The Last Dance II: The Show Must Go On

Taeon tights have 2% TA base and can get a 2% augment, so until you get perfect Samnuha to are losing attacks by switching to them.

Using Skudo's recently updated spreadsheet, I still get Samnuha with good but imperfect augs beating perfect TA Taeon by a substantial margin testing with a variety of targets/buffs. Both mine (STR+8 DEX+9 DA+3 TA+2) and yours (STR+9 DEX+8 DA+2 TA+2), and both for AM3 Terps/Sari and Sari/Sari.

You might not have as much TA, but there are some pretty strong other advantages on Samnuha. Substantially higher STR and DEX, DA augment (~2%~3%), and Store TP+7 seem like plenty to outweigh the loss of TA+1%.

Well, maybe I'll switch to it, then! I keep forgetting how important STP is for us.


Speaking of which, do any of you actually use Closed Position when not solo anymore? I've been keeping it basically because the alternatives aren't super amazing, but I keep looking at it and thinking I should switch it out for 5/5 Saber Dance and 4/5 No Foot Rise. Given that we can store 45 merits now, I could theoretically switch back and forth when I'm solo vs. in an event.

I've been considering swapping it out too, as the times I'm actually in front of stuff in group play is minimal but I don't know what else to use in that slot. We really don't have too many alternatives once we hit the 550 (luckily I'm not there yet). Can't even use that great Adhemar body without getting hurt. SE just needs to fix DW overflow calculations already after all this time.

If Acc doesn't matter, I get Maculele toe shoes +1 to be the best TP option for the slot. If it does matter, Adhemar Gamashes path A aren't a bad option, or just sucking it up and using Taeon.

Also, lately I have been doing multistep skillchains with other party members. My TP gain is high enough that I can comfortably take every other WS. This really makes sinister reign easy.

Evisceration to Savage Blade (pld) to pyrrhic kleos to leaden salute (cor) to (CF) Rudra's pretty much oneshots Ingrid, Morimar, Sajj, and August. Our quickest run so far took 3.5 minutes zone to zone.

We have fewer options for light damage (Rose and light hands Arci), but it turns out Exent still does tolerable damage. Mandalic Stab is the main thing that makes me jealous of THF.

I personally use Shark Bite for that SC slot, unless I'm keeping the SC going myself and it's effin' Teodor with shadows. It's not super strong, but still does better than Exenterat0r whenever I use it.

And yes, I want a WS with Fusion, too. ;_;

Good call. I haven't really made a set for Shark Bite since the WS update.

I should note that it's totally possible to do the 5-step skillchain by yourself, but it's slower and thus is more likely to be interrupted by the monster.

That's really good SR discussion, thanks guys. I need to practice more on DNC in there. We're trying to branch out to do non-pet melee runs (I've been COR, tank, or my WHM alt for 90%+ of my SR runs) and I'm looking to optimize my DNC more for the event because I'm finding it to be a bit of slow going compared to our old standby setup: Tank Healer GEO COR BST (an excellent one) DD (ideally another good BST for same COR buffs, but even SMN or RNG work decently).

Did a few runs last night (WHM PLD GEO BRD NIN and me on DNC or NIN) and my DNC was utterly demolished damage-wise by my NIN friend, though we could have done a little better with SC coordination and we did get mobs that are particularly annoying for DNC - hi Morimar. I changed to NIN and we were basically even over a couple more runs though, so...


Totally different topic: now that it's been around a while, has anyone found situations where you're actually getting good use out of Enchufla (despite owning better DD daggers)? One dropped to me last night and it does look kinda interesting for utility purposes with the waltz delay. I could see it being helpful for an event where you're doing lots of waltzing or minimal support. While I know that Enchufla is not even at base Taming Sari level for DD purposes, it's not that bad damage wise (does hold up pretty well against anything not Terps or Sari).

While I'm a little skeptical it's enough to offset the loss of a stronger dagger, DW+4 is also potentially useful in the weird case of needing a little gear DW to cap delay reduction without having to sacrifice in other slots to get the DW. Not just pure solo without trusts, I've also started enjoying stuff like solo farming or high tier setups using Trusts but capping delay reduction with Haste II only and fairly minimal need for DW gear, no need for BRD. Something like Apururu, Qultada, Koru-Moru, Kupo or a tank, Robel-Akbel (MBing all my self-SCs for pretty solid additional damage), etc. Or replacing a Trust with a friend on a job that they want CP on, a leech, etc.

I have Sari/Sari now, but neither with perfect augs (one DMG+9 DEX/STR+ something, one DMG+5 DEX/STR+ something) so I'm not losing out quite as much as someone with Mythic or perfect Saris. Enchufla C path (DMG+15 DEX+15 Subtle Blow+7) seems like the obvious one mainly due to the DEX for WS purposes, so that's what I stuck on it.

