Gear post 72

[WishMaster3K]

OK, RDM72. Errant gear is wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaay Over powered. I'm nowhere near uber (or maybe I'm smart enough to make up for it =/ ), but I was doing 500damage on nukes after I got my Errant gear popping and 650+ on the Light SC. Of course, I lined up the nuke based on the day, so I could see decent results.

PT was-

PLD MNK WAR BRD WHM RDM

And the melees got TP VERY fast, allowing my and the WHM to both MB, lol. [Holy] [Can I have it?] ;.;

With Errant, the other INT gear I have and Rolanberry Pie (Only INT Pie I had on at the time so I think like 2+ INT) I had 75+37 INT. This is a huge change because I got 15INT from Errant alone. I can't wait to get my JSE feet for the extra 5INT on those.

So what's the verdict on that? Is Errant better when stat increases no longer do much to help?

I was planning on getting the body for nukes until I realized I simply could use the Errant.

I MIGHT get the head for enfeebles, however, because of the MAcc+5, but stick with my Warlock's Chapeau for Nukes due to the INT+3 and Elemental+10

Other than the feet, which are INT5, and the Pants, maybe, I see no real reason to invest in the gear =[

I think it costs a lot cause the pieces are hard to get.

[Weeeekujata]

Re: Gear post 72

your heading the right direction

i just xp naked nowadays, im too lazy to mule n_n.

but really, keep your errants, mnd is a big factor too. for monk pt`s for example, i will have about +50 mnd :s but the proc rate for para+slow is amazing, although on lemures you might need to switch on some enfeebling(to silence them).

I kept my errants`s. the only piece I dont use is errants hat, which techincally is actually good for long things to keep your enimity down if you mostly end up curing.

for xp i divide as so all depending on situations:

Enfeebling
MND
INT
Resting
MP
I also have solo`s but thats not related to this discussion


There are also the intermix of mnd+enfeeblign or int+enfebling. the reason i do keep seperate is because on many end game xp mobs you dont require much enfeebling if properly equipped. whe you notice its 0 resist start concentrating on the power.

simply put, you can punch all you want but if there is no pizzaz behind that punch its just a poke.

[BurningPanther]

Re: Gear post 72

Equip changes get more and more difficult as I level.
At 65 I keep:
>RDM AF
>Red Cape +1
>Apollo's, Pluto's, Vulcan's, Aquilo's, Auster's, Terra's, Jupiter's, and Neptune's Staves
>Enfeebling, Elemental, Healing, and Dark Torques
>Enfeebling, Elemental, Healing, and Dark Earrings
>Genius Ring, Aquamarine Ring +1, Ether Ring
>Melon Pies +1, when I can.

Errant will be a necessity, I'm going to stay away from the Wise set as it's usefulness is still rather doubtful, and I'd rather avoid spending unnecessary gil.
Any insight on gear that I ought to be wearing, please let me know.

I have to bargain for efficacy in my spell macros, leaving out body armor and utilizing only accessories, such neckwear, rings, and staves.

Does anyone know the third-party program that allows me to use more than six macro lines?

[Weeeekujata]

Re: Gear post 72

i reserve alt 3 for basic int and ctrl 3 for mnd
example ctrl +3 = ring1,2 legs, feet, hand
than i press ctrl 4 for paralyze which gives me /recast timer, spell with stpc, elemental staff of spell, warlock tabard, beret, torque

usually before the party i will change my tabard to a errant, which i take out of another macro and replace it.

just adjust play around and it works very conveniently, takes a little time to get used to it but its worth it to have to use only 1 macro pallette

for missing spell ill manually do them. i hate swiching pages on ps2 it lags. pc is easier for that

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Gear post 72

That's cause the PS2 HDD has crappy RPMs, lol

BP, you're gear is uber, you only need the 6 lines of macro space. I think the fact that you HAVE so much gear is your problem. Honestly. . . . IDK, at lvl 45, the Enfeebling Earring seemd like a big deal. Maybe in your 60's it will be also. Once you get to the Errant and JSE levels tho, sell those earrings. Make some nice cash. Invest in some rings

On my PT macros, the layout is this:
Spell
Stave
Body
Neck
Ring
Ring

I generally leave Errant Hands/Legs/Feet on.

I think that the Wizard's Earring is more of a waste of space now that I'm at the level where 5 Elemental Magic won't do much than add 20 or so to my MBs. I only nuke on MBs, or if I know the mob is weak to the element and I'm not in any day/elemental conflicts. And I have enough gear and natural INT that my MBs are only resisted if Shell is on.

BLM in my Deco PT normally did 1000 on FiragaMBs, sometimes he'd drop down to 600 when resisted- I never went under 500. . . BUT, nor did I go over 550. So similar to your punch analogy, I'm going to stock up on INT.

