Part 2.

Yeah, so yesterday was a dick tease. More like I had a ton of work to do so I couldn't get back to what I wanted to do. To make up for it I got screenshots to add to the descriptions. :) But before all of that lets talk about our Ultima from last night. Now, I know that we were a little apprehensive about this fight last night because of what happened last time. Of course it was misplaced apprehension because their is no way that we were going to have a tank DC and a different tank Home Point after dying. LOL We got so unlucky on that run, there is no way that could happen again. And honestly for the first 80% of Ultima it is actually easier than Omega. Omega has huge AoE damage moves that can mess up everyone, it has hate resets, it has nasty AoE status ailments, and it has stupid Gunpods that can mess with your mages. Ultima has some strong moves but none of them will one-shot anyone that would be close to Ultima if they were at full HP. Our melee were very smart last night, they would attack until they got hit by an AoE that couldn't get stunned in time, then they would head back and rest or wait for a convenient cure, then get back in the game. This presents an interesting point about Ultima, it is incredibly easy to hold. As long as you have some cures and a stun you could probably DoT it to death from 100% to 20%, there was a time at about 30% when we just held it so that the melee could get some HP back and there was really very little trouble with that. This lets a lot of the mages get MP back too. We slowed down again before 20% to make sure we had MP for the last phase were Ultima does become harder than Omega, then on to the naturally messy finish. We were never really in trouble at any point, but it does get sloppy because people are being drawn in and tanks go down in one shot. We had Ultima down to 20% in about 25 minutes, so we took the last phase slow, ran for every Citadel Buster and just slowly whittled it down. And took it down we did. This fight may initially appear to be very intimidating doing it the first or second time, but in reality I think its much easier than Omega. Omega has less time, and tends to kill more people. Ultima on the other hand has a much longer time limit, and doesn't really kill people if they don't pull hate. In fact, before 20% only Raikoh and Jess died from doing too much damage. Ultima may appear to have a much longer list of TP moves, but you only HAVE to stun Antimatter, Equalizer and Armor Buster. You can try to stun Dissipation, and we actually did stun it twice, but its not really that much of a concern and if everyone is paying attention it doesn't effect people that much. Even Citadel Buster can be stunned, and we did stun that twice too, but again thats more like a run away and pray situation. We did incredibly well in the fight and we were handsomely rewarded. Right after the fight we all headed down to Mhaura to check out the new gear that everyone got. The heart went to Eternalpain who got the Nashira Manteel, the leg went to Pbdomenator for Nashira Seraweels, which are fantastic for his RDM and then the cerebrum went to Ashhhhh to net him a Nashira Turban. All were quite pleased with their new gear and I can't wait to get more for all of our mages!

After Ultima we had Assaults and they went very well, we tried to get Pb the last assault that he needed for his next rank up, but that run didn't go to well. We did get to do two more Rank 9 missions done for people, including Red v. Blue which is incredibly easy but nets you 1500 with 4 people (you can do it with three but if something goes wrong then there is no one to fall back on), and we also did Desperately Seeking Cephalopods which was a pain for one group and easy for the other. On my groups first run, we fished up three Krakens with no real tank, and they do 1000+ Cross Attacks which just blows. We also did Operation: Black Pearl which was surprisingly easy, the mobs are easy to kill except for the trolls, and it only takes 2-3 waves before the NM shows up for the win. That only leaves us with 2 more rank 9 missions to finish and Lebros Supplies, then onto the rank 10's.

Now with the daily routine out of the way least focus on gear obsession, shall we?

Ok, picking up from yesterday, I have started focusing on NIN, SAM and MNK more exclusively for two simple reasons. They are the jobs I am almost always on and they are the jobs for which I have the best gear.

Lets start with Ninja.
First, the TP gear.

