Drakesbane Help ~ (Beat It Like A Dead Dog)

Alright, ive seen many posts posts and topics.

But i would like to list my gear and see where i could improve.

I Ws in (Sorry i just copy and pasted the gear set from my profile)
http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=119542
sub "Claymore Grip"
ammo "Angon"
ear1 "Brutal Earring"
ear2 "Delta Earring"
ring1 "Rajas Ring"
ring2 "Spinel Ring" Aug ~ +3 ACC
neck "Love Torque"
feet "Hct. Leggings"
legs "Aurum Cuisses"
hands "Hecatomb Mittens"
waist "Warwolf Belt" Aug ~ +3 ACC
back "Cuchulain's Mantle"
body "Zahak's Mail"
main "Fay Lance" Aug ~ +5 DMG +2Str +2Dex
head "Champion's Galea" Aug ~ +4 Str 15 WS Acc +4 Dex +3% Crit dmg

I have 8/8 polearm and 4/4 Crit and i think 1 str
Then depending on /Blu or /Sam i get more STR and Dex on top, but we'll go with base before SJ.

~STR +50
~DEX +45
~Crit + 10%
~Acc + 18
~WS Acc + 15
Then Food/SJ and buffs will obviously adjust this.

I originally went for a bigger dex build with Askar legs and clearly still have my Spinel ring on.

My main concern is, my current dex is Enough or Too much. Or do i have a healthy average of Str and Dex.

Also going for too much Crit % or not enough. I originally had Cletine + claymore for a higher crit% but switched to fay lance and juggle between Claymore + double atk grip. Havent quite found which averages a higher Drakesbane.

On birds i hit as low as 1k and as high as 2.1k

Drg is my Main job and love. So any help in improving would be alot of help ^^ thanks.

Pole Grip instead of Claymore Grip.
Tiphia Sting/Smart Grenade/Black Tathlum instead of Angon (macro onry).

As for crits, according to testing on BG lately they seem incredibly underwhelming. You might be better off just focussing on the "predictable" part of the damage (Flame Gorget, perhaps a STR earring? Maybe a Flame Ring...).

If you want to focus on STR/DEX together (I'm honestly not sure as to which is better overall - fullDEX, mixed set, or full STR), Drachen +1 hands are good for this. Ares' Flanchard is an insane WS piece for legs but ... yeah. Salvage sucks.

Ya my bad on the Throwing slot. Im incredibly lazy when it comes to getting an item in that slot.

As for Love torque vs Gorget. Im pretty sure the dex and pole skill(acc/atk) would win, no?

And yes str earing/ring vs Dex is my main question i asked.

So maybe ill try and augment my 10th str ring to replace my love for my spinel ring and swap delta for a str piece too.

Pole Grip or bust and an actual DD ammo.

Assuming you're Hume, you're at 110 DEX and dDEX caps at 117 on Greater Colibri. That means Askar Dirs will benefit you more and Ares' Flanchard or Hecatomb Subligar would be ideal. Love Torque is good at birds because of the DEX pushing you close to capping dDEX, but you're going to be better off with Flame or Light Gorget against tougher mobs due to not being able to cap dDEX. Cletine may be better than Fay with high dDEX provided you retain your x-hit, but with those augments I'd just use Fay everywhere to be safe.

EDIT: STR ring vs your Spinel: your Spinel wins because it brings you to 404 accuracy. Looks like I need to catch up on the BG crit thread, my info may be slightly out of date.

Thanks Nightfyre that was helpful info.

Im Taru btw, so i have higher Dex if i remember.

but slightly lower str :P

Also Ares legs is possible, but hecatomb is out of the question for me.

And i guess i need to find a gorget for outside of burn pt's ^^ WEAK!

Time to make a Bird drakebuild and a regular one ^^

Your DEX is exactly the same as a Hume, so my DEX and ACC values are correct for you.

Personally its not worth stacking DEX really because DRG DEX is that crap normally, and its incredibly hard to get it anywhere good, you're best just sticking to stacking STR and hoping for the crits.

As for Torque over Gorget. +.1 to your fTP will do a lot more than the 10 attack, acc is the same, and the dex is well, meh, as above.

Well i guess im going to test test a pure STR build in a merit PT the next chance i get and see if i like what i get.

Also is there a difference between light gorget and flame when it comes to benefits for my drakesbane?

.1 fTP is a 2.5% increase to Drakesebane damage when all 4 hits connect due to fTP only impacting the first hit of a multihit WS.

Doesn't matter whether you use Flame or Light.

k cool, flame it is :P

So i dont mean to bring this back up. But i've been talking to friends lately and apparantly the new Pdif stuff discovered with Dex over cit and all that jaaazzz iw anted to repost my up to date set and discuss if going more Dex = better.


Main: Fay Lance ~ Dmg+5 Str+2 Dex+2
Sub: Polegrip
Ammo: Tiphia Sting
ear1: Brutal Earring
ear2: Delta Earring
ring1: Rajas Ring
ring2: Spinel Ring Aug ~ +3 ACC
neck: Love Torque
feet: Hct. Leggings
legs: Askar Dirs
hands: Hecatomb Mittens
waist: Warwolf Belt Aug ~ +3 ACC
back: Cuchulain's Mantle
body: Zahak's Mail
head: Champion's Galea Aug ~ +4 Str 15 WS Acc +4 Dex +3% Crit

Now I had switched to Aurum legs and Flame gorget for awhile but since recently i switched back to a pure dex setup.

