Endeavoring To Awaken --A Guide To Rune Fencer

One piece that doesn't get a lot of attention that's both easy to get and has some lasting value is Buremte gloves. Can augment them with PDT-4/MDT-2, decent def/vit/meva despite the reduced ilevel, and the curepot received+13% retains use for tanking idle sets like this later on:

ItemSet 340994

Capped PDT, capped MDT even with NQ Shell V, good ol' Erilaz body, Ethereal if you're into that. Path A on the head gets you 28% curepot received. Vocane hits received+30% cap if you've got it. If you need to cap MDT as well and don't have Vocane, there's always Dark Ring (6% PDT ring is actually enough to hit PDT-50% in this set, could use it regardless with a max aug cape if you like). Swapping the head for def+x curepot received+7% HP+x Taeon Chapeau also gets you to 30%, could argue that one either way but augmenting Despair is a hell of a lot less annoying/random/costly.

Last day's discussion brought to my attention that I never actually pushed my sets to the guide so I'm gonna take care of that now, sorry guys. Family illness has kept me busy and I haven't done all the work I promised on this or the BLU guide. There are some formatting and general info updates already in there as well, more to come.

This is the baseline set I like to use for RUN/BLU:

Hate Generation:
Blank Gaze, Jettatura

Healing:
Wild Carrot, Healing Breeze

Traits:
Grand Slam + Terror Touch = Defense Bonus
Sound Blast + Cursed Sphere = MAB

Buffs: Cocoon, Refueling

It's 27/30 points and 10/14 spells, you can swap stuff in and out (like a killer trait) as needed. For what to drop, I would drop Refueling and MAB first. I've found setting both healing spells to be useful if not essential, and it gives considerable enmity in the process of increasing self-sufficiency. On NMs which have mild AoE damage or strong AoE DoT moves, Healing Breeze has been of great use.

Sechs, you're thinking of the Gambit MDB- numbers. If memory serves, it gives -10 MDB per rune. Rayke cuts the resist wall from 60% reduction to 30% reduction, in addition to lowering resistance in general.

Thanks all for the replies!

After farming a bunch of stuff and finishing all my 109 armor sets this is what I am going to end up using until I get vagary body/legs clears.

ItemSet 341996

This puts me at (with the augments on my dark rings/cape):
-50% PDT
-5% PDT II
-10% DT (does DT count towards the MDT cap?)
-10% MDT

How well would this work for tier 1 escha/High Tier Battlefields/ tanking for zi-tah CP parties/vagary? Would run/blu using the set mentioned above work out fairly well with those events as well?

Last question, what are some easy earrings/ammo/sub items that would work well with this set, should I add some more offensive items in those slots?

Thanks again, 8')

Yes. DT counts towards PDT, MDT, and BDT.

Ammo: brigantia pebble if you've done Meebles or know someone with marks to spend, or perhaps Inlamvuyeso if you have plasm or can do a bit of Yorcia Delve farming.

Ear: Not a whole lot of interesting options for PDT sets there. Could use some accuracy earrings to try and bump up your hitrate slightly, or just use something like Ethereal Earring.

Grip: balarama grip drops from a Zi'tah T1 NM and has a decent mix of useful stats. Refined/+1 might let you play around with some of those DT pieces. bloodrain strap and duplus grip are great DD options.

Hearty Earring's fairly cheap and moderately useful.

ItemSet 342000

This is my standard PDT tanking set, and the one I am most often in when tanking the vast majority of stuff. This caps PDT at 55% and caps MDT with emboldened Shell 5, and probably very nearly so with NQ Shell 5. I also keep Futhark Coat +1 handy for BDT sets and a well aug'd dark ring to replace gelatinous for MDT/BDT sets. For a decent, easy to obtain ear option for MDT or resist sets, there's Flashward Earring (Meva+8). I have always liked Hearty Earring, and with the Meva on the Aettir and high JP gifts, resisting status ailments somewhat reliably is actually possible on a lot of stuff. I wonder if Flashward's +8 Meva actually helps more than Hearty (hearty is +5% resist rate on all status effects).

In general, meat tanking on /blu means a lot of casting and not a lot of swinging, so while offensive stats are great when they appear, they shouldn't be sought after over defensive pieces. You're basically being a turtle that dishes out enmity in vast amounts and damage in comparatively small amounts. Furthermore, you use a lot of mp, so combining Flume Belt/+1 with Ethereal Earring and Empy+1 Body gives substantial mp returns, and the body helps reduce enmity lost from getting hit.

Earrings kinda depend on situation.

Some suggested acc earrings, but if you do high lv endgame in mage setup it's kinda useless since your acc will be floored with mage buffs regardless which acc earring you use. I guess you can use it on low lv target.

You don't really need mp in escha, since you get one million temps. Some fights ends fast enough anyways, and you get mp back next pop. IMO etheral is only useful outside of escha since it doesn't mitigate damage.

Hearty is good idea on targets with status ailments, especially on targets that para healer.

Otherwise defense earring for more defense. I see some ppl use counter earring, but since counter has acc check I guess proc rate would be low with floored acc in mage setup? Would love to see some math about counter v.s defense in earring slot for dmg mitigation.

Yeah, counter+ isn't really worth it for anything where the defensive benefits would actually matter. You just don't have the hitrate in defensive gear to back it up on high level content.

