Notes: Several changes can occur and still make 5 hit with reasonable risk:
Unkai Nodowa + Yoichinoyumi <-> Portus Collar + Hagneia Stone
Arbuda Grip + Ninurta's Sash <-> Pole Strap + Bullwhip
Less risk to hit 5 hit:
Yoichi-> Hagneia Stone
Arbuda Grip + Ninurta's Sash <-> Rose Strap + Bullwhip
I personally do the posted setup because I do not like the -75HP on bullwhip. I idle in 1708 HP and it hovers this amount in my M.def and P.def sets (about 1890 in VW). That being said, this may not be the highest parse-yielding setup available, but I chose this setup over others because a half tank is what I choose to play. (Bullwhip is like -%5 of my max HP...)
I like wearing Yoichi full time because I don't feel as if it compromises my damage by enough that justifies "not" wearing it. As a fun factor of being able to shoot things that try to run away from you or saving that extra 80TP after dying to keep on shooting to maintain DPS, it's just a fun.
The moonshade is regain earring. I made it before shoha was introduced, but I still swear by it for the ability to change much more gear around and still reach 5 hit builds. I also do not see much use of save TP for VW since Dusty wings are plentiful and I have had good results with that over pure WS spam.
Whatever the difference is between Atheling/Unkai backpiece is a wash. With a 5% zanshin rate, it only converts to .25*5% Zanhasso. (1.25% Zanhasso vs 3DA).
WS:
Notes: I use a shadow gorget+Shadow belt for shoha because it overlaps with Tachi: Kasha (less inventory to play with). (Which makes light with Shoha)
- Mistaken information after someone had convinced me of this without double checking.
I keep the moonshade earring in the WS set because the WS animation usually allows 1-2 ticks of TP and other options of earring is just 4 STR which I was willing to compromise. Consistantly, I have a WS rate of 1 WS/8-10 seconds in VWNM, with the WS animation being a big portion of it (you can start using abilities after the 2nd "slash" of shoha). This convinced me to just WS with it normally.
Atheling/Unkai: In terms of 3DA vs 5STR the averages are pretty close.
Edit: Fixed a bunch, didn't realize that my FFXIAH sets were from lvl95 cap lol.
Namas Set:
Pretty much same as Taint's but instead of using Shura head, I use Twilight Helm. I don't think the differences would be as large with Shura head and Twilight helm because Namas will typically not deal as much as a g.kat WS. Since it is percentage based, a lower WS average would hurt 3% WS damage more than pure base stat.
I also use Hachiryu Haidate because I have no idea what the Tier 6 VWNM's have as VIT and no idea if I cap STR.
Last three Qilin Parses Shoha averages 2.4k (high 3.6), 2.3k (high 2.9), 2.3k (high 3.3). (Two in which I was using my armageddon atmacite set accidently, but is the most recent parses on Qilin since 99). At 99 and +40% total WSdamage, it might be able to catch up to shoha with capped attack instances and even beat it, but at the moment, I haven't even attempted to use Kaiten unless it's Dynamis DC mobs (Which it does better on because of self skillchains).
Average Hit damage (might have WS sets melee hits sometimes stuck in there sometimes) = 225.