The 6th Ministry's Secret: A Summoner's Guide (v2)

Everyone has their opinions on gear.

I personally have 2 complete sets of Apogee+1. 1 set for magic BP and 1 set for physical BP's (this update will be interesting for testing on this btw). I do have nicely augmented merlinic hands for my Flaming Crush build.

As far as Crush is concerned though, I use Nirvana. I'm capping 99999 for MB's and even without MB's depending on the buffs I have and the mob we're fighting.

Grio is also used so don't get me wrong there, but the augments you get will impact which staff you ultimately decide to use for magic BP's.

What do you mean by "fTP woudlnt transfere between hits"?
Im not sure if all hybrid WSs work the same but the above formula has been tested on Blade: To and Blade: Chi. The fTP is not applied to all hits, but rather only acts as factor in the magic damage.
And for Blade: Chi for exaple the fTP (e.g. for 3k TP its 2.5 if I recall correctly) is not affecting any physical hits. So if you kill the mob with the first hit with Blade: Chi, the dmg is always the same (as if the fTP for that hit was 1).

For the most part, you'll be looking at the same gear as for a magic BP, with just a little phys accuracy & attack mixed in. The big one is Nirvana rather than Grio/Espiritus, but if you don't have one, use whatever you use for magic BPs, or whatever Grioavolr you think has the best augments for FC.

The other main difference is Enticers, since FC doesn't benefit from TP, I'm currently using Helios Spats with the standard 7/4/30 augments although I've been trying to figure out if path D Apogee Slacks are better. I also use my physical Campestras's Cape instead of the magical one. Besides those 3 slots, I think my FC build is identical to my magic BP build.

It doesn't. Ifrit Ring doesn't offer any stats for the avatar. If you meant Fervor Ring, Speaker's Ring beats that, and Varar beats Speaker's. Use Varars.

There is no opinion here. Perfect merlinic outright beats apogee +1 in 3 of the 5 slots. For legs and feet however, in order for legs to give their largest bonus you need a second piece of the set, you need apogee pumps to pair with them because pumps are the second strongest piece in the set.

Do we actually know anything about the current pDif cap for avatars? I recall it was different for Bst pets and assume the same applied to avatars. Is it still different from normal player pDif cap?

Again, everyone is entitled to their opinions. If you want to spend the rest of the games life trying to get perfect augments on Merlinic then by all means, go for it.

Since right now I'm unable to do more than 99999 damage on any given mob with my gear, I'll just be content.

There is no opinion on what is best, that is supported by fact. The opinion is on what is feasible, which i largely agree on as well. As for situational ***, the argument can be made for merlinic with inferior stats over apogee due to macc/acc, especially on 135/145 content.

And what I'm trying to get across to you is my results on a T4 would be similar regardless of whether or not I have or don't have perfect Merlinic pieces.

I mean, I get it. I understand wholeheartedly your desire to make your 1 end-game job as perfect as possible. I'm doing the same thing to my SMN obviously. But what I'm simply saying is I'm not at a disadvantage by not having those merlinic pieces with perfect augments.

On a side note and generally speaking, is there a page that lists all the possible Reisenjima augments?

Nvm, I found it.

The major weakness of apogee is that it has no macc/acc as well as no stat boost. Merlinic being 'best' almost entirely comes down to that. This isn't an argument about feasibility or excess, it's exclusively about the absolute peak best in each slot, which is undebatably merlinic 3/5 with apogee legs/feet. Unlike all the other jobs in the game that can balance secondary stats and gear combos, we largely dont have that excess to debate.

In short, im agreeing with many opinion points you are trying to state, but they have no reason in this discussion, only the bare fact. Merlinic head, hands, body are best in slot, apogee +1 feet and legs together make them best because of the set gimmick.

Im a little frustrated that I specifically asked about Gridarvor vs Espiritus and people responded with Grio and Nirvana (which I don't have yet)

I then asked about NQ apogee vs psychloth vs not perfectly rolled Merlinic, and people responded with apogee +1 vs perfectly rolled merlinic, the two things I specifically said not to consider.

Thanks for the info on varar though.

But let me rephrase.

How good % wise do you need to roll the merlinic pieces before they surpass NQ apogee in the same slot?

Your questions combined with your avatar have me concerned you might just be trolling us, but I'll bite.

I think everyone, myself included, just read Grioavolr because no one in their right mind would consider using Gridarvor for Flaming Crush unless you're desperate for accuracy (to the point where Flaming Crush probably wouldn't be making numbers worth using anyway). Even Balsam Staff or Eminent Pole beats it.

Psycloth is horrible. It shouldn't even be on your radar as a SMN. Most of those pieces are beaten by simple reforged AF/AF2.

As for the Apogee vs. Merlinic, Apogee has BPD+7 MAB+30. If your Merlinic can beat that, then it's stronger. You're going to need a pretty good augment to do so. For Flaming Crush, almost nothing comes even close to BPD & Pet:MAB, so it's really not hard to compare the two pieces. All the pet:atk, pet:acc, pet:str, and pet:macc in the world isn't likely to make your BPD+3 MAB+20 Merlinic piece out-damage an Apogee piece. All those stats are just gravy, the real meat is the BPD & Pet:MAB.

there's no correlation between gridarvor and espiritus. Grid is an avatar out idle piece, espiritus can be used for +skill or as a magic bp piece. In other words, get both. Griovoalr with a good augment is a better BP piece though. For Physical Pacts however, there's no competition for Nirvana, every other option is a 4th of it's strength.

