High End Sets Advice/Suggestions/Ideas/LUA

Small question: which of Cornelia/Epam/Regal/Niqmaddu should I be using for Torcleaver? Since Cornelia isn't usually accounted for in sets, which confuses things, I guess. The set in the original post has Regal + Niqmaddu, and I realized I've been using Cornelia+Epam for some reason.

Not to mention that other guides have different sets. The bg-wiki "All Jobs Gear Sets" page has Epam+Sroda Ring for high buff, and Epam+Regal for midbuff, which just adds to the confusion tbh.

This seems to apply for Insurgency as well, so I'd appreciate an answer to that too.

Cornelia + Regal for midbuff
Cornelia + Sroda for high buff

Is capped Honor March / double Minuet (non SV) + Crooked Chaos Roll considered "high-buff" or "mid-buff"? Does high-buff assume a BRD, COR and GEO?

Ephramad gang ftw. Cornelia is consistent but Ephramad is definitely better for Torcleaver if you can ride the pdl

Mid buff is BRD songs+7 and COR +7 with job bonus but without a GEO and high buff is with an Idris GEO and Marcato Honor March. If its a boss that resists GEO debuffs consider it mid buff (some v20 and all v25.

^ This. Ephramad is just too good. Missing VIT is its only flaw.

Just to be clear I also choose Ephramad, but I gave him the answer for rings he asked about :)

I’ll preface this by saying that I also use ephramad

The difference between ephramad and cotnelia is not large in a soul voice aria situation. I would not feel that anyone that chooses Cornelia for its wider general utility is gimped in any way

For DRK specificly, kinda disagree with this. Drk has more pdl traits then and just as many gear options as any job in the game. I find you get.more bang for the buck using cornellias.

PDL job traits function differently than PDL on gear. (Or at least, they are separate modifiers)

Because of that, Ephramad's is still going to provide a net bonus over Cornelia's on WS where you're making use of the PDL. You have less PDL than you do total WSD, so the 10% from PDL is still going to provide a greater bonus to overall damage than the 10% WSD.

Edit: the big equalizer is Aria. Soul Voice Aria of Passion with S4 Horn is ~40% PDL, which makes the calculation a lot closer.

In general I could understand ppl choosing Cornelia if they also use jobs with magic WS, or if they lack augmented Nyame for example and they still gotta use 5/5 sakpata or something similar on top of all the remaining pdl.. (instead of having wsd in those slots), but otberwise for max possible dmg, ephramad in ideal situations is just better!
That being said, i've seen a DRK with s5 foe who had Lehko ring cause he said with his particular static group (aria + hq buffs etc) he could cap dmg even without ephramad/cornelia. In that case, i can ses that stp+10 crit hit rate+10 etc ring being amazing as well, to increase ws frequency or WS tp overflow! But it's surely a pretty specific situation which won't apply to many jobs

I find this line of thinking interesting...

Is he hitting 99k with every WS every time he ever uses a WS? Are those WS at 1k TP?

If not, then WSD/PDL could increase any WS that doesn't hit 99k.

If he does somehow hit 99k with every WS every time no matter how low of TP, then the "WS tp overflow" is worthless because 1300 TP is the same as 1k TP. You still get the crit rate "bonus" but is one ring with 10% crit rate really the best use of your TVR ring...?

This also assumes you only play DRK, only use Foenaria for every fight, always have SV Aria buffs, etc.

I mean everyone can do whatever they want and I think the idea of min/maxing to this degree is a little unnecessary, but I also think the logic behind this is sketchy at best and mostly based on eyeballing and improperly weighing what you're doing in FFXI. IDK maybe this guys logs off as soon as SV/Bolster wear off, but I personally believe the vast majority of people overestimate how much they are hitting dmg cap relative to the rest of their WS.

I just said what i've been told. He probably meant "Origin hits 99k anyway" and did prefer to use that ring. Ofc he's not hitting 99k with every weaponskill but for that specific situation (prob a sortie static), that guy felt like it's worth it. I wouldn't choose Lehko ring but maybe that guy did parse it and somehow it was worth it.

Also yes, that guy probably only cares about his drk and play that job. I am not that guy, i don't agree, i just shared what i've been told. We can speculate further forever but anyway this kind of min/maxing is indeed not needed.. unless you're going for speedruns records etc. That being said, if that drk can still do whatever he needs with Lehko ring, more power to him. It's still an amazing ring

There is no other piece where you can get the same amount of PDL as you can get WSD. It's always less PDL per slot. 10 WS acc on Cornelia's is obviously less that +10 DEX/AGI and +20 acc/racc. I find 2h Prime WSs miss more than I want them to which is probably just biased perception or because I usually don't miss WSs on DRG because I didn't take it to hard things most of the time before I had Prime Spear. It's a strong departure from majority Savage Blade and Magical WSs I was doing before Primes were announced.

My thinking is very much as a support player who has always contributed DPS when it was possible. Supports almost universally use 1h weapons (staff BRD, sure) and have a lower PDL cap, so it's easier to hit that cap as I am a support and I am bringing my own buffs. In situations where you want me to be doing even more damage, there need to be even more supports for atk/defense down. If I'm good on pdif but still bad on acc compared to others in the party then I can't contribute well and since Ephramad's Ring offers more acc, I lean towards it.

If I am being asked to DD that means either we have all the buffs or we have very few buffs like multi KIs for v25s. If we have lots of buffs, PDL and Acc should win. If we have very few buffs then Cornelia's Ring will win on damage, but if you have accuracy issues because you have very few buffs I can still live with a mostly better regal ring.

Even if you have a mix of those situations, you're going to save bolster and better buffs for when you have 2 adds out and you're going to need the most DPS to fight the regen in the last damage window. Or like during the count down for Ultima's Citadel Buster.

Cornelia's Ring seems like an affirmation that you don't think you're going to operate with appropriate buffs regularly or primarily focus magical WS. That means that it's a completely appropriate choice for low man/solo players and why it definitely should exist.

Lehko's ring would carry more weight with me if we still focused Xhit builds or self SCing. I still think it's a good ring, but I personally don't see myself ever using it for the jobs I focus. If they had added Critical Hit damage or AGI + acc/racc + true shot + Daken then I could see it being very appealing and a real choice.