after reading the first page and the last 6 pages to this thread, here is what i have concluded in this point in time (9/26/05 Monday Morning):
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The average price of a Forager's Mantle is 2.63 million gil
The stats of the mantle are 7def, 3str, 15atk, lvl 71
The average price of an Amemet Mantle +1 is 1.39 million gil
The stats of the mantle are 8def, 2str, 15atk, 15ratk, lvl 61
The average price of an Amemet Mantle is 4.6 thousand gil
The stats of the mantle are 7def, 1str, 10atk, 10ratk, lvl 61
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The difference between an Amemet Mantle+1 and an Amemet Mantle:
+1.39~ million gil, +1def, +1str, +5atk
The difference between an Amemet Mantle +1 and a Forager's Mantle:
-1.24 million gil, +1def, -1str, -10lvls
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What i have been told about STR is that it works on a curve. That a +1 str difference is very noticable at lower levels than it is at higher lvls. I heard this when the whole 'how much does 1 dex effect your acc' thing was going on in forums. What i had pictured in my mind is a 'y = square root(x)' curve in my head. (sorry for making this math oriented... couldn't explain curve in any other way). So the more and more str you add onto your character, the less you'll see a difference, BUT there is a difference nonetheless.
The question which i thought was being asked based from the beginning of the thread is: Why pay 1.24 million gil more for +1 str?
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From what i've read, the parser won't decide anything. For one, you didn't fight the same mob the whole time. That's the only way in my mind that +1 STR is truly going to show. For each battle in an xp party, i think the difference in 1 str will not show because, those are short battles. The mob is dead too quick. But in those long long battles that wind up being half an hour or etc long, then yes... that +1 str should show. How much of that difference will show? who knows? Also is chi blast dmg also included in the parser? I forget if that's str related or vit related.
I also understand that you can have a bad day when xping. i've had all the acc i could muster at times and couldn't hit a mob to save my life while another person with same race and job and worse armor than me had no trouble hitting the mob. It happens. Just goes to show that just because you have the better armor doesn't meant you will perform better than another 100% of the time. But tossing all that aside, i can't goto the AH, look for a mantle, and say "oh, that mantle has 1 more str than this mantle... i'm gonna cough up another 1.24 mil and buy that one instead.' And if i did do that, please slap me. I know the value of my gil that i worked too hard to get. And if you think i'm going to buy a piece of armor that has only 1 more str after farming for who knows how long to get a million gil, you're mistaken. If 1.24 mil is chump change to you, go get a forager's mantle... more power to ya... as long as you know how to do your job well.
In all actuality, these prices shouldn't even be this high, only because we never recovered after SE gimped npc strong/padded cap sales (rusty cap synthing) and the fishing procedure. Man... those were good times.. when all you needed was lvl 0 fishing skill, a composite rod, and a rogue rig and the money just came to you /fish macro by /fish macro. Ok, getting off topic...
In terms of why one is so much more expensive... forager's is collected in an ENM while the lvl 60 leathercraft synthed Amemet +1 mantle needs an ingredient from an NM. Due to lack of inexposure i dunno which one is harder to get, the skin or the forager's mantle in the ENM battle. These pieces of armor are both in the back armor section so the different armor slot variable is gone, which leaves difficulty to be obtained. In our already over-inflated economy, the harder things are to obtain, the higher their price. I would assume that the forager's is harder to get than the amemet skin. So this ENM must be very much more difficult than getting a drop needed from an NM ANDthen HQing a lvl 60 synth. What the heck kind of ENM are we talking about here?
Now, is the forager's better than the amemet +1? Yes.... but is it worth being lvl 71 and losing 1.24 million gil for? imho, it's not. But i do see where each side of the argument is coming from though. Sorry for the long post... ^^;