Latent Effect: Ares Great Axe?

Latent Effect is our newest column from Samuraisoldier, as he sets out an aim to challenge your preconceptions about what you can and can't do with your character and choices in gear in the world of Vana diel. Sam is doing his best Ahnuld impression today.

Well, well, well. You're a main WAR and you just finished upgrading all those juicy Salvage pieces at the expense of your Haub+1, seemingly endless amounts of hours, and all of your friends gil too! Now, with all that time and money invested, you sure as hell want to be contributing to your groups efforts as much as possible.

Before I begin, lets take a look at the most integral and important Ares armor which makes this post possible: Ares Cuirass. As a pure attack piece, this might be the cream of the crop. Lets talk about the stats! Defense 55 - not bad for a Warrior's body piece. HP & MP +3% - always good to have extra HP and MP in any piece of gear. STR + 12?!? Sign me up! VIT + 12 - great for Steel Cyclone, however most end-game WARs will use Raging Rush or King's Justice. Attack + 24 - beaten only by the Shadow Breastplate dropped in Einherjar, however the added STR on Ares will bring it up to pace. Adds Refresh Effect - Why the hell would a WAR want that? Well, aside from the Refresh bonus on this awesome body armor, everything seems beautiful for WAR, however, we want to be able to use every stat we can on our gear. Since I am discussing Ares great axe WARs, lets first discuss the two options warriors have in the Great Axe slot: Perdu Voulge vs. Rune Chopper.

"WTF!! Rune Chopper? Latent Effects? No thanks."
Lets look at some stats please.

The Perdu Voulge. The great axe EVERYONE uses (bar relic). And, if you have the Assault Rank to obtain this bad boy, and the Imperial Standing points, you are probably on your way to getting one for your WAR. Even Ringthree did a post on this great Great Axe. Base damage 96 while under 100% TP and during weapon skills - the highest damage GAxe (great axe), again, barring relic. All other times, damage 91. Hidden effects: Accuracy +5 - always good to have extra accuracy during the TP phase, and great for multi-hit weapon skills. Attack +10 - more attack equals more damage, sounds great.

The Rune Chopper. Damage 88 - quite low for an end-game GAxe. On to the goodies! Latent Effect: Accuracy +5 - same as the Perdu. Haste +9% - how can I get my hands on some of that? Great for Utsusemi recasts which means it will help you out if you have to tank. And, normally, the more times you chop at a mob, the more damage you'll do over time. Unlocking the latent effect of this weapon is the fun part to all of this. We need 3 MP per tick for the latent effect to go off, meaning, if at any point we have over three MP, we are getting the Acc +5, and the Haste +9%. Unfortunately, we will need our Red Mage's refresh to keep our MP > 3, but with the addition of our Ares Cuirass and Sanction/Sigil refresh, the Rune Chopper will only take off 1MP/tick, leaving us time to get our desired refresh from our Red Mages.

"Where will a WAR get any MP Sammy?"

The best bet is to put at least one merit in MP. The added stats on some of the Ares gear will only boost your MP a bit more. There is plenty of other gear out there available to get some MP, but we dont want to lose the stats of our other slots, so, hopefully you'll invest, or have already invested, in at least a single MP merit. (There ARE other jobs in the game btw ^^) Another viable option is to wear your Turban. HP and MP +30, Haste +5%...not bad! Before any of you decide to read too far ahead, if you are one of those E. Body WAR's, wearing a Turban, Dusk gloves +1, Velocious belt, Byakko's Haidate, Unicorn Leggings +1, and a Blitz Ring, (25% haste, - 1% off the actual haste cap) Congratulations! You have officially beaten FFXI, stop reading this post, and go get a tan. Oh, keep wearing that Perdu GAxe. For us "normal" players with Ares (lol), hitting the haste cap, or close to it, means you're sacrificing quite a bit of accuracy (even with a Sniper ring, Peacock charm, and Fire Bomblet) if you decide to wear your Ares Cuirass during your TPing phase. A typical WAR will TP in a Haubergeon/Hauberk (+1), giving them an added 10-12 accuracy (not including DEX=ACC) but then you lose all the sexy stats on that Ares body that just cost you a crap ton of money. So, lets see how we can keep our Ares Cuirass on, increase our overall attack, increase our haste, and maintain, if not increase our accuracy while wielding a Rune Chopper.

