WS Wall

From FFXI Wiki

WS Wall refers to the system in certain content where spamming the same WS is either immediately weakened or cumulatively builds up resistance.

The WS Wall is similar to the Nuke Wall and the SMN BP Wall but for Weapon Skills.

The following content is impacted by the WS Wall:

  • Dynamis Divergence
    • Repeated use of the same WS will build up a resistance.
    • You will need to rotate many different WS to maintain maximum damage.
      • Other actions such as DNC steps, spells, etc also help to reduce the Dyna-D WS wall. Current theory is it behaves similar to Craftsmanship on crafting escutcheons, where there is a look back at the history of the previous ~10-20 actions of all types taken on an enemy, if a given WS has previously occurred within those most recent ~10-20 actions, then it will be walled to some degree. The more times a given WS has occurred in the last ~10-20 actions, the greater the damage penalty it will incur.
  • Sortie (all basement bosses E/F/G/H and Aminon) and Odyssey Sheol Gaol V25 NMs
    • Strength of the WS Wall depends on how many different WS are being used in your party's WS rotation.
    • The WS Wall builds slowly over time, the values below are the maximum wall you will eventually hit if the same rotation of WS is maintained over a longer period.
      • Repeating the same WS over and over walls at -85%.
        • 1st WS full damage, 2nd WS -10%, 3rd WS -25%, 4th WS -40%, 5th WS -60%, 6th WS -85%
      • Rotating 2 different WS walls them at -25%.
      • Rotating 3-5 different WS walls them at -10%.
      • Rotating 6 different WS avoids the wall.
    • You can use Tomahawk (Ability) to mitigate the WS Wall.

Common Misconceptions

  • Previously, the WS Wall for Sortie E/F/G/H/Aminon and Sheol Gaol V25 NMs was implemented incorrectly. It used to be once a WS was used, if the same WS was used again within a 10 second period it would be significantly walled. Simply waiting 10 seconds before using the same WS again would allow you to bypass the WS Wall entirely. This is no longer the case and was patched on Dec 19, 2022. Testing which took place a few days later on Dec 24, 2022 confirmed the complete removal of the 10 second WS Wall and quantified the WS Wall for using the same WS repeatedly. Follow up testing the next day, Dec 25, 2022 quantified the strength of the WS Wall penalty for 2, 3-5, and 6 WS in the WS rotation as described in the section above.
  • Previously, some players thought the 2, 3-5, and 6 WS rotation walling numbers only applied to Aminon, but review of the actual tests seems to indicate they were performed on Dhartok and thus would apply to all Sortie basement bosses. Also, since the above mentioned patch applied to both Sortie basement bosses and Sheol Gaol V25 NMs, it is assumed the WS Wall behaves the same for all of Sortie E/F/G/H/Aminon and Ody V25 NMs.

FFXIAH topic on WS Wall

More discussion on WS Wall

Using Tomahawk to get past WS Wall

FFXIAH post which references the @long_horned WS Wall testing