I'd consider Enchufla for soloing the Ultima/Omega BC with trusts. The lack of Trust Curagas has really killed me in there, which always drives me back to spamming Divine Waltz. Having a combined delay-4 would be nice. I'll probably pick up/augment a Enchufla if I ever happen to see one drop, but it will remain a special-use dagger for me.



Speaking of which, have any of you soloed the Omega/Ultima BC on Normal? Those NMs have ***for HP and it's trivial to duo with a WHM, but Omega spams AoE damage and my trusts are just terrible at dealing with it. Using two tanks effectively circumvents the Pile Pitch problem, but he's still putting out a lot of damage with all my idiot trusts standing in range and my healers casting single target cures.

I switched my Unity to Apururu and need to climb up to rank 5 personal evaluation so I can actually summon her, at which point I'll try again. Ultimately, though, I feel I'll probably be safest soloing it on BRD/NIN (Scherzo works on Pile Pitch, 3x Ballad +5 for Apururu, 2x March / 1x Minuet for me, melee it to death) or BLM/RDM (just stay out of range and nuke it. Douse if hate gets wonky).

The much more relevant thing is that on about half the enemies, Leaden Salute is about 39x stronger than Evisceration _and_ delegating that step to someone else lets you close double Darkness with significantly more TP. I however can't pull that off more often than not, because we often have to shout for the PLD and the COR and getting things going smooth like that is... let's call it unlikely. \o/

Also, I haven't even attempted Omega/Ultima on N, because I have literally no need from anything from there. I've however heard it's a joke with BLU, but that's due to Sudden Lunge lock, I guess.

Sudden Lunge lock makes it an absolute joke, but if you set a few defensive spells it's not needed. Although you'll sometimes get screwed with curse > silence > stun > pain.

I just hopped in to see, and won with little issue solo on N. I think Apururu really is the biggest key - she'll Curaga spam making it pretty safe. I was DNC/NIN. Used Apururu, August, Koru, Joachum, and Brygid (just to be safe), wasn't ever in terrible danger and won in ~12min. Of course, probably harder when Alter Ego Expo campaign isn't running.

Violent Flourish with a pretty decent set wasn't nearly as effective as Sudden Lunge though, FWIW.

Was pretty enjoyable though, think I'm gonna spam that till I manage to get the H2H for my MNK.

Speaking of high tiers... anyone soloing Dawn on DNC? Setup/trusts? Maybe DNC/RUN and use Lux x2... I don't particularly need stuff from it, but would be fun to mess with and maybe park my alt in the zone to lot mage drops.

Cessance Earring could some day be combined with Telos Earring for our best TP (and potentially WS) pairing, I think... if people ever figure out how to kill new AV.

Other than that, I mostly want Culminus for GEO CP soloing so I can maintain Idris aftermath without having my nuke damage suffer too much.

Oh, one more thing - until you get Apururu ranked up, going with two WHMs might be helpful? I didn't really need my 6th slot, which is why I just stuck Brygid in there.

Also, used Joachim intentionally instead of Ulmia solely for additional -na and occasional cures.

Using a second tank instead of Brygid should make Omega even easier, because Pile Pitch will only reset one of their hates at once. If Apururu is willing to spam some Curagas, I'll hammer out the rest of the points I need to summon her tonight and see how high I can push the difficulty before I top out.

Arciela instead of Koru-Moru will gives you access to another AoE heal.

Did 4 more solo Normal O/U. Other than them being jerks about drops, seems like I got this down.

I did kinda prefer my original trust setup after toying with a few tweaks. Koru is better about party buff & debuffing the mob than Arciela, and Apururu's curagas are plenty for healing. 2 tanks didn't do much for me, I would pull hate anyway so it was 1 tank + me as backup even in that case. So I did August + Brygid, makes me feel safer. Plus, the added defense/MDB will become more important if doing this when alter ego campaign is not active.

Only hiccup was that one time Ultima 1-shotted me with a big Smoke Discharger (which I prob survive with Brygid or Fan Dance up). Ended up taking to just tossing up Fan Dance under 50% on Omega (Pile Pitch hitting for peanuts is fun shenanigans) and for all of Ultima.

I'm sure I could optimize for a little bit better speed, but I liked the total safety. Gonna spam some more tonight while campaign is still on...

EDIT: Oh, and IDK what happened first fight (just unlucky I guess) but stun from Violent Flourish was pretty reliable at least on N.

Since you guys are talking about it, how about posting some Shark Bite sets with top and alternate/average gear?
Thanks! :D

Quick comment on Koru vs. Arciela. I do prefer Koru-Moru over Arciela (both for this fight and in general) for a few reasons:

1) He doesn't melee (particularly nice on something like Omega's Shock Spikes)

2) He has better debuffs: Dia III, Distract II are generally a lot better to me than Arciela's Para II and Addle (both have Slow II).

