Tight-Wad's Corsair Guide/Party Roles

== Equipped for all occasions ==
Corsair can be a great many things, depending on the player behind the job. First and foremost we are a support job, our ability to buff our party make us what we are, and is why we are invited to parties. Regardless what other equips your sporting, if your not prepared to make your group more efficient, you may as well have come out in Bronze Subligar.
Corsair can also be decent melee, but will never outshine the classes that are the best at it. We have fewer weapon options, in front line fighting, and building towards being an effective front line fighter will often make you less effective back line fighter and support. Most COR's will focus on being a Support Job first and a Ranged Attacker second. It's very unlikely that anyone will refuse to invite you for being Support first and melee second, so keep that in mind.
Corsair's built correctly can be excellent Ranged Attacks, but will likely NEVER outshine a equally equipped Ranger. They can attack faster, they have more access to Ranged Attack buffs from equipment, more Accuracy, and when they sub Ninja they keep their Accuracy Bonus and get two weapons to add to it.
Corsair's can be effective pullers, and in this situation /NIN would probably be an ideal choice, and use of Ninjutsu would likely be less expensive than using Bullets for pulls. Darts are another option, but reequipping a gun and switching back to darts would lose tp. Pulling with bullets is just very expensive, and a waste of ammo. Subbing Bard would allow you to pull with songs, but I've not had any experience with Bard yet to comments. Corsair's should avoid pulling, as it's likely to disrupt the optimum ammount of buffs at a given time, and you'll find yourself playing catch up. Even juggling three rolls and pulling will keep most players hoping. 
When it's said and done, I'd recommend picking 2 of the above roles, and anything above those 2 is probably asking a bit much for one job to do. If your just supporting and pulling, your runnng around the whole time, and you damaging the mob is third priority. If rolls stay up and mobs come in, your doing your job. If you get a few hits in too, all the better.
====All around GREAT Corsair Gear ====
Bounding Boots/Leaping Boots lv 7 - Some of the best boots in the game.
Optical Earring lv 10 - Nice for Melee, easy to obtain.
Empress Hairpin/ Emperor Hairpin lv 24 - One of the best head pieces in the game.
Shikaree Ring lv 30 - Very low drop rate, but is obtainable and really is ideal for a well rounded Corsair.
 
At some point you should camp Valkurm Emperor and Leaping Lizzy. The BCNM's will get you these drops, but even if you have the Rare only, the ammount they sell for on AH makes the Rare/EX a ideal camping opportunity. Every melee job will wear the two above pieces. I cannot stress enough how great these pieces can be to make things easier. Check the moon notes on the NM's and Creatures that drop these items, pay attention to moon phases, I often find rare drops do increase when the drop rate for regular items are at it's worst. The above items are relatively easy to obtain. Their are other very nice drops out there, but these are reasonably easy to obtain.
====Gear for Ranged Attacks====
# Lv 5 Bronze Bandolier - Rare/Ex [Treasure Casket]] Drop. You will get nothing better for Ranged Accuracy until Gun Belt to wear around your Waist. Argueably +1 is a Small bonus, you'll notice it less at higher levels, but might be worth leveling in South Gustaberg for the chance.
# Lv 30 Noct Doublet Set - This set focuses on ranged attack bonuses. Assuming you have the above pieces, you'll only need body, gloves and pants. All are relatively inexpensive and the hands and pants will prolly be your gear till AF.
# Lv 40 Iron Musketeer's Gambison - Replace Noct Doublet with this, and buy with Conquest Points if you can.
# Lv 50 Shikaree Aketon - A very nice piece obtainable through Brygid the Stylist once you've done some of the Promyvion quest line. Use it til lv 58 AF, or if you like the -1 enmity, you can wear longer. It's free, and you can sell your Gambison 8 levels earlier. Id your accuracy is sound, wear this instead of AF Body for Attk+.
# lv 52-60 COR AF - You can pretty much wear this til end game, as you'll find little else that compliments the job so well.
