Stormwaker Head

So I have been on my pup for like the last week. No joke, no job changes, nothing....only pup. Also been doing some WoTG and campaign for medals. I have been using the Stormwaker Head/Frame and can tank 3-4 mobs at a time with it so WHM head is not necessary. Its a nice output of damage with nukes but anyways here is my curiosity.

I have phalanx and stoneskin up all the time due to the automaton AI. Is this phalanx and stoneskin comparable to lets say....a real RDM?

Anyone know?

I don't have RDM leveled but as far as I can tell from using RDM puppet so much and from duo's with RDM's, I would say it's pretty comparable, at least phalanx is. I'm not sure sure about StoneSkin, but the combo of the 2 from RDM puppet is pretty damn awesome with capped magic skill at 99.

Ya the rdm puppet is really nice and I love using it as much as I can, as whm auto get boring after a while.

Maybe I'll run some tests later today.

Small sample size but will give an estimate. Took 20 hits without phalanx and 20 without. Didn't count crit hits.

Hits without phalanx:
46, 36, 55, 45, 41, 35, 55, 44, 51, 45, 46, 36, 46, 54, 39, 46, 39, 53, 46, 43
Total=901
Average=45.05

Hits with phalanx:
16, 15, 13, 25, 16, 16, 9, 8, 15, 16, 15, 16, 16, 17, 17, 14, 12, 10, 15, 15'
Total=296
Average=14.8

So thats roughly 45-15=30, which is about a normal phalanx.

I will say this. I have fully meritted magic skill on my automaton but my skill is not capped. Currenty at 388. I wonder if it is higher with more magic skill.

Still its a pretty damn good phalanx. Too bad we don't have a good AoE WS otherwise you could technically cleave on pup with about 30%-33% -PDT gear on and/or atma and you also get stoneskin with rdm pup so you would not take any damage until phalanx drops lol.

PUP/DNC NIN or THF obtains Aelonian Edge, and we have access to a wide variety of mage gear with MAB+. Probably could make a decent cleave set with that.

Anyone know if the Cure changes apply to the RDM frame? In situations that don't require much in the way of cures I always find a Cure 5 to be a bit overkill. If PUP can reach 600~ish Cure 4s, on top of Phalanx and Stoneskin the Stormwaker head could pull ahead in terms of versatility, damage, and efficiency.

Pod is right, I go to altepa as pup/dnc and use all mab atmas and mab gear and pull 20-30 mandies, I have a 43% pdt- gear set and take 0 damage from mandies, it's really easy to cap amber that way. you gotta make sure you don't equip RDM puppet with damage gauge or when phalanx drops he will try to heal you instead of reapplying phalanx. Also if you don't Deploy him fast enough and SS drops, he will do that first, so it's kind of a gamble. It's much safer to just pull like 10-15 until you know you can pull and kill them in that 3 minute window.

o.O good to know. Will have to try it out when i get more -pdt gear. :3

I have horrible luck with dark rings.

What are you using for -pdt I only have -21, twilight, dark ring, jelly, umbra

30 is horrible <.< naked rdm with capped skill at 99 is 38 phalanx and a good rdm has it up to 48

my SCH with meh gear has a 45 Phalanx

this is disappointing D: i thought it would be at least 40

most that pup can get through gear is -33% and that's with Dring

so chances are you don't have -43% or you are counting atma as gear.

Formula gathered from http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Phalanx

A naked rdm with capped skill and enhancing merits would have
F = 28 + Floor( (420 - 300.5) / 28.5), which is equal to 32

Working on the assumption that Phalanx replaces Enhancing skill with Automaton magic skill (Which Annex's damage mitigation demonstrates; F = 28 + Floor( (388 - 300.5) / 28.5) = 31)

This means that at capped PUP can gain a phalanx of 33, 28 + Floor(444 - 300.5 / 28.5) = 33

A very well geared rdm, such as the following can gain an enhancing skill of ~518, this ran through the phalanx formula only gives 35 mitigated damage.

Using the ffxiclopedia and other phalanx calculator we gain 42, but this is inaccurate

hmm I used ffxicalc to get numbers ill email to change this so it is reflected accurately from now on.

Also, Terra's staff would allow us to get 46% PDT.

2x 6% rings, 5% Torque, 6% cape, 3% legs, 1% from earring = 26% + Terra's Staff = 46%, but obviously you'd be unable to damage the mandies.

yeah I excluded staff as it was mentioned that he was using a dagger for AoE weapon skills.
also excluded PDT trials as pup doesn't get trialed daggers

What's the 3% legs?

Goliard trews though Desultor Tassets are better at 4%


This is the best -Pdt set a pup can have. 36% during the day 42% at night. This assumes perfect augs good luck with that.

His set is in this thread.

You're wrong actually, PDT- claws(11) dark rings (12 total) umbra cape(6 during the day 12 at night) twilight torque (5) and black earrings (4total) and desultor tassets (4) so i miscounted by 1 but it's actually 42% during the day and 48% at night.
EDIT: forgot about the wiglen gorget, so actually it is 43%~49%

Also i forgot this thread was about fighting mandies so you can exclude the claws for that purpose, but still the fact remains that at night pup can almost hit the PDT- cap and still use a decent weapon.

lol... take off the PDT claws because you are talking about this used with DAGGER as from the post i quoted, and look you are below the max i posted,

i also didn't write Nighttime with cape numbers too because that's only pdt back and it is kinda implied.

Yeah sorry when I originally read it I wasn't thinking about using dagger, it's early, i just woke up and that was my bad. But yeah the set i have from that thread he quoted is outdated. I have 2 6% rings and 2 2% earrings. I edited my reply about the claws but you quoted me before i could post the edit lol.

lol just saw this is the kid with the all pup LS why did i even reply.

What's that supposed to mean...