfect roll is still better than having none at all.

Before a fight, if your party has patience(which sounds banal, but let me tell you this is rarely the case), you can try to strive for a double 11, but if you need to reapply your buffs mid-battle this is not a good idea and you should set for the best you can get.

But what is the best you can get? This is case by case too actually. As a general rule you want anything above a 6 that is not an unlucky number. Remember that you can use Snake Eye not only to hit a lucky/11, but also to get out of a high number unlucky(for example a 9 on Cor roll), and if you're lucky enough that Snake could even give you the exact number to reach 11, so don't lose heart, you're actually doing the best you can if you roll a Snake on an unlucky number and not just on a 10.
Mind you, if you already have an 11 on and your recast is up already you can even try riskier rolls such as doubling on a 7 which is normally not advisable. If you used Crooked Cards however you want to avoid busting at all costs and playing very conservatively to not lose your bonus.

Let's sum it up this way:
1. always double on 1-6(many people will tell you that 6 is risky too, but if Fold is up I say it's worth the risk - sometimes even on 7, judge based on the urgency of the roll, time remaining and how lucky you feel!)
2. use Snake to get off an unlucky that is too risky to double(7+)
3. stay on lucky numbers
4. avoid risks on Crooked

Obviously there are many more cases that can influence your decision making. Like Fold up/down, the ability to reset Fold even if it's down, how worthy it is to double that specific roll(not all rolls have the same weight - ie Tactician/Evoker don't scale as well as something like Chaos).
Just trust your instincts and remember that a bit of risk is really part of the job.

Let’s take a look at the rolls starting from the most important ones:

Chaos Roll [lucky number: 4; unlucky number: 8; supercharge: DRK]: probably the most important of all rolls you have, this gives a powerful attack bonus(works also for ranged attack). This roll should be almost always given to your dds and it is also the best you can give yourself to buff your Last Stand damage.

Fighter’s roll [lucky number: 5; unlucky number: 9; supercharge: WAR]: another great dd roll, this one grants double attack. This tends to be almost always the most useful to pair with chaos for melee dds.

Wizard’s roll [lucky number: 5; unlucky number: 9; supercharge: BLM]: magic attack bonus! This is not only the best roll for nukers, but also for the corsair when using magical ws like Wildfire and Leaden Salute, and one of the few useful buffs for brews.

Tactician’s roll [lucky number: 5; unlucky number: 8; supercharge: Navarch’s frac +2(+1 only works occasionally), Chasseur's frac and Chasseur's frac +1]: another great roll that grants party members regain. During downtimes and preparing before fights this is great, it is also a decent roll for rangers and shooting corsairs when doing 4 rolls or more(multi-cor party), and it is also great when dds need to build tp without getting close to the mob. Outside of these circumstances it’s usually not a good idea to use this roll.

Miser’s roll [lucky number: 5; unlucky number: 7; supercharge: none]: this roll gives your party save tp which is a stat that is only useful when stacked with other sources, this means that the only really good use will be had in Voidwatch (and dds use Atmacite of Discipline) and under Ionis effect in Adoulin(but mostly for samurai).

Corsair’s roll [lucky number: 5; unlucky number: 9; supercharge: COR(so always active if cor is your main job)]: if you still exp “the old-fashioned way”, this roll is incredibly useful to speed up the process granting a huge boost to experience points or limit points gained and it also stacks with exp rings. Note though that this roll, just like exp rings, does not work in Abyssea, so don’t bother using it there. Another great use of this roll is for Relic armour trials, making them incredibly faster to complete. Since july update the roll is also extremely useful for farming Capacity points, which makes cor one of the most desirable jobs for JP farming!

Hunter’s roll [lucky number: 4; unlucky number: 8; supercharge: RNG]: accuracy and also ranged accuracy. It’s a great roll to skillup weapons and it is also the most important roll to give to all dds against high evasive content.

Samurai roll [lucky number: 2; unlucky number: 6; supercharge: SAM]: store tp, depending on the accuracy and attack needs of your party, this might be the best substitute for capped situations allowing for faster weapon skills. It's also often the prefered buff for dual wielders.

Evoker’s roll [lucky number: 5; unlucky number: 9; supercharge: SMN]: refresh roll, it used to be vital for mages, but with the great amount of mp and refresh resources available now this roll isn't always necessary. Do use it for yourself as well when /whm.

Bolter’s roll [lucky number: 3; unlucky number: 9; supercharge: none]: simply movement speed, it also stacks with movement+ gear, quickening and Mazurka. It wears if an enemy hits you or you hit an enemy and it is overwritten by flee.