Main: Perdu Blade
Sub: Hayabusa
Ranged: Bomb Core
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Earring: Brutal Earring
Right Earring: Suppanomimi
Body: Ninja Chainmail
Hands: Koga Tekko/Dusk Gloves
Left Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Swift Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Fuma Sune-ate

Now, a few thoughts here. This is pretty much the lowest delay you can get without using daggers. I really like it, you can break the animation with a simple haste/march on with all the Dual Wield gear. It is a step down in damage and crits from the Senj, but I build TP incredibly fast and can WS very often. I do want to mention here that even with 8 Katana merits I only use Sushi with this set up (for XP at least). The simple reason is that this set up has very little accuracy and needs the support of Sushi. I am completely unwilling to give up haste or Dual Wield for more accuracy. I think that eating meat on Ninja (or at least trying to eat meat) is a waste of time. I would rather have haste and dual-wield and use better gear in other slots and just accept that I need the extra accuracy. For me, Ninja does better damage with the more WS's it does, so per swing damage is not as important as getting to the next WS. As for other gear choices, I obviously need to upgrade my Ninja Chainmail to the +1 version, but I need a Plaited Cord from Temenos and I haven't seen one of those in a while. I have other options in the back piece area, and this partially reverts back to the Cerberus Mantle isn't that good line of thought, but now that I am not going to worry that much about my RNG anymore I think that a Forager's Mantle may be worth investing some gil into, also a Charger's Mantle might be worth the coins for TP build because the extra strength isn't going to make that much difference for a dual-wielder, especially one using sushi. But the point is that I know that my back piece is gimp and now that I am focusing my main-use jobs down I can justify getting something better. It may take some time though because as you can see, I don't have much gil on my main and I blew a bunch from my mule on the Peacock Charm.

And now Ninja WS:

Main: Perdu Blade
Sub: Hayabusa
Ranged: Bomb Core
Head: Shura Zunari Kabuto
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Earring: Brutal Earring
Right Earring: Minuet Earring
Body: Haubergeon +1
Hands: Koga Tekko/Ochiudo's Kote
Left Ring: Flame Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Rutter Sabatons

I am feel I am quite happy with my WS gear, with Sushi I get to have a lot of damage modifiers instead of piling on more accuracy and decreasing the damage of my Jins. Minuet Earring is almost as good as a Triumph because it has the same modifiers and the STR vs. DEX difference is 99% of the time not going to make a difference in fSTR. The Ochiudo's Kote for WS during the day kind of sucks, but again I need another Plaited Cord for that. I am not sure if I should do the Ninja Chainmail first or the Ninja Tekko. The Tekko have much better modifiers but will only be used half of the time, while the Chainmail has pretty bad modifiers but it will be used full time. The back piece problem exists here too, but I have covered that already.

For my Ninja, the only significant upgrades can come in the form of a Speed/Velocious Belt, outside of that everything else is marginal or within my capabilities.

Onto my Samurai and the TP build to start. I should mention that I have two different sets for my Samurai because I use different gear for my Soboro and for my Hagun.
So, Soboro TP build:

Main: Soboro Sukehiro
Sub: Axe Grip
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Ear: Merman's Earring
Right Ear: Coral Earring
Body: Haubergeon +1
Hands: Dusk Gloves
Left Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Swift Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Hachiman Sune-ate

So, for Samurai I definitely have a lot more work to do than I do for my other two jobs. The awful Axe Grip has to go, I need to get a Claymore Grip for my Soboro build because the Sword Strap messes with my Store TP build and Pole Strap is useless with my Soboro and might actually decrease the number of potential attacks if the recently reported information about the activation of Occasionally Attacks 2-3 Times weapons is correct. This is the reason that I also can't use my Brutal Earring and have to use a crappy Coral Earring instead. When we finally get around to doing Apocalypse Nigh I will use the Ethereal Earring instead. As an exact opposite of my Ninja, I don't really need any extra accuracy for my Samurai because of the two-handed weapon change and thus I can use haste gear and not worry about using meat full time. Again potential upgrades are in the back slot which I have already discussed and in the feet but that is a lot more complicated. Right now, with this build, I have +46 Store TP (or I will have as soon as I get that last Store TP merit >.<, yes I am that gimp) which means that I can get to 100+TP in 6 swings (this also includes the TP from the WS which I will get to after this). I ignored a 6 hit build before now because I did not have the Store TP merits to justify it, and I was not focusing on any job in particular. Now that I am the first thing I am going to do is round out my Store TP merits, which leads me into my next comment about this. Right now because of my lack of Store TP merits I have to use this set up and I also have to use Carbonara because of the +6 Store TP that comes with that. Basically, +46 is the magic number for a 450 delay weapon, the neat thing that happens once I do get 5 Store TP merits is that I will be able to eat Carbonara and be able to use the Fuma Sune-ate for TP build instead of the crappy Hachiman Sune-ate.

