Luck Of The Draw: A Corsair's Guide *NEW*

well phantom roll 8 > 7. so........ Do you care about making your rolls the best they can be, or bumping up your own dps?

Nobody needs 3 rostams... you don't even really need one.

I mean, while that's true it's hardly the point of the guide.

I'd be inclined to say path B is the overall best, but it really depends on what sort of situations you find yourself in most frequently. If you shoot more often than melee, may be worth considering path A. Path C is not a huge deal, it is 4 store tp and 3% attack for the party.. if you have 2-3 other competent DPS it might add more group DPS than path A/B, but if you're the most competent player in the party or you're in a small group you're going to be better off with A or B.

I went with C mainly for the duration. Less time rolling, more time doing DD. But it's heavily dependent on if you even fight stuff that takes longer than 9-10 minutes.

Agreed, 10 min rolls lines up nice with Crooked Cards

I find myself doing more melee than shooting but that largely depends on current content. I guess Path B is looking pretty good right about not when it come down to it. Path is tempting for "pew pew" build though.
Was considering Path C but like Suteru mentioned most content in this day and age don't last longer that current max rolls, Dynamis and Master Trials being the exception. Not to mention that it does not work on offhand which makes it loose the appeal since weapon swaps will be required to maximize DPS.
Decisions decisions.

I'm on the train of thought priority for me would be
A>C>B

A is great for both melee and shooting.
C for rolls (you swap gun anyways, this isn't just for duration it's an actual +1)
then B for super optimizing melee

---

I'm waiting to try and get 2 at once once I sign my own cor neck so I can try and knock out 3 trials at once

I would have to agree with path A first, while some say path B is is super awesome for melee it does nothing for shooting while path A can be useful for both. With my groups I usually do around 50/50 ranged melee so it’s nice to not have to switch out main wep all the time.

Yeah, if you know you're absolutely going to make 3, I'd say A>C>B is probably the way to go, just because of our role in a lot of things, these days. It's rare that I find myself being in a situation just for rolls, I'm usually expected to DPS, or extend an SC and whatnot, so other than pet situations where you've no business shooting, the rolls probably won't outweigh your actual DPS gain from path A or B Rostam.

That said, I went with C first, and then B. For me, it was just about the C being more central to our "expected" role. I also liked being able to get to the 10min mark for rolls while also 5/5 Snake Eye and dropping Winning Streak to 3/5.

Otherwise, more frugally, I'd recommend C and B rostam, and path A Lanun Knife, as the +20STP is still enough for me to swap out and optimize some slots, and it's quite a lot cheaper than a Rostam that becomes half as useful when you get around to your Path B.

If you're suffering on inventory, and feel like you shoot enough, I imagine a case could be made to do Path A and C, exclusively, as the melee dps upgrade from A to B from all math that I've seen has been a pretty small upgrade, but is still a pretty sizable increase over non-Rostam mainhands. If you don't shoot enough, then B and C; you can live without a shooting Rostam/Lanun, really.

And of course, anyone saying, "You don't need a Rostam" is certainly correct. Though, it does get to a point where you can keep downplaying the effects of basically any gear until we're all in sparks gear trying to whack on mobs. Optimal isn't necessary, but I feel for career CORs, a couple of Rostams at current prices is well worth the price, and if you're going to be doing Dyna D on COR heavily, then it's even better.

This, B>C>A imo. The difference B make for omen cleave/dyna is huge because of dps AND DT, and these are pretty much my main event now. If I do smn burn or pet pt more I can see C worth more, otherwise cor is not really a "support job" to me that potency comes lower priority than job dps and surviability.

I also duo/lowman a bunch so sb2 matters too.

It's already possible to full time CC a roll with compensator, the duration on the dagger just allow me to unmerit winning streak, that's all.

I rarely shoot ever, and when I do stp+25 is still smaller increase than fua+50, dt+12, sb2+25 lowman because shooting doesn't need dt nor survivability, melee does. That makes B more valuable than A.

^

Your own situation may vary, but meleeing is more often the better option if your group configuration allows for it. I capped path B on all 4 of my CORs, path C on 2 of them. Don't know if I'll pick up third rostam for path A, other thought is that lanun path A loses much less than lanun path B or C(only 5 stp really, generally don't need the DT as much when ranged).

if you Melee almost exclusively then yea Path B is your best option, if you do more like 50/50 as i do Path A will help you more especially if you are shooting for salute SC as the Macc bonus from rostam is outrageous. Basically figure out what you do the most and choose accordingly there is no best for everyone in paths for Rostam as they are all really good.

Anyone who can afford a rostam can get a lanun to go with it, I'd say if you melee any meaningful amount you should path B your rostam. Path A a lanun for similar results for ranged.

