Two questions, advice pleaseFollow

Question 1: Killing is Fun

For tier 1 merits I went 4 DA, 2 Berserk, Aggressor, Warcry. In the name of sanity I kept those three on the same timer and in one macro. I plan on going 5/5 Warrior's Charge, but I'm not sure what else to do. As near as I can tell there are three logical choices. One thing I cannot seem to find is if the Tomahawk item goes in the ranged or ammo slot. Macroing it into the ammo slot with the Bomb Core is fine, but giving up 12 attack to keep it in the ranged slot (so I don't lose tp) is a pretty big deal.

1) 5/5 Tomahawk
2) 5/5 Savagery
3) 1/5 Tomahawk, 4/5 Savagery




Question 2: In The Name of Haste

I'm trying to decide which of these two gear sets to tp in for waist/neck/back. As things currently stand I am at 17% haste from the Swift Belt and Perle Hauberk Set.

1) Chivalrous Chain, Amemet Mantle +1, Swift Belt (total haste 17%)
Haste 4%
Acc 8
Att 10
Str 5
Store TP 1
Defense 12
Ratt 15

2) Tern Armor Set (total haste 19%)
Haste 6% (0% unless wearing full set)
Acc 3
Att 3
Str 2
Dex 2
Vit 2
Defense 3

3 and 1.

Tomahawks are definitely ammo. The ability is rarely used for its effect, but it's a nice hate tool. Just drop one merit in it to unlock it and put the rest into Savagery.

This.

This. All of this.

Ditch Warcry merits. I have a macro with Warcry + Warrior's Charge for when i wanna look at bigger numbers.

I've always used warcry... guess I should take a look at the numbers. Normally I'm good at math, but when I try to do ffxi math I always seem to screw it up. Oh well, here goes.

At level 75 warcry raised attack just shy of 9% for the entire party, and lasts 30 seconds. Assuming the tank damage output sucks and the healer isn't trying to do any damage, you're buffing four people.

So four people get a roughly 4% damage buff for 30 seconds. The two merits reduce the recast timer by 20 seconds, which is a 20/(5*60) bonus to the damage. That's about 7% more damage.

Putting it all together:
Warcry, no merits: 4% damage buff for 30 sec/5 minutes
Warcry, no merits: 0.04*30/(5*60)
Warcry, no merits: 0.4% damage over time buff

Warcry, with two merits: 4% damage buff for 30 sec/4:40
Warcry, with two merits: 0.04*30/(4*60+40)
Warcry, with two merits: 0.43% damage over time buff


omg, did I do that right? That actually makes me sad, no joke. Please tell me I did that wrong. I want to be wrong about this.






The other things I guess I could do are 4/3/3 or 5/2/2 with one just left over (because I would rather hang myself from a @#%^ing tree than not have Berserk and Aggressor on the same timer).

5/2/2: Let's see, adding 1% DA, when I already have so much from merits and gear, will be pretty weak. I have Pole Grip, Brutal, and 4 merits already, so that's 21% right there. 1% more DA will increase damage by (100-21-1)/100 = 0.78%

4/3/3: So, if adding 10 more seconds of Bergressor nets me more than 0.78% damage over time increase than adding a 22nd point of Double Attack then 4/3/3 will surpass 5/2/2. Worst case senario for this build, acc capped: aggressor becomes worthless, and berserk is all I get. Basically, is 10 seconds of berserk worth more or less than the 22nd point of Double Attack.

So, 25% attack is going to be about 12% damage boost, and the merit will reduce the cooldown by 10 seconds.

Curiously, the damage boost of berserk drops out of the equation when you compare merit levels. Let the damage boost from Berserk = b. Then let 1+b = B. In this if Berserk gave a 20% boost then B would be 120%.

