MATK or -Aggro

So I've been doing ok with a -Aggro build, but I'm capped at 4000 MATK (2k MP, 9.4k HP) even if I hypothetically had 8s.
Granted, I do have some stats that probably could get re-allocated (65 Vit, 30 Luk)

Spoiler: where -Aggro comes from

Staff: Aggro-10% Neo Maton Sword(Aggro-28%)
Armor: Aggro-10%
Additional: Sorcery Hat (MATK+6%, Aggro-15%, Physical barrier+1000) Eidenliebe(Aggro-15%)
Special: Dark Knight Amulet (MaxMP+400, Dodge+3, Aggro-25%)
-> -103% Aggro

I, of course, refuse to use Sneak Attack (reset bow skills once already), unless I get some star gem, which is never going to happen.
I could do food, I guess, but I've been pretty unlucky and I still haven't randed a -Aggro food (gave up and decided to cook +MaxMP instead)... and I'd rather not rely on friends to have the -Aggro food.

So the question is whether I should abandon my current build to go for as much MATK as possible (5000+ possible I think). The problem is that I'll have to switch to shield and do something about the dagger skills if I want to survive, and I'll be reliant on others having a good tank. I suppose I could do something halfway between by waiting until I get a -Aggro food for once too...

 

I don't think there's much growth for Mages in terms of attack/DPS potential. My mage has decent, non-statted wep/arm to do enough damage but its still not comparable to other classes damage-wise. You might as well focus on aggro to have a longer survivability.

A Tank Pet can also be an option to keep aggro off you, but requires lot of time and effort to make them.

 

5k matk will have roughly 14% damage increase compared to 4k matk on finale. For higher defense bosses(e.g 1000mdef) you would have about 17% damage increase. A staff with damage to ele % would give you 14% damage increase. So, really, having more matk even at 1k difference wouldn't worth much.

Personally, I don't use - aggro gears since sometimes I want to get the aggro instead. So I use sneak atk to be able to switch battle modes. And it's not like a finale mage needs abundant amount of sp. Unless you want to add gimmicks like resonance or dancer skills

And, oh. Devil hood's 7% extra stability will give you about 4.4% average damage increase so yeah, if there's anything that could increase your damage by significant amount it would be stability. Mischievous magic book has higher stability at 70% stability and 25% damage to neutral %. This staff should be the best for neutral enemies.

If you still want to have - 100% aggro. You can use crystal arrow(-20% aggro) and switch the sorcery hat with devil hood to get that 4.4% extra damage, it has an extra 8% aggro so the 20% aggro from crystal arrow should compensate exactly the aggro of sorcery hat which is 3% aggro differential. So the total - aggro would be at - 100%

So there are many ways to optimize finale's damage, having 5k matk is only one of the various methods. But, well, the benefit of having 5k matk would be, to flex harder

 

You get more dps if you aren't being targeted because the aggro. The only situation where you want aggro is on venena, but having least aggro works as well and you don't have to fight your team's tank for the aggro (if your team have one ofc). Like someone else said, from 4000 matk to 5000 matk there is a roughly 14% dmg increase on first finale hit, which shows after certain point picking gears with 14%elementdmg is better than going full matk. Though, you should always maximize everything that helps on finale dmg (which means both matk and elementdmg), since you aren't going to cast many like other classes, they at least should be as powerful as possible.

About sneak attack, it may sounds great in the paper, but for bosses with minions, each minion hit consumes a sneak charge, so it isn't great as -aggro.