I noticed that it wasn't more Elemental Magic, it was the fact that I got +22 INT from gear just from Errant. With Ice Staff I get +41 >.>;;; And none of my gear is HQ.

So I'm gonna sell my Wizard's Earring for 600k and get two INT4 Rings for 72.

Oh Yeah, BP, sell your Dark Stuff now, our skill is laughable. You have a better chance of parrying an EXP mob than you have of breaking 10MP on Aspir ;.; (exaggeration, but seriously, my Dark magic capped at 192, i think, at lvl 71. . . .)

To me, it seems that as we get stronger and stronger, we require less and less buffers for skill, and instead need to focus on strengthening how big of a punch we make. I think THAT'S what Magic Accuracy is for, it circumnavigates Stats and Skill, but 72 is too early to use it.

I don't see myself tossing my Errant for JSE until I'm well into 75 and INT and MND and Enfeebling Skill are no longer an issue.

[Weeeekujata]

Re: Gear post 72

you can aspir 50mp on a easy basis off lei birds with correct gear

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Gear post 72

Heh, I have, uhm, +48INT with Errant and Melons. With a base of 76 as RDM/BLM, that pushes me past 120INT.

Which is all well and good- but in my case, I can punch hard, but I can't aim. I think this is where skill come in, because the BLM I was hanging with just burst 1700 on Thundaga3 >.>;

He had a lot of MagicAttack Bonus.

Now, I was thinking about getting the Ugglagpih Pendant, and possibly Crimson Hands for their M.A.B., but isn't MAB wasted if you don't have skill in the first place?

It's a shame I'm gonna dump all those Merits into enfeebling.

I'm gonna split up MAcc Merits between Ice and Wind, and I'll see how my Blizzards and Aero's are effected, regardless of if my elemental magic isnt that high.

Another thing, I only lag behind BLMs on ITs. on VTs, I pretty much run rampant with MBs of Fire3(light) and Water3(Dark) in the low-mid 600s.

On ITs, it's anywhere from 200(low amount of those) to 400(medium amount of those) or 600 (rare amount of these ;.

[Apollo]

Re: Gear post 72

What does AF stand for?

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Gear post 72

Artifact. The gear that basically is specific to a job. This gear also makes it evident what job you are, even upon first glance. Think of the oldschool FFs, and what the jobs from those games look like.

Red Mages, in FFXI for example, have a Feather in our Red Caps, lol. Black Mage's have the traditional Mage's Hat thingy.

[BurningPanther]

Re: Gear post 72

It seems you have a good grasp on things, I was wondering if you could give me a breakdown of the elements that fall into the "Light" and "Dark" categories. I've long since known that fire fell under Light, and you've confirmed for me that Water falls under Dark. Where do the rest lie? I'm guessing that(when looking at the elemental ascendancy chart provided in the strat. guide), one could infer that if Water is Dark and Fire is light, then the Light/Dark opposition falls on every other element. Just need a little confirmation for improved efficacy, since some mobs are only weak to Light or Dark.

If I were to give up my l.35 skill boosting earring(which I'm having a hard time doing), what should go in their place? From what you've said already, skill in a particular category determines your accuracy in landing said spells, with INT and MND determining the level effect those spells have upon landing(or in the case of enfeebles, maybe determining how long they stick?). It seems that extra skill might be too important to let go of when going up against IT+ mobs, with magic resists(I was thrilled to learn that I was one of the few RDMs known to fight Hakutaku at l.63 and get Silence to stick on it for longer than a second).

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Gear post 72

Well, at the moment, you're gear is very top of the line. However, once you get to 70, there are so many gear options that the amount of money necessary for those lvl 30 earrings doesnt justify their usefulness. What I'm saying is that for +3 skill, those earrings cost a LOT. Before I get into the rest of your questions, here is the elemental breakdown:

Light Family
Light
Fire
Wind
Thunder

Dark Family
Dark
Ice
Stone
Water

This refers to the general coordination on light and dark skillchains. When you see that mobs are weak to light and dark, in that case, it refers to the actual elements Light and Dark, lol. Light would be a spell like Banish while Dark would be a spell like Drain/Aspir

Yeah, pretty much every other element falls under the categorization. From being a Mage, I learned how to do elemental damage as a NIN, and vice versa: It was easy for me to grasp the concept of the elemental wheel, and I applies that knowledge to being a NIN.

There's a post on this same forum "The 7 Core Enfeebles and Their Formulas," where we attempt to determine what stats influence which aspect- IE, for Slow, how to get the mob to lose more of a percentage of speed, and for Paralyze, how to get a STRONGER Paralyze effect.

