Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Ring takes a good look at what whether Yonin can make Ninja a good tank again.
NIN is my neglected friend. I loved NIN for so long, but it gradually had more an more problems and got left behind for other more suitable jobs as our PLDs got stronger and stronger. Before the most recent update NIN was in the same basic place it was since it started moving up the tanking food chain. But it never evolved to keep up with the changes that PLD has experienced. And then came Yonin.
Yonin, as you might already know, is a JA that increases enmity and Ninja Tool Expertise (which is glitched at the moment), while decreasing Accuracy. It also improves Evasion and decreases Enemy Critical Hit Rate when in front of the target (which is really all that matters, because there are only a few mobs where you would care about the Evasion and Enemy Critical Hit when you are behind it). Kaeko's testing shows that the enmity gain is +30 at the start and then degrades to +10 over time. This is a big bonus to enmity for NIN, but it still doesn't get them up to where PLD can get on most gear. An additional nice benefit of Yonin is that it provides a decent amount of hate just from using the JA.
Does Yonin get NIN to where PLD is now? No, it doesn't. NIN still has a myriad of other issues before they get back to where PLD is now. They are missing a good amount of damage mitigation compared to PLD, and sub job selection has a much great effect on damage mitigation vs. hate generation than PLD. NIN/DRK is great at building and maintaining hate, but it is much more dependent on support and has little to protect it when shadows are down. This doesn't matter as much in large groups or with a settled mob, but PLDs are able to do all aspects of tanking from holding to doing damage (and how strange is that?). In a higher damage/damage mitigation situation, NIN falls behind because they have to give up their Katanas, and even if they did not they don't have a WS that is as viable as Atonement for maintaining good WS damage. I will expand on this further in another post on how to fix NIN, but for now I think that Yonin is a great start, but isn't enough to even get NIN back to equal with PLD.
What do you think about NIN tanks? Is Yonin going to encourage you to bring a NIN out of retirement? Do you think NIN even needed a boost? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Is Ninja a Legitimate Tank Again?
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sir Iron Will's Wisdom: Ask A Ninja! (PLD/NIN That Is).
Sir Iron Will's Wisdom is here to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about tanking, and probably some things you never wanted to know and now wish to blot out of your memory, whether you like it or not, Izman is here with the do's and don'ts of tanking, in general, solo or end game. This week, after a short disappearance in the hinterlands of Arkansas, Izman is back to hide from you some more behind his shadows.
Ahh, it seems like it has been forever since last I posted. I did miss last weeks post from being too tired and lazy. To make up for it, today I'm going to go over some of the things I do when tanking subbed NIN, which is for just about everything I do. Most of this you will know because I honestly don't do anything special or different. I'm just going to cover how I gear for NIN sub and how to use the sub to its maximum potential.
Ok, some things you need to ask yourself if your going to use PLD/NIN a lot first. Can I count to three (I can but its really hard to play with one hand and count with the other)? Do I even have NIN sub? Do I have a bajillion Gil for Shihei and the Ni scroll?
If you answered yes to all this then you're on the right track.
In essence, when subbing NIN you are just trying not to get hit. This means your gear will be a little different from other subs if you have the gear to optimize for subbing NIN. For example, a Terror or Wivre Shield with more enmity and less block rate than the Koenig shield with less enmity but a higher block rate.
The weapon I use almost always with NIN sub is the Macuahuitl +1 with its +4 enmity it's to good to pass up. You can use the Joyeuse and others I suppose but on mobs that you can't hit this is the one I love to use. And don't be a cheap bastard and get the NQ version. LOL
I mentioned shields right before swords and there is not really a lot of variety at end game for shields. Koenig Shield is a must have and is a great shield but with NIN sub a Wivre or Terror Shield out shine it. If you're new to subbing NIN stick with the Koenig till you master threading shadows.
At this point, the line blurs from on gear depending on your race, your own style of tanking, and the gear you are able to obtain.
