Agwu's Claymore - Magic Tanking

A friend in my LS pointed out some of Martel's findings with regards to tanking sortie bosses and reducing magic dmg via MDB and INT.

For bosses that do strictly magic damage, how do we feel about Agwu's over Epeo? Any reason not to?


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I haven't used RUN in Sortie in a long time, but I'd wager Emn+23 and AoE Liement > the tiny reduced damage from MDB and 15 INT.

None of them are dangerous to a RUN. If you dont have Epeo its a solid option along with Aetir.

Yeah both are good options but even bosses auto attacks are magic damage. I think the only exception is Gartell who either has some hybrids or is animation dependent on whether its physical or magical as I found damage from him to be all over the place. Back when sortie was first rolled out, I would kite on PLD for a buffed RDM to seraph things down. That's when I found out that most of their auto attacks are strictly magic damage as well. Aegis was king and made them hit me for nothing or next to nothing and if I swapped shields under same buffs, dmg received was significantly higher. Can't speak about Aita regarding auto attacks though to be honest. During that time we were just doing AECG and toyed with F as I was gearing up RUN at the time and struggled with F without obviously with resistances etc. But still experimented nonetheless. Shortly after swapped to MB set up when RUN was ready, which didn't take long as besides a couple JA/enmity pieces, Nyame + Aettir was more than sufficient from my experience.

Pretty much where i sit, if its a primarily nuke based party then sure i guess losing the enmity isnt the worst as hate's overall lower anyway, and possibly not as many chances to make use of aoe liement. Otherwise those 2 boosts are enough to cover the mdb/int boost in my mind

Also if you really wanted to go all in on that, malignance sword+Regis is probably the better option, 11 MDB, 25 INT/MND

That's a great idea too.

The enmity on Epeo was my initial concern as well. We did Aminon for the first time last night and I used Agwu's. Outside getting GoT (nice) hate was a non-issue.

It's crazy how well Aettir has held up over the years. Either it was a really well thought-out GS, or RUN just got screwed for every sword in between that and Epeo. Just thought it was interesting there was actually a 3rd greatsword option that had a viable tanking function.

Honestly theres just not a lot of competition for "tank" gs'. Aettir would still likely take 2nd cause II PDT, but look around, everything else in the tank departnent is something like sird, not even much/any with enmity naturally, youd need to aug an alluvion/reis gs for that.

Haven't gone and looked but wouldnt be surprised to see RUN is on more tank style swords than tank style GS' exist currently

So interesting fact Aettir and Epeolatry were only added into the game a month apart, not counting the 6 months of coalitions. So technically RUN got screwed from every other GS since.

It'd solidly 2nd if not situationally first, that MEVA is pretty impressive on bosses who don't do physical.

This is kind of how I've always felt about it. I bitched about doing Epeo for 2 years and couldn't believe there wasn't a gap filler between that and Aettir.

Defensively speaking Aettir is ridiculously good, it's only real downside is that it's too easy to get. It's the curse of humans thinking that value of something is proportional to how exclusive it is.

Enmity +10
PDT II -5
MEVA +50

That's pretty damn bonkers for a tanking weapon. Epeo has more enmity and PDT II but 50 MEVA is pretty massive for resisting damage / status ailments.

It is, and no shade on Aettir, I just wonder where the intersection between MEVA and MDB exists and where one surpasses the other.

we also use malignance sword on run and u can throw on regis for some extra mdef

I think you missed where he said:



This whole thread is about fights where the enemy doesn't do physical damage, so...I don't think the amount of PDT you have in any of your sets is going to be relevant?

Think most people use Reikiko for Aminon for the regain and sanguine blade or malignance sword.

Was about to say!

Aettir offers Enmity+10, PDT-5% and Meva+50 which is even higher than Agwu's. Also a nice boost to Lunge and Swipe which is, well, icing on the cake I guess.

Some could say that with the amount of Meva RUN naturally gets, those values on Aettir (and Agwu) won't make a huge difference, but still, it is a difference nonetheless.


About the enmity now, if you're going with a mage setup (and if you're deploying RUN, why shouldn't you?) then I guess enmity will not be a big deal even without Epeolatry.
I would have a different opinion for different scenarios but sortie mage setup specifically I don't think it's a big deal either way.

Depends on the fight and the goals. If resisting is even possible in the first place, then MEVA rules for reducing average damage. MDB reduces the maximum damage an attack can do. MEVA is good at reducing damage over time, MDB is good at preventing you from getting bodied into the dirt when you roll a nat 1. Well MDB also reduces average but MEVA will usually have a greater effect.

V20 vs V25 Ngai is a good example of this. V20 Ngai you could use barspell / SV Water Carol and MEVA and make the fight trivial. V25 Ngai OTOH can and will one shot someone using that strat so we switch it up to focus on elemental nullification and use MDB to lower the max damage to guarantee survival.

RUN should of been on Sakpata or at least Gleti.

Think you can make more of a case for Empy body than Agwu's for magic tanking specifically.

Empy body is MDB+10 for MEVA-9 compared to Nyame body.

FWIW, I think a major contributor to RUN, assuming your inside Sortie and using an SC+MB setup, is the ability to extend skillchains. With that said our RUN spends half the bosses using an Axe, to extend skillchains.

AF Body +3.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Runeist_Coat_%2B3


Combine it with these for some stupid tier resistances.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Erilaz_Greaves_%2B3

While back Martel found that you need some level of elemental resistance to get more then 1 resistance roll on stuff. The value wasn't static though, so it's a good idea to pack pure +elemental resist whenever it's a good fit.

94+39 = 133
Erilaz body = 130 meva

I'm not sure it's worth losing 3 MDB, 28 evasion, 14 acc, 74 atk, converts damage taken to MP, and enmity retention when taking damage to get 3 meva.

There is an advantage to having SOME resistance to add chance to proc the highest tier of resistance, but you can get that on empy feet, or if you're facing an enemy with a specific element you'll have it from barspell and runes. If you don't want to use empy feet for some reason and you're also facing a mob with multiple different elemental attacks, you can wear warder's charm or engraved belt.

I don't think there's a reason to wear AF body except for Valiance and Vallation, or in an idle set for the refresh. I would never wear it for tanking, personally.

Edit: I believe this is the testing you're referring to? If so...this says that negative resistance forces 1/2 resist at best, positive resistance allows 1/8 resist, and neutral offers 1/2, 1/4, but not 1/8. Nothing in there says that 30 resist offers lower tiers than 80 resist, not as far as I can tell.

Yes, I'd rather take MDB+10 than some more elemental resist, which equates to MEVA not MDB.

Already above zero resist with empy feet.

It's MBD +3 not +10, one body is +7 the other is +10 and above 0 isn't always enough on higher level targets. But your choice.

IDK, if there was a free buff you could get added to your sigil which gave:
Enmity lost while taking damage +14, mdb-3, eva-28, acc-14, atk-74, Physical damage drains MP 8%, meva+3

Oh, and if you're wearing any other empyrean armor, 1% chance for any attack to deal double damage.

I don't think too many RUN would opt to pick up that buff.

It's worth trying both.