I am currently Just a 35 away from my Ares Legs which will push my stats another 6str and 2Dex.

Atm i have as a Drg/Sam with Hasso.

STR65 +48
DEX65 +52

With ares legs that would be +54 +54.

Is this setup optimal and what else could i change to improve?
Would Nheads 7str 1dex beat out the WS acc + crit dmg?
Would Nlegs Attack beat out Ares str+double atk?
Etc etc.
Im trying to perfect my drg.

Ares should beat nlegs unless nlegs were were under crit cap w/ ares and at the point where 2 dex would =~2% crit rate when you're in the +40-48 range over mob's agi. I'd use Nhead (especially if that 1 dex counts towards the +50 ove rmob's agi). In class now didn't look at your entire build, but my drakes acc is capped w/ almost no acc gear at all except for what I get from cuch mantle (and i wear that for dex), love torque, and black tahtlum, the dex on the rest of the stuff covers my acc.

NHead beats the Galea, yes. Beats STR/WSDMG+2% as well. Aurum Cuirass will be superior to Zahak's Mail both in capped and low dDEX situations, but I believe Zahak's can win given high (but uncapped) dDEX. If you substitute in NHead, Ares legs, and Aurum Cuirass, you have 118 DEX - just over the cap for birds. Only other improvement I see besides HQing Heca pieces is an Astrolabe or Black Tathlum.

Concerning what Vegetto said about accuracy, after the swaps I've suggested you're sitting on 422 accuracy with Hasso up. That's more than enough for meriting and should be sufficient for anything else as well given the appropriate food.

EDIT: NLegs: Situational, highly dependent on whether you can make use of the DEX. Ares should win if you're at capped (or low) dDEX. There's the possibility of being able to swap out Love Torque for Flame/Light Gorget given enough additional DEX though...

hmm i really dont think ares legs beats heca legs. With that new pdif thing attack caps at 720 at birds isnt it? 2.2 ratio thing. Drg will never reach that amount unless it is seriouly over buffed. Like 2xmin + chaos or 2x SV'd min.

Compared to other 2 handed dds, drg severely lacks attack buffs. I really think heca pants will increase ws damage better than 4-5 base damage due 6 str ever will. On that matter a foragers/amemet+1 should also be better than cuch mantle.

On my case i miss exactly 3 dex to break the deal and max crit at birds (i use 5 dex legs), heca would fit in perfectly.

Agreed. You can trade that Spinal ring for a STR ring and change the grip for Pole Grip and you're golden!

http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=142144

Thats my basic WS set for Drakesbane, looking to throw in Cuch belt and Zahaks at some point when and if i can be bothered but it does the job

Oops, lets try this instead

Aurum Cuirass? Cheaper than Zahak's on most servers. (Though some crazy jps on Bismarck wanted 10m for it lol)

Don't use Cuch belt.

Laphine: I didn't do the math, but that's what I've been told by people who are in a position to know. 6 STR on a 50% STR WS plus 2 DA is pretty potent. As we noted though, Heca wins if you need the DEX.

EDIT: After doing the math... I assumed a STR merited Hume with the high-end gearset I referenced earlier (OP's set plus my 3 changes), Dia II, Mithkabobs, no Minuets or Chaos Roll and Ares came out ahead. Adding Attack buffs would only increase Ares' margin, so the situation was designed to favor Heca. I used an fSTR increase of 1. I'd say it holds up. I will not deny that they're better for you though since you do not have capped dDEX.

Am doing Tyger tonight so will give it a try if it drops

Let me try some math too:
The base ws set im going to use is this. This is a pimped out version of my own set, so im going to take a mithra too.

valk | pole | astrolabe
heca| love | brutal | hollow
zahak| heca| flame | rajas
foragers| warwolf| heca or ares | heca

str and dex values:
str 134= 71+53+10 ( from meat and hasso)
dex 112= 73+39

heca legs
str 134
dex 120
total DA 10

ares legs
str 140
dex 118
total DA 12

ws damage1
95+16+ 55 = 166
166 x 4.10 hits x 1.25 bonus = 850

ws damage2
95+18+ 58 = 171 (best possible case, +5 base damage)
171 x 4.12 hits x 1.25 bonus = 880

I'm going to take into consideration a bad attack scenario:
Dia'd colibri with 293 defense -> we need 644 to cap attack then
Lets consider that we will have that with heca legs, ares legs will then give us -16 attack.

heca legs:
attack 644
cratio 1.847
( not going to use pdif to simplify and be more direct)
ws damage = 850x 1.847 = 1569

ares legs:
attack 628
cratio 1.793
ws damage = 880x 1.793 = 1577

So ares legs did win by very small margin using both best base damage increase due str and a bad attack value that is near cap and that decreases the heca attack worthiness. I have to add that in reality a drg would be a bit under attack cap for colibri (and even more by using cuch), and that favors heca. I would say too that if you cant break +5 base damage with ares or if you need more dex, heca is better.

Nightfyre you said you did a no attack boost math, i think if i had done it like that, heca would have pulled ahead a bit. IMO the real conclusion i can make is that they are both side grades to each other. The player has to check which fits better for on his drg.

Switch to thunder ring for 117 dex?