I will go over what I use for /NIN but keep in mind if you're a Taru or Galka this will most likely not be ideal for you. For the most part I just stock up on enmity. If you have Iron Ram gear from the past that is great stuff to use. I know I use the hat and boots all the time. The legs and hands are also very amazing but I tend to use Homam in those spots.
There are a few bodies you can use. AF body if you're a cheap S.O.B. who wont buy Adaman gear, AF +1 body to sell that Adaman piece you bought with a few others that are harder to obtain like Valor body and Ares. There is also the Nuevo body that you put fast cast and enmity on, right?
Hands that are great for subbing NIN are Homam (Iz)Manopolas, Askar hands, I.R. hands, and Adaman (I think).
Legs, the bane of my existance. Homam legs, more Homam legs, I.R. legs, and Adaman once again if you just dinged 73. I think that is about it.
Boots. OK, you win this one you cheap bastards. AF feet are still really great even for NIN sub and the HQ even better but it's only something I macro in when shadows are down. When I do have shadows up, I use I.R. boots with all of its enmity but Adaman, Homam, and Askar are all great choices and the best will vary on your play style.
For rings I use a Hercules' Ring and if you don't own one you get my Cheap S.O.B. Seal of Approval™! I mainly use a Bomb Queen Ring on my other finger but the CoP ring is also amazing. I would wear more but I lost my other 8 fingers in the Dunes to a crab.
Waist is easy enough, a Trance Belt being the better choice but a Warwolf Belt is also very good and very cheap. I wouldn't use anything other then these unless I was a Taru or Galka.
Ears! A lot for choices for ears. I use a Loquacious Earring and a Ethereal Earring but those don't come until later in the game. A Buckler Earring is fine or HP Earrings of any sort and the Cure Potency +5% are all nice until you can get a Loquacious and Ether earring.
The neck slot, the only exposed spot on your body besides your face. Parade Gorget is amazing as well as the Ritter Gorget and the last choice I can think of is a Shield Torque for when those shadows are down.
Bow? Well, the Lamian Kaman or the +1 are the best. And here is where I become the cheap sob that uses a NQ. A Rosenbogen is fine I guess but the point is not to get hit so the VIT and HP become less important than MP and Magic Defense.
The back. A Cerberus Mantle is amazing with its 3 enmity and it is also becoming more affordable. The Gigant Mantle is OK
but I think costs more then a Cerb Mantle now, and a Boxer's Mantle rounds out the top 3 choices besides a Cerberus Mantle +1, but I don't have the 20+ Mil for one of those. If you don't have those then just about anything will work to fill in space.
Well, that's it for the gear part now lets talk about counting shadows.
Threading shadows is the term I use when I cancel my shadows to put up a fresh set. To do this properly you have to cancel your shadows at the top of your screen right before the third attack comes in while you are casting a new set of shadows. This can be difficult at times with lag and spell lock but with enough practice it will become second nature to you.
Some things to keep in mind when doing this is that Ichi will overwrite itself so no need to cancel shadows if you're casting Ichi over Ichi. The only time you will have to cancel is when you're casting Ichi and have shadows up from Ni before. One other short tip is to save Shield Bash to stun a enemy to get a Ichi up in time of need.
Here are some final tips and good things to have with NIN sub: 1. A shield set that you can swap into when your shadows are down. 2. The less blinking the better and your mages will love you, the more you blink the higher your chance of death. 3. Keep in mind to not swap out anything that will make you lose TP.
That's it for this week, I'm sure I have missed a few things or there are things I didn't think of but playing PLD really is more dependent on skill than gear, more then most jobs I would think. So go practice threading those shadows until you have 1-2-3 pounded into your little concussed PLD head. Lets all cross our fingers and hope the I.R. body is at least half as awesome as we all think it will be!
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Morning In Vana'diel: A Delicate Balance
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Ring considers current game imbalance and if there is any chance it can ever be fixed.