I guess you can* melee in path A for 100 dps less if you do go path A first. And just use A for both melee and shoot,

I had my doubt on my choice on path B first, but once I start cleaving/duoing/lowman with it it became clear that it is the better choice for me at least. If not for SB2 reduce NM tp gain which can be useful with trust heals.

100 DPS out of what like 3K ?

100 dps is enough to lose parse, lol. The difference between +1 A and +2 A is less than 200 dps too.





The difference being I rarely parse against another ranged DD unless it's an ambu month, no chance to win parse with path A ever. So getting a chance to win a parse at least in 1 situation > all >:D

Does current spreadsheet has Last stand dmg+ applies to all hits? Comparing Arma AM3 with Fomalhaut atm, I'm getting arma being 500 dps ahead with TS. I was pretty surprised, tbh. I thought last stand dmg+ would make fomal a better shooting gun than arma. But I think last update was done before rema ws dmg+ test done.

It does but for augged fomal ATM you need to manually set 5/5 in last stand merits.

thats assuming everyone is playing like a robot, 100 dps less is worth it to have a dagger thats gonna be 9/10 for all DDing vs 10/10 for 50% of my DDing, at least till you can afford another/price drops. And again each path is very good, there is no "wrong choice" for rostam #1 it's all about what each person needs the most.

If I aim to win, then I'd assume everyone plays likes a robot. There are countless extremely good dps players that's incredibly tough to beat on parse because they play like a robot: perfect JA use, perfect engage speed, perfect ws timing etc.

So yeah, in general I aim for the best. Because if I don't then another person will, and they will be that guy who's on top of the parse chart.

It's the same for every DD job.


That's what Ive been saying. If you are shooting last stand(instead of leaden) path A v.s next best option makes as little difference as B v.s next best option.

Thanks....guess that make Armageddon best ra gun in 2019 too >.>

I went C on rostam and A on lanun, imo A is far better than B for first knife, works good on both melee and range.

I couldnt win even with bis COR set vs some decently geared COR, because I have been having so much lag in Dynamis for last 3 weeks, that my gearswap fail to swap gear to TP after WS and my WS fires off 5 sec after I click it in menu. It's really depressing.

That's why I stopped playing DD in dyna, lol. Took me 5 sec to engage any mob and whoever engages faster wins. /ra also often doesnt work so it's impossible to switch modes when necessary.

DD in Dyna works with a pt less than 6 but any bigger pt than 6 = fail.

Obsessing about parse seems awfully stressful.

It's good to have goals. If someone enjoys maxing their DPS then they should be encouraged to do that. That said I think relying on the spreadsheet as a source of truth for overall DPS is dubious. They've been shown to be wildly inaccurate for this, especially when changing playstyles/weapons. They're decent for picking WS gear and for trying to optimize one playstyle/weapon combination but I'd limit it to that. You'll have to use your best judgment otherwise.

This ***is depressing and anti-fun. It's a giant handicap for large groups(which most dyna wave3 groups are). How any game developer thinks it's acceptable is beyond me.

It depends on type of player you are. If you are more of a social player than you may find competitive gameplay hurting player relationship, in that case you may have more negative pov toward it.

Personally my player type/goal changes from time to time, so I'm not nearly as "obsessed with parse" in ffxi as people think, lol.

I'd say 90% of time when I log on I just chat/flirt with friends/do random things without even using a rema job, nor I care much about dps, in general.

But cor is a job with special place in my heart, 10 years ago I made it a life goal(as long as I stay subbed to ffxi) to prove the cor can be a real DD in the community despite most people don't think that way. That goal is the real driving force behind all the gear grind, theorycraft on forums, create excels for calculations. Without such goal I won't even post here much, because I also believe the reputation of job would change with more info available.

In past 10 years people in the same pt with me is often another serious war, drk, sam, jobs made to dps. If I don't have the mindset of trying to be 10/10 and just settle for 9/10, the origional goal that I have when I started playing FFXI won't be fulfilled, because cor is supposed to be a support, not a DD. And it was often incredibly tough to beat another real DD. Unless the player learn not to settle with 9/10, but aim for something better than that. Then there may be a chance to prove the job can DD in the community. A chance.

If I ever feel stressed because of such crazy goal, I can play on another job or take a break from the game. So it's no big deal. FFXI can be played anyway we like.


I think as long as someone doesn't go out of their way to personal attack different type of players, yeah, certainly. I've seen many hardcore players that would trash other social players because they don't try hard enough for them. THAT is kind of behavior that should not be encouraged.

I upgraded my wifi setup at home and haven't had crippling issues with dropped packets, even with six boxing and playing 4 ranged attackers. I suspect that most people using wifi would benefit from this. I still get dropped packets (usually the action message packets) although I built a retry mechanism into my ra addon to deal with this.

This is beyond what should be expected from a player although it is possible to work around it if you want to have a better experience.