Contact Mage, Knuckle / Md [guide]

Thanks for offering your opinion. I'm still really liking this build (though i haven't brought it to counter-prone bosses yet). LUK might be the most viable (and only additionally requires extra 10sp to spend in drop boost) so i think I'll go that way.

I'm planning to go Tapir (ifrid) [light] arm on this build for the bulk+mp. The rest of the gear would be drills+matk/int stat boosts.

 

epetal with matk%7 and int 7% does give a whole lot of matk (more than anniv MD V but less than anniv staff V). on a full int.

so we get higher matk on knux and with MD as sub, still get the bonuses from impact dmg.

and opposed to the very long combos, should we just capitalize on short impact combos like fu users? having the benefit of quick spam combo but also with proration on impact as you use physical skills

so its like a fu build but without the personal proration drawback (parties will still hate you though)

 

The point of using drills (drop), versus any other knuckle, is so that you never miss your martial skills. It's true that custom knuckles will deal more damage, but you will sacrifice physical proration, (because you'll miss), and you will lose out of the ability to control the boss effectively with interrupts (again, because you'll miss). Also, a 4 skill length combo is rather standard and short, as most of the combos I listed in the OP are.

Even the longer combo is completely safe, as @Lenwok and I tested (and spammable). The interrupts are spaced out so that bosses will constantly be interrupted. I feel that a sacrifice in pure dps is justified in this case, as then you can be an effective tank with decent damage.

Furthermore, this build also has a perfect proration combo, in which you'll get no flak from the rest of your party. I want to point out that it is not a fu build in the first place as well, as the use of triple kick / heavy smash is not used at all for damage (and in the case of triple kick, not even in the build, unlike fu builds).

Notably, with the lack of physical proration using a custom knuckle, your damage will actually go lower than fully prorating. I suppose your idea has merit if the party is mainly physical users, in which you don't need to use physical skills, but at that point, if you're not using physical skills effectively (again, because your accuracy will be non-existent), it'd likely be better off to use just a Magic Device alone, yeah?

 

it would be a good idea to reserve a matk knux aside from drills as there are bosses that you can easily hit

 

If that's the case, I don't see why ever not. Drills are just the default option.

 

Once I can afford it, i'm planning to add Imitacia xtall onto the drills. 100% accuracy with 5%matk and 200mp. Feels like a decent middle ground~.

 

My phone is too old to record videos and play toram at the same time. Weird stuff starts happening (like crashing). I can only make due with screenshots.

 

I was working on this pure md character months ago been thinking about messing around with it some more. You can get decent matk and atk but I have yet to figure out completely which way to go with the skills.

 

I mean, with those stats, you could try this build right here. Though physical attack scales better with MD main for full Int.