PLD's get another buff. Is it a big buff? We don't really know yet, and won't know until the update it look like. But I can tell you this, I had my NIN out the other day and while I can still keep up with hate against a PLD (though it does take a little longer to build and it's harder to get back) I just don't have the survivability of that other tank. I didn't die at all, but I did take more damage, and I required more attention from buffers and healers than our PLD need. And why shouldn't they? We get one more shadow which is nice, except for any shadow-wiping ability which is like any important mob TP move, but PLD get's better gear, better situational gear, better JA, a shield and now with Atonement they can even do damage. NIN can do damage too, somewhat, depending on what you are fighting, and Durado Sushi can help with that, but in the end they aren't going to get the consistent hate of Joyuese and Atonement, and they are going to have to give up a good chunk of damage reduction to do any damage. And they don't even get access to things like this.
NIN isn't the only place that imbalance occurs, but it is one of the best examples. RNG is another that I mentioned yesterday, and even though the two-handers are now pretty close that is because they just do a ton of damage more than anyone else. What happened to MNK? SE has tried to balance back WHM against the abilities of RDM and I believe they have done so rather well, but what about BLM against SCH? What about BST? BLU and COR both have their occasional niches, but should SE build jobs around niches? Or should they think about fixing things that cause these disparities in the first place? There are a couple of places that SE could look to re-balance things.
1. Stop buffing JA's and Magic independently of each other. When you buff a JA or a spell or just about anything in the game, don't just think about how it effects that job, but think about what other jobs need to be buffed to compensate for the new, stronger JA.
2. Rethink the damage for two-hander versus dual-wielders. If you are going to increase the strength of two-handers that is great, but give something to the dual-wielders to let them keep up too. More haste? Equalized stat bonuses?
3. Be ready to admit you made a mistake or have gone too far. This is SE's major problem. They have no idea how to fix things they tried to fix in the past. Although people complain like nothing else when servers go down after updates to fix problems, I much prefer that they do that than leave these broken. Fix problems, fix them fast and get things balanced.
This is definitely not a comprehensive list of ways that SE can re-balance issues in the game, but it is definitely a start. I would prefer they were much less cautious with changes if they were willing to roll them back if they were too much. It took many months for SE to finally fix the RNG nerf, when the problem was obvious from the first day the patch came out.
Is it a sense of entitlement they have? Do they think they really know how to make the players enjoy the game more than the players do? I am not saying they should give the players everything they want, but there is a difference between whining and legitimate criticism. SE just has a problem figuring out the difference.
Do you think PLD is overpowered? What about SAM? Do they need more buffs? Does everyone need more buffs? Is it even possible to balance this game with so many jobs? Do we really even need balance? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Monday, July 06, 2009
Sir Iron Will's Wisdom: Preventing Level Down.
Sir Iron Will's Wisdom is here to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about tanking, and probably some things you never wanted to know and now wish to blot out of your memory, whether you like it or not, Izman is here with the do's and don'ts of tanking, in general, solo or end game. Izman is doing some Campaign to get all that XP back that tanks lose, let's join him.
Hello my shield bashing minions! Today I wanted to talk about getting XP back on PLD at end game which of course means only a couple options for us. Campaign, Level Sync and of course, burn parties.
The most popular of these is campaign. This is a fast and easy way for PLDs to get that XP they have lost due to dying a honorable death in battle. No need to put your party flag up for this, just go change your sub to Dancer or my favorite Red Mage and let the XP roll in. Most PLDs will sub Dancer for this which is great but if you have never tried Red Mage sub prepare to have your mind blown. Phalanx will make most mobs hit you for 0 almost every time. It also makes NMs easier to tank, for the most part, like Shadow Hand who goes around pimp slapping everyone. With Phalanx even her weapon skills are to be laughed at. The best advantage of Red Mage sub is that you can use your TP for Atonement to get that extra damage in for more XP. Of course I don't have dancer sub so I don't know how awesome it is in campaign but since most PLDs sub it I'm sure its amazing.
Level Sync is also a great way to get that XP back. I enjoy a level sync party every once in a while to relive those Crawler's Nest days. Not much to say about this but that it is easy to get a invite on PLD and it's fun to XP with your pals, even if it is not the fastest XP in the world.
