Cala Help

This nets me 26 haste and 7hit.

I noticed that i could swap the offhand ring for hoard and then use another grip. (-delay works with build and new ring)

Also:

VV/RR/ scorp queen = 6 hit (with above setup assuming no changes)

VV/RR/ AoA = 15% TA

What atma's would you guys recommend?

Just looking for outside opinions (aside from the obligatory spicy "loldrk").

After an extremely fortuitous night on carabosse last night I am confident I will need to figure out WTF im doing with caladbolg far sooner than i previously estimated. I am more of a "get my ducks in a row before getting something special", as opposed to the "I wear this new shiny and don't know wtf I'm doing with it" guy.

Any help, thoughts, ideas, suggestions are welcome (even the loldrk noise ;/)

This is the part I am most curious about. All these wonderful atma and all the possibilities drive me nuts.

I recommend rr/vv/apoc.

But have no math to back it up. I just like the idea of triple attacking a 2h weapon while having perma-rr. For drk you benefit from the quick magic, too.

Well on that end i was thinking that I would not only get 1 less hit to 100 tp but ALSO an additional 10% crit rate. Still..... Scorp queen does me absolutely no good during torcleaver.

i have a lot of different atma's i use based on what my ls is doing, but by far my favorites are VV/RR/Mounted Champion, VV/RR/Apoc, and VV/RR/Scorp

Mounted champion - Adds a lot to torcleaver, +50vit, people keep underestimating a 60% mod. I very much enjoy the 20tick regen, I use this as my catchall atma set. Anytime i think i'll be fighting stuff by myself, seal farming, random stuff, i find this to be a lot more well rounded.

tl;dr Well rounded rock


Apoc - I'll use this if i think quickmagic is in order for procing hard crap, (yay darksday!) or situations where i think i might die (singular whm to Alfard rings a bell) Also tripling a cleaver is amazing, but leads to randomly rubying everything (my ls hates me for that XD)

tl:dr ReRaising ***, random spikes


Scorp - Capped haste 6hit? yes please. Probably puts out the most damage in any fight that lasts more then 2 minutes, but those fights are few and far between in abyssea. Easily used in situations where you have enough backup to sustain yourself

tl;dr glass cannon


Use what you think will work best for the situation you are in, There are a lot of options and its really hard to go wrong.

When I'm playing as DRK I usually use VV/RR/Griffon's Claw ~
or VV/RR/Apoc ~

Yeah i was thinking Apoc for drive by and SQ for desperate blows zerg situations. The "rounded rock" idea is intrigueing though and I hadn't even thought of it.
@Seo: I would kill for a 4th lunar abyssite. That griffin atma would get so much more use. I've used it on NM's where i am the "sit back and occaisionally drive by" drk.

Yeah I love griffin claw to peices but compared to what else you can use almost every job that can use it would be better off using something else than "just" +20% ws dmg. Of course it is crazy awesome when brewing

With a bit more store TP in gear (tactical mantle, hoard ring, askar/aurum) you'd be able to 6-hit it either natively or with the regain from VV, which might be something to consider.

Calad just barely misses the 6 hit natively. The sacrifices are also tremendous not counting losing an Atma for VV(If applicable), Losing out on 3% Haste 40 or so attack, 3% (5% when factoring Pole grip out) and 4% critical hit rate. While probably worthwhile for overall DPS, that is a much more profound hit than virtually any other xhit builds, mainly because it only brings you to a 6 hit instead of a 5 or 4. A Seven-hit to a Six-hit is only like a 15-18% increase overall before considering sacrifices, so it might not work out as overwhelmingly as most would think.

When it comes to DRK, I've had little reason to swap off my 2 primary sets of Apoc/VV/RR or, I know let the lulz ensue, DRK/MNK with GH/RL/RR. DRK/MNK with those atmas winds up being quite useful, since it provides considerable defensive and offensive power over DRK/NIN. The counter rate is around 85-90%, so as long as the enemy doesn't have nasty TP moves (BHukis, for example, stipping Cruor without 2 shadows to absorb the debuffer strikes of Lethal Triclip) I found it to be loads better.

I did come up with a build that only sacrifice 1% haste for a 6 hit. However, from what I calculated, you do lose a junk load of attack (somewhere around 60) and 6% DA, and some accuracy, as well as 4% critical hit rate.

The build is:

Caladbolg/Rose/White Tathlum
Zulas Tiara/Almah Torque/Brutal/Attila's
Aurum Cuirass/Bale Hands +2/Rajas/Hoarding
Tactical Mantle/Goading/Ace's Hose/Ace's Sabaton

That will give you 57 store tp, which if you have 28 store tp for WS, you have a 6 hit build. This is outside abyssea obviously. Inside it is probably pointless to go for a hit build since you might as well go with a 5 hit with RR/SQ/PB if you want. Going from 7 hit to 5 hit is roughly 50% increase in WS rate, and WS is probably going to be at least 50% of your damage so if you believe two atma will make up for that difference, then you should do it. SQ and PB combine will also offer you minor regen, 10% DA, and 10% critical hit rate. So will that be better than let's say Apoc/GC or Apoc/A/O or Apoc/VV? hard to tell.

Apoc/GC combo will offer you 15% TA and 20% WS damage, so that's about 25% more WS (counting overflow tp), 30% more DoT, and 20% WS damage (not even counting TA WS from Apoc). 25% more WS and 20% WS damage will give you 50% more WS damage combine (1.25*1.2=1.5), so will 30% more DoT be better than 10% DA and 10% critical? pretty sure it does. So it is pretty much pointless to go for a 5 hit build.

In the end, I am not sure if it is worth it to go for a 6 hit outside abyssea, and I am not sure if it is worth it to go for a 5 hit inside abyssea. The later is definitely a no, but will a no sacrifice 6 hit build with PB atma be better than whatever 3rd atma you can put in aside from RR/Apoc? That's probably a much better debate. In low haste situation, VV will probably give you a 6 hit, making PB worthless. But in high haste situation, a true 6 hit is probably better. A/O will definitely top PB, but PB should be better than GC in any situation since going from 7 to 6 hit is a 20% WS frequency, offset the 20% WS damage from GC without even counting the 10% DA.

In conclusion, I think inside abyssea there is not much point to use atma for hit build. If anything, a 6 hit build without atma or a 6 hit build with PB will probably be decent assuming A/O's HP- is not a good idea for whatever you do, or under low haste situation that makes VV's regain worthless.

Maybe someone else can do the math and see if I am missing anything.

Considered Carbonara? Could drop Cuirass for Bale+2 body, Zelus for Bale+2 head and cap haste and pick up some attack/Crit/DA while maintaining True 6 hit (WS in Rajas/Brutal however).

Carbonara is actually what I currently go with since I don't have Zelus Tiara, and it works great. However, on things where carbonara might be too expensive to spam, a build with 3 hour food is a nice alternative.

Wiki has Torecleaver listed as Light / Distortion ... Will light work or only distortion elements? (Belts / Gorgets that is)

As far as I know only the tier two elements will work (Snow/Aqua in this case). Some people think Light/Shadow gorgets work on Light/Darkness properties but I've never seen any proof of it, so I'd play it safe with Snow/Aqua.

The light/dark gorget/belt working on own property seems unique to the Empyrean weapons, Ukko's was confirmed to get a damage boost from Light Belt which matched Thunder Belt damage boost, the others haven't been tested afaik.