Psycloth largely doesn't have any BP pieces, There's some situationally useful things for other stuff (fastcast, avatar idle, etc). So it again doesn't compare to apogee which is more for BP rages.

NQ apogee is 7 bpd, 30 mab. for merlinic, you'd be able to easily beat that on merlinic hands but unable to beat apogee Legs (each due to their extra bpd). For head and body, you can conservatively consider 1 bpd to be 3 mab and add it up, if you beat 51, you win, but if you get close, around 45-50, it's still probably better to use. (the exact value for bpd is in the range of 2.5 to 3, there's a calculator for it somewhere in this thread, use that for more precise weighting)

That works well for me, thank you for the info. Cheers!

Any chance someone could dig up that calculator? I would love to know exactly how my gear sets stack up to their potential. I might need to make adjustments.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/46440/the-6th-ministrys-secret-a-summoners-guide-v2/55/#3155936

From BG, user Ligray:

Can someone translate pet stats of new equipment? :)

All the pieces have +ACC/Rng ACC/MACC for pets and +ACC/MACC for masters.

Legs have Pet: Damage Taken -3%, head has Pet: Store TP+4
Body gets TA+3% for master and hands have +5% crit for master.

Damage bonus at 3k TP
Rock Buster : +300%~
Mountain Buster : +50%
Crescent Fang : +400%~
Eclipse Bite : +50%
Blindside : +100%
Enticer's Pants beats Apogee Slacks +1 (Path D) at 0% TP for all these BPs.

Apex Jagils with BP DMG+153% and EA/BoG Frailty, Dia IV, Beast Roll.
Pre update
Volt Strike : 35~36k, 41~44k with AF
Predator Claws : 26~28k
Rush : 18k~
Eclipse Bite : 20k~

Post update
Volt Strike : 41~42k, 51~53k with AF
Predator Claws : 29~30k
Rush : 20~21k
Eclipse Bite : 21~23k

Not a biiig change but it's quite noticable. The first hit of Volt Strike does 14k~ (versus 33k~ before), capping acc to land all the hits is even more important now.

As far as I understand, mathematically your acc is just as important DPS wise if your dmg is spread over each hit vs focused almost all on one.

If you have 66% acc and the first hit does 33K, vs three hits for 11K each, if you do 3 BPs you'll land 2/3 and do 66K dmg in the first case, and land 6/9 and do still 66K still in the second case.

The first hit has a big advantage with the +100 acc boost. SE didn't specified if the bonus is applied on the subsequent hits, I really hope it is the case or it will be an issue for me to cap acc in CL 150 and Master Trials.

I imagine if they made fTP apply to all hits, other buffs like crits and acc boosts also apply to all the hits. I'ts pretty likely.

Anything really worthwhile in the new Ambuscade set? I don't have a lot of Reisen armor, would some of this cover the spread for stuff like Impact? Or how well does this set hold up for Garland of Bliss?

This also kinda reduces the gap between perfect Enticer's and other better options (Apogee+1?) in the legs slot.

Even for physical BPs now Perf Enticer's are a pretty good option I guess?

Wow 10% boost it seems like. If more SMNs geared and played like Papese the world would be a better rate place :p SMN is so so clutch and underrated if geared right aND especially with Nirvana.

What job casts Dia4?

I'd guess it's a Light Shot on Dia since they have Beast Roll.

Very hopeful. Too hopeful even... this is SE we're talking here.
But I'm not 100%, but I believe that is not the case for WSs.
So... like Papesse said, need more Acc now for the ƒTP transferring ones.

Nope. The feet are interesting, just gotta find skill/perp elsewhere... not too hard.
0 skill mean you do NOT want to use it for impact.
And no MAB makes it worthless for Garland of Bliss. (There's some benefit to shattersoul.)

It's a tp set, how useful it is to you will depend on how much you value that, it also has a lot of magic acc for debuff/offensive wards. As I stated above, I think it's pretty useful, since it's a substantial upgrade over any tp sets smn could get before.

on the pet side, offhand, it's best in slot on head, body and feet for macc to pet which is great for debuffing.
(it might not beat perfect merlinic on those slots, but it's so goddamn close)

Pants do not beat Helios with +30 macc (45 total), 7 skill aug.
Hands probably do not beat lamassu +1 with 26 macc, 22 skill. (unsure of skill to macc ratio, even if it's 2 to 1, these match the new piece)

Major problem with this set is the complete lack of pet haste. is it possible to cap that with this ***?
edit: huh, yeah, only need ambuscade cape and klouskap. other accessory slots are empty, will *** around and see our options


On the player side, isn't this a really *** solid TP set? it's got capped haste and an assload of needed acc, shame it has no store tp.

Ya, in terms of accuracy especially which is usually the thing I worry the most about. Having some STP and TA 5 is just bonus though for lower acc situations you could make a telchine melee set with 18% double attack or 30 STP, the latter being good for am3 on nirvana I'm sure and the first decent for ifrit's favor (could go war sub for 10% DA, 18% there and 26% from ifrit's favor is 54 DA on a mage before accessories not bad but you'd whiff on anything important)... but my goal is usually to get to 1k tp within 22s recast of a blood pact rage on higher tier stuff which is more than doable, but would be fun to do a full melee set build for SMN, some day perhaps, really low on my radar atm though.

Question did you try volt strike with am3 up? Wondering if applies to all hits would apply to double/triple attacks as well, if so that could be a big boost and make pet:da gear more useful.