Elemental Skill, Magic Attack, and INT

[Altruist]

Elemental Attacks define the blm job, and are also a major role for rdm's as well. We both worry about the three factors that contribute to our elemental magic casting; elemental skill, magic attack, and INT.

Elemental skill reduces the resist rate of spells, this is easily shown with higher resist rates at lower levels verse the same mob type. Magic attack increases the damage of our attacks as can be seen with the addition of a moldavite earring, versus no moldavite earring. INT is a bit of an unknown entity though, it does appear to be at contributer to damage, and mitigator of damage done, but if it provides any real advantage to resistance is unknown.

Thus I would like to inquire if anyone has any reasources to actually figure out what int does? And to obtain some basic model for the damage a spell does.

[Akeda]

I want to know this as well, I'm sick of contemplating a morion earring purchase when 1int might not be worth the money at all.

[riceburner4540]

its not, but once you've spent money on everything else you REALLY want, get a morion ^_^. then regret it as you realize there's stuff you want but you didn't take notice of before you spent the money on the morions, forcing you to sell the morions for less than what you paid for in order to buy what you really want. then, buy the morion(s) again.

[FFXITsukasa]

As a Hume should we concentrate on MP or Int bonuses?

[riceburner4540]

a ton of posts on that...but i suggest going +int. some say +mp, but i don't seem to have any problems with my mp pool...but that might be because i have a dark staff.

[Calroon]

I don't buy this whole INT thing either. I've yet to see that +INT
really gives you such a big dmg boost to beat having +MP items.

Imo, Mana > INT. Being able to cast 5+ more spells is better dmg than the +INT can give you.

However, this is just me of course and i guess all the super duper high level BLM's know better

[riceburner4540]

compared to a taru who has gone all +mp gear, i can nuke just about as hard or harder while being a hume. also, by grabbing a dark staff, you can regen mana faster so it cuts down on the downtime...meaning you can use more mana than you normally use. it might cause problems when doing something that requires you to rest very little though (like mission 5-2 for rank 6). for such events, go for mp instead of int.

+1 int adds about 1 or so damage...not too impressive, but if you trade in all your mp gear for int gear, it adds up. using 2 zircon rings instead of 2 electrums gives you 6 mp, adding anywhere between 6-10 damage per spell. not too shabby.

[Gaiddan]

I believe int adds to damage and resist factors. I believe this to be the case because of Burn. Burn is -int so maybe the greater the distance between your int and enemy int affects your resist rate too.

[Yuanlung]

Originally posted by Calroon
I don't buy this whole INT thing either. I've yet to see that +INT
really gives you such a big dmg boost to beat having +MP items.

Imo, Mana > INT. Being able to cast 5+ more spells is better dmg than the +INT can give you.

However, this is just me of course and i guess all the super duper high level BLM's know better

I doubt that anything at that level can give you 5+ nukes. With full racial gear, 2 astrals and hair pin you get roughly 100MP+, which is about 2 nukes at that level. (down to 1 nuke when you get to mid 40's).

Although, I would go with +MP as long as I have enough MP to outlast the healer.


Someone else here said it before (was it Icemange? sorry, I can't remember), the damage bonus you get from INT+ is free of downtime, but the +MP you have to heal it back, so if you already are outlasting your healer, +MP serves little purpose.

Also, this little gem was posted before in a similar discussion. So, from the words of the SE Devs, we know atleast that some spells uses INT for resist calculation.


Even if you must have +MP items, you can still swap in +INT as you use up that MP. I just stay with the +INT items myself since I tend to have more then enough MP to go on, unless I try to over excert myself.

[Asmandeus]

Elvaan Blm here.

Before I go further, PLEASE do not use the information on this post as a spark to start another subjob war. It's old and tired, the tests I did here were to show differences with INT afterall.

Recently I joined up with a semi-static party formed in my linkshell. Currently I'm level 32 and the rest was 34-35. Thinking that my damage was going to be sub-par due to the extra levels on the xp monsters I asked if I could do a few tests with int vs mp. My party had a Rdm/whm, Whm/blm, War/nin, Nin/war and a Pld/war. Safe enough for me to do some odd-ball tests.

