Endeavoring To Awaken --A Guide To Rune Fencer

I guess I don't really see the point of playing RUN (hell, any job... FFXI is a game of specialization) as an "all-arounder". That to me is like the terrible BLU who sets some nuke spells/traits, some DD stuff, wears a mishmash of gear, and ends up sucking.

On RUN, you're either:
(1) Acting as a tank on significant content and need to be using a full on tank build. In which case, yeah, extra Meva on Aettir is pretty nice. Acc and WSD are... OK, I guess they're something, but it's not the point and you're still not there for your meager DPS.

(2) Lower tier stuff where you can easily give up the defensive aspects of Aettir and just use a significantly better DD weapon. Zufilqar, Montante, whatever.

Aettir is still "only" a tanking weapon. A now improved tanking weapon that has a bit more offensive power, and still one of the better JSE weapons for any job, but still wouldn't use it outside of situations where you're focused on being a tank at the expense of all else. There's literally never a situation I'd use RUN and (a) not gear for tanking but (b) still think it's worthwhile to make the large (though admittedly LESS large than it used to be) offensive sacrifice needed to use Aettir.

Now, new Epeolatry does pack some punch for a tanking weapon though ;) Can just use that in any situation, obviously.

I find it understandable that you don't see the point, there's very little to argue about that.
Doesn't mean there is not a point though ^.~

Hahaha :) I... think I understand your comment?

At any rate, I'm waiting to get my reforged Aettir back right now so I do think it's a very worthwhile upgrade! Just doesn't change anything from before about situations when I'd use it over a DD weapon.

Yea it's just a comment about the sword on its own, not about how RUN is played or what you'd actually use the sword for in a real situation. I would absolutely have taken a tanking stat over WSD and I think they should have. WSD is a dumb augment for Aettir. I would trade the acc too but it seems to be a theme for all the weapons so w/e.

Anybody know exactly how many Plutons are needed to complete Aettir?

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Oboro

waiting? he gave me mine back right away. double check your inventory.

I don't know why I wrote that, I wasn't waiting for anything and I did realize I got the thing back immediately... I think I was just standing around and posting ;)

Anyway, Aettir was my first upgraded JSE. Mainly for the Meva making the weapon better at the task it was already good for.

Do we think it's possible to tank Warder of Courage with an Aettir provided that other tanking equipment is top-notch? Or is Epeolatry mandatory? Dual Wielding the Flyssa +1 and Flyssa is still a good option but with the update I think that Aettir might have clawed its way back to being right behind Epeolatry.

This is the current tanking set I use at the moment.
ItemSet 334832
-30% Damage Taken
-21% Physical Damage Taken
-5% Physical Damage Taken II
-4% Magic Damage Taken
Magic Evasion +444 (+514 with 1710 Job Points)

I'm thinking that this set is the one I'd use against a target that does a lot of melee hits or for 120-135 content where there's not as many massively damaging attacks potentially coming my way.

ItemSet 341915
-40% Damage Taken
-15% Physical Damage Taken
-5% Physical Damage Taken II
-7% Magic Damage Taken
Fire/Thunder/Water/Earth/Wind Resistance +45
Light/Dark Resistance +55
Magic Evasion +428 (+498 with 1710 Job Points)
+200 HP over the first set.

This is the set I am considering for straight tanking high level content like Warder of Courage, or in situations where a 145 NM will have lots of adds like Warder of Courage or the Reisenjima HELM NMs. I'm considering altering this second set to work in something other than the Erilaz Greaves +1 but I can't think of a better option in that slot. Not only do they have Elemental Resistance that will stack with the Engraved Belt but they also pack an absurd amount of Evasion and Magic Evasion compared to any competitors. The two earrings have great potential as they give a sizeable amount of HP at the cost of MP, but you're hardly going to have MP problems in Escha with all of the Temporary Items you get access to so it seems a great option.

Any suggestions?

Should you even bother with elemental resistance?
I mean, with capped JPs, all those gifts and Aettir's magic evasion Magic damage shouldn't be an issue regardless, especially if you spread runes and use a different bar spell.

