The Pirates' Lair: A Guide To Corsair

Alright, thanks :) Although it's kinda weird to discuss AA strat in a COR guide thread :D

Is there a point where Rapid Shot becomes better than Snapshot? Wondering if it'd be better to precast shots in Laksamana's Frac +1 or Skopos Jerkin.

It's a bit too random to be rely on that over snap imo..

my math might be really shitty, but going but the bg wiki page, Rapid Shot reduces your ranged delay by 50%, 65%, or 80%.

looking at just the 50% reduction, if Lak. Frak +1 has a 16% proc rate, and you are reducing your delay by 50%, then your over time delay reduction would be 8%.

again, if someone else has a better answer, feel free to chime in.

Snapshot is likened to Haste. Rapid Shot is likened to Quick Magic. Snapshot is a constant. Rapid Shot is random.

Thats probably the easiest way to relate it.

Just picked up Lak. Tricone +1; is the Quick Draw+10 added to the base or is it x*2? <-Forgive me if thats not worded correctly.

It's +10 and added after multiplying x2.

Random doesn't mean it's necessarily worse. Some of the best items in the game are only good because of "random" stats that sometimes don't proc at all on an attack (see: Thaumas Coat, Brutal Earring, Epona's Ring, etc.) It's all a matter of calculating the times the random stat procs over time to get a statistically significant average expected performance.

So the question is legitimate. Rapid Shot only kicks in sometimes, but when it does it's a massive reduction. Versus Snapshot's more predictable smaller reduction on every shot. The question is how much Rapid Shot you need on a piece to beat the snapshot alternative. It's true though that ranged is a little trickier if you're manually shooting and not using an auto-RA 3rd party tool. So from a mental perspective, it can be easier to get in your rhythm with the more consistent performance of Snapshot versus an occasionally really fast Rapid Shot.

I wonder about the importance of really min-maxing shot time on COR anyway though, since ranged inherently has the issue of it not really mattering as much how quick you shoot compared to the importance of melee haste. If you're on COR, how often are you really just standing still and firing away as fast as possible? For me, not that much. Not even considering that /ra doesn't auto-attack, there's plenty of higher priority things to deal with: keeping track of rolls, helping out mages with haste/-na if you're /mage (probably more useful to the party for difficult events anyway), riding QD timers, etc.

And even if you did have an acceptable hit rate and an opportunity to go all out (which should certainly be secondary to your core buffing duties anyway), you don't have RNG's tools to deal with hate. No Decoy Shot/Camo, less enmity- gear, and no relic WS = if you're really hitting on your shots/WS you're pulling hate and screwing up the fight. So you'd need to slow down anyway.

Not that anyone invites a COR to anything that matters because of the ranged DD potential, so really I see this as more of a theoretical discussion.

While it is theoretical for COR, if you look at Orion Beret +1, it has Rapid Shot +14, so this might be better over time than Sylvan Head +2 for your preshot set in a shooting situation, depending on the Snapshot value it.

Since snapshot works like haste, wouldn't this also depending on how much snapshot you already have? 1% haste to 3% haste is smaller increase than 78% haste to 80% haste. So snapshot should be bigger increase at higher value.

While rapid shot seems like DA if it work like what I think it is.

Say for example, assuming each shot takes 5 sec to fire, rapid shot proc result in 80% reduction= 1 sec to fire.

0% proc rate=avg 5 sec every 10 shot.
10% proc rate= 4.6 sec avg
20% proc rate= 4.2 sec avg
30% proc rate= 3.8 sec avg
40% proc rate= 3.4 sec avg

It's a static increase just like double attack.

Seems to be double attack v.s haste argument all over again.




Or maybe snapshot is superior when it's being stacked to very high value, just like haste.

Great point, and I do think that as a practical matter this question is a lot more relevant for RNG than it is for COR. It's still a bit of an art on RNG of balancing shooting as much as you can while managing your hate, and you probably don't really want to go all out damage at all costs like many melees would be doing... but it's more reasonable to think that a RNG would have at least some periods where maximizing ranged DoT is the priority (Decoy Shot up, pop Overkill, a full zerg, etc.)

