2010-10-31, 12:34 PM
Locked Wrote:Power Knockback is pretty nice since it pushes back bosses. Don't know if this is the case with kMS, but it's like that in gMS.
Doesn't work in JMS; only rush and punch works on bosses.
JoeTang Wrote:You're missing 22 SP in Fourth Job to max everything. I would cut 4 points from Hero's Awakening obviously, 9 from Frostprey, and most likely another 9 from Blind. If you have +skill gear, I would cut more from Frostprey to make it only reach 21, since its damage isn't significant, and even the freeze time could be considered useless when you reach the levels where this decision matters.
Blizzard along with Arrow Eruption are your main training skills. There should be absolutely no reason to cut points from Blizzard, because a Sniper can max everything except for 15 Eagle and 6 Thrust. If you want to cut points from Third Job into other skills, take them from Mortal Blow. Cutting points out of Blizzard is the equivalent of cutting points out of Avenger or Band of Thieves because they reach max targets at a certain level.
The only reason you should get Double Shot is if you plan to "boss" before Third Job. The only reasonable place for this is Balrog PQ. Otherwise, if you want to level, get Arrow Blow because it basically makes first job 3x faster, and actually helps in second job unlike Double Shot. By the time you're high enough level to be deciding points into Power Knock-back or not, Double Shot and Arrow Blow have probably become useless. It doesn't matter where you put those points into, but Power Knock-back is the least useless option. I have maxed Double Shot. I used my level 2 Arrow Blow more. Trust me, Double Shot sucks, and I've thoroughly outlined why in the OP. I highly doubt it'd even make a significant difference at Balrog PQ unless you and your party are horribly weak.
I think you're all misunderstanding something because I otherwise can't come to the conclusion as to why you're comparing maxing Thrust and Eagle vs. Power Knock-back.
Skill points are not forwards compatible. i.e. you can't skip Power Knock-back and spend those points into Thrust and Eagle because Power Knock-back is a Second Job skill, and Thrust and Golden Eagle are Third Job skills.
I'm already fourth job so training is not an issue. Unless arrow blow works differently from bomb shot and ice shot, those third job skills will outdamage arrow blow. I am primarily thinking about Balrog PQ though it has been deserted ever since its installation.
Yeah I guess spending third-job points on second-job skills is irrelevant since second job skills are maxed by default. The choice is between mortal blow and thrust; I've lost all but ravana helm's speed boost as more and more powerful equipment came along. If it seems relatively easy to max movement speed, I'll max mortal.
As for fourth job, I'll pick Hero's Awakening over Blind; Blind is absolutely useless with the new mob acc formula unless the skill applies at the end of the formula while Hero's Awakening becomes useful in Horntail, Lyka, Pink Been and any other future bosses that has seduce. I wouldn't even bother levelling beyond the minimum required anyway as scrolling and cubing contributes more to damage than +5 DEX. On the off chance that we get enough HP to go on end-game boss runs, we'll only need to level up to the boss' level.
JoeTang Wrote:I find PKB to be fantastic for setting up mobs. It gains the bonus from Critical Shot, can activate Mortal Blow, which is useless in retrospect, and has a guaranteed super KB. I believe it still does around two thirds of your damage range, but it should be affected by Mastery, as in it shouldn't have a built in Mastery. The damage actually can make a difference in hits to kill though, so it's not insignificant like pre-Big Bang in my opinion. What I find is it significantly makes up for the range deficit of Arrow Eruption, and Blizzard's area of effect on impact; i.e. if one monster is too close, and others are too far, you can't AE them because the range is too small, and Blizzard's AoE only allows you to hit the nearest target. Using PKB, you can cluster them so you can Blizzard all of them at once, and/or move in with Arrow Eruption without taking much, if any, touch damage. The same can be applied to Arrow Bomb, and even Iron Arrow if you want to cover more ground going forward.
Would PKB be useful for fourth jobs? I agree with PKB's usefulness (after a buff a while ago that changed back the KB condition from giving the minimum KB damage to the KB rate on your bow/crossbow + the PKB rate) but if I remember correctly PKB is STR-based (like bow striking and ducking and poking).