Endeavoring To Awaken --A Guide To Rune Fencer

not that i know of, but never looked it up because i never dropped any of mine lol

Actually ... BDT is most everything that's super dangerous. Out of all the shitty moves in this game, it's breath moves that have the greatest chance of flattening you. Physical damage not only has to deal with BDT, but it can be blocked by shadows and reduced via defense. Magic damage can be reduced by MDT along with MDB. There is no defense for breath damage, most MDT doesn't effect it and there is no form of "breath defense". A breath attack can hit you just as hard as it hits a WAR, MNK or WHM.

For that reason alone Vocane was a decent choice. Then we discovered that some pieces of -MDT also apply to breath damage, which changed the comparison to dark rings.

Sorry for the seemingly late post, just felt I should point out that Breath damage can be extremely dangerous to everyone.

It was known that the MDT augment on Dark Rings apply to breaths well before SoA even came out, so that's not exactly true.

It wasn't known, at least not wider then a handful of people. I didn't know about it until Martel made a post about testing it. Dark Ring's have always had PDT/MDT/BDT, we didn't know what the MDT also applied to BDT which makes them potentially superior.

I seem to remember around the end of voidwatch being released that these got testing and reiterated when people were looking at ways at reducing the harpy's dmg in marajame delve. Widespread at a time but probably forgotten by most since BDT wasn't highly relative.

Also wards (although you'll still have issues versus something like Ultima) and one for all work, so I wouldn't say RUN's in quite the same vulnerable spot as a WAR when it comes to BDT.

If it never left page 256 of some "Voidwatch for you" post on BG then it's not widespread. I keep myself up to date on game mechanics and I've never head of it before it was mentioned on here. If someone as involved as myself hasn't heard about it then you can bet more then 99.9% of the game community hasn't head about it, which is the exact opposite of widespread. It's why I wish people would post things on here rather then leaving then in some obscure thread on a niche forum that has a reputation for harassing and trolling people.

So, here's something: Erilaz Galea bonus on Pulse seems to remove Zombie, of all things.

that, is some very useful info

Hmm. That's quite surprising. And useful. Needs to go on a wiki for future reference.

I'm back with another testimony for one of the new UNM, this time it's Shedu the Khimara. Shedu drops the iLevel Hauteclaire which RUN is also on.

The first thing you need to know about Shedu is that it can be an *** of an NM to fight and the competency of your entire party decides whether or not it is much more-so than most high level fights. I'll explain why. Shedu is a Monk-type NM and as such has access to Hundred Fists which he likes to use regularly, I'm thinking it might be triggered by HP % phases. Normally this would be simple to handle with a tank but Hundred Fists seems to clear all CE and seems to make him ignore VE while it is active. Basically this means that your melee need to be ready or they're going to get faceplanted before they know it. To make matters worse Shedu has the ability to use TP moves mid-Hundred Fists and if he picks pretty much any of them it usually spells death. Dreadstorm will Terror everyone, Fulmination will Stun and Paralyze everyone, Thunderstrike with Stun everyone, Plague Swipe will cut your TP gain due to Virus and near one-shot an unprepared melee.

The good news is that Shedu can be staggered with a blue !! during Hundred Fists. !! seems to go off by doing a random number of weapon skills on him when he is in full-flow with Hundred Fists. Because of this going into full turtle mode is not advised for melee as they need to get TP to weapon skill and try proc Shedu and take his Hundred Fists off. Shedu also gives you a 2-3 second warning that Hundred Fists is about to go off as he has an animation where his wings go up, Hundred Fists goes off 1-2 seconds later.

You know that competent support is key to any high level fight but it's even more important here. You should be using at least two Geomancers (again...) and they need to be good. They should both be /WHM as to use Paralyna on the WHM if he gets hit by Fulmination's Paralyze, which is likely considering it's range and that the WHM will not be in range of Indi-Attunement. One of the Geomancers has a very important task to do I will expand upon shortly.

After much tinkering my ideal setup was.

