Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better!: RDM Guide

Distract/Frazzle can last 20+ minutes on non-NMs :D

Someone needs to adjust the Debuffed timers then!

A lot of the time you need to do that yourself. I've never found the default Debuffed timers to work correctly without manually telling it what multipliers I'm using from gear

Maximizing Savage Blade:

SB is a 2 hit weaponskill, but I'm going to assume that since this isn't an FTP replicating WS and the scaling is so high on the first hit that stacking additional multi-hit isn't going to do much. Is the target then to max str/mnd and attack to cap, then PDL as needed? Where in the weaponskill damage calculation are multi-strike, attack, pdl, and wsd applied? Does WSD continue to multiply things at damage cap or will you get diminishing returns from stacking wsd if you're already there over pdl?

It's hard to give definitives here because it depends on the values you're dealing with (10 WSD vs 5 STR or whatever) but here's how I would evaluate stat priority for SB:

PDL (if attack capped) > WSD > STR > MND > atk >>>>>>>>>>>> multi-attack

Multi-attack procs do next to nothing for SB, you'll probably never notice them unless you're watching your TP return.

Damage = Base Damage × Ratio × WSD

Base Damage = (Weapon Damage + WSC + fSTR) × fTP

Ratio(pDIF) = Attacker Attack/Defender Defense

Multiattacks add 1 to fTP each a maximum of two times per weaponskill and a maximum of eight total hits, only if the hit connects. One hit WS will only ever be eligible for one multiattack proc.

PDL from gear and aftermath multiplies the pDIF cap (for a RDM w/ a sword, this is 3.35) and PDL from traits adds a straight amount to the pDIF cap.


Idk what you're really asking here but you can't go beyond 99,999 damage with weaponskills so any stat becomes meaningless if you're already doing that. There's also no diminishing returns for WSD, the stat doesn't get worse the more you have of it at different soft caps or breakpoints. But due to it being a multiplier of everything else, increasing the base damage or pDIF may get you more overall damage sometimes because WSD is just multiplying base damage, i.e. multiplying 25000 by 23% is more damage than multiplying 24000 by 26%. PDL is often better than WSD if you can support the increased attack requirement because it is a multiplier for a multiplier, leading to it just being a stronger stat, not because WSD is worse because you have "too much" of it.

I would go so far as to say that the only PDL rdm should consider outside of VR ring choice is going to be crepuscular pebble and sroda ring. The Bunzi body doesn't have enough PDL or WS related stats to be worth swapping out Nyame for it.

Ran WS calculator using Nyame body vs Bunzi body (R25 vs R30) and Nyame still pulls ahead even while attack capped.

Crep pebble & Sroda Ring do quite well for Savage Blade though, so I agree with the assessment above.

The way this is worded is potentially a bit misleading: multiattack only gets a chance to activate on the first two hits of a WS, but they can add more than two hits (i.e, a QA proc will add 3 hits), up to the 8 max
Also, each of those hits does bring +1 fTP unless the WS is fTP replicating, in which case each additional hit will have the same fTP as the first one - and both Evisceration and CDC work that way (not that RDM really uses those in 2024)

He was specifically asking about Savage Blade optimization, so I didn't bother including anything about fTP replication since it's irrelevant in this circumstance. He also already seems perfectly aware of how fTP replication works. I guess I can see how someone who isn't literate in the mechanics could misread what I said but in my head the "maximum of 8 hits" already covered the fact that any multiattack will work up to a maximum of two times per weaponskill within the maximum of 8 total hits for the weaponskill.

Where does the Naegling multiplier come into play? Is that additive with WSD or multiplicative at a certain step?

You're right on all accounts but I have to deal with way too many people who don't read previous posts :D


Naegling's Savege Blade specific WSD is a separate multiplier that is applied at the end of everything else and works on all hits (regular WSD only applies to first hit)

So the '"Savage Blade" Damage +15%' changes:
Damage = Base*Ratio*WSD
into:
Damage = (Base*Ratio*WSD)*1.15?

So then would 'Weapon Skill Attack bonus based on the number of upgrades' apply at:
Ratio(pDIF) = (Attack*(1+(.01*buffcount))/Defense)?

Base is weapondamage+(str*.5)+(mnd*.5)?

Do you happen to know good writeups on how magical weaponskill damage works?

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Weapon_Skill_Damage

It's multiplication, it doesn't really matter what step you do it in as long as you're only multiplying the things that need to be multiplied (i.e. for multihit and multiattacked WS you need to multiply by WSD before adding the extra fTP from additional hits). Very rarely there will be fractional rounding issues if you do it out of order but that practically never matters for weaponskill damage since it crops up as a result of flooring.

(Base*Ratio*WSD)*1.15 is effectively the same as writing

Base * 1.15 * Ratio * WSD or

Base * WSD * Ratio * 1.15.

You will get the same answer every time.

10000 * 1.15 * 3.35 * 1.4 = 53935

10000 * 1.4 * 3.35 * 1.15 = 53935

(10000 * 3.35 * 1.4) * 1.15 = 53935


For multihit (like Savage) you'd calculate base damage with only the base fTP, no +1 for the extra hit, then multiply by WSD. Then you'd add the extra 1.0 fTP worth of base damage and multiply by everything else.

That math only works for single hit

I already covered this, idk what the problem is. For emphasis, I've added what you do for a multihit WS at the end

((Base * ftp * wsd) + (Base * # extra hits)) * ratio * 1.15

Edit: the only problem is that for someone that is clearly not knowledgeable on basic ws math. Not specifying an equation that separates first and extra hits is confusing

Edit: I’m referring to the person you’re replying to as not knowledgeable. Not you. Just want to make that clear

Also note that not all WSD is the same. This isn't something you need to consider for RDM typically but for other jobs you'll want to know that WSD from job traits (i.e. /DRG trait, some types of augmented WSD) applies to every hit of the WS unlike gear WSD.

Yes, I understand the commutative property of multiplication, i added an unnecessary set of parenthesis to emphasize when those bonuses are applied as stages in a formula that's processed in stages.

I am not arguing with anyone. I'm just trying to improve my understanding of exactly how the multi-step calculations are occurring, if they are processed in separate steps, and what order those happen in, because that will help me interpret descriptions on other pieces of gear.