3) He has better buffs: Arciela doesn't get Phalanx II, Koru does.

Cures are somewhat of a wash, but I tend to prefer Koru's single target spells over Arciela's TP-based JA AoE cures.

Also, did a few more One to be Feared (N) yesterday after Alter Ego campaign had ended. Still won, but it's certainly a little riskier for your trusts' survival. August can get 1-shotted by some of Ultima's stuff. I found DNC could tank it just fine even if he does go down, popped Fan Dance on one fight and easily tanked it myself for last ~50%+, but it's a consideration.


Should still look pretty similar to your DEX-heavy Rudra/Evis/PK sets. I had some light-WS using party member asking for SB the other day, and while I had kinda ignored SB since the WS updates I just used my Rudra set on it.

While SB adds AGI as a mod (40% DEX/40% AGI), you're still going to favor DEX all things being equal even if only for the additional Accuracy.

Anyone use any pieces that are actually different than your Rudra set, specifically for SB? (e.g. something with just massively increased AGI over the option for your other WS)?

Is that with calculating Haste Samba? Maybe it's the great age of removing Haste Samba merits and putting them to Steps or Building Flourish instead. In group play, usually most of everyone else is already capped delay too so not like the extra 5 from haste samba is going to help group members too.

Nashmeira II will also cast curaga if you want a non unity leader based curaga trust. She actually does erase/na's faster than apururu and doesn't like to cast stoneskin. Downside is she melees and without Nott/convert she runs out of MP quick so selh'teus is pretty much a must to keep her mp up on longer fights.

New to the DNC train question:

Has much changed in regards to holding TP for Rudra's? Do we do the 1650 tp, or the 2650? I know for thieves it tends to favour higher tp, generally being better.

I'm eager to try DNC in sinister reign, especially since I have perfect aug'd Samnuha Pants.

What is your usual step set-up for SR? Do you go for self-darkness via the Rudra's -> Reverse -> Climactic -> Rudra's? Or do you do something else?

Hoping that more competent DNC will correct my possible mistakes, here's my small answer to your questions:

You don't hold for Rudra. The threshold at which it becomes better than other WSs varies according to the target, your buffs, your gear etc, but more often than not you should be spamming Evisceration at 1000, and using Rudra only if you happen to get overTP for any of the many possible reasons. Of course also use Rudra for SC purposes and if Climactic Flourish is up.
I said this threshold at which Rudra becomes better than other options is variable for the reasons I explained above, but if you want a very very very very generic number, it's probably somewhere around 1700 TP.

For SR it's better if you do double darkness.
Create a normal darkness (for instance Pyrrhic > Evis does Darkness) and then Rudra to create a double darkness and massive damage, especially if you happen to be able to activate Climactic Flourish before.

I've been doing some upgrading to my gear, anyone have any pointers as to where I should go from here?

My basic TP set:
ItemSet 322575

Augments on the pieces are:
Rawhide Vest: path B, rank 15
Gloves: STR/AGI+7, Acc/Att+20, Subtle Blow +3
Tights: STR/DEX+7, Acc/Att+15, TA+2
Mantle: Store TP+2, Dual Wield+4, Reverse Flourish+21

For an Accuracy, build, I tweaked it to this:
ItemSet 322576

I also have a "Fodder" gearset for messing around with, which looks just like the standard TP set, but swaps in the maculele casaque +1 as the body piece, and swaps the Heartseeker/Dudgeon for Steelflash/Bladeborn. Turns me into a walking Ginsu commercial. *laughs*

This is purely something for novelty, but if you don't restrict any gear at all (Adhemar +1, Lustratio +1, etc.) and don't use things like Fighter's Roll, Airy Buckler is competitive with a perfect Taming Sari as an offhand for AM3 Terpsichore.


lol dual wield mechanics.

***75 Cap is back, single wield go! :P

Taking a harder look at the new HQ Abjuration stuff, these pieces would be useful:
Adhemar +1: Head / Body / Hands / Feet
Lustratio +1: Head / Legs / Feet

Lustratio +1 hands aren't bad, but Adhemar hands +1 outclass them for both pure Dex mod and Evisceration due to augments and the Adhemar +1 set bonus.

Considering all this new gear and stuff, what are the AF123 pieces still worth reforging to 109 and worth bringing to 119?

Bump, I'm wondering this too!

Assuming you don't need the DW from Maculele body +1, I would say the bare minimum is:

119: AF3 head and hands, AF2 feet

109: AF head, body, and feet, AF2 head, maybe AF2 body and legs

EDIT: with the exception of the AF2 legs (I just use them as Jig gear and haven't even gotten them past 75), all of the 109 stuff technically benefits from going to 119, but I wouldn't worry lose my head over it if you want the minimum.