Worked build comparison: one upgrade at a time

Suppose a player is choosing between an always-active main-skill bonus and a larger race-specific equipment bonus. The goal is not to declare a universal winner. The goal is to decide which item improves the player’s selected farming map and weekly boss while keeping all other inputs fixed.

Choose the current job and inherited skills, the main skill and level, equipped cards, active runes, guild progression, Handbook bonuses, buffs, and refinement stages. Select one canonical farming monster and one weekly encounter variant. Save this as the baseline before changing equipment.

• Record average hit and critical hit.
• Record SP cost, cooldown, and damage per cast.
• Record target HP and time to kill.
• List every conditional modifier that activated.

Variant A changes only to the always-active skill item. Variant B changes only to the race-specific item. Against the matching race, Variant B may produce the larger hit; against the weekly boss or another farming family, the condition may fail and Variant A can lead.

Compare crafting materials, Zeny, refinement investment, and how often each preset is used. A narrow gain can still be correct for a high-value daily farm, but it should be labeled as a specialized choice. Finish by recording the target, activation state, and date so the comparison can be repeated after a game update.

Published values may not capture undocumented server adjustments, encounter scripts, network timing, party behavior, or every rounding boundary. Verify close results in game and report reproducible differences through the feedback page.