Marksman Building?

Okay, I just ran numbers using my projected stats at a fixed level 130 (30 SP to split between SE and boost, accounting for the three 1-pointer skills), and now I'm even more confused about the SE vs. boost thing. I fixed by str at 100, dex at 731, and attack at 160 (accounting for cider), and used the following builds: 29 SE + 1 Boost, 24 SE + 6 Boost, 14 SE + 16 Boost, 9 SE + 21 Boost, and 3 SE + 27 Boost (not very practical for the timer, but I'm just using this for more data). I used both arrow eruption arrows (160% base) and strafe arrows (100% base) for these calculations, and here is what I came up with. This is organized in average in damage range/average strafe arrow damage/average eruption arrow damage (I have no idea how to use tables).

29/1:.. 3496.9, 8112.8, 10191.7
24/6:.. 3636.5, 8061.4, 10243.3
14/16: 3899.2, 8004.3, 10343.8
9/21:.. 4045.4, 8032.1, 10459.4
3/27:.. 4193.9, 7945.8, 10462.1

This shows that SE benefits strafe more, while boost benefits arrow eruption more (no surprise there, actually). With the exception of 14 SE + 16 Boost strafe, getting more boost in the place of SE gradually increases eruption damage while decreasing strafe damage, but replacing boost with SE gradually increases strafe damage while decreasing eruption damage. Considering that I'll probably be training solo at crimson guardians or a future soloable area because I can't count on finding people to party in leafre/time temple/whatever, I'm really looking forward to a stronger eruption for slightly faster, but at the same time, higher level SE brings partying benefits, especially at bosses where I can SE party members and deal more damage with strafe myself. Then again, boost brings more consistency, and delaying SE would allow be to get pierce earlier because pierce isn't all that much benefited by SE. Based on the numbers, I think I'll either cap SE at 9 until I get 21/27 boost or cap boost at 6 until I get 29 SE. Grrr I can't decide =/

You don't really need to do a plot to see what's best in excel.

Just set it up so one direction is total points (1, 2, .. 60), and the other direction is number of points in Boost (0, 1, ... 30)
At any given point (x,y) on the grid, y = boost, (x-y) = se. Obviously there are 2 triangular areas which can't happen (#boost > #points, #points > #se+#boost).

The main thing throwing off a general solution is the fact that Boost depends on your base stats, SE does not. If you have crappy w.atk Boost is more useful (100+10 = 10%, 150+10 = 7%)

And of course since Boost goes on a 5 point improvement (level 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26 I think), you'd have to compare big jumps to decide which is a better route.

Anyway, comparing the values in each column would tell you the optimal # of points in SE/Boost if you have that number of points available.

I have no idea how the method you described works, so I just set level to constant and fiddled around with a calculator, pencil, and paper xD

@ Cyanne

What you could do is find out what's the 'best' arrangement for each level. So for example if at a certain level you had 20 SPs total split between Boost and SE, graph x against the damage of x Boost and 20-x SE. And just do that 60 times.

There's probably a more efficient way, though.

@ Stereo
Make best and worst case scenarios. At best, you have low ATK (say 100) and no secondary stat, and Mastery gets you (1.81/1.54)*1.1 = 1.29x damage. At worst, you have high ATK (say 150) and stats are in a 4:1 ratio, so Mastery gets you (2.06/1.79)*16/15 = 1.23x. Realistically it'll be somewhere in between.

Problem is, boost's benefit isn't static and varies from person to person, and sharp eyes benefits some skills more than others >_<

I couldn't start that early, so I'm taking somewhat of a guess that it would depend on your equips.

typhons: I never trained at them.
newties: solo sucks by the time you're 4th job. At 128 when I moved to guardians, I started getting more exp than in a 3 attacker party. unless the other 2 members of the party were 14x+ but that doesn't happen very often.
if you have the hp to take a hit at 120, then give them a try and time your exp. it should at least be comparable to a party at newties and you don't have to go through the trouble of finding 3 other people.

you probably want to start trying guardians while you have no exp to loose. I died about 5 times in 6% getting the training method down.

I couldn't start that early, so I'm taking somewhat of a guess that it would depend on your equips.

typhons: I never trained at them.
newties: solo sucks by the time you're 4th job. At 128 when I moved to guardians, I started getting more exp than in a 3 attacker party. unless the other 2 members of the party were 14x+ but that doesn't happen very often.
if you have the hp to take a hit at 120, then give them a try and time your exp. it should at least be comparable to a party at newties and you don't have to go through the trouble of finding 3 other people.

you probably want to start trying guardians while you have no exp to loose. I died about 5 times in 6% getting the training method down.

Alright, thanks! I'll try giving it a go at level 120 anyways. Crimson guardians appeal to me because a party isn't really needed to get decent exp there, and it's quite easy to find a map when the box event isn't going on (I think?).