Ducal Guard + Avatar: 90ish% PDT. (MINOR NERF)

[Dallas]

Atma of the Ducal Guard - at least 50% pdt to melee hits, stacks with 50% avatar pdt. Does not work against poison, magic, etc.

Evidence: Keratyrannos' Crippling Slam (1500 damage hit) deals 0 damage.

This is even better than I originally thought. As I got braver, I found no threshhold where physical damage penetrates the atma.

(You're welcome!)

EDIT: Shout out to Razushu of Fenrir.

[Lukiki]

Where did you get it from?

[Dallas]

You have to complete everything around, and including, Brugaire in Grauberg (east of Conflux 8, as I recall). I completed his quest, the egg delivery, and all 4 dom ops. After that, you can synthesize the atma at the entrance.

[Dallas]

OK, first success stories:

(solo) Ducal + Mounted Champion: Aggressor Antlion down with one cast.

(SMN BLM BRD) Bugul Noz down, SMN tank. 3 TP moves required to kill pet.

(solo) Bugul Noz down.

(solo) Farmed 12+ frogs in Misareaux for pearly light simultaneously.

EDIT: came back for Bugul Noz. Added frogs.

[Veltan]

So dallas do you use Ducal + Mounted Champion + MM? Or Melee SMN?

[Dallas]

On anything non-NM I have been able to melee no problem. Every NM has had some sort of nasty AOE that I have to avoid, but the pet is usually immune to. The obvious exception has been poison and bio.

I have settled into 2 different atma builds for now (finally up to 3 atma):

Ducal + Minikin + Mounted: I use this when the NM uses a slow poison or does en-damage. First, I choose the avatar with the same element as the spells cast, then I slowly kill the mob. I also use Mounted when I get stuck somewhere I may get magic aggro. Helps to not have to heal myself.

Ducal + Minikin + Ultimate: If Ducal appears to be enough, or the mob has heavy poison/bio, I switch to this. This allows me to kill faster.

For 2 atma, I recommend Ducal + Minikin. I have not decided what to do when I get the AF3 hands/body.

Other successes (all low-man):
Garuda > Tunga (complete pushover, can solo)
Ifrit > Blazing Eruca (nuke kiting, spikes only did 10 damage at the end, maybe solo)
Ifrit > Granite Borer (complete pushover, can solo)

Not recommended:
Itzpopalotl > too much tp feed = lots of healing

[Dallas]

I'm crushing Konstadt right now. It's clear now this is not a flat damage, but PDT that stacks with avatar PDT.

[drhatchet]

As of today, you can no longer get 100% pdt on your avatar.

[craptaculous]

As of today, you can no longer get 100% pdt on your avatar.

A FINAL FANTASY XI version update was performed at the following time.

[Date & Time]
Jan. 12, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. (PST)

[Affected Service]
- FINAL FANTASY XI

[Update Details]

<blah blah other things>

- Under certain conditions avatars would become immune to physical damage.

yep....FAAAAAHHHKKKKKK!!! lol...well no reason to get that atma now. (when I saw there was emergency maintainence...I sorta had a feeling this would happen)
Son of a monkey.

[Dallas]

It's not 100% anymore, but it does look to be 90%. Nothing we can't compensate for. EDIT: I'll be killing a hippo soon just to comfort myself, but give me something I can test explicitly.

[Tahngarthor]

the 100% was clearly a glitch- the way it should have been calculated was 50% of the remaining damage fater the avatar's natural resistance (which comes out to be more like 75%, not 90%.

That said it's still a very strong atma.

[Dallas]

Ducal + Mounted Champion still beat Alkonost. I'm not upset at all. I'm using your Ether advice.

[Tahngarthor]

see, there's something worthwhile in this noggin from time to time.

[drhatchet]

Ducal + Mounted Champion still beat Alkonost. I'm not upset at all. I'm using your Ether advice.

How did you handle the hate reset?

[Dallas]

Ducal + Mounted Champion still beat Alkonost. I'm not upset at all. I'm using your Ether advice.

How did you handle the hate reset?

Aerial Armor + stand VERY close.