Another point: the difference between these kinds of stats on AF109 and AF119 armors are generally pretty minor. The big stat upgrades from 109 to 119 are usually DEF (major bump) and Attribute stats, but the "additional" stats generally have a tiny increase if any. Examples: NIN body DW (7% to 8%), THF feet flee duration (+15sec to +16sec), WHM hat (Cure Cast Time -4% to -5%), lots of pieces 1% haste difference, etc. I haven't looked hard to see if Rapid Shot on the Orion 109 hat was tested, but given the above examples it wouldn't surprise me if the NQ/109 is something like Rapid Shot +12 or +13 (1-2 below the 119 version).


Absolutely. With one additional twist: it's significantly more difficult to take advantage of snapshot than it is to use haste simply due to auto-attack on melee. Haste just requires you to equip the gear. Snapshot is indeed a static value that doesn't rely on random proc, but it does rely on player input (which is absolutely variable).

Supposing you're not using an auto-RA tool, it's very difficult to shoot at the precise moment you can fire the next shot. I'm not getting into the morality of using auto-RA 3rd party apps, but I don't personally use them and I think it's pretty common for people (even those who use stuff like Spellcast) to not automate their ranged attacks. I'm also not sure how accurate those tools are for accurately adjusting for snapshot gear (and whether they really shoot the instant /ra is available after previous shot), or how they handle WS interrupting the auto-RA string.


And of course, if you've gone COR to something difficult like a Very Difficult Ark Angel, you've probably learned that your R.Acc will go in the toilet anyway. So the cynical view is that on this kind of high end content, faster shots just means you're missing more quickly. On that kind of stuff I found myself infinitely more useful on COR/WHM providing backup and being ready to quickly erase status effects from my tank & DDs. If I was in a lower difficulty situation where shooting on COR was more viable, the problem is that it's not really necessary with any competent DDs (and honestly your group might forego a COR altogether in favor of something like a SMN or an extra DD). Kind of a Catch-22.

But I guess I could see something like a COR shooting with a good ranged accuracy set on Difficult (not VD) AAs. Your other party members may need the COR buffs, justifying your party slot. And when you're not doing your main job, you might be able to reliably add a little bit of supplementary ranged damage.

If you really want to focus on damage instead of /mage though, you'd probably still do better coming COR/NIN and meleeing for TP just like any other DD/NIN. I dunno that it's worth it though, if you're using a tank strategy hate control for the other DDs becomes really important - meaning RNG, DRG, even PUP or SMN are good because they have some enmity- tools. Nobody wants the COR dead and the DDs missing a roll. They'd be happier with a backline COR quickly helping to remove status effects and keeping up with haste.

All the "which gear are better" are purely math, and it's not about human error. Which gear shoots faster shouldn't affect player's ability to shoot precisely too. If A set is better, just because someone may make more mistake with A set(doesn't mean everyone else will) doesn't make A set worse.





I've done VD, besides MR which seems to have higher eva I think it's fairly possible to accomplish 80%~90%+ hit rate with the ideal set I posted back there. I was like 47 racc below(which was very gimp), BRD had no relic and didn't use marcato but still hit just below 70%.

There's no reason to aim for slower /ra speed, what you should aim for is better buff and better racc.

COR/WHM is fairly useless with RNG setup in VD, the only person needs cure haste erase is PLD, with WHM and BRD baby sitting it, COR going /WHM won't have much support to do and just wasted the SJ.


COR/NIN probably only work in normal, I've never done difficult, only very difficult so idk how hard it is to go melee strat, maybe it'd work in difficult if you really push it. I don't see how it can work well in VD though. To melee you need DT- hybrid like everyone else, so less acc in slots where you can get acc swap. COR has shitty melee weapon access, only sword is 117 and COR has B- sword skill. The time you cast shadows, missing hits, possible death when not being careful, it's probably ended up weaker than /ra.

Shooting with full racc set will give way better acc than /NIN meleeing in hybrid anyday.



/WHM is really, really useless if doing VD. Don't :) Unless you can somehow beat VD with melee setup or something.

