Shogun Rice Ball: When?Follow

the unfortunate answer is probably "never". you need STR more than ATT for yukikaze/gekko/kasha, and you need haste, sTP, and ACC more for TPing.

the possible uses for shogun riceballs seem to be... polearm (but sacrificing 2 haste areas and not getting sTP out of it, + no ACC so you might be in trouble if you use askar for sTP)... all the good stuff about shogun rice balls indeed benefits pentathrust and polearm DoT generally. unfortunately, wearing haste/ACC/ATT/sTP and eating pizza+1 or something else will probably benefit you more than the rice ball idea.

the other thing that miiiiight go well with shogun rice balls is lv5 relic. i had a friend who swore by a really gung ho "double attack build" for his amano. at first i was like, "whoa whoa whoa" (because "double attack builds" are a bad idea in general; 1 point of DA doesn't get better when stacked like haste), but he explained that he a) needed attack for kaiten (which doesn't get as big an innate ATT boost as yuki/gekko/kasha, if any at all), and b) that the point of all the DA was SCing with himself. i'm not certain that his idea was valid (if a gun was held to my head, i would guess haste would serve him better), but it at least makes sense as a possibility.

summary: you give up too much to gain too little from rice balls. the DA helps you WS more often, but so would the haste you're giving up. most of SAM's damage is WS, which (if you use y/g/k) ATT often doesn't even affect (because the bonus on y/g/k caps you), so even if rice balls win for TP, they're benefiting the wrong part of your damage.

edit: for your other questions, see other posts. /DRG is good if you have a lot of haste and wear all the /DRG specific gear (earring and back). /WAR is good. /RNG not so much. uhhh, equip setups, see other posts.

Edited, Jun 30th 2009 7:02pm by milich

I believe you meant Atk, not DEX. Or even STR, as even STR has a better return than DEX on penta.

Being they are so expensive and hard to get ahold of, I can't really answer your question. However, i would like to point out that only the ATT, DEF, and Double Attack are tripled with all 3 pieces, so only 4 dex.

Despite these issue, I can tell you that a tonosama riceball setup for polearm, with all 3 pieces, and acc/att gear, can totally tear it up.

Being they are so expensive and hard to get ahold of, I can't really answer your question. However, i would like to point out that only the ATT, DEF, and Double Attack are tripled with all 3 pieces, so only 4 dex.

Despite these issue, I can tell you that a tonosama riceball setup for polearm, with all 3 pieces, and acc/att gear, can totally tear it up.

Pahn: Thanks for the reply. I think i will only use rice ball for fun then.

Penta Thrust
From FFXIclopedia

Skill level: 150
Delivers a five-hit attack. Accuracy varies with TP.

Polearm skill level 150 is obtainable by the following jobs at these corresponding levels:

Job Rating Level
Dragoon A+ 49
Warrior B- 51
Samurai B- 51



No I need to stack DEX due to my habit of firing off WSs at 100% TP and wanting all 5 hits to land. There is a bit of a difference between an A+ skill and a B- one.

"Acc varies with tp" does NOT mean "acc sucks without high TP"

It is in fact most likely the other way. Most of these WS have been shown to have some BONUS at 100% TP. the exact amount has not been pinned down.

My Thf DE set has will land me at 82.5% on lv 81 colis and 78% on lv 82s. Roughly 80% hit rate when i solo DE. Even with 95% 1st hit accounted for, AND the fact that im /nin making it 6 hits. I should only get a 6/6 62% of the time. I can tell you right now, after meriting there for YEARS, i hit 6/6 far more often than 6/10.

During the original 2handed update (1=1) they lowered penta acc by LOTS. They since fixed it back to normal with the adjustment along with 1=.75. As a user of Dancing edge and Penta for YEARS, i can assure you, they are not inaccurate at 100TP. If a lol1hander A- skill thf with no native acc boosts of ANY kind can land 5/5 DE easily enough, a B skill 2hander with better gear options can do the same.

Also, if you demand 5/5 eery time your crazy anyway. at CAPPED acc, you will only hit 5/5 77% of the time (excluding DAs that will skew this a bit) because you will ALWAYS have a 5% chance to miss any hit. 3 outta 4 pentas will not be 5/5 under the best of conditions. 70% shot at 5/5 hits with 90% hit rate (assuming 1st hit is 95% due to acc bonus on 1st hits). Eyeballing your TP return and popping a sushi because you hit 2 4/5s in a row is overreacting.

Which brings me back to "why stack dex for the purpose of Acc on penta." The only stacking i can see is haub/Raja/Kitty pants for a nice 25 dex with askar head and warwolf depedning on acc (ohat+life). Thats not stacking, thats using the best gear in the slots. What exactly is this dex that you are stacking? If acc is really hurting THAT bad, doing something like thunder ring over an acc ring is dumb. What other gear are you "stacking" dex on?

Edited, Jul 7th 2009 1:59pm by Banalaty

I must ask those who say it is not worth it have the three pieces. I have read that there is a fstr cap (on birds it was 138) and you can still get that pretty easy if you have the af+1 hands.

From testing myself, and what I have read, it may be a possibility that when you are adding strength, all you are actually adding is more attack depending on the vit of the mob.

I have the 3 pieces and I would say that in many cases it works well. The DA proc and the defence boost is noticable and there is some dex and acc added to the build also.

In campaing with the bull necklace, the rice build is the best imo. On gods, HNMs and the like I would think perhaps acc str build, not sure.

It had a broken TP return before.

and SAM penta or perhaps /SAM penta; i've forgotten.

.

Finally got the second +1 cooking piece from the cooking guild over the weekend which brings me to 100+5 with advanced support and for tonosama being at 94 I am 11 over cap which(according to wiki should HQ 10%.

Made about 30-40 stacks and HQ 14 single shogun, making it another grind to even make the damn things, but it's possible. Thank goodness they npc at a decent price.

Wasn't able to do alot of messing around with it, but /war and brutal you get 30% DA, all other spots I slotted str gear. Was up in uly eating through the buffalo pretty quick, usually with no healing there I have alot of down time but I was killing about 5-6 before I had to rest.

DA proc on WS is the biggest thing I noticed, was wildy varied numbers, anywhere from 799 - 2009. I assume that is tha DA proc. Second thing I noticed was how much faster you get tp.

Food ran out at the start of a fight and suddenly it took forever to take down the buffalo. I'm looking forward to messing around with it more.

mmmm dead horse+necrobump, smells fantastic

napkin math:

20 STR= ~8%increase to base dmg via WSC
15% DA= >7.4% increase for Hagun+Gorget SAM (significantly less unless you're already @capped acc/atk pre-WS buffs)


real answer: riceball builds are crappy for GK, and only worth it for Polearm in niche occasions, and a pain in the ass to make/maintain, and overall not worth it.