proper use of elemental debuffs

[neighbortaru]

ok, so I get that the ninjutsu does damage of one element and makes the mob weak to the opposing element. So in practical use, what should I be doing:

a) use ninjutsu:fire on a mob weak to water to further weaken it

b) use ninjutsu:ice on a mob strong to fire to weaken it to fire

[Patchinko]

If you're going to use them for truly enfeebling, exploit whatever weakness the mob already has. No reason to make a relatively weak spell slightly stronger when you can make an already strong spell twice as powerful.

Example:: Use Hyoton on an enemy already weak to Fire, and then allow your BLM or RDM to dismantle it.

In addition, these spells do a great job keeping hate. Think of using them the same way a PLD uses cures.

Try to cater the Tools you bring with you to the mobs you'll be fighting. Don't just carry around Katon to use it up if the mobs you're fighting are strong against water, etc.

[neighbortaru]

ah, I see your point. I guess I was thinking more in terms of weakening for a particular skillchain (and the resulting MB) cause sometimes, you just can't put together a SC that the mob would be weak to.

[Soliloquy]

Whenever I debuff to an element before a skillchain of the corresponding element, the damage from the skillchain turns out really poor - usually under half of what it normally is otherwise. O_o I'm a NIN/WAR and I PTed with a THF/WAR yesterday - I used Blade: Teki and he used Sneak Attack + Combo for an Impaction renkei... usually the renkei did about half the SA + Combo damage, or around 100 damage. When I debuffed with Suiton beforehand, it did something like 15. There were maybe 2 other skillchains in the whole time we were PTing (something like 3 hours yesterday, and around the same on Saturday) that did less than half of SA + Combo's damage.

There was no MB following, so I'm not sure if it would have altered the MB's damage.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with debuffing prior to a renkei? Or a positive experience?