Yeah, parsed my fights tonight and with Marcato Gjallarhorn Preludes, 11 Hunter's Roll (I always keep 11s up) and Sushi I was at 90-95% hit rate on Hume and Galka. Taru was a bit lower (around 80%) but buffs were a bit sloppy on that run. I go SMN for Elvaan but I'm sure I'd be capped or close to capped on that too. Mithra is still terrible without Soul Voice.

Though, I've upgraded my Racc set since my last post. Rolling with this now:

ItemSet 317494

I'm cheap and offhand Archer's Knife for TT since we sub NIN for that. Still don't have Marksmanship merits!

Sub NIN is required for every RNG and COR if doing TT? Never try TT VD before, planning to, just wanted to know optimal SJ!

I wouldn't say it's "required", at least with the positioning we use, but it's pretty good life insurance. We have RNG, COR and WHM stand in the middle of the BC, all /NIN; BRD stays out of the circle and subs WHM as a safety net. PLD chases it around and tries to stay positioned to be in Decoy Shot line of range. If he's not too far from the TT, Amon Drive won't hit anyone in the middle of the BC. On the rare occurance it does hit the middle group, you'll want to recast shadows immediately since it can eat up to 3 shadows and may use the move back-to-back. He may also occasionally cast a spell on someone in the middle instead of the PLD so /NIN is nice for that as well.

I'm sure there's other ways to play with positioning, but this is what we've been doing. No running around needed for the RNGs and COR.

Get a relic and this is not an art.

If you want to do reasonable dmg on COR, I'd say /NIN tbh, especially TT.

Did TT VD /NIN earlier without 119 AF feet/Ej/JSE back, managed to cap acc. If GK EV has similar evasion as TT, safe to say with perfect acc set can drop /RNG and choose between /WAR and go very offensive or /NIN for more protection and extra offhand slot.

The advantage of /NIN is you can offhand R15 AGI dagger or another racc dagger for higher racc than /WAR. Another advantage is you can run in to roll PLD without having to use Luzaf. If you want rolls to hit PLD with Luzaf you probably have to run away from RNG/mages since they need different roll, that's more time running around and less time to deal dmg.

P.S:Nobody sells tooth anymore :X Can't get Ej :X

Galka and Elvaan have pretty low evasion compared to the rest. We Marcato a Minuet over a Prelude for those and I can still cap accuracy.

I can't deal damage an entire fight without dying unless I /drg or something. I usually end up pulling hate on NMs around 65%, so spending 5 extra seconds running around isn't really a concern for me. For TT I've taken to standing outside of the middle and chasing it around with the PLD since I don't want to be the cause of RNGs and WHM dying to Amon Drive.

I didn't use PLD for TT, just 3 RNG/NIN, 1 COR/NIN+BRD and no WHM, last slot can be anything, SCH 2nd COR SMN all works, but WHM not required. It's 100x easier than healing a PLD and have everyone chasing that little taru *** :p

Ah, cool~ When we do AAs we always do all 5 so we'd rather not job change if not necessary. Most we do is change subs.

Thoughts?

Better than eminent so good enough for me!

Goodbye Donderbus.

Neat that it has mab, too bad wildfire/leaden is still trash damage, but thats a nice quickdraw gun for the masses , lacks extra racc for hard AAs though.

It has 242 skill so it's nice for us that were using Donderbuss/Eminent with its 215 skill. More acc than what we were using.

True, my bad, keep forgetting non iLevel 119 stuff has less than 242 skill.
I see they are closing the gap versus DP some more with that

They just fixed RME then trashed RME again....da fuq?




More like better than everything else including 119 EM in this game >.>




More like making the gap versus DP bigger lolz

That's SE's "Balance" for you.

Well that solves that.. Was going to make Armageddon. I'll stick with Verethragna.

If i was going to copy that but didnt have access to +1ing the Reforged gear, will the 109 still win or is there some better stuff out there for Racc?

DP is still effectively like ~132 base damage for QD, and fires 20% faster versus the new gun, but the new gun added versus an arma119 thats kind of an awkward comparison.

With aftermath and such they pull farther apart performance wise, but i'm guessing they are going to hit an itemization power wall soon or some RME owners are going to get cranky.