Latent Effect: Wyvern Earring

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. Sammy is as Sammy does. You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain his love of gear that he still needs to get.

Ding! Level 30! Finally! What does this mean? Well, for start-up players, they can finally go obtain the advanced job they are interested in leveling all the way to 75. For some of us, we will already be leveling what will become our third or fourth or tenth level 75 job!

All that great gear and awesome abilities to look forward to, you feel stuck in the repetitiveness of level 30, and are looking for a great way to speed up your low level experience point parties. You know that leveling a heavy damage dealing job is in your future, but still unsure of what to pick let alone gear selections, and sub-jobs. There are quite a few options but today, we will discuss a great low level sub-job for damage dealers level 30+, and one of the best latent effect earrings for damage dealers for the levels to come.

The Wyvern Earring - level 30 - Latent Effect: Haste +5%. Eh? 5% Haste on an earring? That's right! All that lovely haste at such a low level will allow ANY DD (damage dealer) to do their job a bit better. How to activate the latent effect? Set your support job to Dragoon (I know a few people who want to say set your main job to Dragoon) and wear this earring and shazam! +5% Haste!

Now. The next question is, does setting our support jobs to Dragoon, and adding 5% haste in one of our earring slots, increase our damage output over subbing the more popular Warrior or Samurai sub-jobs?

While /WAR may be the sub-job most low level parties want you to show up as, some parties really could care less. They might just need a heavy DD. And while at level 30+, Berserk, a level 15 ability of Warriors, will boost your attack significantly for a 3 minute period, subbing DRG (Dragoon), will give you an Attack Bonus job trait, which is always active. Couple that with the use of Jump, a 90 second ability we can obtain at level 10 DRG which is an instant, free attack round, and the Haste +5% on our earrings, and any Two-Hander will definitely pull some extra hate. Be careful though, pulling hate will sometimes put a strain on your mages, so make sure you have a way to defend yourself.

Let us fast forward a bit to level 50. Our /WAR now gives us Defender, which increases defense while decreasing attack, and the ever popular Double Attack job trait. Subbing SAM adds Hasso to our lineup of attack bonus job abilities, which increases STR, accuracy, and attack speed. Sounds to good to pass up eh? Well, at level 50+ we start seeing some haste gear in our setups, and like many other bonuses, the more haste you have, the more noticeable it is. Almost everyone will be adding a Swift belt (haste +4%, ACC +3, ATT -5) to their setups at 50, some lucky players may even add a Velocious belt (haste +6%) at 55. SAMs get the Fuma/Sarutobi Kyahan (haste +3%) at level 39 as well. WAR's and DRK's get a Blitz ring (haste +1%) With the extra 5% haste on the earring, along with say, a Swift belt and Sarutobi Kyahan for your SAM, youll have 12% haste at level 50, an extra attack round in Jump, Meditate from your main job, Hasso. . . See where I'm going? All this attack will increase your MP sponginess (a real word) so again, make sure you have some way to defend yourself. SAMs get Seigan and Third eye, the abilities to anticipate physical attacks. DRKs get Weapon Bash and Stun, both which stun the target, giving your party members time to help your dying behind. WARs only get Defender, so don't spam your abilities unless you enjoy tanking with your face. (This method of tanking usually ends up with someone in the dirt.)

Past level 60 is where this earring and sub-job lose some of their flare. Most heavy DD's will start to sub SAM for Meditate, a DD's dream job ability. More instant TP at a 3 minute recast, coupled with Hasso, will make you the MP sponge you've always wanted to be. Prepare to pull hate while subbing SAM. While subbing DRG, we receive an Accuracy bonus trait which is very nice for any DD. As for /WAR, we gain an Attack bonus trait. Unless your main job is SAM, /SAM gives us the best bonus at 60+ to deal some serious damage.

At 70+, /SAM is almost always the best bet for a heavy DD. The biggest advantage you get from subbing SAM is at level 70, is from the ability Seigan, allowing you to anticipate some attacks, and not die as much. Subbing DRG at 70 is a very nice alternative though. ATT and ACC bonus traits which are always active. With Jump at a 90 second recast, and High Jump at a three minute recast, we receive 3 attack rounds (two Jump, one High Jump) in 3 minutes. Again, those extra damage rounds, along with haste +5% on the earring, will most definitely pull some serious hate.

Sammy says:

Get this earring for all your two-handers at their lower levels. Haste +5% is a really big stat bonus to pass up, and /DRG is a really powerful sub-job until Meditate on /SAM becomes available. Even closer to 75, the Jump and High Jump abilities, along with the Haste, will help your character burn through mobs a bit faster, and make your mages burn some more of their precious MP on you!

My favorite job for this earring? SAM/DRG. Meditate, Hasso, Weapon Skill, Jump, High Jump, Weapon Skill, Seigan, Third Eye? Seems unbeatable to me.

My favorite SAM/DRG setup?

Want to poke birds on your SAM? (Note to Ringthree: =Þ)

Have fun with your player, and make yourself as useful as possible to every party you join. No one likes to be gimp, but everyone LOVES to pull hate. Find any useful information here? Think I'm a dum-dum? Leave a comment! Next week, I am going to discuss the ever popular Square Enix Security Token, and its latent effects. Until then, Happy Hunting!