Kaustra BiS Rings For Endgame.

More specifically for Bumba V25, but feel free to speculate about other interesting fights.

My take is that Medada beats everything else for Kaustra. The order that I would set them is:

Medada > Freke > Metamorph > Archon.

You would get a better response posting in the scholar subforum, or the gear thread in that subforum.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/All_Jobs_Gear_Sets/Scholar

The link that you have shared has absolutely no mention of Medada. Are you saying that Freke and Metamorph are BiS for Kaustra? Because Medada beats Freke on (INT is the same) Magic Attack and Magic Accuracy. So idk what you are trying to convey by just sharing a link.

Go ask in the scholar subforum dude.

I'd think guides tend to leave out TVR rewards n +1 adoulin rings even if BiS, like prime stage 5 etc

INT is most important stat on this spell
Metamorph > Medada > Freke > Archon

Interesting. I had Medada and Metamorph on but the point of ranking metamorpho even above Medada is very valid!


Yeah. The point of the thread exactly. They don't list Medada and bumba V25 is still a very relevant fight! I see some people arguing for archon but it seems like archon wouldn't make it even if medada didn't exist!

Archon > Metamorph > Medada > Freke for Bumba with BLU and GEO.

Although INT plays a major role in Kaustra's damage, Archon Ring begins to surpass all the other options once a certain amount of INT is reached. This can be easily achieved even on Bumba (448 INT, 22 MDB) and Aminon (540 INT, 52 MDB) when factoring in Impact, Burn, Geo-INT, Etude songs, Enlightenment, MLs and food.

Is it possible to know this for certain? What's the direct comparison for archon and medada that puts archon of 10 int and 10 MAtk?

From Kaustra:
dINT is caster's INT vs. target INT and caps at 300.

Put on your Kaustra set, add 90 INT from Geo-INT, 84 from INT etudes (if you have them, doesn't apply to Bumba), 20 INT from enlightenment, whatever you have on your food, and then compare it to the mob's INT.

Bumba, for example, should have -89 INT from Impact, -63 from Searing Tempest, putting him at 296.

Is your INT at 596 or higher? You've capped dINT.

For my part, I have 461 INT in my Kaustra set so with +110 from Enlightenment and Bolster Geo-INT, I would be at 572. With a Cyclical Coalescence, 578. With an INT potion you get another 7 and I think there's a tincture from Adoulin, though they aren't active on Carbuncle...looks like I wouldn't be at the cap until ML44 or so. This is with Metamorph/Freke and doesn't include subjobs.

Archon Ring pulls ahead before reaching the dINT cap, at around 200 dINT (if I remember correctly).
There is some interesting data about Kaustra on Bumba in this tweet but it's in Japanese:
https://x.com/higeburo_FF11/status/1770337088367415402

Can add another 4 or 6 INT to Searing Tempest as well, if COR is using QD to enhance Burn stat down effect.

good info on the INT values of Bumba and Aminon! where do people get these?

i dont think QD (fire shot) enhances burn(elemental debuffs)

I don't see linked testing or direct evidence, but the wiki lists elemental debuffs as being affected by their shots, so unless someone presents evidence to the contrary I'd assume they do.

anyone have the INT/MDB of the basement sortie bosses?

Maletaru, interestingly, after giving Grok3 deepsearch this info that you have provided us, it still puts Medada ahead of Archon even after dINT cap is reached.

Hitting the dINT Cap
If we add more INT to cap dINT at 300 (requiring 596 INT total):

Against Bumba, Medada’s Ring still outperforms Archon Ring for Kaustra:

Below Cap: 1364 vs. 1252 (112 damage difference), due to +10 INT and +10 MAB vs. +5 MAB.
At Cap: 1729 vs. 1650 (79 damage difference), due to +10 MAB vs. +5 MAB (INT equalized).

It's on the wikis.

E 363 INT 100 MDB https://x.com/long_horned/status/1581875758364262400
F 350 INT 100 MDB https://x.com/long_horned/status/1584256274220228608
G 504 INT 100 MDB https://x.com/long_horned/status/1586506614017703938
H 494 INT 122 MDB https://x.com/long_horned/status/1590163697426915329

Longhorned found them all

You do know that archon ring doesn't just have MAB right? It's Dark MAB which, like all other elemental specific MAB and Orpheus sash, is a multiplier of MAB and all of the rest of those stats, so no I don't believe Medada's would out perform Archon at INT cap. 10 mab and 5 Dark MAB are 2 very different things.

Yes. It's a 5% increase. Grok took that into account:

1572 × 1.05 = 1650.6

Honestly, from what I am getting, they are so close that, given that you have enough INT, the difference is negligible. From personal experience, I was only able to hit cap damage on bumba V25 with Metaphorm and Medada. I have used combinations with Archon before as well (ML50), and -I felt- like Medada was pulling ahead when I swapped it in.

I don't really follow how you got your numbers other than some AI thing magic'd them up. Not really sure what you're calculating, but it doesn't seem like damage numbers being that you talk about hitting capped damage. I don't think these numbers tell the whole story.

Here's the magic dmg equation: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Magic_Damage#Magic_Damage_Equation

Grok says if you equip a cybertruck it increases everything. Don't take the ring off. diamond hands.

I don't get how you managed to put Archon ahead without showing me any calculation either.

The thread has reached its goal, however. Maletaru nailed it with that detailed post.

If you want a lazy swag,
Archon ring is like 1+ MAB for every 20 MAB then add the base +5

if you have 100 MAB (other non-affinity sources) Archon ring is the same as +10 MAB
if you have 200 MAB (other non-affinity sources) Archon ring is the same as +15 MAB
if you have 300 MAB (other non-affinity sources) Archon ring is the same as +20 MAB

You should probably show your numbers first, like the actually values you are punching into the equation, i mean if you have less than 100 MAB not including the rings that are in dispute then I guess we know why do not see the benefit from Archon

Thanks for this info.

I just lazily ask Grok deepsearch to reason over which ring is better for Bumba and it picked Medada. I punched in the info that Maletaru provided and asked it to reconsider Archo Ring elemental affinity and it still put Medada ahead. My knowledge of this game is far too little for me to get into a very detailed argument about elemental damage etc. Which is why I reached out to the forum.

The goal of the post was to see what people were using since a lot of the people that I talked to, that have beaten bumba multiple times, have different reasons for wanting different rings.

If people want to provide more detailed information about why they are using Archon (which you did) then it would be even more welcome.

Also neglecting the magic accuracy part. Archon has +5 for dark spells while metamorph gives mac+15 and medada +20.

Archon will only out-dd other options if already capped on magic accuracy. IMO should be using metamorph on targets like Bumba. A single even partial resist will put metamorph ahead by a lot.

This is very true. First time I beat it on SCH the numbers were fluctuating too much until swapped out Freke for Medada and Archon for Metamorph. Then Kaustra damage became much more predictable.

I'm not going to calculate it for you, I was more asking how you got the numbers you did because 1650 doesn't mean anything by itself. It looked to me like you might not be factoring in ALL the other things that are being multiplied. If you had then you might have your answer, but I refuse to do it for you.

Niflheim summed up my point

It's ok buddy. I'm not asking you to. I was just saying that you were asking me for calculations while you, yourself, didn't provide one for picking Archon. All job damage calculator doesn't add Archon to their sets, actually.

But I got your point. Thanks.