Like there is a huge difference in the paralyze from a Torama and the paralyze from maybe a casting Gob.

Ok, moving on from that, honestly, you can use your gear way into the 70s. The Torques are always a necessity, and the earrings are expensive for a reason, lol. However, as you do get higher, skill becomes less of an issue, and having spells land is more important.

This next thing I'm about to say btw, I could have sworn I posted already, being as how it dawned on my last night.

Magic Accuracy is exactly what it says: Accuracy. In general, the RDM community is in the dark about it's usefulness, but I understand why It's available at 72 and why it's so expensive:

at 72, we neither are near the cap of skill, nor as strong as a 75 with Merits. I'll make a comparison: Talking to my BLM mentor, it appears that as a stat, INT is Old School way of thinking. INT is indeed the source of all damage on Elemental magic, but as we all know, that doesnt determine if it lands or not. Nukes have different landability, be it 1/4, 1/8, 100%, 1/2, 3/4 or no resistance.

Regardless of this, he mentioned to me that the strongest thing BLMs have going for them is Magic Attack Bonus. BLMs are "Elemental Magic + gear" whores, so hence, regardless of whether or not my INT was a good 20 points above the BLM in my pt, the fact that his skill was higher and he stocked up on Magic Attack Bonus allowed him to pull away.

Now, I nuke "Good for a RDM," but that is unacceptable, cause basically, the BLMs aare pacifying my gimpness. I don't expect to outdamage a BLM, that's never happening, lol, but what i DO expect to do is shock them when I nuke. That'd only be possible with HQ gear and merits in Elemental, but i'd have to sacrifice merits in Enfeebling, so nvm, lol.

Now how does this tie into the RDM JSE? At 72, stacking INT or MND isnt going to have much of an effect if we can't land spells. We're relatively end-game by now, so the JSE is for those mobs that our out of our reach. For ITs and over, I'd recommend JSE in places you can't get Enfeebling+. If I had a choice, I'd wear +Magic Accuracy on my Head, hands, legs and feet, because the AFBoday has +15 Enfeebling.

For VTs and lower, Stocking up on INT and MND is best since we can land spells with no problem.

One more thing, Elemental is an interesting skill, because INT isn't enough in just the strength, due to the fact that the spell can be resisted on different percentages. That's why I'm of the opinion that Magic Accuracy, to get closer to that 100% landing rate of nukes, is better than INT.

By Saturday, I should be 75 and should have a full set of Errant and JSE to mess around with and determine the difference INT vs Accuracy has on my Nukes.

[BurningPanther]

Re: Gear post 72

I'm curious, since I'm all decked out with + Skill gear and accessories, I was wondering how to squeeze in extra INT and/or MND for my spells. I was thinking of the Black Cotehardie, or Blue Cotehardie for when I hit 69. Good idea or bad idea? Here's a recap of the gear I have:

>RDM AF
>Red Cape +1
>Apollo's, Pluto's, Vulcan's, Aquilo's, Auster's, Terra's, Jupiter's, and Neptune's Staves
>Enfeebling, Elemental, Healing, and Dark Torques
>Enfeebling, Elemental, Healing, and Dark Earrings
>Genius Ring, Aquamarine Ring +1
>Melon Pies +1, when I can.

I'm trying to find was to up my INT, but it seems as though I've reached my limit. Is there anything better to boost my INT?

[Armando]

Re: Gear post 72

Pardon my noobishness, but I thought INT DID affect resist rates? At least, in the Dunes, with my Elvaan BLM, increases in INT seemed to help me not get resisted.

[Icemage]

Re: Gear post 72

Pardon my noobishness, but I thought INT DID affect resist rates? At least, in the Dunes, with my Elvaan BLM, increases in INT seemed to help me not get resisted.

For nukes, INT helps slightly, but only up to a point. Once you get up to a certain point (anywhere from +10 to +20ish INT depending on race) there doesn't seem to be any additional resistance bonus from having more INT.

---

Here's a handy way to remember which elements are which:

Fusion = Fire + Light
Fragmentation = Wind + Lightning

Distortion = Ice + Water
Gravitation = Earth + Dark

Light Skillchain = Fusion + Fragmentation
Dark Skillchain = Distortion + Gravitation

This is a good way to remember it, as you'll often see people talking about weaponskills having "Fusion trait" or "Gravitation trait" - this is why. Combine a Fragmentation trait WS + a Fusion WS and you'll get a Light skillchain.


Icemage

[Armando]

Re: Gear post 72

Ok, thanks, that cleared up my doubt. I was fairly certain the INT was helping. Of course, this was lower levels, so I didn't have access to that much INT so as to make it hit that cap.