Enmity Build

[WishMaster3K]

Know what's interesting? (At least to me....)

There are a lot of players going around saying "RDM can Melee! RDM can Melee!"

And I strongly disagree.

After looking at what gear is available to us, I've found that making an Attack Build RDM is not only pointless, but expensive. Someone can spend (even by todays economical standards) 25 Mil and only end up with a RDM that is below mediocre compared to a naked MNK.

Speaking of which, someone did a comparison of a naked MNK and a fully Decked out, fully buffed RDM, and the RDM still lost marginally (test and parser can be found on the unnecessarily long RDM Melee thread on KI).

So with that rant out of the way, I realized that RDMs are not suited to meleeing... I'm more of the opinion that we can tank. We get native Parry and Shield skills, and allegedly, our Defense is in the top 3 of AFs (or something like that).

I've tried tanking, and last night I gave it a serious go around by trying to tank Charby as RDM/BLU

With P4, Tav Taco and Cocoon, my defense was in the 650ish area.

Stack on my -20% Damage reduction due to Genbu Shield, Jelly Ring, Cheviot Cape, and Phalanx, I was taking damage in the 40-60hp range while the NIN was getting walloped for 114-150.

I found this out very fast tho, that the problem was enmity. I was considering subbing WAR for Provoke and Defender, but I heard of Avesta having great sucess soloing Charby as RDM/BLU. And I get more defense from BLU anyway....

But that brings me to my issue: I'm working on an Enmity build and does anyone have any suggestions.

Before Charby last night, I tanked the bomb for the Bastok Rank 7 mission for a friend of mine as RDM/NIN (it was painfully easy) and I bought that +1 Beastmen sword that gives +4 enmity in addition to the Heroic Boots that give +1. Add that to my Warwolf Belt and I'm sitting on +7 Enmity.

Now that I've merited a bit, I changed up my melee macros. Before, i was switching in Errant and such, but with full errant (as I normally use in my Paralyze Macro) I can have anywhere from -7 to -10 Enmity. I modified the melee macros to take into account I want to leave the Heroic Boots and the Warwolf Belt on.

Now I'm looking into the Eris Earrings as a permanent part of my Tanking Setup, in addition to maybe that +Vit Bow. I was going to get another one of those Swords, but I realize that if I'm Single-Wielding, I'd only need one, and if I'm Dual-Wielding, the Joyeuse is a big help as a sub weapon.

Anyone else have any input for this?

[Jei]

Re: Enmity Build

Our servivalbility is very high, that's for sure.

There's a Rdm on my server that straight tank all ground HNMs like faf/nid/aspid with Rdm/nin and keep hate by spamming dispel/bind/blind and a few more tier 1 enfeebles. He has around -40% damage reduction from gears. Crazy shit.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Enmity Build

What the hell, -40?

What gear is that? Don't say Darksteel... I friggin hate that gear set.

Oh, and there are some CRAZY earrings that I can't even fathom getting my hands on until I'm deep into CoP.

[Karinya]

Re: Enmity Build

Well, if he tanks ground HNM, he probably has a defending ring; that, cheviot and earth staff would do it, if you're gaining hate through spamming cheap enfeebles you don't really need to deal melee damage.

If you DO want to deal melee damage as a RDM, spending money won't help you much; most of the gear you really want is EX. Justice sword and the stones to power it, joyeuse, assault jerkin, w.turban/o-hat, rajas ring, brutal earring, suppanomimi... maybe some of the Dyna-Tav melee-mage gear too. And now Morrigan. You're still not likely to compare to a DRK, or even a PLD, with the same/comparable gear setup, though.

But both DDing and tanking as RDM are mainly for solo/small-group situations; in large groups there will generally be another job better suited to the task (and with access to better equipment like shura togi). While RDM can have excellent survivability, enmity is quite another story and the character Jei describes is most likely just doing that for fun, not because he expects it to actually be more effective than a pld or nin tank. Ground HNM are usually described as not that hard once you get claim on them, compared to something like Proto-Omega or Dynamis Lord or even Kirin. (I've never been in a group that *did* get claim on one, so I have to go from secondhand reports. But on the few occasions when I've been at a spawn, the people who did get it didn't seem to have any trouble with it.)

[Icemage]

Re: Enmity Build

Ground HNMs really aren't that hard.

Aspidochelone is basically Genbu on steroids - he takes virtually no damage from physical attacks, and is weak only to ice based damage, and only at certain times. King Behemoth's only real killer attack is Meteor. It's almost impossible to wipe to him since he's fairly easy to kite no matter what job you're on. Nidhogg is nearly identical to Fafnir except that his Horrid Roar wipes all buffs instead of just one and resets hate. His Hurricane Wing is a bit stronger, too, but the fact that it hits people even off the hate list actually makes it less effective since it can sometimes just miss people in your alliance if there are tons of bystanders to absorb the hits (it only hits a certain maximum number of people).

Really the lose conditions on the Kings are pretty weak. You might die to adds for some reason on Aspidochelone. You might die to back to back AoE Stun/Meteor from King Behemoth. You might die to Hurricane Wing spam on Nidhogg... or if your mages are stupid and -ga the Darters in the room. Or you might die to running out of time (rage mode) on any of them if you take too long. None of these is really that likely if you have any idea whatsoever about what you're doing.


Icemage