The least likely situation to get your buffer back is burn parties. Don't put your flag up if you think you're getting into one of these, cause all you will get is a Level Sync invite. Best chance of doing it is begging your friends to let you come along and tell them "Well I can cover you and holy circle and stuff". Having a DD set for this is also something you will need. If you get into one of these prepare to lose all that XP tanking some big nasty for one of your friends who let you come along. LOL
Now don't get me wrong PLD can do some great damage but you're not going to get a chance to show most people that you can. So remember all you people who abuse your PLD pals, be nice cause we go through a lot of crap to get all that XP we lose for you!
Well that's it for this one. I'm to tired to think of any other options for getting XP back so why not do the thinking for me and let me know how you get your XP back.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: One Tank.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Ring wonders why it's so hard for SE to balance tanking.
See that guy in the pic? He is just some generic PLD. There are about a million of them in FFXI. They were all AF until they get AF2, they know Provoke, Flash, Cure III and Utsusemi, and that's it. They have some random shield, and probably even have VIT rings. And you know what? They can tank most end-game mobs better than a NIN, and NIN is the only other real choice that would be able to tank most end-game mobs. Sure, other jobs can tank stuff too, but it's usually rather limited or the hate build is far too slow. NIN and PLD are your real end-game tanks, and NIN can't even keep up anymore. You might see a NIN in some places, but they know and the PLD knows that the PLD could do a better job in much worse gear. It's been this way for a while, and I have to wonder why...
These new JA's for NIN are probably going to help it. More instant enmity, less damage taken, more evasion? But are the bonuses enough? Is there anything as good as not being interrupted while casting? What about those JA's that PLD gets? All that enmity gear? NIN hasn't gotten a tanking gear upgrade in years. Why not try and make WAR a viable tank? Give them a damage reducing JA that really works. I don't know, for all the complaints about having only 1 and a half tanks for a game with 20 jobs there really isn't much of a tanking shortage. A lot of times NIN and PLD are waiting in lines to tank stuff.
I have to hope that these new bonuses for NIN do a good job at rebalancing some of the tanking issues. I just think variety, even if not necessarily needed is still a nice thing to have in these situations? Would all those people that leveled PLD like all those people before them leveled NIN even want there to be another tank option? I don't know if SE even really cared that much, they just like to see how people play instead of worrying about balancing all that much. Some balance is nice, but letting us play our own game instead of changing every job every update is also a very nice change of pace from most MMOs.
Are you a generic PLD? Are you an old-school NIN that got pushed out by an AF PLD? Do you think PLD should be able to tank end-game because they get shunned everywhere else? Do you want more tanking jobs or do you think things are fine? Leave us a comment and tell us what you think!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
The Math of Sword and Spell: Tanking Multipliers
Every Thursday Araelus is bringing the science to FFXI.
The Math of Sword and Spell is dedicated not only to the hardcore calculations and statistics of FFXI, but more importantly to helping you use that math without confusing you. You may not know why you are playing better, but rest assured you will be playing better.
This week's edition focuses on how Slow effects are a great boon to tanking, perhaps more than anything else. Also discussed are creative ways to increase Enmity, reduce damage taken, and even use some unusual jobs for tanking, such as Black Mage.
Last week, we discussed some of the ways White Mages and Scholars can benefit the whole party, as well as taking a critical look at Dancer and Summoner (especially in the comment thread). This week we take a break from support jobs and examine the difficult but crucial role of tank. Whether Paladin, Ninja, or something out of the ordinary, tanks are called upon to focus damage from the enemy to a well-defended target: themselves.
In order to preserve some kind of game balance, not everyone takes damage equally well. What should a designated tank focus on in available gear? What might they ask the party to do in assistance, and how can you help a tank stay alive, besides curing? What can those predisposed against tanking do to make up some of the difference when targeted? Should I try to avoid stepping on Izman’s toes in this article?
