Parsimony doesn't work with Death, but Alacrity does. With capped haste and Alacrity, Death recast can hit 36~ seconds versus the normal 70 second cap without, pretty much doubling your damage output. On top of that, gems are fairly easy to reset with COR abilities and super revitalizer. This becomes extremely important for things like WoC and Teles where the longer they are alive the lower your chance is to win.

Listen to this man. We owe our WoC and Teles win to this.

I still like /RDM for CP parties for self haste/phalanx while using mana wall and the very occasional convert if I end up sustaining heavy damage drain most of my MP pool. Outside of that, I agree that /RDM has very little use these days- unless you need self-hastes to cap your recast timers that aren't Death.

Phalanx is applied before Mana Wall, so your ~30 HP/hit Phalanx gives you a reduction of 4-5 MP/hit. It's not nothing, but it's not much.

Welp, at the very least then haste is kind of a big deal since I'm always riding my aja timers at #2 in Reisenjima. I'll have to give /SCH a try sometime if I ever get real support (I won't cause everyone is a leech qq)

Been fiddling around with the Death calculation, MP/MAB seem to be a pretty big *** deal compared to mb dmg... even a capped 40 mab/10 mb dmg merlinic slops was coming out as 1.5% lower in damage than Amalric Slops + Static Earring (for 5 below mb cap) for one of my characters. Using my actual shalwar (25 mab/10 mb) and changing it to static+amalric slops gained a massive 6.7% increase in damage.

I think the difference will be less apparent in other merlinic pieces because of the slops having 116 more MP than the shalwar as well as high mab, but it may be worth investigating. If you have HQ amalric I suspect that maybe only using Merlinic Feet might end up being BIS, I'll have to investigate more later.

edit:
kept affinity/weather constant, got the following results

4/5 Amalric +1 (Path Ds) > 4/5 Amalric +1 (Path A except hands) = 2/5 Amalric +1 and 40MAB/10MB Merlinic Feet/Body* > 2/5 Amalric +1, 40/10 Merlinic, Twilight Cape> 2/5 Amalric +1 and 30MAB/10MB Merlinic Feet/Body

*Path A was very slightly ahead (like 1%?) but that may as well be equivalent. Path D Amalric 4/5 +1 beat the weakest set out by 8%.

I should also mention that changing the hands from D to A is a substantial boost in damage, but that means you will have to frequently swap them around with A and D between events

So something like this for ideal Death set:

Body/legs path D. Hands and feet path A. Bane MAB+5.
ItemSet 339592

This set gives me around 377 more MP for Death versus a set focusing on capping MBD using Merlinic. While MP is certainly a significant factor, I think another reason Amalric +1 is closer now is because it has so much more MAB(base MAB and set bonus) and why simply casting in max MP in shitty gear will give terrible results.

Anyways, hurray, the entire Amalric +1 set is worth having again.

Would you suggest maintaining NQ Amalric in place of your HQ, or are there certain slots you recommend for Merlinic? My main concern is macc, but I don't know just how large of a macc bonus Death receives.

It'd be worth getting a 2nd pair of NQ hands to path A just for Death. Like Ramzus said earlier, NQ Amalric legs for sure should beat out Merlinic. Body and feet I think would be really close and depend a great deal on how good your Merlinic augments are.

Interestingly enough, Bane with 5 MAB didn't beat Seshaw +1, but it does beat NQ seshaw, they are all pretty close.

If you don't have HQ amalric hands, then yes a second pair that is path A is excellent for death, but the HQs even on path D complete obliterate the NQs thanks to the extra 25 MAB from the new amalric buff + set bonus.

Edit: Since the current BiS death set has a *** load of MP, you need to alter your fc/idle sets quite a bit, I'd recommend something like this.

ItemSet 340342

ItemSet 340343

Otomi gloves with 3 FC/25 MP augment puts me at:

2282 FC
2284 Death
2309 idle

Good sets. This is including Elemental Celerity from traits, gifts and cast time with Dark Arts yeah?

Yes, we also get caster's roll which will definitely cap your fc if it hasn't already

Quickmagic caps at 10%. Can use MP Ammo. Yay for 2 more MP !


Since Escha/Reisen is the place to be, can also consider your Vorseals adding more MP. I havent done a single JobPoint in my life on Apex mobs and sitting at 25000 kills 8/8 HP/MP without having to grind it out directly.

I'm still just super worried about macc when it comes to Death. The best set seems to be highly lacking in macc in comparison to Merlinic. Am I vastly underestimating Death's accuracy bonuses?