A quick look at what Warrior's at end game will wear. http://ffxigear.com/?ref=15494

Askar Zucchetto or Turban, Haub (+1), Dusk gloves, Sniper's ring or Blitz ring, Swift belt, B. Haidate, Aurum Sabatons/Unicorn leggings. (I am only mentioning the gear that we will discuss swapping out to favor our Ares pieces. The second ring on most end-game damage dealers will almost always be Rajas.) At the most, we get 21% haste out of these possible combinations. At the least, we have 16% haste. Aside from the added STR = ATT stats, we have +17 attack, and that is including a Haubergeon/Hauberk +1. Subtract 5 attack if you plan on wearing Unicorn feet over Aurum. Accuracy stats (aside from Dex = ACC) we receive +25 accuracy at most, again, with a +1 body piece. Only +13 Acc at the least. Lets see some possible combinations of gear we can wear while keeping these stats up and wearing our Ares Cuirass.

Start with the head piece, which is my favorite piece to swap out. Take off your Askar Zucchetto or Walmart Turban, and wear your Ares Mask. Accuracy/Attack +12, HP/MP +2%. Our current WAR setup with Ares body and mask, and a Rune Chopper, will give us an added 4-5% haste, +41 attack [giving us +14 attack over our old Hauby+1 setup (don't forget the 10 attack on Perdu GAxe)] and the similar +41 Acc. A quick look at our WAR now: http://ffxigear.com/?ref=15495

Added gear swaps for more accuracy/more haste/more attack? Take off your Sniper's Ring and add a Blitz ring (vice versa for more Acc). Take off your Aurum Sabatons, and add Unicorn Feet. Hell, if you really want to, take off your Dusk gloves too, subtract 3% haste, which STILL leaves us 1-2% more haste than our original setup, and add 10 accuracy, +4 STR/VIT, and +1% HP/MP, by adding our Ares Gauntles. Don't need the +10 Acc on the gloves? Wear your Adaman Muffler's, Acc +4, Att +10. Another favorable option is to leave all our Turban on, giving us our desired 30MP for the latent, take off our Swift Belts (Acc +3, Att -5, Haste +4%) and add in a Cuchulain's Belt (15 HP, DEX6, Att +10). http://ffxigear.com/?ref=15497 With this current setup, we have 24% haste.

If we want, we can remove one or two haste pieces in our sets, add a lot of attack, and some accuracy, and maintain our haste, just by adding a Rune Chopper. http://ffxigear.com/?ref=15498

Don't be shy to try some new setups out. With some tweaking, lets look at some final Haste, Accuracy, and Attack numbers with each weapon (using FFXIGEAR.com to obtain stats): Perdu Voulge - Haste +19%, Attack 411, accuracy 388. Rune Chopper - Haste +20%, Attack 434, Accuracy 387. It's a game...have fun with it! Will all these added stats equate to the damage output you'll be getting out of a Perdu GAxe? My bet, over time, sure. Again, more chops of the axe, more damage done. More attack - more damage done. Will the added haste enable you to do a better job tanking? My bet, yes. However, in the time of Bards, Corsairs, and zerg setups, you will probably see more damage with the Perdu Voulge. The higher base damage, all the added haste, attack, and double attack you get from the buffs, your Perdu weapon will do more damage. That said, not everyone runs around and zergs every mob they attack, shit, even Salvage boss runs aren't zerged (too much HP).

What do you think? Think there is no reason for a WAR to even consider a Rune Chopper? Have you tested out some of these setups and have some information you want to share? Think I'm a dumb-dumb for thinking anything will beat out a Perdu Voulge? Well, when I pick up some more end-game pieces for my WAR, I'll sure as hell try some different setups out. I hope you do too. ^.^

Next time, I will discuss the Treasures of Aht Urhgan rings, and why everyone should pick this ring. I also hope to learn how to place links in my page, and even some pictures!