Wasn't there some kind of Spreadsheet error that made Arma look a lot better than it actually was?
That's kind of my concern is its spreadsheet good and not in game good. I kind of look at Emp AM suspect since most dmg in ffxi is pushed to weaponskill/skillchain.
Kinda late reply, but for those who wonder about old Fomalhaut v.s Armageddon debate, here are the parse data that I have.
Target: Apex bats
Buffs: Sublime sushi + No.2 sam roll(4 hit) for all fights, no chaos roll.
Sets: Crit-hit rate/dmg set for armageddon (start with 3000 tp), full stp set for fomalhaut. Same WS set.
Result:
Fomalhaut:
Dmg: 66.7%
SC dmg: 23.6%
WS avg: 6806 (25s)
racc: 89.47% (76s)
rcrit rate: 5.88%
rcrit avg: 795 (4s)
none crit avg: 584 (64s)
Armageddon:
WS avg: 5963 (26s) (includes first wildfire ws avg to trigger AM3)
racc: 95.83% (96s)
rcrit rate: 32.61%
rcrit avg: 1536 (30s)
none crit avg: 1000 (62s)
Note1: I forgot to switch to fettering blade for Arma crit-hit build, so I lost 4% crit-hit rate. But Kustawi is still a very viable weapon for ranged fights due to enmity- and rapid shot, so anyways!
Note2: I got hit with attack down on Arma for a few shots, so that may lower some* ranged dps.
Note3: WS avg includes WF dmg, which doesn't drastically affects WS avg without attack buffs. With attack buffs pushing WS avg to 20k+ range, using WF to activate AM3 becomes bigger dps lose.
Math:
Assuming an NM takes 20 ws to kill, start with 1 WS and have 4 hit with sam roll, that's 57 shots total.
Fomalhaut:
At 6% crit-hit rate 3 shots would crit, total white dmg:
3 x 795 = 2,385
54 x 584 = 31,536
Total white dmg: 33,921
Total WS dmg:
20 x 6806 = 136,120
Total dmg: 170,041
Assuming 30% of dmg came from SC, SC dmg: 51,012
Total dmg including SC: 221,053
Armageddon:
At 32% crit-hit rate, 18 shots crit. Total white dmg:
18 x 1536 = 27,648
39 x 1000= 39,000
Total white dmg: 66,648
Total WS dmg:
20 x 5963 = 119,260
Total dmg: 186,268 (10% more dps than Fomalhaut)
It seems like it's close to what we see on spreadsheet, without considering SC dmg and dps lose from AM3 activation, Arma seems to have higher dps.
That being said, I've also noticed Arma's ws/white dmg ratio was different from high buff situations, maybe it has something to do with ws dmg dropped way too much without attack buffs.
Either way, my opinion is, if you fulfill the following condition, arma is a better choice:
1) Start with 3000 tp.
2) Fight ends before AM3 drop.
3) You need a little bit of racc to cap.
4) SC dmg isn't relevant, or you'd like to avoid SC at all cost.
Since the above situations are very, very niche, IMHO Fomalhaut is a better choice 90% of time. Since I probably *** up somewhere with math like usual, any feedback or thoughts are welcomed.