Resist status vs meva is kind of a wonky question with a lot of situational dynamics. Sometimes you use both together, sometimes you use one or the other in tandem with a different stat. Lots of different useful combinations now that mitigation gear has progressed to the point where we can meaningfully contribute to two or three stats simultaneously, and doing so with intent is a big part of optimizing defensive sets now. Simple things like (P/M)DT-50% aren't the goal once you've got some decent gear together, they're the baseline that you build from based on context. Stack +defense, or -crit, or +cure received, +status resist for add effects, meva/MDB/absorb/nullification for spells and magic-based TP moves, etc etc.

The updated gear sets look great, thanks alot for doing that!

I managed to get my vagary clears and +1 the body and legs, as well as farm up a gelatinous ring +1, so I think I'm ready to start tanking away, just need to start working on some of the other sets you listed, its always nice to have set goals in a game like ffxi.

From the Rayke tests Tachi performed here it kinda leads to believe that for that part (consecutive magic of the same element damage reduction) one rune Rayke is enough because multiple runes produce no additional damage.

As a consequence to this, two thoughts come to mind:
1) Would 3 different element runes Rayke work the same, with the same percentages, but just for three different elements at the same time?

2) "consecutive magic of the same element damage reduction" is one of of Rayke effects. As far as we know there are at least two more effects: a magic evasion reduction and a tomahawk-like effect, but for magic alligned to the runes used with Rayke. I think both of these are separate from the reduction I mentioned above, and quite likely the potency of these 2 is affected somehow by the number of runes used?

DT is PDT, BDT, and MDT.
It's just a single, shorthand term for all three in an equal amount.
There is no difference in -10%MDT v -10%DT in terms of magic damage reduction.
They all add up to being capped at -50%.

Did SE just recently remove the ability for RUN to MB w/ Swipe/Lunge? Cuz everytime i make light or see light i try to MB with Lunge while i have Sulpor on in a dho gates crab party. the damage is super high but it doesnt say MB. It just says Lunge did 18,757 DMG. I remember it used to show Lunge Magic Bursted for Xdmg a few months ago.

Battlemod doesn't show lunge or swipe MB'ing in the chatlog. Vanilla chatlog will.

Was Byrth ever informed about that?
Personally I don't use Battlemod but I never heard about that issue before, wanted to make sure Byrth is aware of it.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it to him before, but I didn't actually open and issue for it on his github.

thanks so much for the responses guys :) I'm trying to deck out my RUN atm haha. you are all awesome!

While talking about Lunge, what's an updated set for it look like? This is what I'm using currently.

ItemSet 342333

Will probably buy Fenrir Ring +1s soon. I know you can get 7 MAB more on the body and 12 MAB more on the hands from Carmine +1 in both slots, but don't know if losing the MACC is an issue. I'm only considering using RUN on Kirin/Reisen HELMs if that matters.

Do you have a separate set for MBs? That aside, Eschan stone is better in the waist slot.

I don't, but I guess it would make sense to have MB stuff since that's the only time I'd plan on Lunging.

Yeah, I'm lazy so mine is actually just a burst set for that reason. Switching out Samnoha isn't a good idea because of that.

Well thanks for saving me 8 mil!

Seething bomblet +1 is another potential upgrade, but I couldn't tell you if the lack of macc would be a detriment on high tier stuff.

Does HP matter nowadays for tanking WOC, Kirin and T4 stuff? I am gearing up for the new challenge. Any advice.

WoC and Kirin, not really as long as you know how to Utsusemi. Haven't attempted RUNing on T4s, but will try it our next go around.

Edit: Obviously, it doesn't hurt to stack what you can, though.

Yes, a minimum 3k is required.

For Lunge/Swipe I have been shooting at the below. If I know I am going to MB it and am intending to do so I'll swap in Mujin Band and Samnuha Coat.

ItemSet 341979

Hi, had a Vivacious Pulse question. With the Erilaz Galea, VP is suppose to erase a debuff/enfeeb based on the rune correct? But does the harbored rune have to be the aligned element or the element the debuff is weak to? I never see an erase and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong here... Thanks in advance.

It's not rune aligned, nor is it Erase, but rather it provides one -na spell status removal (Silena, Paralyna, etc), seemingly at random in the same way Erase removes a debuff at random (ie: it will remove your silence if that's all you're suffering from, but if you're also poisoned, you have a 50% chance of either).

Incursion has a backpiece called Argochampsa or something that has more MAB too. 2 mab for 5 macc though.

Yeah the MAcc was why I went with Izdubar.

There are a few ways you could pump MAB slightly higher at the cost of MAcc. Argocham Mantle, Eddy Necklace, Baetyl Pendant, etc.

When it came down to it I was willing to sacrifice 6 MAB for 15 Macc just to be on the safe side.

The only piece I was not 100% sure on was Seething Bomblet +1 vs Dosis Tathlum. I recall someone at one point testing MDmg and MAB to be virtually equal on Swipe/Lunge, and while I have both I have not had time lately to test a clear winner between the two. This is especially true if the balance between MDmg vs MAB changes once either reaches a certain point.

Its on my list of things to look into, unless someone else already has.

Edit: If the above discussion on Bomblet +1 vs Dosis puts Dosis in the top slot, it almost certainly makes Aput Mantle +1 the best option in the back slot.