Tight-Wad's Corsair Guide/Weapons

Swords vs. Daggers vs. Guns vs. ?Darts?
The type of weapons you utilize will largely depend on your own personal playing style. Most will agree that Guns are the greatest way to deal damage, and also the most expensive. Swords are often the best melee weapon because of higher damage and accuracy bonuses, however very few swords offer any bonus to Ranged Attack, which means they do not compliment guns very well. Daggers choices for Ranged Attack bonuses are more accessible, but will mean your sacrificing melee damage for Ranged Attack options. You can help find a balance by going Ninja and equipping one of each, but it really comes down to your own choice.

As a Corsair, you've a unique job and are in high demand. Most parties won't pay much attention to your melee because they'll be too busy wowed by the bonuses Corsair can give them, which is why so many Subjobs work for the job depending on each player's style. Guns don't become an essential tool until lv 40 when Quick Draw becomes available, and they become more than just a deadly attack that takes forever to go off. Until lv 22 Bullets, Guns really don't pack much punch in exp parties on their own.



Swords
My favorite. While our sword skill is B-, next to marksmanship, it's the second best for damage. There is one near godly Corsair sword that would be ideal for a serious COR, but is far from cheap. The Phantom Fleuret drops from a NM Proteus similar to Charybdis, it's said. On AH in Gilgamesh it retails for 700k, and will probably not be ideal for most. Corsair can equip Broadswords, Xiphos, Degens, and Bilbo type swords.


 * 1) Lv 7 Xiphos - If you have a friend to brass this, then your set through the dunes.
 * 2) Lv 10 Royal Archer's Sword - Dittos to this to upgrade to the lv 15 version, should last you til 20.
 * 3) Lv 19 Small Sword - Obtainable through a Bastok Quest for free, +2 Dex, and piercing, this should last awhile.
 * 4) lv 43 Junior Musketeer's Tuck +1 - In general, +1 items sell for less than NQ items, and yet still give very nice bonuses. I would keep this tuck on hand any time the "outside" ranged acc/attk buff makes itself available.  Archer's Knife has better accuracy, but if sword's are your style, this is a nice one and gives more melee dmg.



Daggers
If your focus is Ranged Attack, you'll be equipping daggers. Several daggers offer Ranged Attack bonuses, making them a common sight on Corsair. With a B+ skill, they are formidible but often times less flashy. They are my least favorite weapon and the Weapon Skills for COR are less impressive, but a necessary evil for the gun toteing pirate.

Ranged Attack Bonus Daggers

 * 1) Lv 28 Archer's Knife - NM Drop, but relatively cheap off of AH too. +10 Ranged Accuracy and an Agility point.  Every COR should have one if they are going to utlized Ranged Attack, their is little else readily available til lv 61.
 * 2) Lv 38 Chiroptera Dagger - NM Drop, Rare/Ex. +12 Ranged Accuracy.  It is obviously better than the above, but probably not worth the effort to go after unless your going after one of the other two drops from Tres Duendes.
 * 3) Lv 61 Trailer's Kukri - +14 Ranged Accuracy BCNM Drop. Pricey on AH on Gilgamesh (over 100k).  Do the BCNM and get it for free if you can.  If your ONLY doing shots, +4 RACC might not make a big difference depending on other gear.
 * 4) lv 69 Farseer - no information other than it increases RA.

Daggers for Melee

 * 1) Lv 20 Mercenary's Knife - Buy with conquest points if you can and then find a smith to upgrade to lv 25 levels, though check AH first. At times you can get NQ buffed cheaper and get a better knife and make a profit.
 * 2) Lv 30 Mercenary Captain's Kukri - You can keep Windurstian/Federation, or switch to this. If you get this, find a Smith to upgrade it, but check AH price first.
 * 3) Lv 46 Bone Knife - Cheap, decent, if your going this route, may as well get it.



Guns & Bullets
Guns are expensive, bullets are expensive. If you want guns to be your main form of attack, I strongly suggest making your own bullets. Alchemy is a good skill for Corsair anyhow. Making bullets, making cards, and can be profitable, and COR needs all the help it can get. Here are my very biased and cheap @$$ opinions about guns.


 * 1)  Don't bother til lv 22, damage and cost ain't worth it.
 * 2)  Level marksmanship on another job using cheap ammo.  My DRK 75 may only have an E in Marksmanship, but capped that's lv 60ish COR.  You may be able to do this while farming.
 * 3)  Go /RNG if you want marksmanship to be your primary form of damage.  And invest in gear to compliment it.  Lv 22 bullets avg about 40 gil each, every miss is 40 gil wasted.
 * 4)  If your going to pull, pull with Darts. You save 5 times the money.  If your party expects you to pull, and time your rolls, and be DD, they need to take one of those jobs from you and give it to someone else.  You'll find other less demanding parties.  Macro in gun equip/bullet equip and equip darts.
 * 5)  If you want to be the best COR you can be, it's going to be expensive, that is true for every job, but as you level some things are essential and other things not so much.

Guns by level

 * 1) Firefly Lv 5 - Nice for Agi +1, if you get it from a Treasure Casket then equip for the bonus, your own call on whether you fire off Bronze Bullets with it.
 * 2) Bandit's Gun Lv 15 - Don't bother.
 * 3) Platoon Gun Lv 20 - A cheap option that comes available about the same time as Lv 22 Bullets.
 * 4) Pirate's Gun Lv 27 - 33% More damage for about the same price on Gilgamesh, can't argue with that.
 * 5) Mars's Hexagun Lv 30 - Again, more damage for about the same price, and Ranged Accuracy.
 * 6) Military Gun Lv 30 - About 3 times more on AH than Mar's on my server, you get extra Ranged Accuracy.  You also get more damage.  You should be able to keep this til your AF gun.
 * 7) Darksteel Hexagun lv 36 - About the same price as Military Gun, if your doing level syncs to get here, Military will be better for you.  It does give you a bit more damage for a little less accuracy.
 * 8) Trump Gun lv 40 - It's a free gun!  And a good one too :)

Bullets by Level

 * 1) Bronze Bullet Lv 1 - Unless your crafting them, don't bother.
 * 2) Bullets Lv 22 - This will be your bullet for a long while. Watch AH prices and buy a few stacks when they are low.
 * 3) Iron Bullet lv 50 - 10 pt jump in damage, which may or may not be very noticable, I'll add more when I start using them.



Throwing - Darts
Yes, Darts. Why spend 40gil to pull a mob when you can spend 9? Chances are, if your pulling, guns are going to be slow delay, not a big deal, but not optimum for pulling. Also, the sweet spot for Guns is much closer than you would often pull a mob, so your hits probably won't land. You generally want the most distance between you and the mob your pulling, and that's outside any Marksmanship sweet spot. Darts are cheap, and Corsair's have a C+ throwing skill.


 * 1) Dart lv 7 - 9 gil, nuff said.  Clothcraft 13, but prolly cheaper to buy from vendor because of Animal Glue.  Buy some stacks, keep with ya at all times, and don't bother on any others less you find something cheaper.  All other darts are overpriced, these you can get from NPCs in chocobo stables everywhere.  If your leveling clothcraft, some other dart might be worth doing for skill ups, i.e. Aht Urhgan Dart made from Colibri Beaks and feathers.  Otherwise, keep a couple stacks on hand and save your money.

Until lv 70, their is no equipable returning weapon, Lamiabane and the like might be another option.

Throwing isn't a viable form of damage, just a cheaper way to pull.

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