LV96+ Sword WS

i thought the point (usefulness) of this WS vs CdC - was for outside Aby on high lvl NMs, why people going on about inside Aby.

CDC does just fine on higher level targets. The merited WS is god awful in similar situations.

During Einherjar last night I was using it for fun.

CDC's with gearsets were doing 1.1k+
New sword WS with 1/5 merits in tp set (because I wasnt planning on using it) were doing a consistant 500+ damage

All on BLU/NIN99

Now while my simple size is tiny (10 WSs maybe) it makes me wonder with a build and more merits if it'll be useful.I'll check back soon once I finish levelling PLD from 95 to 99 and merit the WS and get a build for it

The WS is bad. Most regard for it is towards the very end of that thread. There's no reason to waste your time.

A lot of the WS ppl say are bad from test servers have proven to be quite good, if not decent. so i wouldnt rule this ws out til ppl do actual server testing

Changes that were implemented when they went live are documented. The WS still has a dramatic attack penalty, and is still awful.

While i understand why most people dismiss it (Pld/Blu get vorpal, and a lot of people posting have CDC), my question is, does it beat crappy Death Blossom for rdm.

I have a rdm mule i dual box with my thf for just about everything so he melees a lot, but all i can do is lolBlossom. Its a mule so im never getting him an almace or the trouble of a WOE weapon. Surely it beats death blossom for rdm?

3hit 50mnd, 30str vs 5hit 100mnd...that atk penalty would have to exceptionally junked to bring it down that much. 66% more damage from 2 more hits and 50% more mnd (str is non-existant for rdm gear anyway. Mnd everywhere in huge amounts).

I really cant imagine this WS is useless for (us gimpy) rdms without CDC.

If you don't have Almace, the general concensus that I've seen here is to use dagger. The new dagger ws is actually rather good but I don't know if rdm can gear it well or not.

The gearing would be the problem. I did the twilight/joy thing for a long time. But once i actually made a half decent DB set and got temper, it is wildly exceeding my evis damage. Not even close. There isnt enough dex gear to push base damage up high enough on rdm.

As lulz as it may seem, temper has pushed my DB over the top from evis. 6hit(DW) evis into a 7-8 via DA is pretty small(16% and 33%). Combine that with abysmal dex gear means that base damage is getting severly capped because its mostly just the dagger with a hint of dex. 4hit(DW) with very high mnd mods and tons of mnd gear into a 5-6 hit is 25-50% more damage on DA procs of large base damage hits.

Anyway, i wont dive into all the math and everything, but both my damage calcs and in-game experience are putting DB way over evis these days. At 75, this was all fine and dandy, but now, Swords have absurd base damage. Mnd gear has improved dramatically since 75 while evis gear is virtually unchanged.

I really think the whole "just use evis" mentality needs a fact check. It was very true at 75 and perpetuated via abyssea crit land. At 99 there is SOOO much mnd gear its crazy and swords are very, very strong now. (magians to start with) while daggers are still pretty weak. Its still lv 90 cap twilight dagger or mandau. Thats it.

Anyway, guess ill just have to get it since i only have 2 jobs on mule anyway. No other WS to get but another dagger one that rdm cant gear for crap. Unless it has like 40-50% atk down, then i cant fathom DB beating it. Even then it would be good on trash mobs (which i farm a lot, dynamis etc) and the phy immune stuff as already mentioned. (and it SC with rudras for darkness! :P)

I really think the evis>DB is just a holdover idea from 75 that got perpetuated by CritFFXI Abyssea style. Outside abyssea at 99, i cant see how evis toches a good DB build

I've got almace so I've never really looked that deep in to it.

I wouldn't think that Temper would make one or the other better, it should be a fairly similar boost to both right?

I'll give credit for the possibility that the info is outdated but honestly most of these conversations are for blu and pld. Rdm melee isn't generally the priority on judgement of new ws. I'd recommend plugging your gear in to a modified Pld spreadsheet(I don't know if anyone keeps an up to date rdm damage calculator) to try to get a better picture about what is improved and possible losses from going from one type to another.

The main problem with a mnd mod is that very few pieces of mnd gear have any worth while dd stats on them. Dex gear often comes with str or attack (such as tumbler trunks) while mnd gear tends to only come with int or mp or even negative bonuses to them (aquasoul rings).

You're probably better with math than I so just keep trying it out and I guess we'll see.

RDM99/NIN49, was messing around in abyssea yesterday on some sandsweepers. Havent played around with evisceration in some time, but was rocking dual Shamshir+3 Str's and rest of ws gearset was;

Astrolabe, Voyager Sallet, Hefoc mitts, Assault jerkin, Chiv chain, Warwolf, Aethling, rajas', spiral, ogre +1 boots, Tumblers, brutal, and suppa.

Atmas of VV, Lion, and apoc. Averaging death blossoms of 2400-ish, lows of 1600, and one peak at 2945. Mobs checked EM. As for Requiescat, i only have a few merits into it (3), but i was averaging a piddly 800-1200 damage with a peak of 1400 one time.

All in all, unimpressed, but i will be keeping it at atleast 1 merit (was very handy dispatching a few rogue elementals) but i certainly hope they change its effect to "ignores defense" without an attack penalty.