Gun Mage: Corsair in Abyssea [Guide]Follow

"COR is useless now, come something else"
"Don't need you anymore, sorry"
"Your other job will hit harder for our PT"

Frustrated of hearing this over and over? Good, you're one of the many.
It is true though, Corsair is not as valued as it once was and the players on it that are not aware of how to adapt it to Abyssea's landscape and play style still even at this point do not do us much justice. By "us" i mean the ones that actually know what to do in certain situations, what rolls to use and when/where/why and most importantly how to actually contribute a fair amount of damage. Therefore i am going to write a guide of sorts to help some Corsair's that are either new to Abyssea's style or just need a pointer or two, this will be updated steadily over the coming weeks.

First part will cover maximizing your damage potential.
When you step into Abyssea you'll see other DD's punching out absolutely insane amounts of damage from melee attacks and weapon skills mostly thanks to Atma of the Razed Ruins. Do not think for even one second that you will be able to keep up with the sheer damage they will be doing with the tools at your disposal, you have to get creative to compete, this is not Greater Colibri camp and times have changed. Corsair's have no real critical hit weapon skill apart from Evisceration but even then a Dancer or Thief will put your damage to shame still as will any other DD.
Inside Abyssea you will be forced to use Leaden Salute (Wildfire if you're lucky) as your primary weapon skill, sounds pretty weird right? That lowly weapon skill from Nyzul Isle that was mocked rather heavily when it first came out is going to replace your beloved Slug Shot/Detonator!? Well, tough sh*t... it just did.

Going to get this little tidbit out of the way before i go any further...
ALWAYS, AT ANY COST BRING A "MAGIC ATTACK BONUS" GEAR SET WITH YOU INSIDE ABYSSEA.
HAVE /RDM or /BLM LEVELLED!!
Honest to god, i cannot stress this enough and yet i STILL see some people totally disregard this.
Now that's out of the way onto some steps to get you started.
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1. The first thing you should focus on is getting x3 Lunar Abyssites. If you have a decent Linkshell this will not be much of a hassle. Your first is gotten from defeating any area boss, your second is gotten from defeating seven of the nine area bosses and the third is bought for 100k cruor from any Cruor Prospector in Abyssea - Misareux/Attowha/Vunkerl.
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2. Now you need some Atma. Atma is what gives your DD bretheren their seemingly godly powers and every other mage the ability to throw away MP like it's going out of fashion, and is what will make or break you in Abyssea. Every single DD you meet will swear on Atma of the Razed Ruins with their lives, while it is indeed an epic Atma for any DD it's not one you'll be using. Instead you will be using these three.
Atma of the Cosmos - Iratham
Atma of the Ultimate - Proto-Ultima
Atma of the Baying Moon - Lugarhoo (Beyond is also an option but this one's easier to get)

Side Note: If you've got Armageddon or Bedlam+2 and therefore have Wildfire you should be using Lone Wolf/Smoldering Sky/Ultimate or some variant of the aforementioned. If you needed me to tell you this, then i'd be amazed.

The aim of this Atma setup is to get as much damage out of Leaden Salute as possible while also allowing some space for Quick Draw to be used effectively. Here alone you're looking at +80 Magic Attack Bonus, +50 Magic Accuracy and +30% Darkness Elemental Attack. All of this will stack with any Magic Attack Bonus gear you WILL be bringing with you in here.
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3. Guns, you've always had one or several but i'm sorry to tell you most of them you once held dear are now better off on a store shelf for all they're worth. The ones you should be after are...
Awilda's Gun - Drops off a T2 VNM in Abyssea - Attowha.
This one i highly recommend if you cannot get your mitts on a Peacemaker. Even then this still fires faster. Awilda's fires insanely fast and if you have a few pieces of Snapshot gear the gunshot is almost instant, combine this with Triple Shot and you'll have TP in no time at all. If this was not enough you can use Bronze Bullets if you really want to save money as you sure as hell won't be using Quick Draw for damage with this thing. Disregard the low DMG rating as Leaden Salute ignores DMG on your gun when it's fired. Your answer to Quick Draw woes is just below here...

Mayhem +2
DMG: 51 Delay: 582
INT+9 "Magic Attack Bonus"+10
Lv90 RNG/COR
This is a magian gun that you steadily build up through a series of trials, fortunately they are rather easy and since ice weather is pretty much constant in the areas the trial targets are found a dedicated player could easily truck through this set of trials in a day or two. If you want sheer Quick Draw damage then this is your weapon of choice, Leaden Salute would also hit harder using this thing but the delay is a bit of a put-off and since most targets will be dead before you even finish firing even one bullet it's something of a deal-breaker. You could use this quite happily though knowing your Quick Draw damage is not going to totally suck like it would using Awilda's but you need to be either using Tactician's Roll or have a solid amount of Snapshot or you'll have trouble getting TP.