====Gear for Melee Attacks====
Generally speaking, I know with Dark Knights it's generally accepted that during TP phase Accuracy > Attack, and that is especially true for Corsair as their skills are often B+, B, or B-. It does help that Hunter's Roll is amongst the more common rolls to use. I would still keep hairpin and boots till AF.
#Lv 3 Pile Chain - Another Treasure Casket drop, rare/ex, from East Sarutabaruta. Accuracy +1, HP +3, a nice piece and should last till Spike Necklace. Other options this level really don't enhance melee.
#Lv 10 Legionnaire's Mittens / Royal Footman's Gloves - Same difference, both can be upgraded to lv 15 versions, but the next set would be better.
#Lv 14 Battle Gloves - You cannnot beat the accuracy bonus for the level. From King Ranperre's Tomb. You'll have nothing else better for melee for a very long time to equip to hands.
#Lv 21 Spike Necklace - Very nice piece, you should buy it and keep it in your mog, you'll have a use for it for a very long time.
#Lv 45 Brigandine - Won't make a big deal with the NQ one, but +2 dex on any one piece is pretty nice.
#Lv 55 Jaridah Peti Set - This is an Awesome set. If your going for melee, most of these piece will beat out your AF gear. You lose some HP, but both Ranged Attack and regular attacks are inhanced, along with Accuracy of both varieties. It's a beautiful set, but costs a bit. At this level you may just opt to keep with your AF and let food supplement your Accuracy.
#Lv 57 Scorpion Harness - The most expensive piece I'll suggest. The nice thing about this piece is the ammount of jobs that can benefit from it. Because at this level you'll be obtaining AF, you can do without this piece and no one would look at you crosseyed, but Scorp will last you til end game if your plan is to melee your way around. This one piece gives +5 more melee accuracy than Jaridah.
====Corsair as DD====
The ideal way for Corsair to act as a Damage Dealer is with Ranged Attacks. With Ranged Attacks, Accuracy > Attack > Strength. With B grade marksmanship, Corsair takes a bit more accuracy than Ranger to get desirable effects. Once you've overcome your good, but not great skill with equipment, food, and/or buffs, then you can focus on improving your attack, and follow with Strength. Agility would follow behind Strength.
For ranged attack weaponskills, however, it's more likely Accuracy > Agility > Strength > Attack. Agility and Strength are modifiers for all Ranged Attack weaponskills, but if your shot misses, your not doing yourself any favors.
For Quick Draw damage, Agility is used to determine accuracy, while actual damage is determined by bullet and gun damage as well as elemental staves, magic attack bonus, and the elemental day of the week.
As Melee DD, for the same reasons, Corsair isn't the best melee damage dealer. You can build to do impressive damage, as the job carries B- and B+ skills in sword and dagger, but it's unlikely you'll outshine jobs like Samurai or Dark Knight. For melee, during TP Phase it's Haste > Accuracy > Attack > Strength.
Unlike other jobs who wield Daggers and Swords, Corsair has fewer powerful weaponskills to choose from. Only 5 of 8 Dagger weaponskills are usable by Corsair, and 7 of 11 Sword weaponskills. More likely than not, if your using melee for TP, you'll use bullets for weaponskills.
====Corsair as Support====
Corsair's were made to support. While it's nice being able to keep up with the big dogs with damage, it's more important to keep your party buffed, strong, and moving. With a full focus on support, your gear will be focused on whatever subjob choice you use to enhance the support part of your job. Mage jobs are common choices, and gear should be focused on enhancing that.
With mage sub jobs, your gear will be focused on increasing MP, MND, and INT, depending on your choice. There are many gear choices available to choose from, typically lv 30ish RSE is a good option for most races.
With jobs like Bard or Dancer, your focus may drift to back to melee setup, or to a puller setup, or even with Charisma (though typically I've found Charisma on /dnc to be a wasted equip slot).
Quick Draw is also used for support with Light Card's for Sleep and Dark Card's for dispel. They can also be used to enhance casted enfeebling spells, and require Agility for accuracy.
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