(02-05-2014, 02:16 AM)ExKage Wrote: I've always in the long term planned on getting the AF2 chest piece because of the better stats but it was also a sort of question of whether or not I'd go for it first.
I had decided that if I saw a Crimson Hat I'd need it... but it never showed up and Crimson Vest did. So I got the Crimson Vest and bought the AF2 hat to make up for it previously still being a Warlock's Hat.Â
At this point I'm ilvl76. I don't have many of the cross class skills. How detrimental is that?
The "really important" ones are Raging Strikes (if you don't have this one, you're just being lazy, getting level 4 on archer takes like 10 minutes tops) and Quelling Strikes (this one takes quite a bit longer since it's archer level 34).
The cross-class actions I assign are Raging Strikes (ARC 4), Quelling Strikes (ARC 34), Physick (ACN 4), Virus (ACN 12) and Eye for an Eye (ACN 34). All of these are useful, though some more useful than others.
Raging Strikes and Quelling Strikes are absolutely the most useful. Quelling Strikes becomes all but required when you're fighting bosses that spawn adds that must be burned down ASAP. Chirada on Garuda EX is a good example; you don't really have time to be screwing around and letting the tank get aggro, so you burn Quelling and can open up right away. Under the effects of QS, your threat generation is so incredibly tiny that the tank would literally have to be standing still and auto-attacking for you to actually pull aggro.
Raging Strikes is a damage cooldown. Use it when you want or need more DPS. Useful for burn phases. I do not macro it to anything and reserve it for when I need to put out a lot of DPS all at once (dreadnoughts in Turn 4, conflagrations on Twintania, Garuda EX during plume phases after the Razor Plumes are dead, etc).
Virus is situationally useful, especially now after the Virus nerf prevents Virus from being applied to the enemy more than once every one minute and twelve seconds. Cross-class Virus only reduces STR and DEX by 15%, which means it only affects physical damage. I use it when you have a mob being tanked but the SCH or SMN doesn't want to use their full-power Virus yet. Examples would be when pulling Caduceus in Turn 1; he hits very hard and deals only physical damage. While the party moves into position, the tank can end up taking a lot of damage. Once the tank tosses Tomahawk/Shield Lob, I use Virus as I run into position. Helps save the healers a few MP. I also use it on the sisters in Garuda EX and on the Clockwork Soldier that I kite in Turn 4. Lately I've been doing T4 as SMN and just having Titan-egi tank it instead of kiting it... though I still use Virus!
Physick is not that useful, really, but there aren't many other things to stick here. I've found ways to make it at least somewhat useful on BLM, even with our painfully low MND, it still heals for about 350-400 with plus-one relic. I will use it any time that I cannot attack for whatever reason and cannot pull aggro (Mistral Song, Mistral Shriek, Aerial Blast, Geocrush, Inferno, etc).
Eye for an Eye is, again, situational. Usually your healers will be able to keep this buff on your tanks when they need it, but I've found that when you have dicey pulls (Twintania comes to mind) putting Eye on both tanks helps make the transition more smooth. I also use it on cooldown in Turn 4 because those dreadnoughts hit hard.
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