AF Situtations

[lun4tic]

I'd like some feedback before I do anything major with my character. He's currently 52 with AF2, and the enimty boost makes a noticable difference.

As a warrior/ninja I'm used to dishing out a lot of damage, and in the past few PTs I've actually been afraid to use my weapon skill because I steal hate from the tank making the healer's job that much harder. In the situations where I do steal hate I just tank it and grin knowing paladins can't keep the hate off me.

This raises another question; am I so hard to keep hate off of, or do these paladins suck? With that in mind, I'm going to be wearing more and more of my AF soon, and that only adds to the problem of stealing hate.

If I continuously steal hate, why don't I just tank?

I'm debating wether or not to switch back to a monk sub for when I get my AF gloves and use a shield. This could increase my chances of finding a party significantly. With Dual Wield II and haste, I rip things apart so much faster then any dark knight or ranger, but I feel this is overlooking in the competition to be the king of damage dealers.

So, with all my enimty+ AF and shield+ gloves, would it be best to return to tanking with a monk sub? I'm afraid I'll throw parties off if I don't.

Thanks

[ZQM]

My NIN tank only loses hate when I do a WS, so I'd say that it's the PLDs fault. And if that's what you're talking about, get used to it. :p Almost every class should be able to do that. You build up so much DoT that when you do a lot of concentrated damage, your hate is going to sky-rocket.

And why wear AF when dealing damage? :confused:

AF Head = +4 DEX, +1 emnity
Valk Mask= +7 ATK

AF Body = Well, I doubt you'd even consider wearing this...

AF Hands = STR+4, +3 emnity
Enkelados's Brc. = STR+7

AF Legs = ACC+3, +2 emnity
RK Legs = ATK+3 STR+2 DEX+2

There are a lot better choices for slots (expect feet, where there are no other choices) to use instead of AF. Legs are useful, but I wouldn't use them unless you know you're tank can keep it off of you.

[lun4tic]

That is a good point, but I'm also looking for an alternative to this DD rat race.

I'm still thinking about it, I'm not sure yet...

[imstimpy]

I have a very good PLD in my static party and I can still pull hate. It changed drastically when we changed areas. When we switched from Boyahda Tree to Cape Terigan I went from tanking after every weapon skill to only tanking when I landed most of my hits on the rampage and generated an unresisted distortion. Every now and then I can still end up tanking through multiple provokes and cures.

A well-played WAR will be hard to keep hate off of. My PLD only worries about hate with a WAR or a RNG. She says all others are trivial. If you do pull hate, you have utsusemi so there is no downtime created because of it. Even so, there are things that I do to help my tank (if you tank sucks to begin with, you are going to have problems from the get-go).

I make sure that my PLD has had time to cast a few cures as well as activate two provokes before we do our skillchain. The longer I wait the less likely it is that I will tank. If I do tank, I have 6 hits I can blink before I start taking damage. If I am still tanking at this point, I move in behind the PLD and she will usually cover me. There is no tax on the mages when I do this because I don't take damage.

At your level, I'm not sure where you are generating all this hate. Your weaponskills are average, you probably aren't closing a skillchain, and you hardly have any +emnity. I didn't have a problem with hate until lv55 when I got rampage. Before that, if I were in an offensive position with a NIN tank I would go WAR/NIN and work with the NIN and THF. If I were with a PLD then I went as WAR/THF and did shield break or sturmwind. If you are with a NIN you are expected to be able to pull hate since you need to pull hate for the THF to use sneak attack and trick attack onto the NIN. A PLD, well they should be able to hold the hate or they are going to have a hell of a time holding against MNK, WAR, and RNG in a few levels. Basically, until lv55, if you are pulling hate then you need to find a better tank, restructure your party, or look at the way you are playing because something is wrong.

The problem you will fight no matter which niche you follow is that most people don't think a WAR has a niche. To prevent you missing out on potential invites, welcome all invites by showing which subs you have. There is no reason you should give up one job combination or the other. If you are playing smart and still pulling aggro, well, to me this seems like you are a strong addition to the party. If you lose an invite from them because of this, you probably don't want them in your party. Likewise if you don't get an invite from a guy looking for a tank while you are a WAR/THF with "SJ: NIN, MNK, THF" listed in your search comment.

Your perception of being a damage dealing god seems a little pompous to me. When a DRK runs souleater, you can't touch them. Aside from that, until lv60 you are the stronger job. If you are outdamaging a RNG, DRG, MNK or even a THF by any measure, then they aren't very good. A WAR is strong, but it isn't overpowering all others.