Dancer’s roll [lucky number: 3; unlucky number: 7; supercharge: DNC]: another good downtime roll giving a decent regen effect, good also when you’re soloing and things get dangerous.

Allies’ roll [lucky number: 3; unlucky number: 10; supercharge: Navarch’s gants+2(+1 only works occasionally), Chasseur's gants and Chasseur's gants +1]: skillchain bonus, use it when skillchaining is all you're doing.

Courser's roll [lucky number: 3; unlucky number: 9; supercharge: Navarch's bottes+2(+1 only works occasionally), Chasseur's bottes and Chasseur's bottes +1]: snapshot, obviously the best buff to give rangers(and yourself when shooting)if acc is capped and hunter isn't needed.

Other rolls are highly situational and can more often than not be avoided altogether. If for some reason you happen to party with bst or smn Beast and Companion rolls are the best you can give them.

Also if you really have time to waste you can use Naturalist's roll before fight before doing your first Crooked roll...assuming the fight you're about to do even lasts that long for this to have a meaning!

Quick Draw

When I started playing corsair I thought that Phantom Roll was fun, but when I got to lv 40 I literally fell in love with this ability! This ability is what turns us into so called gun-mages; 2 charges on a 1 minute recast timer for tp-free nukes that instead give tp to the corsair and also enhance enfeebling effects already present on the mob when a shot of the matching element is used(exceptions found so far seem to be Addle with Fire shot and Slow II with Earth shot). Dark and Light shots are different from the other 6 elements as they do not cause direct damage but instead possess respectively dark dispel and light sleep effects. These two shots can also enhance bio and dia respectively up to tier 4(so dia2+2light shots or dia3+light shot have the same effect capping dia def down and dot).
If you get the message "miss" the enhanced effect landed anyway, even though the primary one didn't(ie: sleep didn't land, but dia+ did). While if you get "no effect" it means that your QD did absolutely nothing!

The formula to calculate QD damage is the following:

floor[2*(Gun base dmg+bullet dmg)+damage gear]*(staff bonus)*(day/weather bonuses)*mab

This means that to increase your Quick Draw damage the only way is stacking mab gear and using high damage guns and bullets. Adding AGI, marksmanship skill and potentially magic accuracy will instead increase Quick Draw accuracy.
Although the bullet in use influences the damage, when you use QD you won’t expend any bullet, instead you will expend elemental cards. It is highly recommended to just use Trump cards which work for all elements to save a lot of inventory space.

Note: it is also possible to skillup using Quick Draw.

Random Deal

With a 20 minutes recast time, this is not an ability you will use often, but when you do it will have a chance to reset one JA timer for party members(except 1hours and RD itself). The ja tends to restore first abilities with a lower recast, so keep that in mind when you want to try to reset Fold or Snake Eye after a roll as it would attempt to reset Phantom Roll instead if recast is still up. When resetting abilities with charges, all charges are restored.
When used in conjunction with Commodore Frac(or its ilvl counterpart) the ability can also attempt to restore two JAs for each party member(3 with +2 augmented body and a higher chance at success rate).

Triple Shot

Activating this ability your ranged attacks will have a chance to shoot three bullets(granted you have enough ammo), thus increasing damage and tp gain for 1:30 minute. If used with Navarch’s frac+2 or Chasseur's frac the proc rate of triple shots is increased. Note: it cannot proc on weapon skills. The best use of this ja is for fast tp gain when your Quick Draw timer is down and to exploit Death Penalty or Armageddon Aftermath for a very good spike damage during the shooting tp phase.

Group 1:

Phantom roll recast: decreases PR recast by 2 seconds per merit.

Quick Draw recast: decreases QD recast by 2 seconds per merit.

Quick Draw accuracy: increases QD accuracy by 2 points per merit.

Random Deal recast: decreases RD recast by 40 seconds per merit.

Bust Duration: decreases bust effect duration by 10 seconds per merit.

Let’s see what’s best to chose: Bust and Random Deal are completely worthless, ignore them. Quick Draw accuracy may seem very useful but against things with very high meva these merits are not nearly enough to help you and only stacking high acc gear can make a difference. So my suggestion is to spend points on Phantom Roll recast and more importantly on Quick Draw recast which should be the first thing to merit as soon as you get to lv 75.

Group 2:

Snake Eye(ja): Forces a 1 on your next roll or double-up [5 minutes recast]. Each additional merit adds a 5% chance that SE will roll a number that will take you to 11 if your initial roll was 6 or more. If used with augmented Commodore culottes+2 or Lanun culottes each merit will add a 5% chance to have Snake Eye recast reset to 0 upon use.