Rune Fencer (gear for DD but be ready to tank if you can somehow hold hate, One for All at 30% incase Geo-Vex falls)
White Mage (Barthundra and Barparalyzra)
Beastmaster (Works extremely well here as Sic moves can proc Shedu during Hundred Fists)
Blue Mage (Solo skillchains, accurate, self-caps Haste and is capable of surviving long enough for Shedu to be proc'd)
Geomancer (Indi-Torpor and Geo-Frailty) (Entrust: Indi-Attunement)
Geomancer (Indi-Fury / Indi-Wilt and Geo-Vex) (Entrust: Indi-Attunement)
It's this second Geomancer who has to be on their toes. Not only does Geo-Vex need to be re-applied as soon as it falls (he will destroy at least three Luopans in this fight) but this Geomancer needs to watch for Hundred Fists and switch Indi-Fury for Indi-Wilt (Attack Down) as soon as it goes off. If Geo-Vex is left off at low HP and Shedu gets Fulmination off it could very easily spell a wipe.

ItemSet 339586

Cap'd PDT without needing pdt as an aug on Herculean which can be turned into more TA, DA, Store TP, crit chance, crit dmg or ws dmg, along with extra acc / atk. Still allowed for the goodness that is Samnuha Tights (I like them, what can I say) obv, if you have good aug for them.

I've had a pretty crazy idea for another Dual Wield tanking build.

ItemSet 339596

This one is based around universal elemental resist without really sacrificing anything major. It could be a good idea for those targets that do not focus on a specific element.

Fire Resist: 98
Water Resist: 98
Thunder Resist: 98
Earth Resist: 98
Ice Resist: 98
Wind Resist: 98
Light Resist: 88
Dark Resist: 88

That is before any Barspell or Rune.

It's other stats are.
Physical Damage Taken -37%
Magic Damage Taken -4%
Damage Taken -17% (5% on Evasionist's)
Accuracy +168

well, i just tried that on the Golden Kist in reisen. didn't remove it, is your galea 119? also what runes did you have up? that might effect what it does.

I thought zombie from golden kist is aura? I guess thats why you can't remove it?

It is indeed an aura. A very stupid aura.

It seems (I'd like to see further confirmations on this) that Phalanx doesn't benefit from Enhancing Skill past the 500 tier.
Do you guys stack enhaskill past 500 or just use Taeon augmented with Phalanx+3 ?
I currently have 3/5 Taeon with +Phalanx.
I use Futhark on head and runeist on hands.

i feel like rdm tested phalanx caps along time ago and confirmed at 500 caps it, i use taeon with phalanx +3 augs and futhark head myself. siegel for belt cause thats an awesome piece. i know there are some rings, earrings, and back with enhancing but i haven't gotten em yet out of laziness.

Yeah Phalanx / Phalanx II are spells that really didn't age well with iLevel and while they technically cap at 500, anything over 300 yields very small increases.


300 skill = 28 reduction
500 skill = 35 reduction

You need a lot of Enhancing for a single point of Phalanx potency, and RUN can't even break 500 if I remember right. I just use Taeon body, hands, and feet with Futhark +1 for potency, and keep the Futhark legs +1 for duration. Also, look into the Deacon Sword.

You can break 500, but at the cost of sacrificing taeon augment+.
I guess it kinda revolves on Enhancing +15 (runeist hands+1) vs Phalanx+3 (aug taeon).
For the reasons Saevel wrote I think it's pretty clear that Phalanx+3 is gonna produce better benefits than enha+15.


@Cloudxi
Not sure why you would midcast Phalanx with Siegel Sash honestly... Did you mean Olympus?

i don't have a precast and miscast, just one macro. as far as hitting 500 skill, it seems like you could, i have 440 skill with just merits and gifts and don't have any +skill. i haven't looked at gear but it seems like 60 isn't that much. not that you would want to drop phalanx+ gear

I was thinking about it more for Temper, as each 10 skill grants you another point of DA. Yet I hate that the two pieces of Carmine with enhancing skill on them share the same slot as the gear we have that extends enhancing duration.

personally i don't care that much about the duration. fast cast is so broken i can throw up any spell stupid fast. i always go with potency. I'm just always scared of getting hit too hard while casting. also when it comes to temper, if you get above 50% DA, you are hurting ergon AM3 as far as dps. at least if i remember right.

obv in tanking gear you would never hit 50% DA, but i spent like 1/3 of my time in DD gear with multi hits. thats the only time it would really matter

If you're using Temper with Embolden, it's best to sacrifice some base potency for enhanced duration during those casts.