“Preventing Damage Outright” might as well be the slogan of Utsusemi, and clearly not taking damage is the best way for a tank to keep on going. But how about preventing the attack entirely?
If you remember back to the start of this column, three categories of effects were mentioned which could be described as benefiting everyone in the fight since they helped the tank: stopping enemy actions, slowing enemy actions, and weakening enemy actions.
Paralyze and Jubaku, if they take effect, are outstanding. The issue is that “if” part. A paralyzed enemy will have some percentage of regular melee attacks and spell casts interrupted. The same is true for activation of Killer Effects, particularly Undead Killer for Paladins. The Bash line of abilities has a high success rate, but long recast timers. Stun certainly lives up to its name, and its 45 second cooldown can be reduced, although the spell might be resisted depending on its target. Violent Flourish is yet another stun effect, but on a 20 second timer, reliant on Finishing Moves, with accuracy depending on monster level, the target’s magic resistance, and use of an Etoile Casaque.
When preventing enemy actions, we have to consider how often a spell or ability will function. Shield Bash is fine, once every five minutes. A continually applied Paralyze might stop one attack in ten or it might never process at all. Taken from this perspective, Elegy and other Slow effects are the most effective means of reducing damage dealt to a tank through status effects on the foe.
Reduction in attack speed can be considered a direct reduction in melee damage dealt to the tank, of course excepting TP move physical damage. But the benefits of slowing the opponent go beyond merely reducing incoming damage. More time between attack rounds means safer buffers on Utsusemi recasts, more time for the tank to cast any spell, and a generally lower level of stress all round. Best of all, Slow, or Slow II, or Jubaku: Ichi can be applied in addition to Elegy.
Just as consistently reducing the speed of an enemy’s attacks can be considered damage reduction for the tanks, so can consistently reducing the accuracy of an enemy’s attacks. Blind and Kurayami lower accuracy by a small amount over a long period of time, and Flash dramatically reduces accuracy for a very short time.
As for preventing magic damage, Silence is excellent. However, some foes should be left to cast rather than attack, especially if their pause to cast aids in kiting. Black Puddings on Mount Zhayolm are an excellent example of monsters that are not very dangerous when left to cast, but should not be locked into meleeing by Silence.
Bind should be mentioned, as it potentially prevents all damage to a tank, but that use is very specific based on monster location and fighting strategy. For that matter, Sleep or having the monster attacking someone else prevents all damage to a tank. More likely, Bind could stop an enemy from moving away from the tank during a sudden moment of Enmity imbalance. Since it is negated by damage dealt to the bound target, a better choice for this task might be Gravity. In that case, these spells are preventing damage from being dealt to someone other than the tank.
Damage Reduction is the next best thing after damage prevention. If you can no longer avoid getting hit, get hit for less damage. Combining damage reduction gear (to remove a percentage) and damage reduction spells (to subtract a flat amount) is very effective. Elemental resistance builds have a similar effect against special types of attacks, since a resist means a percentage reduction in damage.
Keep in mind if you can avoid getting hit to begin with, that is always better than taking damage and reducing the damage after the fact. Damage reduction gear should not take away from your use of the proper Haste+ gear, the correct JA enhancing gear, etc. So the issue here is primarily how much gil you can spare to spend on damage reduction gear. If you are taking absurd damage to begin with, to be sure, a percentage reduction can only go so far. But this should not be the case for tanks (if it is, talk to Izman – or someone – for help).
Along those lines, I’m not going to list out all the available damage down gear, or what jobs can use it, except to note that percentage damage reduction caps at 50% and RDM can get a surprising amount of physical damage reduction without a Defending Ring (44%) as can SAM (47%).
This is especially important if you suddenly realize:
Surprise! You’re the Tank!
Under ideal circumstances, Enmity is managed such that only the selected tanks are attacked by your enemy. Under ideal circumstances, AV can be defeated. One of these days I would like to play FFXI under ideal circumstances.