Winning Streak(trait): Each additional merit extends rolls duration by 20 seconds. With augmented Commodore tricorne+2 or Lanun tricorne each merit will have an additional 6 seconds duration.

Fold(ja): Erases last roll or bust [5 minutes recast]. Each additional merit grants a 5% chance that Fold will reset your Phantom Roll recast to 0. If used with augmented Commodore gants+2 or Lanun gants each merit will have a 5% chance of Fold erasing 2 rolls instead of 1(and normally you never want this to happen!)

Loaded Deck(trait): Decreases Random Deal's chances of failure when 2 or more JA are waiting on recast. Each merit decreases the chances of failure of Random Deal by 10%. With augmented Commodore frac+2 or Lanun frac failure is reduced by an additional 10% per merit.

This group is a bit less cut and dry than group 1. You might want to put at least 1 merit in Fold and Loaded Deck respectively for their utility, but more than that would be a waste. Best idea is to give 5 merits into Snake Eye as it allows very flexible gambling when rolling(and it’s great in combo with Relic pants)and the remaining 3 into Winning Streak.


Weapon Skills: any serious cor should have 5/5 in Last Stand as this weapon skill if properly buffed can be very powerful and grants an alternative for magic resistant mobs. Requiescat is another useful ws thanks to its utility, but it's honestly something you will very rarely use if at all. Lastly there's Exenterator, but you can skip this one as it's not a necessity.

The remaining categories can now be capped entirely.

Job Points:

Wild Card: grants a 1% chance per JP to have Wild Card reset itself on V or VI.

Phantom Roll: Every JP extends roll duration by 2 seconds. This is particularly useful for Crooked rolls so it's one of the most important categories.

Cutting Cards effect: Reduces the recast time of applicable special abilities by 1%.

Bust evasion: Grants a 1% chance to avoid busting.

Quick Draw damage: Increases QD damage by 2 magic damage per point.

Ammo consumption: Basically every point gives 1% recycle effect.

Random Deal effect: Every point increases by 2% the chance to restore two ja instead of only one.

Ranged Accuracy bonus: Adds 1 racc per point. Very useful.

Triple Shot Effect: Enhances Triple shot activation rate by 1% per point.

Optimal Range: Enhances damage from sweet spot.

Racc is definetely the most important, I'd put PR duration second for the its value combined with Crooked.
Triple Shot is probably what I recommend next as it can greatly increase your shooting dps, then Random Deal, Wild Card and QD.
Cutting Cards and Bust eva are the least useful and I suggest leaving these as last.
Recycle is obviously very nice, but just quality of life so really up to you when to invest in this one.

When you reach the 550 JP spent you obtain a very ueful gift which is QD recast -10, this allows you to cap QD recast using only one between Mirke Wardecors or W Mask.

Death Penalty
Corsair’s mythic, the coolest weapon in the game, it’s a fricking portable cannon! It is one of the best guns available to cor: low delay, Leaden Salute gets a 30% boost when used with it and 60% bonus to Quick Draw damage(at lv 99+). The aftermath is powerful and grants bonuses to ranged accuracy, ranged attack and ODD/ODT, however it is not easy to mantain on this job(the best idea is using Triple shot and samurai roll). After the ws update Leaden has become a very powerful weapon skill making it the best choice for magic damage against any enemy that isn't dark resistant. Note that Dark shot with empy boots will boost this ws only if the dispel effect lands.
Leaden Salute’s damage formula is:

{[2 * (Your AGI – Enemy INT)] + {fTP * [152 + [(WeaponLevel-99) * 2.45] + (AGI)]} + (Magic Damage)} * Affinity * MAB * staff bonus * day/weather bonuses

And to the question "is it worth it to make this mythic?" the answer is absolutely yes!

Fomalhaut
This is our Aeonic weapon. Its greatest asset is the high damage value and when using Last Stand or going for light elemental skillchains this is a beast!
And also let's be clear...it looks like a fricking dragon!!

Armageddon
Very cool looking!(maybe a bit gay on guys, but who wouldn’t love a zebra gun!), if grinded all the way to ilvl this is a very great gun, especially when making use of the aftermath. Wildfire, the ws that comes with the weapon is a very useful weapon skill being magic based and fire element(can boost it with Fire shot used with empyrean feet). To calculate WF damage you need the following formula:

{5.5 * [152+(WeaponLvl-99)*2.45 + (AGI * 0.6)] + [2 * (Your AGI-Enemy INT)]} * mab * staff bonus * day/weather bonuses

Mollfrith
Make this to unlock Wildfire if you don't wanna make a lv 90 Armageddon.

