Best DD Job now?Follow

Recap time:
Post 1 - There are times when you do still need people that put out a lot of damage.

Post 2 - There are a very limited selection of weapon/job combinations that satisfy that requirement and the gap between those weapons/jobs and the alternatives is very large, in my experience.

Post 3 - More explicitly stating that the gap between people that do a lot of damage and people that don't have the right job/weapon combinations is very large.

In summary, if you don't have a good weapon/job combination then you're so far back from the people that do have those things that you're effectively not a DD in high performance events when compared to them. I don't know why anyone cares about my choice of non-magian, non-R/M/E example weapons, because they're all so much worse than the ideal weapons that it's honestly not even worth considering performance increases from trading one for the other. If you're like the OP and you're asking a question about what the best DD is, then the honest answer is "You aren't going to be a really respectable DD until you have a good level 99 Mythic, Empyrean, or Relic." Please note that I keep bolding the word Good, because having a 99 Rhongo doesn't make you a DD. There are plenty of terribly balanced and utterly useless weapon options at the moment within those three categories.

I'd say these are the DD weapons for each job:
DRK - Ragnarok, (Liberator)
WAR - Ukonvasara, Conqueror, (Bravura, Ragnarok)
SAM - Kogarasamune, Masamune, Amanomurakumo, (Yoichinoyumi) <--- The first is much better than the last three, but all four work to a degree and excel against different targets
DRG - Ryunohige (40% better than Gungnir, which is better than Rhongo)
MNK - Verethragna, Spharai, (Glanzfaust) <--- With the qualification that monk damage isn't very strong against high enough level targets

If you don't have one of those yet and want to go DD to play around, grab a high level GS and do it. Don't invest in Borealis cells if you're building towards one of the above options. Please keep in mind that the preference may switch around (for instance, in the event of a Resolution or Shoha nerf), but it's unlikely that the unlisted 1H jobs will ever suddenly become competitive because of the way in-game damage calculations work. Also, keep in mind that some weapons do passable damage and serve a more utilitarian purpose (like Apocalypse), so they might be desirable for other reasons. That doesn't mean they'll suddenly do good damage in Mul, it just means that you might prefer being a mediocre DD that can solo on DRK.

Edited, Nov 26th 2012 5:32pm by Byrthnoth

Those terms are elite speak for: I punched this sh*t into a calculator and it ended up being good, mediocre, or subpar. Having good gear to some makes them think they are instantly respectable. Personally id trade most jackasses with a 99 R/M/E for a guy with an AH weapon, because the majority of folks out there lack the only important statistics that players provide. Common sense and job knowledge. Frankly the majority of these folks that wander around in elite gear do so because they have just spent time farming easy *** sh*t.

R/M/E weapons are meaningless in describing the value of the majority of people who hold them. While they may be the best mathematically in practice only people who know how to use their jobs, and use them sensibly can reach this point. The proc based easy *** content has destroyed any notion of what the words, respectable, terribly balanced, utterly useless mean based on a player description, that being said, their mathematical use is still entirely viable.

But ya Id trade most R/M/E holders for a guy with an AH weapon, who knows their *** from a whole in the ground. In the end even they provide more to the group overall. Despite lacking a top tier weapon.

and I guess to answer your question directly, the best is the best, the rest gets tiered out as it goes. Each % value is different to anyone, what might be good to you could be mediocre to someone else. But again, it all depends who is operating the job behind the weapon, its easy to put it on paper and say voila, in practice it doesn't always work that way.





Edited, Nov 28th 2012 12:05am by rdmcandie

I imagine you would be one of those with R/M/E that could be cut for an AH weapon holder. If you don't know how to play the job, your weapon means ****.

In the most favorable case (for Empyreans), going from 90 to 99 only gains you about 15-20% damage. In general this difference is magnified by other gear differences between someone that is willing to drop 200mil on a weapon and someone that isn't or doesn't play enough to.

For Ragnarok, going from 95 to 99 is only a 7% increase in base damage, 5 acc increase, and +3% critical hit rate. The difference between the two should be unparseable. Thing is, though, if someone is willing to spend 60-80mil (depending on server) on a 7% increase in base damage then they've obviously exhausted other ways to spend gil on the job and obviously care about maximizing its performance. Thus they're generally better than those at 95.

Temper the above two paragraphs by accepting that >50% of FFXI's players are terrible at the game and will dramatically underperform their potential regardless which weapon they have / just got it because it was shiny / are bandwagnaroks.

^ which is why classifying weapons based on math alone is the only true aspect of comparison. Just because someone has a sweet awesome weapon doesn't mean they know how to use it.


Have fun living in abyssea and voidwatch scrub.

Good to know I'm done with War now that my Gaxe is 90. Whoohooo, all that NNI mercing and ADL farming for gil is free money I can use to buy AH gear and instantly become best in class at my jobs since R/M/E 99 = opposite of best.

Things I learned from this topic: you either have good gear, or you don't have that great of gear but you're an excellent player and do everything right all the time. There is no middleground or combination possible.

Of course you would, the Ukon WAR is a tool, and shouldn't be in a group.

Also Majority does not mean all it means most. as in



Edited, Nov 28th 2012 11:25pm by rdmcandie

Talented amateur.

I don't get it, isn't the question of what job will do the most damage if the only variable is the job and not the player? If so, why all this discussion of brain-dead, drooling R/M/E wielders and fine-tuned, incredibly skilled AH players?

It was mentioned because someone brought up what the words meant, and their are two definitions to the words used (good/mediocre/subpar.) On paper you can make one choice, in practice that choice isn't always accurate. If you are dealing with a complete pleeb who has a sweet as weapon, yet parses a few % higher than someone who knows their **** using a not so sweet *** weapon, the best bet is to stick with the guy who knows his ****.

It is entirely relevant to the topic. A WAR might be the best on paper, yet the person behind it might be a a useless husk. The only way to judge best is by finding people who preform optimally. In some case that might not be a WAR. Just because it shows up on paper doesn't deem it entirely truth, **** is situational as they say.

WAR may have the most potential, but good luck finding one who can actually hit that potential.

Good luck finding anybody who lives up to the potential of any of the jobs they play? Why do you people always feel the need to point out what is implied by human interaction? Do you really think somebody out there, even just one person, on the entire planet, thinks that the human race has the exact same reaction times and thought processes, like a bunch of penguins? Who's the bigger ******* here, the people you love to lambast for providing math, or you, for thinking everybody else is too stupid figure out the crap you spew?

But if someone asks "What is the best DD job now (because I am trying to decide what I should gear)?" the answer isn't "Well, that depends who is playing the job!"

The answer is, "If you're pretty casual and don't want to build a R/M/E or a magian, Dark Knight. If you do want to build a R/M/E, a selection of these weapons/jobs."

If it's a bad player asking the question, then they're going to be a bad DD regardless which job they pick. I'd prefer to assume that they're competent and just answer the question, though.