Which Of The New Weaponskills Are Worth It?

I just returned to the game after over a year away. I'd left all my jobs at 95 and am now working through getting all to 99 (just cause). But I see the new WS Merits and am curious of which of them are worth going for in relation to particular jobs. For example, Stardiver for Polearm - is that a good/better/weaker in relation to other options for Dragoon? And so forth.

Just curious if maybe one (or several) WS stand out as "best WS now for the job(s) that can use it"

Stardiver is a very nice option for DRG but make sure it's paired w/ the elemental belt and gorget as it ups the damage considerably.

Some of the new WS essentially have a very low fTP but that fTP is duplicated on all hits and since elemental gorgets and belts up fTP as well that fTP boost from those two items are also duplicated. The Weaponskills with such a property (off the top of my head) are Stardiver Resolution Entropy and Ruinator and Requiescat (the sword merit WS).

Resolution Ruinator Stardiver and Shoha are all STR mod WS and as a consequence are nice to gear for, so many players see them as some of the best merit WS to choose from. Although to clarify, Ruinator is seen as a good merit WS to choose from if you either solo farm Dynamis on BST or are a huge BST job player.

The sword merit WS ignores any -DT% traits a enemy may have so that offers some utility however it has a 20% atk penalty and it's a MND mod WS.

SE has also placed a limit to how many you may merit you can only 5/5 merit 3 of the new WS.

Resolution is worth meriting, as a WAR or DRK (or both). Stardiver, from what I understand, is game changing for DRG. Tachi: Shoha is essential to main SAMS. Exenterator is a fine merit as well for dagger users. Last Stand is fantastic for RNG and COR. WARs also usually merit Upheaval for Mighty Strikes zergs. Ruinator is also pretty insane as well.

If I missed something I'm more than positive that someone will point it out, but this is all off the top of my head. Hope it helped.

Keep in mind, with these weapon skills, it is best to fully merit them. 5/5 or bust. Imo, at least.

Stardiver is Dragoon's best WS, unless you have a Ryunohige (in which case you would mostly stick to Drakesbane).

Shijin Spiral is required for Spharai/non-empy/non-mythic monks.

Ruinator does nearly double the damage Rampage does on my beastmaster on EP-DC (mostly what most people use their beastmasters for). Even though rampage is one of the beloved crit hit ws's for abyssea, Rui competes with rampage insidea abyssea most of the time.

Last stand is clearly the most powerful WS if you have the gear for it and aren't using bronze bullets. It's pretty much required for RNG unless you are only fighting Odin.

Overall, pretty much every single meritable weapon skill is useful. They're all definitely at least the best weapon skill if you don't have REM and even if you do they might still be competitive.

H2H- As mentioned, best if no Victory Smite and required if you have Spharai.
Dagger- Best unstacked WS in most situations unless you have massive crit rate. Though a lot of people do drop this one if they get REM since there's way better WSs to get, and you can live without this one for sure.
Sword- Best if no CDC, and is still a good alternate WS when you're fighting resistant stuff.
Resolution- Best WS for GSD.
Ruinator- Best WS for Axe.
Upheaval- Really good WS, WARs keep it even if they get Ukko's because it'll still destroy Ukko's if you have Mighty Strikes up.
Entropy- Mostly a utility WS, the damage is pretty good too. Pretty much only career DRKs get it though.
Stardiver- Pretty much best WS unless you have a Ryunohige.
Blade: Shun- Best WS if you don't have Kannagi or Kasasagi.
Tachi: Shoha- Best WS for GKT.
Realmrazer- Kind of a toss-up between this and Hexa, but if melee WHM is your thing it's nice to have.
Shattersoul- Best WS for lolstaff.
Apex Arrow- The only bow people really use anymore is Gandiva, so this doesn't see much use at all.
Last Stand- Best Gun WS for damage, pretty much.

Out of all of them, I'd say the ones that are basically required to play a job are:
Resolution (DRK), Ruinator (BST), Shoha (SAM), Last Stand (RNG), Shijin (MNK, Except Vere).

The ones that are situational VS a REM WS and are probably worth keeping even if you get a REM are:
Upheaval, Stardiver (Except Ryu), Requiescat.

The rest may have their use but don't really warrant their merit slot if you have a REM for the job unless you just really, really like the job.

Shoha for sure.

Resolution for sure.

Third one I went with Ruinator for BST, (and when I go dw WAR for boredom).

Tbh, if you're serious about nin, you probably gonna skip Blade: Shun since Jin/Hi are better in abyssea, and HI is better outside... kinda waste of a merit WS when there are better options on other jobs...And if you're willing to do WoE version of katana, might as well do Kannagi since the aftermath benefits ninja ^^

The level of WTF on Shoha drives me nuts... if attack is capped, Fudo blows shoha out of the water anytime you don't do at least 5 hits on shoha. I would say on average a well buffed sam is going to do better dmg with fudo most of the time. Shoha just allows a non REM sam to be useful, where it wasn't before.