The only problem I see for RUN tanking WoC is Hundred Fists and Mighty Strikes.
Sure you have Battuta for that, but if you get an unlucky sequence it's gonna be nasty.

Do you guys single-tank WoC? We usually have 12+ people for WoC, closer to 18 to be fair most of the times, and we tipically deploy two tanks. Both tanks have hate on WoC+Wynavs, but one tank specifically tanks the Wynavs, the other tanks WoC.
This also grants us a further layer of safety for Soul Voice, since Virelai is instant and you don't get enough time to use the Charm Ward (maybe if you use a script using packets? never tried), but with the dual tank setup you're usually safe from that at least once per fight.


As for suggestions on your gear, Brigantia Pebble for ammo?
Accuracy shouldn't really be a big deal, you don't "need" to hit WoC to do your job, and even then 10 acc isn't going to make a difference. Personally I'd prefer the VIT/Def over the Evasion.
There's also Futhark feet +1 but I'm afraid on a high level target like WoC parrying is gonna be floored and all your parries will come exclusively from Inquartata/Battuta, which kinda means Parrying+15 would probably produce no result =/

We typically do not use more than 9 people as we are not fond of giving him masses of HP so he gets a better chance to use Benediction. Our quickest kill of Courage was just over four minutes and involved an Epeolatry RUN as the sole tank.

Sch/Cor/Geo/Blm/Blm
Run/Whm/Geo/Geo

The COR serves a pretty neat purpose. Caster's and Tactician's Roll. SCH uses Distortion and the Corsair then does Leaden Salute to create Darkness. The RUN did Rayke and Gambit beforehand and as such the COR's Leaden did an absolutely absurd amount of damage, nearly 80k with a Soldier's Drink, with the resulting Darkness doing 90k. One of the BLM burst Death off that skillchain, the other did Comet, and the RUN did Lunge for a pretty decent number. Due to the TP wings available you can do this quite a few times. Our fail-safe for Soul Voice was to have one of the GEO use Indi-Gravity and follow Warder of Courage, slowing him down while people kited him.

Eh, sadly lowmen is a luxury we cannot afford =/
Not sure how fast our fastest kill was but our slowest was a bit more than 15 mins lol


Anyway, with a single RUN tanking everything including Wynavs, I'm even more tempted to go for stuff like Brigantia in your ammo slot.
Which buffs does your single-tank RUN gets usually when tanking WoC?
I guess you don't go /NIN because with all those things hitting you at the same time shadows would be kinda useless?
/BLU?

Your group are better people than me then, I've had to get a bit ruthless and tell people that unless they have 'useful jobs' (read: geo/cor/blm/smn/sch/rdm/whm/run/pld) well geared and CP'd they are going to majorly struggle to come to events given the way HP/Attributes scale. It's not very nice I know but it's the nature of endgame now, to be extremely flexible as people do not like coming the same jobs every single time.

/BLU is pretty much a no brainer for high level tanking because of it's hate generation tools and defensive spells so I would be /BLU for sure.

I have another question to shoot at people as well. Do we know if Effusion: Rayke reduces the damage penalty for using too many magic bursts in the same skillchain? I understand that testing was done on the RDM forum which proved this to be mathematically true. It's worth testing perhaps? If so it could make Courage kills even faster if you do not have to stagger Death casts.

As far as I know absolutely yes and it's one of the reasons why Rayke is being abused lately. The original SMN strategy Papesse's group developed for Kirin/Kouryu required RUN for that very reason, not much for Gambit but for Rayke.

(speaking of which, I always go /NIN on RUN for Kirin! But that's the only NM I can think of going /NIN)

If I remember correctly rayke testing result is in escha ruann and magic burst thread on BG. It cuts dmg reduction by half.

Nin sub is awesome on a lot of things, it works well on NM like maju as well, can take little to no damage and require very little healing. Enmity generation is hardly an issue on higher lv stuff.

its been said on here many times that /blu is great for enmity, unfortunately i never got into blu so i don't know what spells are good for that, could someone please give me a quick rundown.

