Septmeber 2008 FFXI pre-update

Whee... September update! Lots of fun stuff... biggest ones for me are the Dancer merits, Blue Mage AF2 & AF+1, and Limbus cost down! <3 the last... my wallet thanks you SE!

As for the rest... well, I'm just looking at the announcement and dat-mined stuff and posting my opinion based on that information right now. We'll see how things change once the update is out.

Dancer Merits
I'm not too impressed with these merits... what do we have:

Step Accuracy: Most Dancers are going to have a crazy high accuracy build to begin with and will rarely miss steps. I think I'm at over +60 accuracy from equipment alone before the accuracy bonus job trait and merits. I think the only time that I've missed steps is on either a highly evasibe NM-type mob, or something big like Kaiser Behemoth, and that's nothing that some Sushi can't fix
Haste Samba Effect: This has some potential to be good. Haste Samba is pretty much the main Samba that Dancers use under almost all circumstances. The only time I switch Sambas is either when the party is heavy with melee mages (BLU, PLD, DRK) for Aspir Samba, or when things are looking bad and I think that the party could use with some HP. Increasing the effectiveness of Haste Samba will probably be significant when fully merited
Reverse Flourish Effect: I normally reverse flourish every two steps for a return of 46% TP every 30 seconds instead of wasting half a step for 60% TP return. One of my original guesses for a Dancer merit was that we'd get the ability to increase the number of steps we store. I guess enhancing Reverse Flourish for more TP return would be just as good! Depending on how "enhanced" it gets, full merits on this might be pretty good. I think I'm already comfortable WSing with 5 finishing moves stored up + meditate... Getting more TP back would just make it that much easier to do more as DNC
Building Flourish Effect: Ugh... No idea where this came from... Building flourish enhances the effectiveness of the Dancer's own weaponskills... However, under *most* circumstances, Dancers should not really be weaponskilling unless TP is flowing and things are under control. I think I've only WS'ed maybe once or at most twice per party I've been in, and I almost never use Building Flourish as I want to save the finishing move for Reverse Flourish. The damage increase is barely noticable in the first place >.<

Likely candidates for meriting are: Haste Samba & Reverse Flourish. If it was "enhances step effectiveness" or "Wild Flourish Effect", the other two might be worth considering... I really think SE dropped the ball on Dancer merits compared to Scholar merits. What Dancer really needs is: Waltz Recast down & Divine Waltz II. The way Dancer is now, main healing any large event still requires a decent backup healer because the timer for Curing Waltz IV is too long to cover things in an "oh crap" situation. Divine Waltz also needs an upgrade. At 75, Dancer doesn't cure enough in a AOE situation.

Scholar on the other hand, has definite winners for group 1 merits... Max sublimation is a definite fully merited ability. As for the others, I'm guessing Grimore recast down or helix attack up are contenders.


Blue Mage AF2 & AF+1
This is an interesting section for me... while I consider Dancer to be my "primary" job, I still go to many events as BLU because it's a more flexible and can adjust as necessary to handle different situations. That... and going as BLU is cheaper instead of popping sushi on DNC with my haste equipment xD

As such, my BLU is only averagely equipped. I've been mainly gearing up for physical magic and sword damage since that shares a ton of gear with Dancer (Dusk gear, Cobra, etc.). I've only *just* started getting magical gear in the form of homam head, insect ring and that ToAU magic ring and while I've seen improvements to MP Drainkiss with this gear, my breath attacks still aren't worth using compared to just supporting the party.

Anyway, now that AF2 & AF+1 gear has been dat-mined... time for a quick look at the various gear to see if any of it is worth getting!

Head piece
AF+1 - DEF:24, MP+25, INT+5, MND+5, Increases Monster Correlation Effects
AF2 - DEF:24, HP+15, VIT+3, Blue Magic Skill+5, Increase Breath Damage
Neither of these are very interesting. I don't even use my regular AF head piece as the "Increases Monster Correlation Effects" feature is too much of a pain to use. For AF2, "Increases Breath Damage" would be interesting, but still has limited usage... Voyager Sallet & Homam Head would probably get better usage compared to either of these two, Voyager for physical magic, while Homam for magical.. erm... magic

Body Piece
AF+1 - DEF:45 HP+17 MP+15 STR+5 DEX+5 Blue Magic Skill+15, HP & MP recovered while healing +1
AF2 - DEF:45, MP+20 Accuracy+10 Enmity-2, Adds "Refresh" effect
These two are both killer pieces. AF+1 is awesome when casting any spell. The +5 Str & Dex, and the Magic Skill +15 is good for both physical & magical attacks. The AF2 is a great replacement for the Scorpion Harness for meleeing since it has the same Accuracy+10, but it also has Refresh, so you can not only be meleeing, but also regaining MP. I'm definitely going to go for the AF+1... however, is the AF2 worth going to Dynamis for? >.<

Hands
AF+1 - DEF:17 MP+20 STR+3 INT+3 Parrying+10, Increases learning >.>
AF2 - DEF:17 HP+12 MP+12 DEX+5 MND+5 Evasion+5
Neither of these are really worth writing home about... Str+3 is nice, as is Dex+5 for various blue mage spells, but when Light Gauntlets also give Str+3 for 8k on the AH... >.>
And at level 74, why do you still need gloves that increase chance of learning?

Legs
AF+1 - DEF:34 HP+25 DEX+5 VIT+5 AGI+5, Interruption down 12%
AF2 - DEF:31 HP+10 MP+10 STR+3 Acc+5 Magic Acc+3
Mmm... both are decent pieces, but nothing really stands out... A few extra strength or dex is always good. I currently use the Cobra Unit Subligar which already gives Acc+5. If anything, I think the AF2 piece is comparitively better just cos it gives strength, accuracy and magical accuracy

Feet
AF+1 - DEF:14 HP+18 MP+18 Acc+3 Evasion+10 Enmity-5
AF2 - DEF:16 MP+15 AGI+3 INT+3 Attack+5 Enmity-3
Neither of these are much of anything... nothing stands out on either of these. Dusk Feet + Cobra Feet both have accuracy & attack, so...

Overall, only the body pieces seem worth getting. The AF+1 body piece is a definite upgrade over the AF body. Since I still use the AF body for casting spells in, it's a no-brainer to consider upgrading to AF+1
For AF2, the body piece is the only piece really worth getting as a melee piece. The other pieces are also decent, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble of doing Dynamis to get these pieces >.>

What do you all think? Is there a Dynamis shell out there that matches my schedule that's willing to take someone who only wants BLU armor? >.>