In the meantime, we have to deal with the reality that whoever has the most Enmity will be attacked. If that person is not a tank, “hilarity ensues”. In some situations this is acceptable, say to keep a monster moving between two targets, or perhaps you need to give a PLD who keeps getting interrupted time to cast Cure IV, or there is no tank in particular and every melee has some form of damage mitigation.
In most serious situations, however, anyone other than the tanks being targeted is problematic. When hate gets reset and Long-Bowed Chariot starts taking out the backline, that’s not exactly “everything going according to plan”. Every player should have a protective just-in-case equipment macro, in addition to casters who idle in such gear to begin with. Idling Tarutaru Black Mages shouldn’t load up on Zenith Gear and pretend to be playing Ghosts ’n Goblins.
The first thing to ask is “can you afford to lose TP?” and for most mages this should not be a problem. (BLU is always damaging those mage generalizations.) For melees, though, the answer will depend on current TP values, your hits-to-100TP, and whether you are deciding between zero TP and zero HP.
So long as TP can be reset, your emergency macro should include an Earth Staff. HQ is fine if you already have one, but since Terra’s does not offer any more physical damage reduction,1 don’t buy the HQ just for this purpose. Unless the name of FFVI’s stalwart heroine makes you feel safer.
The other should-have item for mages (including BLU this time) is a Cheviot Cape, which offers physical damage -5% during the day and -10% at night. The more expensive Umbra Cape is -6% and -12% respectively. In an extreme emergency (which is probable if you are using this gear macro) WHM, BLM, and SMN have latent earrings for use at or under 25% HP which reduce all damage taken. BRD, DRK, and RNG have the same for physical damage only; RDM and SAM for magical damage only.
Don’t neglect a Jelly Ring for free and a Defending Ring for winning Mog Bonanza, although the former is detrimental if you are taking magic damage and will require some time spent in Bostaunieux Oubliette.
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This week's...
Most Valuable: Elegy wins hands down, and stacks with the Slow effect. Elemental Seal ensures the song landing and Troubadour will increase duration. If you use Soul Voice this is absolutely brutal.
Ignored Ability: Two this week.
The Blue Magic Cocoon increases defense by 50%. A self-only spell, this can raise defense past the display limit of 999. Against swarms of low level or weak-hitting enemies, I’m sure you can find a use for this – if you leveled BLU at all.
The use of Waltzes to transform TP into HP is outrageous for a PLD/DNC, which basically gets HP from being hit, and the main job’s naturally high VIT and CHA boost the HP recovery even more. The Enmity gained from this constant self-curing may allow for its utilization in bizarre situations.
Hazard Symbol: When the tanks die. Don’t die, tanks.
Overworked and Underpaid Job: Popular opinion indicates PLD is the former and NIN is the latter. Taking into account available gear, damage mitigation techniques, and job abilities, both jobs are very powerful and useful, but they’re not necessarily equal. Whether this is a bad thing depends on who you ask.
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We’ve taken a look at how enemy attacks can be halted entirely, tanks can control damage taken, and even how anyone who comes under fire (or Tiamat’s aerial attacks) can survive. Over the past four weeks we’ve discussed a number of ways for players to multiply their impact on the battlefield. In that time a wide variety of interesting concepts came into play, but not all were discussed in detail.
Why could Dancer benefit from slower attacks? Should you have an algorithm for playing Corsair? What’s the best way to Haste an entire party? How is a meaningful comparison to be made between different Phalanx casters? Do Summoners have a reliable way to increase damage per MP spent? Next week, we'll start to answer some reader concerns and address specific spells and abilities, before moving on to melee-centric topics.
Until then, keep your graphing calculators handy!
Notes:
1. The HQ staff does have 25% more VIT than an Earth Staff, that is, it has VIT+5 instead of VIT+4. But both are "Physical damage taken -20%".
Questions? Concerns? Did I take a logarithm when I should have used the antiderivative? Do you have an idea for a future article? Please leave a comment.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sir IronWill's Wisdom: Anyone Wanna Merit?