Compensator
Use this before a fight for your Phantom Rolls to enhance their duration. Midfight it is not recommended to swap it in. It's a great gun to use if you have none of DP, Fomal, augmented Doomsday or Molybdosis.

Molybdosis
DP ripoff, but it has amazing stats. A top tier gun for all purposes. Get this.

Doomsday
It can be augmented with a variety of stats for various purposes. For your ws needs you'd want MAB and WS damage, but things such has multihits could also prove useful to use as a gun for meleeing. Try if you have a lot of gil to spare, otherwise avoid like the plague.

Vanir Gun
With the new guns available this one fell a bit in the rankings, but it's still a very solid gun to use until better options are acquired.

Deathlocke
JSWeapon obtained from Oboro, it requires a few gil to make and it should be nothing more than a stopgap until you can obtain a better gun.

Ataktos
This magian gun is still very useful if augmented with TP bonus as it can be a fantastic addition for situations where you melee and use Savage Blade as ws of choice.

Melee weapons
Odium
Currently the most powerful dagger available.

Vanir Knife
One of the best main hand for meleeing and also best magic ws dagger(and QD)if you can't get a MAB Atoyac.

Rhadamanthus
Useful dagger, mostly for soloing with the waltz potency. Still behind Vanir though.

Atoyac
If augmented with mab it's the best dagger for Wildfire and Leaden Salute. If accuracy is not a concern this is also with oat augment the best offhand weapon you can use when meleeing.

Acinaces
A good off hand option if you are shooting with ninja or dancer as your support job.

Fettering Blade
Best sword available, it has fantastic stats that also make it worth considering as a mainhand weapon despite our class favouring daggers. Get this!

Arendsi Fleuret
A decent substitute if you're missing any of the top tier daggers.

Demersal Degen
Very good offhand weapon(especially when Atoyac becomes unusable due to accuracy shortage). +1 version is hardly worth it as the oat is the same.



Missions rewards choices

Anwig Salade: as there are better options for things like snapshot, fastcast and mdt, the best augments are waltz delay for /dnc and cure potency for /whm.
Desultor Tassets: this piece offers a lot more. First of all the unique Phantom Roll recast-5 which is very useful, then we have pdt-4%, mab+4, Waltz TP cost-5 for /dnc, cure potency for /whm.
Mirke Wardecors: if you plan to be a cor this piece is a musthave! Mab+4 and Quick Draw recast-5, you won't be allowed different choices.
Moonshade earring: for the first augment the best is either ranged attack or attack(the latter being more useful for other jobs as well), mab is not recommended as there are many better earrings; for the second augment TP bonus is absolutely the best(and not only for corsair), do not let the Regain fool you, it's a really negligible augment, nothing beats the awesomeness of tp bonus!

Adoulin Rings
Haverton: Snapshot is awesome and the racc is very high and useful; plus the dualwield allows this ring to be best in slot when delay is not capped. One of the absolute best choices for cor.
Adoulin: A very great QD and magic ws ring, another one of the best choices for you.
Karieyh: although it looks great, it really isn't all that special. It's decent for Last Stand(only works on first hit), so not a bad choice, but can be skipped for other things.
Weatherspoon: Extremely good casting ring and good for Light/Dark shots too. Not the main choice from a cor point of view, but if you play mages often know that this has a place in our sets as well.
Janniston: A good cure potency ring, even though we can't reach the cap to even make use of the II element. Again, not essential for a cor, but still usable if chosen for another job.
Woltaris: good idle ring, but as you can tell this isn't a choice to make for cor main.
Gorney: if you wanna increase your TH then have at it. With this and Chaac belt we can get up to TH2.
The remaining ones just aren't worth even looking at for our job so ignore them entirely if you wanna play cor.

Corsair is a very intense and fun job to play. If you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do you will always be busy during fights and being a very important job for pretty much all relevant events, you won’t ever have trouble finding a group to do stuff with. While being a damage dealer is fun, always remember that the main reason for your presence in the party is to buff your mates, so be a real captain!

Blah blah, I have no idea how to conclude this guide, so…uhm…yeah, hope you liked it, bye!

p.s oh I almost forgot, suggestions are welcome, especially for the best gearsets, I may have overlooked something, if so point it out and I will correct it. This is meant to be a guide for everyone, and everyone can contribute.

With love, Captain Seha.