4:30 damage output: [(B * 180 seconds) + (100% * 90 seconds)]/270 seconds
4:40 damage output: [(B * 180 seconds) + (100% * 100 seconds)]/280 seconds

Starting with the 4:30 equation:
(180B seconds + 90 seconds)/270 seconds
(180B + 90)/270
(2B + 1)/3

Now, the 4:40 equation:
(180B seconds + 100 seconds)/280 seconds
(180B + 100)/280
(9B + 5)/14

Now, to compare them, you put them together as a ratio

(2B+1)/3
---------
(9B+5)/14

When b (not B) is 12%, as in Berserk boosts your damage by 12%, then the damage increase over time is 3.28%. 4 DA + 3 Berserk > 5 DA + 2 Berserk

So 4/3/3 is the way to go.

Did I do that right?

Edited, Aug 16th 2010 7:42pm by Thydonon

Edited, Aug 16th 2010 7:43pm by Thydonon

Edited, Aug 16th 2010 7:44pm by Thydonon

If you're Great Axe Onry (A stance I'm vehemently against), then 5/5 Double Attack/Berserk is the optimum build. If you're "Everything-and-the-kitchen-sink" then 5/5 Bergressor is the way to go. Usually the kitchen sink involves a multi-hit blender of some sort, mind you.

I went 4/3/3 since I wanted timers the same but it also lets me make up for the acc loss in my KJ build which I use primarily when bergressor is up. Since KJ gets more benefit from the attack boost of berserk anyway, having aggressor up at the same time lets me take advantage of its 50% str mod by overloading with str (I think I have like 139 str before food). Then I just use RR for when its down in a set that has similar acc to my TP build. Thats just my take on it.

As for question 2, the amount of stats lost dont equal the amoun gained. Dont use tern set

I figured everyone knew that 5/5 DA/Berserk was the best, I just said what I did as I am in the group that likes shared timers. Although the difference is quite small anyways so in all actuality its not a big deal either way. I mainly like it for the shared timers and the fact that I can be more liberal with my KJ build focusing more on str/attack instead of acc when bergressor is up. It seems like every event I do I am with an Atonement using Pld or my wifes Sam so I opt for KJ more as it usually leads to a light SC which is just some icing on the cake (no I dont often hold back just to WS, but will do it if we happen to line up tp).

WAR Group two merits suck ass. Warrior's Charge the only one that really benefits from being maxed out, and Tomohawk has limited enough use that you will never find yourself wanting to spam it. All that's left of any use is Warcry.

From group 2, we have 4 choices:

Warrior's Charge: Its not good. No, it isnt. Except when you are doing a 300tp Steel cyclone it really isnt a very good ability, but it is by far the best of our cat2 merits. And thats why a lot of us have 5/5 on it.

Tomahawk: Most times, its just meh. Sometimes it is very good. Worth enough to put have 1 merit on it and carry around a stack of tomahawks, but not much more than that.

Savagery: This is a bad waste of merit points. Benefit is very marginal, and the ability itself is worth very little with how little our WSes scale with tp gain. It is still better than Agressive aim.

Agressive Aim: We have a contender for the most useless merit on FFXI here.



So what you usually see is 5/5 Warrior's Charge, at least 1 in tomahawk and the rest in savagery.

It's probably just for completion's sake. If you get some satisfaction out of completing group 2 merits, then go for it. I don't feel the need to do so at this point, and I have plenty of other jobs to dump merits into. So after 5/5 Warrior's Charge and 1/5 Tomahawk, I probably won't even bother with the 4 remaining group 2 merit upgrades.

I suppose it's not a big deal to continue to macro both Berserk and Aggressor together, and then hit that macro at the beginning of every fight (in a merit/exp situation). Whatever is ready fires. Whatever isn't simply doesn't. Life goes on.

Was that your solution? Or do you just watch the different timers?

Savagery are a lot like STR merits for Warrior. They're overpriced, barely useful, and the last things you should think about when it comes to completing your merits, but they're pretty much the only options to put merits in left in their respective categories.