Sir Iron Will's Wisdomis here to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about tanking, and probably some things you never wanted to know and now wish to blot out of your memory, whether you like it or not, Izman is here with the do's and don'ts of tanking, in general, solo or end game. This week Iz tells you what and what not to merit for PLD.
Hello my Paladin people! Today I wanted to talk about merits for Paladin. What these new abilities are and what they can do.
Okay lets with the group one merits for Paladin.
All right the first choice you have is Shield Bash recast merits. This knocks off 10 seconds of Shield Bash every time you put merits in it. Most people merit this if they are going for Aegis so they can do awesome Shield Bash damage every 5 minutes or 4 minutes and 10 seconds with merits. This is a great option if you're aiming for Aegis some day or even if you just like to be on the safe side of eating a magic spell.
Holy Circle... If you merited this or was thinking about it congratulations you're dumb.
Please for the love of Altana don't merit this.
Sentinel Recast is awesome. Most Paladins max this one out. Sentinel is a 5 minute job ability that decreases 90% physical damage you take and generates a ton of emnity as well as making everything else you do while Sentinel is up to generate more emnity than usual! This is one of the best job abilities Paladins get I highly recommend meriting this one.
Cover is next and this one is pretty good but I went a different path. Cover is a great choice. Cover is another great job ability that I will have to admit I don't use as much as I should. It's a 3 minute recast job ability that last 15 to 30 seconds and when you merit it you can add 4 seconds to each tier of merits you put in to it. With AF hat and Relic body Cover becomes a really cool and fun ability to use that can and will save players HP and lives.
Rampart, a 5 min recast ability that last 30 seconds that used to be total trash with sentinel a couple years ago is now also pretty cool and great to have. Each tier of merits also knocks off 10 seconds of the recast just like Sentinel. Rampart is a AoE magic Stoneskin that give defense to the party members in range. Very awesome for -GA spells. With Valor head you get another 15 seconds of this sweetness.
Okay that finishes up the group one merits that you can think about and decide what you think is best for you and your play style. So now on to group two merits that enhance the group one abilties and also give you new whole new abilites to use.
The first choice we have here is Fealty. Fealty is a 20 minute recast ability that give you 100% resist to enfeebling magic effects, status effects of tp moves from mobs, and even reduces dammage from some nasty moves like Meteor! This ability last a whole minute and can be merited down to a 10 minute recast. I wish I could go in to more detail about this ability but I'm slacking on Paladin merits still lol.
Ahhh Chivalry the Paladins convert. This is also a 20 minute ability that can be merited down to 10 minutes. It instantly converts current TP to MP using this formula that I totally did not steal from the Wiki. MP recovered = TP * (0.5 + 0.015 * MND)... Okay I stole it so sue me. Please put at least one merit in this and use it as a emergency only ability like you would any 2 hour.
All righty Iron Will the one no one merits lol. Iron Will is a job trait like undead killer. It is all ways active when you use Rampart. It adds a 19% spell interruption rate down when you use Rampart. I don't know why people see this as a bad thing. Now that you can put 5 tiers of merits in to the group two category that makes it pretty good I think. Lets so some math class 19 * 5 = what? No not 11 Ring you old man. 95% AoE spell interruption rate down.
Pretty awesome if you ask me seeing as I'm all ways nin subbed. I have this one maxed all the way giving me the name Iron Will Izman the ladies man... I added the ladies part lol. Don't merit it unless you plan on maxing it out.
The last thing you can put merits in to to custamize your job. Guardian is another job trait that is active when you use Sentinel. It reduces emnity loss by 19% for each tier of merits you put into this. That means when your getting smacked in the face you lose less emnity than you normally would. And since you can put 5 merits in it and it works the same as Iron Will, that means that 95% emnity lose with full merits for 30 seconds make it keep you at the hate cap long enough
to stack another Provoke or Flash on a mob to make sure you don't lose hate.
Well that's it for job specific merits for Paladin but lets talk about the other merits you can spend to customize your character.
