The problem with people using DEX setups is that they base their gear choice on eyeballing. The tests of dex's impact on crit rates are not very deep. It seems accepted atm that the crit rate from dex caps at 20% when you have mobAGI+50. Also seems accepted that dex has an exponential impact on crit rates, meaning that using +5 dex when your base dex is low, does absolutly nothing, but using +5 dex when your base dex is close to 40 above mobAGI, it has a huge impact. Meaning you're aiming at 110+ dex before starting thinking about dex setups.
Now, I won't take a guy aiming for a dex build seriously if he didn't merit DEX in the first place. And most people merit STR ( me too).
Let's admit the above (I personally think it's true). DEX is a good way to improve your melee dmg. A crit does on average 1.7 times a normal melee hit for Gkatana (MMJ camp). DEX also has an impact on your hit rate ( 1 dex= 0.75 acc, 2 ACC=1% hit rate) and hence on your attack speed and WS speed.
So if the accuracy you get from that dex is worth trading for the amount of haste you lose, then go for it. So far none of the DEX setup people showed was worth trading imo, except the askar head probably, in a single march situation. Double march ( or 90%+ acc) and turban definately wins ( reason: for a 85% base hit rate, at 55% haste, 1% haste loss is worth trading for 3.77 acc, while at 64% haste it's worth trading for 4.7 acc, and with SV marches, 80% haste, 1% haste is worth trading for 8 acc.)
Keep in mind that the crit% part of DEX only enhances your melee dmg, while the acc part enhances both. str will only enhance melee. Also remember that a SAM/WAR does 33% melee dmg and 66% WS dmg ( supposedly; it as always been 45%/55% for me, but I've never merited as /war).
Considering the above data people can make their own computations to see if things are worth trading. I'll admit that askar head will be better for this 85% acc situation, but certainly not for higher acc. setups, and a fully merited SAM will not have any trouble caping accuracy on colibris, and will get almost cap on all MMJ camps except lurker ( see parse below).
For more data look at my last meripo party, which lasted for 3.5 hours and 9 merits, with a decent data sample.
This pt was done at the jade sepulture camp. 89% accuracy.. and I have only 4/8 merits in Gkatana, a fully merited one will almost cap on everything but the lurker. The BRD was using a madrigal on the lurker btw ( and yet still only 75% acc).
I'm using this gear:
http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=57041
for TP. It gives me a very high dex already ( 114 as sam/nin). 114 DEX gave me 13% crit hit rate, which is very far from the expected increase in critt% from this dex. If you look at the break down by mob,
MMJ busterer: 11.8% crit.
MMJ ninja : 9.7%
MMJ THF : 9.15%
MMJ philosopher: 7.4%
MMJ drg: 9.6%
MMJ wyvern: 8.3%
Puk: 22.3%
Skoffin: 14%
As you see, with this very high dex already (114!) I'm far from the cap of 24% crit rate that is expected ( 20%+4% from merits)... only get it on puks, hardly. Supposedly 114dex is enough to cap crits on the mages MMJ which isn't the case in my parse... and its a 3h long pt.
I'm gonna continue doing tests though, as I'm very interested in knowing how a dex setup can increase my melee... Next time I'll try out with my full dex setup, which is the above setup, but replacing the typhia sting by lighting bow+1 ( dex+3) and the HQ sniper by Iota ring ( acc+3 dex+3). I'll lose no haste, only one acc, but dex +6 dex for a total of 120...