It's been known for a long time. I'm not even positive that this was the first time the discovery was reported, but I remember learning of this about the time I took an extended break from the game (but still kept up on the forums) and I hardly am an expert of game mechanics and nifty acronyms like FOO and such. It's okay to not know something. Learning is healthy.

That would be incorrect.

Proc order for multihits is QA>TA>DA>OAX. Any DA proc yields precisely swings+1. On any hit where DA would proc, the chance of an AM3 proc only yields an average swings+0.8: 0.4 from 40% OA2 and another 0.4 from 20% OA3.

DA is still better than AM3, it's just better by a reduced margin compared to a non-OAX weapon. This is where you start getting into potential tradeoffs for other useful stats, but the closest you get to a "tradeoff" with Temper itself is duration v potency. It's more relevant to your choice of gear with both up.

Any way to 50%DT w/o vocane?

Many ways. Vocane for DT- is a pretty poor choice for RUN, except as a temporary placeholder for someone who doesn't yet have a D.Ring and doesn't want to farm 2 Dark Rings (so basically, someone who isn't terribly serious about RUN for serious endgame content). Knockback reduction is minor, and I guess the cure pot received is something but a pretty minor reason to be wasting a mission reward on this ring if you have literally ANY other job you care about that can make good use of a different ring.

Instead of just saying "50%DT" you really need to break down the categories: PDT, MDT, and (to a much lesser extent) BDT. For most people's purposes, on RUN you're just worring about capping PDT. MDT comes very easily (you'll cap anyway if you have a good PDT set & Shell), and BDT is a very niche case that probably uses a modified version of your normal tanking set.

1) MDT is very easy to hit 50% thanks to Shell V, which gives at least MDT-24% (more for WHM with Shellra merits/gear, Embolden, etc.) Leaves not a whole lot you need to make up. For instance, with regular old Shell V (24%) you can cap with just:
D.Ring (DT-10%)
Twilight Torque (DT-5%)
Evasionist's Cape w/ max DT- aug (DT-5%)
Dark Ring (MDT-6%)

Of course there are other options like Refined Grip +1 (DT-3%), Dampening Tam (MDT-4%), Iuitl Headgear +1 (up to PDT/MDT-4%), Futhark Coat +1 (DT-7%), Loricate Torque +1 (6%), etc.

2) PDT is easy since we get tons of gear that is "just" PDT- (not Damage Taken or Magic Damage Taken). Rehashed to death in this topic so just look through it. Note that you can adjust as needed to remove PDT/DT gear in some slots in place of other useful gear. For instance, capping PDT/MDT without body allows use of Erilaz+1 body. All of the DT- gear stuff mentioned above in MDT section works, plus additional PDT gear like Erilaz+1 legs (7%) and feet (5%), Patricius Ring (5%), Emet Harness +1 (6%), Flume Belt/+1 (4%), base PDT-3% on Evasionist's cape, Herculean set, etc...

3) BDT is a little harder, but most people don't really bother optimizing for a capped BDT set in everyday tanking gear since it's a very rare scenario AND you're generally going to have enough DT- to be fine anyway.

That being said, if for some reason you're in a rare fight where BDT- is really important, there are some pieces with large chunks of BDT- that will allow you to cap. For instance, Combuster/+1: (BDT-13%/14%, and is a 1h sword so could theoretically DW these), Blackshell Hairpin (BDT-7%), augmented Dark Ring (12% with max MDT-6% BDT-6% augs).

Note that as discussed in previous posts on this page and previous, testing has shown that when "Magic Damage Taken" comes from an augment (not a standard un-augmented stat), it counts as BDT. Even stacks with specifically stated "Breath Damage Taken" augments. Most notable example is a Dark Ring with MDT-6% BDT-6%, which actually reduces 12% of Breath Damage Taken.

EDIT: and actually, just threw together a base set with DT-42%. Easy to add additional PDT, MDT/Shell, and/or BDT to hit 50%.
ItemSet 340387