Greatsword Build

I'm just curious on what build's people are using for greatsword cuz I want to make mine better. I know I could use a swift belt and gorgets and some other things but this is what I got so far
TP build

WS build

more accuracy gears in tp phase? i dont know how much lower capped skill is than scythe but gotta compensate D:

looks pretty good to me, and you know what to do from there

my greatsword merits are capped and on birds I don't miss much

what are the stats on that sword? just wondering

93 dmg 466 delay

Would help if you could tell us which augments you picked for your body and legs.

nuevo coselete: acc 10 attk 10
blitzer poleyn: acc 7 haste 3
champion's galea: str 4, weaponskill acc 15, attk 5 acc 10

you could've also clicked "item set" at the top of the actual item set and it tells the description in the header

With Crab sushi/Pizza acc shouldnt be a problem.

The only advice i would give personally is to maybe use a GS allowing for 6hits setup instead of 7.

Other than this you seem to be doing limbus so the upgrades will come in time.

Oh ya, not familiar with this :D Thanks for the info.

well I do throw on askar body and pop diabolic eye to compensate for the lack of acc on the piece, and when thats down i put nuevo coselete back on

I will ignore the ‘get proper buffs and use a scythe’ argument and just critique the gear.

TP

X Hit build wise, you have 7 hit while /SAM and 8 hit while /Not-SAM, you aren’t going to be able to realistically reduce that, so that's fine. (the sTP on the chiv chain is unneeded)

Accuracy wise, assuming capped merits (and 10 acc on the body and 7 acc on the legs) and Hume I get to 375-380 accuracy before buffs which is about 80% hit rate on birds, so more accuracy in TP would certainly help a lot. Look at Fire Bomblet, Homam Hands, Swift belt, PCC etc. If you have the money, get a real acc ring (7 acc) and get rid of the ToAU ring.

Haste wise, obviously swift would be a nice addition (V.Belt obviously being king) and Homam hands give you just as much haste but more accuracy.

WS

Spinning slash and Ground strike both get nice boosts to attack and accuracy so you can (and have) focused mainly on STR, but a few points:

WS gorget
Foragers
Triumph earring (instead of assault)
Ares legs (depending on target)

Edit cos stuff happened while typing:

Depending on what you use your DRK for, but for most things you want to aim towards 400 accuracy before food (notable exceptions to exisit) so knowing which events we are trying to optimise for would help.

And if you want to do multiple events then you will need multiple TP builds (if you want to be serious about DDing).

WS build: AF+1 head (or N head if possible), neck you said it, earring slot 2 triumph/bushi/augmented STR+ earring, back forager's/smilodon +1. Just to maximize the STR.

That's all i could see that is rather "easy" to get.

hmm yeah I know about those. I'm doing the enm to get foragers mantle. not sure if smilodon will be better than foragers. Also what do you think the difference in terms of damage a naglering vs albion(93dmg) would be?

naglering is a beast, easy 6hit /sam. if it where possible to get albion to a 6hit it may have a chance to beat it.

Re-do the head:

4STR, 15 WSACC, 2% WS damage is by far the best combination, even if you are on a job that needs the accuracy (which as a GS DRK your not).

Smilodon +1 would be situational, this is why I asked what events we are talking about.

The difference between naglering and albion(93dmg) in damage per hit would be 7-8%, although naglering would swing more often and WS considerably more often (6hit vs 7 hit).

@ Altimaomega

Very quick maths says it would be close.

Naglering will WS more often, but be weaker in terms of DoT and raw damage.

But I think Naglering would edge it.

i also use the champion's galea with scythe for guillotine and insurgency, and also a swap piece for tachi rana on my sam. whats the math in determining how much acc u have

@Argettio
yeah it would be pretty close but nagler would win. now if SE puts out some more augments for the Albion.. i may just have to get one xD

The formula is on wiki (search: accuracy) or use FFXICalc.

I would really recommend the 4STR 15WSACC 2% head.

15 accuracy should be enough to for guillotine/rana in a decent build.

4STR and 2% damage will beat Wyvern +1 and Orc helmet (forget the name) for all Y/G/K in terms of damage.

For GS WS N.head would be the best really.

But I would still like to know which events your use your GS in?

Depends mainly how i feel on that particular day, limbus, dynamis, vnm's, einherjar, merit parties(i swap to scythe half way through the party). other than that really, i switch to scythe for sea/sky and everything else

I always always always get moaned at by people on this forum when I “tell other people how to play” but you asked to how to improve, so I am gonna risk it.

You have that list backwards.

Scythes are good when you have decent buffs, the mobs are weak or both. So that means Scythes work best in: City Dynamis, merits, most limbus, Nyzul, most einherjar, sea/sky farming

Great swords are good when you don’t have buffs, you are fighting harder stuff or both. So that means Sky gods, T2+ Jailers, HNMs, higher tier VNM etc.

Arguably, if good enough buffs/gear there is no use for a GS anywhere in the game, personally I think that’s a little bit of an extreme view as most people don’t have a COR BRD and DNC in every DD party. So imo GS has a place, but its only for higher level, higher defence mobs.

GS will start to really shine when they up the lvl cap.

Well iono~i like my GS, and I like using scythes. But for some reason I just have way more consistent #'s using GS. I do get those high peaks with guillotines but for the most part its really inconsistent. My insurgencies hit harder and have a higher consistency then my guillotines. idk why could be the scythe i'm using. but anywho~ thanks for the feedback

By how much does it beat Gnadbhod/Wyvern+1 and if you happen to know, what is the difference with a maat's cap, only taking STR into account (GK WS in mind here).

Nvm, pulled fingers out of my *** and made a search on BG.

While difference between Gnadbhod and Galea is easier to notice, Maat's cap with only 1 STR more add some significant difference.

So now, what about Kaiten :(

ive heard a lot of drks say that exact same thing. i also have the same problem and all im missing really is justice torque for max skill with scythe. but when i use naglering, sure i wont have those 1.6k ws but i also dont have those
600 ws either. but u gotta remember that half your damage comes from normal hits, thats where things start to go into the "situational mode". cause your scythe will most likely out do your gs in normal hit damage.

Inconsistancy is a sign of too little accuracy. If you can consistantly land 3/4 hits of guillotine it will beat any of the GS WS, even if you have to use a slightly less agressive build (more ACC less STR).

Insurgancy is a weaker WS than gullotine. The mods are lower, the fTP is lower. The only thing insurgancy has going for it is the fact it can make light SC. If you work through the maths you will find a 300 TP Insurgancy is about equal to a 100TP Guillotine. The difference at 100TP is about 10%.

As for Maats:

2% vs 3 STR.

If the 3STR isn't giving you 1 extra fSTR then it would be an easy win for the Galea. It would be a bit close when Maats does give an extra fSTR, but Galea would probably still win unless your WS damage is low (under 500ish).

Kaiten would be Orc helm (or the new shadow lord hat) as you lack the attack boost of the normal GKT WS.

@Argettio
when u say any GS WS, whats the normal spinning slash u see?
on just about any mob i avg 800-1.1k. with guill its about the same, only that guill will some time's hit for 500-1.5k