Great Sword Selection Question

Ele belt and Warwolf belt are more or less equal at 100tp I belive (then again I suppose I should gear this ws for 300tp onry, so even moonshade would be lame)

To be honest, the Phorcys body does more for torcleaver than Ares will. Sure the VIT stat is pretty important, but it's made up for with the set bonus, and vit in other slots, such as the hands. The primary reason i used Ares Cuirass before phorcys was released, was due to the str and attack on top of the vit.

I've been argued against this because Mekira Meikogai had 17 vit over ares's 12. People were really still debating this, despite the low ws numbers using a pure vit build, back when the level cap was 85, instead of tossing on the str/att to really boost it's damage.

Phorcys body is no brainer for Torcleaver, nothing else is touching it.

I guess same goes for ogier's breeches.

Rule of thumb I see is 1hit = phorcys becauase the +% damage beats out everything else, due to the nature of 1hit WS.


+ benefit of all that STR/atk for maximizing damage.

I don't pipe up too often. I'm not gonna spin numbers or anything. I have a really SOLID choice of body pieces for DRK (minus the new stuff from Phorcys on. Lost interest AND time to play shortly after Dominion) and have been a DRK for many many years on FFXI. I'm a Galka DRK and often use MNK/WAR/SAM/DRG/WHM for friends or LS mates. My merits are all accounted for, and OMFG I understand what fSTR is.

Greatswords are awesome, period. As for which is better... debatable.

Hoarfrost/Borealis: If you don't have a 90+ Caladbolg or Ragnarok, these are basically the cream of the crop. Only got my Borealis a month ago, and still haven't truly used it.

OAT: If you got a LOT of time and enjoy tedious "murder everything over and over and over and over" do it. The OAT Greatsword will give you the innate ability to memorize every pixel movement of Resolution within hours as you sling TP like a freakazoid. The last upgrades are pretty daggone cheap nowadays. I scooped up almost 300 riftsand for 2~3k a piece in a day. Mirrors still gonna run you 10~20k a piece.

Tenebreuse(STR): Don't have one. Save your flame geodes to make gil, for anything but one of these.

Ragnarok: is badass because even WAR can get in on the fun. It has a very nice crit. rate, and when swung, can do bonus damage that would not otherwise be accounted for in the item description. Scourge blows, even with a 40% DT ignore, don't think anyone wants to slam their head against a wall and fight that. But the saving grace is obviously Resolution.

Caladbolg: was made with a clear intention from SE. So what if we made Groundstrike slower and VIT mod with a much higher fTP index? Mmmm, not a good as we thought, well make sure it's at least faster than the Ragnarok by 0001 delay. But seriously Torcleaver is like GOD in comparision to Scourge being a soggy turd with sparkles. Or Everyone I've ever seen use Scourge somehow missed 50% of a 1 hit WS?

As for what parses better, I've never even seen a Caladbolg 99 in action, but mathmatically with the "occ. does twice/thrice"(great band! see in in a show sometime! bring a hot girl!!!) it looks to do better in DOT than the Ragnarok. Not by a massive amount or, but it's no sloutch.

As for WS depending on buffs, that's a whole different story. Again, theoretically a Ragnarok isn't going to shovel much more WS damage than an equal level Caladbolg. It can just be used by WAR and generally less irritating to upgrade.

***As aformentioned. I R GALKA with STR/VIT+12 in merits. My base VIT is indeed more than likely much higher than the avg DRK so Torcleaver is hella fun for me.
/WAR 111
/SAM 108
/RDM 107
/SCH not done, can't tell ya!

I'd love some insight as to how some of the more experienced DRK's have given priority to their weapon choice.

First off, there is no "occ. does thrice" dmg. You're thinking of occasionally attacks twice/thrice on MYTHIC weapons, I think. Also people never spam torcleaver with Calad. You use it for AM then you spam resolution.

Yur right, my bust, haven't played in months! Any~hooooooooo~

Ragnarok Base@99 143
Caladbolg base @99 142

Ragnarok (again correct if I'm wrong) but based on my parses, it's a 1 in 6 chance to do 2.5x damage.

Caladbolg (as long as 300% TP was expended on Torcleaver, the ratio is essentially 50%, or 1 in 2 chance to do 2x damage.

All I was saying. The delay difference is literally in gods eye only. 1 delay, woopy.

In a DRK's hands, gonna stretch, but prolly a better greatsword in the end. Ragnarok is just way easier to get.

Getting gil to buy items is easier than getting a similar amount of gil to buy different items?

They have about the same gil sink 75-99 I believe. It's just easier to do ADL 5x if you have a group than spamming crap for weeks on end for HMP/cinder/dross. In situations where the acc is needed (multi hit reso seems to be one of those situations, no?) Rag clearly wins by a large margin.

I have not seen it posted anywhere but while i was doing trials for my new ragnarok, I started playing around with weaponskills to see what skill chained with scourge. I was mildly suprised to learn that scourge + Resolution = Light. while some might say scourge sucks and all that, i see this as a great way to start fights. Open up with sekkenoki (my spelling sucks i know) and use scourge with 300 tp, then use the remaining 200 tp on a resolution. you will get a nice little dose of extra damage and, long as its unresisted, could double your resolutions damage. after that sure go back to resolution spam. I just don't like people knocking on a weaponskill simply because its damage output isnt as nice as others. Many things still have uses beyond damage and today's player base seems to have forgotten that. Anyone remember when Tachi: Rana came out? People hated it at first due to its low damage. Then they found out it can open darkness. Then you sucked as a sam unless you had it.

Basically all I am saying is look at the big picture. I am sure Torcleaver can be used to skillchain too but since i dont have it i will not speculate. I might be stuck in old school way of thinking, but opening with light and getting at least a few seconds of aftermath seem to be a great way to start a fight.

What's the Accuracy quantity before diminishing effects anyhow for GS with 8 merits as 99 DRK?

I generally parse in the 90%+ without 40 accuracy on my weapon. Not gonna give it that great of an edge for Accuracy that doesn't matter since the two-handed update years ago.


**ninja edit to answer
Torcleaver > Torcleaver > Light
Torcleaver > Resolution > Distortion

Problem being in either scenario, YOU ARE NOT GETTING THE FULL AFTERMATH!!!! BOOOOOO!

On what content Theo? Is this legion? That's the only serious thing I can think of, but I'm sure there are other situations where it can help with a multi-hit like reso.

Never even attempted Legion, I quit my shell because I'm tired of trolls and greedy kids. Many were kind and I miss em, but I quit before legion basically. Last content I did with any fervor was Prov. Watcher and Tri boxing my 90 caladbolg :(

Well ok, there ya go. I think Legion does require some acc on some of the higher end halls.

Probably, just don't think it's NEEDED on the weapon.

well that is the beauty of Ragnarok. It's aftermath is not effected by TP like empy's are. More tp just means the effect will last longer. Think the ratio was 5tp=1 sec. so for ragnarok at least, you get the light skill chain and 20 seconds of having an extra 5% crit hit rate. Seems pretty good to me

I have both. Rag shits on Cala. Maybe during mid tier VW a Cala99 could be a Rag99 but VW is a dieing event and really it doesn't matter. Cala needs AM3 to beat Rag so if you aren't getting wings you are pretty much SOL.




Thats a terrible way to look at it. Going from 90% to capped is a big difference maker. Also when you get to the harder mobs that 40acc will make a big difference, or you will be altering your food choice.

This debate is old and beaten, 99Rag is the best Great Sword hands down. Properly buffed its DRK best weapon.

This is where your credibility went out the window with me.