The MPs quoted were in Escha with 8/8 MP Vorseals. Also, good catch on Impatiens, I forgot that I already capped QC. Ghastly Tathlum +1 is probably your best bet.

I tested in town (I also don't have +1 legs/hands so my MP is a bit different than originally stated):

1964 Idle
1949 Death
1944 Precast

I can probably swap in Hago Cuffs +1 over Amalric Gages for some extra DT and maybe one of the earrings out for Sanare/Merman/Etoilation/Genmei.

@Orean: I've resisted a total of 0 Death in WoC bracelets modes in over 15 attempts without even using focus. Again, you've the option of Path A on body/legs for an extra 30 M. Acc and still be doing more damage than 40MAB/10MB merlinic

Death won't be used casually most the times outside of SC's so you won't need macc, assuming you're already getting focus/languor anyways.

Also, for good measure, here is an aspir set with 1988 max MP

ItemSet 340344

Can obviously replace helios with merlinic, I'm just lazy when these already had 9 potency and 19 m. acc, it's really easy to cap aspir on WoC, I can't comment on Teles.

Couldnt be more wrong.

Ya skillchain MACC bonus made your nukes in Crawlers Nest unresistable but it has fallen off quite a bit with high ilevel content and the MACC ranges we have nowadays.

@Ramzus Teles much harder to aspir, usually III @ II wont cap mp, on Woc many times i went full with just III.

wow I've been doing it wrong

There's a difference between neglecting macc on death burst set and building macc heavy set.

Not really. Not everyone out there has access to multiple Idris LS members, so claiming you never need a high macc set isn't constructive to a pretty large majority of people who frequent this guide.

Additionally, now that they nerf'd revitalizer where you can't rely on 15min of bolster from 2 GEO, there will certainly be situations where having a high macc set will be extremely advantageous, especially with the new Reisen HELM NMs that may potentially take close to the full 30 minutes to beat so you can't rely on having SPs up the entire time.

Are we talking about hagondes/helios blm's or what? do you mind posting a high macc set? cause there's really only 2 items worth changing: macc augmented grioavolr over lathi and merlinic hood/friomisi over pixie+1/static.

ItemSet 338671

Merlinic are packed with 30ish macc/mab, burst and some int, what are those "magical" items worth changing in a so called high macc set?

It's extremely unrealistic to assume/expect everyone to be rocking 10INT 40MAB/Macc 10MBD Merlinic. I've personally spent thousands upon thousands of stones and my MB set is still fairly lackluster with an average of MAB~30, Macc~10 and MBD 7~10 for each piece.

In my situation, I have an extra set of Merlinic that I kept the highest MAB/Macc I saw while trying for perfect augments, which I use over my basic MB set if I'm lowman and need to make up Macc I'm losing from buffs or if core buffs are down when the MB happens(lang. luopan getting destroyed isn't uncommon nowadays on high end content, even with idris).

My augms are far from perfect too! So basically a high macc set is the same set but with higher macc augm? -.-

Yeah pretty much. Realistically you should have multiple copies of Merlinic that you are augmenting. One for every need you may have (Raw nuke / +MB / FC / -DT) and one extra that you spin your new stones on. If it produces anything usable for your needs, switch with that old piece.

For my own Merlinic +MB set I lose around 30 macc while gaining +20MB Bonus just from the way augments go.



Also for anyone worrying about needing too much bling after all these sets have been posted:

Our LS killed Teles and WoC with 0 HQ Amalric pieces on the BLM and SCHs and only 1x Idris. Also our Idris was in the tank PT for MEVA shenanigans. The nukers only had Dunna GEOs.

Can you or something confirm if non idris focus languor is enough for death magic burst to go unresisted ? I helped a linkshell mate unlock death and his gear needs a lot of magic accuracy work. Thanks in advance.

From what I am reading magic burst goes unresisted more often then non magic burst?

Bursted death WILL get resisted even with idris geo and very good gear assuming target is high enough, it all comes down on what you fight.

Earlier in the post someone had asked for updated Fastcast/Nuking sets. Here is what I use currently. Far from perfect but obtainable with a small group of people or via the auction house.

ItemSet 340346

Merlinic Hood has FC +6 augment and feet +5


ItemSet 340347

Merlinic Pieces:
Head macc40/mab35/mnd9
Legs: macc21/mab21/mdmg15/int15
Feet: macc22/mab 37/int10
Lathi: MP80/int20/mab20



For solo I Wear AF1 reforged body and can surpass chain 1k on xp/cp in escha zones if not crowded.

Hopefully this helps and some ideas for improvement would be greatly appreciated.