Kraken Club

[Darkedge]

I've never fought HNMs nor do I know much about strategy, but wouldnt like 2 PLD/NIN on opposite sides of the monster tank it, with constant SATAs going off work well? I don't want to sound stupid its just a thought

[Gryff]

Hey art, you should ask me this sort of stuff


Kraken club is nice, but it has its downside for solo'ing.
your giving the monster a _lot_ of tp but not a lot of damage in return ( you need nin sub to wield something else ), and it will do a lot of WS on you, if your hexa is strong ( 600-700+ ) you can do this and it can be beneficial, vs certain monsters its downright dangerous for a solo'ing whm. On balance I'd say genbus shield is more useful, far fewer WS attacks on you, +10 evasion -10% physical, it will increase your tanking potential, kraken club will certainly increase your damage potential, but it will also decrease your tanking potential.

If you want to try one out, I know you have the collateral just contact me ingame.


Anyway diverting to the issue of soloing as a whm.

You can solo coffer mobs very easily as whm/nin even the tougher ones.

check my whm power thread on here, but my current melee setup is thus:

darksteel maul + genbus shield
emporer hairpin
spike necklace or evasion torque or CP necklace.
2xdeath earring, swap to 2xdodge after small mp use.
AF body ( I should probably buy that +7 evasion aketon whms can wear but I'm a lazy sob and that 750k could go on my nins gear ).
AF Gloves ( if you really need the evasion you can use those CP ones )
serket ring + peace ring, swapped to dual snipers after mp is gone.
dodge cape
lifebelt ( got survival belt as well )
AF legs ( no real alternatives )
dance shoes.

I use multiple macro sets for exp parties and my solo setup has melee+initial mp->stage1->stage2
and I also carry an all out evasion setup in case the monster is pretty tough.
I also upgraded my evasion w/ merit points although you can only buy 2 upgrades so +4 eva there.

I've solo'd the eurytos bow NM a few times, habetrot, gaurdian thing in uggalepih, couple of the tonberry nms. You can solo up to EM ,maybe the occasional tough although that would be pretty risky.

You also have to be very careful to pick the right monsters ( toramas as an example are very bad )
always carry echo drops and warp scroll. A couple of yag drinks if its a certain NM your after is also wise.

[Manatra]

PLD/NIN with Kraken + Joyeuse works extremely well on Kirin since it's a marathon fight and tanks get torn up by Kirin without blink. Fafnir/Nidhogg PLD/NIN is ok I but the 2x healers with SMN SJ are better so they can spam Aerial Armor since PLD do need provoke because terror hurts their hate keeping ability (since they're frozen for like 20 seconds). For the gods, PLD/NIN works perfectly fine IMO. For Aspidochelone PLD/WAR or PLD/NIN I find is about even. And finally, for King Behemoth, PLD/NIN is better than PLD/WAR since PLD/WAR tend to get torn up a bit by KB. The thing is, from my experience the constant flurry of attacks more than makes up for the loss of provoke.

On subject, unless you've really got a lot of gil laying around... Kraken is one of those luxury items that'd be great to ahve... but not needed.

[Icemage]

Not that it would be practical, but it might be fun to do WHM/RDM with a Kraken Club and drop an Enspell on it for double your pleasure.

Attack...zapzapzapzapzapzapzapzap...


Icemage

[Arturo-B]

Hey art, you should ask me this sort of stuff

Ha ha ha I figured you'd answer here. Genbu's shield is not a bad thought though. I'll have to snag myself one after our bards get theirs lol. The equipment setup is helpful as well. Guess I really do need to bite the bullet eventually and level nin.

If you want to try one out, I know you have the collateral just contact me ingame.

Thanks a ton for the generous offer. I'm cool though. I never borrow stuff. I always worry I'll do something stupid like drop it. At least if it's my stuff it's not a problem.

Yeah Kraken might be fun later on. Guess I'll save my money in the interum for whatever fun stuff cop puts out.

[Zenelly]

Hi Art, well I don't have major experience with it, but I did use Kraken club to skill up club the lazy way. With capped skill, I don't really do much damage vs upper level mobs. Like others have said repeatedly its nice for gaining tp, and a real hammer like Darksteel could be used to supplement damage. It is fun at least to use WS every 2 seconds, and might be good damage with "real" hammer in one of your hands (assuming you dual wield).

[mdn]

it's used to skill club and it's pretty funny to watch it go nuts. as far as soloing goes, it enabled a 63 whm taru to solo exorays for mold, and that's as far as my knowledge of it goes.