The first part of the party I went as 32 blm / 16 whm with mp items (astrals, hairpin, dolphin staff, took off my black cape +1 and my morion tathlum/earrings/black silk neckerchief - you name it). Most (+85%), if not all, of my elemental spells were resisted and it seemed that I was a waste for a 6th member of the party.

Deciding that this was not working out I warped back from the Citadel and subbed summoner making me a 32 blm / 16 sum with int items over mp items when possible (ermite rings, Mage's Tunic, etc). Summoner as a sub at this level gives me +2 int over whm as a sub. Then I also ate pies giving me another +3 int. Swapped my Dolphin staff for a solid wand (+5). Total INT was 34+25. My same elemental spells landed much easier, with very few resists (80% of the time, which also did much more damage than the few non resisted spells of the last test). The paladin, who had now hit 35 would actually struggle with hate if I decided to cast a little quick.

Each test lasted about 2 hours each. So I'm quite sure it wasn't just rotten luck with resists. Only monsters xp'ed on were Bats with a random aggro Beetle (that I did not count).

Right now I'm debating on selling either both my astral rings and picking up +3 int rings. or selling 1 astral and using a single +3 int ring - giving me 1 less int and +25 mp. Being that I'm elvaan and MP is still an issue I may just have both sets and tailor to the needs.

[FFXITsukasa]

I would think to Hume MP would be very valuable at lower levels so you could cast more. Even with full Intelligence gear at my level my spells would signifigantly SUCK. I am going for Intellegence anyway because it seems like a good idea in the long run.

[Akeda]

Asmandeus you are level 61 on your main so you should probably know that you should try these resist tests at level 55 on crab exping mobs or something else post 55 that has INSANE resists. mob resists pick up a shit ton after that level and I think that'd be the best way to determine int's usefulness.

[Asmandeus]

I'll be 55 shortly with luck.

From all the higher level player blm's (JP and NA) that I speak to, after a certain point MP is a greater need than INT (EXCEPT for HNM battles). From what I gather it is because of two reasons;

1) The normal xp beetle/crabs/crawlers don't quite have massive INT vs your high level INT and skill. Same concept for Burn really, you use it to lower the INT to help with INT based spells sticking and damaging. So with just your normal INT later on (but still keep in mind raising INT for damage is still a good idea) with your incredibly high Elemental skill at this point, you will see less resists. That's why some of the high level blm's floating around will say that INT does nothing for resists. At the level they are at they see little difference with resists except perhaps against HNM fights due to their class maturing.

2) The higher damage spells have huge casting costs. Well Duh

So at first I believe it to be a much better idea to focus on INT and your skill. It's much better to cut through resists and land a few powerful spells rather than spewing out tons of poor damage.
Later you transition to MP over INT.

Anyways.. I have a ton of money to throw around from my Warrior days so I'll be doing more tests as I go through the levels. I'll say that ~380 mp with 32 or 34+25 INT works a lot better than ~450 mp with 32 INT at this level.

[riceburner4540]

The normal xp beetle/crabs/crawlers don't quite have massive INT vs your high level INT and skill. Same concept for Burn really, you use it to lower the INT to help with INT based spells sticking and damaging. So with just your normal INT later on (but still keep in mind raising INT for damage is still a good idea) with your incredibly high Elemental skill at this point, you will see less resists. That's why some of the high level blm's floating around will say that INT does nothing for resists. At the level they are at they see little difference with resists except perhaps against HNM fights due to their class maturing.

if you're talking about exp monsters, they will resist you out the ass, no matter how much +int you have. i had up to +29 int at one point but no +elemental skill and guess what? i was crying in shame...all the money i spent on gear, for what? so i can see half-damage nukes 80% of the time? switching to an ice staff and getting my AF gloves made it MUCH easier to land my nukes...they'll get through maybe 90-95% of the time now. also, i almost never use burn nowadays...melees request that i use frost instead

[Asmandeus]

Where did I say that INT is better than Elemental skill? I'm confused there. Please read my post again.

Raising Elemental Skill is without a doubt, the best way not to be resisted.

But that's not what my topic was about. All I'm saying is INT DOES play a role in resists.