Kirin issueFollow

on a kited kirin with no buffs, everyone's damage is going to suck. kirin rapes your damage potential with level correction, so you need a ton of attack to do decent damage on him. like 2 minuets at least, preferably soul voiced.

people could give you obvious gear suggestions, but at the end of the day, they won't make as much of an improvement as you hope it will. so again, without buffs on a kited kirin, everyone's damage sucks.

although, as long as your LS uses the same strategy, don't bother with haste equips. acc and att are too valuable (at least until lv cap change).

Yeah, going on a kite fight against kirin without someone to help buff you will really knock down your damage. If you can get into a party with a bard or corsair, that will help out a lot. I personally don't think /sam's a bad choice, but if you wanna do /thf to buff up your WS damage, knock yourself out.

A few suggestions since you asked for gear tips.
AF hands could be upgraded to tarasque mitts, adaman mufflers or warrior's mufflers if you're hurting on acc/att.
Heroic boots could be upgraded to Amir boots, and eventually the ideal would be Aurum Sabatons.
An eventual goal would be to get a PCC.

Some things that will help you out in the long run: see if you can get your LS to learn to straight tank Kirin. That doesn't mean you have to TP burn him (although that works fine too). My current LS usually has only about 20 members when we pop kirin, which isn't quite enough for a reliable TP burn of him. So we'll kite while we kill summons, then just straight tank him. Have 2-3 tanks that bounce between each other, DDs have a way easier time killing kirin, and the mages don't have to chase people around that big huge room.

And 2-3 bards/corsairs will help out a lot too.

1.) Yes.
2.) WHAT. Of course you gear swap. And yes gear for as much ACC as possible as hitting the mob is more important than whiffing faster.
3.) Basically, for Kirin. Mini-gods go nuts!
4.) Personally, I wait until 100% TP then SA+SC. Too much crap happens to be sitting on TP. Martial Bhuj is nice for this, but it's not worth the price for situational use.

Steel Cyclone's mods are 50% STR and 50% VIT, although the general rule of thumb is to prioritize STR first. VIT in spots where they come with STR or are in large quantities (Genbu's Bucket for example).

You pretty much got it with ur last post, that's about what you have to do. Mainly it's about getting tp as fast as possible to ws the real dmg.

Kirins evasion is really high so you should go all out on acc in tp gear. You can slowly take off an acc piece and see how well you hit with a little less if your using sushi, generally tho ur prolly gonna need all you can get. STR > VIT > ATK on SC ws /thf.

I REALLY reccomend that you recruit a few bards or cors to the ls for buffing, it helps ALOT. Straight tanking is also the way to go if your ls has the proper jobs and gear for it.

The first hit of any WS has 95% accuracy (actually its more like some insane +150 accuracy or some other boost) with all subsequent hits using regular accuracy. Since a 1-shot wonder WS like SC only has 1 hit and your SA'ing it, you can expect 100% accuracy with high pDiff.

Yeah for kited Kirin's just go /THF and SAWS whenever he stops to do something. Also keep flee on a macro handy ... I've pulled mad hate and to haul a$$ to not get squished.

So, if my PDIF is at 1 and I add +1 to it from SA, then my total damage increase is 25%.

1 + 1 = 1.25, this must be that new math I've been hearing so much about.

If you meant to say that its a 25% damage increase overall (TP+every other WS); then please be more clear.

bsphill he specifically mentioned a kited fight, meaning 04 ~ 06 method of having Kirin chase a PLD (or two) around in a big circle. You spend most of your attack rounds with the message (your taget is too far away) as you chase him. You only get attack rounds off when Kirin stops to cast Stone or Stonega, sometimes your lucky and his TP moves take longer then usual and you get an extra swing in there. Bard buffs are out of the question cause nobody is stoping in one spot long enough for the BRD to sing buffs, same with COR rolls. The concept of 6 hit also doesn't work because you won't always be WSing at 100, sometimes you won't get a decent opportunity to WS (and not risk loosing TP) until you are 150 or more (its random).

ST fights are a bit different as melee's can stick in one spot long enough to actually deal damage. SA will nearly double the damage on SC but if Kirin isn't moving then you can hasso it up and employ different tactics. Of course in a ST fight your at the mercy of Stonega IV and your tanks will get their a$$ handed to them quickly.

