MM + Coma Macro could outdamage Brandish. (Math inside)

That reminds me... could you confirm that you get 6%/orb with level 1-5 Advanced Combo? Data indicates that as a possibility but the skill description says 5%. So it should be 130% with 5 orbs instead of the 125% with just normal Combo.

I tackled the 10-orb charging problem like this:

 Spoiler

On the left is the table of number orbs (down) vs. number attacks (across) - this is strictly counting the number of Intrepid Slash, so it can charge 1-4 orbs depending if FA triggers or not. Plus, attack "0" is the FA from the previous finisher.
Really it should stop after hitting 10 orbs, I did it this way so I could confirm each column adding to probability 1. Row 27 shows how unlikely it is to have less than 10 orbs after the 6th attack (1.3%).


On the right is the damage dealt with each orb - column M is the average damage of the attack starting from each number of orbs. N to S just evaluate the probabilities of charging each number of orbs.
for example,
F25 = E21*$N$21+E22*$N$20+E23*$N$19+E24*$N$18
E21~E24 are the number of orbs on the previous attack, $N$18~$N$21 are the probabilities of charging 4 3 2 1 orbs in the current attack.

M19 = 6.3*(1+MIN(10,A19)*A$29)+1.5*0.4*(0.2*(1+MIN(10,A19+1)*A$29)+0.8*(1+MIN(10,A19+2)*A$29))
This is just ridiculous. Anyway it basically makes sure no more than 10 orbs are ever counted, and takes into account the probabilities of FA going off with +1 or +2 orbs from the IS.


Oh, and as labeled, A29 is the % gained per orb.

 My approach

Without factoring the actual damage, I take the approach with the chance of the number of orb existing given an attack, ranging from 0 to 10 and the Finisher. The theory looks appropriate when I go over it, but I'm still not 100% sure, and these are just the probabilities, it doesn't scale in the combinations of which orbs you're attacking with Final Attack and Intrepid Slash (i.e. the probability of going from 1 orb to 3 orbs can be +2 from Intrepid +1 from FA or +1 from Intrepid +2 from FA, which gives slight differences in damage). The damage difference is quite small though, and easily inserted into the table with some care.
The table I have here is the probabilities of attacking with x orbs, or using a Finisher with level 1 Advanced Combo and maxed Final Attack; the probabilities eventually average out to flat rates where your chance to be attacking with 0 orbs is 15.18%, 1 orb is 15%, 2 orbs is 14.95%, 3 orbs is 14.71%, 4 orbs is 14.85%, and Finisher is 25.31%. You never actually attack with 5 Orbs because that's the situation where you're using a Finisher; 14.85% of the time your Intrepid Slash will be at 4 orbs and after that hit you're guaranteed to have 5 orbs at which you will use a Finisher rather than attacking again, after which you have 15.18% chance to end up with no orbs because FA didn't activate, etc etc.

I think these are the numbers with my approach with maxed ACA.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Finisher
11.88%	3.01%	12.61%	4.54%	10.24%	5.87%	9.60%	6.53%	8.91%	7.03%	0.00%	19.80%

If there's anything wrong with my approach, please let me know.

I think this Monster Magnet Coma combination is great because, regardless of the DPS comparison, it's super efficient unless you like OHKO with Intrepid Slash, but I don't feel that Intrepid Slash + Panic would ever be useful other than the scenario where Panic can Blind the target, after which I would say spamming Intrepid Slash until the Blind runs out would be best.