It depends on what jobs are your favourites or which jobs you use a lot. Some weapon skills are considerably better than others, but none of them are bad. For example, if you play Dark Knight a lot you'll probably want Resolution. A Ranger will most certainly want Last Stand. But if you play neither of those jobs or don't particularly enjoy them, there's no point you getting either.

What I did was decide what jobs are my favourite and which I play most frequently, and made those choices from there. I went with Stardiver, Exenterator and Last Stand. I have to disagree with Kincard on Exenterator; I think he's underestimating it a little. Outside of Abyssea it's my preferred weapon skill on Thief and Dancer; but if I were to drop any of the weapon skills I have it would be Exenterator.

As others have said, some are really worthwhile, some aren't; but none of them are 'bad' to have. It's just relative to how you play and what jobs you enjoy.

That's pretty much more or less what I meant. Currently I have Exenterator merited too, and I love it, but it's likely the first one I'd drop if I had to (Leveled another job), because it isn't like Resolution or something where it feels like you basically have to have it.

Granted, Exenterator is still the best unstacked WS no matter what the situation (Aside from like...Terpsichore, I guess?), but a 99 Mercy Stroke actually isn't TOO far behind. Ground Strike VS Resolution though...yeah. =P

Still, Shun and Apex Arrow are probably bigger "wastes" of merit slots than it. Heh.

I see. I reread your post, and indeed you did say that. Oops!

I use Evisceration on Sneak Attack weapon skills because of the critical mod. But outside abyssea and sneak attack Exenterator just seems to be more consistent. This might be because of all the AGI gear I can use from my main job, RNG, which seriously buffs up the damage. It's a shame Apex Arrow is so awful damage wise, because it looks pretty damn cool!

Fudo is far from "blowing shoha out of the water". It is better than shoha in some situations though.

Fudo: 60% str mod, 3.75 fTP, 1 hit
Shoha: 100% str mod, 1.375 fTP @100, 2.15 fTP @200%, 2 hits

Shoha benefits twice as much from DA/TA/QA, has 37.5% attack bonus, and unless you're using REM, you'd be using kantonotachi. So shoha would be a 3.15 fTP WS due to the tp bonus and second hit. It also gains nearly 40% more base dmg through stacking str (less if fSTR isn't capped).

I've parsed both WS exclusively with both AM3 and without and anytime I'm properly buffed, Fudo is at least 5% more dmg overall. That's as close to blowing it out of the water as it gets in FFXI. Not to mention all those skillchains that are lvl3 insead of lvl1 or lvl2.

vs fodder mobs sure fudo gonna win.

upheaval is really nice with MS for when you port to fl 100 nyzul with 45 seconds left.

I don't see Tachi:Shoha being a necessity if you have a Masamune, but I'm not sure about Amanomurakumo or Kogarasumaru. I'm not going to argue whether Tachi:Shoha or Tachi:Fudo is better, but they're close and if you'd like the weapon skill slot for something else, go for it.

Because t6 and prov is full of fodder.

Is Last Stand better than Wild Fire?

I'm 18 Lanterns away from getting Armageddon 85 so I was looking into getting Last Stand for Cor anyway, so I am curious which is better overall.

What gear are you wearing for each set? I haven't parsed my friends, but they claim their Shoha averages way better than Fudo, plus they complain about Fudo occasionally missing (both wield 90 Masamune).

On magic resistant monsters, Last Stand is better. On anything not resistant to physical damage, Last Stand is better. Wildfire should only be better on things that are either very, very, very evasive or highly resistant to physical damage.

For Corsair, however, Wildfire will generally be better. The lack of any real high damage bullet for COR shows on Last Stand, not to mention the 20% bonus from the Empyrean +2 Feet if you use a Fire Shot before Wildfire.

Last Stand really is boss, though.

Shoha and Stardiver are pretty mandatory if you play SAM and DRG. Next in priority I would give to Shijin if you don't have Vere, and then Resolution if you play WAR or DRK (If DRK is one of your mains, Resolution has priority).

Ruinator is nice to have if you play BST a lot, but ever since the cruor nerf and the influx of people in Dynamis I don't really solo BST there anymore, so I got rid of it for Resolution.

tl;dr Most of the STR based WS are important to have for their jobs.

Missing sucks, lol. I'm on my phone so i can't update or post sets, but my sets feature exactly what you'd expect aside from a shura kabuto and tenryu legs. If shoha is beating fudo they are either under buffed or on a mob they shouldn't be using Sam on.