Bedlam +2 - Magian/Walk of Echoes
This is the goal of the Corsair's that cannot commit to getting Armageddon, but this is still very very decent. If you endure the horror that is Walk of Echoes you're rewarded with one of the most stupidly broken weapon skills inside Abyssea, a weapon skill so powerful it will make the most hardy Warrior mouth "holy sh*t". Wildfire absolutely decimates anything it hits provided it does not have nautical levels of magic defense. It will easily best your Leaden Salute damage twofold largely thanks to a certain trick you can use with Navarch's Bottes +2. This trick entails you using Fire Shot before launching Wildfire at the poor sod of a monster you're fighting, sending the already impressive damage into overdrive. Wildfire is also a Darkness Skillchain closer and works very well with Blade: Hi from a Ninja or with a Blue Mage's solo Distortion Skillchain... you can pop Wildfire off after Distortion to create a Darkness Skillchain... one with pretty amazing damage.

Armageddon - "Emp Weapon"
The holy grail of guns, for a Corsair nothing can best this absolute behemoth of a gun. Bedlam +2 gave you Wildfire but Armageddon gives you the full deal. In addition to packing the highest DMG rating of any gun Corsair's can use this also gives a hefty boost to AGI, Wildfire, x2 Damage gunshots aftermath and most importantly bragging rights.
(Watching party/alliance members spam /check on you and seeing the lines of O.o O_O o.o in the party chat when you own a target in one Wildfire, on Corsair no less is freaking hilarious)
The NM's required for Armageddon inside Abyssea are actually some of the easier trials, Carabosse does not take a lot of time and/or effort to pop or even kill as does Ciren-Croin. If you have a good bunch of buddies or a very cool Linkshell then go for this by all means.
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4. Armor
When it comes to using Wildfire, Leaden Salute and Quick Draw... AGI, Magic Attack Bonus and Magic Accuracy (sort of...) play a part in how hard you hit and how consistent your damage is. Magic Accuracy will not be a problem for the most part as Atma of the Ultimate combined with an Ascetic's Tonic will cover the majority of your problems in this department.
Most Corsair's (read: good ones), will keep a gear set for Quick Draw on them by default so odds are the majority of work you would need to put in for a good set is already done for you. Still if you need some pointers or a comparison of your set to what is "expected" then i'll sound off my own set.
Alternatively you can skim through This thread, which involves a good discussion on the topic.

Main: Vulcan's Staff (Fire Affinity for Wildfire and Quick Draw)
Ranged: Any of the above mentioned guns, if you're not using a gun then why the hell are you even here?
Ammo: Oberon's Bullet (Best bullet for Quick Draw but you can use anything for Wildfire/Leaden Salute)
Sub: Fire Grip (Fire Accuracy)
Head: Navarch Tricorne +2 (AGI+10 is decent)
Body: Mirke Wardecors (MaB and Quick Draw Recast). If you cannot get this then Loki's Kaftan is a good alternative, but you might have A LOT of trouble getting hold of this because it is highly sought after by several other jobs.
Hands: Schutzen Mittens (Best you can get for this slot, these should drop to Corsair's by default)
Legs: Denali Kecks (Mix of AGI, MaB and Magic Accuracy. Nimue's Tights probably better)
Feet: Navarch's Bottes +2 (Crazy amount of AGI and Magic Accuracy on these, plus you need them for the QD > Wildfire trick)
Back: Forban Cape (MaB on a cape!? Wow! Drops from Walk of Echoes)
Waist: Aquiline Belt (Drops from Iratham, the same NM you need for Atma of the Cosmos. Again, this should drop to a Corsair by default...)
Rings: Breeze Rings (Really, any good AGI+ rings work here. If you're lucky and score a Demon Ring from Abyssea - Tahrongi that has a Magic Attack Bonus augment on it, then use that. They're very rare though.
Earring: Hecates' Earring (100% drop from Rani. Not the easiest NM to kill without using a brew but the drop is worth it. Easier to get than Novio purely because if you brew this yourself you've got the ultimate say on who gets what drop)
Earring: Moldavite Earring (I would put Novio Earring here but this one is much more obtainable to your average joe as you might have to wade through hordes of Black Mages to get your mitts on one)
Neck: Artemis' Medal/Navarch's Choker (I suggest carrying both of these with you. Artemis' can give up to +10 Magic Attack Bonus during the right moon phase but for the times it won't give much at all use Navarch's instead)

My set is not exactly "ultimate" by any stretch of the imagination but as you can probably see from most of those links the majority of the pieces are either easily gotten from an Auction House or should drop to any Corsair by default. You might have invest a bit of time to build your set up but the end results should be more than worth the effort.

------------------- Rolls: What to use, what to get. Coming: 07/05/2011














Edited, May 6th 2011 5:59pm by Tatham

Why would you use Navarch's choker over Uggy for QD no less? I realize Artemis is situational, but again why no Uggy.

Probably not being realistic to mention this until SE fix ToAU zone game content but I think Death Penalty is better than Armageddon outside of Abyssea when /ra spam and Wildfire not strong enough, especially when triple shot is up.

Called use a keyboard and play the game the "correct" way. I kid.

Eh i cant play without a keyboard, just loose to much functionality.

I'm too slow on a keyboard (unfortunately grew up in the days before ubiquitous use of computers and have been a "hunt and peck" keyboarder since). With the controller I can always keep my eyes on the screen, not down on the keyboard then back up again.

Theres a magian gun with the same augment as Martial but better damamge, i think.