Vs something IT I would agree ... vs Kirin .. not remotely close.

Kirin's level completely rapes your cRation, it practically puts you at hitting for 0's half the time when berserk isn't up. 17 level difference * .05 = -0.85 after cap. I believe Kirin has something like 420 or so defense (can't remember where it was estimated). 17 * -4 = -68 accuracy (or +68 evasion to monster) from level correction. And I have no clue what his VIT is but knowing SE something retarded. Dia III only plays into a zerg because of its very short duration. Level 1 is 30s, level 2 is 60s, nobody merits it over level 2 (most don't even go beyond level 1). A RDM will not be chasing down a HNM and casting a 45MP (41 as /SCH) spell every 30 ~ 60s during which time a melee ~might~ get a few hits off while they are chasing the same HNM. Cast it if your STing or zerging it, else wise don't bother.

At 700 attack (well buffed / fed / zerked WAR)
700/420 = 1.6 -0.85 = 0.81
Non buffed WAR using sushi (no zerg so counter his LCF evasion) is 500 or so attack.
500/420 = 1.19 -0.85 = 0.34 (your now hitting for 0's half the time).

Melee hits just don't do jack sh!t to Kirin, I've seen single digits before.

If your using SC your getting its x1.66 attack buff, this will put you at 2.2 pDiff cap without needing lots of attack.
500/420 = 1.19 * 1.66 = 1.975 (under cap) -0.85 = 1.12. SA will make it 2.12, 2.12/1.12 = 1.89 or a 89% increase in WS damage along with completely negating out the -68 accuracy penalty.

Assuming perfect scenario and you have enough attack to reach 2.2 cap on his 420 (approx) defense.
2.2 - 0.85 = 1.35, 2.35 (crit cap is 3.0) 2.35/1.35 = 1.74 or a 74% increase in WS damage along with negating the 68 accuracy penalty.

Damage on a kited Kirin is from WS not from melee hits, even on a ST Kirin the ~vast~ majority of your damage will be from WS's. Zergs are a bit difference as your SVing buffs with a three BRD rotation and trying to kill him before he has had a chance to kill you. In a zerg I'd use Dia III + Agnon for a combined 35% defense down, that translates into a 52.8% attack boost to everyone involved, of course his LCF still kicks you in the nuts.

tldr;
In a kited fight, /THF will do better then /SAM. In a ST fight its a coin toss depending on how many BRD's and COR's your ls can field. In a zerg you better be /SAM with an I.Wing and super buffed... else your prolly dead soon anyway.

So Shair manteel is now basic gear? Its 8s cast time BRD/WHM. Even down to 5s its still too long. Things don't happen in a vaccum, in a kited fight all the melee are not 3.5 distance the entire time, their staggered behind the guy depending on who's screen updated the quickest. And unless their using third party tools they have to stop to use JA's (animation forces them to), this includes Hasso / Meditate / Sneak Attack. The BRD would have to get to Kirin, start singing and hope it lands one everyone before Kirin takes off again. Its about as practical as having a RDM running behind Kirin Casting Dia III constantly. If the shell has the resources to do these things, they probably have the resources to ST Kirin after the spawns are dead.

Now onto a pet peeve of mine, lately I've been noticing this "Difficulty Creep" in that the supposed "acceptable methods / bar" is raised every six months to a year or so, usually by people who no longer play. This game isn't full of HQ 75 players walking around slaughtering Kirin's like its nothing. Not every shell has a few relic wielders and half a dozen BRD's on demand. Most shells (especially sky shells) were and still are just doing whatever they can do get by, using whatever resources they have. Their leaders don't say "hey we don't have enough BRD's and KC's so we can't do any Kirin's until we got those", instead they look at what they do got and figure out some method. The OP's shell is just such a shell, he was asking a way to maximize his contributions to the shell's attempt to kill a spawned Lv 92 HNM. The answer isn't "go find a new shell", or "go find these other jobs and don't attempt without them". You can't expect your melee to have Kitty pants for a Byakko fight... if you catch the drift.

And lastly ... this is Sky we're talking about. Any shell that ~would~ have the abilities to zerg down Kirin by having its members come something like WAR/SAM would no longer be ~doing~ Sky on any regular basis. Instead they'd be doing ground kings, ToAU HNM's, Dark Ixion and all those higher tier mega money loot HNMs.