Now for Soboro WS's:

Main: Soboro Sukehiro
Sub: Axe Grip
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Shura Zunari Kabuto
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Earring: Minuet Earring
Right Earring: Brutal Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Myochin Kote +1
Left Ring: Flame Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Shura Haidate
Feet: Hachiman Sune-ate

Back, yes, beaten that horse to death. Grips still apply too. For the ranged slot I could very much use an Olibanum Sachet for WS, which would be a lot better than a Tiphia Sting. As opposed to Ninja, a Triumph Earring would be an improvement over the Minuet because the extra Dex isn't doing anything besides adding 1 accuracy. I use the Kirin's Osode because it has +10 STR, +10 Attack and +10 Accuracy, which when compared to the Haubergeon +1 has a slight STR advantage for WS damage without that much of a hit to accuracy. The Myochin Kote +1 definitely don't have as much STR as some Gigas braeclets but they do have a good amount and also have more accuracy from the DEX instead of the loss in accuracy from the Gigas bracelets, and they were free. :) I am pleased with them as is. As I already mentioned, with this set up and full Store TP merits I have to use Hachiman Sune-ate during WS to get to 100 in 6 swings, but if I use Carbonara, I can use the Rutter Sabatons instead.

Now for some repetitiveness,
Hagun TP build:

Main: Hagun
Sub: Axe Grip
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Earring: Merman's Earring
Right Earring: Brutal Earring
Body: Haubergeon +1
Hands: Dusk Gloves
Left Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Swift Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Hachiman Sune-ate

Only basic difference is that I am using the Brutal Earring which allows me to adjust my WS set up which is right here:

Main: Hagun
Sub: Axe Grip
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Shura Zunari Kabuto
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Earring: Minuet Earring
Right Earring: Brutal Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Myochin Kote +1
Left Ring: Flame Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Shura Haidate
Feet: Rutter Sabatons

As I said the Hagun lets me use the Brutal Earring for TP build which gives me enough TP over the five hits of the TP phase to use Rutter Sabatons for the WS. A neat little bonus.

Finally my Monk.
TP set:

Main: Destroyers
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Peacock Charm
Left Earring: Merman's Earring
Right Earring: Brutal Earring
Body: Shura Togi
Hands: Melee Gloves
Left Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Right Ring: Sniper's Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Brown Belt
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Dune Boots

This is a pretty good set up if I don't say so myself. I choose Melee Gloves over Ochiudo's Kote because the additional stats on the Melee Gloves are pretty sweet and its just a loss of 4 attack. The only obviously glaring problem is that I don't have a Black Belt, and also I don't have any Usukane. I am working on both, but not very close to either right now.

Finally my MNK WS gear:

Main: Destroyers
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Optical Hat
Neck: Peacock Charm
Left Earring: Merman's Earring
Right Earring: Coral Earring
Body: Shura Togi
Hands: Ochiudo's Kote
Left Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Right Ring: Sniper's Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Shura Haidate
Feet: Rasetsu sune-ate

A wise Monk named Aurik once said the modifiers for Asuran Fists is 50% Attack and 50% Accuracy. I totally believe this. The modifiers on Asuran Fists are completely worthless, so its better to make sure all 8 hits land and that they do damage. So, some people may not agree with my WS set up but I swear by it. Problems I have are that I don't have my Ethereal Earring yet, which will replace that Coral Earring, it will just be for looks because the have the same offensive stats. I might use the Ethereal Earring during TP build instead of the Merman's because honestly its only 1 attack difference while there is 5 more evasion with the Ethereal Earring. The other problem is that the Monk WS feet suck, I think I will eventually pick up the Pahluwan
Crackows for the +5 accuracy (+3 accuracy, +4 DEX) but I am going to wait until after the expansion to see if their is anything else interesting and what job I am going to level, so that I can pick up something else with my 20k AP.

Thats it for gear, I am pretty happy where I stand right now, but I do still need some work.

Before I go, I wanted to mention that Omoi got some Rostrum Pumps recently after years of helping other people to get them. :) Congratulations.

See you tomorrow!