For enmity:
Geist Wall, Soporific, Sheep Song, Jettatura, Blank Gaze, maybe Wild Carrot

Traits:
Cursed Sphere/Sound Blast for Magic Attack Bonus
Battle Dance/Uppercut for Attack Bonus
Grand Slam and Terror Touch for Defense Bonus

Absurdly powerful physical mitigation:
Cocoon

Can also keep Refueling set just in case your haste gets dispelled and you need a quick, albeit weaker, substitute.

thanks a ton

Depending on the situation, you might also like to set a "Killer" trait. Just a slightly helpful bonus.

Also, Dimi > Chain Affinity Uppercut makes Fusion, which you can then Dimi again for Light. Or Lunge/Swipe for an MB.

Was it half? You sure?
I admit I don't remember 100% but I seem to recall it was 30%, 10% for each rune.
Again not completely sure but I think it was something like that.

Linking the original source for you:
https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/126954-Magic-Burst-Bonus/page2


If I read this correctly, resist wall is 60% dmg reduction, rayke cuts dmg reduction by half so it's 30% dmg reduction instead of 60%. Number of runes doesn't matter.

Guess I read the original test wrong and recorded numbers in my mind.
Thanks for clarifying!

I've been outta the game for about 4 months due to work stuff. Someone catch me up and I'll update the sticky.

I'm starting to gear up run and would like some advice on building a basic and easy to get tanking set I could use for basic escha/HTB, etc.

Which af1/relic/empy should I prioritize first to be able to start tanking right away? I still don't have vagary legs/body clears either so that af3 body and legs are not an option atm.

So far I have a fully augmented Aettir, JSE cape with -5 DT, Refined Grip, flume belt, and a pair of dark rings with -10 pdt -8 mdt total.

My thoughts are Futhark Hat/Body, Runeist Hands/Legs, and AF3 boots.

Any help would be great,
Thanks.

Did you look at the gearsets on the 1st page? Also, think there are some groups on your server who do Vagery clears?

As said above I've been out for a while but I would say a solid place to start would be Emet Harness +1 > Futhark Coat +1 for body. Twilight Torque, Umithi Gloves, and Ra'Kaz Skirm gear aug'd for PDT with the current campaign are a good place to start when making a tanking set.

The front page is pretty out of date for most people who have been playing the job for a while or are dumping a lot of money into it. However for someone just picking it up it is likely in a decent spot to start getting an idea.

ItemSet 341967

This would be an easy to obtain starter set. It is by no means ideal but assuming 4s on the Dark Rings and 2 DT aug on the cape it would put you at 49% PDT which should at least get you in the door.

Edit: Just noticed what you said about your cape/rings. This would put you at 52 with what you have. This would let you drop refined for a better grip. You will want to replace the Futhark Hat asap as it really gives you nothing useful but PDT. Personally I use an Iuitl Headgear +1 with 4 PDT 3 MDT 9 Acc until I finish getting back up to speed.

Thanks alot, this is exactly what I was looking for. I'll start working on getting the Emet Harness (any idea if the UNM is soloable?), and also +1 the af3 shoes. Would it still be viable to use the AF3 pants even if they are 109 with lower stats/def mixed in with the rest of 119 gear?

My ultimate goal is to get the vagary clears but I almost never see shouts for them, and i'm not sure how many people are needed etc, so it would be hard to try and get one set up.

I'd say yes on the legs, but that will depend heavily on what you are tanking. T1s in Escha, or Sinister you will probably be fine. Anything much harder and you will have trouble unless you have a pretty solid healer behind you or some decent practice with the CD timings.

The UNM for Emet Harness is to my knowledge not soloable, but others on here will be more qualified to answer that. I used to three man it with THF SAM WHM and crush it with Rudras > Darkness before they nerfed it. I have not been back since.

As for Vagary I've done the legs clear with as low as 5. PLD GEO GEO SCH RDM worked, however you do need to clear the other three to be able to get in, and this group was very well geared.

You could likely do it with less now.

Ultimately you probably want to aim at something like this.

ItemSet 341968

Likely you are looking to swap in something like Herc Gloves if you aren't getting Vocane.

I have a bit of research to do before I update the front page.

It is soloable with tank healer trust, strong DD with solid dt set and sub nin. Soloed on COR, but jobs like Blu or thf should kill faster.