HP/MP. This is something you can't have some one say you're wrong since it effects all your jobs. I personally went half and half cause I'm lazy and really could not decide which I wanted more of. Other jobs should be factored in when meriting this of course.
Attributes, well all I can say is spend the merits on STR INT or MND for whatever your main job class may be. If its Paladin still merit STR it will help with your lolDD build.
Combat skills shield shield shield skill max it! Sword is a choice too if you plan on making a DD build.
Skip magic skills for the last thing you ever merit.
The other category my favorite. Emnity increase max it and do the same to critical hit rate unless you never plan on leveling a melee job and are only serous about tanking. If that's the case don't let me decide for you.
Okay well this is my view and advice on how I have merited Paladin but its not perfect and it is not for everyone. But remember not everyone plays this job the same so the combinations can vary from person to person and its hard to go wrong unless you maxed out Holy Circle so remember this is my personal view on how I merited this job.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
He Who Shall Not Be Named: The Paladin and the Subjob.
He Who Shall Not Be Named is here to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about tanking, and probably some things you never wanted to know and now wish to blot out of your memory, whether you like it or not, Izman is here with the do's and don'ts of tanking, in general, solo or end game.
Hey guys Iz here! And I'm here to give you guys the reader some advice about Paladin tanking. I will be talking about gear, subjobs, parties, merits, and all kinds of other stuff that I can't think of at the moment!
Okay the first topic I want to talk about is subjobs. The most popular sub for Paladin at end game is Ninja. I know 4 years ago if you were to sub Ninja you would be a traiter to all Paladins for even unlocking the job. Another great sub for soloing and tanking a few things like Jailer of Love is Red Mage. The last sub is of course Warrior.
Each of these subs has their strength and weakness. Lets see what each one can and can't do.
Ninja sub. This is the sub that I know I'm always on for events. The strength of Ninja is of course casting shadows. This makes it easier for your healers to keep their mp as high as possible for longer periods of time. The down side of subbing Ninja is that it can hurt your wallet if you don't make gil. Another downside to subbing Ninja is that on weaker mobs is melee can tear hate off you so easily and vise versa on the more defensive mobs.
Red mage sub. This sub is the newest one I have leveled and I wish I got it sooner. Red mage sub is great for soloing Nms, campaign, and tanking a few end game NMs. This sub can make a Paladin invincible on weaker mobs making Paladin just fun to play around on. The strength of this sub is mainly the spell Phalanx. This spell cuts down the physical damage you take by a crazy amount depending on your enhancing magic skill. Add Stoneskin, Blink, and Bar spells this sub makes Paladin an all round hard target to take down. The down side to this is mp consumption. When you sub Red mage you're spamming enfeebling magic like bind, sleep and blind to keep hate. After so long you will run out of mp. Another down side to this sub is that on big nasty NMs that hit hard will still make Phalanx seem like it is not even there. I will have to go into more detail on this sub in another post; since it is so awesome and fun to play.
Okay Warrior sub. This is the sub you and I used when taking this job form 1 to 75 or 74. This is a good sub for the classic style of exp parties that most people do not do anymore. This sub offers Defender wich raises your defense and lowers your attack. Since Paladin can't hit a target and when they do its not for much the lower attack is not a issue. Provoke of course the main hate grabbing and keeping tool for this sub. No need to tell you what it does. And the last thing that lets this sub job keep hate is Warcry. An AoE which raises your party members attack. The down side to this sub is strong mobs will hit you for lots of dammage even with Defender up. Add magic damage casting mobs and you are one dead guy. This sub is the least I use for end game events and tanking.
I know some of you are going what about dancer sub? Well I have not unlocked it and to be honest I'm not going too.
Next Monday I will go over where and when to sub these subs and possibly the gear sets you will want to use. We will see about gear though. In my head it seems like a long post. Until then I hope you enjoy the section on the Tanking portion of this blog. If you did not enjoy it then please E-mail me your feelings at idontcarewhatyouthink@Gmail.com :)
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
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